Prog Fans In Our 50’s
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Music Lounge
Forum Description: General progressive music discussions
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=128390
Printed Date: June 08 2025 at 08:47
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Topic: Prog Fans In Our 50’s
Posted By: PaulG
Subject: Prog Fans In Our 50’s
Date Posted: February 04 2022 at 11:48
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Did a search for this after reading through “Prog music fans in their 60’s. Couldn’t find same topic for us in our 50’s so here goes. I have loved music and progressive music as far back as I can remember. I grew up in a family/extended family who listened to primarily progressive and classic rock in relation to styles I like. My grandfather played the guitar, mandolin, piano, clarinet and accordion. While he played contemporary Italian music my love for R.P.I. or it’s roots came from my grandfather. The Italians and other Southern European countries have a real love of melody. My father plays the guitar and piano. A lot of classical and some classic rock and light progressive rock was inspired from my dad. I remember him playing The Beatles St. Peppers and loving this as a child. Also proto-Prog Deep Purple Machine Head playing on reel to Reel. The first album I bought was Machine Head. My two Uncle Johns had a big influence on me. While my Uncle John Luisi listened to primarily classic rock/hard rock I would go through his vinyl and always gravitate to the prog/Prog related releases such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. My Uncle John Grace was listening to proto Prog metal such as Deep Purple and this had a big influence. Seems he listened to primarily Deep Purples Machine Head release an entire summer. We would go for a ride in his 71 Le Mans with Highway Star and Space Truckin etc. blasting. My Uncle Tom was listening to full blown progressive rock and classic rock. He introduced me formally to Jethro Tull, Genesis, and psychedelic bands such as Iron Butterfly, Grand Funk Railroad and Steppenwolf. Although my father and Uncles had a big influence I went my own way and my Grandfather Luisi had the biggest influence as I absolutely love RPI and other European progressive rock bands. Bands such as Banco, Le Orme, PFM. My father also had a big influence concerning how classical music contributes to the symphonic progressive rock genre and my love for this. Bands such as Yes and Renaissance. Even though they didn’t listen to these bands they influenced me with contemporary music. I don’t listen to the contemporary music as Prog is so much better. Now onto what I first bought and listened to through my already developing taste. The first two albums I bought are considered protoprog/Prog related. This would be Deep Purple Machine Head along with Purple Passages a compilation from the first three albums. I’m 55 years old. I was 12 years old and just out of 6th grade. I followed this up with King Crimson In The Court of the Crimson King and Pink Floyd Meddle/Atom Heart Mother. I also bought Jethro Tull Aqualung along with ELP’s first 3 releases. The classics continued from this point on. My collection grew quickly from here. I’ve continued with progressive rock. I listened to a lot of classic rock growing up too and a lot of the classic rock overlaps today with what is called progressive rock. I remember buying releases such as Lizard by King Crimson when others were buying Pink Floyd The Wall etc. Even though I was a Floyd fan I sold The Wall after buying it upon first release. I didn’t like the disco sound that I felt crept in. I like The Wall now. I was also into Rush. Everything up to Hemisphere’s. I remember not liking Permanent Waves or Moving Pictures that much as I felt they commercialized. I like these releases now. I ended up almost giving up on new music during the 80’s and early to mid 90’s. I couldn’t find anything that sounded half progressive except for a few releases here and there. Bands such as Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Porcupine Tree, and Tool were some of the Prog I found among the ashes of the post classic period. I gravitated to different heavy metal genres for a while as I had mined the extensive classic progressive rock period at least as far as I knew. I bought releases in these genres I would listen to only once or never have gone back to its so disappointing. Then I got a computer and rediscovered Prog. My troubles with music were over. There was a plethora of old and new Prog releases to buy and enjoy. I couldn’t believe the old and new Prog I had missed and was missing. Bands such as Banco, Camel, Ange, Morse Code, IQ, Anglagard, Renaissance, Hoelderlin, Anekdoten and Eloy to the heavier spectrum and bands such as Symphony X, Threshold, Riverside, and Pain of Salvation filled in the gaps. Also Gentle Giant, Atomic Rooster, Vander Graaf Generator, Caravan, Djam Karet, Anathema, I’ll Balleto Di Bronzo, Uriah Heep, Nektar, Radiohead, Tool, Haken, Opeth, Magma, and Focus. I currently listen to a broad range of progressive rock. Pretty much all of the subgenres listed here are included with a few exceptions. The subgenres of heavy Prog, eclectic, symphonic, RPI, progressive metal, post Prog metal, and psychedelic space rock are favorites. I also like Canterbury and Zheul along with Tech extreme Prog metal. There’s so many bands I could list yet will refrain as lising can get boring and monotonous. I bought about 50 releases the last couple of months and all of them within the Prog realm. I remember the late 80’s through the late 90’s and thinking I went through all good available music. I was in for a big and very pleasant surprise with all of the old Prog to be discovered alone and the new/newer Prog keeps coming in. Keep progin. |
Replies:
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: February 04 2022 at 12:17
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I'm a decade older than this thread is aimed to but I think, it'll be quite interesting to read some of what you guys come up with, and anyway, good luck with it.  ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: February 04 2022 at 20:04
| I'm 51 almost 52. Anyone else on here my age? It means you either discovered prog at the worst possible time or maybe discovered it later. :P |
Posted By: mathman0806
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 05:14
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I'm 54. I discovered prog through a weekly radio program specializing in prog and jazz fusion foe a few hours while in high school. That was in the early to mid 80s. Mostly the big names. Very commercial in that the prog acts had the arena tours, so saw Pink Floyd, Roger Waters. Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Rush, and Yes with all the lights and stage effects in the mid to late 80s. By the 90s, I was more into alternative rock and got back into prog through Porcupine Tree and that style which bridged the alternative rock that I enjoyed back into prog |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 05:27
Yeah, I'm 53... prog to me as a teenager was literally Yes, Genesis, Rush and then Marillion. I struggled with Pink Floyd at the time, although have warmed to them since. The gaps were filled by Zep, Purple, Sabbath and some Maiden. The school I went to didn't have much of a Rock & Metal following, prog or otherwise; peers were very heavily influenced by the New Wave/ Romantic movement, which I found too synthetic. So yes, they were rather lean years....
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AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:Posted By: suitkees
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 10:30
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Are we now going to form the Young Old Farts Society? 
I'm two years older than you, and I'm actually not considering our music discovering time (let's say early 80s) as "the worst possible" for prog... (well, I sense your irony...) Of course, I discovered a lot of music by radio at first (Pink Floyd - The Wall period, especially -, Supertramp, a bit of Genesis, and for me being Dutch: Focus, Kayak, Earth and Fire, Flairck (apparently they're considered prog here)... But my first vinyls were 90125, Script For a Jester's Tear, Tales From the Lush Attic, The Sentinel, Moving Waves, Fact and Fiction, Merlin. Actually, the neo-prog bands from these, I like them more than I have ever liked Genesis. So no, for me this is not necessarily the worst prog period, that might be the decade that followed...
 ------------- The razamataz is a pain in the bum |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 10:34
I meant worse possible time to discover prog as in not many obvious ways to get into it as a genre. I suppose the 90's were even worse though as far as that goes.
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Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 10:45
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I'm also 51. My story is here if you are interested. http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=43586&KW=enlightenment&PID=2692838#2692838" rel="nofollow - My Road to Prog Enlightenment - Progressive Rock Music Forum - Page 1 (progarchives.com) ------------- 
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Posted By: suitkees
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 10:48
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^^ I see, but in the 80s, we could discover all that 70s prog! That's what we did, no? From 90125 I started to discover earlier Yes, got into ELP, Pink Floyd, Rush, Saga, Eloy, Grobschnitt... (King Crimson came a bit later for me). Once I discovered there was a label to stick on "this kind" of music I started to explore what had been done before in that "prog" domain... ------------- The razamataz is a pain in the bum |
Posted By: suitkees
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 11:16
Interesting read, and very recognizable. ------------- The razamataz is a pain in the bum |
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 11:20
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I was 57 in December. I have told the story about my cousin introducing me to prog via Yes GFTO many times, so will not repeat it here. What I will say is that, to me, I still get the same thrill from listening to NEW music now as I did all those years ago. The joy of hearing a fantastic work for the first time and then growing to really love an album is as real now as it ever was, and last year Illuminae, Mostly Autumn, and Three Colours Dark delivered that in spades, all delivering seminal works which will remain on my listening plan for years to come. It is an old trope that you are as young as you feel. As I have gotten older, I have become extremely disillusioned with politics, the organisation I work for, and the inherent imbecility of much of mankind, but the love for this fantastic music is only eclipsed by the love for a wonderful loving and understanding family around me. Last night I got back from the pub after watching the first round of the Six Nations rugby. I had had a few beers, and went about my usual Saturday night ironing chore whilst blasting out one of my Marillion playlists on the speaker. The walls were literally shaking, and I was left alone to enjoy myself. When the final few bars of Neverland played out to a whisper, I thought, bloody hell, how lucky am I to be alive with so much damned good music to enjoy? ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: suitkees
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 11:32
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^ Now, somehow I question if Mrs. Laz is as happy with you ironing when the walls are shaking like that...? ------------- The razamataz is a pain in the bum |
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: February 06 2022 at 12:10
Her Indoors is VERY understanding  ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: February 07 2022 at 06:19
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I'm 59. Too borderline for this question  ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: February 07 2022 at 07:38
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I'm 57, I discovered prog around 80, 81 when a friend at 6th Form introduced me to Genesis, The Knife and Giant Hogweed, and Yes - Close To The Edge. I'd already got into Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Jean Michel Jarre but those two got me into the broader range. It was then King Crimson - Larks Tongues in Aspic that really got me into the edgier, darker, noisier stuff. I had another renaissance in the early 10's when discovering a lot of the Univers Zero, Present, Art Zoyd style stuff and started attending festivals (Nearfest, ProgDay, Rock In Opposition) ------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
Posted By: Argo2112
Date Posted: February 07 2022 at 07:53
| I'm 56. Didn't really get big in to prog until the 80's so I had to go back a little to discover the classic prog of the 70's. This is why I think I have a little more tolerance for some of the 80's material of bands like Yes, Rush, Genesis.... With out Abacab I never would have discovered Foxtrot or SEBTP. With out 90125 I may have never found Close to the Edge or Going For The One. It has been a fun journey. |
Posted By: altaeria
Date Posted: February 07 2022 at 12:39
I am 50, and kinda relate to that. As a little kid in the late 1970s, I mostly just listened to my older brother's Beatles (and sometimes Kiss) records ... and then started to closely follow Top 40 radio around 1981 while playing Atari games. I loved ASIA and most other early/mid-80s melodic rock acts, but wasn't aware of "Prog Rock" yet. Eventually I became very interested in Rabin-era YES, the related ABWH album, and then UNION. That all inspired me to get the YesYears box set. Included in that box set was a "family tree" flowchart with all the members' prior bands ........ and THAT is what truly kicked open my doorway to classic Prog Rock. I also never liked the Grunge genres of the 90s.... so my focus went completely towards Prog at that point. |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: February 07 2022 at 19:19
| ^I'm a little bit different. We probably got into prog around the same time but in the '90s I embraced the current music scene and actually liked the grunge and alternative of the day. I still enjoy Pearl Jam, REM, AIC, Nirvana(to a lesser extent) etc. It was always interesting to listen to some of these bands to hear if I could spot prog influences or sounds in there. It was kind of like finding an easter egg or something. In the late 90's grunge and alternative started to get stale so I started to rediscover prog after taking a break from it for a few years. Although I wasn't aware of it at the time I now realize Tool was one of the few bands to embrace prog, metal and alternative. Probably Primus to some degree also(but without the metal so much). |
Posted By: Jaketejas
Date Posted: February 07 2022 at 21:59
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Soundgarden’s “Badmotorfinger” was an exciting album at that time. I always wondered if it might have influenced Rush’s Counterparts album a little bit. |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 08 2022 at 01:37
told my story too many times here. I had answered the 60's thread (I'm 58) not thinking this thread would be created afterwards Read my short answer over there (first page, I believe) ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: February 08 2022 at 01:48
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I'm 53. I got into prog around age 14, thanks to The Wall and I think that was the year Marillion released Script, a school friend introduced me to Rush, and I first took notice of Genesis. My love of and interest in prog started to overtake my love of metal from then on. ------------- Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy! |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: February 08 2022 at 03:04
I haven't heard that one yet(the sg not the rush which I know well). I always wondered if U2's zooropa influenced Radiohead.
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Posted By: Jaketejas
Date Posted: February 08 2022 at 08:55
I think you’ve come up with a topic for a new thread! Non-Prog music that influenced Prog. I hope you enjoy that SG album. The first three songs are really nice, and there are other grungy gems on there as well. Kim Thayil is not a speedy guitar player, but his use of bends, complex riffage, and slow drones is very interesting to my ears and almost organic. I can actually picture this garden of sound in my head when I listen to some of the songs on this particular album. It was before they adopted a more commercial sound that didn’t appeal to me as much. |
Posted By: SpecialKindOfHell
Date Posted: February 08 2022 at 20:48
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51 here. In the early 80s I was listening to lots of metal and also lots of 60s classic rock bands, but I also got random records that helped me discover prog groups like King Crimson "Lizard", Yes "Fragile", and Soft Machine's classic "Third" LP. Pink Floyd became a huge obsession at this time and I saw them on the 1987 tour. I was in a band around 1991 and was introduced to a friend of a band member who was very into prog and knew of alot more obscure bands than I had heard of, so that started a journey of discovering more stuff, that at the time was very hard to find sometimes in the US record stores. In grad school, a fellow student was from Romania and turned me on to Phoenix, and I was hooked on it. I started searching out obscure European prog bands as best I could. He was super nice and brought back all the Phoenix CDs to me when he visited home. I traveled over to Italy and hit up the record stores there for prog like Area, PFM, etc.
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 09 2022 at 04:34
same here lol , 'the prog inbetweeners'
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Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: February 09 2022 at 08:09
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Hi, Strange!!! The memememe generation liking prog? C'mon ... they were all busy dancing in some disco trying to pick up a girl or some guy! In those days, it wasn't about the music at all! It was about your own interest!  AND, the dope you could get with it!  ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Prog&Math
Date Posted: February 10 2022 at 18:25
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Same here, also 51 turning 52 in a few days. Started with prog thanks to cousins and friends brothers who were ten years older than me. The album covers were the spark: Nursery Crime, Dark Side of the Moon, Crime of the Century, Harmonium, and many more. Then the music heard in the the early 80's helped: Mama, New World Man, Comfortably Numb, Heat of the Moment, Changes (Yes), Shock the Monkey. Of course, this then generated the exploration into the prog years of Rush, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, King Crimson.... Important also at the time were genuine bands from the era: of course Marillion, but also Simple Minds, U2, The Smiths, Love and Rockets, Bauhaus. I sensed in those non-prog bands a willingness to be different and explore new sounds, although not in the same way as the progs. In the 80's and 90's, prog really lost ground, but thankfully some good heavy prog and grunge appeared: Soundgarden (Badmotorfinger!!!!), Voivod (many albums), Metallica (pre-black album). Although I never stopped listening to the classic progs, it took youtube for me to (re-)discover a lot of classic prog: Gentle Giant, Van der Graaf Generator, Renaissance, Zappa, but it took Prog Archives for me to discover the prog which was under the radar for me: Porcupine Tree & SW, Anekdoten, IQ, Beardfish and many more. That's my story...that's all folks!
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Posted By: Jaketejas
Date Posted: December 09 2022 at 10:17
| I was just listening to Heat of the Moment. Everything is going great! Awesome sound. Everything mixed well. Steve Howe is soaring along until … what the heck is with that guitar solo? It doesn’t seem to fit and it sounds a bit muddy and clunky. I generally love Steve Howe’s work but that one is a bit of a head scratcher. Anyway, he made up for it in the opening of Don’t Cry on their later album. |
Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: December 10 2022 at 10:21
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52 Took me a long time to truly “find” prog. Or, to realise I had found it…. Early 80s I was into, well early 80s stuff: New Romantic and synth. Then discovered rock through ZZTop, Deep Purple, Maiden, ACDC etc, then got hugely into Bryan Adams😎 Can’t remember when I first heard The Wall, but this became hugely influential. Also War Of The Worlds, which my aunt and uncle played to me back when it came out, and it’s been a constant companion ever since. Through the later 80s I dabbled with some prog (ABWH, Menel-era IQ, some Floyd) but was mostly getting into metal, some thrash, and the whole “funk-metal” scene - King’s X, Dan Reed Network, Faith No More, etc. First Marillion album was Seasons End when it came out. I still wasn’t embracing prog though. Uni - I got into grunge and even dabbled in Brit pop and shoe gazing (almost unavoidable in the early 90s!) Picked up Subterranea by IQ in 1997 but it took me a long time to appreciate it😑🙄 And I was loving Dream Theater’s first two albums😎 The album that truly set me off though was The Platinum Collection by Genesis. I had Invisible Touch back in 86 but nothing else. But now my ears were hearing something new - yep, early 70s Genesis!!!😂 So I’ve filled in a lot since, but I’m not someone who just likes one era. Or one style. Discovering The Human Equation by Ayreon blew my mind and opened up so many new avenues: to Nightwish, to Devin Townsend, etc etc……. Favourite band - IQ - they are superb!!😎 ------------- Heaven is waiting but waiting is Hell |
Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: July 09 2023 at 11:20
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55 here. I first got into classic rock of the 60s and 70s when my family moved to a new town in 1979 when I was 11 years old. I was introduced to many bands by my new friends. One of those was Rush. Of course, before that I was aware of the bigger rock bands of the time such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, etc but the only one that I actively liked before that was The Beatles. I soon found my way to Yes and Genesis, albeit with Abacab and later Genesis. However, I can remember hearing the title track to The Lamb on local radio and liking it very much. I also had a 45 from The Wall. Might have been Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1. I guess all that means I was exposed to at least some type of prog at a relatively early age but my love of prog didn't fully flower until the 2000s when I discovered Spock's Beard, Porcupine Tree, earlier Pre-Abacab Genesis, and so many more. When I first discovered this site, it was like opening the floodgates to tons of prog bands I never knew about and probably would never have known about had I never signed up here.
------------- We all dwell in an amber subdomain, amber subdomain, amber subdomain. My face IS a maserati |
Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: July 09 2023 at 11:32
I am 63 and too old for this question. 
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 09 2023 at 11:40
That makes two of us then.
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Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: July 09 2023 at 11:52
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It was King Crimson's 'In The Court Of The Crimson King' and ELP's first album which got me into prog. |
Posted By: Greenmist
Date Posted: July 09 2023 at 14:06
| Ive got 3 years to go before i hit the big Five Zero, i got into prog music kind of late. I didnt realise i was a fan of prog music until i was 31. I had already been into Arena since i was 28, and Savatage when i was 30, they were the first 2 bands to introduce me to the prog world. |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: July 10 2023 at 02:16
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I'm 57. I grew up listening to the Prog classics at home, played by my older brothers and cousins (I'm the youngest by quite some difference). All the classic Prog albums, and also Classic Rock like The Beatles, Stones, Bowie, Zepp, Deep Purple, The Who, Lou Reed, early Queen and so on. I remember that at the time, the album which caused the biggest impression on me was Tarkus, I loved it as a kid! So I was never into the music of my age group, which should have been Punk or Disco or New Wave / New Romantic etc. I was lucky to find a small group of friends who while being in my age group, had had similar experiences and loved classic Prog and Rock too, and we are still best friends to this day, and we have kept discovering all the newer subgenres and bands and albums together.
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 10 2023 at 02:22
My gentle introduction to prog in the early 1970's came with the music of Barclay James Harvest, Camel, Mike Oldfield and Renaissance. I didn't "discover" ELP and King Crimson until around forty years later when I first entered ProgArchives hallowed halls back in 2011.
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Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: July 10 2023 at 02:28
I love all of those bands you have mentioned. I have fond memories of buying Camel's 'The Snow Goose' from our local newsagent back in 1975. At the back of his shop he actually had a very decent little record selection.
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 10 2023 at 02:45
The Moody Blues were an early introduction to prog too. I remember back in days of future passed when the only way you could listen to a new album before buying was to go into Virgin Records in Nottingham and request an album to be given a spin on the turntable where you could listen to it through headphones, unlike today, where you can choose from infinite millions of albums to listen to instantly on YouTube, which we couldn't possibly have imagined back then, even in our Wildest Dreams! |
Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: July 10 2023 at 03:40
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The Moody Blues have released some tremendous albums.
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Posted By: O666
Date Posted: July 10 2023 at 06:55
| Hi. I am 54 and now I can say that 40 years I lived and living with Progressive Rock music. |