http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=107469&PN=1" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=107469&PN=1

...For which Magnum Valletaja asked PA member to submit lists of (up to) 300 of their personal top Prog tracks, ranked 1 to N. He then compiled results for the "Top Prog Tracks of All Time" in a separate post:

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=107690&KW=list&PN=1" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=107690&KW=list&PN=1

I've kept my list as an Excel spreadsheet, and with some time on my hands last year, I decided to dig it up, re-work it, and add more tracks (mostly "glaring omissions" and new listens).  It's now too big to just post openly here, but I keep it stored in my Onedrive folder at the following link if anyone's interested in seeing it (Hyperlink was not working, but I think cut-paste into browser might):

 

https://onedrive.live.com/edit.aspx?cid=367df8bf39d8d66c&page=view&resid=367DF8BF39D8D66C!349&parId=367DF8BF39D8D66C!115&app=Excel" rel="nofollow - https://onedrive.live.com/edit.aspx?cid=367df8bf39d8d66c&page=view&resid=367DF8BF39D8D66C!349&parId=367DF8BF39D8D66C!115&app=Excel

 

 I've added a lot of extras too (columns and tabs) which I won't go into here (much of it self-explanatory). It's really just a snapshot in time, as I seem to want to change it every time I look again. The value for me personally has been more in the process of listening and thinking about great Prog Rock compositions (i.e., what is it about a particular track that I like and/or makes it "great", and why would I rank it lower/higher than another) than in the ranking result itself.

 

 

Curious if anyone still has their list, or have added to it since ??  Or, even if you didn't participate in the 2016 post, if you have a list of your top tracks, or at least think about ranking your personal favorite tracks....

I think I could possibly come up with a list of songs that are all time favourites, but there’s no way I could ever rank them.

I still have my list, which has 214 entries, but haven't updated it in the meantime. A quick look at the top 10 shows that I'm still by and large happy with them... some permutation can of course always happen.

Can - Ege Bamyasi - Spoon
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock - After the Flood
Björk - Homogenic - Yoga (Royal Opera House live version)
Cardiacs - Big Ship - Big Ship
The Beatles - Revolver - Tomorrow Never Knows
Björk - Debut - Human Behaviour
Pink Floyd - Meddle - Echoes
Camel - Camel - Never Let Go (Live Record version)

David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees - Brilliant Trees

...and I'd put in Echoes higher. 

That's about 45 more than I'd manage. Making lists doesn't really interest me.

Song Within a Song - Camel

Lunar Sea - Camel

Song For America - Kansas

Baying of the Hounds - Opeth

Under a Glass Moon - Dream Theater

The Runaway - Gentle Giant

Ommadawn Part 1 - Mike Oldfield

From Silence to Somewhere - Wobbler

Without Walls - IQ

Despuis L'Automne - Harmonium

The Collapso - National Health

Natural Science - Rush

Winter Wine - Caravan

First Regret/Three Years Older - Steven Wilson

Matte Kudasai - King Crimson

Flight Over Rio - Al Di Meola 

iluvmarillion wrote: Good luck. I think it's a massive job to list songs on an Excel spreadsheet and write comments for each one. Even though Prog is just one genre of music with several sub-genres there are still thousands of songs to assess and even after naming a thousand songs you could equally name another thousand which deserve equal merit of discussion. How you put them in any coherent order from best to least best is too monumental a task. Only way to do it without going crazy would be to have a personal favorite list of say your top 20 songs and add to it each year.

It is/was "massive", but I admit, I kind of enjoyed it, and it wasn't as difficult as I thought. I already had the pre-made list from 2016; I then made a list of tracks I wanted to add, scanned through the existing list, chose a spot for each track (that's the third tab on my spreadsheet if you've seen it), and thought about how it compared to the 5 or so tracks above and below it--then made adjustments.  I found that my first top 100  didn't change much, but it was a lot of moving around tracks below that.

Also, make note of what I said about the process being more valuable than the result (lots of close listening--its better, often, to listen to prog rock that way than just casually, or as background).  

Still, you're right, I think for some people, it would drive them crazy.  Maybe you need to be a little crazy like me.   And, of course, you need a lot of time (which I had last Fall, when I completed it).  

Anyway, at least for now, I'm not going to add to or change the list..   If I ever do get back to it, I'll probably break it down by groups of sub-genres to make it more manageable.

I've also been on a quest to make a list (actually, a number of lists) of essential or best ever prog songs. I did consult the topic you linked to; however, with only 18 members participating in it you're sure to have a lot of bias (bias towards the likes of Yes can hardly be blamed however). If one or two members happen to like one obscure song a lot, it will blow that song's objective prominence in the progressive rock style out of proportion due to the sheer poverty of the sample size. 

I found http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=98846" rel="nofollow - the DDM top 100 perhaps more representative of prog as a whole, and if you like quantity over quality resulting from certain bands being favoured above others I wonder if you have tried using http://https://sonemic.com/charts/top/song/1800-20199999/g:progressive%2drock/" rel="nofollow - Sonemic's song chart feature (not yet incorporated in the RateYourMusic system). 

Most likely a manual list picked by a dedicated journalist/enthusiast or group would be most effective in making the best top prog tracks list there ever has been. So I suppose your revision of glaring omissions would be the best list then. 

The idea of creating an authoritative list of the top Prog songs/tracks is, perhaps, a good project, as long as the criteria/method for creating the list is well defined. But its not quite the point of this post.  Anyone's Personal list, including my own, is not meant to be authoritative: bias is built in (and should be--else its not really a personal list).  I was just sharing/explaining my list again and seeing if others had made/modified theirs.  

True that I and others originally created our lists for Magnum Valletaja's compiling project.  I think it was a good method to determine what the "best" prog tracks are (i.e., go to a website dedicated to Progressive Rock, conduct a survey of the members' favorite songs, and do a statistical study to determine the top tracks).  You're right that the sample size was a bit small.  Perhaps MV will do it again in the future; he might get a greater response a second time. Not sure he will, though--it was a major project which I'm sure took a lot of work on his part.

To your last paragraph: that "dedicated...group" could be the PA collaborators/reviewers.  They could get together and decide on a list, similar to how they make picks of the top albums for each year.  They probably won't.  Just focusing on whole albums is probably enough for them.

I'll go with one track per artist. Not necessarily my favourite song by each artist, but my favorite track that can be described as prog or, in many cases, as art rock...

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - "Il Giardino del Mago" (Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, 1972)

The Beatles - "A Day In the Life" (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967)

David Bowie - "Blackstar" (Blackstar, 2016)

Burnin Red Ivanhoe - "Oyizl" (M 144, 1969)

Can - "Halleluwah" (Tago Mago, 1971)

Faust - "Krautrock" (Faust IV, 1973)

Genesis - "Firth of Fifth" (Selling England By the Pound, 1973)

King Crimson - "Moonchild" (In the Court of the Crimson King, 1969)

Mew - "Hawaii" (No More Stories, 2009)

Miracle Musical - "The Mind Electric" (Hawaii Part II, 2012)

The Moody Blues - "Dawn Is a Feeling" (Days of Future Passed, 1967)

Mike Oldfield - "Tubular Bells pt. 1" (Tubular Bells, 1973)

Neu! - "Hallogallo" (Neu!, 1972)

Pink Floyd - "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (Wish You Were Here, 1975)

Queen - "The Prophet's Song" (A Night At the Opera, 1975)

Radiohead - "Paranoid Android" (OK Computer, 1997)

Roxy Music - "The Bogus Man" (For Your Pleasure, 1973)

Sigur Rós - "Starálfur" (Ágætis byrjun, 2000)

Talking Heads - "The Great Curve" (Remain in Light, 1980)

The Who - "Underture" (Tommy, 1969)

Frank Zappa - "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" (We're Only in It for the Money, 1968)

I already know most of the others, but thanks for mentioning 'Miracle Musical'!