What is your number 1 prog band?

I'd have to say King Crimson is the quintessential prog band. I know this sounds extremely cliche for this site but they've basically covered every genre listed on this site (even Electronica if I could stretch it).

As far as my personal favorite, I'd say Genesis.

70-77 Genesis and Rush second best.

FloydCrafty wrote: What is your number 1 prog rock band? Mine is Genesis! How about you?

Take a wild guess

Just don't have one; far too many faves, but if there was a band I have just consistently reached for over the past 30+ years...

it would be Eloy.

Logan wrote: I mentioned Fishmans before in this topic and yesterday was a Fishmans day with various releases -- especially 1997's Uchu Nippon Setagaya and what is my favourite of any live album, 98.12.28 Otokotachi no wakare.

Never heard of Fishmans and now I am streaming and enjoying Long Season, so thank you!

(#1 band? Transatlantic maybe.)

Edited by Proggle - July 08 2025 at 14:06

moshkito wrote: Valdez wrote: I have yet to find an alternative No.1 PROG band to King Crimson. ... Hi, I suppose that I could say, easily enough, that Amon Duul 2 is my favorite of all bands, and the next choice is scary as my brain will heave death fights over it ... Ange? Banco? ... and where do we fit Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze? That is the main reason why I say I really do not have a "favorite" to prevent spending the rest of the day fighting with my brain, that I selected such and such as the first, and ignored the rest. As many LP's as I had at one time (nearly 3K), I learned early on in the days of Space Pirate Radio that selecting something was a crap shoot, as tomorrow, something else would show up and blow everything out of the water! When "Au Dela Du Delire" showed up it blew out anything along the way ... it was just way up there and a really special album, and not the only one by ANGE, which did excellent work all the way to the early 90's. AND a lead singer that stood up as well as Francesco did with Banco ... you lived and died with their words and music! Fast forward to the 21st Century and the age of the numbers and everyone has a choice of some sort, things get even more confusing, but in all honesty, not a whole lot of stuff in the past 30 years has surpassed the ones I have always thought were the best ... though there are many I have fallen for, and loved dearly. Music changes, like the arts do ... the only place it doesn't change is on a site, like PA where the fans get to "demand" their choice as the number 1. Which, when it comes to the music itself, is a real turn off ... feels like the sons and daughters of the jerks that fought for pieces of the pig at Anaheim Stadium! And I don't want to be anywhere near that, regardless of who the band is. But there are things that just go over the top ... if you ever hear Guy Guden's 'Audio Alchemy" as he did for several LP's, the choices change and my special one is Tomita's Firebird Suite ... done in the most incredible way, with the third dimension right there slapping you around to listen! It is that phenomenal, but sadly, it will never be heard by any one else, and even the one I caught was missing the first few minutes (had just gotten off work!!!), in taping it, but even with the couple of minutes missing, it is easily the very best thing I have ever heard ... just sad I can not share it per Guy's wishes and my respect for a friend, even though I probably don't fit next to all the girls and groupies in his time! Favorites? What's that? A new salad? A new dessert? ... hmmm ... maybe a new soup?

There is much wisdom to this approach. I really enjoy finding new things... something that challenges me. That's my favorite thing and the probalem is most stuff isnt all that original.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: So few people here have Yes as their number one. Kind of weird to me. Maybe you guys just don't like them anymore.

They could have ended 20 years ago and that would have been fine, or perhaps they sort of did and it's now a 'zombified' band. Perhaps carrying on too long plus you can't just ignore the current version of the band that is a million miles away from the classic era and best line up (CTTE and Fragile era imo)

Number 1 prog band for me? Probably King Crimson, the epitome of progressive.

Valdez wrote: Most, if not all of the greatest prog bands did their best works as very young men, and the doors were just opening… Around 67 through 75 or so. Sudden bursts of creativity, new and seemingly out of nowhere. It’s happened a few times in my / our lifetime with different genres. ... Edited for horrible grammar.

Hi,

I think it is not as clear cut ... and it varies. The musicians and prog bands that did their work for the value of their work, and not the fame, have survived just fine, but it is the behemoths that don't look good, and the ravages of time, seemingly eating them all up.

But many did just fine. If we look at the arts and their history, folks like Picasso, Dali and many writers, got way better in their later years, and Picasso? He was not going to stop painting unless he was in his death bed ... and he kept on changing, which likely was a part of his disdainful attitude towards a lot of folks in the business and in the Spanish Government. And in the end, they could not even complete his catalog with thousands and thousands of works ... and still, today, they don't have a complete catalog! That's art to the max of its truth!

Rock music is so stuck in the fame business and in the record company curses, that it can not fathom anything else, and allowing BS and many others one more go is like a thank you for all the money you made for us all! And the only sad thing I do not see is the humility for it all ... of course Ozzy is going to say thank you ... for all the drugs and the fun along the way ... because the music is not exactly the great pantheon of the arts.

Youth has a say in things, but it depends on the nature of the social group ... right now, the media has all the youngsters tied up with their rap and hit songs, and those folks will not likely be at the forefront of anything new artistically, I do not think.

Like the 1960's, there has to be a sort of fight and things to go after that causes changes, and one could say that at this time and place in America, the disconnect is so harsh that even here ... no one cares, and all they can say is RW is a jerk, and that the other RW is cool with a cape ... never mind the egocentric stupidity involved, and what might be a well thought out view of the world, even if we're not smart enough to study it and find if it is true or false, the one thing that PA has shown ... the facts are ignored and instead the senseless one line comments are made for us to think they are important comments about the situation. All it's doing is hiding the cynicism behind it all, and we make a point of not looking, because it takes away our own doing of it!

As writer Doris Lessing once said ... the country that has the most freedoms, rarely uses them! ... because having a "favorite" is freedom, not something else that has a bigger meaning in life! That's objectivity for you!

Edited by moshkito - July 10 2025 at 03:44

Valdez wrote: I gave Alice Coopers new release a listen and it made me sad.

Are you talking about "Road", his 2023 release? Yes, that one was a major let-down. New album is coming out in two weeks: https://awesomeprog.com/releases/79784

Listening to the first single, the cringe factor is noticeable. Don't care much for the "yayayayayayayaya" section


Edited by MikeEnRegalia - July 10 2025 at 04:06