The term Progressive Rock

August 19, 1972

December 29 1964. 

When that one guy (or maybe girl) released that one album that sounded funny.

I remember distinctly when I first came across the term used in conjunction with music:

Deep Purple in Rock had just been released about a week previously (1970). I was in a record shop and I heard some guy going to the counter with DP In Rock in one hand and DP's Concerto for Group and Orchestra in the other and I overheard him asking the owner which one of these albums he thought was more progressive.

I remember this so distinctly because I was startled by how pretentious this question sounded. I was thinking something like: Wow, this guy's not afraid to make a fool of himself.

So the term was somehow around in 1970, but it also had quite a different meaning to what it has today. Apparently not only has the word itself been around in conjunction with music for a long time, but somewhere along the way it's changed its meaning considerably over the decades.

The transition of the meaning ( as used for music) has evolved from the original meaning of the word itself (as can be seen in any dictionary) to its meaning today, where strangely enough its being applied to an art form that is essentially relatively old.

I think that, mainly because of this transition, the question is unanswerable.

I don't know, but I wish the originator had called it something else.

From 69' to 75'...Prog bands were particularly interested in the music of Holst. The Planets seemed to influence King Crimson, Yes, Renaissance, and so many , many others I can't recall. The intro of "The Prophet" by Yes and "The Devil's Triangle" from King Crimson are commonly known ..but there were many other Prog bands from that era who were observing Holst and adding reflections of his work to their compositions. Now that this has been established as a fact which is evident and not some half-wit theory, we can realize that this was a "progression". Between 69' to 75' ...this was a strange & personal developmental stage and a progression into something else. Something "new" to reflect a sound and style ...not yet developed and personalizing the music of Gustav Holst to do it. This was an innovative act that changed the way most musicians had been currently writing. The idea to incorporate Holst and give Progressive Rock a new edge ..made it's way into various catagories of Prog..(eventually). In the life of a musician..this is termed or thought to be a "progression". Many of the original ideas to create Progressive Rock involved taking measures beyond which was thought to be (at that time), an act of insanity  and a very misguiding one. This reaction came in herds and prior to Progressive Rock being promoted. You know how your surroundings might be when you create a new style of music that people are unsure of until it is delivered by "Honest Jerry" on a billboard or radio broadcast. "You work for me..or you don't work at all" type of situation. The huge percentage (I would say), of the Classical world were very stand-offish, offended, and hostile toward the music of ELP and Yes. I recall many of them turning their noses up into the air and commenting how insulting it was to hear Classical music combined with the sound of an organ being smashed on stage.

Edited by TODDLER - February 04 2014 at 10:33

Sounds become dated...not the playing itself. The notes are still progressive to play unamplified. Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin were pigeon-holed with this "Heavy Metal" term because their most ultimate work was established during a period in time when "Hard Rock" was popular. The guitar sound was to be more distorted. You can hear the howling dark sounding vibrato of Paul Kossoff on Free's Tons Of Sobs in 1968. His choice of notes were different than Eric Clapton's on the Live Cream album. Tony Iommi has that distinctive sound on the first Sabbath album. Peter Green had written "The Green Manalishi" which was covered by Judis Priest. Luther Grosvenor created a very heavy guitar sound on Spooky Tooth's rendition of "I Am The Walrus". Jimmy Page's guitar sound in 1968 was very heavy and distorted unlike what one would hear before. Jimi Hendrix played very loud, but his style was not based around anything these British guitarists were doing with notes and he had no close connection with their style of songwriting. Maybe "Astro Man" has that particular affect on people, but not most of his songs due to his influence from R&B, Soul, and Chicago Blues like Buddy Guy. All of the guitarists I've mentioned took part in the British Blues Boom...movement...creating albums of straight up Blues combined with some sophistication on sax solos, harmonica, keyboards, and horn sections. They left it behind for this so called "Hard Rock" sound.On the Yardbirds' Little Games..it is clear that Page's guitar style was developing a new style of "Hard Rock" music. Unfortunately he doesn't get enough credit for his acoustic playing which is impeccable because he has a background in traditional European open guitar tunings and playing. Unfortunately...Deep Purple gets more credit for their influence on Metal than fusing Classical with Rock. That's the Rock journalists fault.

Edited by TODDLER - February 05 2014 at 10:09

I enjoyed this article on wiki regarding prog rock; though I don't agree with everything written there it's a nice exploration of the genre in general. As always there will be disagreement on when it started and what it actually is.

 

from the article:

Unorthodox recording methods were a vital part of Progressive Rock. The term revolved around experimenting with effects, recording environmental sounds, and combining those ideas to be part of an epic piece. One particular unorthodox recording method was to surround a kettle drum with 4 microphones and spread kitty litter evenly around the drum skin. You would then hit record and strike the drum with a mallet. When played back on tape....it sounded like a fireworks display. The sound of a whistle in flight or frequency of an object flying at rapid speed through the air was present. It takes a creative individual to think up an idea like that. This is all done by pressing a key or a button in today's world. Roger Waters and Syd Barrett were very interested in unorthodox recording. Ron Geesin who charted out Atom Heart Mother was a multi talented string player who recorded electronic/experimental type music of his own for film. They were all part of a developing progressive rock scene and this commonly known experimentation in music was an element of surprise to people who were followers of Art Rock/Progressive in the late 60's and early 70's. The sound effects and the experimentation with new unorthodox recording methods shocked people and helped to raise their interest in the storyline of the Prog epic. Supper's Ready contained studio tricks and sound effects to accompany the progression of the play. It was like a play in a theatre and those bizzare sounds throughout the piece were carefully planned to draw the listener in.

I like to use the term, 'Progressive Rock' to describe in a broad sense all of which that is progressive, meaning when. Someone asks me what music I particularly enjoy I do more often now say 'Progressive Rock.' Prog Rock follows all 23 sub genres put under it as a statement for useful classification. Ergo, the term progressive rock implies all types (sub genres) under it. It's just useful and efficient classification and I need something like this cause I truly adore a good 15 different sub-genres of progressive music. :)