Did you go through a prog "evangelism" phase?

TODDLER wrote:   Always great to read your posts. I feel like we are too ancient and the world cannot relate to our experiences. It's interesting to hear about prog in Chicago. Space Rock Capital of the World...that would have been perfect for me. It's very sad to me personally how there were once actual isolated Prog scenes in the 70's and now they are gone. Actually ..there are still local prog scenes but not with the impact we experienced. Strawbs or King Crimson opening for a band like Humble Pie and tickets advertised on the radio ...I still can't believe it. In 2001 or 2002...I saw Nektar at the War Memorial in Trenton, N,J,  Bruce Springsteen was playing across the street that night. I stood outside the theatre remembering when bands like PFM used to open for mainstream Rock acts in the 70's. Wishbone Ash and Camel touring together across the Southern U.S.  Man and Hawkwind touring the U.S. together in 74' and Triumvirat on Don Kirshner's In Concert.  It's been too long since I experienced this and it feels like it all has been replaced with something else.....like phone booths were replace with cell phones. You can drive through South Jersey and not see a phone booth anywhere and that is the feeling I get from it.....as if it is dead. It's good because it's dead...

Edited by cstack3 - September 07 2012 at 23:59

I went through a "you gotta hear this, now!" phase with prog when i first developed an interest in it. I found a lot of people not into it and not as appreciative of it as me, so long term i ended up expanding in prog for my own interest in it, and now don't care if others (family, friends) don't like it the way i do.
               Also, i was a latecomer to prog, and did not discover it, really until the late 1980s. I remember my friend telling me i was "The Beating Heart of Ottawa's Used Record Stores" and i guess he was right.
                   I find family members especially into the mainstream, which used to be annoying, but i guess i got over that feeling. 
                         

When I traveled the road everyone seemed to know Jethro Tull like the back of their hand, but bands like Conventum and Art Zoyd were too obscure for a bulk of American tastes. Like Christian Decamps once said..."In the 70's we were playing to 50 or 60 thousand....now we play to 10 thousand. Oh well, same old B.S. in this business! I understood the humour/sadness in that because I had hands on situations traveling around with some of the well known prog bands in the 70's like Nektar and Happy the Man and so judging from that experience I would have to say unfortunately that one of the main reasons for everyone on this thread being outcast from a majority of people in society because they like Prog revolves around the fact that American audiences differ from European audiences. Just to spill guts and become a little daring I must say that I have conversed with Tirill (White Willow) many times about this subject and she has made claim that it is still quite the same. She has been supportive about my music expressing interest in working with me and further making it clear that I am in the wrong country for prog. I believe in her and trust that she is only being honest. I think we are outnumbered in America and that defines the trials from our youth and today.

Vibrationbaby wrote: I still like Elvis. Elvis was cool.

In 1981 I was playing guitar for a Elvis impersonator in front of 50 thousand people. I would sit in the Holiday Inn with headphones listening to Univers Zero and on the bed next to me the trumpet player was doing the same but with Brian Eno's Music For Films. Steve Hackett and Renaissance were on the same circuit , playing the same theatres and we would often ask each other..."What the F are we doing  playing Elvis music?

Never.

 He is now.

Over and over again I hear this "live and let live" philosphy, that all music is equal and blah blah blah. 

I can't say that I ever have - if I think someone maybe receptive to Progressive Rock I might make a suggestion or two but no more than that - it's like those Amazon recomendations you get when purchasing a CD - "People who liked Sigur Ros also purchased Saint Etienne"  (actual example) ... my reaction is invariably "good for them" (though I may wonder if Sarah Cracknell and I are related in someway, I'll not buy (another of) their albums) and I suspect it's the same for anyone who I recommend an album or artist to - just because they've shown an interest in one band or track it does not follow that they'll like a similar or related band or track. Of course some of those recommendations are picked up and perhaps in doing that the person is won-over to the Church of Prog. A guitarist friend of mine did once ask who my favourite guitarists were and I reeled off a list of prog axe-men I admired - he tried them all and was impressed by some and not others and he did admit to appreciating Gilmour (for example) more than he had before - he had heard Floyd before and had been very dismissive (Comfortably Dumb, etc) - he is now a convert to Prog but I'll not claim that was all my doing.

ExittheLemming wrote: I'm probably being overtly cynical but I'll wager that those of you that have posted to the effect that yes, you tried to turn people onto Prog are being at best, disingenuous: if Prog became popular most of you wouldn't touch it with a bargepole

So what of the people who discovered prog during the 70's when the genre was booming, getting airplay and selling out venues ? Can't they appreciate prog now ? Or is most of the prog fanbase of nowadays tools who would have snubbed Yes and VDGG when when they released Close to the edge and Pawn Hearts cause it was too mainstream ? That's a sad vision =(

I'm probably being overtly cynical but I'll wager that those of you that have posted to the effect that yes, you tried to turn people onto Prog are being at best, disingenuous: if Prog became popular most of you wouldn't touch it with a bargepole