How difficult for youngster to get the classics?

I classify the music I have by a single criterion: what does it sound like to me. For example:

Hybris - symphonic rock; not quite classical

Viljans Öga - classical

Jaga Jazzist with Britten Sinfonia - classical

Fragile (most of) - classical

Most of Mozart and Vivaldi - pop

Aja and the rest of Fagen - pop (funk)

LTIA and Works Vol. 2 - jazz

Sergeant Pepper - prog (overall feeling)

Most of the Supertramp stuff -pop 

Symphonie Fantastique - prog

The Poem Of Extasy and The Poem Of Fire - prog

The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur - classical

Scheherezade, by both Rimsky-Korsakoff and Renaissance - classical

I am not sure where to put Béla Fleck von Manhattan -- maybe in Manhattan? :)

Speaking of metal: wasn't J.S. Bach the founding father of the genre?

In 1974 I had a difficult time wrapping my head around Rush, Captain Beyond, Starcastle, and Detective. Although Rush became a more progressive band with releases like Farewell To Kings and Hemispheres, I resolved to set their 2nd album off with T.N.T. In 1980..Phil Collins released his first solo album and I was ready to give up on music totally. Friends listening to Voyage Of The Acolyte were saying that they liked Phil Collins and I stayed very far away from them. I still remember how disappointing this time period was for me and whenever the God awful memory re-enters my mind, I'll go off and listen to the early Fleetwood Mac . English Rose , Pious Bird Of Good Omen and Mr. Wonderful separate me from that terrible experience. I was basically around a crowd of people who were hippie wana-be's desigined with long hair, blue jeans, annoying speech patterns, and eyes rolling in their heads listening to Captain Beyond. It was like this..."Hey man, what's happening?" You know? In my head at age 18, I was thinking "F-you" whenever I had to hear that talk. It wasn't a nice greeting. I hate the fact that I experienced these surroundings and forever will. It had little artistic value and a serious lack of education.

Kansas were fine musicians ...but it was making me sick to hear them steal the music/ideas of Keith Emerson's "Take A Pebble" in "Songs For America". Robin Trower released a very good Rock album in 74' titled Bridge Of Sighs, but then he made the mistake of playing in Philadelphia with his loud marshall stacks and "un-tight" band and basically that's when mainstream Rock music went to hell. Cheap sounding 70's bands like Cozy Powell's Bedlam and Captain Beyond made way for the 70's decade to take a turn to unprofessional or lame players leading the frontline of Rock..while the more creative "Hard Rock", "Blues" oriented bands like Humble Pie and Free were no longer,... in the sense that any style of basic Rock adding reflections of creativity and being eclectic like those bands were began to fade even more. 


The sound of Rock guitar began to change for the worse when the Mike Pinera's and Mark Farner's of the world replaced the Paul Kossoff's of the world and Rock guitar was suddenly cheap sounding when compared to the sweet sound it once had in the early 70's. Ronnie Montrose was a fine guitarist of the mid 70's, but he had to sell out in order to fit with the new Rock scene. There was the Jazz Fusion scene happening all around us with Al Dimeloa , and many other fine fusion guitarists, but I didn't care that much because ROCK MUSIC sucked at this point and fusion was not by any means able to satisfy me when I longed for Rock music to sound REAL again like when it had Paul Rodgers and Paul Kossoff or Steve Marriott. That's another reason as a teenager...that I hated Fusion because the industry was allowing fusion bands to be signed to huge labels..while on the other side of the hemisphere they had made Rock music look like a circus. So...I thought screw that! If you want to play thousands of notes ? ...fine...but don't replace great universal Rock n' Roll vocalists and guitarists with lame unprofessional sounding morons. Morons that truly didn't belong ON a stage if you know what I mean? Ask the younger generation today if they understand any of this...because most likely they won't and I'll tell you why....The reason most of them won't is because for the last 3 and a half decades, Robin Trower has been promoted like a GOD ...while people like Paul Kossoff and Peter Green are practically or virtually unknown in the average Rock circles. 

People look up Free and whoever else on the internet, but who in fact is remembered the most? Who has been made or designed to look of less value? Who do most people remember? answer...Robin Trower and Grand Funk Railroad that's who. Ask people in this world if they remember the early Humble Pie...."Humble who?" "Free who?" "Oh...it's a free concert dude?" Bad Company were the son of Free, Foghat were the son of Savoy Brown and in most cases those "sons" or S.O.B.'s were part of the destruction of sweet , hard driving lead Rock guitar work and diverse Rock composition. This all went down when I was a teenager and I hated it and I still resent the existence of it. They, the industry...never brought the REAL Rock back.

 

That's like saying that Mozart is more predictable than metal or rap! Right! Sure! Good luck. It's seems obvious that you haven't heard enough to even know the difference? Possibly?

 

Whattttteeeevaaaaa!!!! You do lose the perspective, because you really have no idea what the other stuff is all about ... or perhaps all you read and know is the Cliff Notes! That's ssssssooooooooo poor music knowledge and top ten, dude!!!! Even I that can not tell you the specifics but I know what I hear really well ... and it's more different and changing than the pop stuff!

 

Just not what we  wanted at certain times.

I know..but it's just really sad how crowds of people would go to out to see the band FREE and were obviously there to watch Paul Kossoff play the Blues or Paul Rodgers as a vocalist and not be overly concerned if they were going to swing their long hair the perfect sexual way.To form a Rock band and just going on stage being totally real about yourself and not phony seemed to vanish as time progressed. Wishbone Ash and Camel touring together in the U.S. or the early Fleetwood Mac was an example of REAL Rock bands and not commercially contrived product. 

I must check him out. I do give off the impression that I'm stuck in the 60's and 70's, but it's more about the freedom that musicians had then that was granted to them by the record executives. Chris Squire has discussed this in the past and has further stated that no one could imagine what it would feel like to have that freedom. This observation falls greatly into a debate between musicians and their fans..where upon the fans disbelieve that the record companies in the 70's took that freedom away from their heroes. Each decade contains a collection of once POPULAR musicians that now play theaters and casinos for a living. I remember Chuck Berry walking into a venue stating firmly to the staff.."I get my four thousand now, not after the show!" It was unfortunate that the industry took away that freedom and made Progressive Rock musicians look very "Love Beach" , but you really couldn't trust them even at the height of your success when you were on national television and especially when the industry dropped you down to theaters. 

Around the end of 79'..I was on a bus with a Progressive Rock cover band and an agent stepped on to the bus and told us that we had to learn a CARS song. When we refused, he informed us that our only alternative was to have our work schedule cut. We played a lot of Genesis and also played "Hard Rock" of the 70's like UFO. Suddenly we were being told that we could no longer play UFO or Jethro Tull and that we should wake up to the realization that the industry is changing. Inside the club are 3 or 4 hundred kids waiting to see us play "Cross-Eyed Mary" and "Watcher Of The Skies". We had 2 front people , a female vocalist who was very legendary in Philadelphia and a guy who played flute  and imitated Ian Anderson. Up the street from us, Happy The Man or Nektar would be performing. Kids were everywhere to see Progressive Rock and yet...all these agents were telling us.."The industry is changing!" "The industry is changing!

We were getting booted off the high end and so I split that scene and landed connections playing guitar for huge internationally known "has been" "sell out" types and that's when I witnessed Renaissance and Steve Hackett traveling the circuit. Then I knew this was a plot to push Progressive Rock off the market...more so than people in general ..disliking it because they had grown tired of it. Obviously...the theaters were packed for that style of music, but the shady business executives, instead of continuing to profit FROM it, were making demands of the DJ's to wipe it off the radio. "Blacklist it"