Socially-engaged major Progressive Rock
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Top 10s and lists
Forum Description: List all your favourites here
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=133881
Printed Date: July 19 2025 at 07:17
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Socially-engaged major Progressive Rock
Posted By: David_D
Subject: Socially-engaged major Progressive Rock
Date Posted: November 14 2024 at 12:46
|
I've been thinking that it could be interesting to have a thread about the socially-engaged "songs" included in the poll series "Thinking politically / socially-engaged songs", and I can tell now that my selections have mainly focused on major Progressive Rock, stricktly defined. Also in this new thread, you can mention some more of the same kind, including whole albums if they're more or less socially-engaged in their entirety. Anyway, here're most of the "songs" from the poll series (Edit: plus some of those (including entire albums) mentioned in other threads of the same theme and in this thread): Ange - "Les Longues Nuits D'Isaac" (1974) Area - "Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (Nero)" (1973) Area - "Gioia e Rivoluzione" (1975) Art Bears - "The Song of Investment Capital Overseas" (1981) Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - “Canto Nomade per un Prigioniero Politico" (1973) Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - "Dopo...niente é piú lo stessso" (1973) Curved Air - "Marie Antoinette" (1972) Eloy - "The Light from Deep Darkness" (1974) Eloy - "Plastic Girl" (1974) Emerson, Lake & Palmer - "Lucky Man" (1970) Emerson, Lake & Palmer - "Tarkus" (1971) Emerson, Lake & Palmer - "Karn Evil 9" (1973) Flower Travellin' Band - "Hiroshima" (1972) Genesis - "The Knife" (1970) Genesis - "Get 'Em Out by Friday" (1972) Genesis - "Supper's Ready" (1972) Genesis - Selling England by the Pound (1973) Gentle Giant - The Power and the Glory (1974) Henry Cow - "War" (1975) Henry Cow - Western Culture (1979) Jethro Tull - Aqualung (1971) Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (1972) King Crimson - "21st Century Schizoid Man" (1969) King Crimson - "Epitaph" (1969) King Crimson - "Easy Money" (1973) King Crimson - "Fallen Angel" (1974) Magma - "De Futura" (1976) Marillion - "Forgotten Sons" (1983) Marillion - "White Russian" (1987) Marillion - "Gaza" (2012) The Mothers - "I'm the Slime" (1973) Niemen Aerolit - "Cztery Sciany Swiata" (1975) Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975) Pink Floyd - Animals (1977) Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet (2007) Premiata Forneria Marconi - "Mr. 9 'till 5" (1973) Rush - "2112" (1976) Triana - "Rumor" (1977) Van der Graaf Generator - "The Emperor in His War-Room" (1970) Van der Graaf Generator - "Pioneers Over C" (1970) Van der Graaf Generator - "Childlike Faith in Childhood's End" (1976) Rick Wakeman - "The Prisoner" (1976) Roger Waters - "Amused to Death" (1992) Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase (2015) Wigwam - "Pedagogue" (1974) Yes - "Yours Is No Disgrace", The Yes Album (1971) Yes - "I've Seen All Good People", The Yes Album (1971) Yes - "Roundabout", Fragile (1971) Yes - "The Gates of Delirium" (1974) Frank Zappa - "Uncle Remus" (1974) ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Replies:
Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: November 14 2024 at 12:55
|
The Tangent - "The Lady Tied To The Lamp Post" (2022) ------------- 
|
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: November 15 2024 at 01:32
|
Reviewed yesterday: Fabrizio De Andre' - Verranno a Chiederti del Nostro Amore ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 15 2024 at 04:35
|
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - "Dopo...niente é piú lo stessso", an anti-war song from the album Io Sono Nato Libero (1973) ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 15 2024 at 07:30
|
The Mothers - "I'm the Slime", Over-nite Sensation (1973), about the brainwashing function or effect of many TV programmes, and here's an excerpt of the lyrics: I am gross and perverted I'm obsessed and deranged I have existed for years But very little has changed I'm the tool of the Government And industry too For I am destined to rule And regulate you I may be vile and pernicious But you can't look away I make you think I'm delicious With the stuff that I say I'm the best you can get Have you guessed me yet? I'm the slime oozin' out From your TV set ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 16 2024 at 04:35
|
Henry Cow - "War", In Praise of Learning (1975), another anti-war song Marillion - "Gaza", Sounds That Can't Be Made (2012), about what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict meant for the life of Palestinians living in Gaza, and written after many conversations with ordinary Palestinians living in the refugee camps of Gaza and the West Bank. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 18 2024 at 08:00
|
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
According to Edward Macan's Rocking the Classics, Roger Waters explores in this album those sides of the modern industrial society that depersonalize, dehumanize, and ultimately drive people to madness: time, or more accurately, industrial society's conception of it, money, war and violence ("Us and Them"), and the futility of the nine-to-five work life ("Breathe" and "On the Run") (1997, p. 78). This interpretation is quite in agreement with Wikipedias view of this album ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon# ). ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 19 2024 at 08:42
|
Pink Floyd's next album, Wish You Were Here (1975), is much about missing Syd Barrett and his withdrawal into madness, but this "saga" can be viewed as symbolic of the sense of alienation and withdrawal that pervades the entire contemporary Western society. Also, together with heavy criticism of the music industry ("Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar"), the whole album can be seen as a kind of thematic continuation of The Dark Side of the Moon. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 19 2024 at 13:03
|
Animals (1977) was a significant step away from Floyd's "classic" sound, but it was not less socially-engaged than the two previous albums, on the contrary. Loosely based on George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945), this album presents the listeners for a bleak, Orwellian interpretation of society as consisting solely of "sheep" (mindless followers), "pigs" (tyrannical thought-police), and "dogs" (violent, power-hungry manipulators). ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: A Crimson Mellotron
Date Posted: November 20 2024 at 02:14
|
You might as well put the entire 'Hand. Cannot. Erase.' album in this category because of the story that inspired the album. Also, does not Neal Morse's output count in, too? Most of his albums deal with Christian themes explicitly or implicitly. |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 20 2024 at 09:09
Wikipedia quotes Steven Wilson for saying this about Hand. Cannot. Erase.: "The basic story, or concept of the record – it's about a woman growing up, who goes to live in the city, very isolated, and she disappears one day and no one notices. There's more to it than that. Now, what's really interesting about this story is that your initial reaction when you hear a story like that is, 'Ah, little old bag lady that no one notices, no one cares about.' [Vincent] wasn't [like that]. She was young, she was popular, she was attractive, she had many friends, she had family, but for whatever reason, nobody missed her for three years." and it looks socially-engaged to me as well. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand._Cannot._Erase.#Themes_and_concept )
------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
A Crimson Mellotron wrote:Posted By: mellotronwave
Date Posted: November 20 2024 at 12:32
| Peter Hammill : Handicap and Equality (from PH7) |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 22 2024 at 04:48
|
Rush - "2112" (1976), pro-individualist / anti-authoritarian ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Starshiper
Date Posted: November 22 2024 at 07:06
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 22 2024 at 10:04
|
^ Very good timing  , as I just want to tell this:When talking about Pink Floyd's lyrics in the 1970s, Deena Weinstein, professor of sociology and author of some much appreciated music literature, has written a bit arrogant or dogmatic but still very fine article about proper understanding of those lyrics, and that is, rather symbolically. This article, entitled "Progressive Rock As Text: The Lyrics of Roger Waters", is for instance published in the book Progressive Rock Reconsidered (2002) edited by Kevin Holm-Hudson. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 26 2024 at 13:58
|
^^ It was very nice for me to discover Hand. Cannot. Erase. as a modern, socially-engaged major Prog album, and I'll be happy to hear about some more of that kind. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 27 2024 at 10:02
|
Yes - "Roundabout", Fragile (1971) In John J. Sheinbaum's opinion, as stated in his article "Progressive Rock and the Inversion of Musical Values", this Yes song can be interpreted as: "The nature imagery troughout the song, with its references to mountains, lakes, and valeys, suggests (as in much progressive rock) the pastoral utopia of a time long ago, which stands in contrast to the dehumanizing technology of modern society." (as published in the book Progressive Rock Reconsidered (2002, p. 38) edited by Kevin Holm-Hudson) ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: November 27 2024 at 10:06
^ I read somewhere that Jon Anderson's Roundabout came about after he'd driven around endless roundabouts on the Edinburgh ring road. 
|
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: November 27 2024 at 11:12
|
Anyone trying to interpret Anderson lyrics is on a wild goose chase. ------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: November 27 2024 at 11:13
 |
Posted By: GuruCan
Date Posted: November 27 2024 at 13:50
|
Haken's lyrics occasionally address societal challenges, particularly in albums like 'Vector.' |
Posted By: Snikle
Date Posted: November 27 2024 at 13:57
| I think Every Bloody Emperor can be added to the VDGG section. |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 27 2024 at 15:44
 ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 27 2024 at 16:49
Vector looks to me to be a socially-engaged concept album, alright, but also to be a Metal album. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 03:14
I still think that John J. Sheinbaum, as being a musicologist, has very good qualifications for a reasonnable interpretation, and which has been published as a scientific article - but of course, he doesn't have to be right. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 03:21
So because it's a progressive metal album, it does not count, or lacks credibility, or what?!  There are a ton of metal bands that tackle social issues, corruption and politics. But i guess, no credibility because... metal...
 |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 04:41
|
^ As the thread title says, this thread is about "major Progressive Rock", and that is meant stricktly defined. And btw, in your opinion, Metal is something different than Rock, isn't that correct? ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 04:54
Not what you said. You are saying progressive metal does not belong in the discussion, a very dismissive statement, for a prog subgenre that has been around since the 80s.
|
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 05:06
Some socially-engaged major Progressive Metal, courtesy of Porcupine Tree. |
Posted By: GuruCan
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 05:08
|
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 07:33
That's definitely socially-engaged major album, which I also will consider as Progressive Rock. And here's what Wikipedia writes about Fear of a Blank Planet : "The lyrics of the album deal with some common behaviour tendencies concerning society, especially youth, in the beginning of the 21st century, such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_disorder" rel="nofollow - bipolar disorder , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_disorder" rel="nofollow - attention deficit disorder , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_abuse" rel="nofollow - drug abuse , alienation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Tree#cite_note-36" rel="nofollow - and deprivation caused by mass media. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Tree#cite_note-DPRP_Specials-37" rel="nofollow - The concept of the album was inspired by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Easton_Ellis" rel="nofollow - Bret Easton Ellis novel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Park" rel="nofollow - Lunar Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Tree#cite_note-38" rel="nofollow - and the title alludes to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Enemy_%28band%29" rel="nofollow - Public Enemy 's album, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_a_Black_Planet" rel="nofollow - Fear of a Black Planet , both sharing the particularity of reflecting notorious conflicts affecting society in the world at some time. Wilson notes that whilst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism" rel="nofollow - race relationship was the main issue among young people when Public Enemy's album was released, it was replaced in the 21st century by a general superficiality, boredom, and introversion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Tree#cite_note-ProgArchives-39" rel="nofollow - The album features contributions from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_%28band%29" rel="nofollow - Rush 's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Lifeson" rel="nofollow - Alex Lifeson and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Crimson" rel="nofollow - King Crimson 's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fripp" rel="nofollow - Robert Fripp . Wilson: "My fear is that the current generation of kids who're being born into this information revolution, growing up with the Internet, cell phones, iPods, this download culture, 'American Idol,' reality TV, prescription drugs, PlayStations—all of these things kind of distract people from what's important about life, which is to develop a sense of curiosity about what's out there."" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Tree#Fear_of_a_Blank_Planet )
------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 07:40
But the Internet, PlayStation and the information revolution ARE what's important in life - at least to me anyhow.
|
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 08:29
Well, I've edited my OP, so it explicitly tells now that this thread is about stricktly defined Progressive Rock. ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: GuruCan
Date Posted: November 28 2024 at 09:46
For PA, Progressive Rock is more of a vibe—essentially, Progressive Rock, the term, equals *Prog* here; that's how your title could be read—"socially engaged major Prog bands." So, it would've been good to highlight in your initial post that "socially engaged major bands" from PA's Progressive Metal section aren't allowed but only the bands from other PA categories like Symphonic Prog, Neo Prog, Eclectic Prog, Heavy Prog, Canterbury Scene, Rock Progressivo Italiano, RIO/Avant-Prog, and so forth. Since you didn't do it that way, to my previous Heavy Prog (Haken) suggestion, I'm free to add this one, Progressive Metal suggestion: |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: December 06 2024 at 08:38
|
King Crimson - "Fallen Angel", Red (1974), about gang violence ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: December 06 2024 at 15:31
Nothing that Genesis hadn't (funnily) sung about the previous year in Epping Forest. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: December 07 2024 at 08:01
KC's story is on a one person level and existentiel, and as such, probably more touching and convincing personally.
------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: David_D
Date Posted: December 07 2024 at 08:05
|
King Crimson - "Easy Money", Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973) can be seen as a cutting commentary on the materialistic pursuit of wealth and status, and the superficial values of modern society ------------- quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond |
Posted By: GuruCan
Date Posted: December 07 2024 at 16:01
|
The excellent epic song "The Winning Game" by The Tangent
challenges listeners to think about societal difficulties and
success-related aspirations. |