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When were you infected by Prog?

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Topic: When were you infected by Prog?
Posted By: progpositivity
Subject: When were you infected by Prog?
Date Posted: April 14 2010 at 17:24
Can you point to a "defining moment" of your life when you got "infected" by the Progressive Rock virus? 
 
If so, tell us all about it!  Where were you at the time?  How young or old were you?  Was it a concert you attended?  A song you heard on the radio?  A record you purchased?  A record owned by a sibling or a parent that you discovered?  A website you discovered on the internet? 
 
On the other hand, perhaps you simply cannot remember a time when you weren't a Progger?  Perhaps as a baby, you cried in 7/8 time!  Stand up tall and proud if you were BORN TO PROG!  Wink
 
...I apologize in advance for leaving out those of you that don't believe that Progressive Rock exists.  Wink
 
As for me, I can remember asking my mom to buy me 45 RPM records from the age of 4 and playing them over and over until I drove her crazy enough to buy me some *new* ones!  LOL
 
But it was not until I was 8 years of age, when I spent my weekly "allowance" money to pick up an *album*  by a very popular band.  As was my *tradition*, I wore the grooves off that record.  This one was different, however.  It contained a whimsical tune about a Meter Maid, a sad tale about a misunderstood child leaving home, a carnivalesque tune about a man named Mr. Kite and much much more!  The record "turned me on" with its intense, soaring *orchestration* on one song as well as its unusual middle eastern instrumentation on another.  It was a "concept album" of sorts.  The band was performing as an imaginary band with a pretend singer named Billy Shears.  The concept was loose, but it was stated at the beginning and then was reprised at the end.  The whole package captivated me.  I must have listened to it hundreds upon hundreds of times. 
 
I am speaking - of course - of the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". 

I had never heard the word "prog" - yet I believe that was the moment when the seeds of the prog "idea" were planted in my head.  The concept that popular music could be *ART*.  From that day onward, I would not believe in 2 separate worlds of music - classical and popular.  I believed that popular music could say something in such a way as to inspire and endure.
 
So I personally blame my Prog Rock infection on the Beatles! 
 
What about you?


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com



Replies:
Posted By: Xanatos
Date Posted: April 14 2010 at 17:34
First :D


Posted By: The Wrinkler
Date Posted: April 14 2010 at 17:48
Not too long ago actually, I was 19 when I got the virus. It started with Pink Floyd. At the time I was into 90's alternative, Grunge, and classic rock. Then one day I got bored of the music I was listening too, and I decided I was going to check out Pink Floyd. I still remember, but could never get that same feeling again, listening to Dark Side of the Moon. It was so different, I was blown away, but I still didn't "get it." After a couple more listens I was hooked, I became a Floyd fan. That was the first kind of "prog" I heard, but didn't know it was considered prog at the time. It was not until Sept. 09 that I met this Prog DJ at Fry's electronics, at the Pink Floyd section. We were talking about Pink Floyd, and he asked if I liked Prog rock. I didn't know what he was talking about, but he was walking around looking for classic bands. Being Fry's electronics, they didn't have a lot of selections, but there were YES CD's, and he handed me Fragile. He then told me that the bands I NEEDED to listen to after this GENESIS, KING CRIMSON, and EMERSON, LAKE, AND PALMER! I liked Fragile a lot, but what really got me hooked was Genesis, and the album, Selling England By The Pound, which still remains my favorite band and album. I visited this site to expand my horizons, and now I feel like I can't go back to listening to any other genre, cause nothing else feels as "epic" or "spacey."

Greatest thing to happen to me this week was FINALLY appreciating VdGG. I didn't quite get Pawn Heart's epic, Plague of Lighthouse Keepers, but when it bit me, I was hooked. Moving on to H to HE now, and find the album hard to get into, but fun when I'm in the right mood for it. 


Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: April 14 2010 at 18:33
my first exposure was seeing that sci--fi cover of Tarkus when I was about 9 in my buddy's Dad's LP collection and being immediately drawn to it.  Didn't understand the music but loved the imagery.  Then a couple years later I saw Hemispheres at a record store and bought it.  Again I was primarily drawn by the images and fantasy atmosphere, but this time I actually liked the music (though I still didn't quite understand it).  But I kept playing it and by the time I'd reached high school, that mini poster of Lee,Lifeson&Peart sure came in handy.  From there I began to appreciate Yes, Mahavishnu, and by the time KC's Discipline came out, I'd become a practicing young musician and could hear the genius.

However it wasn't till adulthood that I began to favor Prog over what just a few years earlier had seemed like  the far superior Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.  Finally by the mid-90s, much older Prog had begun being re-released, and it became a great time to revitalize my interest in artists as U.K., Greenslade, Gryphon, Univers Zero and others.




Posted By: Finnforest
Date Posted: April 14 2010 at 19:14
I would have to say it was my big brother.  When I was about 8 or so, I remember being on vacation and him playing me "Several species of small furry animals gathered together....." and stuff from Magical Mystery Tour.  That was first contact.  First real experience was simply falling for "Roundabout" on the radio and finally buying "Fragile."   Big smile

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Posted By: ProgressiveAttic
Date Posted: April 14 2010 at 19:35
I was practically born listening to prog! my father is a prog fan and he used to play his prog albums to me when I was little (being ELP my favorite! )... but I never payed much attention to music until when I was 13 and took The Dark Side of the Moon from my father's collection and was so impressed that I listened to it twice and went to grab some more albums, in this exact order: In The Court of the Crimson King (which I listened to 4 times in a row), ELP's Trilogy (another one I listened 3 times) and Yes' Relayer (which I listened 5 times). And I that month I listened to my father's collection in its entirety about 4 times!

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Michael's Sonic Kaleidoscope Mondays 5:00pm EST(re-runs Thursdays 3:00pm) @ Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio(http://www.deliciousagony.com)



Posted By: himtroy
Date Posted: April 14 2010 at 20:06
Well, in middle school I got really into blues music and older rock.  Then I got really into psychedelic rock, so the possible progression to prog rock was pretty easy.  So in ninth grade I'm at a friends house, and I'd just finished partaking in something we need not discuss.  I go into his basement and his brother puts on Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's self titled album.  I remember The Barbarian absolutely destroying me at first, then being amazed when they brought it down and Keith Emerson destroyed the piano.  Everything about the album amazed me and gave me a completely different outlook on music. 

So today I still do listen to ELP, but really not that often.  But that is the moment prog clicked for me.


Posted By: RoyFairbank
Date Posted: April 14 2010 at 21:26
I was... it was after 1999, when I was 11, quite a bit before 2002, when I was 13/14, I'm guessing 2000 or at the latest early 2001, 12. My dad liked classic rock. He had "Learning to Fly" on his computer one day. I went to the echoes website (this was before it came out I'm 95% sure, so probably 2000). I started buying all their discs. When I got Napster in 2002 or 2003 I fanned out quickly to Genesis and Alan Parsons Project, a little to Yes, who I didn't like as much. And so on and so forth.


Posted By: thellama73
Date Posted: April 14 2010 at 21:41
I was in college, about 2003 or 2004. I was talking about music with my band's bass player and he brought up King Crimson. I had never heard of them, but was intrigued and picked up a copy of ITCOTCK. I can't describe how amazed I was when I put it on and got my first exposure to 21st Century Schizoid Man. Hooked ever since.

Before that I listened mainly to experimental/industrial bands, Meat Loaf, Queen and Blue Oyster Cult. So the seeds were always there.


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Posted By: arcane-beautiful
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 03:28

When I was 12, a friend of mine had told me about Dream Theater. Knowing I was a massive Iron Maiden fan, he told me they were a wee bit similar. He showed me Under A Glass Moon and I was intrigued.

A few weeks later, I had told my brother and he bought Train Of Thought. I have never looked back since.



Posted By: The Whistler
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 03:47

Very easy. 

I was working on some math homework in 9th grade, never a consummate music fan I must admit, but I always had a classic rock station playing in the background (I liked The Stones). Suddenly, "Bungle in the Jungle" comes on the air. "What the hell," sez I, "a pop song with an orchestra, sound effects AND a flute? What's this then?" 

And then it was yesterday...what did I miss?



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"There seem to be quite a large percentage of young American boys out there tonight. A long way from home, eh? Well so are we... Gotta stick together." -I. Anderson


Posted By: The Runaway
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 07:53
I went on my first CD purchasing with my dad. I got Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. Both were very, very good albums, but I have yet to have known what prog even meant! So, about a year later, I get Rock Band 2, and my mother says she wants to play Aqualung with me, but she doesn't remember the tune, so maybe I could hum it for her LOL I said "sure", even though I didn't know the song, and managed to get myself out of the mess. I played the song a few times, and THEN I was hooked. I got into Rush through Rock Band too (sadly), but without the game, I would have never been your humble, Blowin' Free Big smile

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http://www.formspring.me/Aragorn224" rel="nofollow - Trendsetter win!

The search for nonexistent perfection.


Posted By: otto pankrock
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 09:14
Several moments. The first time I heard 21st Century Schitzoid Man...1974 on 8-track. "What on earth is this?" I was fortunate enough to have friends that had older brothers. They used to give us all their scratched  hand-me-down. Thick as a Brick and the opening of Sabbath's first were also defining moments.


Posted By: AtomicCrimsonRush
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 09:17
I was into Pink Floyd as a kid and I adored Kraftwerk. I tried to get hold of everything they did. Beatles White Album and Sgt Peppers were inspirational. The Wall by PF was perhaps my first obssession - I still own the famous Lyrics fotonovel of the movie.
 
Dark Side came later on vinyl and then many years later i got hold of a mag by Mojo on Prog - realising most of my music was prog i systematically got hold of all prog in the mag!


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Posted By: (De)progressive
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 09:21
I really can't remember put my father is an old prog listener so I got used to it by time since my childhood by listening Pink Floyd, Yes, King Crimson, Rush, Deep Purple, Asia etc. in the house.
 
And btw he also listens to Dream Theater, Opeth, Kamelot, Amorphis, Tiamat, Negura Bunget, Enslaved and Katatonia. What a father LOL


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''Hope is the first step on the road to dissapointment.'' (Friedrich Nietzsche)



Posted By: AtomicCrimsonRush
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 09:22
Its all this magazines fault!!!!!!!!!!!!
 


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Posted By: steve2603
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 09:31
I was intrigued about this Prog genre that I wasn't that familiar with so I asked someone to recommend me a Prog band and I was told to listen to KC's ITCOTCK so I did and was mesmerised by it. 


Posted By: scaife
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 09:51
The year was 1981. I was a rather impressionable 13 year old. Phil Collins was topping the charts with Face Value. I went to a local flea market to get a copy, but they were sold out. The guy behind the counter suggested a Genesis album, ...And Then There Were Three, which featured Phil. Not wanting to go home empty handed, I bought it. Listened to the first track, Down And Out, and was convinced that the record was skipping, so I brought it back to the market. The guy then explained to me the concept of 5/4 time (which Down And Out was). It was like a lightbulb went off in my head. I then proceeded to explore more music by Genesis and the rest is history. 2 years later, Owner Of A Lonely Heart came out and I remember loving the guitar solo, so I went out to buy 90125. I also found a copy of Classic Yes with the superb Roger Dean cover art (still my favourite of his to this day). When I put  Heart Of The Sunrise on for the first time, I was totally blown  away by what I heard. From then on, prog was my music of choice.


Posted By: AtomicCrimsonRush
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 10:29
I grew into it over the years after liking bands I didnt even know were prog such as Pink Floyd and Kraftwerk.
Its weird that the genre term was so secret back in the 70s when prog was king 

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Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 10:33
I always liked prog even before I knew that it was prog. When I was 9 or 10 years old I started to like Ekseption, at 11 my favourite tune was a single edit of Supersister's A Girl Named You, but I really turned to prog at the age of 13 (in '72/'73) after hearing Atom Heart Mother and Close to the Edge.

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Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 12:11
I have a different angle....back in the very early 70's for me it was not a "rock" artist. I was into funk/funkadelic and hard core R&B. I have always felt funkadelic was the soul music reply to psychadelic rock. Groups like Parliament, Earth Wind & Fire, Bootsy Collins....who were stretching the music all over the place. But what I liked most was long songs that these artists were making....I also liked Zeppelin, because they are a blues band with attitude and their harder songs got me exploring other rock artists.
 
1974...Then I saw the album cover for Rush Fly By Night...it was cool, I bought it (mom did actually) I was about 9yrs old....and have never looked back since then. I knew about Yes, PF and Genesis during that time but it was Rush with By Tor that got me where I am today.
So I have to say it was not the word or genre of Prog....but rather my love for long songs and the structure that made them interesting to me.


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Posted By: missinglink07
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 14:19
It was a few years back, maybe i was 13 or 14... at the time I was just starting to develop a musical taste of my own, settling mostly on classic rock, except for my affinity R.E.M. There were two events, however, that led to my prog addiction that has yet to quit.

First, as part of my classic rock collection, I had a few Kansas albums. I was on wikipedia one day, and I saw that they were a "progressive rock" band (whatever that meant). So i read about the genre and found out I already liked a bunch of other prog bands, like Rush and Jethro Tull. So I began to explore more of their music.

Second, and more importantly, I was over at my friends house one day, and he wanted to show me a crazy song he found. That song turned out to be "The Gates of Delirium" by Yes. I was blown away at the idea of an "epic" song, especially one that epic. So I began to explore more of Yes and any other classic band with a 20 minute song to their name.

So here I am now, age 17, with a collection of Prog Rock about a week long (if I were to listen nonstop), ranging from classics like Yes and Jethro Tull to some buried treasures, like Happy the Man and Yezda Urfa.


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=841cXnzESZw - A song I wrote, please listen!


Posted By: yanch
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 14:20
I was a freshman in high school, a big Beatles fan when a friend handed me Thick as a Brick, said, "listen to this in one sitting and tell me what you think." I did as instructed, 4 times in a row! It changed my entire view of music. From there I started exploring more-heard a cover band do an amazing version of Watcher of the Skies, bought all the early Genesis albums. Saw excerpts from Yessongs on Don Kirschner's Rock Concert, bought the album and CTTE. Realized that one of our local radio station used part of Karn Evil 9 as an intro.....you get the idea! I became sponge, soaking in every prog band I could, going to every concert I could!  


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 18:25
Originally posted by Catcher10 Catcher10 wrote:

I have a different angle....back in the very early 70's for me it was not a "rock" artist. I was into funk/funkadelic and hard core R&B. I have always felt funkadelic was the soul music reply to psychadelic rock. Groups like Parliament, Earth Wind & Fire, Bootsy Collins....who were stretching the music all over the place. But what I liked most was long songs that these artists were making....I also liked Zeppelin, because they are a blues band with attitude and their harder songs got me exploring other rock artists.
 
1974...Then I saw the album cover for Rush Fly By Night...it was cool, I bought it (mom did actually) I was about 9yrs old....and have never looked back since then. I knew about Yes, PF and Genesis during that time but it was Rush with By Tor that got me where I am today.
So I have to say it was not the word or genre of Prog....but rather my love for long songs and the structure that made them interesting to me.
 
This is fascinating to me.   If I'm reading this correctly, Catcher10, at the young age of 8, you were already getting into really long songs and felt funkadelic was the soul music reply to psychedelic rock?  You were destined to be a progger for sure! 
 
I don't think I was even cognizant of such sub-genres at the age of 8.  I'm pretty sure I was thinking in very broad terms like "pop", "rock", "country" and "soul" if I was even thinking about genres at all. 


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 18:27
Originally posted by yanch yanch wrote:

I was a freshman in high school, a big Beatles fan when a friend handed me Thick as a Brick, said, "listen to this in one sitting and tell me what you think." I did as instructed, 4 times in a row! It changed my entire view of music.   
 
So yanch... It seems that Prog hit you like a ton of BricksBig smile


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 18:29
Originally posted by missinglink07 missinglink07 wrote:

So here I am now, age 17, with a collection of Prog Rock about a week long (if I were to listen nonstop), ranging from classics like Yes and Jethro Tull to some buried treasures, like Happy the Man and Yezda Urfa.
 
Missinglink07...  If you are into Happy the Man and Yezda Urfa, then you certainly are already into Gentle Giant.  Is that correct? 


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: A Person
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 18:35
Dark Side of the Moon, at around 14-15.


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 18:43
Originally posted by The Wrinkler The Wrinkler wrote:

 ... Pink Floyd. I still remember, but could never get that same feeling again, listening to Dark Side of the Moon. It was so different, I was blown away
 
Very interesting.  Since then, have you experienced anything similar when hearing new bands.  Or was this a singular event...  a kind of magical moment that only comes along a few times in a lifetime? 
 
I'm not sure but I think I may have experienced something similar (but not quite as intense perhaps) the night when I first heard YES.  It was the song "Arriving UFO" and I heard it on headphones while listening to an album rock radio station in my teens. 
 
Originally posted by The Wrinkler The Wrinkler wrote:


Greatest thing to happen to me this week was FINALLY appreciating VdGG. I didn't quite get Pawn Heart's epic, Plague of Lighthouse Keepers, but when it bit me, I was hooked. Moving on to H to HE now, and find the album hard to get into, but fun when I'm in the right mood for it. 
 
Cool!  It was worth the wait wasn't it? 


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 18:58
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

my first exposure was seeing that sci--fi cover of Tarkus when I was about 9 in my buddy's Dad's LP collection and being immediately drawn to it.  Didn't understand the music but loved the imagery.  Then a couple years later I saw Hemispheres at a record store and bought it.  Again I was primarily drawn by the images and fantasy atmosphere,

 
Atavachron,
 
So at the young age of 9, it was the album cover rtwork that first caught your attention with Tarkus... and then the album cover artwork again that caught your eye with Hemispheres!  Very cool! 
 
Quick question:  As an adult, would you consider yourself an "appreciator" of the visual arts?  Well, almost everyone is somewhat into visual art, but I mean do you consider yourself more interested than the casual or average appreciator of the visual arts?
 
The reason I ask:   Have you ever heard of the ongoing documentary series named 7 Up (directed by Michael Apted)?  Every 7 years, they interviewed participants (age 7, 14, 21, 28...)  I think they have made it to 49... 
 
At age 7, there are so many instances when the viewer can already see values and aesthetics that set the young person's course for decades to come.  So it has me wondering whether that is the case with you as well.  Perhaps not?  Just wondering...


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 19:06
Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

I would have to say it was my big brother.  When I was about 8 or so, I remember being on vacation and him playing me "Several species of small furry animals gathered together....."    Big smile
 
Wow!  How did that first contact strike you?  Was it a positive experience?  As much as I like that song now, if it had been hoisted upon me at age 8, I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't have put my hands over my ears and departed from the room while screaming!  LOL
 
Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

First real experience was simply falling for "Roundabout" on the radio and finally buying "Fragile."
 
Fragile felt very 'disjointed' to me - as far as "albums" go.  Greatness - but disjointed greatness.


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 19:10
Originally posted by ProgressiveAttic ProgressiveAttic wrote:

when I was 13 and took The Dark Side of the Moon from my father's collection and was so impressed that I listened to it twice and went to grab some more albums, in this exact order: In The Court of the Crimson King (which I listened to 4 times in a row), ELP's Trilogy (another one I listened 3 times) and Yes' Relayer (which I listened 5 times).
 
And it was all downhill from there.  Wink
 
Just kidding - but man alive!  ProgressiveAttic, you managed to launch right out of the gate with some of the greatest classics of all time!   Clap
 
And to think I got started by stumbling onto Yes' Tormato and Alan Parsons Projects' Pyramid!  I feel cheatedOuch


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: ProgressiveAttic
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 22:49
Originally posted by progpositivity progpositivity wrote:

Originally posted by ProgressiveAttic ProgressiveAttic wrote:

when I was 13 and took The Dark Side of the Moon from my father's collection and was so impressed that I listened to it twice and went to grab some more albums, in this exact order: In The Court of the Crimson King (which I listened to 4 times in a row), ELP's Trilogy (another one I listened 3 times) and Yes' Relayer (which I listened 5 times).

 

And it was all downhill from there.  Wink

 

Just kidding - but man alive!  ProgressiveAttic, you managed to launch right out of the gate with some of the greatest classics of all time!   Clap

 

And to think I got started by stumbling onto Yes' Tormato and Alan Parsons Projects' Pyramid!  I feel cheatedOuch

well... as I said before, my father is a prog fan and I grew up listening to those albums! that is what I call good luck!

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Michael's Sonic Kaleidoscope Mondays 5:00pm EST(re-runs Thursdays 3:00pm) @ Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio(http://www.deliciousagony.com)



Posted By: kole
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 01:08
As many, I started developing my music taste with classic rock. I think I was around 14. Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Pink Floyd (they were a classic rock band to me at that time), Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Doors, AC/DC, Santana, The Kinks, Jethro Tull... they were all classic rock bands to me. After a year or so, I started to digg jazz. My dad is a big jazzer, and an audiofil, and jazz (and classical music, mostly) was always on his stereo. But it still missed something, that jazz. It was... I don't know, too boring, too... can't find the word. So I asked dad, if he knew any band that mixed jazz and rock. He replied with a loud yes, starting with Weather Report, continuing with Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever and finishing with Gong (he described them as a crazy-ass weird-sounds band). I youtubed Weather Report, of course clicked on the first link, that was Birdland and... I was stunned. As many of others before me said, it was magical. I immediately downloaded their whole discography and continued with other mentioned bands. After that, I started to download jazz fusion albums like crazy. Through Gong, I discovered Canterbury scene, downloaded a few albums, and was again stunned. And later on, I discovered that Canterbury scene is a part of a major rock subgenre, progressive rock. So, as many before me, I became a prog sponge. At 17/18, I had already listened to a whole lot of prog music, and was enjoying every part of it. So I truly got into prog rock genre through jazz fusion and Gong, if I remember correctly.


Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 02:07
Originally posted by progpositivity progpositivity wrote:

Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

my first exposure was seeing that sci--fi cover of Tarkus when I was about 9 in my buddy's Dad's LP collection and being immediately drawn to it.  Didn't understand the music but loved the imagery.  Then a couple years later I saw Hemispheres at a record store and bought it.  Again I was primarily drawn by the images and fantasy atmosphere,
 Atavachron,
 So at the young age of 9, it was the album cover artwork that first caught your attention with Tarkus... and then the album cover artwork again that caught your eye with Hemispheres!  Very cool!
 
Quick question:  As an adult, would you consider yourself an "appreciator" of the visual arts?  Well, almost everyone is somewhat into visual art, but I mean do you consider yourself more interested than the casual or average appreciator of the visual arts?

   - I don't know if I'd say 'more interested' but I was drawn to visual mediums well before I got into music
 
The reason I ask:   Have you ever heard of the ongoing documentary series named 7 Up (directed by Michael Apted)?  Every 7 years, they interviewed participants (age 7, 14, 21, 28...)  I think they have made it to 49...  At age 7, there are so many instances when the viewer can already see values and aesthetics that set the young person's course for decades to come.  So it has me wondering whether that is the case with you as well.  Perhaps not?  Just wondering...

   - well yes I think early exposure certainly impacts your course, I was also fortunate to have grown up in the 1970s which was such a great time for music (and film as well)






Posted By: Tursake
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 02:46
About a year ago when I first started listening to Pink Floyd Thumbs Up

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Last.fm: TursakeX
RYM: Tursake


Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 02:51
 ^ what was your first album?


Posted By: ozzy_tom
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 04:57
When I was about 13th year old I started to listen good old 70' hard rock like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Rainbow. A bit later also Judas Priest and Nazareth. But definituve moment when I've started listen to prog-rock was the 1st year of University when one of my friend (guitarist anyway) introduced me Pink Floyd. He also said about "Yes" that they played prog rock...but so weird that he doesn't like it (in fact I like Yes much mroe than PF now!). At the same time another firiend gave me to listen Uriah Heep "best" album. I really dig this Hammonds in July Morning, Gypsy, Look at yourself etc.
Later I listened to Colosseum "Valentyne Suite" and early "the Nice" albums...and that time was already sunk by prog rock until these days :-). So about 6-7 years of prog-rock facination Big smile


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Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 05:29
Originally posted by scaife scaife wrote:

The year was 1981. I was a rather impressionable 13 year old. Phil Collins was topping the charts with Face Value. I went to a local flea market to get a copy, but they were sold out. The guy behind the counter suggested a Genesis album, ...And Then There Were Three, which featured Phil. Not wanting to go home empty handed, I bought it. Listened to the first track, Down And Out, and was convinced that the record was skipping, so I brought it back to the market. The guy then explained to me the concept of 5/4 time (which Down And Out was). It was like a lightbulb went off in my head. I then proceeded to explore more music by Genesis and the rest is history. 2 years later, Owner Of A Lonely Heart came out and I remember loving the guitar solo, so I went out to buy 90125. I also found a copy of Classic Yes with the superb Roger Dean cover art (still my favourite of his to this day). When I put  Heart Of The Sunrise on for the first time, I was totally blown  away by what I heard. From then on, prog was my music of choice.


A great and familar story 'And then there were three' was one of the first Genesis albums I bought. I remember clearly thinking 'Down and Out' was in an odd time signature, but I didn't know what. A more musically literate friend of mine told me how to count time and explained it was in 5/4.

I used to play that album to everyone who came around my house. I couldn't understand anyone not liking it, but the comment "It sounds like the record is jumping" became the response of just about everyone I played 'Down and Out' to.

Anyway, the first prog I ever heard was 'The Wall' by Floyd. I was 12 years old (1982), and had no idea what prog was. Two years later I was introduced to Marillion and Rush by a fellow rock fan who thought my tastes needed broadening beyond Saxon and Motorhead. He was right, although as I progged up he became a thrash metal addict and refused to listen to anything with a keyboard in it again! I then heard Mama by Genesis on the radio, bought Genesis, ATTWT, ATOTT and the rest is history..

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Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!


Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 05:59
In the mid 1970s I was into heavy rock in a big way (looking back, the first album I bought was 'The Best Of Uriah Heep'), & I was berating my sister's boyfriend (later to be my brother in law) at his collection of soul albums - I asked him if he had anything 'heavy' so he lent me 2 albums...

Dark Side Of The Moon
Genesis Live (turned out he'd seen Genesis on the Foxtrot & Selling England.. tours)

Cue Damascene moment!

A couple of years later I was at Earls Court, London for the first UK performance of 'The Wall'


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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012


Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 07:12
I had my first stereo in 1975. Before then I had access only to the mainstream radio and few other things. I was mainly in british blues revival (Mayall, Animals) and country rock (Arlo Guthrie, CSN&Y), but the first album I have purchased was "The dark side of the moon" listened at a friend's home. So my second was Atom Heart Mother. It's when my passion for symphonic epics started and exactly where I am from. Of course, my 3rd album was Meddle.


Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 07:30
Originally posted by octopus-4 octopus-4 wrote:

I had my first stereo in 1975.


The very fact you call it a 'stereo' marks you as being of a certain age

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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012


Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 07:51
While I'm writing I'm listening to Manfred Mann's debut..Clap 



Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:07
 I did not like prog rock at first, i found what i had heard in the early seventies, which was when i started to collect records (that started in 1971, when i turned 8 years old) did not do much for me, and at the time,  i was  drawn to heavy rock, and remained so, for a long time.
        Many of my friends liked prog, but at that time, i found it's complexity rendered it innaccessible for me, as well as a feeling that it smacked of pretentiousness.
          In the spring of 1985, when i was 22,  a friend of mine  lent me  four albums-Nektar's  Recycled, and  Magic Is  A  Child, and Triumvirat's Illusions On  A Double Dimple and Old Loves Die Hard.
         The Nektar albums were somewhat interesting, but i was really turned onto Illusions On A Double Dimple-this album really epitomised for me what i felt right from the start was what real progressive rock could  be. It appealed to me in a big way, and left me feeling, for the first time really, that ignoring prog was wrong, and that i was really missing out on something special in doing so.
 The other Triumvirat album, Old Loves Die Hard, was interesting, but could not hold a candle to Illusions On A Double Dimple.
           This got the ball rolling, and the rest, they say, is history!


Posted By: Adams Bolero
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:12
When my tutor gave me Nursery Cryme by Genesis.


Posted By: yanch
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:27
originally posted by progpositivity
So yanch... It seems that Prog hit you like a ton of Bricks?  Big smile


I was indeed and grateful my friend knew I'd get it!Smile


Posted By: shockedjazz
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:27

First got into spacerock and canterbury, especifically Caravan.I was trying to find weirdier music and then i found Krautrock.

Then after Yeti and Ege Bamyasi i said to me "Man these is what you like, lets see what else is in the treasure box"
 
And thats the story....basically.


Posted By: leifthewarrior
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:40
I grew up listening to prog.  My dad was a big fan of legendary band like: Yes, Kansas, JTull, ELP.   Even as a kid I went to two Yes concerts, and two Kansas Concerts.  But that wasn't the defining point for me.  Unfortunately, I started listening to the appalling sounds of Punk Rock and Grunge.  I thought it made me hardcore or something, against the norm!  Yes I was an idiot, but weren't we all?  

Anyway, one day I was sitting in Art class painting.  NOTED: I was a senior then.   And this foreign exchange student from Finland came up to me and she said "here, I think you might enjoy this."  She handed me this Sonata Arctica cd.  I turned it on and the first song I heard was "My Land".  That evening I went home and burned all my punk and grunge cds.  I have been on the journey to find the most incredible song ever every since. :)


Posted By: harmony
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:52
I just kinda grew into it.  Before there was prog I always gravitated towards the more creative types of music.  Always preferred things like Revolver over mindless pop.  After the psyc period I discovered the great proto prog and prog related bands like U Heep and Wishbone Ash.  Always on the search for new and better things, I evolved into a full blown prog fan.  Two things influenced me more than anything.  My friends who had similar music tastes as me and the radio.  I`m old enough to remember when FM radio was "underground" and their playlist might go from The Beatles to Holtz`s The Planets to King Crimson.


Posted By: FusionKing
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:58
Born a progger. When I was a kid, I thought that everyone was just supposed to know who Yes and Rush were.

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"Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself" - Sartre


Posted By: tamijo
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 14:02
My older brother was into Zepplin, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, so i already knew about Ummagumma ect.
Then about 73-74 i met older kids with cassettes and records:
Aqualung,  Birds Of Fire, In a Glass House, Foxtrot, Fragile, (`),  are the first i remember. I was about 10-11 at the time. Been hooked on classic Prog ever since. When the Jazz/Rock scene developed - i was ready.
 
King Crimson (now i consider them above the rest) I came to know much later than the rest of the old masters, a close friend bought Discipline when it came out in 1981. I allready knew about Fripp's Exposure, and started to dig into what he was all about. Soon i was a Fripp-freak, as to this day.
 
Harder prog.: I had most 70's Rush albums, but i never thought of them as more prog than bands like Zepplin. A friend more into harder stuff than I was at the time, kept playing Dream Theater, but it didnt kick me off, then he got Tool's Lateralus in 2001, and i got it !! Started looking into the Metal/Prog idear and  found many other heavy'er bands i like a lot, some more prog. than others.
 


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Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours


Posted By: elder08
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 14:08
A bunch of my friends started listening to pink floyd about the time i discovered rush and since all my friends thought PF was good then i might to so i bought darkside of the moon and got my mind blown and changed how i listened to music fo ever
 
None of us actually new a genre to put floyd under so we found it on the interwebs that it was psychadelic rock which we thus found out it was a form of progessive rock. I already knew rush was under that genre too so about 5 monthes ago we stumbled upon this website ( we had been listening to pf and rush for about a year) and started checking out new artists evfery day.


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"There are people who say we [Pink Floyd] should make room for younger bands. That's not the way it works. They can make their own room."- David Gilmour


Posted By: Evolver
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 15:23
I was walking past a concert hall in 1970, and I saw some guys with guitars getting off a bus, and walking toward the entrance.  Thinking they might be famous, I pulled out my camera, and quickly snapped a photo.  At the flash, one of the guitarists' eyes glowed bright red, as he turned and pounced on me with the speed of a cheetah. The pain was excruciating. 
 
When I awoke, a roadie was standing over me.  "You're lucky to be alive", he said, "Nobody takes flash photos of Fripp.  Nobody."  He bandaged the bite marks, and sent me on my way.
 
The next day I awoke with a strange urge for twenty minute songs, with complex arrangements.  I never looked back.


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Trust me. I know what I'm doing.


Posted By: Tursake
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 15:27
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

 ^ what was your first album?


Dark Side Of The Moon


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Last.fm: TursakeX
RYM: Tursake


Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 15:44
Originally posted by progpositivity progpositivity wrote:

Originally posted by Catcher10 Catcher10 wrote:

I have a different angle....back in the very early 70's for me it was not a "rock" artist. I was into funk/funkadelic and hard core R&B. I have always felt funkadelic was the soul music reply to psychadelic rock. Groups like Parliament, Earth Wind & Fire, Bootsy Collins....who were stretching the music all over the place. But what I liked most was long songs that these artists were making....I also liked Zeppelin, because they are a blues band with attitude and their harder songs got me exploring other rock artists.
 
1974...Then I saw the album cover for Rush Fly By Night...it was cool, I bought it (mom did actually) I was about 9yrs old....and have never looked back since then. I knew about Yes, PF and Genesis during that time but it was Rush with By Tor that got me where I am today.
So I have to say it was not the word or genre of Prog....but rather my love for long songs and the structure that made them interesting to me.
 
This is fascinating to me.   If I'm reading this correctly, Catcher10, at the young age of 8, you were already getting into really long songs and felt funkadelic was the soul music reply to psychedelic rock?  You were destined to be a progger for sure! 
 
I don't think I was even cognizant of such sub-genres at the age of 8.  I'm pretty sure I was thinking in very broad terms like "pop", "rock", "country" and "soul" if I was even thinking about genres at all. 
Correct...but you have to understand that for me long songs were cool, I liked the 10 min songs that George Clinton was creating with Parliament. At the time I did not know that long songs were an attribute of prog. Not until a few years later understood that, and was able to appreciate more why a song was 10 min long versus 4 minutes long, regardless of genre.
 
Growing up in a hispanic neighborhood, we all listened to funk, R&B.....Santana, War Clap along with those I have listed already.
Yes, PF and KC were not playing at my friends houses.....I had heard of them but never listened to those artists till the mid 70's.
 
I still listen to the "roots" of where my appreciation for music came from.......But I bleed Progressive Rock.
 
Back in the day as a kid all we had was music and sports. We did not have video games, computers, cable TV or the mall.......When I was not at Little League practice I was in my room listening to music...that was my pacifier.
Its different today.


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Posted By: ProgBob
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 17:22
'Popular' music pretty much washed over me until I was about 12 or 13.  The only music that had really appealed before then were some classical pieces I had heard (obvious popular classics like 'Mars' from the Planets, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Grieg's Peer Gynt) and film music like Star Wars (this was the late 70s).  Then I got friendly with someone of the same age who was in a band with some guys 3 or 4 years older than him and who had some knowledge of music.  He played Dark Side of the Moon to me but it didn't make much of an impression at first. The thing that really blew me away was something he had taped from the radio - Tubular Bells part 2 from Mike Oldfield's live album, Exposed.  Shortly afterwards I bought the album (on cassette!) and then got his Boxed collection containing the first 3 albums for Christmas that year. In the next couple of years I got into Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes (especially), Tull, King Crimson as well as more general rock like Led Zep, Rainbow and some of the heavy metal that was popular at the time (it was the NWOBHM era).  But it was the Mike Oldfield stuff that was the bridge into all this, especially the Exposed album.  I think perhaps it was the orchestral aspect of the music that initially appealed but it gave me an entry point into appreciating rock guitar.  It also contained elements of folk and jazz that predicted some of the tastes that I would develop later.

Although I said that I hadn't listened to any pop or rock music before this point, there were a few singles in the charts in the late 70's that I heard on the radio or saw on TV that did make an impression on me and which I can also see as 'seeds' for my future tastes:

Northern Lights by Renaissance
Forever Autumn by Justin Hayward
Follow You, Follow Me by Genesis
Guilty by Mike Oldfield

I knew nothing about any of these at the time.  They are all pretty much 'prog lite' but I find it interesting looking back that I picked up on these almost instinctively.


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Bob


Posted By: everrain
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 18:03
I came from the 90s power metal wolrd, some day i start listening dream theatre and labirynth, the other Marillion and the old 70s. the thing is if that you evolve yo will end in the prog.


Posted By: Kashmir75
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 00:21
I think I've always subconsciously been a progger, but didn't realise it until about four or five years ago. At uni, I had this friend who was obsessed with Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Led Zep, etc. I soon got into all of these bands too. It was probably Radiohead, and some of Zeppelin's proggier stuff (like Houses of the Holy) that eased me into accepting 'out there' epic songs. Before this time, I thought that the edgiest music was punk and grunge.

In 2006, I think, I ripped one of my dad's Yes CDs to my laptop; interested in checking out more 'epic rock' (I don't think i'd encountered the term 'prog' yet). I didn't understand the music at all initially, but it wasn't long before I got pretty seriously into Yes. I never looked back. Now I'm a hardcore prog nut, constantly expanding my musical universe by checking out new bands. 


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Hello, mirror. So glad to see you, my friend. It's been a while...


Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 02:27
Seeing ELP on a history of rock type documentary in 1977 broadcast on the BBC. Some guy was pulling an electronic organ round the stage making some godawfull noise.WTF?? I also heard Hoedown played on the radio and loved the keyboard sound. After that it was getting hold of Tarkus that sold me.Done deal.


Posted By: justaprogfan
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 03:21
About four years ago when I listened to Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull which I found in my mother's LP collection.Smile


Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 06:19
I got introduced to it through Pink Floyd (on reading them being described as progressive rock) but I had sort of been readied for it by listening to the works of an Indian composer named Ilayaraja. Because through his music,  I had learnt to keep pace with music that was more complex than typical pop/rock hits airing on the radio or VH1/MTV, so making the shift to prog was not really much of a shift, more like getting back to where I belonged. Smile  


Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 09:24

Born in 66 I should have rather become more of a punk or a disco or a techno, were it not for 3 facts

a) in my native Spain rock came always with some delay due to the dictatorship of Franco
b) I was surrounded by older brothers / sisters / cousins, I was always the youngest in my family's youth band, and
c) in my early teens I happened to meet some friends (who were to become my life-long buddies) who were in similar situations like me, into prog even if our age was a bit too young. When everybody of our age was going nuts with Saturday Night Fever and The Jacksons, or altenatively with The Sex Pistols, we were meeting at some of our places to listen to Selling England by the Pound.
 
So since very young at home the soundrack consisted of some late 60's and much early 70's music, Tarkus, In the Court Of, Dark Side of The Moon, Fragile, Trespass, Foxtrot... all the classic prog gems, as well as many other things of the times like of course The Beatles, The Who, Zeppelin, Purple, Bowie, Hendrix, Lou Reed, Jesus Christ Superstar and so many others. My dad was a bit too old for that and he was more into classical music, musicals and jazz which unknowingly probably also made me receptive to the more classical forms.
So I was "bathed" in prog and 70's classic rock which I loved.
By the time I got in my teens it was the late 70's and although I never stopped listening to prog I got a heavier period, turning more to Judas Priest, AC/DC, Rory Gallagher and stuff like that. I also got a lot into Queen (the good times) and Rush which are still among my most loved bands together with the actual progs. When Marillion came out my heavy period came to an end (although I always retained some affinity which later on came to make me pick again some hard stuff like Steve Vai, Dream Theater or Pain of Salvation) and since then I have kept faithful to prog.
 
Not a very original story but that's how it went for me...
 


Posted By: Lizzy
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 09:50
Dang! Looking back at things it seems that even my infection with prog was progressive: first Kansas, then Queen, Yes, Tull and the rest. O_o Let's put it this way, ever since I remember prog has been shoved down my throat. Thanks, Dad! Yeah... took me more than 15 years to get into Tull, now I don't think a day passes without my listening to at least a track of theirs.

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Property of Queen Productions...


Posted By: kawkaw123
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 09:54
My guitar teacher, when i was 12 or 13 played a Dream Theater song for the first half of a 30 minute lesson. It Was the best guitar lesson ever because it opened up my eyes to the world of PROG. 


Posted By: javier0889
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 14:51

When I was like 10, my favorite band was (and still is) The Beatles. Somehow I managed to get a cassete tape of The Piper At The Gates of Dawn...

But the exact moment whan I decided that prog rock was my favorite music genre was like 2 or 3 years later, when a local TV show broadcasted like a half of Pictures at an Exhibition, Child in Time by Purple circa 1972, and Steve Howe playing The Clap. They had a very low rating, maybe that's the reason why they dared to "lose" like 1/2 hour with those videos XD



Posted By: TheSolarSystemRace
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 16:21
I think that I was infected when I was a child of 8 or 9 and my dad used to play Pink Floyd all the time.  I don't think there was a day when he didn't put in Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall.  Though I didn't actually start listening to prog as my main genre of music until last year I think that the early Pink Floyd exposure has something to do with it. 

Also, I pretty much entered the prog genre through Rush which I heard because of my 8th grade health teacher playing YYZ one day before class.  That was an awesome teacher.  After that I kept listening to good music and when I discovered Dream Theater last year I knew that I had found the right genre for me.


Posted By: javajeff
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 17:33
I have been a long time fan of many prog groups like Jethro Tull, Yes, Pink Floyd, and Rush, but never put much thought into what prog was.  Now that I realize there is a whole genre of music that I will love, I am exploring like crazy.  This site is great for finding new bands, even if they are from the 70s.  They are still new to me.  Smile


Posted By: XunknownX
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 19:16
In 1973 by Giorgio Moroder's single "Lonely lovers symphony".


Posted By: friso
Date Posted: April 18 2010 at 04:38
I downloaded Arena's Contagion by accedent...


Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: April 18 2010 at 13:34
I first started paying attention to music in the very late sixties, in the form of AM radio.  At that time, some commercial acts were stretching out into prog directions.  I heard Deep Purple do 'We Can Work It Out' on the radio before I heard the original Beatles version.  As I continued to listen over the next few years, music by Yes, Tull, and ELP were common on the airwaves.  This trend increased when I went over to FM radio.  I can say there are two defining moments for discovering Prog in its own right, though, the first being an important predecessor to the next.
 
That first moment was in 1974 when I bought my first record: Burn by Deep Purple.  More Purple followed, as well Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rainbow, and the like.  Note that all these acts are listed as Prog Related on the Archives.
 
The next moment was in 1977 when a friend of mine played Jethro Tull's Songs From the Wood.  Now, I had heard Tull before, but this was the first full album I heard of them where the music was spectacular.  At around that same time, I bought Going for the One by Yes.  Again, I already had some Yes in my collection, namely Yessongs, but something clicked for me with this album.  Ever since then, Prog has been my own mainstream.  My tastes expanded to more Tull and Yes, Genesis, King Crimson and then shortly into Classical and Jazz.  Without getting into the details of why, Prog just entertains and interests me the most of all forms and genres of music.


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The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 19 2010 at 15:07
Originally posted by Evolver Evolver wrote:

I was walking past a concert hall in 1970, and I saw some guys with guitars getting off a bus, and walking toward the entrance.  Thinking they might be famous, I pulled out my camera, and quickly snapped a photo.  At the flash, one of the guitarists' eyes glowed bright red, as he turned and pounced on me with the speed of a cheetah. The pain was excruciating. 
 
When I awoke, a roadie was standing over me.  "You're lucky to be alive", he said, "Nobody takes flash photos of Fripp.  Nobody."  He bandaged the bite marks, and sent me on my way.
 
The next day I awoke with a strange urge for twenty minute songs, with complex arrangements.  I never looked back.
 
Now that is a very amusing, if somewhat apocyphral, post!  (BTW - Evolver - I like your signature file.)
 
ClapLOL
 
 


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 19 2010 at 15:15
Originally posted by Kashmir75 Kashmir75 wrote:

I think I've always subconsciously been a progger, but didn't realise it until about four or five years ago. At uni, I had this friend who was obsessed with Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Led Zep, etc. I soon got into all of these bands too. It was probably Radiohead, and some of Zeppelin's proggier stuff (like Houses of the Holy) that eased me into accepting 'out there' epic songs. Before this time, I thought that the edgiest music was punk and grunge.

In 2006, I think, I ripped one of my dad's Yes CDs to my laptop; interested in checking out more 'epic rock' (I don't think i'd encountered the term 'prog' yet). I didn't understand the music at all initially, but it wasn't long before I got pretty seriously into Yes. I never looked back. Now I'm a hardcore prog nut, constantly expanding my musical universe by checking out new bands. 
 
I wonder if it would be easier to get people interested in "epic rock" than "prog rock" or "progressive rock".  Prog - as a word - just sounds a little odd doesn't it?  It sounds a bit like Prig.. or Frog.. or Pig...  None of these are particuarly appealing words in a music discussion. 
 
I think I'll give "epic rock" a try the next time a younger person that is casually into classic rock asks me about the music I like.  I might just say, I've been really getting into "epic rock songs" lately.  And then let them borrow Yes' "Close to the Edge"!  Big smile


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: Plastic Dreamer
Date Posted: April 20 2010 at 06:38

Like most, I was probably familiar with prog before I knew it was prog. But the album that probably opened my eyes was "Once Around the World" by It Bites, when I was around 18 in 1988. A good album to start with I think because It Bites are quite quirky and not too demanding, so the music was quite accessible but still more sophisticated than most other popular music at the time. I can remember playing it for a friend of mine and him describing it as "Progressive Rock". I was unfamiliar with the term even though I had listened quite extensively to Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. But even now I don't really think of those bands as "Prog" although they were all certainly "Progressive" if you follow me. My friend described Progressive Rock as music with "long songs.." with "complex structures..". What came to my mind was Dire Straits...but what did he mean?

Anyway I was intrigued to acquaint myself more with this music labeled "Progressive Rock". I gave Marillion a go and also Rush, but these two bands seemed worlds apart. How could they represent the same scene? It wasn't until I left home for Art College in Portsmouth that I truly discovered what Progressive Rock was all about. My land lady's daughter had moved out leaving behind her record collection. Here I found the classic Yes albums - The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge. Learning to know and love the music that they contained opened up the doorway for me.



Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: April 20 2010 at 06:47
This is why you should never listen to unprotected music. Tongue

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Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...



Posted By: The Acolyte
Date Posted: April 20 2010 at 13:33
I have to say I'm really proud to have discovered Progressive Rock by myself, no one talked to me about it. Other tastes of mine (which I hope some of you progger friends likes too...Wink ) includes the likes of The Smiths, The Cure, Morrissey, Bauhaus, Joy Division, among others.
By the mid-nineties I was in my teens and obviously listened a lot to Nirvana, Red hot chili peppers and stuff like that when a weekly magazine called "La Historia del Rock" began to circulate (I'm from Colombia, BTW gretings from the country where "the only risk is wanted to stay for a living"). That was it, one issue was called "Rock Progresivo" and once I read it whole, I was hooked by its contents: that kind of music was the one that I've been asking and waiting for so long. So I started to search for albums (to find prog records here in Colombia is almost impossible) and came across King Crimson's In The Wake Of Poseidon and, after listening to the first seconds of Pictures of a City, the rest is history.
Nowadays, I have expanded my prog tastes and collection and hope to continue enjoying this wonderful music.Clap


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"…but would I leave you in this moment of your trial?"


Posted By: happythe
Date Posted: April 20 2010 at 13:56
I was fond of Pink Floyd off my dad, but it wasn't til 2003  that I discovered prog f'real. In June, there was a thread on the Liverpool FC forum (my old home) off-topic called "Favourite Genesis album". Free at the start of the summer holidays and eager to indulge a fellow fan, I scoured the house for albums by ..."Genesis". I found Trick and W&W, listened obediently and was unmoved. (BLUSCH.) Then one cold day in November I traipsed into an unknown record shop, 15 years old, surfin' the waves of indie and nu-metal and oblivious to what might lie in the stax of that very shop. The owner probs wanted to surprise me when he whipped open Foxtrot and gestured at Peter Gabriel - "how's that for a haircut?" Little did he know that I was bound to notice that this unfamiliar singa was a 'righteous hottie' and that the record had to be mine. And the rest is a wonderful story for another day.


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Stop me from dreaming?
Okay :-(


Posted By: logoman
Date Posted: April 20 2010 at 14:07
Spotty youth 1969 record section back of hardware store category "Contemporary Music" sampler album "Wowie Zowie World of Progressive Music" purchase out of curiosity and at that point my life changed.


Posted By: The-time-is-now
Date Posted: April 20 2010 at 15:39
I was infected by Tormato (Yes), two years ago; I'm 21 ;-)

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One of my best achievements in life was to find this picture :D


Posted By: TODDLER
Date Posted: April 20 2010 at 21:28

I was infected by prog in 1971 at age 15. "In The Wake Of Poseidon" by King Crimson is what specifically did the damage. I had a collection of progressive rock albums that started with Crimson and branched off into things like....Rare Bird, Greenslade, Gentle Giant, Curved Air, Guru, Guru, Tangerine Dream, Mort Garson, Beaver & Krause, Gong, and Zappa. I had a great love for bands like Jethro Tull, Genesis, and ELP however, I was more drawn to the obscure underground bands from the progressive rock scene in Europe during the early 70's. Popol Vuh, Jade Warrior, Mike Oldfield, and David Bedford held my interest for many years. I greatly enjoyed Vangelis and his years with RCA records. That was very magical Vangelis. Various recordings of his seemed to cross over into the progressive rock style just as much as they did with electronic music. It was a great experience discovering these artists and purchasing their albums from vendors in Europe. It was a difficult task to find recordings such as these in the analog age but the mission to obtain them all became an interesting adventure.



Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: April 21 2010 at 02:55
Originally posted by Evolver Evolver wrote:

I was walking past a concert hall in 1970, and I saw some guys with guitars getting off a bus, and walking toward the entrance.  Thinking they might be famous, I pulled out my camera, and quickly snapped a photo.  At the flash, one of the guitarists' eyes glowed bright red, as he turned and pounced on me with the speed of a cheetah. The pain was excruciating. 
 

When I awoke, a roadie was standing over me.  "You're lucky to be alive", he said, "Nobody takes flash photos of Fripp.  Nobody."  He bandaged the bite marks, and sent me on my way.

 

The next day I awoke with a strange urge for twenty minute songs, with complex arrangements.  I never looked back.




Ladies & gentlemen, we have a candidate for Post Of The Year



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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012


Posted By: Valarius
Date Posted: April 21 2010 at 03:16
In 2003, at the age of 16, I thought I'd randomly buy an album by a band I'd never listened to before. That album turned out to be Dream Theater's 'Images and Words'. At first I thought it was awful, but it very quickly grew on me and is now my favourite album of all time.


Posted By: Devonsidhe
Date Posted: April 21 2010 at 14:47
It's hard to say when I first became a progger because I probably hadn't heard of the word at the time.  When prog started being a term, it meant to me "bands I already liked" so I defined what I thought was prog by my own definitions out of neccessity.  Therefore, what I considered to be prog may not be considered so today.  When Black Sabbath's first album came out, I looked on that as prog in hindsight but the band seemed to go more commercial after that.  I also listened to Ten Years After whom I've never considered prog though I listened to them for the same reasons.  Especially the earlier stuff when they were more experimental.
 
But, it probably started with Sgt. Pepper.  When it came out, it was considered psychedelic but I loved the journey it took me on and the steps it took beyond the pop culture.  The complexity was startling.  It may have started there but I feel looking back it culminated with the Moody Blue's Days of Future Passed.  While before I would play entire albums in one sitting, this was the first one I felt like I had to listen to the whole thing.  A partial playing would be incomplete, like reading only a few chapters of an entire novel.  It had a beginning, middle and end.   While my definition for prog broadened after that, prog still has to make me feel that I am listening to more than a song


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 21 2010 at 15:13
Originally posted by The-time-is-now The-time-is-now wrote:

I was infected by Tormato (Yes), two years ago; I'm 21 ;-)
 
Cool!  I too stumbled across Yes via Tormato!  I heard the song "Arriving UFO" on our Album Rock station very late one night on headphones.  I just loved that album.  Of course, I had no idea the wealth of greatness in their back-catalog - so I had nothing to compare and contrast it with. 
 
Yes-Tor!
 
 


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: Gentlegiantprog
Date Posted: April 21 2010 at 15:45
I listened to Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin and The Mars Volta before I knew what prog was.
In fact, I only found out what prog was when reading an Amazon list of top 25 prog bands because I liked both Pink Floyd and King Crimson (Which I only got into because Forbidden covered 'Schizoid Man)

I am also 21.


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Let the maps of war be drawn !

http://kingcrimsonprog.wordpress.com/


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 21 2010 at 16:49
Originally posted by Gentlegiantprog Gentlegiantprog wrote:

I listened to Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin and The Mars Volta before I knew what prog was.
In fact, I only found out what prog was when reading an Amazon list of top 25 prog bands because I liked both Pink Floyd and King Crimson (Which I only got into because Forbidden covered 'Schizoid Man)

I am also 21.
 
Many years ago, I bought an April Wine album which contained a cover of KC's '21st Century Schizoid Man'.  I remember really liking the song and thinking to myself that the odd time signature and the hard rock approach sounded like something Rush might do.  (I didn't know about KC at the time).
 
I can't help but notice that you are now a Gentle Giant fan!  Do you remember the first album and/or song you heard by Gentle Giant?  If you don't remember that, do you have a favorite album by GG?


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: sealchan
Date Posted: April 21 2010 at 17:29
I first started listening to music on the radio seriously in about 1981 or 82 when I was 13 or 14 years old.  The first prog (related) album I fell for was Asia's Asia.  I loved every song on that album.  The keyboards and drums and guitar and vocals were great and cast a spell on me.  The album cover art transported me to a mythic realm.  I think my brother (who is 2 years younger than me) actually purchased the album.  We purchased it based on the songs we heard on a rock radio station that played several of the songs on a regular basis.
 
I've recently repurchased the album as an MP3 download having not owned a copy since I had it recorded it onto cassette from an LP.  The names of the musicians in ASIA make direct connections to as many great prog groups from the 70s and it was through my love of those musician's work on that album that I got started on the road to my love of prog.
   
 
 


Posted By: psychobuddha
Date Posted: April 21 2010 at 17:50
  I listened to Procol Harum's A White Shade of Pale and Salty Dog when I was 13, then I craved more.  


Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: April 22 2010 at 03:08
Salty Dog was my favourite song before I went into prog. If I'm not wrong I was 9 years old and it was used as opening of a TV show (closed by She's coming through the bathroom window in the Joe Cocker's version).
 
You have reminded me that.


Posted By: Paper Champion
Date Posted: April 22 2010 at 14:10

It was the "Undercover Man" from VDGG's "Godbluff". At that time I was 7 or 8 years old. My father would like to play with me in my room and turn on his Matsush*ta Hi-fi system. Heh, I remember it clearly even after so many years. Ironically, VDGG which led me to discover prog, actually, are of no interest for me now.



Posted By: esky
Date Posted: April 22 2010 at 14:30
I was invited into a friend's playroom (state-of-the-art stereo system; volumous record collection) at the back of his parents' garage in late '71and given various doses of the Moody Blues. A couple of years later came the sounds of some of the early Floyd albums, followed by those from such groups as Yes, ELP, and PFM. A fog of green smoke blanketed a small, everchanging group of visitors to the playroom along the way, each professing allegiance to some new "art rock" group just on the scene, and that all crescendoed into 1975's deliverance of Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water, Symphonic Slam, and Maxophone by the record store over at the local mall. I was hooked. Geek


Posted By: progpositivity
Date Posted: April 22 2010 at 14:57
Originally posted by Paper Champion Paper Champion wrote:

It was the "Undercover Man" from VDGG's "Godbluff". At that time I was 7 or 8 years old. My father would like to play with me in my room and turn on his Matsush*ta Hi-fi system. Heh, I remember it clearly even after so many years. Ironically, VDGG which led me to discover prog, actually, are of no interest for me now.

 
You have me most curious now!  When one starts out with such challenging and adventurous music as VDGG at the age of 7 or 8, where do you go from there? 
 
What are you listening to these days?
 
You mentioned that VDGG are of "no interest" to you now.  Do you have a distaste for VDGG now or are you simply disinterested in them?  Are you simply over-familiar with their discography, or have you "moved on" to a preference for a different style of prog?


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Positively the best Prog and Fusion 24/7!
http://www.progpositivity.com


Posted By: Ethos
Date Posted: April 22 2010 at 21:30
It was not sudden, it was gradual and incremental.  I'd have to say it started with the Beatles in the early 70's.  They were so different and experimental in their own sort of way. Then I heard 10538 by ELO.  ...and then I heard Suppers ready, and then the Musical Box and then the Lamb, and then... well you know the rest.  Genesis is what really got me.  It was not called prog back then.  You have to realize, DISCO was popular back then!  I can not think of a more boring period for a drummer.Dead  The true measure of greatness is the test of time.  Enough said!


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"As sure as Eggs is Eggs."


Posted By: Tengent
Date Posted: April 23 2010 at 19:24
A few years ago, my friend played And You and I for me. It went on from there.


Posted By: Boxhead
Date Posted: April 23 2010 at 21:18
In 68 when I was 10. The Beatles of course. Pink Floyd after that was the mainstay. Then I got into Humble Pie, Foghat, Styx before Tommy Shaw, Chicago, ELP, Genesis, Gentle Giant, The Who and Tommy Bolin.
 
In the 70's it was Return to Forever, John McGlaughlin, Zappa, Armegeddon, Jean Luc Ponty, Weather Report and more Genesis, Rush, Kansas, Alan Parsons, Focus and fusion jazz.
 
I still play the vinyl all the time. Lately it is Porcupine Tree, NIN, Tool, Dreamtheater, Opeth, Translantic and Peter Gabriel.
 
Now that DVD and Blu Ray are here I listen to a lot of live shows in LPCM. The dynamics are just fantastic, the visuals make for good eye candy and convenience of just going to the PS3 and just push play.
 
 


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Klipsch, so much it Hz


Posted By: Thkasabrk
Date Posted: April 24 2010 at 02:01
For me it was when I was in high school. Some wise soul played PFM's "Celebration" over the PA one day and I was hooked! I started seeking out their albums, and the rest as they say is history


Posted By: Rottenhat
Date Posted: April 24 2010 at 11:23
I think I can blame my oldest brother for getting me into prog. He was into Kansas, Pink Floyd and the like in his youth before he defected and went into listening to New Age stuff :) Traitor...
 
 


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Language is a virus from outer space.

-William S. Burroughs


Posted By: Pimpernal
Date Posted: April 24 2010 at 17:37
I started listening, when i found a youtube channel, which got me into it as a 14 year old kid, i just turned 15.

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Posted By: nordwind
Date Posted: April 24 2010 at 22:39

Queen "A Night @ the Opera" / 1975

Uriah Heep / "Best of "/ 1975

Styx / "Best of "/ 1975 (blue vinyl)

Rush / "All the World's a Stage"/ 1976
 
Then came ; Floyd ,Yes ,Saga ,Kansas ,Blue Oyster Cult ,Threshold .Smile


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Jazz isn't dead.......it just smells funny.
Frank Zappa / Live in New York


Posted By: Geizao
Date Posted: April 26 2010 at 05:31

The Beatles, Revolver; in my youth

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon; in my older youth

Yes, The Yes Album, in my older and so of my youth!


Posted By: richardb1973
Date Posted: April 26 2010 at 14:54
a hat tip for mentioning dimple an absolute masterpiece . still listening to it today musically and lyrically stunning Smile


Posted By: richardb1973
Date Posted: April 26 2010 at 14:58
first prog exposure was an atlantic 7 inch single with roundabout on the a side . and you andi full version !!!!! on the bside Smile



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