Do my eyes deceive me or did somebody just dis Tales from Topographic Oceans?

I liked the "ten telltale signs" list.

ZAZ: Do my eyes deceive me or did somebody just dis Tales from Topographic Oceans?

I can think of a few Yes albums that I would describe as "horrible." Tales From Topographic Oceans is not one of them.

And only a passing mention of King Crimson? Seriously, WTF?

I saw ELP in concert in 1990. AWESOME show. At one point, Keith Emerson started jamming on one of those plastic pianios that looked like this:...but had a solid bottom, and were about four feet high. While playing, he pushed his feet against the bottom and jumped it like a skateboard

Why did we listen to stuff like Zappa, King Crimson, and Gentle Giant back in 1975?

We saw it as the light at the end of the syphlitic colon that was main stream radio at the time.

However, just when we thought that our nightmare was ending, DISCO reared it's greasy, pointed little plastic head.

THE TOP 100 RADIO SONGS OF 1975

1. Love Will Keep Us Together, The Captain and Tennille
2. Rhinestone Cowboy, Glen Campbell
3. Philadelphia Freedom, Elton John
4. Before The Next Teardrop Falls, Freddy Fender
5. My Eyes Adored You, Frankie Valli
6. Shining Star, Earth, Wind and Fire
7. Fame, David Bowie
8. Laughter In The Rain, Neil Sedaka
9. One Of These Nights, Eagles
10. Thank God I'm A Country Boy, John Denver
11. Jive Talkin', Bee Gees
12. Best Of My Love, Eagles
13. Lovin' You, Minnie Riperton
14. Kung Fu Fighting, Carl Douglas
15. Black Water, Doobie Brothers
16. Ballroom Blitz, Sweet
17. (Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, B.J. Thomas
18. He Don't Love You (Like I Love You), Tony Orlando and Dawn
19. At Seventeen, Janis Ian
20. Pick Up The Pieces, Average White Band
21. The Hustle, Van McCoy and The Soul City Symphony
22. Lady Marmalade, Labelle
23. Why Can't We Be Friends?, War
24. Love Wont Let Me Wait, Major Harris
25. Boogie On Reggae Woman, Stevie Wonder
26. Wasted Days And Wasted Nights, Freddy Fender
27. Fight The Power, Pt. 1, Isley Brothers
28. Angie Baby, Helen Reddy
29. Jackie Blue, Ozark Mountain Daredevils
30. Fire, Ohio Players
31. Magic, Pilot
32. Please Mr. Postman, Carpenters
33. Sister Golden Hair, America
34. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Elton John
35. Mandy, Barry Manilow
36. Have You Never Been Mellow, Olivia Newton-John
37. Could It Be Magic, Barry Manilow
38. Cat's In The Cradle, Harry Chapin
39. Wildfire Michael Murphy
40. I'm Not Lisa, Jessi Colter
41. Listen To What The Man Said, Paul Mccartney and Wings
42. I'm Not In Love, 10cc
43. I Can Help, Billy Swan
44. Fallin' In Love, Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds
45. Feelings, Morris Albert
46. Chevy Van, Sammy Johns
47. When Will I Be Loved, Linda Ronstadt
48. You're The First, The Last, My Everthing, Barry White
49. Please Mr Please, Olivia Newton-John
50. You're No Good, Linda Ronstadt
51. Dynomite, Bazuka
52. Walking In Rhythm, Blackbyrds
53. The Way We Were/Try To Remember, Gladys Knight and The Pips
54. Midnight Blue, Melissa Manchester
55. Don't Call Us, We'll Call You, Sugarloaf
56. Poetry Man, Phoebe Snow
57. How Long, Ace
58. Express, B.T. Express
59. That's The Way Of The World, Earth, Wind and Fire
60. Lady, Styx
61. Bad Time, Grand Funk
62. Only Women Bleed, Alice Cooper
63. Doctor's Orders, Carol Douglas
64. Get Down Tonight, K.C. and The Sunshine Band
65. You Are So Beautiful/It's A Sin When You Love Somebody, Joe Cocker
66. One Man Woman-One Woman Man, Paul Anka and Odia Coates
67. Feel Like Makin' Love, Bad Company
68. How Sweet It Is, James Taylor
69. Dance With Me, Orleans
70. Cut The Cake, Average White Band
71. Never Can Say Goodbye, Gloria Gaynor
72. I Don't Like To Sleep Alone, Paul Anka
73. Morning Side Of The Mountain, Donny and Marie Osmond
74. Some Kind Of Wonderful, Grand Funk
75. When Will I See You Again, Three Degrees
76. Get Down, Get Down (Get On The Floor), Joe Simon
77. I'm Sorry/Calypso, John Denver
78. Killer Queen, Queen
79. Shoeshine Boy, Eddie Kendricks
80. Do It (Til You're Satisfied), B.T. Express
81. Can't Get It Out Of My Head, Electric Light Orchestra
82. Sha-La-La (Makes Me Happy), Al Green
83. Lonely People, America
84. You Got The Love, Rufus
85. The Rockford Files, Mike Pos
86. It Only Takes A Minute, Tavares
87. No No Song/Snookeroo, Ringo Starr
88. Junior's Farm/Sally G, Paul McCartney and Wings
89. Bungle In The Jungle, Jethro Tull
90. Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance), Leo Sayer
91. Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Elton John
92. Misty, Ray Stevens
93. Bad Blood, Neil Sedaka
94. Only Yesterday, Carpenters
95. I'm On Fire, Dwight Twilley Band
96. Only You, Ringo Starr
97. Third Rate Romance, Amazing Rhythm Aces
98. You Aint Seen Nothin' Yet/Free Wheelin', Bachman-Turner Overdrive
99. Swearin' To God, Frankie Valli
100. Get Dancin', Disco Tex and The Sex-O-lettes
------------------------

Nuff said?

Eh, King Crimson and bits of Genesis' catalog are the only prog I could ever get into. Maybe it was at the time, but I don't really buy into the idea that "progressive = tricky time signatures".

How does one "celebtrate"?

This is the thread where people with no attention spans bash prog and call it a bunch of pointless wanking, right?

/Johnny Rotten was the real wanker

FlyingPig: This is the thread where people with no attention spans bash prog and call it a bunch of pointless wanking, right?

No, apparently, this is the thread nobody decided to show up for.

Wanna get a pretzel? My treat.

Screw all the know-nothings who call prog rock "pretentious" like it's a bad thing. Damn right it's pretentious. If you're not showing off, you just don't rock.

/Genesis fan for life

When it comes to hair, prog rock has nothing on 80s pop metal. Or 80s pop. Or pretty much 80s anything.

/And another vote for "Genesis haters can suck it".

Angels Eggs and Octave Doctors, Radio Gnome and Love Projectors (new window)



\\When it's done well it's really good

that was actually a pretty ok, albeit brief article.. i'm slightly surprised...

I really liked Thick as a Brick... [but the second side lags a bit, in my mind... the "do you believe in the day" part inparticular]
THEN i got "passion play" which i think is stronger over-all...
has more actual "song-oriented" sections, like the last three parts on the second side...

i farking HATE "warchild" tho [especially "bungle in the jungle"]... except for "skating away" which is a great song.

"minstrel in the gallery" is a great return to form.

and don't forget the classic "non-concept album" "aqualung"!!!
ah yes the mighty Aqualung!! yay! all the songs are great!
easily [in my book] as great as "Led Zep 4" in terms of quality.

anybody else find that Keith Emerson "wanks" / solos / is featured too much on ELP albums, especially on "welcome back" ??
i think that record is almost one long keyboard solo interspersed with vocal sections, Lake's acoustic songs set, and Carl's drum solo???

i used to find Tony Banks to be too much of a "wanker" on Genesis albums, but then again, he wrote or co-wrote a lot [most?] of the stuff... so why not?

cretinbob
ha!
i have "you" by Gong on vinyl... [less concept-heavy that the previous two, more instrumental/jam-oriented.] i did download one of the three parts to that concept album series... it was the one with that "i am, you are, we are CRAZY" song... that's so damn catchy... "the pothead pixies".
i also have two Steve Hillage albums... they're pretty good. he's a very underrated guitarist.

Prog rock is actually LESS pretentious than punk, rap, and indie rock, because you can make it no matter how you dress, no matter how you talk, and no matter where you grew up.

Discuss.

IXI Jim IXI: I saw ELP in concert in 1990. AWESOME show. At one point, Keith Emerson started jamming on one of those plastic pianios that looked like this:...but had a solid bottom, and were about four feet high. While playing, he pushed his feet against the bottom and jumped it like a skateboard

I saw ELP in 1997 (they opened for Jethro Tull) and they ruled!!! God knows how much more awesome they would have been if Hendrix hadn't died.

Ignorant McNugget: Prog rock is actually LESS pretentious than punk, rap, and indie rock, because you can make it no matter how you dress, no matter how you talk, and no matter where you grew up.

Discuss.

THIS.

I love punk and metal, but prog is my 'chill out' music.
/loves him some 70's Genesis and Yes
//Thinks ELP's Works sucks (except for Pirates)

I still really dig Jethro Tull, though I guess I never thought of them as a "prog" band. I like the early Peter Gabriel-era Genesis stuff, and some of Yes' stuff too.

I picked up a very nice vinyl copy of "In The Court Of The Crimson King" from a junk shop & just never really got into it. That was a couple of years ago, though. Maybe I need to give it another spin tonite.

GibbyTheMole: I picked up a very nice vinyl copy of "In The Court Of The Crimson King" from a junk shop & just never really got into it. That was a couple of years ago, though. Maybe I need to give it another spin tonite.



aside from 21st Century Schizoid Man, the album is kind of meh. Larks' Tongues/Starless/Red-era is what to go after. That line-up even does a much better version of 21st Century Schizoid Man on the USA live album.

Entity79
//Thinks ELP's Works sucks (except for Pirates)

THIS!!


/also doesn't like the "Tarkus" album that much...
[*ducks*]
I like "Trilogy" the best.

If I could choose what my Christmas present would be, I might choose that people learn what "pretentious" actually means.

ALL entertainment, whatever the form, is based on being pretense. Who looks at a van Gogh and says "What's the point? Why not just buy some friggin flowers?" Whether you like Tolkein or not, how idiotic would it be to say "That's stupid. Nobody has pointy ears like that, and that's not even a real language." Who sees Super Mario and says "I'm not aware of there ever being a case of small Italian plumbers engaging in a rescue attempt involving royalty. They're making this up."

If you don't like prog or bluegrass or opera or rap, fine. If you have actual reasons for not liking it, that's good too. If not, that's still okay. If you like a certain level of pretense in your entertainment, and don't enjoy things that are either over or under that, that's a reasonable stance.

To say that a form of entertainment is "pretentious" is like saying a dessert is "sweet". Maybe it's too sweet or not sweet enough for your tastes. But it wouldn't be dessert if it wasn't.

Prog Rock is part of a well balanced musical diet. I don't mind if people don't like it. In a way it helps. If someone says that don't like it, or if they are someone that only listens to one type of music then I know I wouldn't like hanging around with them.

However, I find that most people who like Prog had some music training. Maybe that's part of it too. Prog isn't as aimed at the loins as much as it is aimed at the brain. It is like straight classical music but with more theatrics.

Classic ELP (new window)

I'll stipulate to a post of the Prog Rock Keyboard Solo lolcat...

They call the genre self-indulgent. Maybe that's true, in a musical sense.

But singing "hey jude, na na na na" about 300 times over is self-indulgent in the "I just want to get high and nail some groupies" sense.

Guess which one is more meaningful...

I'm sure my room in hell is going to feature a soundtrack of ELP's Brain Salad Surgery playing 24/7. Seriously, how can anyone like this crap?

"a procession of big hair and improbable keyboard solos"



Makes no discernable facial expression at your shenanigans.

But here's an improbable keyboard solo nonetheless.

What no "Prog Rock Lolcat"?

Someone post it quick!

40below: I'm sure my room in hell is going to feature a soundtrack of ELP's Brain Salad Surgery playing 24/7. Seriously, how can anyone like this crap?

"Good music is the music you like. More please." -Henry Rollins

I like a bit of prog in my music; a fourth section to a song, an odd chord change, even the occasional bit of 7/8 time tastefully applied. It's like salt, it makes everything taste better.

ELP and Yes records are the equivalent of eating a bowl of salt for dinner. Absolutely disgusting.

MikoSquiz: ELP and Yes records are the equivalent of eating a bowl of salt for dinner. Absolutely disgusting.

A better analogy is that, "I like beer, sometimes I buy Killians. But Prog is a micro-brew. It doesn't fit my palate."

MikoSquiz: I like a bit of prog in my music; a fourth section to a song, an odd chord change, even the occasional bit of 7/8 time tastefully applied. It's like salt, it makes everything taste better.

ELP and Yes records are the equivalent of eating a bowl of salt for dinner. Absolutely disgusting.

Yours is no disgrace

MikoSquiz: I like a bit of prog in my music; a fourth section to a song, an odd chord change, even the occasional bit of 7/8 time tastefully applied. It's like salt, it makes everything taste better.

ELP and Yes records are the equivalent of eating a bowl of salt for dinner. Absolutely disgusting.

If you're a slug.