The thing is, I never looked to Jon Anderson’s lyrics for great insight, so the abstract/surreal nature of the lyrics on the classic Yes albums doesn’t bother me at all. To me, the music, lyrics and cover art evoke images and emotions that I find appealing. I’m certainly not basing my life philosophy on Tales from Topographic Oceans–even when I was younger, I took the lyrics to be amiable hippie fluff that just worked well with the music. Peter Gabriel had some clever wordplay and (if you want to count Floyd) Roger Waters had maybe one or two moments of lucid social commentary before disappearing up his own arse circa 1976. And if you want to talk ridiculous, give “Karn Evil 9” a spin sometime. But really, it’s all twaddle to one degree or another.
The way some music critics talk about punk reclaiming the mantle for rock to be earthy, honest, straight-forward and visceral, however, I don’t see that as being any less pretentious or overreaching. This distinction between being “serious” versus “self-serious” is largely in the eye of the beholder–it’s really about what flavour of pretence you prefer.
Yep, I love prog, even though I wasn’t around at the time the original stuff came out. Working backwards from Porcupine Tree, who I first heard in the mid 90s when I was about 17, was fun. I still like putting some Yes on from time to time. It’s ridiculous, and that’s part of what makes it enjoyable.
The fine folks at Future Publishing even started a new magazine just about Prog Rock back in 2009 or 2010; I have the first few issues and I know it’s still being published (they even have a spiffy website).
Bad prog rock is wanking; good prog rock is wan chung. Everybody wang chung tonight!
I was a prog nerd. I’ll still pull up a track every now and then, but for the most part I’ve lost my taste for it. I migrated to jam bands like Phish and Umphries McGhee, which both display some prog influence. Prog music is for nerds who can’t get laid. Jam bands are for nerds who can.
I still think Yes-Tales From Topographic Oceans is one of the greatest live performances I’ve ever seen, though. Prog made me aware that music doesn’t need to be confined to four meats per measure, and that Roger Dean can inspire me to be scientific. (Venture Brothers reference) Kansas, Rush, Zappa, Genesis, King Crimson, ELP, YES (and their spinoffs), Jethro Tull, all gave me countless hours of musical enjoyment. Much of it can be wanking and noodling, but any type of performance art is that in different genres.
Also worth noting- for SOME of us, prog rock was once a revelation. To those of us who’d only known simple pop and rock, it was exhilirating to hear bands pushing the envelope and exploring more elaborate sounds and more complicated lyrical themes.
But while most prog rockers showed far more complexity than their more conventional contemporaries, over time, many of us who used to love that stuff grew up and learned that there was other music out there that was still more complex and a lot better.
ELP introduced me to Mussorgsky. I’m still grateful to them for that. But now that I’ve heard real classical orchestras performing Ravel’s adaptation of*** Pictures at an Exhibition***, the ELP version doesn’t really sound so great any more. Once you hear Stravinsky, King Crimson and Frank Zappa no longer seem so “progressive.”
I’ll never be a serious jazz fan, but once you grow up and hear some real jazz artists, Genesis and Yes no longer seem so “out there.” They sound surprisingly conventional.
And once you grow up and start reading the works of genuinely great writers and poets, the formerly profound lyrics of a Pete Sinfield start to sound kinda trite.
As a postscript, I will repeat something I’ve argued here before: punk rock had NOTHING to do with killing off prog-rock.
The Ramones didn’t kill ELP- Works Volume 2 and*** Love Beach ***did that.
The Sex Pistols didn’t kill Yes- internal squabbles and weak albums like*** Drama ***did that.
Nobody who used to love Yes, ELP or Genesis abandoned them in favor of punk. But millions of people who ONCE loved them either grew up and got tired of them or lost interest when those abnds started making bad records iu nthe late Seventies.
Funny thing- BOTH the punk and the prog-rock movements had a lot in common. Seriously, BOTH movements were led by rich or middle class British art school wankers who took themselves way too seriously.
I came to prog rock from the other direction. My radio only picked up one station, which did not play rock music. I grew up listening to and playing mostly classical,with some jazz and big band, and only a little rock. Most of the rock I heard rock was at girlfriend’s homes, where it tended to be bubble-gum stuff, which when compared to classical was not of much interest
When my access to a broader range of music improved, I oriented to progressive rock (and music that was not progressive rock, but was still very progressive, such as Jimmy Hendrix and Wendy Carlos) for it brought new and often radical interpretations to the sort of music with which I was most comfortable.
I enjoy music that is interesting and takes me on a journey, rather than being limited to only a short melody with a hook. The best “rock” concert I attended was by ELP, and while I greatly enjoyed Lake’s melodic pieces, it was Emerson and Palmer who truly engaged me.
Since my youth, my musical tastes have expanded considerably, but prog rock remains appealing to me rather than something that has been outgrown.
I don’t think of it as prog, either, but I can see that it did start laying the foundation for rock to take more complete or expansive forms in the idea of a “concept album,” but you do kind of have groundwork for that already laid with Pet Sounds, for instance.
As for prog, it’s not my favorite genre, but I do like some King Crimson and especially early Genesis. Yes and ELP never really did it for me, though. That said, there are proggy elements to some music that I like, like the earlier Metallica albums and the second and third Smashing Pumpkins albums.
Working off memory here, but I believe Jon’s intro to “Heart of the Sunrise” on one of the live albums went something like “This is a song about the sun…the sun…it’s always there…this is about the dreams…of the sunrise.”
Yeah, thanks for that stunning analysis!
Anyway, I saw Yes about a month ago, where they played the full albums of Fragile and Close to the Edge, and it was quite good (though “We Have Heaven” is rather…interesting…live). I missed the previous tour when they did all of Going for the One, a pity, since I quite enjoy seeing Chris Squire rock the three-necked bass. I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing all of “Gates of Delirium” either, and not just “Soon.”
Tales from Topographic Oceans? Eh, if I have my MP3 player going through my Yes catalogue, I won’t skip it, but it’s probably not the first thing I go for.
It’s worth pointing out that prog isn’t quite dead, either, although it’s certainly changed a lot.
On the commercially viable end, Coheed & Cambria are absolutely a prog rock band, but they mix in enough short, hooky, punk-inflected “singles” to still be succesful in the iPod era.
And Ayreon releases albums that are chock full of classic prog sounds and styles and does a pretty darn good (if very, very cheesy) job.
I’m listening to Relayer right now. Fantastic piece of work!
I listen to Pink Floyd all the time, but have to use a usb device run thru a… (you don’t want to know) into the “real” system because I wore out all my CDs.
And, yes. I’m playing it FUCKING LOUD! Midnight in the middle of Bum-Fuck!
I listen to a lot of progressive rock. I think a lot of its musical innovations seeped through to other rock music genres, so maybe I can say that it’s been left behind because it managed to “prog-ify” all rock, and at that point it just wasn’t needed anymore.
I don’t understand the extreme hate for it - I don’t like, say, modern drum’n’bass but I don’t go so visceral about it.
