While I SERIOUSLY think-over whether I've heard enuf off-the-wall stuff 2 try 2 write an average schmuck's guide 2 Progressive Rock, here's what I've bn listening-2 over the past few days:
Gong: Master Builder/A Sprinkling of Clouds.
Nick Drake: Sunday.
Jethro Tull: A Passion Play edit #8 ("Overseer").
Hatfield and the North: The Stubbs Effect, etc.
New Order: Regret.
Squeeze: In Quintessence.
Keith Jarrett: Country.
Pat Metheny Group: The First Circle.
Kansas: Journey from MariaBronn.
Camel: Summer Lightning.
Clannad: Indoor/Blackstairs.
Amazing Blondel: Three Seasons Almaine/Toye/Safety in God Alone.
Golden Earring: Snot Love in Spain/Save Your Skin/Need Her.
Kraftwerk: CometMelody 2.
Pentangle: Sweet Child/Light Flight/Sally Go 'Round the Roses.
ELP: The Great Gates of Kiev/The End/Nutrocker.
Dixie Dregs: Hereafter/I'm Freaking Out/Old World/The Great Spectacular/Night Meets Light.
Gentle Giant: Dog's Life/Think of Me With Kindness/The Boys in the Band/Funny Ways (live)/Experience (live).
Sally Oldfield: Fire and Honey/Land of the Sun.
Steve Tibbetts: Ur.
Bruce Cockburn: Silver Wheels.
Raiders: Country Wine.
Loudon Wainwright III: Dead Skunk.
Notes: I'd like New Order's "Regret" played at my funeral -- along with Gryphon's "Lament" & Group 87's "One Night Away From Day" ... not that I'm planning on GOING anywhere anytime soon....
I'm no Xpert, but has Keith Jarrett ever done anything else as pretty as "Country"? Would love 2 hear more stuff like that....
I think "Journey from MariaBronn" is THE great forgotten Kansas song, right up there w/ "Song for America" & "Miracles Out of Nowhere." It's on their 1st album & their 2-disc best-of box -- you should give it a listen. It gets a little operatic in places, but that just adds 2 it, 4 me. Lotsa great keyboards, guitar & melodrama....
Camel's "Summer Lightning" veers perilously close 2 ... *GASP!* ... disco, but it still has a great vocal by Richard Sinclair & some nice gtr & atmospherics -- it's on BREATHLESS, along w/ a lotta other great overlooked stuff....
Clannad's "Indoor" nails 1 critic's Dscription of them as "a windswept Fleetwood Mac." It & "Blackstairs" R from the Xcellent MACALLA.
Golden Earring's "Snot Love in Spain" & "Need Her" R 2 hilarious trax from their 1979 album NO PROMISES, NO DEBTS. "Snot Love" features singer Barry Hay as a drunken layabout getting in trouble w/ German tourists during a holiday in Spain. "Need Her" is about how Hay's girlfriend makes him so crazy that he wants 2 kill her -- these 2 songs woulda made a killer single back in the day. Hay has a wild singing style -- it sounds like his face is gonna Xplode B4 he can get the words out. "Save Your Skin," unfortunately, was not as good as I remembered....
Kraftwerk's "CometMelody 2" wasn't as good as I remembered, either -- it's really just the same sorta-sparkly musical phrase repeated over & over w/ only minor variations -- 4 almost 6 mins.... From AUTOBAHN.
Still learning about Pentangle -- "Sweet Child" is worth it just 4 the way the band kicks in at the end of the choruses; "Light Flight" is a little disturbing & spooky, tho Jacquie McShee's double-tracked vocals R gorgeous; "Sally" was a touch disappointing, tho -- I Xpected them 2 do something more w/ it.... From SWEET CHILD and BASKET OF LIGHT.
ELP's "Kiev" has some GREAT NOISE in it; the vocal parts of "The End" R kinda boring; & "Nutrocker" is really silly.... From PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION.
"Hereafter" is the best thing the Dregs ever did, near as I can tell -- it's pretty haunting. They obviously had talent, but they only had about 4 diffrent tunes. "Old World" is a very rustic/folkie violin/gtr/lute instrumental -- could almost B Tull, Gentle Giant, Gryphon or Amazing Blondel. Both trax R from their 1980 album DREGS OF THE EARTH.
Gentle Giant's "Think of Me With Kindness" is just a step or 2 away from Bing perfect -- only a kinda lame acapella midsection lets it down.... & then there's the Xtremely creepy "Funny Ways".... From OCTOPUS and PLAYING THE FOOL/LIVE.
Sally Oldfield's "Fire and Honey" sounds like a musical sex metaphor. & "Land of the Sun" is brief but gorgeous. Both R from her superb 1978 album WATER BEARER. Sally woulda bn perfect 2 do soundtrack music 4 the LORD OF THE RINGS movies -- tho I imagine her Middle Eastern imagery mighta raised some eyebrows....
Steve Tibbetts' "Ur" is a gorgeous, stunning gtr-meltdown instrumental from his Xcellent '80 album YR. If you play it loud enuf, it'll move the foundation of yr house. He shoulda done more stuff like this....
I hadn't heard the Raiders' "Country Wine" since 1972. It's not really the lost gem I remembered. Very pleasant, but not suprising that as a single it only peaked at about #90 nationwide....
BTW, 6 of the above R songs I'd never heard B4. Can you guess which 1's? 1st person 2 get all 6 wins a free copy of Animal Collective's MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILLION. Or the Television Personalities' MY DARK PLACES. Or Group 87's A CAREER IN DADA PROCESSING. Or something else I have lying around the house....
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hey TAD, glad to you coming out of the woodwork. When I found the vinyl version of Autobaun from Kraftwerk, I only played side one and never really ventured into side two all that much although I do recall Comet Melody 2 was part of the very old Rock n Roll Video Show on the the old SPN Satellite network. If you wanna hear goofy, seek out the Radio Activity album to which they rock out to the Geiger Counter.
ELP Nutrocker? they actually played it on the AM dial and tried to order it at the local Record store but they never did get it in. Found it on a budget Classic rock CD and I think I played it once.
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