tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269925294673930988.post6264622941612885076..comments2023-11-22T09:17:05.368-08:00Comments on TAD's Back-Up Plan: Prog Rock 101TADhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13853931230081777310noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269925294673930988.post-57467070713544855282011-01-21T08:47:43.599-08:002011-01-21T08:47:43.599-08:00Tad -- drop me an email if you will.
Go here and ...Tad -- drop me an email if you will.<br /><br />Go here and follow instructions to get the addy.<br /><br />http://lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/emailme.phprastronomicalshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269925294673930988.post-44722426816461927062011-01-20T02:38:41.499-08:002011-01-20T02:38:41.499-08:00R: Ghod bless ya. What to get next: I think BLIND ...R: Ghod bless ya. What to get next: I think BLIND DOG AT ST. DUNSTANS' is really underrated. There's some filler on it ("Jack and Jill," ugh), & it's smoothed-out a little, but the good stuff is really good, especially "All the Way" & "Can You Hear Me?"<br />I think the live album with the New Symphonia is also pretty good, even if it's just for the killer performance of "For Richard" & "Virgin on the Ridiculous." "The Love in Your Eye" ain't bad neither, & I hear the CD has a bonus track of "A Hunting We Shall Go...."<br />If you prefer jazzier, WATERLOO LILY is above avg -- the 2nd side is classic, the 1st side is 2 pretty good songs separated by 11 mins of jazzy noodling.<br />4 me, CUNNING STUNTS has 1-1/2 pretty good songs, the side-long "Dabsong Conshirtoe," & "The Show of Our Lives." "Dabsong"'s pretty solid mosta the way, but turns 2 noise toward the end, like they couldn't think of a real ending. I wouldn't be in a hurry 2 get it.<br />I admit I liked most of their later stuff more. Just more stuff I could sing along with, maybe....<br />On "Feelin' Reelin'," the original leads-off the Softs' OUT-BLOODY-RAGEOUS best-of, & Caravan's version to me sounds like the original only 6 minutes longer, just as wild & silly. Surprised they could do it, considering how smooth a lotta their other stuff is....<br /><br />Seriously, now: You want to team up on this book about Strange Music I've always wanted to write? You seem pretty strong in all the musical areas I'm weak. & the only way I'm gonna get it written in the 30(?) years I have left is if I team up with somebody. Think it over....TADhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13853931230081777310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269925294673930988.post-56546804405387257582011-01-19T17:39:02.497-08:002011-01-19T17:39:02.497-08:00I do love "Dissociation," and mournful o...I do love "Dissociation," and mournful or melancholy does describe it very well, but I think my favorite part of "Nine Feet Underground" is at about 9 minutes, when it suddenly breaks down into a bluesy almost staccato synth solo, with piano and bass playing counterpoint. <br /><br />Don't know how the song breaks down into those seven parts, besides knowing Dissociation and 100% are the last 8 minutes or so, so I can't really refer to it by name. Is it "Make It 76" or "Dance of the Seven Paper Hankies?" Or something else? Hell, I don't know, but it goes on around 3:00 before getting slow and mournful in thematic anticipation of "Dissociation" to come, and its very intense for me, *especially* the first 30 or 45 seconds when it kicks in.<br /><br />Just downloaded "Feelin Reelin Squealin," and I'll have to listen again, but I was impressed by the raucous playing, if not by the nearly continuous nonesensical spoken voiceovers. Based on your description, I thought the thing might have reminded me of the noisy bits on <i>Third</i>, but it wasn't like that at all.<br /><br />Got my head in the clouds don't you know, so sometimes the naughty nuance can escape my notice. I am finding it . . . interesting . . . to note after having read your previous post on Caravan and other prog reviews floating around the net that Pye Hastings had such a fixation on chubby call girls . . . . <br /><br />Of course, beyond the feelin' reelin' thing I just downloaded, my Caravan library is still <i>In the Land of . . .</i> and <i>For Girls Who . . .</i> (extended versions of course). What would be your recommendation as next to grab? Just read a good review of Cunning Stunts, but was wondering what you thought.rastronomicalshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269925294673930988.post-83548886759700505202011-01-19T03:22:02.589-08:002011-01-19T03:22:02.589-08:00R: Thanx 4 responding in such depth. I said this l...R: Thanx 4 responding in such depth. I said this list was hampered by all the stuff I haven't heard. 4 most of yr suggestions listed immediately above, I haven't heard them. Which again shows me that if I ever seriously try to write a book on this stuff, it's going to B a Lifetime Project.<br />...& I figured U were really gonna jump on me about Soft Machine. Thanx 4 letting me off easy. I wish I could find something by them that REALLY knocks me out, altho 4 me "Hope for Happiness" almost makes it on chant power alone. I still think they're important, but I'm also still exploring. If I can go 10 years between listenings to "Out-Bloody-Rageous" & "Slightly All the Time" & still remember the tunes, there must be something there. & it'd B tough 2 forget "Moon in June." I gotta finish listening to their best of....<br />4 me, the best part of Caravan's "Nine Feet Underground" is Richard Sinclair's mournful "Dissociation" section toward the end -- it's beautiful. & I do like Dave Sinclair's riffing organ & so on, I just think summa their other stuff hits harder. Does sound a lot like the Softs tho, don't it?<br />Which reminds me: Have you heard Caravan's version of "Feelin' Reelin' Squealin'" on their WORLD IS YOURS box? -- I think you'd really getta kick out of it....TADhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13853931230081777310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269925294673930988.post-68529939100167443022011-01-18T13:50:15.413-08:002011-01-18T13:50:15.413-08:00Other bands might be one-song bands, which is stil...Other bands might be one-song bands, which is still pretty good, right?<br /><br />You hit the nail on the head with The Nice.<br /><br />"Carouselambra" is definitely prog, even with that glorious sludge part in the middle, but I'm not sure that the other Zeppelin songs you mention are. I once wrote something that said "Achilles Last Stand" is "proggy," I think I did anyway, but "proggy" isn't prog, and neither is "Stairway to Heaven."<br /><br />I think Rush's progressive side might be best shown by "Cygnus X-1." And if you include that, can you really say that that there are any prog values Rush has that aren't already exemplified by "Cygnus?"<br /><br />Kinda the same thing with Roxy Music. I like "Ladytron" and "Avalon" just fine, but when you wanna hear what Roxy's prog side was like, it's all there on "Remake/Remodel."<br /><br />I might deny that Peter Gabriel was prog at all, or at my most extravagant, snip it down to "Shock the Monkey." It might be prog--of a mutant electroclash sort.<br /><br />Speaking of mutant prog, how about we consider the 20-minute "Space Truckin'" from Made in Japan essential prog in its own bloozy way? Jon Lord quotes Holst and everything. . . .<br /><br />Hey, get crazy, go all out, do the full version of "Tubular Bells." But that's it. No more Oldfield needed after that. "Tubular Bells" says it all about the guy.<br /><br />And, in the interests of economy, as much as I love The Soft Machine, I'll make the case that "Moon In June" says it all about them. If you get "Moon in June," you get the Softs, and if you don't, you don't. So why do you need more than that one song for this list?<br /><br />I don't see how Kraftwerk can be included in any definition of prog, though I think you might wanna find a way to fit in some Can.<br /><br />Doesn't the one Vangelis song need to be "Pulstar?" <br /><br />Speaking of whom, where's Aphrodite's Child, dammnit? :-)rastronomicalshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269925294673930988.post-27363960541361241292011-01-18T13:39:33.916-08:002011-01-18T13:39:33.916-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.rastronomicalshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269925294673930988.post-5839697205111370372011-01-18T13:38:21.576-08:002011-01-18T13:38:21.576-08:00My list would probably be a bit more concise, if o...My list would probably be a bit more concise, if only because I'm not as familiar with as many bands.<br /><br />Or maybe because I'm taking it as an exercise to pare your list down. Some of your choices may not be my favorites, but I didn't change anything unless I had a reason.<br /><br />Start with fifteen songs from five bands:<br /><br />Yes - "Astral Traveller," "Close To the Edge," "Does it Really Happen?" <br /><br />ELP - "Lucky Man," "Trilogy," and "Fanfare for the Common Man"<br /><br />Kansas - ""Song for America," "Miracles Out of Nowhere," "A Glimpse of Home"<br /><br />King Crimson - "21st Century Schizoid Man," The Talking Drum," "Frame by Frame"<br /><br />Genesis - Pick any two plus "Abacab"<br /><br />As titans of the form, our first five each get three and I tried to get them to corresponed to early, mid and late period for the band. Except for Genesis, where the only thing I'm really familiar with is late, and I'll defer to you on the "early" and "mid." Getting it down to three each doesn't mean I don't like "Roundabout" or "Icarus Borne on Wings of Steel," it just means they might be a bit less representative than the tunes I picked.<br /><br />I also tried to get rid of songs that I consider to be clear attempts at airplay, things like "Wonderous Stories," and "Reason To Be." Not bad songs as it goes, but also not really representative of what each band was doing in the main.<br /><br />In that same vein, maybe get rid of Journey and Jefferson Starship and Styx and Queen. <br /><br />On a 100-point list, some important bands aren't quite Titans, and maybe deserve two songs rather than three.<br /><br />Is early Pink Floyd really progressive? Or psychedelic? For that matter, aren't the various "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"s proggier than "Wish You Were Here?" Their greatest song is "Sheep" IMHO, and I can take or leave anything from <i>the Wall</i>. Give 'em two songs.<br /><br />I've never really much cared for the Moody Blues, but I do get that a lot of people who care for this kind of music find them important. Give them two songs, is "Legend of a Mind" more to the prog ideal than "Ride My See-Saw?"<br /><br />I should defer to you on Caravan, but if they should get two songs on the pared down list, shouldn't one be "Nine Foot Underground?"<br /><br />And shouldn't one of Camel's be that Nimrodel/White Rider thing? Prog is as prog does when you think about that one.<br /><br />Eno makes me think of about 30 different songs from those four glam-prog albums he did. Give him two songs; "Sky Saw" is probably Eno at his proggiest. "The Fat Lady of Limbourg" besides?rastronomicalshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com