The understanding of classic Prog Rock
Posted by: garyi on 13 September 2002
Many years ago I was introduced to Pink floyd by my Step Father. He had a video of pinkfloyd live, I think it was the Momentry Lapse tour of 87.
Anyhoo I was taken in by the lights and thought the band wonderfull.
This was my first entry into the wonders of music, I studiously gained all the albums of the floyd that I could find, I have loved them ever since and have seen them live, something I am hoping won't be the last time.
Tonight I have returned from an introduction to the management training course which I have gained a place on, a two year intensive course covering all levels of management within Sodexho.
Suffice to say getting out of the horrors that is Milton Keynes is nightmare enough, coupled with some twat turning their caravan on the southbound M1 and having to drop someone off in barnet, and of course the understanding of what I have got my self in for led to a stressfull end of day.
However after returning home I decided to return to 'the roots' and played the whole of 'The Wall' an album of which fashion (for me) has dictated is not en vouge.
However wacking the first side of that scratchy old record on and playing through, totally chilled me out.
Sometimes returning to music that many amongst us would consider 'Stock items' is essential to our true appriciation of music.
The return to what got us interested in the first place is often the most poignent and interesting music that we know.
I am interested to know what first got people interested in music. I don't mean nower days because lets be honest we all trot off down the shops and buy for the sake of it, but back then, back then when money was short and passions high we had an interest in music which far surpassed how Much we could afford and how much fashion dictated. What really made you interested in music?
Anyhoo I was taken in by the lights and thought the band wonderfull.
This was my first entry into the wonders of music, I studiously gained all the albums of the floyd that I could find, I have loved them ever since and have seen them live, something I am hoping won't be the last time.
Tonight I have returned from an introduction to the management training course which I have gained a place on, a two year intensive course covering all levels of management within Sodexho.
Suffice to say getting out of the horrors that is Milton Keynes is nightmare enough, coupled with some twat turning their caravan on the southbound M1 and having to drop someone off in barnet, and of course the understanding of what I have got my self in for led to a stressfull end of day.
However after returning home I decided to return to 'the roots' and played the whole of 'The Wall' an album of which fashion (for me) has dictated is not en vouge.
However wacking the first side of that scratchy old record on and playing through, totally chilled me out.
Sometimes returning to music that many amongst us would consider 'Stock items' is essential to our true appriciation of music.
The return to what got us interested in the first place is often the most poignent and interesting music that we know.
I am interested to know what first got people interested in music. I don't mean nower days because lets be honest we all trot off down the shops and buy for the sake of it, but back then, back then when money was short and passions high we had an interest in music which far surpassed how Much we could afford and how much fashion dictated. What really made you interested in music?
Surely that was just Genesis who were permenantly stuck up there on progresivness, a bit like a Barrymore party 
My 3 brothers are a fair bit older than me and were heavily into music during the 60's/70's. My father professed a liking for big band Jazz but rarely, if ever, played any.
I had an early exposure to pop/rock music from the Beatles, Kinks, Stones, Who, Manfred Mann etc. My brothers moved on to prog rock and early heavy metal (Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Led Zep etc. etc.). They had all left home when I was about 11 or 12 and the music stopped (about 1971/2).
Fast forward a few years and my friends were showing an interest in music. This included much of the above plus Bowie, Yes, Genesis, Caravan, Camel and Van Der Graaf Generator. However, this was the mid-seventies and most of the aforementioned had already peaked and Prog Rock had become a bit of an embarassment, all (lack of) style and no content with over bloated concept albums and concert tours with orchestras and skaters (yes that means you Rick Wakeman!).
We played catch-up on the older stuff until a certain Malcolm McClaren saw a marketing opportunity and introduced us to that nice J. Lydon and friends and proceeded to 'smash the system with a song' (as predicted the year before by Peter Hammill on his punk classic Nadir's Big Chance).
Being 16 at the time we flocked to the new music in droves. The triple concept albums with their gatefold sleeves and Roger Dean pictures were replaced with 7" singles with bootleg quality sound and bands who could barely hold their guitars the right way round let alone play a fifty minute solo whilst being suspended over the audience on a platform and surrounded with copious quantities of dry ice (thank god laser technology was in its infancy, I dread to think what they would have come up with!).
So it was away with the stadium gigs, drum solos and huge lighting rigs and dry ice, in with sweaty clubs, crap PA's and two minute, two chord songs played at 100mph accompanied by copious amounts of phlegm.
So on to Uni in the late 70's/early 80's. Punk was subsiding and the New Wave were coming through in various guises; Ian Dury, Elvis, Joy Division, Madness, Specials, Cure, Wire, Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrops, Simple Minds, U2 etc. etc., these lead on to Magazine, Cocteau Twins, Chameleons, Smiths and New Order (aaah halcyon daze).
As these bands progressed their songs grew longer and more complex, with sweeping instrumentation and obscure, often drug related imagery. Albums were less a collection of their latest songs more of a self contained magnum opus (try Pornography or almost anything by the Cocteaus). Many bands like to show off their improved musicianship with their later work (even if the original inspiration is no longer there) especially U2 and Simple Minds.
More recently bands have gone through the loud raucous phase followed by longer songs and instrumental breaks. E.g. Radiohead, the Bends is a classic rock album, OK computer, probably the best album Pink Floyd never made.
Prog rock never really went away, it just cut its hair and stopped wearing flares.
I had an early exposure to pop/rock music from the Beatles, Kinks, Stones, Who, Manfred Mann etc. My brothers moved on to prog rock and early heavy metal (Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Led Zep etc. etc.). They had all left home when I was about 11 or 12 and the music stopped (about 1971/2).
Fast forward a few years and my friends were showing an interest in music. This included much of the above plus Bowie, Yes, Genesis, Caravan, Camel and Van Der Graaf Generator. However, this was the mid-seventies and most of the aforementioned had already peaked and Prog Rock had become a bit of an embarassment, all (lack of) style and no content with over bloated concept albums and concert tours with orchestras and skaters (yes that means you Rick Wakeman!).
We played catch-up on the older stuff until a certain Malcolm McClaren saw a marketing opportunity and introduced us to that nice J. Lydon and friends and proceeded to 'smash the system with a song' (as predicted the year before by Peter Hammill on his punk classic Nadir's Big Chance).
Being 16 at the time we flocked to the new music in droves. The triple concept albums with their gatefold sleeves and Roger Dean pictures were replaced with 7" singles with bootleg quality sound and bands who could barely hold their guitars the right way round let alone play a fifty minute solo whilst being suspended over the audience on a platform and surrounded with copious quantities of dry ice (thank god laser technology was in its infancy, I dread to think what they would have come up with!).
So it was away with the stadium gigs, drum solos and huge lighting rigs and dry ice, in with sweaty clubs, crap PA's and two minute, two chord songs played at 100mph accompanied by copious amounts of phlegm.
So on to Uni in the late 70's/early 80's. Punk was subsiding and the New Wave were coming through in various guises; Ian Dury, Elvis, Joy Division, Madness, Specials, Cure, Wire, Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrops, Simple Minds, U2 etc. etc., these lead on to Magazine, Cocteau Twins, Chameleons, Smiths and New Order (aaah halcyon daze).
As these bands progressed their songs grew longer and more complex, with sweeping instrumentation and obscure, often drug related imagery. Albums were less a collection of their latest songs more of a self contained magnum opus (try Pornography or almost anything by the Cocteaus). Many bands like to show off their improved musicianship with their later work (even if the original inspiration is no longer there) especially U2 and Simple Minds.
More recently bands have gone through the loud raucous phase followed by longer songs and instrumental breaks. E.g. Radiohead, the Bends is a classic rock album, OK computer, probably the best album Pink Floyd never made.
Prog rock never really went away, it just cut its hair and stopped wearing flares.