[atlantaprog] Re: Give Me That Old Time Prog Rock

Excellent, excellent piece.  Says just about everything I could ever say
to explain my feelings about progessive rock.  I have yet to hear a
"prog" band, "piece", or album newer than about 1986 (when Rush finally
fell off the wagon, somewhere in the middle of MIDItown) that does
anything for me.  This essay really hits home w/ the EVH factor -- I can
very much agree with that time period being really the "end of prog" as
I ever cared for it.  Prog-Metal, in my experience and proably worthless
opinion, is anything but the amazing "chocolate-in-my-peanut butter"
sensation that the rest of the prog crowd seems to regard it as.  Wanky
and stanky is my take on every bit of it that I've ever heard.  Again, I
say this in full acknowledgement of my ignorance of plenty of the prog
landscape (i.e. the Italian acts mentioned).  But to me, the difference
is completely about songwriting and melody -- it's almost completely
absent in modern prog.

BUT...
While the author correctly cites the superior compositional and
technical proficiency of the first generation of prog players/artists as
being directly grounded in classical and jazz learning, as opposed to
2nd and 3rd generation copies/distillations of such, he utterly fails to
touch on the elements that REALLY made that stuff swing: Pop
sensibility.

The hard cold fact is that even the most overblown classic prog piece,
i.e.  the cited "Supper's Ready", is absolutely LOADED with amazing
hooks, well-crafted melodies, and other elements of popular song.  
The best Rush tunes are all classic pop songs -- which is why they're
still Classic Rock radio staples.  Are they complex?  Often.  But can
you hum them?  Always.  ELP, for all their adaptations of modern
classical pieces, did it in a way that even the average Prole could dig.
Yes, as any original member would tell you, is as much influenced by the
Beatles and Motown as Bach and Mozart.  Chris Squire picked up the bass
out of emulation of John Entwistle, not Pablo Cassals.
Even the venerated King Crimson's best material has easily recognizable
melodies and themes that one can only refer to as "hooks".

To me, that's what's consistently missing in modern prog across all
strata:  The "music" aspect of it.  Great players or no, if you don't
"get it" w/r/t the fact that even prog falls into that vast tub of lard
we call Popular Music, you probably aren't going to get much of an
audience.  

This is not to say that Prog needs dumbing down, or that there's only a
certain level of complexity or edginess permitted.  That's missing my
point.  I totally respect the most out there of avant-garde composition
and performance, and always will.  But what I really respect is
musicians who can do that sort of thing in a way that's so accessible,
the audience doesn't even know it's happening.

RE: the aspect of innovation; is there really anthing new under the sun?
I'd say, if there is, it certainly isn't in the realm of what any of us
might term "progressive rock", esp. as it exists now.  Or for that
matter as it existed then -- it died a death because it lived out its
service life.  That which is "progressive" now is significantly
different from what was "progressive" in 1969 or 1976 or 1982.  I
personally believe that even such as Radiohead is about 100 times more
progressive than most stuck-in-a-rut "prog rock" of today.


I couldn't break my $1, so you get significantly more than 2 cents from
my sorry ass....

Tally-ho!
-Andy Tegethoff


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