[atlantaprog] Re: prog

The thing to look at is
Emerson's songwriting.  - Jack

So Emerson is a better *composer* than them, too?

I wouldn't say "better"... I would say "different". It's not fair to judge Emerson's compositional chops by European classical traditions. While many off the dead Europeans were brilliant, most of them were operating within a prescribed set of rules and conventions. Their brilliance was they way they were able to take these very conservative constraints and create works of lasting beauty and integrity, but seldom would one of them try and break out of those rules and conventions. Emerson's compositional brilliance came from the fact that he was working within a different set of rules and conventions - ie rock music - and he DID mange to break out of their constraints and create some new and previously unheard. Sometimes his attempts fell on their face, but other times he created works that, in the prog genre, are every bit as powerful as some of the classic masterpieces are in the classical idiom. Indeed, this breaking out of rocks constraints is (was?) the very essence of prog.


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