Plunging headlong into prog-rock...

[SweetZombieJesus]

I'm burning two Yes albums and Genesis "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". Will I be:

a.) Bored silly
b.) Astounded
c.) Sort of entertained, but not blown away

[Khephra]

1. A bit of "A" and a bit of "C"

That's my take.

[SweetZombieJesus]

2. Well, I've got a King Crimson album that I kind of like

Figured I might as well give it a try.

[Ivory_Tower]

3. Which two Yes albums?

If it's their earlier stuff you'll love it -- or maybe not. It depends. I love their early stuff, but even their later albums have some good songs.

"Lamb" is a great album. In fact, I had "Fly on a Windshield" running through my head when I saw this post.

Prog-rock isn't for everyone, so I don't really try to evangelize. Besides, I like too many styles of music to push one genre over another.

On edit: Okay, and which King Crimson album?

[SweetZombieJesus]

4. "Fragile" and "Close To The Edge"

I've also heard Tales From Topographic Oceans is good too, should I get that?

And the King Crimson album I have is "In The Court Of The Crimson King".

[Ivory_Tower]

5. Ah, two classics

"Fragile" is probably one of the more accessible prog-rock albums out there. That album made me want to be Rick Wakeman when I was a kid.

The title track to "Close to the Edge" is epic. Really powerful, at least to me when I was geeky teenager. But I still love the live versions of it.

"Topographic Oceans" isn't bad, but it's a lot more self-indulgent. I know a lot of people that can't stand that album. In fact, I remember hearing a rumor that Rick Wakeman rejoined Yes only on the condition that they not perform songs from that album.

I think you probably picked their two best albums. I liked "90125" (or whatever it was called) when it came out, but it's definitely more 80's-ish.

Look for their live albums, especially "Yessongs".

"Court of the Crimson King" is a great one, too, if only for "21st Century Schizoid Man". I'm a big Robert Fripp fan, so I tend to like all the various incarnations of KC. I have to admit that like their later work best, though. (with Fripp, Adrian Belew, Bill Bruford, Tony Levin...)

[CanuckAmok]

7. "This is a dangerous place...." n/t

[Ivory_Tower]

10. "I repeat myself when I'm under stress"

I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat myself when under stress.
I repeat..
The more I look at it,
The more I like it.
I do think it’s good.
The fact is..
No matter how closely I study it,
No matter how I take it apart,
No matter how I break it down,
It remains consistant.
I wish you were here to see it.
I like it.

:)

[DBoon]

14. Lark's Tongue in Aspic

Another King Crimson album I like. If you find it give it a try.

[newyawker99]

18. Congrats DBoon!! 400 posts

:toast:

[carpetbagger]

11. Some good choices.

Close to the Edge and Fragile are both good efforts. There's some tracks I like better than others on Fragile.

Tales from Topographic Oceans is more of a purist's album. If you want more Yes, I'd go with Yesterdays, which is a "best of" the two albums ("Yes" and "Time and a Word") they put out before breaking it big with "The Yes Album"). The Yes Album is also a more accessible album, similar to Yesterdays, but with more familiar tracks (Yours Is No Disgrace, Starship Trooper, All Good People).

"Court of the Crimson King" has some incredible tracks. The title track was my HS garage band's "Dazed and Confused" type song, the one that went on for about 30-40 minutes, longer if feuled by herbs. 21st C. Schizoid Man is probably the most "typical" of King Crimson's sound, but this album, the only one with Greg Lake's full participation, favors a sound that's as much ELP as Crimson (it's spacy, more Moody Blues/Pink Floyd than anything else, heavy on flute and vocals with a relatively weak beat). Moonchild goes on a bit much, but Epitath and I Talk to the Wind are brilliant, brilliant pieces. I once drove from El Paso to San Antonio listening almost exclusively to those two tracks.

[DBoon]

12. Early vs Late Yes

Earlier Yes albums are more jazz influenced, less grandiose.

"The Yes Album" and "A Time and A Word" for example.

By Fragile, they are showing off some vituosity and creating longer more complex "classical" pieces. Not that that's bad.

"Close to the Edge" is in my opinion Yes at their finest. "Topographic Oceans" is Yes going through their mannerist stage - not breaking new ground but developing their style to its logical conclusion. Topographic Oceans is very mystical and very dreamy. A good album to smoke dope by.

Their next album, Relayer, is simpler and more basically rock-and-roll. Maybe a bit more like Rush.

I'm not familiar with any Yes albums that came after Relayer. At that point in my life I discovered Punk and New Wave....

[Fight_n_back]

6. prog rock is a weird misnomer

To feel better about yourself, think of Yes and Genesis as Jazz based rock.

Think of Gentle Giant as "prog rock".

[Ivory_Tower]

8. Funny

I would have done the opposite: I look at Gentle Giant and 70's-era King Crimson as jazz-rock. I viewed Yes and Genesis more as "classical-rock" (along with bands like Renaissance and ELP) since they stole so many themes from classical works.

Something I never learned until a couple of years ago is that Italian prog-rock (PFM, Banco, Area, etc.) is viewed by many as a completely separate genre! (Talk about splitting hairs...)

[pink_poodle]

9. Totally bored. It was okay "then" but to hear this stuff now, really.....

really, really, really sucks. Big time. Do not try this alone. Honestly. And that goes for most of that 70's stuff some 30 years later.

[FDRrocks]

13. AS long as you're at it...

Go buy or download some Dream Theatre. Mike Portney is a great drummer! I mean Neil Peart level.

I might just be talking drummers lingo.

[0rganism]

15. Unless you're doing this for historic purposes, you'll probably be bored

I'd recommend starting with the later King Crimson albums and working backwards. the construction of light and Thrak are probably more listenable for the prog newbie than In the Wake of Poseidon, for instance.

The two Yes albums you mentioned were revolutionary in their day, but have long since been overtaken by other musical experiments.

Lamb, while it does have some amazing prog moments, is more of a "broadway" piece, Peter Gabriel's swan song if you will. I found the albums right after Gabriel left the band to be more "proggish", such as Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering. With the departure of Gabriel and Hackett, Genesis quickly became very un-prog. I blame Tony Banks.

If you're going to start in the way back machine, don't just listen to the prog groups in isolation. They were a later part of the "British invasion" which brought us The Beatles and all the good early metal/hard rock (Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin). There's also quite a bit of crossover among members of these bands; for instance, Cozy Powell got his big start playing in the Jeff Beck Group, did a brief stint with Deep Purple, and also signed on with Kieth Emerson and Greg Lake for the E-L-Powell albums. That's the same Greg Lake, by the way, who does bass and vocals on your King Crimson album. It goes on and on like this, very incestuous.

So you'll want to be listening to '70s Jeff Beck, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, and The Who, just to put it in context for the other stuff that was coming across the ocean at about the same time. Gentle Giant isn't just some oddball band playing obscure complicated music, they're a logical extension of what was already there.

[DBoon]

17. Consider the Who

Started as a kind of British invasion punk band, loud, smashed their instruments.

Then came out with a "rock opera" Tommy.

A few years later, did the same with "Quadrophenia"

Or Jethro Tull, starting with jazz-influenced rock in "Stand Up", eventually moving to full album "prog rock" compositions like "Thick As A Brick" and "Passion Play"

Progressive rock in the mid-70's is really a natural evolution of the rock experiments of the mid-60s. Organism is right about this, and also right that prog rock extended its influence over the entire music scene. Heck, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" even had Rick Wakeman on keyboards originally.

[Snow]

16. A good friend is lead singer for "Sigi"

don't have a clue what the hell his group is all about; I like classical music, opera & so forth. Oddly, he's an opera buff too - but his band's supposed to be pretty good - look 'em up, see what you think.

[NashVegas]

19. For a Really Interesting Take on the Genesis

Seek out Jeff Buckley's version of "Back in NYC." Fucking brilliant.

Else:

If you never exposed yourself to this type of stuff before, I mean, *really* un-exposed, some of it might strike you as astounding, at least initially. It's not bad, it just got over-indulgent. It was great to have on while writing English papers, back in its day.

Could be worse. You could be burning post-Peter Gabriel Genesis. Then we'd have to laugh at you.