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Originally Posted by Yesspaz
which came out first? Moody Blues' Days of Future Past, Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn, or The Mother's of Invention's Freak Out!?
The answer is the first prog rock album, in my opinion.
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I agree with Yesspaz, although unlike some folks, I would definitely include some of The Beatles stuff as prog. Actually, I think all the psychedelic stuff in the 60s (and not just the big name bands) is what evolved into prog rock. To put dates to Yesspaz's 3 picks we have (according to Amazon.com, I don't have my CDs here at work):
Freak Out = July 1, 1966
Days Of Future Passed = January 1, 1967
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn = August 5, 1967
and I'll add since it was mentioned above and close in date
Are You Experienced = January 1, 1967
So Uncle Frank wins that contest by 6 months. However, if you allow earlier Beatles releases like A Hard Day's Night (07/1964) or Help (08/1965) or Rubber Soul (12/1965) or whatever (after all, given the recording techniques available and the kind of chordal harmony being used in rock back then, the Beatles were pretty progressive IMHO) or other maybe lesser known psychedelic records from the mid 60s, you might get a different answer, but trying to define what is prog is a pretty futile excersize, it's way too subjective. Could The Rolling Stones Paint It Black or 19th Nervous Breakdown be prog? How about The Doors or Jefferson Airplane or The Byrds or Strawberry Alarm Clock or or or...? I dunno, here's a list of the top 100 singles from 1965 and as FZ would say "You figga it out!". It's kind of interesting to see the singles charts from back then, I didn't see anything that I thought was DEFINITELY prog from 1965 (Ticket To Ride or Turn, Turn, Turn maybe?), or maybe something that didn't chart...
http://musiclab.co.jp/billboard/at/n...hits_1965.html
My first prog record was Yes Fragile, which is not my favorite Yes record today, but it blew my head off at age 10 when I first heard it.