[DEzerov]

I always find it interesting to read the interests and perspectives of other Moonies. It makes one feel closer, since actually meeting or spending time in person with others may be prohibitive for some.

Anyway…my Prog roots go back to my parents’ love of music. Both sang in church choirs, Mom was self-taught on the piano and Dad played a bit of mandolin.

We had one of those bound 12 LP sets of the classics… Stravinsky, Berlioz, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Sibelius, et al. when I was very young. There was also a collection of big-band and swing….8 to 10 disks, I think. All the stars…Lionel Hampton, Kay Kaiser, The Dorsey Brothers, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Xavier Cugot, and many more.

Seeing the Beatles live on Ed Sullivan when they first appeared on Feb. 9, 1964 was an instrumental moment in my interest in rock as were appearances by the Rolling Stones, the Mamas and the Papas and the Doors.

Most instrumental was probably a Sunday night “underground” show called “Sunday Subway” that aired on my local AM rocker. This is where I first heard In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Steppenwolf’s Monster, Jefferson Airplane’s Volunteers, Tim Hardin’s Bird On A Wire, Uriah Heep’s Look At Yourself, White Bird and of course, In the Court of the Crimson King.

I suppose my passion for Prog is a result of these influences and countless others. And I reckon, as most of us do, that our passion for Prog is as much a part of our lives as our tastes in food and drinks are, what we like to read and who we choose to associate with.