For me it started with Queen's Prophet Song. From there it went to ELP, Tull, Rush, T2's Boomland...for some reason I could not stomach Yes or Genesis...in the case of the latter I just did not dig deep enough, the former I just found too bombastic, the stuff I heard anyway. And - except for ELP - I was into the guitars, and I found Howe too squealy and messy, not meaty enough. I had (still have) one foot in serious hard rock.

Then, in 1981 - by the time it was all over for them - Van der Graaf Generator blasted onto my scene. They went totally against the guitar-based stuff I liked so much. Saxophones? WTF? but it just WORKED.

Now I've branched out a bit more with the prog - I still enjoy the rock, a little progressive metal, jazz and fusion, et al - but keyboard wizardry is not a big thing for me. Not because I avoid it, it just generally leaves me cold. The keyboard/synthesizer washes on a lot of the mid-period Rush albums are a bit annoying at times.

Aerosol