Favorite Prog band- then and now

[clactdj]

What was your favorite Prog band when you first got into Prog, and what year was it?
Also, what is your favorite Prog band now?

While I listened to college radio as early as '71, I didn't hear a lot of Prog or wasn't very aware of it. It was my older brother's birthday party in the summer of '72 when my ears were truly opened to this wonderful world.

Ronnie was opening presents and became VERY EXCITED when he opened the brand new ELP album. He immediately cued up "Hoedown", turned it up LOUD, and went into a Keith Emerson imitation. Later that day Ronnie chewed me out for listening to "HIS album". (I was 12 at the time).

Guess what album I received for Christmas? To this day, Trilogy is like an old friend. "The Endless Enigma" is a great wake up song for me on lazy mornings. I became a ELP fan. I also started listening to Genesis and Pink Floyd. I didn't know much about a band named Yes except that my oldest brother had "Close To The Edge" on 8-track and I was not allowed to TOUCH his 8-track!

I remember seeing a commercial for Yessongs and how cool the artwork was. I vaguely remember hearing the song on the commercial. It was "Roundabout". I liked it so much, I shelled out the 22.00 for Yessongs.
ELP remained my fave band up until Works. I enjoyed Yes a lot also, but I finally started exploring Pink Floyd's older albums. Floyd has been a favorite for many a year.

But after all the dust has cleared, Yes stands as my favorite today. The Ladder was a fantastic album. Magnification is fairly decent. But their best body of work remains with The Yes Album through Relayer.