What are your Progressive Rock Roots?

My Prog rock roots lie in my father playing music to me from a VERY early age. We used to have sunday lunch then retire to the living room and he would play albums for a couple of hours in between cat naps. He introduced me to Classical music, Jazz, Easy listening everything except Rock and roll. He hated "pop" with a vengence and as I grew into the rebellious little git that I was to become I started listening to more and more, what I thought, outrageous stuff. It got to the stage where when I got my first record player (a fidelity unit that blasted out all of 10 watts) and would play The Doors or Yes or Genesis while sitting on top of my wardrobe, a voice would bellow "TURN THAT BLOODY DOPE SMOKING MUSIC DOWN.....NOW!!!!!"

Obviously the classical music that I loved (and still love) moved me towards the more melodic music that Prog offered. I liked experimentation (in all things) and again the concept albums that were in abundance in the 70s were a perfect vehicle for my ever expanding taste.

Now that I'm 47 going on 16 none of that enthusiasm has died and I still look out for new bands and albums.......thank you AM.

However, even though the new bands I've discovered through AM are good they will never recapture those moments of the 70s of watching Yes, Focus, Genesis, Tull, Camel..........etc. perform their magnum opuses (opi??) for the first time.

What beautiful moments in my life they were.

[Rick and Roll]

just kidding.

I don't think I could handle being a teenager in the early 70's (I just missed).

Originally posted by Rick and Roll
just kidding.

I don't think I could handle being a teenager in the early 70's (I just missed).

Don't laugh man....I did go and see Lonnie Donegan when he was in his skiffling prime. I loved his song "The Battle of New Orleans" and I still have it on my JukeBox here at home.

[Rick and Roll]

very cool to hear a local perspective on British music -

is this a Jukebox in the traditional sense? tell me more!

Originally posted by Rick and Roll
is this a Jukebox in the traditional sense? tell me more!

It's a NSM Satellite 200. One of the first "electronic" Jukes to be made.

I takes 100 7" singles and has a primitive sound/light display.

I bought it because I have a collection of over 600 singles and as my deck isn't one of the old multi-play "record bashers" it seemed like the best option. I change the records every month or so.

I really wanted a Wurlitzer but the cost was prohibitive. Even so, I still love the machine I've got and would never part with it.

Just playing 252 "The Zombies" - 'She's not there'.

Well no-one told me about her, the way she lied.

[Rick and Roll]

Neat!

Mr. Rod Argent, huh?

Hold your head high!

Originally posted by Rick and Roll
Neat!

Mr. Rod Argent, huh?

Hold your head high!

That's a good point Rick........

Hey Jim, how about some Argent for the Playlist?

I know there's a bit of Solo rod Argent but the bands Live album "Encore" is worth a play or two.

[progdirjim(Admin)]

Argent - as always, we'll consider it. Haven't listened to the classic era Argent in a LONG time....

[Rick and Roll]

So good to hear, even though you make me feel old.

[Methem]

(Another old, obviously interesting thread.)

[Methem]

My general musical story is pretty much as follows...

The first musical experiences I can remember are probably from the early 1980s or from the mid-1980s. I was a child then, under 10 years old. My father used to have an old Beatles LP, perhaps some collection. I remember liking it. He also listened early Santana (especially Abraxas), and I liked that too. Later, still as a rather small kid, I remember liking Weather Report as well: "Birdland", probably "Teentown", etc.

In the 1980s, I often spent time listening to audio cassettes that my father had recorded from various Finnish radio shows. He sometimes just recorded shows without obviously paying much attention to whether the content was worth recording. So I got to listen to a mix of pop, rock, disco, and all sort of other stuff. I remember liking some of that pop stuff, some of the disco, but also some of the more sophisticated music that had somehow managed to slip in to those recordings. I now know that I have liked, for example, Styx's "Come Sail Away" and Klaatu's "Calling Occupants..." for many years, but it wasn't until I discovered the Moon that I got to know who the artists actually performing those songs are.

In the early 1990s, as a teenager, I discovered eletronic dance music. I used to listen to it from radio. Eurodance (eek), some breakbeatish stuff like Prodigy, house music, a little bit of rap, and so on. A lot of that music was/is pretty cheap and cheesy, but something in it fascinated me anyway. At the same time, many of my schoolmates were usually into Metallica and other thrash metal bands.

In the mid-1990s, while still somewhat into that dancey stuff and obviously rap, I got again a bit more interested in the old rock. Saw Tull's Living In The Past somewhere and bought it. The music felt a bit odd, but I certainly liked it, back then (these days I don't seem to be so excited about the band). Other artists I can remember bying (even if it was just one CD per group) include Procol Harum, Fleetwood Mac, Jimi, Kinks (is that really rock? obviously), and so on. Also bought some Woodstock collection. A few years later, I bought something by Airplane and Steppenwolf, and so on.

In the late 1996 (pretty late, yep), I started listening to Black Sabbath. They, the original 1970s band, are probably the band I've listened the most ever in my life. Sabbath paved the way to my modest trip to more metallic side of music: Bought some Anathema, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride; all originally classified as "doom metal" bands, methinks. Bought a couple of Metallicas, something by Manowar , Blind Guardian, even one Norwegian album that I believe was some sort of black metal. And so on.

In 2000 I more or less drifted back to dance music. Soon discovered goatrance/psytrance, which is psychedelic eletronic dance "music", often with ethnic influence. Astral Projection is one of the most well-known groups making that sort of stuff. I also believe Eat Static is often classified as a psytrance group, among others...?

In the late 1990s or 2000, around those times, I also started to get a little bit more interested in world music and folkish stuff, I think. Transglobal Underground's Yes Boss Food Corner (funky name) was probably my first album in that area...

Then, a bit over couple of years ago I discovered the Moon. As someone who had an idea about what prog. rock is but who obviously hadn't seriously explored the, hmmm, phenomena before, I took this place as an opportunity to learn more about the music. And since then I've discovered many interesting bands completely new to me and bought several nice albums. However, to be honest, not everything I've heard here has fascinated me. I must admit that I'm one of those oddies who doesn't care too much about Genesis or King Crimson...


-Methem

[VERNIXX]

My Progressive Rock Roots?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Well, I was a child of the 70's....listening to Kiss and Alice Cooper. I loved popular music.

Then an older kid (a teenager) in my neighborhood turned me onto Kansas' Masque, King Crimson's Larks Tongues, and Soft Machine Third. I was instantly warped and twisted. I bought every album I could by Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Camel, Wyatt, Genesis, Magma, Gong, Caravan.....it just became an obsession. And the obsession still grows.

I've been listening to this site for 3 years and only recently decieded to post in the forums and join! Hotcha indeeeeed.....

[Rick and Roll]

Originally Posted by VERNIXX

I've been listening to this site for 3 years and only recently decieded to post in the forums and join! Hotcha indeeeeed.....

Now that explains who the other listeners are.....nice to see you here..

[PeterG]

Dug deep and found this thread... so here is my 2 cents...

There are three things that stick out in my memory about my musical tastes...

1. (1972) I remember hanging out with my buddy Kevin, in his backyard. Probably blowing up GI Joes or attaching bottle rockets to a a variety of objects... listening to the radio. "Brandy, you're a fine girl... , Cat Stevens, Carpenters..." you know the drivel.. but we just loved Frankenstein by Edgar Winter... what a freaky song by a freaky artist... so unusual...

2. (1972) I remember hanging out with my buddy Kevin, and we went to the record store... We were each buying our 'first' album. He talked me into buying the first Black Sabbath album. I talked him into buying "Close to the Edge" We get back to his house and after a couple listens of both we mutually decide to trade... he wanted Black Sabbath and I was blown away by "Close to the Edge"

3. (1973) I remember hanging out with my buddy Kevin, he was 10 , I was 12. He had a sister that was 10 years older and she had an apartment. We used to ride our bikes over there and she would give us lemonade and cookies. She had a great album collection... lots of classic rock and 60's stuff... but we were focused on her new album by Mike Oldfield... listened to it every week "Tubular Bells" She got it after seeing "The Exorcist" Her husband (some call him Tim) was continually freaked out by the lyrics in part two. He'd get up and leave saying "Oh Jesus, it's the Devil"

I didn't realize for years that i was a progger .. I was listening to KISS in '76 when I stole some 8 track tapes from my sisters boyfriend... I remember getting ELPs first album and some Moodies... Got into King Crimson and my friends thought I was weird... bought the UK albums when they came out... couldn't get my buddies 'into' it... the same fore Wakeman albums... they couldn't care less... LOSERS!

[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.

[gr8sho92]

Originally Posted by KeithieW

My Prog rock roots lie in my father playing music to me from a VERY early age. <snip>

I'll use KeithieWs response to start my post for 3 reasons, first because the quoted text applies directly to me, second, because we're both the same age, and third because I also had a puny 10W p-h-o-n-o-g-r-a-p-h. For those too young to remember, these archaic machines played large black plastic vinyl discs that spun around and reproduced music via a fine needle riding in grooves.

And so even though I grew up listening to mostly italian 60s pop because of my father, prog was the first music all mine that I adopted in a conspiracy with my friends of the day back in late 1974 when I lived in Ostia. Sure I had seen Dark Side of the Moon be number one on the hit parade for a few years, but that really didn't mean anything to me at all until our little clique decided PFM was cool and bought their records, Live in USA being my first and still have that album. So we would spend time playing these records, Floyd's Ummagumma, and Deep Purple's Live in Japan and Burn.

When I returned back to the states in 1975, I continued my like of both prog and hard rock. For the former (won't bother you with the latter), I got Chocolate Kings when that came out, added albums like Trick of the Tail (one of my absolute all time favorite albums), Wish You Were Here, Animals, Wind and Wuthering, ELP's Works vol 1, and several others.

As things evolved and my perception that prog had all but died in the 80s and 90s, I now find I am once again listening to prog now almost exclusively on iPod, and AM of course.

As for why bands like Yes and Jethro Tull aren't mentioned, all I can say is that while I like them, I'm thinking I was overdosed by them on stations in NY like PLJ and NEW that played their "hit" songs over and over to the point I had had enough. I have since repented...

I have to also say that it helps when your favorite band releases a new album and it's considered cool. In case you don't know, I absolutely love Stati Di Immaginazione.

Cheers,
Carl

[secrettouch2me]

I can relate to most of these stories. Glad to be living amoung the finest musicians

[jaco]

i got turned on by my cousin in the 70's and am so grateful for that

to me progressive rock is a fulll music sound that brings other types of music into rock, via composition of skilled musicians amazing other musicians

[gm7b52001]

As a teenager, I used to listen to Allison Steele, and Scott Muney on NYs WNEW.
I am pretty sure it was Scotso that turned me on to King Crimson. In fact I think he debuted "The Court.." on his show, It just blew me away! I was probably stoned at the time.
A friend of mine, who was in band turned me on to "Close to the Edge". He had his stereo wired up to these two huge Custom rolled and pleated sparkle red speaker (you old timers know exactly what I'm talking about) cabinets.
I'm pretty sure I was stoned then too. I never heard anything like it before (or since). This guy later formed a band named Cathedral..not the British one by the same name. They only hand one album .."Stained Glass Stories" It's on the moon, so I try to request cuts from it from time to time when the queue isn't so full.
Some Latin musician friends turned me on to Return to Forever at a party. So I guess that's when I stated to dig fusion. (I'm sure I was stoned that time)
I started listening to Zappa just for the guitar solos, and then later appreciated the jazz composition of his tunes. Ahh.. Inca Roads, Black Napkins.

[Rick and Roll]

Originally Posted by gm7b52001

As a teenager, I used to listen to Allison Steele, and Scott Muney on NYs WNEW.
I am pretty sure it was Scotso that turned me on to King Crimson. In fact I think he debuted "The Court.." on his show, It just blew me away! I was probably stoned at the time.
A friend of mine, who was in band turned me on to "Close to the Edge". He had his stereo wired up to these two huge Custom rolled and pleated sparkle red speaker (you old timers know exactly what I'm talking about) cabinets.
I'm pretty sure I was stoned then too. I never heard anything like it before (or since). This guy later formed a band named Cathedral..not the British one by the same name. They only hand one album .."Stained Glass Stories" It's on the moon, so I try to request cuts from it from time to time when the queue isn't so full.
Some Latin musician friends turned me on to Return to Forever at a party. So I guess that's when I stated to dig fusion. (I'm sure I was stoned that time)
I started listening to Zappa just for the guitar solos, and then later appreciated the jazz composition of his tunes. Ahh.. Inca Roads, Black Napkins.

Anyone guess the common theme here?