Name a tune that.............

[dinosaur]

All of the suggestions are so good...but I'll stick to ONE, KW!
To add a bit of neu-prog to the mix, along with Rick's Discipline choice, I'll go with Arena's 'Empire of a Thousand Days'.

[Richard701]

Was going to say Firth of Fifth, but that's been taken, then was going to say Awaken but that's gone as well ..... and I know I'm only allowed one choice so I'll go for Shadow of the Hierophant. Haunting vocals by Sally Oldfield at the beginning .... fantastic blend of instruments (although it's easy to say that about all Steve Hackett's compositions) then a long slow build up getting louder as each additional instrument instrument is introduced until the fade down after Steve's own Tubular Bell is introduced near the end. Why it's under 12 minutes long though defeats me .... could have been expanded to be a whole album by itself.

btw, and not a lotta people know this, it was co-written by Mike Rutherford but no matter how often I listen to it I can't find any Rutherfordesque parts of the track, to me is pure Hackett at his best.

[mossy]

Hi Richard.

Hierophant....yes.

I am tempted to say Spectral Mornings, but Hierophant it is.

[Richard701]

Originally Posted by mossy

Hi Richard.

Hierophant....yes.

I am tempted to say Spectral Mornings, but Hierophant it is.

Was going to say Spectral Mornings myself ..... just waaaaaaay too short .... have to play it five times back to back just to convince myself that it's simply one long track!

[Rick and Roll]

seems to me that Firth of Fifth is the leader. I would agree about Stardust We Are, Woj...

[Wojtek]

I could say Firth of Fifth, I could say Starless but you already have mentioned them. So to not repeat but to add something to this great collection: The Flower Kings - Stardust We Are. This is something like Ritual of modern progressive rock wave, with Stardust We Are, See How We Shine being natural progressor of We Are of The Sun, We Can See...

Originally Posted by Wojtek

We Are of The Sun, We Can See...

Korama Wojtek....................

[jtmckinley]

For me Close To The Edge is the ultimate prog track. It's got everything IMHO.

[Richard701]

I started reading and thinking this is a good thread, then half way through it I realised I'd already contributed, a year ago this week, and the first week I discovered Aural Moon (I think!)

Still voting for Shadow of the Hieraphant for the same reasons as last year

[DEzerov]

L'Isola di Niente/The Mountain - Premiata Forneria Marconi

just a few reasons:

a.chorale intro is often maligned, but very powerful imho and sets the mood
b. thunderous bass/drums/guitar after the intro.Djivas's bass runs are awesome and so powerful.
c. mellotron sweeps and airey flute and the "metallic" bell sounds
d. return to chorale, flowing into the very contemplative guitar outro

[mailotron]

Originally Posted by DEzerov

L'Isola di Niente/The Mountain - Premiata Forneria Marconi

just a few reasons:

a.chorale intro is often maligned, but very powerful imho and sets the mood
b. thunderous bass/drums/guitar after the intro.Djivas's bass runs are awesome and so powerful.
c. mellotron sweeps and airey flute and the "metallic" bell sounds
d. return to chorale, flowing into the very contemplative guitar outro

I like this track so much Dez but i must confess vocals on the english version are poor

[DEzerov]

that's why I listed both titles

Considering that they were singing in a language that they only had a rudimentary concept of, I've always overlooked the sub-par vocals...Probably would have been the same if I tried to do the vocals on Dracula today...

[Elric68]

Only one track ? I guess the first that comes to my mind as the typical and ideal prog song is Firth Of Fifth, which is the 1st prog track I ever listened as far as I can remember, and still one of my favourites:

It's between 10 and 15 minutes long, depending on the versions, there's a long (and a bit sad) instrumental part (sadness is an element you can find often in prog music and that I love), very emotionnal, and there are a few rythm changes during the song, so it's THE prog track