What are your Progressive Rock Roots?

[schupdoggy]

My early musical intersests were Classical (still am a tchaikovsky fan) and the golden age of country. The first rock & roll I listened to was the 50's stuff and A.M. radio songs in the 60's. I finally heared a band called Black Sabbath in the early 70's and instantly became a hard rock fan (Zep, Purple, Grand Funk etc. etc.) I started listening to Wishbone Ash and Jethro Tull a lot during that time as well, along with Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Queen. Most of my friends hated that stuff, but I always dug the time changes and the instumental passages. I've been a prog fan ever since. Still a hard/metal/classical fan (King's X totally kicks butt) but I listen to mostly prog these days.

[mossy]

My music roots pretty much grew out of prog-folk and folk in the 70's - Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention, Strawbs, John Martyn, Pentangle, Amazing Blondel, Incredible String Band, John Renbourn, Jansch, Steeleye Span, Dan Ar Braz, Alain Stivell, Malicorne, Quebecois prog folk groups, and very much Nick Drake. I started on early Genesis at the same time, so it was sort of a parallel line of discovery.

Other than that, grew up with a classical and choral appreciating family.

[artboy]

When I was VERY young.. all I liked was the Monkees (The Birds the Bees and the Monkees still gets a listen to now and then!)... the first album I ever bought was Tommy ....the first band I listened to seriously as a child (early 70's) was Chicago (which had some heavy prog sounds.) The first prog band I REALLY liked was Yes (Yessongs was my first Yes Album...Long Distance Runaround on Yessongs is still my favorite recording of Yes)....next was KC and VDGG...after that Brian Eno stole my soul...I never really liked the Beatles...is that weird?...well I like Blackbird.. the white album...other than I can live without their music....never did much for me.

[Rick and Roll]

Originally Posted by artboy

When I was VERY young.. all I liked was the Monkees (Daydream Believer RULES!)... the first album I ever bought was Tommy ....the first band I listened to seriously as a child (early 70's) was Chicago (which had some heavy prog sounds.) The first prog band I REALLY liked was Yes (Yessongs was my first Yes Album)....next was KC and VDGG...after that Brian Eno stole my soul...I never really liked the Beatles...is that weird?...well I like Blackbird.. the white album...other than that I can live without their music.

Chicago yes....

How about Rush, Artboy? C'mon you know you want it!

[artboy]

Originally Posted by progdirjim

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

ARGENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......needs to be on the Moon!

[artboy]

Originally Posted by Rick and Roll

Chicago yes....

How about Rush, Artboy? C'mon you know you want it!

FUNNY RICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....LOL....Actually... I have 2112 and Fly by Night.. the newer albums are too stylized for my liking

[sharcnorris]

As a young teen in the 60's, 16 in 1969, Hitchhiking Europe in 1971. I lived the Prog Life. I would sit at 3 in the Morning in the Album rock Studio with my DJ friends, smoking weed and Opening all the Newest stuff mailed to the Station... I heard keithie scream on those live LP's when they Came out.

Prog started as pychodelic.Beach Boys, Beatles, Who's Tommy, Spirit, Arthur Lee's Love, Ogden's NutgoneFlake by the Small Faces, Moody Blues, the Nice, Vanilla Fudge, Santana, I think it was the blossoming of True Musicians in a 3 chord world

Thats all I liked, not much american rock, Not the Tweeners, ...Boston, Steely Dan etc

I played Organ to Doors Covers and the Yardbirds on my Farfisa
Late Night I had a transistor Radio under my pillow. I would listen to college Radio Jazz, Organ based Trios, Lionel Hampton's Vibraphones... I was All Keyboards all the time.

I was a fullfledged Anti-War/Nixon Hippie by 1969, I lived 2 hours from Woodstock here in Ct., but minus the Who and Santana ( both I had already seen that year) it wasnt Prog enough for me!
then I heard IN THE COURT, then Yes, and It all exploded.......

I would like to speak to hindsight compared to lived experience.
To get an Lp, live with it for 100's of plays for a year and then get the New release is an evolution in Society. As Pop changed so did Prog, Oldfields Disco Feel, Top 100 Genesis, Camels Single Factor, P.G's sledgehammer, all were evolutions for the time
Judging a Groups whole output is quite differant then growing with them in the time of production. The Artists are the Same, But the Times Changed the Music, as The Music made a Backdrop for the Times.

[spewie]

My roots run very deep, and long. I started understanding Progressive at about the age of 13, while my brothers and sisters were playing AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Nazareth, I was listining to ELO, Guess Who, Styx, and Ambrosia.

It was about 1976 that I was first introduced to the word Progressive, as I was sat down in front of a stereo and had the pleasure of listening to hours of Alan Parsons Project, and Camel. Well to say the least after that I was hooked. About a week later I heard my first broadcast of Greg Stone on a program called Stone Trek that used to play on a staion called KOME in San Jose, CA.

Every Sunday night for 4 hours he would spin the best of Progressive wax, and I would just there mesmorized by it all. If I remeber correctly it took me about a year before I could tell when one song ended and another began. But once I figured that out I never looked back.

My tastes now go in many directions, from Bluegrass, Jazz, Symphopnic, Fusion, and the Grateful Dead (just for the record I will be at the Summer of Love festival in San francisco). But Progressive has always and will always be my first listening choice.

Thanks for the memories!
Spewie!

[OverHillandDale(Admin)]

My progressive roots go back to what my parents fed me musically as a yute. I got the best of the classics and the avante garde classics as well. I was taught piano, clarinet and later picked up the bass guitar. Along with classical music I also really like jazz, as did my parents. Mostly west coast stuff, Dad was hep on Dixieland, and jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd. My mom liked Mel Torme, Marion McPartland and other simple style pianists. Me, I loved to play Gershwin, Chopin, Liszt

Well, by the 60's an open minded young lad found Chicago Transit Authority and Blood Sweat & Tears. So listening to the top 20 was out of the question. WHFS in Washington D.C. was where I cut my teeth. It was more Psychedelic Rock/Hard Rock but it still led to my introduction to Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead and Rennaissance. But let's not leave out the glam rock coming out in the early70's. David Bowie was tops. And he got a lot of play on the lunchtime radio I ran for my H.S. Cafeteria. As did the Beatles, Allmans, Led Zep, Santana, Hendrix and Doobie Brothers. The bands I played bass for at the time were mostly blues/rock. Clapton, Allmans, Hendrix and the like.

By 72 I had become a split personality. On the one hand I had the hard rock I loved, but Yes was starting to rule my heart and soul. When YesSongs came out, that did it for me. I was forever and always then a YesHead. And what's a bass player not going to admire about Squire. Saw them 3 times within 4 years (tour after yessongs, Relayer, and Topographic Oceans).

This also led a search for other groups and I increased my collection of Genesis, King Crimson, ELP, Nektar, PFM and Flash (peter banks). I almost bought an Arp Synthesizer to further my musical career and possibly go to Berkely College of Music in Boston. But I realized I just didn't have the chops. I was to remain an appreciator rather than a creator. But I did find an artistic outlet in Theatre, where I used my prog rock several times in dance compositions (mostly king crimson - starless/bible black era).

I remain a YesHead to this day, but I respect so much because of what they represent. I respect musicianship. I respect many musical influences and appreciate the jazz influences as well as classical. It's very easy to see when groups have neither, and they ususally don't last long.

Finding Aural Moon has reopened my young passion for this music. I so enjoy having this space to hear new music and share it with like-minds and souls. A place I can get my jazz fix, rock fix, prog fix, and bad mouth Microsoft.

[artboy]

Originally Posted by OverHillandDale

When YesSongs came out, that did it for me. I was forever and always then a YesHead. And what's a bass player not going to admire about Squire.

Speaking of Squire....I wore out 4 "Fish out of Water" albums (my favorite album of all time).... Also...glad to see someone else here that found the truth because of Yessongs... that in my humble opinion is the best live album EVER recorded... and the video is just as great!... WHY ON EARTH IS YESSONGS NOT ON THE MOON?????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????

Also...Robert Moog lived down the street from me...guess his mystique sparked my curiosity in prog during the early 70's

[podakayne]

so i was a child of the midwest listening to motown(sibblings), jazz(mom...and at dad's house jazz & latin stuff was a musician) and classical stuff(me i wanted to do opera) then we moved west to berkeley, ca...during the mid 60's a great time to be there, i'd always liked that "weird" music (you have to remember this is a black household) and psychodelia was at it's height in the bay area. so i had my ears in a lot of different musical genre...i got introduced to a progressive sound i suppose thru a dance teacher (modern) this was gary macfarland jazz(america the beautiful). i really took to that sound as well as emerging artist of the time moody blues, very early pink(which played underground). but i wasn't much paying attention to any artist...my then stepfather called himself giving a gag prize of the beatles st. pepper 8-track to his girls at one point he didn't think any of us would like it....one divorce and move back to the midwest later i'm back in chicago, missing CA like crazy, up late doing a mural on the attic wall and surfing the fm dial for musical inspiration....and low i hear greg lake, robert fripp & company playing "i talk to the wind" i was hypnotized the station then went off the air (1 or 2 am)...i looked for them the next day, only to find it played only in the evenings starting about 8, Triad radio with a dj named saul became my chief guru for the next few years. he played "freeform radio" especially and won me over the next week with Yes, ELP, Roxy Music (love ferry...and Eno took my breath away)

it was only then that i started to buy the music and pay attention to some of the individual artist...then i knew "oh i like this because that guy is on it , or producing it(todd rundgren)" etc etc. ...i still liked r&B&soul for dancing, but i bought mostly progressive stuff when i look at what i have...(some rock Chicago, Police, Allman brothers and I love Steely DAN) and i must agree with fellow moonbeam artboy on chris squire i wore out 2 lps and but still have the 3rd lp and bought a cd on fish out of water i so love that album (all that time i thought it was jon i loved, when it was really chris with the solo releases).

had a long period of time w/out music in the mid to late 80's, seattle proved to be a bit barren musically IMO. but with the internet i searched and have rekindled that which is prog in me...

poda..i think that explains me

[Elric68]

When I was a very young boy (8 years), I used to listen to my dad's Genesis records, especially the songs "Firth of Fifth", "Ripples", "Many too Many", "Squonk".

A few years later, he made me discover Hawkwind ("Live Chronicles"), Pendragon ("Not Of This World") and Marillion ("Script For A Jester's Tear"), then made me listen to Jazz-Rock (King Crimson, "USA", Return To Forever). These are my roots.

[Sven]

Born in 62, I grow up with "Pop" or Beat music from the local radio stations SFB, RIAS, AFN and BFBS and the classic music I heard at many weekends I spend with my grandpa, a very enthusiastic Hi-Fi-fan.

From him I get my first tape-recorder, a Telefunken Magnetophon 98. So I started to record many SF-radio plays. There I had my first contact with prog music, as background music for these radio plays.

Absolutly fascinating for me were f.e. Pink Floyd's "Remember a Day" or Hawkwind's "Silver Machine".

In the early seventies, RIAS 2 started a weekly show, every Monday from 10:00 to 10:30 pm - "Musik - Tendenz Progressiv".
A short introduction by one of the two DJs and then one complete side of a LP.
I would simply say: That changes my life.
They play any styles of prog music, from Klaus Schulze to ELP, Popol Vuh to Brain Ticket, CAN to Beggars Opera etc.

Until 74, when I enter the highschool, I spend my money for tapes and SF-/Fantasy-paperbacks (what I still collect), then I get more pocket money and I started to collect LPs.
My first one was Kraftwerk "Radioaktivitaet", many other follows, most of them Prog.

[MonkeyPhoneAlex]

I staretd out listening to alternative rock and classic rock, but i have this very station to thank for getting me into prog about 7 or 8 months ago. The story is that all my Zappa stuff is labeled as progressive rock in iTunes. One day on a whim I went into the radio section of iTunes and opened up the classic rock stations. I saw aural moon, which in the description called iteslef the net's prgressive rock garden, and thought it sounded interesting. I turned it on and was hooked from the very start. I started off with bands like Camel, Ozric Tentacles, and King Crismon, but have since expanded my prog knowledge to all corners of the genre. Currently I'm listening to Magma, Yes, The Flower Kings and dredg alot.

[Mike413]

I was born in 1970 so I missed the first wave of prog as I was way too young to know about it let alone listen to it. My dad had a copy of "the Yes album" which I'm pretty sure I remember seeing and possibly hearing as a young kid but I also remember other albums he had such as ones by The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Santana, The Beatles, GF(RR ), The Doors, Janis Joplin just to name a few. I did like the Beatles starting from about age 7 but for the most part I mostly only remember what was played on the radio and it was mostly pop stuff. I first got into music in a major way around the age of 11 1/2-12 years old. I was mostly into buying top 40 singles at the time and distinctly remember hearing and buying "heat of the moment" when it was a hit but I had no clue at the time about the history of the band members. A few months later I got more into rock and pretty much abandoned top 40/pop stuff altogether. At this point I was buying cassette copies of stuff like Duran Duran, Rush(signals), Journey, Foreigner, etc. I bought Yes's 90125 when it came out and like it but didn't think of it as prog at the time. In the summer of 84 at camp a couple of brothers who were into Yes kind of got me more interested in the group and I subsequently slowly started to buy their stuff. I also had a cousin who was(is)a huge Genesis fan(he liked Yes also)so that helped a lot too. Remember this was the mid 80's and was not the best time to be getting into(or discovering)prog. I distinctly remember my cousin saying to me something like "if you like the earlier Genesis stuff you will like this record called "in the court of the Crimson King." I subsequently bought some KC stuff on cassette. It was a gradual process for me but to me this music was more adventurous and interesting than most regular rock that I heard on the radio. It was special to me then and it still is.

[SqualorMTL]

My roots go back to when my older brother came home with Genesis - Live, then Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot a week later. My sister also had Yessongs. I was really into Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin at the time (1975-76) but these albums really changed the way I listen to rock music, or music in general. I also discovered King Crimson, Gentle Giant and ELP and I've seen all these bands at least once before the 70s were over with my brother (the first time I ever smoked weed was at a Yes concert, Tormato tour) except for King Crimson when I saw the Discipline tour in Montreal in 1980 (?). In the 80s, I embraced punk rock and later, metal. I always went back to listening to the old prog classics when my friends weren't around!

Right now, I listen to pretty much every genre of music. But the constant for me are 70s rock, old school hardcore punk, sludge metal, early industrial and the old prog classics.

[wildk]

I was 12 my brother 19 and he suddenly introduced Family, Floyd, Genesis, Wishbone Ash, Zeppelin into my life - it wouldn't be the same again. I's always loved a great tune, I'd like weird stuff (some beatles) but to me a great tune, then a journey and a return home ( back to a good tune) meant prog to me. I guess that's what makes a good song but I have patience and can string it out for 20 minutes if you like. Suppers Ready heaven but it can be done in 5 - 7 minutes A farewell to Kings. Anything as long as I've travelled and arrived home happy.

[NorCalKurt]

It was 1973. I was at a buddies house after school. He pulled out a album from his older brother's room. It was Frank Zappa. Up till then it was CCR and the like bands of the time. From that point on we found Yes and all the rest of the great " prog" bands of the day. I still enjoy finding out about new bands today. Now my 20 year old son and I go to concerts together. My daughter is one of the top musicians in her graduating class. I feel exposing my kids to the same music I grew up on had a major impact on them. Thank you Frank.

[lamour]

A certain Aural Moon member has prodded me into adding to this apparently dead thread. I tend to be long-winded. I hope this doesn't ramble. ;-)

I was born in 1967 to parents who seemed to be very uninterested in music at all. I remember getting a transistor radio at some point when I was little and listening to AM radio. First song that really stands out in my memory is "Barracuda" by Heart. I pretty much listened to whatever was on the radio until around 7th grade when I started to get into Styx and Kiss and AC/DC. In HS, I was still listening to AC/DC and Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, but I'd started to listen to a "Classic Rock" radio station, and was starting to get into some of what I heard there. Yes, Kansas, Rush, Tull, Led Zeppelin. In college, a friend got turned on to Zappa and Renaissance and introduced me to them. Somewhere in here I picked up Crimson too.

Oh, and that other guy. ;-) I got into Todd Rundgren BIG TIME while I was in college. I heard "Hello It's Me" on the radio one day, and decided that I really liked it. I'd heard it before, but for some reason, it really struck me that day. I bought a LOT of Todd Rundgren. I have pretty much all of it now, and am impatiently awaiting his next release. ;-)

Up to this point, I'd still never heard the term "Progressive Rock". In 1988 or so, I started hanging out on Usenet in the music newsgroups. I picked up Kate Bush and really got into her for a while (her music! sheesh, you people). One day I was talking to someone in rec.music.misc about the music I liked, and he suggested a bunch of other stuff I'd probably be into. As a favor to me, for the cost of the tapes and shipping, he sent me about a dozen cassettes with various stuff on them including GG, Gong, VdGG, PH, Camel, and some other stuff I wasn't into as much. I decided someone needed to do something to make it easier to find more of this great music, so...

I started a mailing list called Gibraltar. My original thought was that the discussions would include Classic Rock music, but the people who subscribed were in it only for the prog, so that's where it went. I ran that for 4 years. I pretty much listened to only prog for those 4 years. I bought a LOT of CDs around then. Picked up some stuff by old bands people seemed to like like PFM, Le Orme, Banco, Can, Ange. Picked up a lot of new bands who seemed to be popular at the time like Anglagard, Anekdoten, Il Berlione, Minimum Vital, Kazumi Watanabe, Happy Family, Deus Ex Machina, Djam Karet, Ozric Tentacles, Univers Zero, Echolyn. After 4 years, just prior to me handing over the mailing list to him, Mike Taylor conducted surveys of the members of the Gibraltar mailing list to get the initial comments that formed the Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock. That is really the only remaining trace of any of that venture at this point.

I got married. I ran out of space to store CDs. I burned out on prog. I pretty much stopped buying CDs at this point. As such, that era is when almost all of my prog was collected. Until I started hanging out on the Moon, I was out of the prog loop entirely.

It's an odd time warp for me on the Moon. It seems like most people on the Moon know the "old" bands they grew up with and the "new" bands who are active now, but are somewhat unfamiliar with the bands who were big at the start of the prog revival when I was getting into it (this was the period when the prog fests started up, and Laser's Edge, Musea, and Cuneiform were starting to crank out CDs). Fueled somewhat by the reissues of old prog on CD, a new generation was being introduced to prog, and I was there for it...and then walked away. So, I don't know many of the old or new bands that everyone else seems to listen to, and it seems few know the bands I listen to.

So, when I say that I've never listened to Focus or Caravan or Soft Machine or whoever, it's not that I've never heard OF them, I've just never had a chance to hear them. I haven't listed EVERY prog band I listen to in this message, but I've listed the ones that I like...which are most of them that I've heard.

(and yes, I am truly not a Genesis or ELP fan. sorry)