I can't believe I forgot to mention this in my last entry! For my final essay for English class, we have to write about a concept of our choosing. My professor said it would be best if we wrote about something that interested us. I emailed him asking if it would be ok if I wrote about the concept of progressive music. He wrote back saying that would be a great idea.
I happen to have with me some books that I brought originally just to read on my own time. I never thought I would actually get to use them for an assignment, so I'm really happy about that. They're both written by Will Romano, interestingly enough: Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock, and Prog Rock FAQ. Both of these books are great and really informative, so I think they will work really well for this essay. I spent tonight looking through them and taking notes based on suggestions my professor made as to what I should focus on. He suggested writing about historical aspects, cultural significance, and musical analysis. I'm having a little trouble finding information on cultural significance, but I gathered a lot of information about the other two aspects from my two books as well as from a few documentaries.
I'm meeting with my professor on Monday to talk more about this. I'm really looking forward to it.
Been meaning to get "Mountains Come Out of the Sky" for a while now. Looks really good. Don't know about whether it relates to the cultural significance, but the whole exploratory nature of the music in an era of defying the strictures and limitations of previous norms and rules seemed to played a large part in prog's appeal. Oh, yeah...not to mention the...*ahem*..."consciousness altering substances". Far out, man!
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
ReplyDeleteGet a copy of it if you can! I got off Amazon for pretty cheap but it's well worth it. It's a great read and very informative.
I gather that the main cultural significance is the fact that it was a sort of rebellious movement. Many of our favorite prog musicians grew up in a pretty conservative environment where they were't allowed to wear their hair long, listen to rock music, or really live as individuals. Naturally, they wanted to get away from that lifestyle of structure and conformity. I heard a story that Chris Squire (RIP) was given money to go get his hair cut because his school thought it was too long. Instead, he dropped out of school and saved up to buy a bass guitar.
I think the drug-orientated music was mainly part of the very early days (late 60s maybe). I'm talking about not just the later Beatles albums, but also Pink Floyd's first couple of albums.