I met with my English professor this afternoon to talk about my prog essay. He's really excited about it and can't wait to read it. I have to say that I am too. I initially brought my books about prog with me for my own amusement. I never thought I would actually get to use them for an assignment.
We talked for a while. We discussed when the beginning of prog was, landmark albums, and specific songs/pieces that I feel truly help define what prog is and why it was created. I told him that it was sort of a rebellious movement, a deviation from the normal 3-minute pop songs everyone was used to. when we talked about landmark albums, one that came up quite a bit was In the Court of the Crimson King. He knew about King Crimson after reading my first essay but didn't know their music. I said it was a wonderful album, but part of what makes that album so special is the artwork. Without giving too much away, I basically told him that the artwork was an image of fear. If fear had a face, that is what it would look like. He thought that sounded really interesting and asked me to email him the names of some of the albums I was considering writing about in my essay. I chose Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson, Fragile by Yes, and Nursery Cryme by Genesis. I chose Sgt. Pepper as one of them because I have noticed, both in the books I have read and in the documentaries I have watched, that Sgt. Pepper is frequently referred to as the first real "prog" album, or even the first concept album. I also attached a jpg of the artwork for In the Court of the Crimson King. In the email, I urged him to listen to the first track on the album while studying the artwork in order to truly capture the emotions of the image.
I'm looking forward to hearing his thoughts on this.
What I find interesting is that it seemed to start for the most part as a primarily British musical movement. The Beatles threw out the rulebook when they made Sgt. Pepper's and so many people who were making music at the time said, in effect: "Wait...you can DO that?!?". I remember Jon Anderson making that point in an interview somewhere. You even had a bunch of people who had been getting a classical music education, (thinking of the members Genesis here as an example) drop everything to start a rock band.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
ReplyDeleteThat was a common thing that came up in the books and documentaries I used for information. In almost all of them, they began by mentioning the success and influence of Sgt. Pepper. I realize that this album, thought it may be debatable as to whether it's a "concept album" (John Lennon apparently dismissed the idea of it being a concept album), was crucial to the development of what would become prog.
I remember when I saw Jon Anderson for the first time back in 2012, he told a story about seeing The Beatles when nobody knew who they were. There were no screaming girls, just people quietly listening to this band perform. He said they were unlike anything he had ever seen.
I do acknowledge that prog has been a mostly British movement, but I have noticed that there are far more prog bands emerging from other countries than there were in the past. PROG magazine is a great magazine, but I do have to say that they really don't branch outside of Europe as much as I think they should. If they want to be the best magazine for prog then I think they should explore prog bands from all over the world. I can think of a number of American prog bands who never get covered, mainly Phish and Circa Survive.
It's difficult to define when a band is considered prog because theoretically, all bands a progressive in their own way. Every band evolves over time. I could technically say that The Killers are prog because all of their albums have their own unique sound to them. You can't mistake a song off one album for being off another. I could also say that Arcade Fire are prog because most of their albums follow a concept of some sort (notably their album The Suburbs).