Giving Love to Progressive Rock

This band is part of the Canterbury school of prog rock. I have two of their albums "In the Land of Grey and Pink" and "Songs for the Oblivion Fisherman". The latter is sort of a greatest hits. They are the coolest of prog rock bands as I imagine them wearing turtlenecks with leather blazers in a dingy carpet filled studio. Their songs have a lightness, they are almost cheeky if a song can be that, other prog rock doesn't have. Very jazz oriented and the melodies are very catching.

Another Canterbury band. I have a copy of "Third". It is a double album of 4 songs. One on each side. It is really intense almost overwhelming. They are also very jazz oriented but use their keyboards in some interesting places.

More people have probably heard of these guys. I really like Greg Lake's voice. Songs like "Still you Turn Me On" and "I Believe in Father Christmas" really show it off. I had their greatest hits on cassette in high school and listened to it alot. They do prog takes on classical songs and were my introduction to artists like Aaron Copland. I even played there version of "Hoedown", the song from the old Steak ads of the 90's in a college class. That really seems quite geeky now, but I digress. Along with Yes they would probably get the most play on classic rock radio.

I owned "Fragile" and "90125" on cassette growing up. They never made it to the CD era with me. I really liked them in high school but grew out of it. They probably had a more accessible sound than many other prog bands, hence their neverending popularity. It should be noted that Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman made some solo albums and performed concerts accompanied by ice skaters acting out the albums story. One being an album based on "King Arthur". Reviled by punks especially the Sex Pistols; the Dead Kennedy's even went so far as to dedicate "Short Songs" to him. My friend Kent still loves this band and that makes me a little leary of him.

I think I have listened to their first album. I can only remember that Robert Fripp, the guiding force of the band, has many projects and makes very avant garde music that I find hard to listen too. Historically very important though.

Probabaly more classic rock than prog but have very many elements of the style present. For instance the lead singer plays the flute while standing on one leg. I have mixed feeling about this band. There are a few songs I really like; "Teacher", "Cross-Eyed Mary" and "Skating Away", but I hear "Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath" on the radio too much. Probably more infamous for winning the first heavy metal grammy than anything.

I was recommended one of their albums on Amazon, "Pawn Hearts". I downloaded it and it is crazy. Their lead singer has one weird voice. I actually liked the melody of the background music. A weird fact is that they never played a concert in America. They had a decent following here in the 70's among the D&D/Tolkien lovers of that era but never played a show.

I know most people of my era think of the Phil Collins led pop band of the 80's. This is the Peter Gabriel led band of the 70's. Their stage show with Gabriel was just over the top. He would dress as a flower or insect and wear tons of makeup similar to Kiss or the band in "Phantom of the Paradise". They play some of this era on XM but it is a 180 degrees from "Invisible Touch".

This band is actually new. I have a couple of their albums and they have all the trappings of a 70's prog act. They make completely animated videos to go with their music, Pink Floyd did the same in the 70's going so far as to have their own animation team. This band does it all with computer generated animation. Their songs are poppier in some places than most prog is. They had an almost breakthrough in 2002 in this country but still remain popular in England. Worth searching out.