Best Prog Rock?

[Jeff Scott]

Yes! I have everything they ever recorded and saw them on In Concert when it aired live. They were the equivalent of Yes and Genesis. IME IMHO.

Gentle Giant is one of my all-time favorite prog rock bands. I too, have all their material, most on import LPs, along with CDs. I saw them in winter 1975 on a bill with Rick Wakeman during his King Arthur tour. I was right up front, and have some great (IMO) 35mm Ektachromes I made during the show. And, Roger Newell (with Rick) played the original Wal triple-neck bass!

 

[Rib 13]

I have to point out that "flute solo" has meaning outside of prog, despite what this article asserts. Marshall Tucker featured a flute solo, and plenty of Tull wasn't prog (although give them props for getting a tune with 5/4 meter on the pop charts).

Dooooood.....it's Cracked magazine ( basically Mad Magazine without Alfred E Neumann).........I don't think your supposed to seriously debate it's educational value....did you not see the butts/dongs chart?

 

[mb94952]

Yes! I have everything they ever recorded and saw them on In Concert when it aired live. They were the equivalent of Yes and Genesis. IME IMHO.

Why is Prog SOOOOO darn Cool !!!! It's my FAVORITE genre !!! Never gets boring. The LAST thing I want to sound is pretentious, but Prog / Fusion is thinkers music.

 

[Herrick]

I voted for Dream Theater.

 

[Hot Rats]

Nektar....... Atomic Rooster.....? Hello? anybody?

 

[Ric Vice]

Gentle Giant is one of my all-time favorite prog rock bands. I too, have all their material, most on import LPs, along with CDs. I saw them in winter 1975 on a bill with Rick Wakeman during his King Arthur tour. I was right up front, and have some great (IMO) 35mm Ektachromes I made during the show. And, Roger Newell (with Rick) played the original Wal triple-neck bass!

How wonderful you actually got to see them live. It must have been amazing!

 

[Chrisk-K]

“The Yes Album,” “Fragile,” “Close to the Edge,” and “Relayer” should be among top 10 prog rock albums.

 

[Btbp]

Nektar....... Atomic Rooster.....? Hello? anybody?

Check one of my earlier posts. Too many, I know....

 

[Mr Cheese]

I'm feeling both cheeky and sad due to the death of Neil Peart. So I will thow up the poll hoping that Rush will get some sympathy votes. They are my favorite and I do think they are the best.

So, what say you all? Best Prog Rock band of all time?

P.S. if your favorite isn't on the list they didn't make it past the first vote. You may like them, but they are not a contender.

One of the best, if not thee best drummer of all time!! But more than that, a great person as well. What he went through physically and mentally, on and off the stage is incredible. An extremely talented lyricist and drummer, and a blue collar man, RIP Neil Peart.

 

[projectapollo]

We recently saw Steve when he came to town to do SEBTP! Loved it. Brought me back to the days of seeing Genesis do it in the Fall of 1973 (the second time I saw Genesis).

My pic from his Selling England show a couple of months ago:

 

[onlyclave]

Steven Wilson.

 

[projectapollo]

I only discovered Porcupine Tree last week and appear to have played In Absentia nine times, and am on my second back-to-back listen this morning.

Highly recommended

The gold mine of new prog! Stupid Dreams and Fear of a Blank Planet, next.

 

[AnchorHoy]

Almost impossible to come up with a definition of Prog that satisfies everybody. That said, I think that there are two main elements that must be present in order to get close enough for just about anyone:

1 - Frequent use of time signatures other than 4/4 and 3/4. In other words, 'regular folks' (who might wear tennis shoes or an occasional python boot) can't dance to it

2 - Lyrics that go anywhere other than the usual variations on wanting/having/missing out on sex. Bonus points for shoehorning in references to one or another sort of imminent Apocalypse

As a matter of personal opinion, ELO fails utterly due to point #1. Despite a few nifty non-standard touches here and there, they seemed firmly rooted in 4/4 time

IMHO the bulk of Frank Zappa's work hits both nails right on the head. Yeah, I'm well aware of songs like Dirty Love and the like, but if you stack those up against his total output they're actually a fairly small fraction. OTOH Frank tended to write lyrics that were firmly grounded in observed reality - not fantasy or speculation. In the end, he was sooooo unique that he wouldn't neatly fit into any category besides "Zappa"

Now, I could go on like this for another 20 pages (which probably means I fit the Prog demographic pretty well ) so lemme just cut to the chase. My Top 5:

Gentle Giant
Yes
Rush
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
The Aristocrats (who needs lyrics when you're that damned good)

 

[mb94952]

I'm feeling both cheeky and sad due to the death of Neil Peart. So I will thow up the poll hoping that Rush will get some sympathy votes. They are my favorite and I do think they are the best.

So, what say you all? Best Prog Rock band of all time?

P.S. if your favorite isn't on the list they didn't make it past the first vote. You may like them, but they are not a contender.

RUSH has NEVER got the "sympathy" vote. They earned it. They are the kings. Farewell to our King.

 

[Jeff Scott]

How wonderful you actually got to see them live. It must have been amazing!

I've been fortunate enough to have seen a ton of great bands, mostly back in the 1970s, during the bands' peak eras.

 

[LordRyan]

No mention yet of one of the earliest Prog bands whose debut album was released in 1969. Rare Bird were managed by Tony Stratton-Smith who also managed The Nice and Van der Graaf Generator. Rare Bird, after doing a show with the then-unknown Genesis brought them to Stratton-Smith's attention and were also added to his roster. Rare Bird's first two albums were both fine examples of keyboard-centered Prog. The original line-up lasted for only two albums though the band continued with personnel changes which later included John Wetton.

 

[Rib 13]

Nektar....... Hello? anybody?

one of Sherman Hemsley's favorite bands.....I wonder if the album he did with Yes' Jon Anderson will ever be released?

 

[CGremlin]

As many have said, "best" is so subjective as to be a meaningless adjective. That said, I'm kinda surprised there's not much love for Neal Morse yet. Spock's Beard and Transatlantic have been mentioned, but Flying Colors and the Neal Morse Band have also put out some stellar efforts. In fact, Mike Portnoy has collaborated with Neal more than any other single artist, and I suspect that Randy George and Eric Gillette could be two of the best bassists/guitarists you've never heard of.

 

[hrodbert696]

I voted Yes, not because I think there's any really meaningful criterion for "who's the best," but because they're the band that's most meaningful to me and my own favorite. I don't think a poll like this really means much more than that.

But this thread set me searching and I thought I'd share something I posted way back in a thread from 2010:

I'm not saying that it has to sound like 70s Yes to count as progressive - for music to evolve is good. What I mean is that, if we're going to use a genre label, there should be some criteria for the label that meaningfully define what music IS in that genre and what is not. Otherwise, we could all say we're playing baroque or something because all contemporary music has evolved and stretched the boundaries from what Bach used to do -- the "baroque" label would lose all meaning.

For my understanding of "progressive rock," those criteria would be:

1) Overt influence from classical and jazz music
2) Stress on virtuosity of individual band members (plural, not just a star soloist).
3) Frequent experimentation with unusual meters and keys across the overall body of work.
4) Length of a song determined by the logic of the piece rather than the commercial 4-minute radio slot (this may mean songs 90 seconds long or 20 minutes).
5) Extensive use of vocal harmonies rather than a single lead singer.
6) The above done with an otherwise recognizable rock band setup (electric guitars and bass, keys, drum set, etc).

I'm throwing these out as debate points, I'm curious to see if there's consensus around them or not. I suppose #5 would be the most doubtful myself, it would make exclude bands like Rush from "prog" if strictly adhered to. I kind of think of Rush as a transition band from progressive music per se to the more speed-metal stuff we hear more now. Maybe I'd say that a band should hit better than half of these for me to call it a full-fledged progressive band.

To reiterate my earlier impression, there seem to be a number of contemporary bands who are called "progressive" because they play long compositions with a lot of sixteenth notes (criteria 2, 4 and 6, so to speak, but not 1, 3 or 5). To me that's not really it. Not that they're bad bands, I'm just finicky about keeping categories distinct and meaningful.

 

[Rickengeezer]

I voted Yes, not because I think there's any really meaningful criterion for "who's the best," but because they're the band that's most meaningful to me and my own favorite. I don't think a poll like this really means much more than that.

But this thread set me searching and I thought I'd share something I posted way back in a thread from 2010:
.
.
.
For my understanding of "progressive rock," those criteria would be:

1) Overt influence from classical and jazz music
2) Stress on virtuosity of individual band members (plural, not just a star soloist).
3) Frequent experimentation with unusual meters and keys across the overall body of work.
4) Length of a song determined by the logic of the piece rather than the commercial 4-minute radio slot (this may mean songs 90 seconds long or 20 minutes).
5) Extensive use of vocal harmonies rather than a single lead singer.
6) The above done with an otherwise recognizable rock band setup (electric guitars and bass, keys, drum set, etc).

I do think #5 is the most questionable, as it really doesn't fit either ELP or Wetton-era KC, both of which I think are undeniably (maybe prototypically) prog. Even so, I like having #5 in the music!