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Best Prog Rock?

Best Prog Band?

  • Rush

  • Pink Floyd

  • Genesis

  • King Crimson

  • Tool

  • Dream Theatre

  • ELP

  • ELO

  • Yes

Results are only viewable after voting.
#421
I would rank the actual nominees as following, first the actual prog bands:
1. King crimson...the originators and still to this day the most progressive in the fact that they are always changing
2. Genesis...some of the most imaginative arrangements ever recorded. Musical Box alone is worth them being in the top five.
3. Rush...always were changing and probably the most successful in terms of both music and sales.
4. Yes ...Close to the Edge is and always will be the best thing they did.
Pink Floyd...at times I don't even consider them prog, but oh well.
5. ELP...not a big fan, but Tarkus is cool.

Dream Theater are metal more than prog...but their first album was the best one they ever did.
ELO are not prog.
Tool are a one trick pony that use odd time. But the idea that they are prog irritates me, because they never progress. They have literally made the same album over and over since 1995.

Bands that should have been on the list...
Van der graaf Generator ...listen to the title track on Still Life

Gentle Giant ...Power and the Glory...and even better in my opinion is the live album Playing the Fool.
 
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#422
Oh yeah. Also Fates Warning "Perfect Symmetry" is awesome. Has a song called Part of the Machine. The time changes in that song are awesome.
It's far better than anything Dream Theater have done.
But speaking of Dream Theater, I never understand why people say they can't hear Myung. He does some great stuff.
 
#423
Michedelic said:
They’ve been mentioned 9 times, and were in the poll.
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Well, you know what I mean, they were mentioned in passing, but little to no discussion, and I don't recall any examples shown. It was just odd as they are proto-Prog as are Crimson. Also I think they were a late add to the poll but could be wrong given my stance on such things and not paying much attention to it.

And FTR my post was not to say they they are a favourite of mine, though they are, but that that Trilogy track is favourite of mine of theirs.

Onto other things,
I like that Camel posted a few pages back, calls for another round of listening….

And since I referred to Pete Trewavas/Kino, this is them, made up of Porcupine Tree, Marillion, Arena and It Bites members. This first is decent NeoProg,

the second is some kind of catchy Rock with cool deceptive chord changes and melody line in odd meter, and nice fretless bass lines. It’s a decent album overall.

Where I first heard a lot of NeoProg back in 2004 and onwards - the great Canvas Productions Canvas Productions - CP Radio

The Prog Hour
Was glad to see they are still quite active
 
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#424
The Czar said:
I would rank the actual nominees as following, first the actual prog bands:
1. King crimson...the originators and still to this day the most progressive in the fact that they are always changing
2. Genesis...some of the most imaginative arrangements ever recorded. Musical Box alone is worth them being in the top five.
3. Rush...always were changing and probably the most successful in terms of both music and sales.
4. Yes ...Close to the Edge is and always will be the best thing they did.
Pink Floyd...at times I don't even consider them prog, but oh well.
5. ELP...not a big fan, but Tarkus is cool.

Dream Theater are metal more than prog...but their first album was the best one they ever did.
ELO are not prog.
Tool are a one trick pony that use odd time. But the idea that they are prog irritates me, because they never progress. They have literally made the same album over and over since 1995.

Bands that should have been on the list...
Van der graaf Generator ...listen to the title track on Still Life

Gentle Giant ...Power and the Glory...and even better in my opinion is the live album Playing the Fool.
Click to expand...
I like your list, it is similar to what I think of as Prog Rock.
King Crimson, Genesis and Gentle Giant were the three that got the most rotation on my turntable for the decade that I listened to Prog often.
I think Yes paved the way for many other bands (the blueprint for Rush) by having a commercially accessible sound and radio hits as well as playing real progressive rock.
Pink Floyd has gotten more regular rotation on my turntable, for forty eight years, than anybody else on the vote list, but I don't really think of their music as Prog Rock.
Gentle Giant belongs on the vote list and ELO does not.
There are a number of others I think could be on the vote list in the place of ELP.
The list should probably have a first generation, and a second generation for bands like Dream Theatre and Tool.
 
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#425
Sid Fang said:
Personally, I'm surprised that ELP didn't get more votes.
Click to expand...

I was a big fan back in the day. Genesis, Yes, ELP were the triumvirate of essential prog in the 70's. Followed closely by lesser known bands like Gentle Giant.

I can come back to a lot of this music in 2020 and still feel like it's great music, but ELPs catalog hasn't stood up to the test of time in the same way. I can't pinpoint why. Maybe it's the synth-heaviness of it all, although you could certainly point to Wakeman's contributions to Yes and say the same. But somehow, it'd different. ELP sounds dated, whereas Wakeman's Yes sounds eternal.

So I can see why ELP doesn't get as many votes. Something in there didn't age well. But they sure were huge in their day, and hugely influential to so many of us.
 
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#428
LBS-bass said:
I was a big fan back in the day. Genesis, Yes, ELP were the triumvirate of essential prog in the 70's. Followed closely by lesser known bands like Gentle Giant.

I can come back to a lot of this music in 2020 and still feel like it's great music, but ELPs catalog hasn't stood up to the test of time in the same way. I can't pinpoint why.
Click to expand...
I hadn't listened to ELP in years, maybe even decades, until a couple of weeks ago, when I found out that my son's youth orchestra was learning Copeland's "Hoedown", and I dug up the ELP arrangement for him on Spotify. That then reminded me to listen to the Tarkus "suite", which had always been my favorite ELP side by a long shot. And maybe that's it. "Eruption" through "Aquatarkus" is a wonderful 20 minutes of prescient prog in 1971. It actually holds up pretty well for me today, which surprised me. But I never thought they did anything that good since. I saw them on the Brain Salad Surgery tour, and they were very capable musicians and serious pros, selling out arena sized venues, but most of their music was, at its base and in the end, pop music animated by a showy classical keyboard player. Tarkus may have been something of a fluke.

That's why *I* wouldn't have put them in my top 5 in the poll, but I remain a little surprised that they didn't do better. They were considered prog at the time, and they sold a shirtload of records.
 
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#429
Sid Fang said:
I hadn't listened to ELP in years, maybe even decades, until a couple of weeks ago, when I found out that my son's youth orchestra was learning Copeland's "Hoedown", and I dug up the ELP arrangement for him on Spotify. That then reminded me to listen to the Tarkus "suite", which had always been my favorite ELP side by a long shot. And maybe that's it. "Eruption" through "Aquatarkus" is a wonderful 20 minutes of prescient prog in 1971. It actually holds up pretty well for me today, which surprised me. But I never thought they did anything that good since. I saw them on the Brain Salad Surgery tour, and they were very capable musicians and serious pros, selling out arena sized venues, but most of their music was, at its base and in the end, pop music animated by a showy classical keyboard player. Tarkus may have been something of a fluke.

That's why *I* wouldn't have put them in my top 5 in the poll, but I remain a little surprised that they didn't do better. They were considered prog at the time, and they sold a shirtload of records.
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+1. They had some great musical moments. I'll always be most partial to their first album, and much of the Tarkus suite holds up pretty solidly, as well. But some of it I can't even listen to anymore.

But I have to admit that I always thought the Nutrocker was incredibly hokey, even when I was a kid.
 
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#430
LBS-bass said:
+1. They had some great musical moments. I'll always be most partial to their first album, and much of the Tarkus suite holds up pretty solidly, as well. But some of it I can't even listen to anymore.
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ELP was the first progressive rock band I was exposed to and with keyboard as my first instrument and later on moving from Guitar then Bass I always enjoyed the power Trio approach with a strong keyboard player and deeply respect Greg Lake and Geddy Lee for their multiple capabilities. I now do lead vocals/ bass and occasional keys so ELP will always be very high on my list regardless of the flavor of the month.
 
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#434
jerry said:
ELP had Greg Lakes voice, along with John Wetton one of the best in prog. IMHO
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Back in the 20th century, some famous classical voice coach who lived in the Bay Area was being interviewed on the local NPR affiliate, and the question was asked "is there any pop vocalist that you would have liked to have been able to train?". Her answer was Greg Lake - she said something to the effect that he had a really promising voice, if only he'd been able to train it early enough. :)
 
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#437
The Czar said:
Has anyone mentioned MAGMA yet?

Very acquired taste, but worth the effort.

"Prog rock is a slippery slope, one day you're listening to King Crimson and the next day you have a full-blown Magma addiction."
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Discovered "Magma Live" as a teenage college radio DJ and was awestruck, though I had trouble convincing my friends. Saw them once in Paris, circa 1988, and was disappointed that, at that time, Christian Vander wanted to sing a lot more than he wanted to play drums, and had a protege drummer playing most of the set. But, amazingly, when they toured the US 5 years ago and played San Francisco for what was probably their first time, ever, they still kicked ass. Vander used to look like Tarzan. Now he looks more like Fred Flintstone. His vocal range may have collapsed, but his drumming became even more tasteful. Not a great recording - it was an old iPhone, in 2015 - but here's a taste:


And here he is as Tarzan, back in the day. The introduction is in French. The vocals are in Vander's invented language, Kobaian, in which he wrote all Magma's songs up until very recently, because he considered French inadequate for rock vocals. I was always amazed at the passion he could put into synthetic lyrics. He doesn't actually sit down and start drumming seriously for 4 minutes, but it's worth the wait:
 
#440
LBS-bass said:
I was a big fan back in the day. Genesis, Yes, ELP were the triumvirate of essential prog in the 70's. Followed closely by lesser known bands like Gentle Giant.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more.
LBS-bass said:
I can come back to a lot of this music in 2020 and still feel like it's great music, but ELPs catalog hasn't stood up to the test of time in the same way. I can't pinpoint why.
Click to expand...
Interesting to read this from someone who I think really gets Prog and whose posts closely align with me. Of course we all have a different reverence for different things though.

I grew up with Trilogy and BSS, and consider them among the top Classic Prog albums (notice I didn't say 'best'...). Of course besides those you would hear Lucky Man and Fanfare on the radio.

As a teen my album budget was split across numerous bands and genres so I never got to the first album, Pictures At An Exhibition, or Tarkus, though of course would hear parts of them now and then. After BSS each later work disappointed me, they were of less substance than Trilogy which I consider their pinnacle, compositionally and up there with CTTE, etc.

Later in life I did buy those other CDs but as an adult I can't always listen to music as intently as I did before. A couple years ago I went on an ELP binge, and after exhausting BSS and wanting more, went to PAAE, Tarkus, and the first album, and for the good songs on them, came to appreciate them a lot, and found that I still like everything on BSS and Trilogy as much as I did when I first heard them. Went on a similar bing a couple months ago.

My long-winded way of saying that they stand up for me. I do think their catalog is criminally limited, especially given Emerson's remarkable talent.
LBS-bass said:
Maybe it's the synth-heaviness of it all
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Huh?!
LBS-bass said:
But I have to admit that I always thought the Nutrocker was incredibly hokey, even when I was a kid.
Click to expand...
Am with you there....on that and other stuff like Pirates.....
 
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