Wow, you are a fan ! Yeah I love Kasim's voice on Oops. "Bang the Drum" is horrible, I do agree. I have to give Mark I a listen again. Like I said, too, I easily fall into the "labeling music" trap. It's a bad habit.
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Best Prog Rock?
- Thread starter Doctor Intrepid
- Start date
Todd can be anything he likes; being a big Nazz fan, I was a bit put off by the Laura Nyro wannabe stuff of the first two solo albums, but he got back to rocking on Something/Anything, delivering one of the great power pop tunes, “Couldn’t I Just Tell You”, and followed that with the future glam of Wizard. The Utopia stuff after was cool, but it collapsed under its own weight, while a few fans of his ballad stuff that I knew were bored with the album side long suites. Sure, “Bang On The Drum” was a goofy song, can’t an artist toss something like that out every once in a while? It was catchy for radio, and got his name in the papers again, so to speak. The same thing happened to Warren Zevon and “Werewolves”. The 80’s stuff was tightened up because nobody had time for free form jazz odyssey anymore. Oh, and at least people in the 80’s had hair.
Not trying to make this a Todd thread but the man is obviously a genius. Even when he subbed out to Hall & Oates, the Tubes, Meat Loaf, the result was impressive. There was a time when prog and jazz fusion were very big in this town and it's part of the reason I moved here as a few of my musician friends had done the same. We all were big Todd fans and when Utopia Mark 1 release the first two albums there was a mega jaw drop and we all started trying to write like that. Some interesting stuff came out. In retrospect the 70s was just magical and most things since pale by comparison. But creativity and extended range endeavors are promising. And there will always be a devoted market for Progressive and Fusion.
WHAT??!!!
No Happy the Man on the poll? Not only is Happy the Man one of the few American progressive rock bands, but they are also very high on most people's lists of best progressive bands. Additionally, our own Rick Kennell (@BassHappy) was their founding/long time bassist. If you have not heard the band I think you'll find this to be a treat:
No Happy the Man on the poll? Not only is Happy the Man one of the few American progressive rock bands, but they are also very high on most people's lists of best progressive bands. Additionally, our own Rick Kennell (@BassHappy) was their founding/long time bassist. If you have not heard the band I think you'll find this to be a treat:
Happy The Man, like Egg and some others of such stature that for some reason or another remind me of each other, are yet another one I've know about for decades but never tool the time to explore. Think I have one HYM CD that I listened to a couple times, maybe the 1977 one, but I don't remember it sticking.
Even someone like me who goes back to almost the beginning of Prog, I have a lot of gaps in listening experience. I chalk it up to not having heard them enough time to sink in.
Even someone like me who goes back to almost the beginning of Prog, I have a lot of gaps in listening experience. I chalk it up to not having heard them enough time to sink in.
I find that most Progressive music worth its salt takes repeated listens to fully understand/appreciate.
Some do, for example it took weeks of hearing Spock's Beard V before I came to regard The Great Nothing as being up there with Close To The Edge or other such epics.
This guy has a great and informative blog The Story Behind The Album: Scheherazade and Other Stories, by Renaissance
Check out his entry on Relayer too.
Check out his entry on Relayer too.
I love Renaissance, Jon Camp was great!
One of my all time favorite bands, and also a band that created a sound/music unlike any other band, so I tend not to put them in any category.
They were mentioned in the thread a number of times.
Hadn't hear this in a while and never saw this performance before, which is flawless.
But also, given this is a bass player forum, gives me a good excuse to ask bass questions.
He's playing fretted but gets a very fretless sound, not sure. Yes he is using Chorus and Bass Pedals, but something about his attack gets this. I don't play a MusicMan but wonder how much of that is the sound of this technique.
It's at different places in the song, noticeably at 01:37-03:02.
Dunno, when I hear things like this song at 13:35-onwards it makes me feel like no matter what, everything's going to be ok.
@LBS-bass - haven't seen you post here in a long while, hope all's ok.
But also, given this is a bass player forum, gives me a good excuse to ask bass questions.
He's playing fretted but gets a very fretless sound, not sure. Yes he is using Chorus and Bass Pedals, but something about his attack gets this. I don't play a MusicMan but wonder how much of that is the sound of this technique.
It's at different places in the song, noticeably at 01:37-03:02.
Dunno, when I hear things like this song at 13:35-onwards it makes me feel like no matter what, everything's going to be ok.
@LBS-bass - haven't seen you post here in a long while, hope all's ok.
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I only realized now that I posted a version of Klaatu's Hope album that I actually never heard in all the years I knew of it, that was some orchestral mix, the real version is here, which I like better
All is ok, more or less. Been laying low due to a hand injury that's making it hard to play the bass for long periods of time; writing some new music while I wait to get that fixed. Typing isn't great for me right now so I'm kind of on the quiet side, which is probably just as well since I haven't got a whole lot to say!
Sorry to hear, hope you recover soon.
I hadn't been listening to Prog much lately so came back to this thread and it all started coming back to me.
