Best Prog Rock?

[Humbled]

Rush has been the bestest for the longest.

ELO. ?? Not good. Ever. Top billing on my "change channel instantly" list.

 

[40Hz]

Kansas

so many of their stuff influanced Prog Metal of Dream Theater

But Kansas isn’t prog.

 

[40Hz]

As one person's definition is not necessarily in line with another's, there are three thee alone that are arguably mislisted as such.

I count 6.

 

[ChrisBowsman]

ELO. ?? Not good. Ever. Top billing on my "change channel instantly" list.

My work has a box at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. My boss grabbed tickets for the first open event he could grab to give out to his managers. Turned out to be ELO. I knew I wasn’t a huge fan (save for “Fire on High” that they didn’t even play), but figured I’d go since it was a cool gesture.

Lights go out, and this really heady, kind of ambient music comes on. I’m really digging it, and can’t believe this is the “Don’t Bring Me Down” band. A minute later, I realize it’s the opening act, who turns out to be Dhani Harrison! Awesome show, great player, good set that he obviously chose knowing he was gonna be in an echoey hockey arena.

ELO’s light show was incredible, but I realized how much I was not a fan. They ended with “Roll Over Beethoven” with Jeff Lynne playing the most pedestrian, one position cliched blues licks over and over.

As far as the best prog band, I voted Floyd, but my favorite at the moment is the Claypool Lennon Delirium. All three releases are sooooo good.

 

[40Hz]

ELO is prog?

Back then it was called Art Rock.

The first ones were King Crimson, Yes, Tull, Floyd, ELP, Hawkwind, Moody Blues, Zappa/MOI, Mahogany Rush, Renaissance, Genesis, Wishbone Ash. Some may even include Uriah Heep and Iron Butterfly.

Heep yes. For some songs at least. They kept changing it up hoping for a breakthrough album or mega hit. Good band. Too bad it never really took off for them.

Moodys were definitely hardcore prog for their first four albums. After that it became more a mixed bag as they introduced more pop/rock themed songs into their mix.

Iron Butterfly? They're acid rock.

 

[Eidolon0274]

I'd classify Tool as prog metal and Genesis as prog pop.

 

[Btbp]

Or Camel! What about Camel?

And Dennis Greenslade, and Triumvirate, and Jade Warrior, and Bo Hansson, and…

BTW, am I the only one here who doesn’t think of Rush, ELO, and Tool as being progrock bands? They’re all decent bands. However, they’re not prog bands as I think of prog. But maybe that’s just me. “Old Guy” y’know?

Yes and No, am with you except about Rush not being Prog.

The poll and majority of posts in the thread, with the exception of you post, suggest a remarkably lacking and narrow view of what is a considerably wide genre, spanning decades and countries and nearly overlapping related genres such as Fusion, Jazz, Electronic, Electronica, New Wave, etc. but not to be confused with them.

Some common errors are things like The Dregs/Dixie Dregs, Return To Forever, Brand X - while all progressive, are not in my definition Prog. If people are going to stretch the definition to include things like ELO then you might as well degrade the genre further to include REO Speedwagon.

I just threw up a little in my mouth writing that last bit.....

But the four you've listed here are signs of intelligent life for this thread.

As for others, while naturally agree with Gentle Giant as they are an iconic Prog band, can't with Ozric Tentacles (they are in a much-diverse branch closer to other genres like Trance Rock or Space Rock or even Neo-Space Rock), Mahogany Rush (you won't find a bigger fan of them than me but I don't consider them Prog), Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep, Iron Butterfly (just no).

Good that some succeeded in mentioning Neo-Prog icons such as Spock's Beard, and there are so many others in that sub-genre, will re-read the thread but not sure I saw key entries such as IQ, Arjen Lucassen / Star One / Ayreon, The Flower Kings, The Tangent, Glass Hammer, Transatlantic, pretty much anything on the Magna Carta label, and that is just off the top of my head, as there are as many more. A bit difficult to poll that......

Not sure where bands like UK fit in, they span that desert between the time of Prog and when Neo-Prog emerged. Same for Eddie Jobson's Green Project, a classical Prog album in the Prog-dead 80s, although his Theme of Secrets is more akin to the genre of Tangerine Dream and that whole Electronic genre of where Tomita, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michael Jarre, Synergy, etc. sit.

Among the missing trad Prog are Flash, Crack The Sky, Peter Hamill, Nektar, Refugee, FM, Happy The Man, Steve Hackett, Aphrodite's Child, Todd Rundgren's Utopia, the Canterbury movement artists, The Nice, so many more. (did anyone even mention ELP?!).

Sadly the Wikipedia entry for this gets as about much wrong as it get right.

As much as I'd want to put Symphony X in there due to their The Odyssey, arguably as epic as Close To The Edge or The Gates Of Delirium or Supper's Ready, or Trilogy, as I do think the same of Spock's Beard's The Great Nothing; I see Symphony X more as Prog Metal. Same for Shadow Gallery; wide genre that one......

Others are more difficult, such as the beloved Be Bop Deluxe / Bill Nelson, who were / are too much Their Own Thing but do skirt the genre.

 

[pbass2]

YES

 

[Btbp]

I'd classify Tool as prog metal and Genesis as prog pop.

yes, and, no for anything before Then There Were Three - early Genesis is pure Prog; anything after is The Phil Collins Show of pop, Then There Were Three really sits in the middle. What followed was cringeworthy IMNSHO.

 

[J Gold]

Harmonium

 

[wraub]

Without Gentle Giant, this doesn't work.

Or, really, so, so many bands...

 

[CryingBass]

Ashby Osterman Alliance

 

[Robscott]

When did ELO become a prog rock band? The same day that Yes fell out of the top 5 prog rock bands I'm guessing. I voted King Crimson but only so I could see the results

 

[Flatwound]

Best?

 

[Btbp]

When did ELO become a prog rock band? The same day that Yes fell out of the top 5 prog rock bands I'm guessing. I voted King Crimson but only so I could see the results

I think when someone edited in them to the Wikipedia entry. There's a bunch of others in that which have no business being there.

 

[Robscott]

"We'll go back in time to that mystic land
Where the dew drops cry and the cats meow
I will take you there, I will show you how..."

Can't wait!

 

[Robscott]

Prog isn't about being best, it's about taking the music as far as it will go.

Modern stuff to check out:

The Dear Hunter
Bent Knee
Wilderun
Tonbruket
Opeth
Panzerballett
Lemming Suicide Myth
Stimpy Lockjaw
Animals as leaders
Instrumental (adj)
Gosta Berlings Saga
Shamblemaths
Seven Impale
etc
etc

Did you just make those up?

 

[Michedelic]

Prog is similar to pornography.




You may not be able to define it, but you know it when you hear it.

 

[DrMole]

Or Camel! What about Camel?

And Dennis Greenslade, and Triumvirate, and Jade Warrior, and Bo Hansson, and…

BTW, am I the only one here who doesn’t think of Rush, ELO, and Tool as being progrock bands? They’re all decent bands. However, they’re not prog bands as I think of prog. But maybe that’s just me. “Old Guy” y’know?

I am late to the party but you busted out Triumvirate.
Back to business.

 

[Sid Fang]

... but I don't consider them Prog), Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep, Iron Butterfly (just no).

Not going to argue with a lot of what you're saying there - most of it is a purely a matter of personal taste and opinion, to which you're welcome and with which I largely agree. But there are reasons why Wishbone Ash were considered a progressive or semi-progressive band, around the time of their second and third alibums. I mean, this is pretty damned proggy for 1971: