Nov. 5th, 2006 @ 8:39PM
It Ain’t Easy Being An 11/8 Guy In A 4/4 World

Hopefully, without being obtuse or overly intellectual, I endeavor to give you a detailed explanation of why I am drawn to a style of music that is quite often maligned and criticized for being just that (quite unjustly in most cases I feel). Though I do think there are instances I’ll explain later where the criticism is justified. Sad thing is, the so-called “critical intelligentsia” (whose intelligence I question more often than not) take the missteps of a few and apply it to all (after all, it doesn’t require much effort).

Throughout my early life, my parents, (my mom in particular) took great pains to expose me to musical art at it’s most ambitious, colorful and far-reaching, as long as it didn’t go too “out there” (whatever that means). My young ears heard the richness of Rachmaninoff (loved that 2nd Piano Concerto w/ Artur Rubenstein especially), Stravinsky, Brahams, Ravel, Rossini, Beethoven (Piano Sonata #28 which still sends chills up my spine! The fact that he wrote it while completely deaf still astounds me to this day) Ravel and the like. My dad, being an alto sax player himself (though not professionally) exposed me to the jazz sounds of Dave Brubeck, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Charles Mingus (pretty intense listening for a 6 year old). Amid all this wonderful “wheat” was also some perfectly dreadful “chaff” I had to filter out (such as the ever-noxious Ray Conniff Singers, the grating Carol Channing in “Hello Dolly”, having to sit through The Lawrence Welk Show at my grandparents, and various other so-called “easy listening” stuff. I will however admit to liking Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass at that age). I also have a faint memory of an uncle I visited in NC playing a now classic Ray Charles album, “Modern Sounds In Country Western” for me at age 6. Something else I loved, when I watched cartoons, I wasn’t only tuning in on the comedy and action, I LOVED the background music as well!!! Another memory I have from when I lived in Illinois, there was an older kid who lived down my street who played drums. During the summer, I used to love to park myself across the street from his house and listen to him practice. As I got older and began to hit double digits, I started to become more aware of Rock & Roll, something I think my mom dreaded! I loved the passion, energy and directness of it, the new sounds to my ears. I guess I started rebelling against the “prim and proper”. The sounds of Iron Butterfly, The Beatles, 3 Dog Night, Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix, Edgar and Johnny Winter, Grand Funk Railroad, Cream, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull (yes, I used to think Jethro Tull was some guy in the band too), Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Motown in general and the like got my attention in a big way, while many of my peers were swooning over the overproduced sugar coated strains of Donny Osmond and The Partridge Family.

Well, my folks finally got used to the fact that my palette had changed drastically. Then about some time in early 1972, I heard something on AM radio no less that really reached me in a way nothing else did. It was while my Dad and I were enroute to a department store called Two Guys (probably long defunct) in New Jersey where I lived at the time, the car radio was on, and then this song came on so unlike anything else I ever heard. It started off with this beautiful classical guitar figure, then charged into a driving, melodious joyful racket with this male singer who had a high range not normally found in males (I later learned this was called counter-tenor) plus vocal harmonies that rivaled The Beatles. Underneath it was this loud pronounced trebly and very complicated bass playing, and guitar stuff that just caused my jaw to drop in amazement, and organ playing like I had never heard before! It was a new hit song by a relatively unknown English band called Yes, and the song was “Roundabout”. I wasn’t quite the same since!!! I had to find out more. Later on, my Dad got me a copy of their newest release “Fragile” with that song on it. My brain cells were even further rearranged!!! Such was the start of a love affair with what was termed progressive rock by many (Prog-rock for short). I had latched onto something that combined the color and complexity of the music I grew up with as a tike, and the energy and electricity of Rock & Roll. Or, to borrow the title of a Yes song, “We Have Heaven”!! As I was learning guitar, I wanted so bad to do stuff like this, but it was beyond my grasp at the time (still have memories of struggling to figure out Yes tunes on guitar at the age of 15, talk about biting off more than I could chew).

It wasn’t long before I started to devour the sounds of Emerson Lake and Palmer, Genesis (way before Phil Collins turned mega pop star), King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Flash, Happy The Man, PFM (from Italy), and a host of others. What was the attraction?



· It just seemed to transport me into another world, far away from the angst and general difficulty of being a teenager.

· I was amazed by the fact these guys could play this difficult, complex music live, completely from memory!!

· Within the genre’, there was a bewildering variety of sounds and styles!!

· I somehow felt like my mind had been fed.

· The fact that just 4, 5, or 6 people could sound as thick and full as an 80 piece orchestra!!

· They made it look so ridiculously easy!!!



It’s funny, my dad actually liked some of what I was listening to, how do ya like that?

We actually went to a Rick Wakeman concert (my first one) in 1975. The opening band was this rather modest, unassuming bunch going under the moniker of Gentle Giant. What poured forth was this bewildering intense brew of bluesy rock, jazz, Renaissance period madrigal and round singing, 5 person percussion extravaganzas, Stravinsky-like complexity and biting humor, and these 5 guys changing instruments in the blink of an eye (I think each one played an average of 5 per). They made a new fan that night. Rick Wakeman, for all his flashy showmanship, flashy keyboard virtuosity and the like just seemed anti-climactic in comparison to what I heard from these 5 unassuming and very original British blokes!! My dad got a real kick out of them too.

My other earliest favorites and why:

Yes: My introduction to the idea that 5 guys could sound like an orchestra, play like virtuosos and transport you to other worlds, and very melodic to boot. Favorite recordings: 1st album, Fragile, Yessongs (live), Relayer, Going for the One, all from the 70’s. However, avoid anything after 1977 (went the high tech cheesy pop route), and one 70’s album “Tales From Topographic Oceans”, where they went to the other extreme and over-reached themselves. Four 20 minute rambling songs that would try the patience of God and their most die-hard fans.

King Crimson: Never ones to stay in one spot for long, the ever evolving KC led by guitarist/intellectual Robert Fripp (sometimes called The Mr. Spock of Rock) always took risks and rewarded its listeners with a variety of colors ranging from gentle tuneful ballads to intense fireworks incorporating influences as diverse as Stravinsky, Hendrix, modern jazz, Debussy, folk and later, Balinese gamelon music. Would recommend a vast majority of their catalog. The ones that fell flat though were “Islands” (marred by a very weak rhythm section and singer hired in desperation to meet a deadline, and over-extended ideas the 2 new musicians couldn’t really pull off. However, there were 2 good songs on it, an instrumental called “Sailor’s Tale” and the title cut) and “Beat” (ridiculously 80’s sounding, as in it sounds like they were playing in straight-jackets in a wet cardboard room, very stiff indeed). Fun fact, Elton John and Brian Ferry were two that failed the singer auditions early on!!

Genesis: Renowned for their highly visual stage shows even way back when! Singer/frontman/sometime flute player Peter Gabriel was a sight to behold as well as a sound to hear! The instrumental sound was one of symphonic grandeur, radically changing dynamics and a bewildering variety of sounds, plus Phil Collins used to play drums like a fiend!!! (What happened???????) Gabriel was renowned for his hilarious and sometimes bizarre stories and monologues between songs onstage (the audience ate it up too, particularly when he would appear onstage in a costume with a black cape, glowing circles under his eyes, a weird box on his head and batwings for the introduction of “Watcher of the Skies”). Visually, he was the man of 1000 costumes, acting out the characters in each song. Very musically substantial and always very entertaining onstage (one highlight was a hilarious song called “Harold the Barrel”, about a restaurant owner who got the attention of the BBC), as well as on record. PG quit in 1975, and it was obvious he took something very important with him, as Phil Collins took over the front spot and turned it into a high tech pop hit machine eventually. Favorite recordings: Everything from 1970-1975 (Trespass, Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme. Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway).

Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Here’s 3 people trying to sound like an orchestra!!! For a time, it worked!!! It was a combination of personalities that worked and didn’t at the same time. The winning ingredients were Greg Lake’s melodious and majestic voice, Keith Emerson’s keyboard virtuosity and Carl Palmer’s versatility as a drummer. They alternated between pure brilliance and just pure schlock, with no middle ground!! The thing however that killed them in the end was their gigantic, grandiose egos (they nearly went bankrupt taking an orchestra on tour with them (which had to be let go after 3 shows), not to mention things like Greg Lake having a Persian-rug technician (???!!) that was paid to clean and maintain a $12,000 Persian rug he bought on tour with him. Add to this, they each had their own manager and traveled separately, they actually hated each other toward the end). When they could swallow their pride, they turned out masterpieces (like the first album, Tarkus, Trilogy, and Brain Salad Surgery). Otherwise, with egos unchecked, schlock like Works I & II, and Love Beach (a very ill-advised attempt at pop commerciality that was at best laughable, right down to them dressing like The Beach Boys on the cover) resulted. Despite their missteps, they were very influential to many!

PFM: (full name, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Italian for “prize winning Marconi bakery”). Now that’s Italian (well, actually 4 Italians and a Frenchman)! This fivesome from Milan, Italy had a very distinctly Mediterranean flavor to their music, drawing on Rossini, Italian folk music, jazz, rock and some of their contemporaries like Genesis and King Crimson. Very passionate, colorful music was their specialty, while not a household word in the US; they were mega-stars in their native Italy very early on, and rightly so. Their best stuff is their early to mid 70’s Italian releases (“L’Isola Di Niente’, “La Storia Del Minuto”, and several others in Italian I can’t remeber the names of right now. Also great were “Cook (live) “Chocolate Kings” and “Jet Lag”. Highlights included a maniacal violinist/flautist and a frantic rendition of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” they used close out the live show with. Favorite song; “Le Luna Nova”, just so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes!

Happy the Man: Formed at James Madison University in the early 70’s and headquartered in Harrisonburg VA, this band was uniquely symphonic and whimsical while mixing in elements of Jazz as well. They didn’t sound like anyone but themselves. By turns they could be very beautiful and romantic (at least two or three songs of theirs you can do a beautiful Waltz to), hilariously frenetic (cartoon-like really), and always very colorful. They put out 2 great albums on a major label (Arista) before being unceremoniously dumped in favor of promoting the likes of Barry Manilow (as if he needed any more promotion). They recently reformed and are working on something new. A friend of mine saw the new lineup a few years ago, and just raved, as if they never broke up.

What did it all mean for me socially? Put mildly, it made me a bit of an oddball!! People thought I was from some other planet for listening to stuff that wasn’t a hit on the radio. Did I care? Not really, it did get a bit lonely at times though. Then I found some like-minded folk in some of the kids you saw me hanging with in my junior and senior years in High School. It was very encouraging to know there were others that appreciated intelligent and ambitious art forms.

Fast forward a bit here (late 90’s). I hadn’t followed the whole Prog scene for a while, mainly because so many of the groundbreakers in the genre went totally downhill and “dumbed down” (Genesis, Yes, ELP) or broke up (Gentle Giant, Colosseum, Gryphon, Focus, Happy The Man). Then, through the Internet and an old friend now living in CT. my curiosity was reignited. It turns out that under my nose, there were musicians galore that were doing unique, intelligent and creative music at a time that I had given up hope.

Granted, my artistic palette had diversified a lot in the ensuing years, it was so special to me to re-discover this genre, and see that there were new people doing new (*) things with it, as well as rediscovering some older ( ) gems that I missed out on the first time around or “just didn’t get” before ().

Other gems:

()Magma: I first heard this French band when I was 15 and they completely lost me!! Very recently (some 24 years later) I finally “got it”. Led by maniacally inventive drummer/composer Christian Vander, and his operatically trained wife Stella, plus a revolving cast of France’s most top notch musicians, these guys create a unique type of music that is by turns dark and murky, ethereal, intense and unpredictable. As if this wasn’t enough, they even invented their own language, which was a wild amalgamation of French, Dutch, Hungarian and blues shouting. Add to this, a continuing sci-fi story. Think “Klingon jazz-fusion opera”.

( ) Colosseum: How to take the blues to another planet altogether. Headed by feisty jazz-trained drummer Jon Hiseman, these Brits did some of the most unique blues drenched Prog I ever heard. Featured a sax player that sometimes played two horns simultaneously! Great organ work from Dave Greenslade too!(They always bought the house down with their rendition of “Stormy Monday”)

( ) Schicke, Führs, Frohling: No, it’s not a German law firm, but an all instrumental threesome that could conjure up rich symphonic musical worlds and leave you breathless!

( ) Finch: Incredible Dutch foursome that some described as being an “instrumental Yes”, featuring an amazing guitarist whose last name I wish I could spell (his first is Joop), it’s a typically complicated Dutch name. But no matter, the music is so detailed and energetic!

( ) National Health: A very unique UK based band that was closer to the jazz-fusion end of the spectrum, with a typically wacky British sense of humor. Featuring songs on subjects ranging from TV addicts (“Binoculars”), antique weather measuring devices (“Clocks and Clouds”) and a screamingly hilarious “8 second vocalized drum solo” (“Phlakatoon[1]”), National Health always managed to get my funny bone and cerebral cortex simultaneously! The singing ran from droll and dry (bassist John Greaves) to ethereal (the lovely Amanda Parsons).

( ) Gryphon: Starting out as a very traditional English folk/Renaissance period ensemble, this foursome plugged in by their third album and turned out an all-instrumental masterpiece (“Red Queen to Gryphon 3”) using liberal amounts of bassoon and crummhorn (a Mediaeval period double-reed instrument). Electrified Baroque so to speak. Keyboard/Crummhorn wielding ringleader Richard Harvey now does soundtracks; I see his name in the musical credits on some PBS shows sometimes.

( ) Carmen: What would happen if Jethro Tull ingested a massive dose of Spanish Flamenco music. Headed by a brother/sister team of Dave and Angela Allen, they dazzled audiences in Europe (and visited once or twice over here) with not only passionate Flamenco drenched Prog-Rock, but also included authentic Flamenco dance as part of the stage show.

(*) Anglagard: Another amazing (and unfortunately short-lived) Swedish outfit that helped to reignite interest in Prog-Rock in the early to mid 90’s. Mostly instrumental, incorporating imaginative arrangements, cool keyboards and even tinges of Nordic folk melodies.

(*) Ritual: What is it about these Swedes (seems like they’re trying to prove that there’s more to Sweden than Abba)?? Here are 4 guys influenced by Yes (not cloning though), using folk instruments in their arrangements (like mandolin, flutes, dulcimers and the like) and a Robert Plant influenced lead singer (who also plays a mean guitar) putting their own unique stamp on this music.

(*) Other great Swedish/Nordic bands: Finnforest, Anekdoten, and White Willow

(*) Echolyn: Hailing from Eastern PA, 6 people with a love for the Lord find a meeting ground for The Beatles, Gentle Giant and Steely Dan. Dense intricate vocal arrangements, turn on a dime ensemble playing and extremely witty literate lyrics (inspired by the Bible, CS Lewis and other sources) make this a must hear!

(*) Cartoon: Originally from Arizona, this motley crew pulled off a blend of modern classical music and wild, zany musical pyrotechnics from Saturday morning cartoons we all grew up with and loved. They were a scream! Sadly, they had to call it a day when, while touring Europe, the truck with their gear was stolen, and the dimwitted Customs officials charged them taxes and fees for “selling their equipment” !!!????

(*) Forever Einstein: A CT based threesome that combine surf music, 70’s cop show themes and King Crimson like musical intricacy and a whacked sense of humor. Great fun, especially live!! Sample song titles: “Tell The Little Man With The Big Head the Bank Is Closed” or “Maybe Sending You To The Nuthouse For The Rest Of Your Life Will Teach You Some Manners”, both can be heard on their most recent CD, “Down With Gravity!”

BEWARE OF IMITATORS:

· Starcastle: A very choppy knockoff of Yes

· Triumvarat: Very bad German imitation of ELP, excessive and repetitive, and by turns SCHMALTZY!!!! (Ugh!!)

· Marillion: Very watered down imitation of Genesis (70’s period) that turned into a very cheesy pop band.

So much more, but that kind of gives you a sampling why this particular genre of music is so special to me.

With a lot of the newer bands, most don’t rely on music as their means of making a living, many hold down regular day jobs, but play out of love for the music itself (no one has any illusions of selling zillions like Madonna or Backstreet Boys, those days are gone). We’re an odd breed us progsters, aren’t we???



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[1] And on three-----“Phlakatoon, phlakatoon, kash, kachaffa kachaffa, oon kaka oon kaka fligget fligget fligget fligget raka taka taka taka taka taka taka taka BISH!”