Phosphorescent Skeleton
It's a hard world for little things.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
What do we think team?
As an aside, it's also a good album but it was a great time for music anyway. They should make another 70s, I liked the last one.
I'm with you on this.I love 70's prog rock but I could never truly get into ELP, and I'm a keyboard player! Dunno, it just doesn't vibe with me.
That said, Tarkus is my favorite album by them.
Yes and King Crimson are obviously superior bands yeah, but I love ELPs over the top style. Their albums are very uneven, but I would say the good stuff is:I'm with you on this.
Love me some classic prog, but ELP never gelled with me. I like prog bands that combine massive chops with either good melodies and hooks (Classic Yes) or just go all out in being weird and artsy (King Crimson). ELP always struck me as neither one nor the other.
That being said, maybe it's worth giving Tarkus another listen.
I have to agree on Yes, another fan I'm not a super fan of. They have a looooot of nice moments but I'm not a huge of fan of listening to 22 minute epics for those 3-4 minutes that I really like...Yes and King Crimson are obviously superior bands yeah, but I love ELPs over the top style. Their albums are very uneven, but I would say the good stuff is:
The entire 1st album
Tarkus side A
Trilogy Side B
The Karn Evil 9 suite from Brain Salad Surgery
Also, I used to be a staunchly anti-prog hipster, but since actually listening to the music, I extremely love it. My favorite bands so far are King Crimson, Peter Gabriel era Genesis, Van Der Graff Generator, Gong, ELP, and Yes (I would argue Yes is just as uneven as ELP).
Gentle Giant is great. Big fan of Octopus, wish less of their albums had hideously embarrassing artwork.I have to agree on Yes, another fan I'm not a super fan of. They have a looooot of nice moments but I'm not a huge of fan of listening to 22 minute epics for those 3-4 minutes that I really like...
I recommend Gentle Giant from that era as well. They're a little weird but pretty cool.
Yes peaked with Close To The Edge. Nothing before or since by them comes close, and their attempts to try and top it are self indulgent nonsense ( see: Tales of Topographic Oceans).
I'd put Genesis on the same shelf. Their highs are extraordinarily high (Selling England By The Pound) but they also drifted towards more and more self indulgent albums that really needed judicious editing.
Other recommendations:
Mike Oldfield: He's known as the Tubular Bells guy, but his entire 70s output is extraordinarily. Ommadawn is a monumental album, and Hergest Ridge is a fantastic proto-ambient record. Incantations is a bit weird, but it's entire fourth side is an absolute banger.
Jethro Tull: Again, anything from the 60s or 70s is probably a good listen (though Passion Play can be a bit much). Stand Up, Thick As A Brick and Heavy Horses are the three best, in my opinion.
Yeah, the hard backlash against prog by the punks and the post punks was unfortunate. I love a lot of that music, but its too bad that so much interesting/cool music gets dismissed out of hand.I'll also add off the back of my last post: while I understand prog isn't for everyone, I do think the music industry was a lot more interesting back when it was at it's most popular. Yes, you had disco and easy listening dominating the charts, but you also had prog bands going to Number 1 with multi part fantasy epics, you had the birth of the heavy metal movement (which in many ways is tied in with prog), you had whatever the heck Zappa was doing... Even big mainstream rock bands weren't afraid to get a bit weird and experimental during that time period
Tldr: a healthy prog scene isn't just good for prog, it's good for other genres too, as it encourages experimentation and free thinking.
Yeah, the hard backlash against prog by the punks and the post punks was unfortunate. I love a lot of that music, but its too bad that so much interesting/cool music gets dismissed out of hand.
Also, I've been working through King Crimson chronologically. Just got to Larks Tongues, and that Album rips so hard.
My King Crimson Power Rankings so far
1. In The Wake of Posidon (a bold choice, but also I'm right)
2. Larks Tongues in Aspic
3. In the Court of thr Crimson King (would be higher, but Moon Child sucks ass)
4. Islands
5. Lizard
I have heard Starless and can confirm it's a total banger. I've heard that their last 3 70s albums are especially good and so far Larks Tongues is proving that. The only ones I didn't like were Lizard (mostly bad, a couple of highlights) and Islands (solid but a bit sleepy and stretched thin feeling).Jesus, you haven't even got to the good stuff yet.
Red is an all-time great album. It's doom/grunge decades before those genres were a thing, and just filled with absolute classics. Red is one of the best album openers in history, and Starless one of the best album closers. (Interesting note: Radiohead blatantly borrowed the middle section breakdown from Red to use as the opening to OK Computer. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it)
After that, you've got Discipline, and if you can go with the stylistic left-turn that it takes compared to their 70s output, that album will change you. It's easily my most listened to Crimson record - This is where the band dives headfirst into polyrhythmic grooves, and every band member gets to show off what a monster they are while still playing as part of a tight collective. You've got Bill Bruford writing the textbook on drums for every prog drummer that follows, Adrian Belew proving himself a monster guitar player, and Tony Levin bringing a goddamn Chapman Stick to the party.
If you dig Discipline, then Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair continue mining that stylistic vein, before the band takes another break and you get to their 90s output.
Crimson are so good that they were consistently a decade or two ahead of everyone else. 21st Century Schizoid Man is basically a thrash metal song, before metal had even been invented as a genre.
I'm also going to throw out a mention to Magma. They're fucking weird and incredibly pretentious, but they also wrote some incredibly atmospheric and clever music. Mekanïk Destruktïẁ Kommandöh is a hell of an album.
I will extend a hand to Alexander's Ragtime Band!Tarkus is the best Dancing Mad tribute
Also there’s a certain irony in this thread getting started after the Alexander’s Ragtime Band podcast announcing they’re winding down
Alexander's Ragtime Band
It's all prog rock, all the time! Giant art rock nerds Jeremy Parish, James Eldred, and Elliot Long gather together to hash out the art of progressive rock. From its roots in the ’60s to the best modern interpretations of the form, the only rule here is that each episode fills at least one full...ragtimeband.libsyn.com
It was an informative show as a prog neophyte who’s only osmosed the genre through classic rock stations and JRPG music. I need to do some deeper dives into some of the classic acts but I would definitely say I’m a fan of the genre at this point.
Part 1: Eruption...What is Tarkus?
I... guess I'll start with those songs first?Part 1: Eruption
Part 2: Stones of Years
Has the dawn ever seen your eyes?
Have the days made you so unwise?
Realize, you are.
Had you talked to the winds of time,
Then you'd know how the waters rhyme,
Taste of wine,
How can you know where you've been?
In time, you'll see the sign
And realize your sin.
Will you know how the seed is sown?
All your time has been overgrown,
Never known.
Have you walked on the stones of years?
When you speak, is it you that hears?
Are your ears full?
You can't hear anything at all.
Part 3: Iconoclast
Part 4: Mass
The preacher said a prayer
save every single hair on his head
he's dead
The minister of hate
had just arrived too late to be spared
who cared
The weaver in the web that he made
The pilgrim wandered in
committing every sin that he could
so good
The cardinal of grief
was set in the belief he'd be saved
from the grave
The weaver in the web that he made
Part 5: Manticore
Part 6: Battlefield
Clear the battlefield and let me see
All the profit from our victory.
You talk of freedom, starving children fall.
Are you deaf when you hear the season's call?
Were you there to watch the earth be scorched?
Did you stand beside the spectral torch?
Know the leaves of sorrow turned their face,
Scattered on the ashes of disgrace.
Ev'ry blade is sharp; the arrows fly
Where the victims of your armies lie,
Where the blades of grass and arrows reign
Then there'd be no sorrow,
Be no pain.
Part 7: Aquatarkus
Any questions????
Those songs!? My brother in Christ, that is one song!I... guess I'll start with those songs first?
Thanks.
What's it called?Those songs!? My brother in Christ, that is one song!
TarkusWhat's it called?
Listening to Ommadawn once again.
It's such an incredibly atmospheric record, even moreso when you remember that it was recorded in 1975, back when most studios had a maximum of 16 audio tracks available for recording. Tubular Bells is more iconic, but I think Ommadawn is peak-Oldfield. Whereas other 70s prog acts were more focused on chops and time signature changes (and there's nothing wrong with that), Oldfield's focus was always on composition, pacing and atmosphere. In that sense, he has more in common with composers like Philip Glass or Steve Reich than prog acts like Yes.
Its a record that isn't afraid taking it's time moving from one section to another, but when the changes do come, they hit hard.
The guitar solo at the finale of Part 2 might be my favourite guitar solo ever.
Tubular Bells 2 is great, though a bit dated. Oldfield was really into his digital instruments at that time, so while the music itself is superb it doesn't have the timeless quality of the original. Higher highs than TB1 though, definitely.I should check this out, love Tubular Bells.
How do you feel about the Tubular Bells sequels (2, The Millennium Bell, 3)?
I like that one of the instruments the master of ceremonies announces is digital processing.Tubular Bells 2 is great, though a bit dated.
Been slowly working my way through Venture Bros and I'm sure people in this thread will appreciate this:
Been slowly working my way through Venture Bros and I'm sure people in this thread will appreciate this: