A Beginner's Guide to Progressive Rock

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Progressive Rock is a difficult genre to get into. The progressive rock of the Golden Age of Progressive Rock can seem willfully difficult to listeners with no idea of what to expect, or who value immediacy in songs over other things. But for those with open minds, with the patience or with an interest in musical virtuosity, progressive rock can be quite rewarding once you get into it. To this end, we are presenting a "beginner's guide" to help those who are intimidated by prog to get into it as easily as possible.

This guide will focus primarily on The Big Six progressive rock bands, the major progressive rock band's of the genre's golden age. There are more accessible progressive rock bands and there are better progressive rock bands (in some cases), but these bands represent prog best, and made the most famous music in the genre. The Big Six progressive rock bands are:


Progressive rock is an album-oriented genre, so this guide will focus on albums rather than singles.


The Most Accessible Progressive Rock

The Dark Side of the Moon

The Dark Side of the Moon is arguably the most famous progressive rock album ever, and one of the two most commercially successful. However it is not necessarily the most ideal place to start because of how truly unlike the vast majority of progressive rock it is. But I think it's a good entry point, regardless. If you like The Dark Side of the Moon you may be open to progressive rock. If you don't like it, it's highly unlikely you will like more "progressive" prog rock records.

Why It's a Good Entry Point Unlike the other five Big Six bands, Pink Floyd was always concerned with writing songs. Sure, they have as many epic side-long suites as the next prog rock band, but they also wrote accessible rock songs, many of which have been played on classic rock radio ad nauseum. The Dark Side of the Moon is a collection of songs. Sure, it is a concept album - an album organized on a theme - but, with the notable exception of "On the Run," the record is full of pretty conventional (for prog rock) rock songs. The album gives you a taste of progressive rock ambition without a track over 8 minutes, full of catchy melodies and lyrics which are about real-world concerns and, moreover, are not embarrassing decades later.

So if you listen to The Dark Side of the Moon and you find yourself wishing some of the songs lasted longer, or you want to listen to something even more ambitious, prog rock is for you.

Why It's Not a Good Example of Progressive Rock The Dark Side of the Moon is a triumph, perhaps the triumph, of 1970s record production. It is (notoriously) full of samples. Not only does it contain more samples than any other prog rock record - the vast majority of which contain none - it contains more than most Pink Floyd records. From a production standpoint, it has more in common with The Beatles circa The White Album than it does with progressive rock.

So if you find yourself most impressed with the production, prog rock might not be for you. Or at least prog rock other than Pink Floyd and Krautrock.

Aqualung

Though Tull are usually listed as one of The Big Six, they are even further from the prog rock norm than Pink Floyd. You could argue that if they never recorded Thick as a Brick (see below) or A Passion Play, they would never have been considered progressive rock. They are the most accessible of the Big Six progressive rock bands because they are the least progressive. Aqualung marks the point at which Tull broadened their sound, from their characteristic mixture of hard rock and folk rock - imagine Zeppelin without the blues influence, a far more prominent singer-songwriter bent, and with a flute, and you get the vaguest idea - into areas reserved for prog rock, particularly Renaissance Music.


Why It's a Good Entry Point Ever since the departure of co-front man Mick Abrahams, Tull's music has always been busy and complicated compared to other hard rock bands of their era; complicated riffs, multiple parts within songs. And then there's the flute, prominently up front in most songs. Aqualung takes Tull's sound to new levels of ambition, with longer, more ambitious songs, and with orchestras and recorders and the like. If you believe some critics, it's a concept album. (However, Ian Anderson disputes this and claims that this misreading of Aqualung is the reason he wrote Thick as a Brick.)

If you find yourself impressed by the musical fusion, or Anderson's songwriting, but want more, it means, at the very least, that you will likely enjoy their next record and some of their other music post-Aqualung. If you find yourself thinking the music isn't ambitious enough, it means you're likely going to enjoy prog.

Why It's Not a Good Example of Progressive Rock Frankly, though Aqualung is not as catchy as The Dark Side of the Moon, and not as popular, it is more conventional. If you are put off by the complicated songs, or the flute, it's highly unlikely you would ever come around to prog that is actually progressive. Worse, if you really enjoy this record, there's still no guarantee you'll like more ambitious music. That's something for Thick as a Brick to help you figure out.

Progressive Rock That Still Resembles Classic Rock

Wish You Were Here Wish You Were Here is the follow up to The Dark Side of the Moon that all Pink Floyd fans prefer to show how they're serious fans and not just on some bandwagon. It's another thematically driven set of songs, only this time there's a side-long suite of songs on the record. The side-long suite is a prog trope. But this time, the Floyd have made it easier for you, by splitting it up, so half of it is is on Side A and half is on Side B. It's a good bet that if you like "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" you'll like the Floyd's other really long tracks. Enjoyment of this record suggests the potential to enjoy proggier albums.

Animals Animals is an unauthorized, bastardized adaptation of Orwell's 1984, but critiquing capitalism instead of communism, bookmarked by song fragments from an unrelated love song. That may sound bad but the record is actually both the Floyd's most impenetrable track listing - three tracks over 10 minutes each and two song under 2 minutes each - and their best set of epics, all three of which are fan favourites. If you enjoy this record, it's time to check out some more risque stuff.

Meddle Before The Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd hadn't really figured their shit out. They had multiple competing impulses and often recorded records which featured all sorts of different genres. Meddle is the closest they came in their early years to making a cohesive record, though it's still split in half between prog and roots rock. The side-long track, "Echoes," is not as immediate as their later work but is still accessible in comparison to a lot of prog. The roots rock stuff is accessible but hardly typical of Pink Floyd or prog.

Thick As a Brick If Ian Anderson hasn't been annoyed by critics claiming Aqualung was a concept album, he might never have written Thick As a Brick. And if he never wrote Thick As a Brick, it's likely we never would have considered Tull a prog band. Thick As A Brick is an LP-long song (a suite, really) that parodies concept albums. It was the most progressive thing Tull had recorded to date, it's one of only a couple Tull albums to truly resemble prog rock throughout its run-time, but it's also remarkably accessible, especially to anyone daunted by the idea of a song which lasts an entire LP. It may be the catchiest LP-long song in the history of recording technology.

If you like this record, there's a chance you'll like the less melodic, less accessible A Passion Play. But there's also a chance you have the tolerance for the truly epic prog stuff.

Fragile I haven't suggested Yes so far because they are considerably less accessible than the Floyd or Tull (as are ELP, Genesis and King Crimson). But when you're ready to try Yes, Fragile is the record to try. The reason is because the record is curiously split in half between songs developed by each of the five individual members and group tracks. The five individual tracks vary in quality but all are short and accessible. The group tracks include one catchy song and three epics, but the epics are all catchy and one of them, "Roundabout," you know if you know classic rock radio at all. (It released in an edited-down single version but the full version later became a favourite of AOR and later classic rock radio.)

Why I Wouldn't Recommend The Wall The Wall (1979) by Pink Floyd is the best selling progressive rock album of all time, and the second most famous. However, it is unlike any previous Floyd album and unlike all but one Floyd album ever. It's a rock opera and, as such, has more in common with Tommy than it does with mainstream progressive rock. It is also basically art rock, despite getting lumped in with prog rock because of the band who made it, and it has more in common with Lou Reed's Berlin than it does with Pink Floyd albums. I'm not saying you shouldn't listen to it - everyone should - but I don't think it will give you any idea of what prog rock sounds like, even less of an idea than The Dark Side of the Moon.


The Best Albums By the Big Six

If you actually like most or even some of the above records, I might be time to get into the best records by the "Big Six." They are:

Once you have listened to the above records, you will essentially know prog rock.


The Best Emerson, Lake and Palmer Albums

Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) are arguably the least consistent and most difficult to love of all the Big Six prog bands. Most of their albums follow a formula, a formula which contains a bizarre array of different styles seemingly calculated to appeal to different parts of their audience. As a result, each of these albums is inherently inconsistent. Additionally, the band were extremely serious, despite their comedy rock numbers, and, half a century later, it's kind of hard to take them as seriously as they thought.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1970) The band's debut as the essential advantage of predating the formula the band created for all future studio records. Instead, the vast majority of the record is devoted Keith Emerson's piano, organ and synthesizer playing, and the record makes a strong case that he is the greatest keyboardist, at least from a technical standpoint, in the history of popular music.

If you like this record, there's really no telling if you'll like their later records, because things change considerably going forward.

Brain Salad Surgery (1973) Of all ELP's formula records it's their fourth album, Brain Salad Surgery which is the best, having either the best versions or the least bad versions of each of their required tracks:

  • an original prog epic ("Karn Evil 9")
  • a couple of adaptations of "Classical" music ("Jerusalem" by Hubert Parry, the 4th movement of Alberto Ginastera's 1st piano concerto)
  • a Greg Lake ballad ("Still, You Turn Me On")
  • a comedy number ("Benny the Bouncer").

If you like this record, you may like other ELP records.

The Best Genesis Albums

Genesis made some of the best prog rock of the era but, with the exception of one or two tracks per album, at their peak they made music that was very proggy and rather uncompromising.

Foxtrot (1972) Nursery Chryme is the first album by the golden age Genesis lineup of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherfod, but it's on Foxtrot and, particularly, on Genesis' attempt at a side-long track, "Supper's Ready," when Genesis became one of the best progressive rock bands ever. Though the album, like all Genesis albums of this time, suffers from poor mastering, it contains the full range of the band's ability: to play soft or loud, knotty or simply. And "Supper's Ready" contains it all in one suite, one of the single greatest accomplishments of the prog rock era.

Selling England By the Pound (1973) By turns both more ambitious and less ambitious than Foxtrot, Selling England By the Pound contains the first minor Genesis hit single, the first sign Phil Collins was going to be a pop singer and a number of excellent prog songs showing off Genesis in all their glory, both their musicianship and Gabriel's unique lyrics.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) With apologies to Tommy, Quadrophenia and The Wall, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the Greatest Rock Opera of All Time. The story is elaborate and is backed by Genesis' best must of the era, given a sheen of weirdness by Brian Eno. But then the artifice is revealed in the last track.


The Best King Crimson Albums

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