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March of the Mellotrons: The Best Classic Progressive Rock
Album Ever, Part One (Setting the Stage)
Welcome to the fifth
in our series of periodic music geek essays structured sports tournament
style, with 64 worthy contenders slugging it out head-to-head for the crown
at the end of the article. Prior tourneys have included The Worst Rock Band Ever,
Rock's Greatest Secret
Bands, Best of the
Blockbusters and Slaughtering
the Sacred Cows. (And for a peek at the unintended consequences of such
articles, see this
page). This season's contest seeks to identify and applaud the Best
Classic Progressive Rock Album Ever. And I have to tell you . . . this is the
one I probably feel most passionate about, since Progressive Rock ("prog" for
short convenience's sake) has formed the backbone of my listening habits for
as long as I have been buying, spinning, talking and writing about music. I've
had over 1,000 record and concert reviews and music-related interviews see
print publication over the years, but this topic, and this essay, is the one
that moves me the most.
So . . . with input and argument from several folks (thanks, you know who you
are), I've developed what I think is a solid list of the 64 greatest classic
Progressive Rock albums. I've organized them, sat on, mulled and looked at
the brackets for a few days, and feel like this list is good, and the
brackets are sound. I had to get a little more precise on setting these
brackets than I do in most of the these contests to preclude having bands
competing against themselves in the early rounds, and to space out some of
the obvious title contenders as well.
A review of the criteria for inclusion on the list:
1. The album must have been issued between the release of King Crimson's In
the Court of the Crimson King (October 1969) and Emerson, Lake and Palmer's
Love Beach (October 1978), the
beginning and end points of the classic prog era. I wrestled a little bit
with the beginning and end dates, and originally was going to close with the
release of Asia's debut album (1982), the first huge-selling,
prog-family-tree related album that didn't really sound anything like prog.
There were two precursor records prior to In the Court that I was
thinking of including for honorary/influence reasons: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band by the Beatles (first popular use of the Mellotron,
first concept album), and Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues
(the birth of orchestral rock, which deeply and significantly impacted prog),
but I opted to drop them from the contest, noting their import here instead
for the record. Other suggested (and good) end dates for the classic prog era
were the dawn of Pop Yes (of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in 1983), or some
combination of Phil Collins' "You Can't Hurry Love" and "Sussudio," and/or
Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" and "Sledgehammer" in the '85/'86 period. But I
think it really came down to either Love Beach
or Asia.
I remember how I was very, very excited for that Asia album, based on who was
on it (prog all-stars John Wetton, Carl Palmer, Steve Howe and slightly
lesser light, at the time, Geoff Downes), and how I was very disappointed
when I got it, since there wasn't much progressive flavor to it at all,
really. But I'd had that feeling earlier: While Asia
was certainly a disappointing landmark, I still recall my shocked reaction to
the cover image of Love Beach, (which looked more like a disco record
than a prog one), and was similarly let down by the music within the package.
Punk had done its damage by then, as had unreasonable record company
expectations, which were the real catalyst behind the lesser quality of Love Beach when compared to its
predecessors, both by ELP and their progressive rock fellows. Prog as we knew
and loved it in the '70s died around the time that ELP took that photo on the
beach. (Is that why ELP's trio are smiling so broadly in that picture? Is it
giddy relief?) I should note that by shifting from Asia to Love Beach, I
only lost two of my original 64 albums, Pink Floyd's The Wall and Peter Gabriel's third album . . . and if we'd gotten
to a point where only two classic prog records were issued in a four year
period, then I think that further cements 1978 as the proper end year. And
before you write to snark at me about neo-prog and how great it is and how
much I am missing by excluding it . . . I know that. Maybe someday I will do
a best neo-prog record competition. But not now, for the same reasons that I
wouldn't critique Green Day and Blink 182 against the Sex Pistols and the
Clash. There are leaders, and there are followers. This essay is going to be
about the prog leaders.
2. While there are countless impassioned arguments online about what does and
does not count as prog, I have stuck to the classic/symphonic core of the
canon. The more jazz-rock oriented Canterbury scene (Soft Machine and descendants)
is not included. The pre-King Crimson psychedelic and symphonic rock groups
are not included. Krautrock (Can, Neu, Faust, Amon Duul) is not included.
Space rock is not included (with, arguably, the exception of Pink Floyd, who
could lay claim to sitting equally well in the psychedelic, prog and space
rock camps . . . I have selected their "most prog" albums from the '69-'78
time frame for inclusion here). No Rock in Opposition (Henry Cow and
relatives). No straight synth records (Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine
Dreams). Groups that had little impact, either commercially or critically in
the UK or USA are not included, except in such cases when they are key
offshoots to larger, more successful prog acts; this means most of the
continental prog is not included, while a lot of solo/side efforts by
mainline prog acts are. I would imagine my most controversial exclusion would
be my decision to drop Brian Eno's solo albums and Roxy Music from the list.
Based on discussion on another web board, I have based this exclusion on the
fact that Eno's "anti-musician" stance is far more punk than prog, even
though he had an All-star Prog Army playing on his first four solo albums.
And if Eno doesn't qualify, then Roxy Music doesn't either . . . they were
certainly "progressive" (as an adjective) on their first two Eno-fortified
albums, but they weren't "Prog" (as a noun), with their emphasis on singles,
romance and relatively short songs.
3. That discussion all noted, when you get right down it: What is Prog anyway?
I think the best definition of the genre that I've found online is on the
very useful Wikipedia; see their Characteristics
of Progressive Rock entry. The bottom line, though, really, is that prog
is like obscenity: it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Or
hear it.
4. No act was allowed to have more than four albums in the competition. For
the "Big Six" prog acts (ELP, Pink Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson, Yes and
Jethro Tull), I have picked the albums that are the "most Prog," using
criteria listed in the Wikipedia article (plus, obviously, my own judgment).
The analog to real NCAA sporting events is much closer in this contest than
it has been in the past: the "major conferences" (ACC, SEC, Big 10, Pac 10,
Big East, Big 12) closely parallel with the "big six" prog bands. Then you've
got your "mid-majors" (MAC, Mountain West, West Coast, Conference USA and
others in sports; Gentle Giant, Van Der Graaf Generator, Focus, Camel and
others in prog), and your plucky little one entry conferences (NEC,
Southland, Patriot etc. in sports, Curved Air, Badger, Utopia, etc. in prog).
Odds are in NCAA hoops that your finalists are going to be from the majors;
odds are in prog that the Big Six are going to be slugging it out at the end
of the tourney. But . . . that doesn't mean that there aren't going to be
upsets and Cinderellas. That's where the fun lies.
5. Albums will be pitted head to head until a Final Four is reached, at which
point the four surviving albums will go through a round robin process, each
one competing against each of the others. The one with the most points at
that stage wins. If two albums tie in the round robin, a deeper song-by-song
review will be conducted (or movement-by-movement if we end up with a couple
of album-long epics).
6. Of course,
ultimately, this is all just my opinion. But I think it's a very educated
opinion in this genre, given my 30+ years of listening to these records
semi-religiously. All music criticism and evaluation is subjective, and if
you don't agree with my conclusions, that's all fine and good. Hopefully you
will at least find the process to be entertaining.
7. This long (26,000
word) article was originally written in pieces on my blog, hence a lot of
the "tomorrow we will" and "yesterday we did" references. If you visit my
blog, you will see a section on the left-hand links sidebar called "dissecting."
There are more contests like this one linked there. The other contests are
also linked at the bottom of this page . . . but don't jump ahead!
So! Without further ado, here are the 64 contenders in their brackets. Like
the NCAA Hoops Tournament, albums have been assigned to four named regionals.
Consider yourself a prog geek if you know where the regional names come from:
The Slipperman Regional
King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King vs. Utopia, RA
UK, UK vs. Jethro Tull, Minstrel in the Gallery
Gentle Giant, Octopus vs. Camel, Mirage
Alan Parsons Project, I Robot vs. Pink Floyd, Animals
Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway vs. Peter Sinfield, Still
McDonald and Giles, McDonald and Giles vs. Yes, The Yes Album
Steve Hackett, Voyage of the Acolyte vs. Focus, Moving Waves
Van Der Graaf Generator, Pawn Hearts vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tarkus
The Bostock Regional
Yes, Close to the Edge vs. Split Enz, Mental Notes
Family, Fearless vs. Jethro Tull, Thick As A Brick
Rush, Hemispheres vs. Kansas, Leftoverture
Chris Squire, Fish Out of Water vs. Genesis, Selling England by the
Pound
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon vs. Jon Anderson, Olias of
Sunhillow
Magma, Udu Wudu vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Brain Salad Surgery
Quiet Sun, Mainstream vs. Gentle Giant, The Power and the Glory
Peter Banks, Two Sides of Peter Banks vs. King Crimson, Starless
and Bible Black
The Wurm Regional
King Crimson, Lark's Tongue in Aspic vs. Alan Parsons Project, Tales
of Mystery and Imagination
801, Live vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Emerson Lake and Palmer
Curved Air, Phantasmagoria vs. Gentle Giant, Free Hand
Anthony Philips, The Geese and the Ghost vs. Yes, Relayer
Jethro Tull, A Passion Play vs. Electric Light Orchestra, Eldorado
Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells vs. Pink Floyd, Meddle
Flash, Flash vs. Kansas, Point of Know Return
Magma, Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh vs. Genesis, A Trick of the
Tail
The Syrinx Regional
Yes, Fragile vs. Nektar, Journey to the Center of the Eye
Badger, One Live Badger vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pictures At An
Exhibition
Rick Wakeman, The Six Wives of Henry VIII vs. Jethro Tull, Aqualung
Rush, 2112 vs. Focus, Focus 3
Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here vs. Family, Bandstand
Uriah Heep, Demons and Wizards vs. Genesis, Foxtrot
Van Der Graaf Generator, H to He Who Am the Only One vs. Camel, Snow
Goose
Wishbone Ash, Argus vs. King Crimson, Red
I've got a busy couple of days coming up, so either in the quiet moments of
them, or when they're passed, I'll begin grinding through the list. I've loaded
up my car with all prog all the time to reacquaint myself with these discs.
March of the
Mellotrons: The Best Classic Progressive Rock Album Ever, Part Two (The
Slipperman Regional, Round One)
Alright, I got a little down time, let's see if we can't get through at least
a quarter of the first round this afternoon. The full bracket of 64 Classic
Prog Albums appears in an earlier post. Today, let's look at the Slipperman
Regional, with the following first round contests.
King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King vs. Utopia, RA
UK, UK vs. Jethro Tull, Minstrel in the Gallery
Gentle Giant, Octopus vs. Camel, Mirage
Alan Parsons Project, I Robot vs. Pink Floyd, Animals
Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway vs. Peter Sinfield, Still
McDonald and Giles, McDonald and Giles vs. Yes, The Yes Album
Steve Hackett, Voyage of the Acolyte vs. Focus, Moving Waves
Van Der Graaf Generator, Pawn Hearts vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tarkus
Here's the play by play . . .
King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King vs. Utopia, RA
In the Court is where it all begins, as Robert Fripp, Greg Lake, Ian
McDonald, Michael Giles and Peter Sinfield spin out a five-song collection
that stomps out of the gate with the harsh "21st Century Schizoid Man," then
soothes you with the gentle "I Talk to the Wind," then ricochets around
various folk, classical, rock and jazz idioms during "Epitaph" and "Moonchild,"
then exits with the massive mellotron-fueled epic title track. Pete Townsend
allegedly called it "an uncanny masterpiece," and that description is as apt
as any. RA was the third album issued by Todd Rundgren's side project,
and the first one to feature the classic line-up with Kasim Sulton, Roger
Powell and John "Willie" Wilcox. It's not as dirgy and dense as the two live
discs that preceded it, it has an interesting running undercurrent of Eastern
mysticism and melody, and its most prog moments come on the side-long suite "Singring
and the Glass Guitar," narrated in a cute little elf voice by Rundgren. Not
bad, really, but not in the same class as In the Court of the Crimson King.
Not by a long shot.
Winner: King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King
UK, UK vs. Jethro Tull, Minstrel in the Gallery
UK was probably the most eagerly hyped and anticipated prog supergroup after
ELP and before Asia, with John Wetton (King Crimson, Family), Bill Bruford
(King Crimson, Yes), Eddie Jobson (Roxy Music) and Allan Holdsworth (Gong)
making up the group's initial, best lineup. While they weren't quite as
thrilling as ELP, they certainly also weren't quite as disappointing as Asia.
Still . . . their debut album hasn't aged that well, either in terms of
production or content, and with 20/20 hindsight, you can definitely hear some
of the wisps of Asia's lite pop rock sneaking in around the virtuoso chops. Minstrel
in the Gallery was the last album by Jethro Tull's best-loved lineup: Ian
Anderson, Martin Barre, Barriemore Barlow, John Evan and Jeffrey
Hammond-Hammond, who left after its completion to work as a visual artist on
a full time basis. His last album with the group has one of their hardest
songs (the title track), some of Barre's best lead guitar work, a couple of
top-notch near solo tracks by Anderson, and a nearly sidelong suite ("Baker
Street Muse") that manages to scoot off well before it overstays its welcome.
It sounds as good today as it did then, and you can't hear a dismal pop
future for its players lurking within its grooves. That's enough.
Winner: Jethro Tull, Minstrel in the Gallery
Gentle Giant, Octopus vs. Camel, Mirage
Gentle Giant's and Camel's devotees tend to be loud and insistent about how
their faves should and could have been seated at the Big Boys Prog Table
during the '70s. Reviews of their records tend to be filled with "Oh, but
only if . . . " and "There but for the . . ." statements, implying that some
combination of bad fortune, record company mismanagement, or a complete lack
of interest in the trappings of success kept these two from their rightful
place in Prog Glory. These views are wrong. The reason that neither Gentle
Giant nor Camel ascended to those exalted peaks is that neither of them is as
engaging as the better known bands who dominated the era. Gentle Giant, while
undeniably skilled talented, tends to be too fussy and prissy to really grab
and shake you. Camel, on the other hand, tends to veer into background and/or
soundtrack music mode too often. Given a choice between those two tendencies,
I think I'll have to go with fussy and prissy.
Winner: Gentle Giant, Octopus
Alan Parsons Project, I Robot vs. Pink Floyd, Animals
The student vs. the masters: Alan Parsons cut his teeth as studio engineer on
Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, before embarking on a
successful career as mastermind behind one of prog's few successful
(critically and commercially) pop crossover acts. This contest pits Parsons
and friends' best album against Pink Floyd's darkest and densest disc. Both
albums touch on themes of dehumanization and individuality, one looking to
Isaac Asimov for inspiration, one to George Orwell. All things considered,
Orwell and Floyd make for a more appealing combo platter, even though Roger
Waters' dominance of this disc marked the beginning of the end of one of rock's
greatest creative partnerships. It was still good on Animals, even if
it was starting to fray around the edges.
Winner: Pink Floyd, Animals
Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway vs. Peter Sinfield, Still
King Crimson lyricist-light man-producer Peter Sinfield recruited a who's who
of prog titans for his first solo disc (later issued on CD in an expanded
format under the title Stillusion), including most every member of
Crimson itself, except Robert Fripp. You can hear some of the father band's
sounds and textures on Still, although they tend to be most like the
sounds and textures of Islands, the last Crimson studio album with
Sinfield involved, and an arguable low point before Crimson's rebirth on Lark's
Tongue in Aspic a year later. Sinfield is a wispy singer, and many of the
honky-tonk and country touches on Still sound affected and twee. The
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, on the other hand, is brawny. It was the
final two-disc magnum opus by classic Genesis (Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks,
Phil Collins, Michael Rutherford and Steve Hackett), and marked the point
where Gabriel pulled his own Roger Waters move and completely took over the
band's lyrical direction, crafting a bizarre tale about a New York City
Puerto Rican thug and his adventures in a strange and hallucinatory
subterranean world. While the album stumbles a bit on its third side (a
standards double disc concept album problem), its brightest and best moments
are as bright and good as Genesis ever got. That's more than enough to carry
this contest.
Winner: Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
McDonald and Giles, McDonald and Giles vs. Yes, The Yes Album
McDonald and Giles, like Peter Sinfield's Still, finds a pod of
Crimson alumni offering their own spin on how King Crimson could and should
have sounded, without guiding guitarist Robert Fripp. While far more
successful than Sinfield's disc, McDonald and Giles (the only disc
issued by the consortium of drummer Michael Giles, his bass playing brother
Peter, reed and keyboard man Ian McDonald and friends and associated helpers,
including Steve Winwood and Sinfield) still gets nowhere near the power and
grandeur of In the Court of the Crimson King or its follow-up, In
the Wake of Poseidon (on which the Giles brothers played, but not
McDonald). Good for completists, but if this was your first introduction to
the King Crimson family tree, you would wonder what the fuss was all about.
The Yes Album, on the other hand, is revelatory and fascinating. If you
listen to Yes's first two lukewarm and straightforward records, it's
extremely difficult to comprehend how this third disc made such a quantum
leap in content and quality. The short cover tunes and pop numbers were gone,
replaced by such instant classics of the prog canon as "Starship Trooper," "All
Good People," and "Yours is No Disgrace." Two things probably drove this
shift: (1) Uber-guitarist Steve Howe joining the band, and (2) the fact that
Yes's members had been listening to, and learning from, King Crimson. No
contest.
Winner: Yes, The Yes Album
Steve Hackett, Voyage of the Acolyte vs. Focus, Moving Waves
With the exception of a few early drummers, every member of Genesis has had a
critically successful and full solo career, some with more commercial success
than others. While Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins obviously have the most
name recognition among non-proggers, guitarist Steve Hackett may have issued
the best (and most proggy) solo disc of the bunch with his debut, Voyage
of the Acolyte. Mike Rutherford, Collins, Hackett's brother John, and other
supporting players offer stellar instrumental support to these eight magical
and magnificent numbers, the best of which, "Shadow of the Hierophant," could
stand as the greatest song Genesis never recorded, but should have. While
many King Crimson alums tried to retool that band's instrument sound in a
Robert Fripp-less setting, and failed, Hackett took a stab and Genesis' sound
in a Tony Banks-less setting, and made something wonderful. Dutch progsters
Focus are best known in America for their weird yodeling hit "Hocus Pocus,"
which is contained on Moving Waves in a longer, better form than the
single. While organist-flutist Thijs Van Leer's weird wordless ululating can
be a bit off-putting, this album's instrumental punch and scope is
spectacular, with the side-long freak-out "Eruption" standing tall as one of
the few places where a loosely scripted, prog-flavored jam session really
works well. Big credit is due to heroic guitar player Jan Akkerman, who
deserves far more fame and acclaim than he's earned. Unfortunately, though,
his and his band mates efforts can't trump Hackett's in this particular
contest. Fair, but unfortunate.
Winner: Steve Hackett, Voyage of the Acolyte
Van Der Graaf Generator, Pawn Hearts vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tarkus
I try and I try to like Van Der Graaf Generator, but despite my best, most
earnest efforts, their dense, off-putting music never quite gets to the point
where I enjoy listening to it. It feels too much like work, even on Pawn
Hearts, their best (to these ears) work, and one of two early discs to
feature guest guitar work by King Crimson's Robert Fripp. (Prog is nothing if
not incestuous). Put Pawn Heart's side-long suite "A Plague of
Lighthouse Keepers" against the side-long title suite of ELP's Tarkus,
and the laboriousness of VDGG's approach becomes all the more obvious. "Tarkus"
is intensely complex and busy, but it manages to sneak in some killer hooks
and points of engagement, and its transitions are relatively seamless. It
seems shorter than its running time. "Lighthouse Keepers," on the other side,
has clunky connections, not a lot of melody, and some strenuously strident
singing by Peter Hammill. It feels a lot longer than its running time. While
some folks dismiss the quality of Tarkus' second side (I'm not one of
them, but more on that during a later round), one side of ELP in this case is
worth more than two of VDGG, so it becomes essentially a moot point.
Winner: Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tarkus
And that's it for today, giving us the following matchups when we move to
second round of the Slipperman Regional:
King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King vs. Jethro Tull, Minstrel
in the Gallery
Gentle Giant, Octopus vs. Pink Floyd, Animals
Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway vs. Yes, The Yes Album
Steve Hackett, The Voyage of the Acolyte vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tarkus
I'll tackle another regionals first round when I get back from a weekend
away. Stay tuned.
March of the
Mellotrons: The Best Classic Progressive Rock Album Ever, Part Three (The
Bostock Regional, Round One)
Back from a nice couple of days at the Sagamore. I'm tired, but have to stay
up until midnight to go pick up the teenager from the
obligatory Halloween weekend party. Time to burn. Let's knock off another
quarter of the first round, this time tackling . . .
The Bostock Regional
Yes, Close to the Edge vs. Split Enz, Mental Notes
Family, Fearless vs. Jethro Tull, Thick As A Brick
Rush, Hemispheres vs. Kansas, Leftoverture
Chris Squire, Fish Out of Water vs. Genesis, Selling England by the
Pound
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon vs. Jon Anderson, Olias of
Sunhillow
Magma, Udu Wudu vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Brain Salad Surgery
Quiet Sun, Mainstream vs. Gentle Giant, The Power and the Glory
Peter Banks, Two Sides of Peter Banks vs. King Crimson, Starless
and Bible Black
Note: If you're new to this, scroll back to the Part One, where the rules and
regulations are explained. And if you know what's what, then hey nonny, let's
get critiquing . . .
Yes, Close to the Edge vs. Split Enz, Mental Notes
I can hear some of you saying "Split Enz? Those '80s new wave poppy
Finn-fueled dudes with the silly hair and suits?" And, uh, yeah, them. But
earlier: years before Neil Finn brought his pop chops and smarts into the
fold, back when the primary creative partnership was between Neil's older
brother Tim and Phil Judd, later of Schnell Fenster and the Swingers. Mental
Notes was the Enz's first full-length album from 1975, and it's a
prog-flavored corker, with all sorts of weird voices, stories, reeds, keys
and sounds jockeying around on a collection of truly clever songs, especially
the lengthy (by pop standards, anyway, if not prog standards) "Under the
Wheel" and "Stranger Than Fiction." The record died a fairly dismal
commercial death on release, but caught the ear of Roxy Music guitarist Phil
Manzanera, who brought the eclectic New Zealanders to Britain to re-record,
re-work and re-sequence Mental Notes, re-issuing it a year later as Second
Thoughts. That one bit the dust, too, and Phil Judd split, leaving Tim
Finn in charge for 1977's Dizrhythmia, which is a great disc, but
decidedly less weird and not particularly prog at all. Close to the Edge,
though, is about as prog as prog gets, as it marked Yes's first forays into
side-long epics (the title track), and continued their streak of successful
9-12 minutes jobs (Side Two's "And You And I" and "Siberian Khatru"). Rick
Wakeman had appeared on Fragile a year earlier, but Close to the
Edge marks the first Yes record created with him involved from git-go to
git-gone. (I leave that simply as a statement of fact, however, not as
something good or bad. We'll talk plenty more about Wakeman later). This was
also Bill Bruford's last album with Yes, before he split to join King
Crimson. While "Close to the Edge" (the song) certainly has its moments, the
two shorter (by prog standards, not pop standards) songs on its flip side are
the real gems here, with the always astonishing Steve Howe and Chris Squire
doing some truly remarkable stuff, much of it clean, clear, uncluttered
and/or acoustic. This was a peak of sorts for Yes, not an aborted start of
something that grew into something completely different, years later, as was
the case with Split Enz. Can't argue with that, really.
Winner: Yes, Close to the Edge
Family, Fearless vs. Jethro Tull, Thick As A Brick
Family is best known these days for things that their alumni did after leaving:
Ric Grech was the least-well known member of Blind Faith (which as far as the
rock press is concerned, seems to still be better than being the best-well
known member of Family), and John Wetton is, of course, one of prog's
mainstay bassists and vocalists. Fearless is one of two albums Wetton
recorded with Family, and it offers a fascinating snapshot into how one could
take progressive concepts, apply them to some essentially straightforward
blues songs, and create something distinctive and unique. Utility infielder
Poli Palmer (who also appears on both of the Wetton albums) offers a lot of
the non-traditional sounds, with vibes and early analog synthesizers adding
splashes of color and coolness in places where most bands would have settled
for a standard solo. Thick As A Brick was the first of two album-long
suites by Jethro Tull, and former blues band themselves, but one that never
really reconciled their blues leanings with the progressive leanings (with
the possible exception of some of the weirder stompers, like "Play In Time,"
on Benefit, two studio albums before Thick as a Brick). Thick
As A Brick is also the first album by the line-up that most longtime Tull
fans tend to pine for the most (as mentioned earlier), with Barriemore Barlow
stepping onto the drum riser to relieve Clive Bunker after Aqualung. Thick
As A Brick's opening edit is one of the more recognizable pieces of the
Tull canon, although it's mostly just Ian Anderson doing a solo acoustic
guitar piece. From there, though, the album gets pretty darned stompy,
especially on the "See there a child is born" and "I've come down from the
upper class to mend your rotten ways" sections. There's some free form bits
around the area where Side A ended and Side B began in vinyl days, and the
second half of the record gets a bit drifty, but as one of prog's first
really, really big musical and conceptual statements, it's hard to not
lean in this record's direction here.
Jethro Tull, Thick As A Brick
Rush, Hemispheres vs. Kansas, Leftoverture
Goodness, an all-North American contest, with Canada's finest duking it out
with, uh, Kansas's favorite sons. Leftoverture was an unexpected pop
crossover hit on the strength of the single "Carry On Wayward Son," one of
the more unusual commercial smashes of the '70s. I can remember some pop
radio junkies picking up this album at the time, and being freaked out by its
art and pompiness, since most albums bearing Top 40 singles at the time didn't
feature such non-toe-tapping things after the opening hit song. Of course,
odds are Kansas was just as surprised by its success as casual listeners were
at how little there was on the record that sounded short and punchy like "Wayward
Son." Still, I'd lift this record up as Kansas's finest and most ambitious
moment, even though personally I'd rather listen to its slightly more
accessible follow-on, Point of Know Return. Hemispheres is one
of two Rush albums from the classic prog era featuring a side-long suite
backed with a handful of shorter numbers, 2112 being the other. While "Hemispheres"
(the song) is probably the better of the two opuses, the second side is
pretty light-weight, with "The Trees" standing as one of the songs that most
Rush haters cite when they try to explain why they hate Rush. I like Rush . .
. but I still have to agree with most Rush haters on that one. In this case,
I'd rather advance a band at the top of its game, not a band thrashing out
its last epic before really hitting its stride in the early '90s with some
mercifully tight short numbers, none of which are as lyrically simplistic and
silly as "The Trees."
Winner: Kansas, Leftoverture
Chris Squire, Fish Out of Water vs. Genesis, Selling England by
the Pound
There's lots of folks who will lift up Selling England by the Pound as
Genesis' masterpiece. And there are parts of it that deserve such kudos: "Dancing
With the Moonlit Knight, "Firth of Fifth" and "Cinema Show/Aisle of Plenty"
are indeed among the group's greatest performances. "I Know What I Like (In
Your Wardrobe)" isn't quite up to those standards, but, by golly, it was a
mild crossover hit, and a weird one, so we always like it when proggers
manage to pull that off. But then there's "More Fool Me," sung by Phil
Collins in a high, thin warble that (with 20/20 hindsight) is somewhat
remarkable . . . in that I'd never have expected the singer of this song to
build a multi-mega-platinum solo singing career for himself. And then, even
worse, there's "The Battle of Epping Forest/After the Ordeal". Hoo boy. I
view this as Peter Gabriel's practice run for what he pulled off far more
successfully a year or so later on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, an
attempt at getting away from classical mythology and space aliens and
medieval battles and fairy tales and whatnot, replacing those tried and true
prog themes with something grittier, more real world and earthy. Neither he
nor his band mates manage to pull it off at all on this too too veddy
veddy view of how posh upper class English twit boys viewed blue collar crime
and thuggery, set to a clunky musical score, and extended far longer than it
needs to be with the disposable "After the Ordeal" plodding along when the
fighting is done. Fish Out of Water is, without question, the probably
the best solo album produced by any of the classic-period Yes members, with
the possible exception of Steve Howe's The Steve Howe Album, which
unfortunately came out just a smidge too late to make this survey. (Early
guitarist Tony Banks put out some winners, too, but we'll talk about them
later). Squire's record is the most Yes-sounding of the Yes solos too, in
part because his titanic bass work is so recognizable and such a key part of
the Yes sound, but also because Squire (and Howe) provide such consistent
backing vocals to lead angelic tenor Jon Anderson that you're actually far
more used to hearing their voices than you think they are. Squire never
issued another solo, which is a pity, given the number of dodgy ones that his
band mates have put out since this excellent and consistently solid disc was
dropped. In what will probably be viewed as an upset, I'm going to go with
that tight consistency over Genesis' sprawling yet seriously inconsistent
disc.
Winner: Chris Squire, Fish Out of Water
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon vs. Jon Anderson, Olias of
Sunhillow
Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow was recorded in the same Yes
sabbatical that produced Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water. It received
a nice response from critics and fans, I think in large part because they/we
were pleasantly surprised to find that Anderson was capable of creating an
entire disc's worth of instrumental backing all by his lonesome, since he'd
not exhibited any discernable proficiency with musical instruments before
that time. Olias is a bit twee on the lyrical front, though, which
wasn't all that surprising, I guess, given Anderson's proclivity for fantasy
and fairies and the like. One of the other problems with this (and all of
Anderson's other solo albums) is that his voice, which can be wonderful when
backed and tracked with Squire and Steve Howe's voices on Yes records, sounds
awfully dog-whistle shrill when he's singing solo parts or offering
multi-tracked stacks of himself. And when you put this fluffy and lightweight
album up against a genre defining disc like Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of
the Moon, well, really now, it's hard to pick the guy who didn't
embarrass himself on the harp over the tight, talented rock quartet who made
the most recognizable, famous and best-selling concept album of all time, isn't
it?
Winner: Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
Magma, Udu Wudu vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Brain Salad Surgery
Magma was the brain child of continental percussionist and composer Christian
Vander, who got around the problem of having his singers' words not being
understood in neighboring countries by creating an all-new, all-fictional
language (called Kobaiian) for his songs, and building a monumental and epic
space fantasy to accompany them, played out over the course of several
records, in a style they dubbed "zeuhl". Udu Wudu is one of those
Kobaiian records, but it's one that many Magma fans seem quick to dismiss as
being atypical or unusual within the canon, or "not zeuhl enough". But to
these ears, it's one of their two best efforts ever, with Vander, bassist
Jannick Top and vocalist Klaus Blasquiz whipping up an unbelievable,
over-the-top masterpiece that sounds completely unlike anything I've ever
heard anywhere else, including other Magma records. It's a lost gem, and well
worth hunting down. After its issue, Magma took a brief breather, then
reconvened to delve further into some of the funkier, fusion elements of Udu
Wudu, but without as much success. As an historical footnote, their 1978
album Attahk featured art by Swiss provocateur H.R. Giger, who also
produced one of the '70s most recognizable record images: the cover of
Emerson Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery. ELP's fifth album is a
masterpiece, the one place where they managed to touch all of their various
fetishes (epic works, classical reinterpretations, barrelhouse/cowboy music,
love ballads, etc.) successfully and emphatically. While you could definitely
make a case that "Karn Evil 9" runs a good deal longer than it probably
should (you could knock out the whole movement between the "Welcome back my
friends" segment and the closing computer/space battle segment and not too
many people would grumble), its best bits are so good that it's pretty easy
to roll with the transitions. All the zeuhl in the world can't compete with
prog credentials like Brain Salad Surgery's got.
Winner: Emerson Lake and Palmer, Brain Salad Surgery
Quiet Sun, Mainstream vs. Gentle Giant, The Power and the Glory
Quiet Sun was Phil Manzanera's pre-Roxy Music band, although the group never
managed to release a record before their guitarist bolted to join Ferry, Eno
and Company. (Manzanera replaced original Roxy guitarist David O'List, who
had previously played with Keith Emerson of ELP in the Nice . . . more prog
incest at play). Give Manzanera kudos for remembering his pre-fame chums,
though, because during a mid-'70s Roxy Music hiatus, he reconvened them to
record a companion album to his own solo Diamond Head. Mainstream
is a nice enough album, with Manzanera's always interesting guitar styling
nicely supported and often enhanced by the rhythm section of Charles Hayward
and Bill MacCormick. Still . . . not much of it really sticks outside of "Mummy
Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Appliance" and "Rongwrong,"
both of which appeared in much better live versions soon thereafter on 801
Live. That's not much to hang a recommendation on. Gentle Giant's The
Power and the Glory is a little more electric guitar oriented than most
of the group's canon, but it still retains their trademark fussiness and
prissiness, which almost become more annoying when paired with occasional
guitar crunchiness. That said, there's a little bit more sticking power on
this album's best songs than you can find on Mainstream, so we've got
to give Kerry Minnear, the Shulman brothers and pals credit for that, at
least.
Winner: Gentle Giant, The Power and the Glory
Peter Banks, Two Sides of Peter Banks vs. King Crimson, Starless
and Bible Black
Peter Banks was the founding guitarist of Yes, and appeared on their first two,
largely pre-prog albums, Yes and Time and a Word. After getting
the boot to make way for Steve Howe (gosh, you can't blame the other Yes guys
for that now, can you?), he formed Flash, who released a few albums bang bang
bang style, then folded to allow Banks to launch a solo career. Two Side
of Peter Banks is the first fruit of that phase, and if Banks didn't
really show a lot of prog chops and potential with pre-prog Yes, he certainly
makes up for here, bringing in Steve Hackett, Phil Collins, John Wetton,
other members of Flash and, best of all, guitarist Jan Akkerman from Focus,
who as mentioned in yesterday's competition, is one of the greatest
guitarists you've probably never heard, but should. Together, the crew makes
a great, great album, one that sounds like a cross between Hackett's Voyage
of the Acolyte and Focus's "Eruption" freak fest. Starless and Bible
Black, the second disc of King Crimson's post-Sinfield renaissance, opens
with "The Great Deceiver," which sounds like nothing before, nothing since
it, and nothing except it. It's a great original, a madcap, frantic piece
that packs more substance into a short package than just about anything else
in the Crimson canon. It's a classic. As is the album closer, "Fracture,"
which is one of their best long instrumental pieces, and has a closing
section that's among the heaviest, hardest pieces of music I've ever heard .
. . especially since it comes on the heels of a quiet, drama/tension-building
slow and silent section, making it's ass-kicking entrance all that much more
exciting. There are some other wonderful numbers on this mix of studio and
live cuts, though none of them capture the insane intensity of the album's
openers and closers. Two Sides of Peter Banks is solid and dependable.
Starless and Bible Black is wild and exciting. If they were members of
the opposite sex, you know which type you'd want to date, don't you?
Winner: King Crimson, Starless and Bible Black
And yippie ti yi yay, there's another quarter of the first round dispatched.
This leads us to the following second round matchups when we make our next
pass through the Bostock Regional:
Yes, Close to the Edge vs. Jethro Tull, Thick As A Brick
Kansas, Leftoverture vs. Chris Squire, Fish Out of Water
Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Brain
Salad Surgery
Gentle Giant, The Power and the Glory vs. King Crimson, Starless
and Bible Black
March of the
Mellotrons: The Best Classic Progressive Rock Album Ever, Part Four (The Wurm
Regional, Round One)
Let's keep this thing going on the first day of Fall Back season, when the
sun has set far earlier than I'd prefer it to, and it feels like it's late at
night, even though it isn't. Tonight, we work through the first round of the
Wurm Regional, featuring:
The Wurm Regional
King Crimson, Lark's Tongue in Aspic vs. Alan Parsons Project, Tales
of Mystery and Imagination
801, Live vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Emerson Lake and Palmer
Curved Air, Phantasmagoria vs. Gentle Giant, Free Hand
Anthony Philips, The Geese and the Ghost vs. Yes, Relayer
Jethro Tull, A Passion Play vs. Electric Light Orchestra, Eldorado
Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells vs. Pink Floyd, Meddle
Flash, Flash vs. Kansas, Point of Know Return
Magma, Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh vs. Genesis, A Trick of the
Tail
If you're new, check the rules and regulations in earlier posts. Here's what
we've got to listen to and think about and decide on tonight . . .
King Crimson, Larks' Tongue in Aspic vs. Alan Parsons Project, Tales
of Mystery and Imagination
Tales of Mystery and Imagination was the debut album from the Alan
Parsons Project, best known before this 1975 release for his work as an
engineer on albums by Pink Floyd, Roy Wood, Wings and others. It was an
audacious and impressive debut, a musical tour through some of the best-known
works of 19th Century creepy Edgar Allan Poe. The music is sharp, the
arrangements are clean and innovative, the performances are crisp and
professional. But the use of multiple lead vocalists makes it kind of hard to
ever really get a sense of what this group's collective personality is
supposed to be, an issue that continued throughout the Parsons Project's long
and commercially successful run. Maybe that's why they were commercially
successful, as they were able to tab and nab the lead singer who could nail a
song just so . . . but somehow it leaves all of their material sounding less
like a band and more like a collection of studio professionals. Which, of
course, it was. Larks' Tongue in Aspic marked the rebirth of King
Crimson after a series of transitional lineups and increasingly spotty
albums, and it's a monster recording by a monster band: Robert Fripp, John
Wetton (from Family), Bill Bruford (from Yes), violinist David Cross and
percussionist Jamie Muir. The album is framed by parts I and II of the record's
title track, with four crunchy and atmospheric pieces between them. "Lark's
Tongue in Aspic, Part II" is one of Robert Fripp's most amazing compositions,
and it's one of only two works from the '70s that were carried forward into
the live repertoire of '80s, '90s and '00s Crimson. While there are tighter,
more powerful, and faster live versions of the song available on disc, this
clattery, measured performance by the five-piece band is still a benchmark of
the ways in which classic prog could merge power with pizzazz and pull
something extraordinary and unique out of the creative cauldron. Nothing on Tales
of Mystery and Imagination comes close to that.
Winner: King Crimson, Larks' Tongue in Aspic
801, Live vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Emerson Lake and Palmer
801 was originally conceived as a live group, pulled together by Roxy Music
guitarist Phil Manzanera. Later studio works under the 801 title tended to be
more loosely affiliated aggregations of players, but 801 Live is definitely
the product of a tight and well-rehearsed band, featuring members of
Roxy Music (Manzanera and Brian Eno), Quiet Sun and Matching Mole (Bill
MacCormick) and Curved Air (Francis Monkman), plus studio aces Simon Phillips
(drums) and Lloyd Watson (slide guitar). The group's material is taken mostly
from Eno and Manzanera's catalogs, with some choice '60s covers tossed in for
good measure. All told, this is one of those great live albums that merges
the energy of a concert performance with the spot-on perfect performances
expected from studio work. A winner. Emerson Lake and Palmer's self-titled
debut was a winner, too, with four tightly packed numbers ("The Barbarian," "Tank,"
"Knife Edge" and the over-played "Lucky Man") sharing disc space with two
longer (and less successful) numbers, "The Three Fates" and "Take A Pebble"
(the latter of which got even longer, and even less successful, on ELP's
triple disc live album a few years later). Despite the need for editing on
those two latter songs, this auspicious opening shot from prog's first
supergroup fundamentally altered the landscape of progressive rock in the '70s
for the better, and set the bar for both commercial success and technical
virtuosity that most other proggers would spend the next eight years trying
to match. Few did. This is an essential prog recording, with "Tank" and "Knife
Edge" in particular standing tall in the canon of all-time great prog songs.
Winner: Emerson Lake and Palmer, Emerson Lake and Palmer
Curved Air, Phantasmagoria vs. Gentle Giant, Free Hand
I find Free Hand to be the quintessential Gentle Giant record, the one
I'd recommend to people if they wanted to know just what this group was all
about. Of course . . . I'm not sure that I say that as a complement, since
that means Free Hand finds the group's medieval vocal lines and
prissy, fussy arrangements dancing on tip toes around each other in knotty,
nimble fits of precision and fastidiousness. I can appreciate the talent and
vision behind their records, but I don't find myself wanting to listen to
them very often, or for very long. Curved Air has a couple of high profile
alumni (Eddie Jobson from Roxy Music and Jethro Tull, and Stewart Copeland
from the Police), but neither of them appear on Phantasmagoria, easily
the group's creative high point. Francis Monkman (mentioned earlier as a
member of 801) is here, though, along with violinist Darryl Way and singer
Sonja Cristina, one of the few women appearing in this list . . . since I
excluded the RIO/Henry Cow crowd (knocking out the excellent Lindsay Cooper
and Dagmar Krause), and can't bring myself to include Renaissance and/or
Annie Haslam, having seen her deliver one of the dullest live performances I
ever reviewed during a solo tour. Cristina was a great singer with loads of
character, and her band mates provided some impressive space in which she
could romp. This is a group that deserves to be remembered with more than
footnotes on the Roxy Music and Police family trees. They certainly produced
the better album in this particular match up.
Winner: Curved Air, Phantasmagoria
Anthony Phillips, The Geese and the Ghost vs. Yes, Relayer
I've cited Steve Hackett's Voyage of the Acolyte as the best
non-Gabriel/Collins Genesis side project, and the only record by any other
member of Genesis that I had to ponder in making that declamation was Anthony
Phillips' The Geese and the Ghost, which also featured Phil Collins
and (more heavily) Mike Rutherford from the father band. Phillips left Genesis
after their second album, Trespass, then took seven years to get his
first solo disc out into the public domain. It was worth the wait, with loads
of smart pop songs, some dark Trespass-like instrumentals and a nice
little suite of Tudor-era music. Unlike Gentle Giant, Phillips and friends
manage to make those classical English pieces engaging and hearty; there's
real emotion there betwixt the lutes and madrigals. And speaking of emotion:
Phil Collins gives what I consider to be his unquestionably greatest vocal
performance on "God If I Saw Her Now," an amazing, heart-breaking number with
lyrics and music to die for, literally. Amazing stuff. But, then, when it
comes to amazing stuff, Yes' Relayer certainly doesn't lack itself.
This is the only album the group recorded with Swiss keyboardist Patrick
Moraz, and that's a pity, because it's one of their most eclectic, electric
and hair-raising efforts, filled with all sorts of noise and fury, of both
synthetic and organic varieties. It was also the last Yes album to feature
only extended pieces, with the side-long "The Gates of Delirium," and the
9-minute plus "Sound Chaser" (probably my all-time favorite Yes song) and "To
Be Over." After touring this disc, Yes brought Rick Wakeman back to replace
Moraz, for the lackluster "Going for the One" and "Tormato" discs. This was
the high point for Classic Yes, the spot after which the great albums were
less common (and, frankly, more surprising) than the disappointing ones. We've
got to honor that here, I think.
Winner: Yes, Relayer
Jethro Tull, A Passion Play vs. Electric Light Orchestra, Eldorado
A Passion Play is Jethro Tull's highest selling album ever . . . but
it's one of their most controversial, inspiring love and hate in equal
measure from serious and casual fans alike. Like Thick As A Brick
before it, it's a single song spread over two sides of an album, although the
movements and separate pieces are more pronounced here than they were on Brick,
especially during "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles," on which
most of the debate about this record hinges. A children's morality play with
animal characters, and narrated by bassist Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, the piece
sounds like nothing else in the Tull oeuvre. But, then, really you can say
that about this entire album: Ian Anderson plays more sax here than flute,
and John Evan's synths are far more prominent than they are on any other Tull
record. The story of the recording and touring and meaning of this album are
so rich in content that there's actually a website devoted solely to this
most unusual Jethro Tull offering: The Annotated Passion
Play (dig through there deep enough, and you'll find some of my
theorizing in there). Love it or hate it, A Passion Play is about as
prog as prog gets, which is a bit more than we can say about Electric Light
Orchestra's Eldorado. While ELO's defining concept (rock with
orchestral instrumentation) is almost stereotypically prog, their execution
leans more toward the pop and rock side of the equation than most other bands
and records listed here. While Eldorado is easily their finest
recording and most alike the other 63 in this survey in its ambitions and
scope, it can't hold a candle to the titanic shadow that A Passion Play
casts over '70s prog pretensions.
Winner: Jethro Tull, A Passion Play
Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells vs. Pink Floyd, Meddle
Sick of Richard Branson? Blame Mike Oldfield, since his album-long opus Tubular
Bells was the first release on Virgin Records, and its success provided
the seed money for pretty much everything else that Branson did afterwards.
Still, though, it was a pretty good debut for a record label, as the
precocious talent played every instrument, most of them well, throughout an
epic song cycle, that's far more engaging than just about any other
instrumental piece of equal length I can think of. It didn't hurt, mind you,
that it's opening section was co-opted as the scary theme music for The
Exorcist. Pink Floyd's Meddle features an epic number, too, the side long
"Echoes," which really framed the template for the sonic and songwriting
approaches that would define their work on The Dark Side of the Moon
and Wish You Were Here in years ahead. It's first half, though, is a bit
of a mixed bag: opening "One of These Days" is fantastic, and "Fearless" is
under-rated, but the rest of the tracks ("A Pillow of Winds," "San Tropez"
and "Seamus" are essentially throwaways). Richard Branson aside, I still find
Tubular Bells to be a better, more engaging listen, beginning to end,
than Meddle. Plus . . . I like listening to a drunken Vivian Stanshall
announcing the instruments at the end of Tubular Bells, just as he'd
done years earlier on the Bonzo Dog Band's debut disc. That's a nice little
bit of continuity there.
Winner: Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells
Flash, Flash vs. Kansas, Point of Know Return
Flash was the group formed by original Yes guitarist Peter Banks after Jon Anderson
and company chucked him in favor of Steve Howe. (Good move, I guess, for
Yes). On their first disc, Flash also included Tony Kaye, recently chucked by
Yes in favor of Rick Wakeman (a move that I don't hold consider to be as
wise). The record, not surprisingly, sounds a lot like Yes. It's sort of an
alternate view of The Yes Album, with similarly long songs mixed with
short pieces, and some indications that Banks and Kaye and cohorts had also
given the first couple of King Crimson records some thoughtful spins. Nice
enough, in its own way, but not really as a good as anything Yes did, or even
as things that Banks did later with Jan Akkerman from Focus. Or, for that
matter, not really as good and engaging as Point of Know Return, on
which Kansas amazingly managed to duplicate the commercial crossover success
they'd achieved with Leftoverture. As was the case with "Carry On
Wayward Son" on Leftoverture, Point of Know Return featured a
chart-devouring single ("Dust in the Wind") that really didn't sound all that
much like the rest of the album. My own father, in fact, bought Point of
Know Return before I did on the strength of that single. I think he
listened to it once before he gave it to me. That's good prog that will make
your parents want to buy it.
Winner: Kansas, Point of Know Return
Magma, Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh vs. Genesis, A Trick of the
Tail
A Trick of the Tail was the first Genesis record issued after Peter
Gabriel's departure. Much to everyone's surprise, Phil Collins stepped up to
the mic and delivered a winner, a record that sold more copies than any
Genesis record that had come before it, but one that the prog fans still
embraced. (The die-hard proggers gave up on Genesis for the most part two
albums later, after Steve Hackett left and they started having radio hits). Trick
has some great numbers, there's no arguing that: "Squonk" and "Dance on a
Volcano" are hard-hitting and potent, while "Entangled" and "Ripples" are
beautiful and haunting. But there's some troubling signs on this record, too,
with the goofy music hall flavor of the album's title track, the stupid
theatrical lyrics of "Robbery, Assault and Battery" (that mirror the awful "The
Battle of Epping Forest" in some ways), the dramatic cheese of "Mad Man Moon,"
and the filler reprises in "Los Endos." Most of the things that ultimately
dragged Genesis down are already in place on this record, although it's
easier to ignore them than on later discs due to the superior quality of the
first four songs mentioned. Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh is generally
regarded as the high-water mark of Magma's Zeuhl/Kobaiian period, a dark,
dense record, with choirs singing in Christian Vander's fabricated language,
horns blaring, and some insanely powerful, repetitive rhythmic work
under-pinning the whole shooting match. It's not an easy listen, mind you,
but it's a rewarding one. Much more than, say, anything by Van Der Graaf
Generator, where you work hard to get through it, and don't really feel like
you can say anything other than "Well, I worked hard to get through that."
Magma will grow on you, eventually, and their ambition and reach were awesome
around the time of this record's creation. Which, having nothing as silly as "Robbery,
Assault and Battery" on it, is easily the winner of this contest.
Winner: Magma, Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh
And that's it for tonight's effort, as we are now 75 percent through the
first round. The next time we revisit the Wurm Regional, we will have the
following contests to consider:
King Crimson, Larks' Tongue in Aspic vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Emerson
Lake and Palmer
Curved Air, Phantasmagoria vs. Yes, Relayer
Jethro Tull, A Passion Play vs. Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells
Kansas, Point of Know Return vs. Magma, Mekanik Destruktiw
Kommandoh
Stay tuned 'til next time, whenever that might be.
March of the
Mellotrons: The Best Classic Progressive Rock Album Ever, Part Five (The
Syrinx Regional, Round One)
I'm here at the house alone, getting up every five minutes to hand out
Hallowe'en candy to the trick of treaters working the neighborhood. Seems
like a good time to knock off the last quarter of the first round. For
refreshers, here's who we're looking at in . . .
The Syrinx Regional
Yes, Fragile vs. Nektar, Journey to the Center of the Eye
Badger, One Live Badger vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pictures At An
Exhibition
Rick Wakeman, The Six Wives of Henry VIII vs. Jethro Tull, Aqualung
Rush, 2112 vs. Focus, Focus 3
Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here vs. Family, Bandstand
Uriah Heep, Demons and Wizards vs. Genesis, Foxtrot
Van Der Graaf Generator, H to He Who Am the Only One vs. Camel, Snow
Goose
Wishbone Ash, Argus vs. King Crimson, Red
And here's how we break this tough regional down . . .
Yes, Fragile vs. Nektar, Journey to the Center of the Eye
Journey to the Center of the Eye is probably the most obscure record I've
listed in this field of 64, but it's a winner. Well, at least in terms of
quality anyway. Probably not in terms of this contest. But, before we decide
that, let's give it a look. Nektar were founded in Germany, but I let them
into this competition (while excluding all the Krautrockers), because they
weren't actually German: they were displaced Englishmen. Also, there's more
mellotron per minute on this album than just about any other prog record you
can easily lay your mind, hands or fingers on, so that's gotta count for
something, pedigree wise. Sound wise, Journey to the Center of the Eye
teeters right on the genre-defining edges of prog, psychedelia and space
rock, but there are enough symphonic threads running through it to allow it
to compete with some of the bigger, better known A-listers filling this
chart. Unfortunately, though, Nektar has the misfortune of going up against
Yes's Fragile in the first round. While not necessarily their best
album, it was the record that introduced Rick Wakeman to the band's fold, and
it did have two of the biggest prog rock radio successes of the era with "Roundabout"
and "Long Distance Runaround." Neither of those two songs are this album's
highlights though (particularly in their radio edits): that honor goes to "Heart
of the Sunrise," a massive, majestic piece with exciting dynamics and
strenuous, searing instrumental work. Also impressive is "The Fish
(Schindleria Praematurus)," which serves as a coda to the full version of "Long
Distance Runaround," and let's Chris Squire's always awesome bass gallop
around like nobody's business. "We Have Heaven" is nice (but short), and "South
Side of the Sky" is interesting (but long), and the other cuts fill in
appropriately, ensuring each band member gets their own instrumental
showcase, although all of them together are less satisfying than any of the
aforementioned cuts. Outside of Pink Floyd, this is probably the prog album
that more non-prog fans have in their collection, so we've got to honor that,
despite Nektar's valiant upset attempt.
Winner: Yes, Fragile
Badger, One Live Badger vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pictures At
An Exhibition
I made a conscious attempt to exclude live albums in this survey, unless they
offered material that was never issued in any studio setting, or unless there
were live cuts interspersed with studio cuts. Absent those conditions, most
live prog albums of the '70s did little more than prove that the bands could
actually play they way they played in concert. Ironically and without
actively intending to do so, I have pitted two of the rare live albums in
this survey against each other in the first round. ELP's Pictures At An
Exhibition is one of the more famous stabs at tackling classical music,
rock style, as Greg, Carl and Keith deconstruct Modest Mussourgsky's piano
classic in big prog fashion, making Mussourgsky one of the world's most
famous obscure Russian composers in the process. The results are definitely
interesting, if scattershot and with definite flaws: many of the lyrics are
bad, even by prog standards, the live sound isn't too hot (particularly to
contemporary ears), and the coda of "Nutrocker" (i.e. "The Nutcracker" done
rock style) is really, really bad. Nice in concept, interesting the
first few times you listen to it, but too long and poorly recorded to really
stick with you. (I actually prefer the tighter, shorter studio version of "Pictures"
included on the ELP box set The Return of the Manticore, which offers
all the meat, without the stuffing). One Live Badger was Badger's
debut disc, an odd approach but a successful one, since the band felt that
studioitis was sucking the life out of numbers that soared in concert. It's
hard to shake the Yes connection (Tony Kaye is the main creative force in the
band, formed after he left Flash, Jon Anderson produced, sometime Yes
lyricist David Foster plays bass and sings, and Roger Dean handled the art
work), but the group really does have a unique and high quality sound of their
own, in large part due to Foster's vocals, which are gruffer and heartier
than most of the Yes posse's angelic sighs and soarings. With 30 years worth
of 20/20 vision, One Live Badger holds up better and rewards
contemporary listening better now than Pictures At An Exhibition does.
Chalk one up to Cinderella.
Winner: Badger, One Live Badger
Rick Wakeman, The Six Wives of Henry VIII vs. Jethro Tull, Aqualung
Okay, I've flirted around the topic several times, but now I have to state it
straight up and forward-like: I really don't care for Rick Wakeman, and have
never understood why Yes fans and other prog heads get all hot and bothered
about him. Sure, he's a fine keyboardist, but my own personal favorite Yes
albums are the ones on which he doesn't play (The Yes Album, Relayer,
Drama, The Ladder). To me, the sound of Yes is, ultimately, the sound of
Chris Squire and Steve Howe playing together. Most of the other Yes
keyboardists have allowed those string benders to strike sparks, but when
Wakeman's onboard, he tends to force his "classically trained" sensibilities
to the fore, to the detriment of the guitarists. Plus, Wakeman's notorious
concert cape did more to invoke sneers and scorn for progressive rock than
pretty much anything that anybody ever committed to disc. That bias aside, The
Six Wives of Henry VIII is decent enough, I suppose, although it has a
sterile and academic flavor to it, as Wakeman seeks to create a musical
portrait of each of the Missus Henry's. The best number of the album is the
opener "Catherine of Aragon," on which Squire does his thing with typical
panache. (Steve Howe and Bill Bruford also make guest appearances here). All
told, though, this record feels like a museum piece, not a vibrant, engaging
musical document. Jethro Tull's Aqualung, while generally regarded by
casual fans as the Tull apex, has its faults as well, and it hasn't aged as
well as some other pieces from the era. The sound is podgy and dry at times,
and the over-playing of the title cut and "Locomotive Breath" have tended to
breed contempt over the years. The album marked the recording debut of
bassist Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, who grew to be regarded as one of the best
loved Tulls, but at this point was no match for the deposed Glenn Cornick on
the four string axe. Still, though, props must be given to Ian Anderson,
Martin Barre and company for producing one of the most recognizable riffs
(the opening lick of "Aqualung") and lyrics ("Snot running down his nose") in
progressive rock history, and for some potent, lasting songs that don't get
the attention they deserve: the sad and lovely "Cheap Day Return," the
brooding "Mother Goose," the rollicking "Hymn 43" and the
wiser-than-it-sounds-at-first "Wind Up". I'll take those over Wakeman's best
doodlings any day.
Winner: Jethro Tull, Aqualung
Rush, 2112 vs. Focus, Focus 3
2112 was the first of Rush's really big prog statements, with the
side-long title track and its fantastic (as in "of fantasy," not as in "boy
those are great") lyrics. It's geeky as all get out, but there's something
giddy about singing along with Geddy Lee's banshee wail on such sterling bon
mots as "We are the priests of the Temple of Syrinx!" Still, as was the case
in an earlier competition with Hemispheres, Rush backed their prog
epic with a collection of short, nondescript numbers that didn't do them any
favors. All things considered, while Rush got two records into this contest,
they really didn't hit their maximum stride and strength until the early '80s,
long after Love Beach had closed the doors on this particular
tournament's span of action. Focus 3 is the third (duh) album from
Dutch rockers Focus (double duh), the one on which they would and should have
(theoretically) capitalized on the pop crossover success of "Hocus Pocus" a
year earlier. And while "Sylvia" was a minor hit (compared to "Hocus Pocus,"
anyway), most of Focus 3 more closely resembled "Eruption," the monster
meltdown that filled the second side of Moving Waves, the album that
birthed "Hocus Pocus". "Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers" and "Anonymous
Two" are among the finest works Focus ever recorded, both of them long, but
totally engaging. Focus 3 marked the recording debut of what I consider to
the best of Focus' lineups, with bassist Bert Ruiter and drummer Pierre Van Der
Linden backing up Thijs Van Leer and monster guitarist Jan Akkerman. (That
lineup also recorded Live At The Rainbow a year later, which is one of
the greatest concert recordings ever, but wasn't included here because it
just featured live versions of other studio works, unlike One Live Badger
or Pictures At An Exhibition). Focus at the peak vs. Rush before they
hit their peak? No contest.
Winner: Focus, Focus 3
Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here vs. Family, Bandstand
Alright, I already committed one prog heresy today by dishing gravy on poor
Rick Wakeman, so let's go ahead and throw another one on the fire before Rick
finishes cooking. I find Wish You Were Here to be really dull and
boring for the most part. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" would have been a
killer three minute song, but stretching it out in two chunks over the vast
majority of this album? Ehhhh . . . that's dull. I can also never really
bring myself to embrace Roy Harper's vocal turn on "Have A Cigar." It's a
good song, but Pink Floyd had three great singers at that point . . . so why
couldn't one of them have sung it? I don't know. Charity, I suspect. That
leaves "Welcome to the Machine" (which has cool synth sound effects, but not
much song meat) and the album's title track, which is definitely the high
point on the disc. All told, not one of the Floyd's more engaging moments for
me. Bandstand, however, finds Family's best line-up (Charlie Whitney,
Roger Chapman, Poli Palmer, John Wetton and Rob Townsend) firing on all
cylinders, hitting you upside the head with some great rockers and mood
pieces that are probably prog only because John Wetton plays on them, but,
hey, if you can get John Wetton to play with you, then you deserve to dance
at the Prog Ball. And if you can dance as well as Family does on Bandstand,
then you can even move on to the next round.
Winner: Family, Bandstand
Uriah Heep, Demons and Wizards vs. Genesis, Foxtrot
John Wetton played in Uriah Heep, too, but not on Demons and Wizards,
which stands as the mystical metalheads finest musical moment. Like most
great prog records, this one features a long epic suite, "Paradise/The Spell,"
several shorter, punchier numbers, including radio fave "Easy Livin'" and
lots of keyboards, courtesy Ken Hensley, who had also once played with
another prog titan, Greg Lake, in the Gods. Uriah Heep's biggest problem,
though, was their singer, David Byron, who had one of the more annoying
voices of '70s rock, making it hard to dig into this album (or any of their
others) with a whole lot of gusto and conviction. Genesis's Foxtrot? A
classic, with the side-long "Supper's Ready" standing as one of prog's
defining epic moments, a surprisingly moving fairy tale/allegory about
something or other and that and this, that despite its cryptic nature really
and honestly does build to an emotional, engaging crescendo, 20+ minutes
after it starts on a bed of sweetly picked 12-strings. Despite that side-long
epic, Genesis also managed a prog coup in not filling its opposite side with
toss of dreck: "Watcher of the Skies" and "Get 'Em Out By Friday" are both
muscular and exciting songs, though "Friday" has whiffs of the obnoxious
urban storytelling that would explode like a boil in "The Battle of Epping
Forest" a year or so later. Steve Hackett's "Horizons" may be one of the best
loved, tightest and most effective solo acoustic guitar numbers in the prog
canon (Steve Howe's "The Clap" from The Yes Album is the only one
popping to mind with a similar mix of dazzle and restraint packed into such a
small package). All told, you can't argue with Foxtrot this early in
the competition.
Winner: Genesis, Foxtrot
Van Der Graaf Generator, H to He Who Am the Only One vs. Camel, The
Snow Goose
This is the dodgiest pairing of the first round, frankly. Camel's The Snow
Goose is an wordless song cycle based on a story about, uh, a snow goose,
I guess. It teeters perilously close to John Tesh or Yanni country at times,
though its good moments are certainly better than anything those two hacks every
barfed up. H to He Who Am the Only One is dark, dense and difficult,
like most of Van Der Graaf Generator's material. It too, has its moments, but
instead of waiting for them to appear between spectral sonic goose down, you
have to wait for them to appear between dirgy walls of plodding organ and
honking horns. Plod plod plod. Dirge dirge dirge. When you step back from it,
though, at least nothing on H to He sounds like it could have been
performed at a Kenny G concert. That's sufficient to win this contest, since
Camel can't say the same.
Winner: Van Der Graaf Generator, H to He Who Am the Only One
Wishbone Ash, Argus vs. King Crimson, Red
I hear you thinking: twin lead guitar boogie rockers Wishbone Ash are prog?
Well, sure, because John Wetton played with them, although not on this album.
And, actually, that's not totally the reason that I included Argus. It
also has a warrior on the cover, in a cool helmet. That's very prog. And its
title . . . Argus . . . it's almost like Tarkus, and you can't
get more prog than that. But, seriously, Argus is the place where
Wishbone Ash was definitely at its most ambitious, songwriting and
performance wise, with some longish songs that aren't just jams and boogies.
Good ones, too. If you only own one Wishbone album, then this is the one to
have: "Time Was" and "Warrior" are among their best ever songs, and they are
about time and warriors, which are both very prog, indeed. John Wetton played
on King Crimson's Red, too, along with Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford,
in a kick-ass power trio format, like Cream with focus, or ELP with
restraint. Guest musicians (including prodigal founder Ian McDonald) add sax,
horn and string touches, but this is definitely the rockingest, tightest,
toughest (and last) album of '70s Crimson, with such classic numbers as "Red"
(one of only two '70s Crimson songs to remain in their live repertoire), "Starless,"
"Fallen Angel" and "One More Red Nightmare." Actually, that's the whole album
there, with the exception of the live improv "Providence," which is not
nearly as strong as the other numbers, even though it impressive to think
that it was created on the fly. There's no denying this record is a prog
classic. Even if it doesn't have a cool title like Argus.
Winner: King Crimson, Red
And with that, we have completed the first round! We have 32 survivors left.
Let's recap all four divisions, just so they're all in one place before we
move into the second round. (The summary of tonight's Syrinx Regional is
listed last, after the recaps of the other three).
The Slipperman Regional
King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King vs. Jethro Tull, Minstrel
in the Gallery
Gentle Giant, Octopus vs. Pink Floyd, Animals
Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway vs. Yes, The Yes Album
Steve Hackett, The Voyage of the Acolyte vs. Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tarkus
The Bostock Regional
Yes, Close to the Edge vs. Jethro Tull, Thick As A Brick
Kansas, Leftoverture vs. Chris Squire, Fish O
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