OFF: Progressive really progressive?

[dench]

I would not burden KC with the label 'progressive'.  Indeed, their music
in the days of the classic Fripp/Wetton/Bruford/Cross line-up could be
better defined as 'mercurial'.  And if anyone has sampled the delights of
the 'Great Deceiver' box set, they would perhaps realise they should be
fitted either into the free-jazz category or psychedelic, on the basis of
much of their live performances being improvisational - not something that
I have ever witnessed to any great extent from the so-called 'progressive'
bands.  In fact, they always seemed rather too structured for my liking.

Martin

On Fri, 7 Feb 1997, Steven Tice wrote:

> In a message dated 97-02-06 03:45:58 EST, you write:
>
> << I have a little trouble with the terminology used to describe groups such
>  as Rush and Yes.  To my mind, the word 'progressive' implies just that,
>  progression.  So, I would say that bands like Henry Cow and Can (at least
>  in their earlier days) were progressive.  Bands like Rush, Yes and Genesis
>  I would hesitate to describe, not wanting to cause upset to their huge
>  armies of fans, but to these ears they have not done much progressing
>  since the early 70's!!!  Regression, well, that's another matter
>  altogether. >>
>
> Well, sure, none of the great bands of the early seventies are producing work
> at all comparable to their best work.  Genesis completely abandoned
> intelligent music circa 1980, and the quality of the material produced by Yes
> and Rush has certainly declined (last Rush album I bought: Grace Under
> Pressure).  King Crimson probably is the only exception, and I would say that
> even they haven't quite achieved the quality of the Fripp/Wetton/Bruford
> days.  But I think there's nothing wrong with continuing to use the word
> "progressive" to describe them, even if it's something of a misnomer.  After
> all, "modern" literature eventually became old, but they didn't bother
> changing the term because it had come to mean something new, a particular
> style of literature.  This in turn led to the development of the term
> "postmodern" to describe the literary movement that followed the modernists,
> although that term has since been appropriated by others to mean any number
> of odd things.  And who knows, maybe we'll be seeing postpostmodern material
> eventually or something.  But, anyway, "progressive rock" is a term that
> indicates the music produced by certain bands at a certain time in history,
> during which those bands could actually be considered "progressive" by
> dictionary definition.
>
> Amusing note from my days taking college music courses: in his day, Richard
> Wagner's music was given the label "progressive" by his contemporaries.
>  Given the length of his compositions, a thought that was pretty neat!
>
> SET
>