OFF: Re: More Prog Rock Babble

[Steven Tice]

In a message dated 97-02-09 19:11:51 EST, you write:

<< I am familiar with Rush's entire career (I've seen them on five
 consecutive tours, starting with the Permanent Waves Tour in 1980), and I
 still think calling them prog rock is baloney, unless you include
 Metallica, Megadeth, BOC, Helloween, Celtic Frost and Cirith Ungol in the
 same (useless) category. Prog rock refers to a time and a style (i.e., bands
 originating in the late sixties to mid seventies, largely keyboard and
 synthesizer driven tunes with fantasy genre lyrics). Rush is not prog rock.
  >>

With all due respect, I'm not entirely sure you're aware of exactly what
progressive rock is.  It is far more than merely seventies keyboard rock with
fantasy lyrics!  Progressive rock music exhibits tremendous musical
complexity, virtuoso musicianship, and the fusion of musical styles from all
times and around the world into a sophisticated musical whole.  No single
instrument is predominant.  As for "fantasy" lyrics, the progressive bands
pretty much ran the gamut, lyrically speaking; ELP, Tull, Crimson, Yes, and
Genesis (the Big Five, as I call them) all had very different lyrics.
 Certain bands of the mid to late seventies were heavily influenced by the
music of these bands, foremost among them Kansas and Rush.  While Rush
started out as a metal group, over time they metamorphosed into what they
themselves proudly described as a progressive band, producing most of their
best work.  Unfortunately they later chose to take the pop music route, after
which I lost interest in the band.  So, while they have not ALWAYS been a
progressive band, they most certainly were one for awhile! :-)

By the way, I think this argument that "music shouldn't be categorized" is
kind of silly.  It is only by recognizing repeated patterns, naming them, and
comparing them that we are able to chart progress in any intellectual area,
so it is only natural that we should do so with music as well.  The fact that
nothing may precisely fit a certain category is irrelevant.  It's also
important to recognize that many of these bands saw themselves as belonging
to a particular musical niche.  In this case, the progressive bands saw
themselves as producing intelligent, forward-looking music that nonetheless
recognized and absorbed all the best of the music of the past and expanded it
upon it, creating music that was, in Fripp's words, "more for the head than
for the foot."  Whether such music remained in fact progressive is another
matter, and irrelevant to the usefulness of the term "Progressive" to refer
to the music of that particular time period.

SET