Re: More Prog Rock (was: Hiromi)

["Joshua Carroll" <josh@infinivert.com>]

"They merely knew when to use chops and
when to let the song, however raw, speak for itself."

That's it!  That's the kicker.  If it doesn't support the song, scrap it.

--Josh



> At 3:23 PM +0000 6/21/06, Christophe wrote:
>>I think the whole prog-bashing trend started as sour grapes on the
>>part of kids who just didn't have the chops to play it.  As I
>>recall, at the same time that prog was declared a dinosaur by these
>>young turks virtuosity in general was poo-pooed just as much.
>
> That's certainly not how it was when it started.  For instance, The
> Stranglers, who are generally given credit for releasing the first
> Punk LP ('Rattus Norvegicus', which predated the Sex Pistols' 'Never
> Mind the Bollocks' release by several weeks) had fantastic "chops".
> Listen to many of the songs from 'Black & White', their 3rd studio
> album, with Dave Greenfield's Manzarek-inspired keyboard runs or JJ
> Burnel's hooky bass lines.  They merely knew when to use chops and
> when to let the song, however raw, speak for itself.
>
> And the early American groups that were the inspiration for the
> British -- like the Ramones, MI-5, & Iggy Pop -- usually didn't
> really trash the whole concept of being able to play well.  That just
> wasn't where they were interested in putting their emphasis.
>
> On the other hand, you also had just as many prog-rockers (such as
> Phil Collins) slagging off Punk as completely without merit.  "That's
> not music; that's crap!"
>
> Then came the infighting and the genre wars; not to mention the
> Post-Punk period, where if you tried to put anything left of the
> party line back into your music, you were deemed a "sell out" and
> gobbed upon by the leftover Punk contingent.  This wasn't much helped
> by the British music press, who were notoriously vicious at this time
> (New Music Express, for instance, which was generally referred to by
> most bands as N.M.E. -- as in "enemy").  They often exploited the
> trend-hopping and infighting just to sell magazines.
>
> However, there still remains good expressive music on both sides.  I
> could probably name you a dozen fantastic Punk groups off the top of
> my head (stop worrying; I'll spare you).  Returning to the Prog side
> though, I'm surprised that Henry Cow -- as well as many of the other
> Fred Frith projects -- hasn't yet come up.  Their first album,
> 'Legend' (pronounced Leg End, heh!) alone is worth honorable mention,
> if nothing else.
>
> And, out of left field, I'll also throw in the Dutch group Focus, who
> achieved some minor visibilty with 'Hocus Pocus' during the 70's -- a
> song which featured not only Jan Akkerman's lightening fast guitar
> "chops" but also YODELLING!!!  In this case, I've always been fond of
> their 'Hamburger Concerto', which is alternately bombastically
> overblown, simplistically silly, charmingly pretentious, and quite
> genius.
>
>       --m.
> --
> _______
> "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike..."
>
>