Best pRoG band 1970-1974?

For the splendor, magic in a bottle stuff.

YES

 

Os Mutantes

 

Though I would certainly acknowledge their importance to the development of the genre, of the big prog bands, ELP has aged the least well for me. I enjoy their relatively lean debut, but after that, their tendency towards pomp and over the top bombast is a bit too rich for me.

 

I know. Gong was 2nd on my list and if they aren't Canterbury, they're at least related. He was asking who Egg was and that was my response.

 

Love debut. Tarkus and Trilogy are pretty good but there are a couple of tracks on each I'm not crazy about. Don't care much for brain though.

I think Tull and Yes were the best of 70-74.

1970
Tull-teacher, witches, sossity, cry, a time, alive
Yes-Disgrace, trooper, people, venture, peptual

1971
Tull-aqualung side 1, pool, life, bogen, again, later, hymn quad, just
Yes-round, cans, we, south, five, heart

1972
Tull-taab
Yes-ctte

1973
Tull-memory, critique, app side 2, audition, left
Yes-revealing, ritual

1974
Tull-Warchild, queen, solitaire, skate, glory, godmother, saturation, paradise, rainbow
Yes-gates, to be over, montreux

 

You are peptually grating.

 

1) For me it's Yes: in 2 years they made Yessongs, Tales, & Relayer!
2) ELP
3) King Crimson

 

Still King Crimson. The kept on evolving and pushing themselves.

 

During this period it would have to be Yes for me. A prog all-time classic in Close to the Edge, a great live album triple , divisive and self indulgent concept album in Tales and honourable mentions in the Yes Album, Fragile and Relayer.

 

King Crimson
Still active and vital.

 

ELP and YES.....they ruled the world during that time period!

 

Unquestionably.... KING CRIMSON

 

YES

 

Tull, Le Orme, Gentle Giant are the best 3

 

Working within the 1970-1974 time frame makes it an easy call. The incarnations of King Crimson built around the Fripp/Bruford/Wetton core produced works that I'll never tire of. In my opinion, the three albums they put out during this period totally eclipsed those of any of their contemporaries.

 

Genesis ......... then in and around '73 the overlap ........ then King Crimson forward.

Impossible question to answer. I'll change my mind tomorrow.

Also ..... I don't consider Floyd prog. So that eased things up.

 

Well, overall, my favorite artists list includes

#2 Frank Zappa/Mothers
#3 Todd Rundgren/Utopia
#4 Yes
#5 Led Zeppelin
#6 Grateful Dead
#7 King Crimson
and
#9 Emerson, Lake and Palmer

and I wouldn't rank them any differently if we're limiting it to 1970-1974, so without arguing about genre classifications, that gives you my answer.

(And just in case you're interested, the other three in my top 10 are #1 - Igor Stravinsky, #8 - Jimi Hendrix (with and without the Experience) and #10 - The Rolling Stones)

 

King Crimson for me.

 

Yes 1971-1976 is my favorite band. I wish they focused less on hooks and tightly-composed music, and did much more spacey and prog material. I think they were too restrained by their pop instincts.

 

I think I'll have to go with Yes, because their work during that time period pretty much defined prog rock. In my mind, Close to the Edge is still the ultimate prog album in terms of quality and fitting the description of prog. King Crimson is also a strong contender because their work from 1972-1974 is some of the wildest, most inventive music ever to be called prog rock. The Wetton lineup almost transcends the genre of prog rock, which I think kind of disqualifies them for the title we are discussing in this thread.

 

Gentle Giant
Yes
King Crimson

 

Either Genesis or Yes

 

VDGG with KC and Genesis tied for second.

Third place would be firmly, Roxy Music.

 

But wouldn't VDGG lose points for dissolving the band too early (for this discussion anyway)? I couldn't consider VDGG to have been the best prog band of the years 1970-74 since they released NOTHING in the last three of those five years.

 

Really tight race between Genesis, Yes and Tull. I guess if I had a gun to my head I'd pick Genesis. The run from Trespass to The Lamb probably gets the most spins overall, but Yes from The Yes Album to Relayer and Tull from Stand Up to TAAB ain't far behind