Great Prog bands who weren't one of "the Big Five"

I listened to that the other night and it's pretty good. Best song IMHO, and probably the best song I've heard in this decade (I don't listen much to new music) is Waves:

 

Isn't Jon Anderson even weirder? LOL

 

Not to my ears, no.

 

I personally don't consider Pink Floyd prog at all, and I think only a few of Jethro Tull's albums as prog.

For me, top of the list would be Gentle Giant, followed by Caravan, Nektar, PFM, Eloy, and Camel.

 

Utopia
Renaissance
Wishbone Ash
UFO
Alan Parsons Proj
Strawbs
Incredible String Band
Kansas (I love Closet Chronicles!)
Styx

 

Pink Floyd is more properly considered psychedelic rock. Jethro Tull was a tad more prog. But mostly eclectic rock.

Yes, Focus, early Genesis and Gentle Giant. Prog de jure.

 

I prefer a very broad characterization of progressive rock (I can explain my demarcation criteria in some detail, including music-theoretical detail (and I may have already done so on this site, I'm not sure if I did))--where my definition counts everyone listed on progarchives and then some, though minus fusion artists (I see fusion as the flipside of a coin that has progressive rock on one side--basically, fusion is to jazz as progressive rock is to rock). This means that I consider all krautrock, post-rock, etc. to be progressive.

My progressive rock characterization is broad enough that I consider Grateful Dead progressive rock, and I see psychedelic rock as early prog (I don't make a distinction between progressive and prog; I think the idea of that is silly). I'm not a "Beatles started everything" guy, but I think that the Beatles were an extremely important influence on progressive rock, and some of their later work is more or less progressive. I also think that a defining characteristic of heavy metal is that it has prog characteristics (even if it isn't quite prog, although of course there is the subgenre of prog metal--it's more clearly prog than just the normal prog characteristics that all metal has), and I think that artists like Led Zeppelin have very heavy prog characteristics.

I also agree to an extent with Say It Right's comment that the thread was getting seriously off track of the original intent. That's not necessarily a bad thing, although at some point, after we name enough bands that are obscure enough, we might as well tell people to just head over to progarchives, bring up the master list of all artists, and just pick some out randomly to check them out.

Anyway, so on a broad definition, some candidates for the the last of "The Big Five" include (just in alphabetical order, with some more controversial than others) Electric Light Orchestra, Frank Zappa/Mothers, Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Queen, Radiohead and Todd Rundgren/Utopia.

Less controversially, Gentle Giant or Van der Graaf Generator are probably the best candidates. Gong, Henry Cow and Magma are among my favorites of bands who were mentioned quite a few times, but they weren't as popular as Gentle Giant or Van der Graaf Generator, if we're really looking for the last of "The Big Five".

Going with artists that were slightly less popular, I'm very surprised--especially given how many different artists we were naming, popular, cult-favorites and obscure, from all areas of prog, that no one yet has mentioned Art Zoyd, Popol Vuh or Univers Zero, three more favorites of mine.

 

Oops, forgot to list Rush as a candidate for the "big five," although really, I see Rush as at least as controversial to count as prog as, say, Alice Cooper. Rush has far more albums now that I wouldn't really consider prog as albums that I would. I'd say that only Caress of Steel, 2112, A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres (as well as the live All the World's a Stage) are clearly prog rather than just prog-influenced. Fly by Night, Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures are not more prog than Zep's Physical Graffiti, Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare, Bowie's Diamond Dogs, etc. in my opinion.

 

Their 1992 debut "Hybris" is just begging to be reissued as a 45rpm 2LP set. With four tracks all around 10 minutes each, that would be a thing of beauty.

 

Very easy indeed.

 

Aphrodite's Child.

Also Van der Graaf Generator and a few borderline inclusions like Man, the Hampton Grease Band and the Plastic People of the Universe, all of whom I like more than any of the so-called Big Five.

 

I slightly disagree, because Family are even more disregarded band of those great English Progressive rock acts. On the Internet prog forums I have meet some big-shots who even claim that "Family weren't Prog" (lol, Family were one of the founders of "underground" & "progressive rock" scene in the Swinging London).

 

The Move

 

Van Der Graff Generator, for sure.

 

The great Family was difficult to pin down. They combined elements of psychedelia, prog, hard rock, folk and even a little funk by the end--progressive in the best sense. Of course, a lot of these bands were operating on a similar kind of eclectic wavelength during these years. They were certainly seminal to the whole British scene.

 

Illusion - Face of Yesterday

 

Terminology - and bands - change over time. The term 'progressive' used interchangeably with 'underground' in the period 67-69 isn't the same as 'progressive' (or Prog) used in around 72-74.

Family were one of the underground bands in the late 60s and Music In A Dolls House is one of the great albums from that time but no-one would have described them as progressive/Prog by 72-73. They were just a rock band.

Also worth mentioning is that they had a few songs in the singles chart - hardly the stuff of an 'underground' band...here they are on Top Of The Pops in 1971.

Family - In My Own Time (Top Of The Pops 1971)

 

"(...) In 1968, the band moved to London to record Music In A Doll's House the album, produced by Jimmy Miller and Dave Mason. Except for one song by Mason, the album was fullfilled with compositions by the band members and it was a surprisingly successful start - what established themselfs as one of half a dozen of leading bands of British progressive rock scene in the beginning. (...) If their first, revolutionary album was released a few years later, when the audience could have been more willing to accept it, perhaps the whole story [about the band] could have been written differently. (...)"

from The Illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock by Nick Logan & Bob Woffinden (Salamander Books, London, 1976)

 

Camel - they sound like a band that would have been more popular
Magical Mystery Tour - last time I listened it sounded “proggy” lol
Can - not sure if they are classified as prog
Eno - maybe not straight prog but incredible stuff and I think better than any of the “five”
My first album was Aqualung - Tull was my favorite band before the Stones became my favorite band

 

Yes - in the beginning which is what I said.

You can try and find me a source from the early-mid 70s talking of Family as a progressive rock band at that time if you want but I doubt there is one.

 

One progressive band I brought the DVD/CD a few years back are Quatermass, good ELP sounding band.

 

Rush, unless you count Zappa - in which case he is #1

 

Gentle Giant
Kansas
Rush
Camel
Supertramp
Uriah Heep
Procol Harum
The Moody Blues

 

early Nektar and Eloy were both heavily influenced by Pink Floyd

 

I personally don’t hear that. Eloy and Nektar were influenced by space rock, so I suppose there’s some similarity, but I don’t hear a direct influence.