Why no 'USA' Prog bands made the big 5?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Rufus rag, Mar 5, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. varispeed

    varispeed what if?

    Location:
    Los Angeles Ca
    The Allman Brothers were in a position in 1970 to get some good clothes, bring in some keyboards to augment the B3, and stop the incessant jamming. I think though, they were afraid of coming off like Strawberry Alarm Clock.
     
  2. Kingsley Fats

    Kingsley Fats Forum Resident

    There is more to prog than just being influenced by classical music. But yes I think you could consider It’s A Beautiful Day to be prog.

    The Allman Brothers Band display a few elements of prog but so too do The Doors but there is no way I would call either of them prog.
     
  3. SuntoryTime

    SuntoryTime Forum Resident

    Location:
    Winooski, VT
    There is a difference between the small-p progressive bands of the late 60s and what later came to be known as Prog. I used to consider plenty of forward-looking non-symphonic bands and artists* as progressive but I don't confuse them with Prog.

    *Velvet Underground, Can, Pink Floyd, Tim Buckley, Mark-Almond, Roxy Music, and I could go on but you get the idea.

    "Progressive" stopped being a general adjective and turned into a (straitjacketed) strictly defined genre, Prog.

    Pink Floyd were progressive but never Prog. Conversely, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer were Prog but were never progressive, in my humble opinion.
     
    old school, duneman, RangerXT and 2 others like this.
  4. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    Well, Styx sings about the Lord of the Rings. Badly. (And I like Styx, but that song is an embarrassment).
     
  5. Whizz Kid

    Whizz Kid Forum Resident

    I never get the total disregard / overlooking of Pavlov's Dog as a proper prog band... :confused:

    I loved those two albums in the mid-70s... and my friends always considered them part of the prog genre... despite their being from St. Louis.

    I suppose you could argue that they were "prog-lite"... but they were certainly musically unique.
     
    rainbow dome likes this.
  6. wavethatflag

    wavethatflag God is love, but get it in writing.

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I'm not dissing prog when I refuse to call Zappa that. And I do refuse. :D
    To me, no, I don't consider Floyd a prog band.
    Plant got enough Tolkien, and he didn't go prog.

    "Strider!"
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2018
    RangerXT and dlokazip like this.
  7. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    The reconfigured Bloodrock went prog on their last album.
     
  8. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    I think they really remained a psychedelic band, but new technologies and techniques allowed them to develop a more expansive and polished sound than 60's tech would have allowed. They really pretty much kept it to 4/4. Even "Money" had to switch back to standard time for Gilmore's guitar solo.
     
    klockwerk likes this.
  9. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    Kansas.
     
  10. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    Liberty tried to force them into that role in the Hour Glass. They hated it.
     
    Efus likes this.
  11. vivatones

    vivatones Forum Resident

    What about Glass Hammer?
     
    peter fuller likes this.
  12. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
    IMO Pink Floyd had little influence from classical music. For AHM, it is accompanied by not an orchestra but actually a brass band.
    Rather, even Led Zep was more classical oriented than PF.
     
    ianuaditis and RangerXT like this.
  13. DPM

    DPM Senior Member

    Location:
    Nevada, USA
    The first two Ambrosia albums were definitely in the progressive rock mode. I think the first one is an unheralded classic. Alan Parsons was the engineer on that one.

     
  14. DaverJ

    DaverJ Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    Far from the big 5, but....

     
  15. lucan_g

    lucan_g Forum Resident

    North America doesn’t have any of the big ‘prog’ bands... but there are no shortage of progressive bands if you just poke around. They just have that American spin....

    For example:

    1. Dixie Dregs. — these guys are genre-bending, progressive, classically influenced, and distinctively American.

    2. Phish — sure... lump them in with ‘jambands’ if you want to be myopic. But... especially in the early days... give a good listen to songs like “Divided Sky”, “You Enjoy Myself” or even songs like “Foam”... and its as prog as it gets... with, again, a distinctively American improvisational twist.
     
    peter fuller, jay.dee and Doggiedogma like this.
  16. dmiller458

    dmiller458 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midland, Michigan
    American progressive music was more influenced by jazz than by classical. We didn't need a clone of Pink Floyd when we had Miles.
     
  17. Remote Control Triangle

    Remote Control Triangle Forum Member Rated 6.8 By Pitchfork

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    Tool belongs on that list as well.
     
    Roberto899, RangerXT and Standoffish like this.
  18. Progressive, yes, as were many late 60s, early 70s bands, but prog, no

    OTher US progressives would be Touch, The Flow, Ars Nova, Mother Mallard, NY Rock and Roll Ensemble, Ram, etc., They are forgotten and slowly being written out.

    Also a survey of the US independent/private pressings of the 70s shows an overwhelming amount of US bands under the spell/influenced by the ALLmans and the Grateful Dead, who were both quite progressive just not as stylized as their European counterparts.
     
    ianuaditis, jay.dee and Doggiedogma like this.
  19. [
    I think that Zappa just wasn't interested in any genre except Zappa music.
     
  20. Standoffish

    Standoffish Smarter than a turkey

    Location:
    North Carolina
    How is it that I'd never even heard of Barclay James Harvest? Just finished Time's Honoured Ghost and I loved it. They're like a mixture of Pink Floyd, Yes, Blue Oyster Cult and Procol Harum. Even listening on youtube, I can hear some great production.

    Thanks for introducing them to me.
     
    Bob J and Crimson Witch like this.
  21. adad

    adad Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Diego
    Touch had to at least influence some of the English prog bands
     
    jay.dee, George Blair and zphage like this.
  22. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Interestingly that album had an American producer, Elliot Mazer, and it was the only prog related thing he ever did.
     
  23. George Blair

    George Blair Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Nobody mentions that record. I still have my original, and I always held it in high regard. I would only add that the British had an advantage in the area of education and historical background. American musical and arts education was (and is) sort of considered inessential. In the UK you could always fall back on art school without being marginalized or considered "intellectual." In the USA that's almost a dirty word.
     
  24. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    Steve Wilson and Porcupine Tree were a later wave prog band
     
  25. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    American schools don't count in 7/13 time signatures
     
    Blimpboy likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine