Progressive Rock

Afterword

PART ONE

1. Preface

When they ask me what Prog is, for some reason my mind is flooded with all those sensations and images that I felt and lived at the end of the 60’s in a popular and noisy Rome made of Trastevere alleys or extreme and dangerous suburbs. No one called it Progressive Rock then, even if all these youngsters were different from their older brothers and fathers in their new way of looking at life, as if curious about all that was going on, musically speaking, on the other side of the Channel and the Ocean.

As for me, I was able to barely escape the tether of a Pier-Paolo-Pasolini-like suburb by enrolling at the Artistic Liceo of Rome, which allowed me to start looking at the world from a different angle, far different from that of a person who associates with neighbourhood bullies, small time criminals and that of a submissive world, full of humanity.

Back then new rock music was born and was played in the suburbs. It was rare to have musicians that were part of the upper middle class, almost never from the aristocracy.

About a year or two before the progressive avalanche arrived, young Roman musicians were hard at work in the 15th century cantinas in the centre of Rome, which probably never thought they would be home to 100 watt Marshall amplifiers or see all those young people with long hair and shifting velvet clothes. There was a strange bond between the nights spent by those colourful kids occupying the staircases, the monuments and fountains of Rome, and Rome herself, who looked upon them as if in wonder, with benevolence, always wanting to be a part of the scene but resigned to being the backdrop of their new found love.

We would look a everything that came from the lands of Albion, musically and fashion-wise, and we began to cover the new music.

Rome, at night, silent and solitary, welcomed the notes of King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator, the dark atmospheres of Arthur Brown and once again the Universal City was busy looking for new languages and secretly absorbing and conveying them.

All of a sudden Italian Pop exploded. All those very young musicians that had grown up on English music, found a completely personal way of expressing themselves, and, as if someone had paved the way, it was very easy to record albums, perform concerts, festivals and tour.

Basically, we were twenty and life was just beginning… and how beautiful it was!

Luciano Regoli

(Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno Band)

Elba Island, July 2013

2. Introduction (and premise)

Rock progresses […]. Rock grows, becomes amplified. It understands that it can go where no man has gone before, as Star Trek’s Kirk says. It stretches to territories where it didn’t even imagine it could reach. I’m speaking about culture, high music, educated music, classical music, jazz. Where, for better or worse, the beat, the Rolling Stones or others haven’t yet dared to go […]

– Ernesto Assante, journalist and music critic

This electronic (or electric) book is intended to be a sort of handbook for progressive rock. What drove me to write this book (with the supervision of my good friend Simone Minelli)? A series of reasons that I’ll try to illustrate. More often than not, as I speak with friends and acquaintances about progressive rock, I’ve been told: I don’t dislike prog but it’s too complicated; or: I enjoy something but the sheer mass of material and information is intimidating.

Yep… the sheer mass of information. Every time I hear that particular phrase I have to keep from laughing, almost bitterly. I started listening (seriously) to music 20 years ago. My first store-bought album (which I obtained by selling a part of my comic book collection) was Freak Out by Frank Zappa. At the time, Internet hadn’t shed its sci-fi cloak to slowly enter into everyone’s home. Finding information about non commercial artists was still a difficult endeavour. Actually, let’s face it: it was outright audacious! There was no Wikipedia, no Google, and most of all, no You Tube. The only sure way to get information was to buy the albums and start an attentive vivisection reading of the booklets. The liner notes were a gripping read, almost like reading Salgari or a Mark Twain book. The covers of the Albums (the cover illustrations or photos) were an evocative passport to new fantastic worlds. They were second, as they should be, only to the music contained in those LP’s or CD’s. This deductive method was widely used, especially in analysing the differences between various albums.

Another method was to purchase specialized books. Basically, 20 years ago if you wanted to find something you had to go to whatever little you could find on the market. For a price, of course. By listening, meeting someone more learned than you or reading, you have your confirmation or you could correct your ideas.

Today we’re in a very different situation. The internet is a real cornucopia where you can find everything. For those whose interest in music began like mine did, the Net offers all that there is to find. We have basically gone from having very little, to almost too much.

If it is true on one hand that internet has allowed more people to become interested in almost extinct or niche musical genres and has allowed the creation of somewhat virtual relationships between listeners, it hasn’t – in fact – guaranteed true feats. In brief: many people, although interested, do not possess the right tools to access all that is available. Perhaps (this is more probable) they tend to lose themselves in the huge sea of information. I could use at this point a very strange term: information overload. I could even say that we are virtually experts of everything and nothing at the same time, Though this would be more misleading than necessary at this time.

Suffice it to say that this handbook on progressive rock aims to try to offer a possible series of reading tools to all those people that want to get into this beautiful and image-evoking (meta)genre. A book for those people who always gave up, believing that the progressive task was too hard. The Italian writer Luciano De Crescenzo says that his educational books on the history of Philosophy are like the stepping ladders, in a library, help you to reach the books that are higher up, the more difficult ones. My objective, with this guide, is basically the same.

The book is divided in two parts. In the first part I will dwell on what progressive rock is in general. I’ll explain what is and isn’t prog, I’ll refer you to the necessary historical notes and I’ll show you what some of the more important musicians associated with this musical (meta)genre think of progressive rock.

The second part is a critical analysis of some thirty albums that I believe to be crucial. Obtaining these albums is very simple, except in a few cases that will be noted. Also, an important detail, the re-printing of the CD’s, as well as the electronic versions of the albums are very cheap in most cases. It highly suggested that you listen to the albums and songs mentioned as you read this book.

As I said before, this book is a handbook. It does not aim to describe Progressive Rock in every detail. For a deeper analysis I suggest you refer to the volumes I made precious use of, which will be listed in the book and/or the bibliography. Consequently, the picture I will paint you will be made up of very decisive strokes. You won’t find colours like Raw Sienna, or Burnt Sienna: there will only be Brown. No Baby Blue or Sky Blue: just Blue. I won’t act like the painter I’m not: I’m a brick layer, who also dabbles in painting. Also, since I am a bricklayer, you’ll notice that my writing style will be, except in few cases, mostly informal and colloquial.

The book is dedicated to the memory of a great Prog Rock expert, called Lajos (Lewis). It was he who spoke to me abundantly about Progressive Rock for the first time. I still symbolically remember something he told me: head for Pink Floyd. In this book I didn’t head only to the Pink Floyd sound. However, if I can get someone who wanted to know a bit more about Prog Rock cry out for joy, I certainly will have achieved my goal. A last note for the supporters of first hour prog rock: if you don’t find the name of your favourite group in this book, please don’t be disappointed. I take prime responsibility for this. Also, some approximations might make your skin crawl. However, please think: the more people get interested in Prog Rock, the more it’ll be possible to see new material on the market.

There’s always time to fine tune: the important part is to begin.

S.O.P.

A word about the translation:

All the material of the various artists or people interviewed written in this book has been taken from its original English or Italian source. The only exception to this are the words of Keith Emerson and Glenn Gould, which were taken from the Italian editions of their respective publications and translated back into English. The sense remains unchanged. The reason for this is that their books were either unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

3. What is Progressive Rock?

a) The genre definition and a possible definition of meta-genre

Progressive Rock is a rock that frees itself of its chains. I mean, that escapes the traditional schemes that are derived from Blues: certain types of chords, a certain sound. Suddenly, the opening towards classical music, is the act of freeing itself from those chains.

-Vittorio de Scalzi (New Trolls)

Let’s start right away by saying that, with Prog, we are faced with a kind of chimera. A nice chimera mind you. Nice and aesthetically pleasing. For those who have not studied any classical mythology, a chimera is a fantastical beast, made up of many different animal parts.

While a chimera is an ugly beast indeed, evil and dirty (and luckily it doesn’t exist), the prog chimera is a real, well done mix and innovative at the same time. Normally it wouldn’t be correct to talk about chimeras, manticores or similar beasts but more aptly about a concept with a difficult name: the meta-genre. Progressive rock can be considered a musical meta-genre.

What does meta-genre mean? Genres are logical groupings that help us to select and catalogue information. In practical terms, to help us understand what we are talking about. The are used to make understanding things easier and to organize things in a simple way (and sometimes, unfortunately, in a simplistic way).

If for example I say an apple is a fruit, your mind, in this moment, will catalogue the received information by putting apples in with pears, bananas and oranges. The apple and the orange, even though different, are part of the fruit family. They are a genre (or type) of fruit.

In the music field (our fruit, if you will), we have different musical genres (Blues, Jazz, Rock, Folk, etc.). Every genre denotes a particular sound, certain instruments used, precise tempos and, therefore, more specialized players in determined actions as compared to others.

Is it possible to explain the differences between different settings? I asked Simone Minelli, professor of Musical Education, guitar player and Progressive fan. If we were to play in a Blues group, says Minelli, we would deal with musicians that use acoustic instruments (at most a valve amplifier for the guitar) whereas if we were in a hardcore metal band we would find hard distorted guitar solos accompanied by extreme drum performances with double pumped up bass drums and heavy bass. In any event, as with our apples and oranges, even though the two forms of music are different, we’re still talking about music.

Sometimes, a composer can decide to mix two genres. That’s what we then call a hybridization of genres. Some of the traits of the two genres are combined to create something new. this is the case of Jazz-Rock, or, going back to our fruit, the Clementine orange (mandarin + orange).

I asked Antonio Perri, Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa of Naples, for his opinion on the matter. I completely agree, says Perri, "on the possible definition of categories like jazz-rock as hybrid. I remember, also, that in the 80’s we spoke also of fusion – for cases like jazz-pop, like Spyro Gyra for example".

For there to be an acceptable fusion, of course, the elements taken from the two genres have to co-exist well with each other and not clash. This is the reason why Clementine oranges are delicious while a hybrid between an orange and a carob could not be that appreciated.

Progressive Rock, as opposed to the simple hybrid, pushes itself ahead in musical research. This is not only two genres that are fused with their more adaptable parts. In prog, on top of a rock base (and classical in most cases) the most varied elements are grafted, all taken from different musical genres. In prog there are no real limits as far as choice and the quantity of the grafts.

Perri: "Prog is a genre that obeys its own concept (and it’s no coincidence that many records of prog groups in the 70’s are concept albums). Now, Perri continues, without doubt in a prog record from time to time you can identify the different genres or grafted