The Birth of Prog | Why Prog Happened
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Become a Patreon! / andyedwards
Or if Patreon is not for you you can make a donation: paypal.me/Andy...
More links you might find interesting:
Listen to my music here: andyedwards.ba...
Instagram: / andyedwardsdrumlessons
My UA-cam Drum Channel: / channel
Andy's Fusion Spotify Playlist: open.spotify.c...
Andy's Prog Spotify Playlist: open.spotify.c...
The history of prog rock is so complicated, so entwined and goes so deep. I don't know if anyone has been able to completely put it all together but this is a very good synopsis.
Thank you! That was my first live experience on UA-cam :D I think you shouldn't underestimate also the influence of early psychedelia that emerged in the US after the first British Invasion with bands like Vanilla Fudge, Electric Prunes, or Jefferson Airplane. And very badly forgotten is a guy who influenced or even developped just any genres in the 60s, a young Scottish poet by the name of Donovan Phillips Leitch that went from trad. folk to psychedelia (Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow were the first psychedelic singles), childrens songs, art rock, and world music before it even was a thing - and even taught George Harrison how to improve his guitar playing in India. Never underestimate the influence of Donovan also in song writing (I hold it even above Dylan's).
In fact it was John Lennon whom Donovan taught to improve his guitar playing, fingerpicking style to be exact. That gave rise to Dear Prudence, Happiness Is a Warm Gun and Julia.
@@Batchman-z11 What!? I've read was the other way around-in India.
Wordiness leaves out Love 13th floor elevators! The Vanilla Fudge? Hollies maybe?
Google translator: "Prague Rock". Greetings from Czech Republic.
Modry Efekt
Plastic People of the Universe
@@pauldenby878 Great band!
The birth of prog is a fascinating subject. One important aspect is that it was reaction to psychedelia. With all the studio gimmicks such as backwards tapes, tape varispeed, exotic overdubbed instruments and orchestration, multiple keyboards and vocals, much of psychedelia was unable to be played live as it had appeared on record. Prog was a reaction to this. There was a zeitgeist to play live to a high standard of musicianship, to be taken seriously and to ‘progress’ to the level of classical or jazz. This is one reason why prog incorporated aspects of classical and jazz. Anything seen as lightweight or ‘commercial’ was out. The prog movement led to fascinating developments in music as long as it didn’t get too long or self indulgent, and it did lead to levels of virtuosity that have never been bettered. There are many treasures to rediscover.
Absolutely correct. Despite all the misunderstandings and misinterpretations Progressive Rock was merely the result of creative artists seeking to expand their genre to reach more interesting and significant heights, just as we saw from the Renaissance through the Baroque and Classical and Romantic and Modern periods. Original Rock and Roll was such a simplistic form of music that there was no place to go but up. The shame is that the movement failed to gain the influence commanded by its predecessors.
Outstanding story-telling. I greatly appreciate your commentary on the technological progress, and especially the credit to Frank Zappa, one of my primary influences.
I was thinking that the bad sound was some kind of joke that I didn’t get…
Funny that a video about music has such bad...sound. Sad really.
A video that starts by telling about importance of recording, should have better recording/packaging quality.
Maybe it s suppose to give a psychedelic vibe...i thought a second it was made by AI :)
Ah, good. I thought there may be something wrong with my phone
very difficult to listen to. if the content wasn't so good, I wouldn't bother
Thank you, Andy!
For connecting musical bridges.
Learning is exciting!
Prog is a song form built from I, IV, V progressions but allowing ii, iii vi to interplay progressions so middle sections and "song within song" can build interesting storytelling. Similarly Sonata Allergo and Choro song forms allow three or more themes to inhabit the same song form creating a longer opus.
"The album has become THE art form for culture." As one who grew up with, and into, this development, your statement struck me as 100% true.
My opinion also. Rock music was the number one art form in the western world and anyone with an artistic bent dove into it which is why the music was so good in the late 60's early 70's, along with the ingestion of psychedelics that expanded the consciousness of the musicians and thus expanded the music.
Human intelligence and consciousness evolved from the ingestion of psychedelic plants, read Terence McKenna, and the rock music created under the influence reaches deeply into the human pysche that only a few individuals throughout history connected to naturally like the great classical composers.
Great job Andy! I enjoy and love your content. Please give us more, and thank you!
Excellent big picture overview. Thanks for your work. Born 1960 I grew up listening to some of the great proggers, but am discovering there was a lot more going on. So am listening to some of them for the first time. Good that you mentioned the Moody Blues. Often overlooked and did a lot of innovation.
Glad you enjoyed it
@@AndyEdwardsDrummer What ? No mention of Lothar and the Hand People ???
Excellent historical perspective.
Fantastic! Thanks Andy for all your hard work! Prog Forever!!!
Todd Rundgren would walk into the studio, and emerge weeks or months later with a finished progressive rock album. By himself. All instruments, vocals, songwriting, arranging, production, engineering. A feat not even equaled by Stevie Wonder. Astounding.
Brilliant beyond belief.
Keep up the good work!
What a great video, very interesting sum up in technological context
The most important album in prog is obviously Tales as in popular arguments it is named the step too far, the end of the tether that kickstarted punk. This may or may not be true but one thing that gets overlooked as it's not well known is that Keith Levine, the guitarist from that early PiL incarnation that made Metal Box and he was in the very early Clash, was a huge Yes fan. He roadied for them and was going to go on the Tales tour until Rick I believe sacked him for not being a very good roadie. He loved Steve Howe's guitar and spent all his time picking the brains of Steve and Rick and Rick realised he needed to take the step and get out there himself. Keith himself said that Poptones, I think, was Starship Trooper. If you listen with this in mind you can hear it. The story is out there in the PiL fanzine/blog Fodderstomp.
I really enjoyed your analysis of the birth of prog rock! All the bands you mentioned in the video are bands I enjoy listening to. I'm not sure if I agree so much about Bob Dylan's influence on or contribution to prog rock as I have always seen him as being a pioneer in folk music. Of course, he obviously did inspire and influence many rock musicians. I really like your acknowledgement of Frank Zappa's major contribution to prog rock. He was such a brilliant composer as well as a brilliant man and a real thinker. I was born in the 1960s, and I believe that Yes and The Moody Blues were my earliest influences as a huge fan of prog rock. Yes's "Roundabout" and The Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" were most likely two of the main songs that gave me a taste of prog rock that hooked me immediately. I do recall hearing some of Pink Floyd's music some time around 1970, and I have been a big fan of theirs for all of these years. Oh, and I can't forget hearing The Beatles (especially Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) very early in my life. It was some time in the mid 1970s when I started really becoming aware of all of the other great bands you mentioned (ELP, Procol Harem, Genesis, etc.). I can never tire of listening to all of the great prog rock music, especially all of the brilliant early prog rock. :)
I cant belueve I listened to 10 minutes of this.
Excellent definition of the birth of Prog Rock, so many of my generation have struggled to explain what our passion was about...
Just a comment: its'Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull on the miniature of the video (background), they're a fundamental piece for the prog movement, but not cited. You couldn't mention them all! Cheers, I'm a suscriber
I was just going to mention Tull, then I saw this as I was scrolling. One of my faves from that era
Well done. I think you got all the primary elements into a twenty minute history doc. I am still unclear as to what Prog rock is as opposed to Progressive rock. Zappa is a fly in my gatekeeper soup. Great vid. Audio is fine. Thanks
"Prog rock" and "progressive rock" are the same thing, actually. Unfortunately, a cluster of alternative/"indie" rock fans hijacked and stole the term "progressive rock" from us fans of the music and decided that it was the term for THEIR music instead, leaving us with a vestige/scrap of our term for the music: "prog" rock. What a bulls**t maneuver.
@@glennhecker4422 I always thought that Prog was for those British Mellotron bands of the early seventies and that progressive rock was the larger genre that included all progressive rock, most bands in the classic era were progressive in some way.
@@Hartlor_Tayley Nope. One and the same.
Andy. From the archives!! I love it! Hehe
Glad you enjoyed it
What a fantastic video have a wonderful weekend Andy ❤😊
Interesting video. I would definitely agree on your picks for the beginning of prog. Makes sense.
The brilliant Australian music youtuber, The Righteous Bojambo (aka the Foul Quince) has a highly cerebral 15 minute video 'Achtung Krautrock'. Highly recommended. Zappa gets a mention for context, as does Floyd, Hendrix, Cream. So does Weimar and the war.
Gentle Giant's 'Three Friends' 1972 . A very influential prog record.
Can, Neu, Faust, etc... were reacting against established forms of music, and culture, that existed in Germany in the 1960s, and earlier. It was a reaction; a pre-echo of punk in many ways. A lot of the music labeled Krautrock sounds similar to music that emerged from the smoking ruins of punk a decade later. The similarities between post punk and Krautrock are striking.
Superbly explained video, well done Andy 😊
In my humble opinion, the backwards guitar on I’m Only Sleeping is a glimpse into the world of the studio as a member of the band so to speak, and that Tomorrow Never Knows is possibly the first piece of progressive rock ever. ❤
Yay go Hatfields! I come from Canterbury and live on a boat in cropredy waiting for Rick wakeman to park his trailer me field, and don't forget Henry Cow! Xxx
andy I'm sure you'll know there was a brumbeat scene in the 60s, any info
your right about the crickets being the first real band , that's why the beatles picked the name after an insect, but they wern't even the second real band, as mark lewisohn says the beatles joined the mersey scene in it's second phase
so well done , thanks Andy ..,
Thanks Andy
Thanks Andy!
Absolutely love the cover of ambrose slade of "aint got no heart" I own the LP mostly for this one !
I tend to appreciate pretty much every progressive wave and scene, even though the English and Italian traditional prog schools are my favourites. Cheers!
This is an excellent video. I enjoyed it very much. I always knew that U.S. rock n roll was dance music, which by practicality is usually simple form so that players can be substituted for gigs and songs can be extended for dancing by improvising. The Brits did not have the same dance culture. They looked at rock n roll as also music you could hear in a theater as you sit. This allows for wider expressions, and becomes more story telling. But it was the recording technology that was also influential.
Conveniently missing from this video are Van der Graaf Generator.
"Art College" was where they sent the difficult boys, like John Lennon and Mick Jagger.
and me
The (out of print) Rolling Stone history of rock and roll explains why it originated in Britain. I lost my copy years ago.
I read that too...my bible when I was young for rock music
It always seemed to me that you are too harsh with Brian Wilson, not just because of this video, but also because of the content of others. I think you don't take into account that unlike the Beatles, in the Beach Boys he was alone trying to make their music to evolve, he had to fight against his own bandmates, the producers, the label, not to mention his illness and the way he was treated. I don't expect anyone to say that what is not good is good just out of solidarity, but I believe that man should be recognized for what he did. It was a lot!
PS - you still don't mention the Italian band "Area" when speaking of Italians prob bands. Have you never heard? You don't know what you're missing.
PPS - This audio could have easily been arranged with a free program called "Audacity". If you want, you can watch countless videos on YT explaining how it works.
PPPS - I don't contribute because I can't. I'm unemployed.
Prog! Andy! Creole! Enigma! Regina! Nigel! Black music! White music! It's the Benny Hill Show! Yakety Sax....
Zappa the leader of prog rock! Woulda never have thunk, but guess it seems reasonable.
A very good mini history of prog Andy but don't forget Traffic's Hole in my Shoe and their wonderful album Mr Fantasy. Also the Yardbirds' Shapes of Things and Happenings Ten Years Time Ago. These records were definitely early prog. On the US side, The Electric Prunes and Strawberry Alarm Clock were also very innovative. There were lots of creative people besides Frank Zappa.
I love prog music 😅
To me the mention of Slade or probably then Ambrose Slade is perfectly appropriate ;) and in context .
Of course you're a first rate educator. Bravo.
Barely a mention of Genesis - the perfect expression of Prog Rock. No mention of English Folk music? Deep Purple? Led Zeppelin? Sorry you were not really talking about Progressive Rock at all but merely exploring the edges.
Because not everyone loved Slade
I certainly was not one of them. It was another nail in the coffin of rock.
English proto-prog trio _Clouds’_ version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “America live at the Marquee” [available on YT] is clearly worth a listening. Maybe the fact that, according to an inner sleeve, Bill Bruford was taking drumming lessons from the band’s drummer Harry Hugues, makes them even more interesting.
Thank you very much for reminding me of Clouds because I read up somewhere that they were the very first prog rock band and promotes did not know what to do with them and ended up getting them to play in Circuses I have got there first 3 albums on cd they also played at the The Marquee and one of the band members got Daved Bowie to meet up with Jimie Hendrix at the Marquee
@@adrianvassallo5630 There are several reasons the band didn’t make it.
As you say, in 1965 nobody knew how to deal with a prog band.
And than the name. First they were called _1-2-3,_ later _Clouds,_ names you can easily forget or mix up - not like Quicksilver Messenger Service 😊
Thirdly, Island didn’t know what to do with them either. Later they ended up at Chrysalis and things were going in the right direction - they thought. But Chrysalis was investing time and money in their new acquisition Jethro Tull and Clouds were totally neglected.
Orson Welles approved.
I think the Stranglers brought that progressive edge through the punk movement into the 80,s.
Magazine is another great bridge that way.
Hey Andy, do you read the comments?
I’d love to hear him discuss Roxy Music, Sparks, and David Bowie.
Bowie's great - but over exposed. Sparks and Roxy - yeah!
The wonders of technology:
"My electric guitar never goes out of tune"
And neither does Jandek’s guitars ever goes “out of tune”.
@@michaeljozwiak25
Bob Dylan 1966 live in Paris
I feel like progressive rock with its emphasis on longer highly arranged songs and instrumentals has been confused with psychedelic rock with long emprovisational experimentational song forms. It also seems like Jethro Tull deserved a mention. I always felt like bands that were called progressive rock mostly sounded nothing like each other and were mostly bands trying to add a symphonic or highly arranged element to a simple music form.
I went to a grammar school so I listened to prog rock. My mates at the secondary modern didn’t. It’s that simple.
Eric Burdon And the New Animals===Winds Of Change ,,,Twain Shall Meet
The second greatest American MJ
The Beatles didn't achieve what they achieved just because they could afford being outlandish or because of their influence or means; it was because they were a lot more creative, more talented, more cultured, more capable and more ambitious than any of their contemporaries. Let's not downplay their merit. You can ask Robert Fripp and some of the most hardcore prog rock musicians, and they will tell you about the Beatles merit. No other band could make back then a song like "A Day in the LIfe", "Strawberry Fields", "I Am the Walrus", "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Love You To", which were all before prog rock...
If Andy is correct and American 'Prog' is personified by Frank Zappa, then it was more Jazz and blues influenced than Anglo 'Prog' IMO. The Psychedelic elements were also different with the US not having cultural equivalents like Edward Lear, the Goons, Music Hall and Alice in Wonderland etc That said, Zappa's music is heavily influenced by European Classical composers albeit more on the avant side of the fence like Varese, Hindemith, Ligeti etc. Far too often I've read that the Symphonic European elements were monopolised by English bands like ELP, the Nice, Yes, Genesis etc
Thanks, but your dates, some of them, need to be adjusted. Close to the Edge was a 1972 release; 1973 saw only Wakeman make his first solo LP from that band. All the members did in '76.
Prog was the punk of its day. 🙂🙃
Bad drugs explains it.
:20 I just thought you were reproducing the early recording experience.
Prog happened because of the British Invasion in the early 60s. Modern popular music up to that point had been dominated by music that originated in the blues and jazz scene in America.
For the most part, it was pure mudhuttery. And then 'white' people and Jewish people turned up [took control] and transformed modern popular music into the stunning number of diverse styles that we saw over the next four decades. Progressive rock was the high-cultural version of that immense wave of Western influenced music. But hyper-degenerate and racist Cultural Marxists like Andy Edwards arrived mid-70s onwards and began to systematically deconstruct Western culture and 'whiteness' resulting in modern popular music reverting back to mudhuttery.
It was the Moody Blues' Mike Pinder who introduced John Lennon to the Mellotron that ended up on Strawberry Fields. And also gave McCartney the anecdote that lead to She Came In Through The Bathroom Window. Also, Slade did a pretty good cover of the Moodies version 2's first single Fly Me High
Good vid. John Sebastian had a great quote. He said, " If anyone in 1965 said rock and roll was serious music, they'd laugh in your face. And if anyone after 1967 said it wasn't serious music , they'd punch you in the nose. " In those two years we went from "Wooly Bully" and "My Boy Lollipop" to to "Strawberry Fields Forever " and "A Day in the Life." It was inevitable that the musicianship would advance since so many people were becoming musicians and the starting point wasn't surf or Doo Wop. It was about breaking new ground. And part of that was studying jazz, blues, classical and the avant garde . I'm not sure I agree that Dylan was a direct influence on the prog movement. In general, the times they were-a- changin' but that was in everything -- art, film, literature, fashion, morality, philosophy, and of course, all types of music. That too allowed for more experimentation. Botton Line...the Beatles turned a folk art into high art. Then the more skilled musicians took it to the next logical level.
My Favorite part of Prog Rock is the Canterbury Sound. Soft Machine, etc. But I still appreciate "Wooly Bully".
Andy, the 3 videos of yours that I've watched lately - this one on Prog, the History of Drumming and the one on Beauty, I've really enjoyed. They have been realy well thought out and convey a balanced and somewhat objective view point. I also like the videos when you have a right old rant at something !
I would be interested if you had any thoughts about where Roy Wood and The Move might fit into the musical frame of late 1960's Britain.
Not to mention Jeff Lynne and The Idle Race, and how Wood and Lynne combined to bring forth ELO, who took the "rock with classical instruments" concept to new levels while maintaining pop credentials.
Progressive Rock pushed the boundaries of what Rock could be. It is still being played at a very high quality in Sweden, Norway, France. The Netherlands and in Japan.
Brian Wilson was not " jealous" of the Beatles. He was truly inspired and motivated by them. He wanted to top what he heard in Rubber Soul due to admiring it. It inspired him to make the conceptual Pet Sounds, a journey from start to finish. Upon meeting John and Paul in LA, there was a mutual admiration and respect that continues with Paul to this day.
You could be "inspired and motivated' by the Beatles and also be jealous of their success.
@@mikeymutual5489 no one has ever reported, nor are there any qoutes showing Brian Wilson was jealous of the Beatles. Making stuff up, creating controversy where the never was any, is never a good look.
@@ms8596 It is a known fact that Brian was a competitive person and was gearing the group to take on the Beatles after they arrived here. Why would you do that if you were not at least a little jealous of their success, which came seemingly out of nowhere? In fact, the whole group was jealous of the Beatles. Try to understand the personalities of the group and human nature before dismissing me. Musicians do not exist in a vacuum. Stop being so naive. But again, just because there was some jealousy (at least in the beginning), that did not mean that there was not also some deep admiration for the Beatles by Brian and the rest of the group.
@@mikeymutual5489 your original statement is about Brian, not the group. Again, do not foist your perception of how Brian would have felt or acted. Stick to the facts, plain and simple. Conjecture in a documentary? Yea, no! That documentary gets a D, basically a grade for showing up.
@@ms8596 The fact is that you don't know any more than I do about this, except for you having no real knowledge of Brian and his history. So you get a D for running your mouth while knowing nothing.
Very enjoyable. Love it that Zappa led the way.
There are lots of great points made in this video, but my favorite is your point about how prog echoes the development of recording technology, allowing for longer and more complex compositions without having to study music on a formal or academic basis. I also loved your point about Dylan as an enabler for ambitious music and also for music not focused so much on singing.
My only criticism of this video is that I think twentieth-century classical music post-bop jazz impacted the development of prog more than this video acknowledges, but perhaps that will be included in another video. I also think late modernist literature made an impact, encouraging greater complexity and more use of irony in lyrics.
Prog is late modernist rock, hanging on at the same time as postmodern music (punk, postpunk, no wave, etc) was beginning to emerge.
All great bands at 09:30 but another great English band that is somehow never mentioned and deserves to be included as one of the groups that also pushed the artistic envelope with their music is *_The Zombies_* --- their album *_Odessey and Oracle_* recorded during the summer of love in 67' but not released till the following year was also a great example of the type of artistry that led the way to what would eventually become all out Prog rock in the 70's. They also, like _The Beatles_ and _The Kinks,_ wrote most of their own material.
Right . I consider most of Argent's work to be solid Prog as well.
Nice job as always, but that popping audio is annoying as hell.
Sorry about that...happened in edit. I could not fix it
@@AndyEdwardsDrummer
Is it Memorex or Andy Edwards?
Its hell to live through the greatest of times in music and to see it now compared to all the previous years and decades. No wonder everyones mad all the time. We have no good music to sooth our souls.
George Martin. MAJOR INFLUENCE.
Really enjoyed this style of video. I wasn't bothered by the audio issue, it's the content that counts.
Dude. Fix the audio man!
What's up with the sound?
When I exported the audio out of audacity it added a ton of crackles. At that point I had spent a week editing the video so I thought I could bin it or put it out. I used AI to cover the crackles but it added a strange sound.
@@AndyEdwardsDrummer
I thought it was some ytube thing and easily fixable. Well we can still get the message.
It's just his english estethic personality. Almost genius. Love it!
@@peterpeper4837 Thanks for sticking with it
Its great to know Andy ,that your a fan of great music, from prog,jazz fusion, punk etc
Thank you for properly defining Prog Rock. So many mistakenly think that any track that contains heavy keyboards/electronics and is longer than normal is the definition of Prog. The root of Prog is the storytelling. Critics of Prog are often people with short attention spans. While Brian Wilson was in competition with the Beatles he still loved them. I think Brian was also driven because he was tired of doing Pop/serf music. He was longing to be taken seriously as an artist. IMHO 1971 was the best year in Rock music. The albums of all genres of Rock were stellar that year.
"Critics of Prog are often people with short attention spans." Or maybe proponents of prog rock are as self-serving and pretentious as the bands that played that music.
A buddy of mine grew up across the street from Brian Wilson. Brian wasn't just crazy but a special kind of crazy that infected everyone including my buddy.... and that is cool...Sorry 1972 was the greatest year in prog from a classical guitarist point of view Genesis Foxtrot= Horizions... Yes Fragile = Mood for a Day ELP/ Greg Lake Pictures= The Sage the best music for a guitarist to want to ever play.
Lennon thought that Dylan’s music was bollocks and is on record saying so.
@@370530e Is that why he tried so hard to emulate him? Link please.
@mikeymutual5489 If you really want a link, why not google it?
I agree a band doesn't have to be from the UK to create prog rock, but it does if you want the best prog rock. Zappa may be an exception but he can be hit or miss for me.
the list of american prog bands from the original years is bizarrely short, especially considering how many of uk prog's most diehard fans are over here. but at the top of that very short list are kansas and happy the man*, and i suppose if you have to, styx.
someone recently made the claim (maybe was andy in another video) that the american contribution to progrock during that era was fusion, e.g., zappa, but also mahavishnu orchestra, weather report, chick corea, in that they were blending rock with their *own* national musical "high art" forms like tradjazz, swing, bebop and r&b with avant-garde waves like psychedelica and funk
*happy the man never even really got airplay in the us, but they had a strong live fan base in their day. in fact when peter gabriel left genesis his first project was sessioning with htm, who were often critically compared to genesis in terms of musicianship and keyboard-driven epic composition. it reportedly went well, but the fact that gabriel had just left genesis, the last thing he was looking for was to be in another band with a genesis sound
In addition to recording, we mustn't overlook the impact on popular music black Americans have had. Blues, soul, R&B, country, jazz, fusion, rock, hip hop, rap, DJ-based performance, etc., would not exist without the cultural contribution of black Americans.
Those six years, indeed. Masterful video.
Good video, except for one thong: you teased Tull heads like me, with a bait and switch. There, in the thumbnail of the video, was Ian Anderson stretched out in all his Passion Play glory. And yet, not a peep about Jethro Tull, not even a picture. I guess they came just a couple years too late to fit into your "birth of Prog" theme. So, do an "adulthood" of Prog. Lol. I want to see what you do with telling the story of Prog through the 70s and into the 80s. You said something about there really wasn't "American Prog" that was equivalent to the particular artsy qualities of British Prog, but I would take issue with that also: Kansas produced several top notch albums that were prog. Now, yes, in the 80s Kansas strayed off into pop rock and Christian pap, and such. But Kansas' early period was stellar. Then let's not forget Rush, in Canada, who pretty much outlasted all the other legacy 70s Prog bands, staying current and impaxtful into the 21st century. Anyway, good video. More. Cheers. 😊
I loved this scripted narrative style contrasting your usual extemporised rants. There is definitely a place for both.
The topic is not just for noobs. The field is so expansive that one can always pick up something new.
I prefer this way despite the ironically poor audio
The talk is still completely improvised, it's just edited. On the whole I have just taken the 'ums' and 'you knows' out
@@AndyEdwardsDrummer respek
Funny that a video that goes on so much about how recording changed music so much should be so badly recorded itself - even with the technology we have today. That crackle is so irritating it made me stop watching this after a minute.
Really good Andy, excellent stuff, great for teenagers at school for a bit of musical understanding 😀
Thanks Andy! Greetings from America, Pacific Northwest!
It is hard to overstate the importance of British absurdist humour in the development of pop in general and prog in particular. The George Martin / Goons thread is especially salient. It is no coincidence that Zappa, the most significant US progger, was the most imbued with absurdist humour. (The role of humour in Zappa's music is a whole discussion topic in its own right.)
By and large, the Yanks are far more serious and far less likely to take the piss out of themselves (and others) than the British. (In which I include the Poms, Irish, Scots and Welsh - all with their distinct comic traits.) Hence the English (or should I say Britishness) dominance of prog. The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Yes were much funnier and more playful than Dylan, The Doors and Jefferson Airplane. Arguably Pink Floyd declined as a creative force in direct proportion to Roger Waters's creative grip. Roger is serious.
The Velvet Underground went to serious places that had never been visited in rock before. Only when David Bowie injected a big dollop of Britishness (and humour) into Transformer, did Lou resonate with a wider audience. That also provided a creative foil for Lou to push against with his next album, Berlin - one of the greatest in his career, albeit much more serious.
great point about Lou Reed. There may be a similar thing with Talking Heads/Brian Eno...I might pursue this idea
Tudo foi feito pelo sol by Mutantes and Terço live from Brazil.
Thumbnail of Ian Anderson and not a word about Tull!
The birth of prog is quite a complicated subject. An important aspect was that prog was a reaction to the complex studio trickery of 1967s psychedelia in that with all the backwards tapes, multi-layered vocals, exotic instrumentations, and numerous overdubs, much of psychedelia was unable to be played live as it had appeared on record. Prog rock was all about playing live - and playing to a high standard of musicianship. There was a zeitgeist to be taken seriously, to ‘progress’ to the level of classical and jazz and this is one reason why prog incorporated elements from classical and jazz. Also at the birth of prog anything seen as ‘commercial’ or lightweight was definitely out, this was all about being taken seriously as musicians, it did produce some amazing music as long as it didn’t get too long or over-bloated. It is a fascinating subject and there are many treasures to discover. 19:15
I was a young music lover when progressive rock first came out. Prior to that, I was well versed in my parents classical record collection and I also liked much of the pop/rock of the day and black gospel music too.
Early progressive rock was fascinating music, each new album was an adventure. I think Jon Lord and early Deep Purple are often overlooked, but they, along with King Crimson, were my favorites. Around 1973, much of progressive rock started to become cliche and formulaic and I started listening to other music, but over the years I still hear some good music under the 'prog' moniker.
I loved Deep Purple particularly "in Rock" and "perfect Strangers", Album after album of great songs..All my mates took the piss. Page better than Blackmore, plant better than Gillan... all bollx as they were totally different. John Lord was probably a better all round keyboard piano player than any of the, just not quite the showman and complete Star package.Always looked down on as a poor mans Zepplin.
I like both bands but time is getting kinder to Purple and Zepplins aura is fading somewhat. I play Purple stuff far more than Zepplin but couldn't explain why. Probably because they are more exciting. Zepplin at their best are amazing, but Purple are still playing and creating new music if only in a modified form, as good as, if not better, than ever.
We used to thing of both of them as Prog and Heavy Metal, which by todays standards neither are!
in what way was syd more charismatic than the beatles, don't get me wrong he is one of my heroes but if you would of put pink floyd in front of the american press in 1966 pre meltdown I think they would of still been a bit lost, one of the beatles great points was their irreverence
I'd like to hear your take on Roxy Music, who straddled the primitive and the avant-garde and hugely influenced the "new wave" bands and 80s pop.
Add Be-Bop Deluxe to that.
I love the fact your narration sounds like old phonograph.