What is Prog 1 - Acoustic Intro
Photo © Mike Pennington (cc‐by‐sa/2.0) / Cropped, masked from original
It started with a friend talking Led Zeppelin,
Notable that people never seem to know quite where to group them. No one ever says ‘prog’ although they’ve got the chops… …people say ‘metal’ although they’re not exactly doing …Black Sabbath …folkies on Led Zep III…
Aside from the mystery of Led Zeppelin, a question, ‘What is Prog?’. Not saying I have an answer, mind—it’s an adventure.
We tried more tracks. Seemed there were many tracks we knew were ‘prog rock’. That helps, though not a definition. We found ourselves a lodestone—‘Knots’, by Gentle Giant. At 4:18 it’s not long, but three‐part (mostly) harmony driven by xylophones with violin comment, interjections by,
Some black‐key ‘wrong’ piano chords
and,
Purposefully plodding
…drums (when they arrive), lyrics from expressions from investigations in psychiatry, and maybe five sections. No doubt Prog Rock. Except, that this track is ‘prog’ will not help. The description given here will not grow—the use of a xylophone does not cover the works of ‘prog rock’—and neither will the accumulation of detail—as you will see. This isn’t simple.