I’ve noted a few already, but this list‐of‐attributes goes wrong rapidly. I kicked off with the idea that for some reason Led Zeppelin, despite shareing listeners, are not often called Prog. If that’s not enough of a puzzle, there’s plenty more examples—some are heavy.
So you say?
Here’s a delve between a friend and myself. A discussion that became River Rock, about group‐improvised Rock (like Jam bands, but down to the music). The discussion evolved from the very Prog Jethro Tull onto the subject of Pink Floyd.
Pink Floyd are near‐always roped into Prog by writers, who like to quote that John Lydon, thus for them Punk, ‘I hate Pink Floyd’ T‐shirt. But, as I raised back in the River post, Pink Floyd doesn’t sit well as Prog Rock. Their music doesn’t match the list either. On the list of attributes, yes, Pink Floyd made extended conceptual work, but less epic than, by their fourth season, gloomy and argumentative. Yes, in perhaps their second and third seasons they made extended instrumental composition but by their commercial season this largely gathered into thoughtful forms that used guitar solos here and there, no more so than any other small‐group band. Yes they used keyboards but, by the commercial season, mostly as texture or for structuring, not as interplay. As for ‘pushing technical performance boundaries’,
…my own observation, and the odd thing they’ve said themselves… Mason… plays down their musicianship… Gilmour… has often commented that much of his style comes from not having very fast fingers…
and bassist Rodger Waters didn’t know how to read music, which I don’t see as a big deal, but does sit awkwardly with the idea of Prog Rock prodigy. Coming back at the comment on that T‐Shirt and the assumptions of writers, commercial‐phase Pink Floyd can come across as, if Prog, Punk‐Prog. ‘Dogs’?
The more you listen to Pink Floyd, the less Prog they can seem. The intense composition of early Prog singles was nothing like Pink Floyd’s Psychedelic season. Later work is unlike the Baroque squiggles of Yes, or the Jazz density and operatic shapes of Magma. As my friend said,
Maybe they get judged prog by default?
Or because writers have dumped all long‐form music into a bucket called ‘symphonic rock’? Organically, Floyd were not ‘symphonic’—they developed sound effects and technology into long forms via River. Not only that, the audience, for commercial‐season Floyd is larger than for many other Prog Bands. That audience is not dedicated Prog‐Rock. I set up that many of the Floyd audience would agree.
Why not?
Here’s another example, and I only need to say it,
Just this morning, how come The Who are not prog?
(shouts) Why?
:) (puzzled!)
Back at me,
Ooh, yeah…rock operas!
Yeah, rock opera, composed by one of the only musicians in the music capable of writing a story with multi‐media support, not to mention a rithm section that sounds like river‐churn, from a band who constructed
long intricate instrumental passages
while they used keyboards and synths to contribute to and not emphasise the sound, and had the ability to play all of this live (ever heard ‘Live at Leeds Deluxe’ or other expanded versions of the recordings?). The Who nail every item on the attribute list—at the time of the Millennium their guitarist issued the working notes of a crashed project ‘Lifehouse’ as a six CD set called ‘Lifehouse Chronicles’, and it doesn’t get more Prog than that. The only attribute they possibly lack is ‘bombast’, but that’s no measurable item. Yet we got to pull back. Any music listener, heedless of how they commit to Prog, will tell you The Who are not Prog. Not even near, pal.
Move on
On approach, this definition‐by‐attributes looses definition. The factors in the list are queasy alone— I’ve ditched the national factor of ’British’, but a ‘conceptual record’ is self‐defining and likely to be an incidental effect, ‘keen on keyboards’ is the definition of an effect, and the structure of a list implies unsound thinking. Slackly applied this definition covers too many musics… rigourously applied (I’ve only hinted at this) not covering known‐good cases. I’m not well‐read here, but a scan of public sources shows writers floundering or bailing—take this, for example, from a Prog Rock forum,
For me, the better/best idea is to consider it [Prog Rock R.C.] (properly!!!) as an evolution of the musical process as it will better fit things.