The album is rare from what I understand. A friend of mine had a copy way back in college in the 80s and I've only seen it maybe three or four times since in record stores. Two discs that I still throw on the turntable every once in a while. Space Ritual Warrior on the Edge of Time
On the Pink Floyd site I post at, the "prog-rock goddess" (she is in love with Greg Lake - for real), posted this link to this site. Looks really really good and informative:
BMoney I agree to an extent. I just feel like once Gabriel left and Collins kind of took over the band, they really changed after that. I love Phil Collins first solo album Face Value.
Listened to "Close to the Edge" earlier this morning and I can see it overtaking "Fragile" as my favorite Yes album. Jon Anderson's voice is one of the most unique in all of rock and works so well with the rest of the band. And add Bruford, Wakeman, and Squire who were absolute monsters on their instruments plus the solid Steve Howe - whew! Hmm, maybe I should have made an exception to the mystery poster's field and included Yes in the Battle of the Bands tourney.
Yes you should have. IMO Yes deserves to be no lower than a 5 seed. But then again Yes is one of my top 5 favorites of all time.
Damit Deck you made me pull out A wizard, A True Star. I had forgotten how much I love that record. Legend has it that Todd, as a giggle, recorded the whole thing on Mescaline. But the way he melded sounds and time signatures! Truly revolutionary for the time.
I have listened to "Discipline" for the last couple of days and that might be the best album when it comes to musicianship that I have ever heard. Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, and Bill Bruford are all absolutely sick on this record. Oh and I also listened to "Red" today as well (had been awhile) and that album is almost a heavy metal one - amazing that it was done as that version of King Crimson was coming to an end.
Yeah Manny, I was really startled when as a teenager I picked up Red (expecting more Starless and Bible Black type stuff) and all the sudden Fripp and the boys were laying down thick slabs of crunch that would have Toni Iommi (Aaaargh, my finger tips are plastic) nodding in approvement. By the time Discipline came along they had once again reinvented themselves. It was a weird time (late 70 - early 80's MTV generation emerging) for a prog band to flourish but they did just that with the addition of Belew. I actually saw them in concert at Cullen (on the Rice campus) in support of that album. It was a super show - Fripp was so into it he actually got off his stool a couple times A Crimson lp that never gets mentioned is their live release from 76 or so called USA. It may be my all time favorite of theirs. Bruford and Fripp simply astound, but that would not be enough if the songs and sound quality were not top-notch, and they are - in spades.
Reviving this thread as this genre of music has once again become one of my favorites..... I was amazed at how good "A Trick of the Tail" is which I recently got. I was expecting it to be mediocre as it is the first Genesis album without Peter Gabriel but the band really holds well together. "Ripples" is my favorite Genesis song and Tony Banks is an absolute monster on that album. I did some researching and found that it probably wasn't until the album after "Duke" that Genesis completely abandoned their prog-rock ways although they had been hinting at it for awhile. They were completely prog-rock as long as Steve Hackett was in the band (which that reminds me - I ordered Steve Hackett's first solo CD, "Voyage of the Acolyte" as I read it is a prog masterpiece). Amon Duul, Spocks Beard, Porcupine Tree, Flower Kings, and Alan Parsons were all mentioned in this thread. What would be good starter CDs for each of these bands?
I saw Yes in concert about 15 years ago. I'm not a big fan, I think I got the tix free. Anyway, during their encore they did a kick ass cover of Purple Haze that was incredible.
Manny, I would agree with you about Trick of the Tail. It was a huge surprise to see Genesis rebound after the loss of Peter Gabriel. The next LP (Wind and Wuthering? Can't exactly remember) continues in that vain and then Phill Collins turns Genesis into the Phill Collins show. I don't know much about the bands you asked about - just that I really liked Amon Duul II's Live in London and Carnival in Babylon when they came out. I was disappointed with other efforts of theirs I tried. If I might make a few suggestions. Phil Manzanera's (of Roxy Music) first solo lp, Diamond Head is really great. It has Eno (a couple tunes cowritten with) and much of the Roxy gang along. Along the same timeline is 801 Live which features Manzanera, Eno, Simon Phillips (right there with Bruford) et, al doing songs from Eno's and Manzanera's solo lps. In the same genre was Steve Hillages' Fish Rising. A rare instance where the solo lp outstripped anything the band he was in (Gong) ever did. Finally, if you do not already have it, Crime of the Century (they got kind of hokey, like Genesis, soon after) by Supertramp is an absolute masterpiece that I highly recommend. Oh yeah, Nektar is worth checking out too - especially, Tab in the Ocean.
Okay, Win, I'll have to check out the Supertramp one. I admit that I am a little scared to get anything by them as all I remember from them is that damn hokey song, "It's Raining Again". If all of their stuff is like that, then I will pass on them. And I plan on getting more Manzanera if the first CD I bought from him ever shows up (didn't buy it through Amazon but through one of their Marketplace sellers).
Since this thread came up, been wondering about a few bands, I have heard of but couldnt recognize them if I heard them. Mainly Yes, King Crimson, and Fleetwood Mac, what are some songs that are familiar and I might have heard on the radio or whatever from these bands?
I hate to admit I know little about these bands' other work... but I've heard most of their radio hits and those don't seem to represent the type of things talked about in this thread. I presume the radio songs are not at all representative of their other stuff. (right?)
exactly...the only way you hear most prog-rock (especially of the bands you listed) on the radio is if you have Sirius or XM radio programmers have little patience with songs that dont fit the radio friendly 3 minutes or less format....which automatically rules out all progressive rock.
Which brings up: how do you guys hear most of these bands you mention in these threads? Sirius or XM, like you said: otherwise, how? Listen to them when a friend is listening to them? Download them? Just buy stuff and see if you like it? That seems to be one of the reasons you would want to get Sirius or XM: just to see what's out there.
For me it was a number of things. When I started college most of the people I hung out with were older and (not proud to say, but it was what it was) were into psychedelics. There were three people in particular (one being one of my professors) than sort of took me under their wing and taught me all kinds of life lessons. One being music. Being somewhat sheltered at home this opened up a whole new world for me and, being the curious type, jumped right in with both feet. There was about a 5 year period where I really did the sex, drugs and rock n' roll scene. ah youth...
that is a very valid reason to get sat radio....you can hear so many bands that never hear the lght of day in the commercial radio world I siriusly love my Sirius radio in the old days that many of the albums you see mentioned here were released, you pretty much had to buy them and hope for the best...or if you were really lucky, you had friends that already had them. today...its great....especially if you have access to the newsgroups...you could download songs from each album you want to sample and determine if you like it. even better....since many of these older albums are out of print and hard to find...you could even get them complete that way.
