1.Prologue
In MUSIC & PARTIES #016, I wrote about how the explosive arrival of Jimi Hendrix in London sparked the rise of psychedelic rock and hard rock out of the British working class.
This column will be a survey of progressive rock (or prog rock), a subgenre that was forged by the British middle class out of the haze of psychedelic rock. Young musicians who had grown up listening to cultured genres like classical music and jazz steered rock away from its American blues roots and toward a distinctly European sound.
As I’ve covered in past columns, psychedelic rock was highly influenced by two albums: The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966) and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). These two epochal albums demonstrated that pop music could be elevated to the level of art—something to be consumed and considered seriously. Pet Sounds especially, which incorporated orchestral arrangements, experimental instruments, and sound effects, could even be considered a progenitor of prog rock, a genre that fuses rock with classical music.
That being said, the music purveyed by bands like The Beach Boys and The Beatles were love songs, or meditations on simple dichotomies like “war vs. peace". Even at their most inaccessible, they produced music for the masses. Prog rock musicians, on the other hand, strived to make not love songs but artistic statements and lyrical epics—sprawling, multi-part pieces that more resembled literature or cinema than pop. Many songs were upwards of 20 minutes long and took up entire sides of vinyl records. They were not designed for radio play; instead, they were meant to be enjoyed on a record player in its entirety. And they were not intended for smaller bar-like venues but for concert halls and arenas.
In this column I will go over five progressive rock bands to know, each of which rose above the pack, either literally or figuratively, through concept albums and stadium-filling onstage bombast. How did prog rock develop out of the U.K.? And how was the genre seen in the U.S. and Japan?
2.King Crimson and the Prog Rock Manifesto
First up is King Crimson, the band that released progressive rock’s defining manifesto.
King Crimson grew out of a psychedelic pop band centered on guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles, which had released one album that was met with positive critical reviews but little commercial recognition. In 1968, looking to pursue a more avant-garde sound, they recruited multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, lyricist Peter Sinfield (who later also handled King Crimson’s lighting system), and bassist Greg Lake, cementing King Crimson’s first lineup. At the suggestion of McDonald, the band began to incorporate a Mellotron, an electro-mechanical organ that generated an eerie, orchestral-like sound. The instrument would later become a staple of progressive rock.
King Crimson made its stage debut in July 1969 at a free concert in London organized by the Rolling Stones. In October that same year they released In the Court of the Crimson King, widely considered to be progressive rock’s first true artistic statement. While most rock music at the time was strongly influenced by the blues and R&B, King Crimson minimized the blues influence and instead incorporated elements of classical music and jazz. The album was seen as “daring" and marking the emergence of a distinctly European rock sound.
In the Court of the Crimson King
King Crimson’s first studio album reached #5 on the U.K. album chart and 28th on the U.S. album chart. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 2nd on its list of the “50 Greatest Progressive Rock Albums of All Time”.
The lead track, “21st Century Schizoid Man", is a seven-minute song that combines jazz-rock with elements of what would later come to be called heavy metal. The lyrics reference the Vietnam War and foreshadow the heavy toll the quagmire would take on American soldiers and American society as a whole; it suggests that America would go into the 21st century without purpose, as a shell of its former self. It is considered one of the seminal tracks of progressive rock.
After touring the U.K., the band would embark on a U.S. tour. However, the toil of the road would begin to get to McDonald and Giles, who had also began to harbor reservations about the direction of the band’s sound. They would soon decide to leave the group. After an interim period when the band was without a leader, Fripp would assume a leadership role, and the band would further meld classical chamber music and jazz influences on its subsequent work.
In 1972, Fripp would recruit avant-guard percussionist Jamie Muir, former Yes drummer Bill Bruford, violinist David Cross, and others to take the band’s sound in a heavier, more experimental direction. This lineup’s first release would be 1973’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, an album which saw the Mellotron take a back seat to Cross’s violin and Muir’s exotic-sounding percussion, which incorporated chimes, bells, musical saws, and various found objects.
Larks’ Tongues in Aspic
King Crimson’s fifth studio album reached #20 on the U.K. album charts and #61 on the U.S. album charts.
King Crimson would continue to push its sound in a more experimental, complex, heavy direction through a series of different lineups, but the one constant presence was guitarist Robert Fripp. Fripp’s parents got him an acoustic guitar for his tenth birthday; by 11 he had learned to play rock and roll, and by 13 he was playing jazz. At college, he studied economics and political history, and spent his time listening to rock acts like the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, as well as classical composers like Béla Bartók and Antonín Dvořák. Due to his influences, his guitar playing is more grounded in classical music and jazz than it is in blues and R&B, lending him a distinct sound that set him apart from other British guitarists. What’s more, when performing live, he would play seated on a stool rather than standing up.
Fripp is regarded as a guitarist’s guitarist, and King Crimson is likewise regarded as musicians’ musicians. They shunned pop music trends and pursued a more musically challenging path, pioneering progressive rock in the process.
3.Pink Floyd: The Band that Transcended the Genre
If King Crimson was the band that put forth the progressive rock manifesto—its goal to elevate rock music into a higher form of art—it was Pink Floyd that fully realized that goal with Dark Side of the Moon.
Pink Floyd was formed in 1963 by Roger Waters (bass), Nick Mason (drums), and Richard Wright (keyboards)—who were all studying architecture at a London college—and Waters’ childhood friend Syd Barrett (guitar). They initially played covers of R&B songs at small venues around London, but gradually began to incorporate long instrumental passages and jazz influences. Barrett began to write original material, which gradually veered toward psychedelic rock after his first experience with LSD in 1965. In August 1967, the band released its debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and became one of the U.K.’s leading psychedelic rock bands.
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Released in 1967, Pink Floyd’s debut album was made under the leadership of Syd Barrett. Barrett wrote eight of the eleven songs on the album, resulting in a psychedelic rock sound. Due to Barrett’s increasing intake of LSD through the album’s recording sessions, he became increasingly detached and unreliable. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album 347th on its list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Following the release of the album, Barrett’s LSD addiction would begin to hamper his involvement with the band, and guitarist David Gilmour was brought on in 1968 to “cover" for Barrett, who would still end up leaving the band later that year. The addition of Gilmour and the exit of Barrett would steer the band in a more progressive direction. Waters would take on lyrical and conceptual duties, while Gilmour’s unique guitar sound and singing voice would become the heart of the band’s sound.
It was during this transitional period that Pink Floyd would develop the distinctive ethereal sound that it is best known for. By making use of a range of innovative sound effects, it created a sound that gave you the feeling of drifting through the outer reaches of space; to put it another way, although Pink Floyd shifted to progressive rock, its ethos remained psychedelic in that its music would always take you on a “trip". One of its seminal pieces during this period was “Atom Heart Mother", the sidelong title track from its 1970 album, which incorporates strings, brass instruments, and a choir.
Pink Floyd’s transitional period would come to a close with Dark Side of the Moon, its 1973 magnum opus that tackled themes like conflict, greed, time, death, and mental illness. The album cover, which was designed by English graphic designer Storm Thorgerson, is one of the most iconic images in rock. The album was both a critical and commercial success, bringing the band global renown and bestowing upon its four members fame and fortune. Ironically, the album’s most commercially successful track, “Money", is a humorous look at greed and consumerism.
Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd’s eight studio album has sold upwards of 50 million copies, and was ranked 43rd on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
Pink Floyd became the most commercially successful of all of the bands that purveyed inherently anti-commercial progressive rock, and also boasts the largest and widest fan base of any of the bands I’ve written about in this column. And while American music critics (and later, general rock fans) derided progressive rock as empty grandeur, Pink Floyd has always managed to exist on a higher plane.
The main thing that sets Pink Floyd apart from its prog rock peers is that it did not experiment with sound effects and innovate musical ideas for their own sake—it did so merely as a means of realizing its own sound and musical vision. It did not seek to show off its musicianship; instead, it pursued a universality that spoke to a wide audience.
What’s more, while many prog rock bands wrote increasingly abstruse lyrics centered on fantasy and sci-fi themes, Roger Waters’ lyrics have always been more delicate and empathetic, philosophical ponderings on the human condition. Gilmour’s guitar playing, meanwhile, is characterized by playing fewer notes to maximum effect, rather than playing as many notes as fast as possible for no purpose other than to show off. (Gilmour has admitted in interviews that his fingers are not that quick; some hardcore prog rock fans argue that Pink Floyd, lacking a true instrumental virtuoso, is technically not a progressive rock band.)
Waters’ sensitive lyrics and Gilmore’s melancholic guitar produced another progressive rock classic: 1975’s Wish You Were Here. The central track, “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”, is split into two halves that bookend the album. The song is said to be a tribute to Syd Barrett.
The album is a somber reflection on everything the band’s four members had lost and had to sacrifice on their way to achieving fame and fortune with their previous album, Dark Side of the Moon. Waters also tackles themes like alienation and expresses his disenchantment with the greed and commercialism of the music industry. As this album demonstrates, what set Pink Floyd apart was its penchant for self-reflection and self-awareness.
Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd’s 1975 studio album reached the #1 spot on both the U.K. and U.S. album charts, and was ranked 211st on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
4.The Prog Rock Supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer
After King Crimson bassist Greg Lake and The Nice keyboardist Keith Emerson hit it off after jamming together during a soundcheck at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, they decided to form their own group. They initially invited drummer Mitch Mitchell, formerly of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, to join the group, but ended up going with Carl Palmer from the British rock band Atomic Rooster.
The defining trait of ELP is the presence of Emerson, whose virtuosity on the keyboard attempted to usurp the role of guitar as the leading instrument of rock. By bringing classical music influences into rock, Emerson attempted to elevate it to art of a higher order. With technique, blinding speed, and exuberant stage presence, he turned prog rock from something to be listened to in your garage to a force that shook entire stadiums. The trio’s self-titled first album ends with “Lucky Man", which itself ends with a Moog synthesizer solo.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
ELP’s debut album reached #4 on the U.K. album chart and 18th on the U.S. album chart.
ELP’s breakthrough is considered to be its second album, Tarkus, released in 1971. The title track is a 20-minute-plus suite (that took an entire side of an LP record) that tells the story of a half-armadillo half-tank creature that wreaks havoc above ground before ultimately returning to the sea.
Tarkus
ELP’s second album was a massive hit, reaching #1 on the U.K. album chart, and #9 on the U.S. album chart.
After seeing an orchestral performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition", Emerson was inspired to adapt the piece for ELP. The trio’s performance at Newcastle City Hall in March 1971 was released as the live album Pictures at an Exhibition. It was a hit, reaching the top 10 on both the U.K. and U.S. album charts. In other words, ELP achieved the impossible: an album of classical-inspired music gatecrashing the top 10 on the American pop music charts.
Pictures at an Exhibition
This ELP album was released in November 1971. It reached #3 on the U.K. album charts and #10 on the U.S. album charts.
In 1974, ELP headlined a rock music festival called California Jam alongside hard rock band Deep Purple. It’s set, the last one of the festival, was legendary. At one point, Emerson sat down at a grand piano, which suddenly floated up into the air and began spinning end-over-end while he was playing. You can see footage of the stunt on the Beyond the Beginning DVD, which compiles a series of ELP live performances. The sight of a California crowd going wild over Emerson and his piano somersaulting through the air is truly a sight to behold.
However, due to numerous finger injuries and a broken nose, the over-the-top stunt would be a part of the ELP live show for only a short while. Greg Lake later revealed in an interview that the piano had been gutted in order to make it light enough for the stunt; Emerson had been pretending to play. Prog rock is often criticized for being dazzling but empty, and self-indulgent, and Emerson’s piano stunt epitomizes that sentiment better than anything.
