Quote:
Originally Posted by DriveYourCarDownToTheSea
I think at this point maybe we're talking about degrees of Prog: Bands like Yes and ELP could probably be classified as, like, Ultra Prog whereas bands like Genesis are more like Prog Lite. In my book bands like Genesis and Pink Floyd are only somewhat Proggy. And I get that some people aren't into the more Ultra Prog style of stuff even if they like the other kinds of Prog.
But it seems a bit harsh to me to call stuff "wankery" just because it's got a lot of lengthy instrumentals?  I mean, a Rachmaninoff piano concerto is a long and elaborate instrumental whose main purpose is to let the musician show off. So why can't Rock musicians do that too?  |
Okay well now we have to fall out. Prog ****ing lite? Genesis were one of the bands who bloody created prog, along with Yes and ELP and so forth. No way will I take that. Prog lite my arse. And seriously? Comparing a prog instrumental to a classical concerto? Now come on. Did I ever say I hated instrumentals? I'm a fan of Vangelis and Carbon Based Lifeforms, and love most post-rock. I love instrumentals. But - and here's the important bit you for some reason seem to have missed - instrumentals that GO somewhere! Most of the stuff I labelled wankery is just that: it's pointless, directionless (to me) noodling so someone can say "look at how good on the guitar/keys/bass/insert as appropriate I am". If someone writes a piece of music that I can't follow or see any real structure in, and it seems nothing more than an exercise in smugness and showoffery, yes, that's wankery to me. Odd, some may say: thought all prog was wankery? But I can't point to a single instance of wankery in the bands I enjoy. Not off-hand anyway, and certainly not with Genesis. Okay, the ****ing Brazilian on
Invisible Touch probably is, but that album is pretty much ****e anyway. Hardly prog at all. Genesis know how to write songs and don't/didn't have to bolster up their egos with solo pieces that showcase their own talents and have little if any other value.
Genesis? Prog lite? Fight me. This actually smacks of more like prog snobbery to me. Oh, you don't understand REAL prog. Well once again I say, I know what I like, and Yes just don't do it for me. Nevertheless, I don't condescendingly relegate them to some made-up sub-sub-genre of prog because they play differently. Genesis deserve more respect than that.
Look, I don't like Yes, at least, early Yes. Deal with it. I'm not going to keep arguing the toss and try to justify my dislike of them. Maybe something here will click, I don't know. But overall I think you can generally keep your seventies Yes and I'll have the eighties and possibly later. And ABWH.
I've no wish to denigrate any of the albums; these are merely my own impressions and what I hear. But to label bands who are prog icons but who don't measure up to some superior idea of what prog is as prog lite is simply just not on. At all.