Introducing Prog Progress: A Blog Series in Many Movements, with the Return of the Fire Wizard Zelthor - Part 1

I want you to look up at the title of this post and think about it for a second. Done? Okay, now tell me: does it look pretentious to you? Overlong? Convoluted? Diluted by nonsensical fantasy influences? Yes? Good! Oh, what a lucky (wo)man you are, because you are about to rush into the genesis of a whole new blog series—a show that never ends, if you will, that will make you feel like you're in a roundabout of wind and wuthering, a dream theater not just of cinema shows but of mutes and musings and passion plays and beards and high hopes and even the Crimson King himself.

Okay, I'll stop. Thanks for indulging me in that. And if you didn't indulge me but just checked out during that last sentence, this might be a good time to see yourself quietly out the door, because what we're about to embark on is going to require a lot of indulging of strange whims. That's because with this post, I'm beginning a series where I track the history of progressive rock.

Those of you who aren't as interested in strange pop culture arcana as I am may be thinking, "What exactly is progressive rock, and why does it sound so much like a tax reform?" Well, that's a bit complicated to answer since what does and does not count as progressive rock is actually a point of some contention. So there's that. But broadly, "progressive rock" refers to a genre of music that aims to expand the sound of rock music beyond the traditional boundaries of the genre, often by infusing it with several non-rock techniques such as extended song lengths, elaborate lyrical concepts from literature and/or philosophy, odd time signatures, non-traditional instrumentation, and influences from classical music and jazz. This genre was first formed (and had its commercial peak) in the late '60s and early '70s around British bands like Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, the Moody Blues, and King Crimson, and these bands make up what is typically called the "golden" or "classic" age of progressive—or prog for short, which is maybe the only thing about the genre that's ever abbreviated—rock, with an entire subculture forming around these bands' music, psychedelic cover art, elaborate live shows, and righteous, righteous capes. These original bands either imploded (both artistically and commercially) at the end of the '70s or adapted into fleeter, poppier '80s incarnations, causing the genre to fade from the mainstream music scene, but through different artists, prog has maintained a strong semi-underground following that has continued to this day.

So that's progressive rock. And I love it. With a few exceptions, prog has never been very popular with critics, who tend to find the enterprise pretentious, unwieldy, and excessive. I won't deny that at times, it can be a style that courts silliness and even outright absurdity (allow me to introduce you to the Tarkus). But that's all part of the charm! I mean, Yes has an album (a double album, no less) that's based on a footnote in a Hindu autobiography, and that's definitely silly. It's also kind of awesome, too, in its own special, convoluted grandeur. That's the thing: as bizarre as this genre can get, it's also capable of some of the most epic, idiosyncratically beautiful music out there. It's this peerless concoction of high culture, low culture, paperback fiction, and utter unselfconsciousness that's unlike anything you can experience elsewhere, kind of like a strange, strangely endearing cousin you have who wears sweats and makes his own chain mail gloves and writes sonnets and talks about conspiracy theories and paints gorgeous landscapes.

I could talk about this sort of thing forever, and I will during this series. So here's the pitch:
-I'm going to run through the history of prog year-by-year, from its inception (which we'll say is 1967, for reasons I'll discuss when I write that post) to the present day.
-I'll do this by picking what I think is the most significant prog album from a year and reviewing it. Really, what this series will be is a succession of album reviews.
-I'll discuss one album per post, which means that I'll be discussing one year per post.
-For the sake of diversity, I will only discuss one album by a single artist—so while, for example, King Crimson may have multiple albums significant to the history of prog, I'll only be able to pick one. This might lead to some difficult choices (how on earth do you choose between In the Court of the Crimson King and Larks' Tongues in Aspic?), but I think it will lead to some interesting choices, too. Besides, you don't want to read a series where I only talk about King Crimson, do you? (do you? I'll do it, I swear!)
-Unlike the other two series I've done in the past, I plan on completing this series gradually over the course of several months or maybe even years instead of in a short burst of back-to-back posts. It won't occupy this blog completely; I'll do other, unrelated posts in between prog posts. Who knows how long or how diligently I'll work on this series? It'll just be something that occasionally pops up on here for fun.

And that's pretty much it! Honestly, I probably won't make any insights into the genre that others haven't already. This is just a diverting project I'll be tinkering with every once in a while. I don't have much of a long-term plan or schedule for the series; I'm not even sure of all the albums I'll review. I'm positive I don't already own all the albums, which means that economic hindrances may slow down this project somewhat. I fully expect this to be one of the more niche things I do on this blog, and that's okay. The purpose here isn't expediency or rigorous planning or popularity; it's more about me trying to learn something about some music I love, and my subsequent yammering to y'all about it. Hope at least someone likes it, but even if not, I'll have fun doing it.

I'll do plenty of yammering later on, so I'd better stop now. I plan on doing an introductory post on the antecedents of prog here shortly, and then I'll jump right into the reviews. As for now, though, I'll go ahead and wrap this up.

Until next time!