Rock's Silver Age 2: Progressive

Years: 1969 - 1976

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

Let's move on to the second part of this fascinating Silver Age, but to define it, we have to go back to the summer of 1967. As a result of all the drugs our beloved Rock took in the midst of the hippie ferment, the poor guy was left with a serious personality problem. Imagine Syd Barrett with his fledgling Pink Floyd on some TV show, where while they were recording, Syd would remain motionless, or do something outrageous, and when they turned off the cameras to scold him, he would play like never before in his life... Well, something like that happened to Rock. Around 1968, after his umpteenth overdose, doctors identified signs of multiple identity disorder, and far from treating the condition, taking medication, and quitting drugs, Rock continued to increase the excesses that worsened this neuralgic state... Thank heavens. Thus, at night, he would go out on his Harley, wearing a leather jacket, an old-fashioned leather jacket, and sunglasses, to cause havoc, listening to the music of Deep Purple, Steppenwolf, and the Guess Who, among others, as we detailed in the first part, which deals with Blues, Hard Rock, and Roots. Shortly after, this fondness for the night and violence would intensify, and the sound would become faster, darker, and more powerful, giving rise to metal; but we'll analyze this era separately.

​

 

The point is that while at night our beloved Rock developed a fondness for speed, aggressive sounds, distortion, and incendiary solos, during the day, it began to develop another, equally fascinating side. It all emerged from psychedelia, in which some bands began to experiment with symphonic rock. Those long symphonic suites weren't yet being created; they were more like orchestrations that adorned songs, such as "Ruby Tuesday" and "Eleanor Rigby." Later, bands emerged that fleshed out the idea and began to add elements of classical music in a more prominent role, not simply as a background. Thus, in 1968, the Moody Blues released "Nights in White Satin," with masterful orchestration unlike anything ever seen in rock. Procol Harum, on the other hand, didn't usually include a full orchestra; they generally used keyboards and piano (both at the same time) to create baroque sounds, and with arrangements heavily influenced by classical music, such as "Repent Walpurgis," "A Whiter Shade of Pale," "Salty Dog," or "Homburg." Symphonic rock is more of a resource that has been used even in metal (thank goodness, even Alex Lora's Tri used it) than a genre per se; However, it influenced several musicians to begin treating rock music in the same way as classical music, with the same seriousness. Many even studied ancient composition methods and harmonies, entered conservatories, and realized the endless possibilities that rock had if they took it out of the simplicity in which it had been trapped until then.

​

 

Folk is not associated with progressive music due to the simplicity of its musicalization, generally with acoustic guitar and simple arrangements. However, its contribution to the nascent genre was lyrical, as folk music was always more concerned with creating lyrics with substance, often laden with social content, sometimes cryptic lyrics, but generally charged with great poetic beauty. Progressive music attempted to follow that same line, moving away from simple themes, seeking complexity in the stories told, engaging the listener, occasionally making strong critiques, or even taking a central theme for the compositions of an entire album. Concept albums are not exclusive to progressive music. The Beatles had used it tepidly with Sgt Peppers, the Moody Blues in their Days of Future Passed, and The Who's Sell Out, who later took the idea to the extreme to create the great Rock Opera, Tommy. However, progressive bands would later use this element extensively to create albums centered around a single theme, such as Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Yes' Tales of Topographic Oceans, Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick, or Genesis' Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, to name a few.

​

 

From the hard rock camp, musicians also made their contribution, a sign that despite the genre's inception, the two major currents that were beginning to form in '68 and '69 were not at odds. This was Jeff Beck, who released Beck's Bolero on his debut, Truth. As its name suggests, the song was based on Ravel's Bolero with rock instrumentation and even featuring Jones and Page, but respecting the classic format of the original and entirely instrumental. Finally, another influence on the genre was the avant-garde musicians of the mid-1960s, who tried to take music to new heights with intricate experimentation, such as the Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, and the Mothers of Invention.

 

​

Like the vast majority of genres, progressive is difficult to define. Usually, a genre isn't perceived as such from its very inception, but rather after a few years have passed and a movement with common traits has emerged that can be labeled. The most widespread idea is that it's music that gradually shifts from a minimalist sound—be it acoustic, folk, or medieval—to a more complex musical composition, sometimes using the same riffs but adding richer instrumentation, accelerating tempos, and creating explosions with electric instruments, and occasionally with jazz and blues figures. Thus, it's a "progression" of one or more figures upon which the song is built, making it increasingly rich and complex, often using movements from classical music, creating songs in the form of a "suite." These pieces are characterized by being quite long, far exceeding the 5-minute barrier and often extending to over 20 minutes. This allows the musicians to engage in extensive improvisations, the songs to be filled with solos, and the musicians to develop an instrumental virtuosity that allows them to demonstrate their skills on their respective instruments, daring to experiment with very old, no longer used instruments or, alternatively, taking advantage of the latest technological advances in synthesizers, instruments, and effects of their own creation. Often, the melodic aspect takes a backseat; they are more concerned with substance than form, and this led to the genre not being exactly commercial. It was not easy for songs to be placed on the radio or for singles to reach the top of the charts, although progressive music gained enormous traction in the first half of the 1970s, and LPs did achieve great sales success among fans.

​

 

Another issue is the theatricality of live performances. For various reasons, whether due to the more retiring nature of the band members than hard rockers and metalheads, or the level of concentration required for their performances, or whatever, musicians rarely displayed explosiveness and expressiveness on stage. I'm referring more to jumping around like Daltrey, Jagger, or Plant. So much so that musicians like Pink Floyd began to use lighting, pyrotechnics, screens, and the like to draw the audience's attention and complement the music they played on stage. Progressive bands took these elements and made them increasingly expensive and complex, using the latest technology as they gained success and resources. Their shows became veritable shows of lights, lasers, giant screens with animations, explosions, drums floating over the audience, and so on. They often even dressed up or acted out the concept of the album they were presenting, like Genesis with "Foxtrot," and taken to the extreme by Floyd themselves with "The Wall." It was such an expensive show to demonstrate the band's alienation and separation from their audience that the group ended up losing money on that tour despite selling out stadiums. Of course, all of these aren't exclusive elements of Progressive, but together they more or less give a sense of the genre.

​

 

It's equally difficult to define the date it was born. Pink Floyd's slow, very slow transition from psychedelic to progressive doesn't allow us to fully identify the change. In my opinion, the band's mature sound begins to be seen until "Obscured by Clouds" and "Meddle," but they had previously worked on long progressions and suites with different passages or movements.

 

​

​

Thus, everyone agrees that King Crimson's In The Court Of The Crimson King was the first truly progressive album, and therefore, October 10, 1969 would be the official birth date of the genre. The group had been formed in 1968 by guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles, adding Greg Lake on bass and vocals, Peter Seinfield as lyricist and Ian McDonald on musical arrangements. The debut album is a gem, with a dark atmosphere, with a lot of improvisation, hints of acid jazz, inclusion of effects that were recorded for the first time, and long cuts and even fragments of songs with their own titles. After the success of the album, Giles and McDonald left the band due to personal differences, and Robert Fripp would take over as director. In fact, with the constant line-up changes, Fripp would be the only common factor in King Crimson's long life, pointing out that it is a workshop and a way of making music rather than a band itself. In The Court of the Crimson King would be a defining album, influencing numerous bands who realized the immense possibilities of musical experimentation. Even today, it remains considered a "cult" and a must-have for budding prog bands. Fripp, Lake, and Seinfield recorded In The Wake of Poseidon in 1970, their second album under the name King Crimson. However, Greg Lake left the band that same year due to disagreements with Fripp and joined Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer to form the trio Emerson, Lake & Palmer, or ELP to their ilk.

​

 

Jethro Tull is another of the founding bands. Ian Anderson was the only constant member since its founding in 1967, but Martin Barre added his unique guitar touch a year later. The rest of the members have come and gone with incredible speed. But this pair would create one of the most prolific duos in rock. While Jethro Tull is characterized by the sound of the flute, the styles and genres they play are very varied, not limited to prog, but adding nuances of folk, hard rock, baroque, and medieval music. They also reinvented themselves from time to time, surprising with their extravagant ideas, such as releasing a song that would cover an entire album, turning it not only into a hit, but into an iconic track of the genre.

​

 

Keith Emerson was already an outstanding keyboardist in The Nice, and they coincided on tour with Crimson, both bands in the midst of a crisis. The chemistry between Lake and Emerson was immediate during soundchecks, so they decided to leave their respective groups. Originally, they offered the drums to Mitch Mitchell, who was still with Jimmi Hendrix at the time. Mitch declined, but told Hendrix about the new band, as he was looking for new musical horizons as he felt The Experience was too limiting. Carl Palmer would eventually join on drums. Jimmi would tentatively join the band after the Isle of Wight festival as they both had prior commitments, but when he was about to join the trio as a guitarist to form a supergroup called HELP, he was found dead and the project never materialized, leaving us with one of the great questions in the history of rock: How would this supergroup have sounded with Hendrix's tremendous guitar playing? Or rather, how would Hendrix have sounded with such virtuosos around him? Emerson, Lake & Palmer's self-titled album would be released in November 1970 and was a commercial success thanks to "Lucky Man," which had a more accessible sound. Several of the other cuts were based on classical songs. The tour was spectacular and captured the public's attention, so ELP became a powerful band and led the progressive movement. The second album, 1971's Tarkus, would be a more difficult concept album, with elaborate sounds and side one featuring a huge multi-movement suite. Despite this, the album managed to reach number one; with their third album, Trilogy, the group established itself, and progressive music reached a worldwide boom.

​

 

Genesis was also formed in England by Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Chris Stewart, and Mike Rutherford. Their original name in 1968 was "From Genesis to Revelations," and under that title they released their first album, already featuring daring sounds, although immature for the band's later sound. After the release of Trespass, their second album, Phil Collins joined on drums and Steve Hacket on guitar, contributing to a more defined and mature style, already perceived in the 1971 album Nursery Crime, with which they began to attract attention for the musical complexity and the theatricality of their live performances, with stage and costume changes and the enormous personality of Peter Gabriel as frontman. This period would be fraught with great creativity.

 

​

Yes also started in 1968, also in England. And they also underwent lineup changes before finally establishing themselves. Vocalist Jon Anderson met bassist Chris Squire in a bar, and they realized they had similar experimental musical ideas. They recruited Peter Banks on guitar, Bill Bruford on drums, and Tony Kaye on keyboards for the first lineup. In 1969, they released their self-titled debut, which was a modest sales success but met with critical acclaim. The album featured a couple of CSN and Beatles covers, but also their own songs with a melodic style, sometimes leaning more toward pop, but also with notable jazz and experimental influences, making them sound rawer than Genesis, but less electronic than Pink Floyd. On their second album, Time and a Word, they incorporated an orchestra with quite a few Stravinsky touches, with the result that the guitars lost prominence, and Banks left the band, being replaced by Steve Howe. With Howe's notable contribution to the band's sound, they released The Yes Album in 1971, which would establish them worldwide for its epic themes and the masterful execution of all its members. After the world tour, Squire and Anderson sought to give the band a more ambitious direction, something that keyboardist Tony Kaye was reluctant to do, even refusing to trade in his Hammond for modern synthesizers. He left the band and Rick Wakerman joined at the insistence of Jon and Chris. With him, they formed the most virtuoso Yes lineup, and they released Fragile in late 1971, a masterpiece of instrumental performance. They definitively established themselves in the new style with Close to the Edge, after which Bruford left to join King Crimson, with Alan White taking his place.

Rush was formed in Ontario, Canada, in 1968 (Eureka, they're not British!!!) by Alex Lifeson (guitar), John Rutsey (drums), and Jeff Jones (bass). After several changes, the lineup released their debut album in 1974 with little success. The best-known lineup was formed in 1976, featuring Lifeson, Geddy Lee on keyboards and bass, and Neil Peart on drums. They are considered by many to be the most virtuosic band in history, thanks to the tremendous performances of each member and the ambitious nature of their late 1970s works, such as 2112.

​

 

Finally, among those I want to mention in this great first wave of progressive music, is Pink Floyd. This band stands out, as in their early days, led by Syd Barret, they were more focused on psychedelic and astral surfing. After Barrett's departure due to insanity and his replacement by David Gilmour, the band gained in execution (and lucidity) but lost its way for a good while, making albums with long, suite-like songs that are now considered prog by many. It seems to me that during this post-Barret era they wandered around with different ideas, never quite gelling, and it wasn't until Roger Waters took over the direction of the band and Gilmour finished honing that mathematical guitar style that the band entered progressive territory, from Meddle, through Dark Side of the Moon (considered by many (not me) as the pinnacle of rock history), Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall, already in the 80s. With the super success of Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, the band's status would become almost mythical and, in a way, would take over the role of dominant band that Led Zeppelin was gradually abandoning. 1973 would be a peak year for progressive music, a year dominated by bands from the genre that was already recognized as such, and which presented some of their best work. ELP would release the apocalyptic Brain Salad Surgery, Genesis their Selling England by the Punch, Yes the double conceptual album Tales of Topographic Oceans, and King Crimson released Larks' Tongues in Aspic, now with Bruford.

1974-75 would be a time to reap the rewards of several years, and progressive bands remained fashionable and in style. It was a time of experimental sounds, of breaking barriers, better and increasingly extended drum, bass, guitar, and keyboard solos, in addition to impressive world tours filled with special effects. In addition to the bands mentioned above, we could mention as "minor" progressive bands Supertramp, Jethro Tull, Pendragon, Alan Parson's Project, and The Soft Machine, among those that come to mind.

 

Between '75 and '76, something happened in the world that, overnight, made this powerful genre, which seemed like it would last a long time, fall out of fashion as quickly as it became fashionable. Partly due to the weariness of the public, who grew weary of intellectual music, enormous solos, extremely complex structures, convoluted themes, and the like; partly due to the flourishing of disco and punk, both genres serving as a kind of counterattack to progressive music, one superficial and frivolous, the other trying to return to three-tone garage rock, to the most basic sound of rock; and finally, due to internal problems, member changes, and fractures within the bands themselves.

​

 

ELP experienced internal tensions after the Brain Salad Surgery tour, which required a hiatus of more than three years. In '77, they returned with the album Works Vol. 1, which marked a setback in the band's sound and revealed a creative exhaustion. After the disastrous Works Vol. 2, the trio broke up.

​

 

During 1974, King Crimson also experienced significant friction that made even Fripp, Fripp himself, consider quitting. They finally released the album "Red" in 1975, and Robert realized he was King Crimson, so he decided to end the band or the project without even touring to promote the album.

​

Rick Wakerman also left Yes in '74, being replaced by Patrick Moraz, so the band lost some of its luster, and despite Wakeman's return in '77, Yes would not reach the heights it had already achieved.

​

 

Genesis also suffered the departure of Peter Gabriel, who had clashed with the other members and decided to pursue a solo career. Phil Collins took over as lead vocalist, and Bill Bruford joined the group as drummer. The band's sound would gradually become more commercial and move away from the progressive mastery they had achieved under Gabriel. They would achieve greater commercial success, but many of their former fans rejected the new sound.

​

 

Pink Floyd, on the other hand, would have their best years starting in 1975, with the most daring, experimental, and perfect albums of their discography. Wish You Were Here and Animals, one a (hypocritical) requiem dedicated to Syd Barrett, and the second a conceptual masterpiece based on the book "The Farm." After this album, the band was fractured by the dictatorship imposed by Waters. They would record The Wall, a double album where the cracks were already noticeable and the musical and conceptual quality declined. They would also record Final Cut, more as Roger's support band than as a real band. After the album, there would be a legal dispute over the name that would culminate in Waters's expulsion from the band, with Gilmour taking over as leader.

​

​

 

Thus, the glorious era of progressive music can be said to have spanned the period from 1969 to 1976, although it didn't completely die after that date. Several bands, including Pink Floyd, continued to achieve enormous success until the 1990s. In the 1980s, the synthesized sound would eventually bury the genre, although there were some comebacks, such as King Crimson and ELP (replacing Palmer with Cozy Powell). Yes and Rush continued to thrive, albeit without the mastery of their early works. In the 1990s, a new wave of prog would emerge and achieve considerable acclaim, among which Tool, Dream Theater, and many of us even consider Muse, stand out. However, the burst of creativity that marked the first half of the 1970s was never recovered.

​

 

After 1976, our beloved Rock had cooked its brains with so much intellectuality on the one hand and nocturnal savagery on the other. All it wanted was rebellion. He wanted to get back to basics, to forget about the virtuoso solos and the trappings of stadium concerts. He'd already experienced everything and given everything he could. Only one thing was missing: Anarchy! He wanted to die young…

 

​

By Corvan

Oct/19/2009

​

​

​

​

​