Running out of superlatives this week. That superbly florid title: "PROGMETHEUS UNBOUND a provisional cartography of progward tendencies through the last 40 years of music; a prototype taxonomy of prog substyles, prog-adjacent musics, and post-1976 prog sprog genres", set the tone for Simon's own hilarious and incisive prog missive.
Somewhere 5 minutes into the khaki jungle I realised I'd long lost sight of the gargantuan Blissblog links list. Yet the position of the browser's scroll bar led me to assume there were further delights. The joy of the work comes as one realises how Prog's spores, it's creepers and roots have continued to unfurl unchecked down the ages. I couldn't find a single misplaced example, and too many highlights to mention (though here's one which I loved; on Paul Weller whose Prog tendencies are "Dadrock-stifled and innately mod-restrained." Brilliant). Tremendously weird to consider that the progroll often ressembles a litany of what music has mattered in these intervening decades. Certainly dance music has done a great job in disinfecting the genre.
Reynolds has accurately nailed the problem with the whole anti-Prog angle, that it has tarred so many great achievements. So many invaluable contributions were "damned by proximity." Certainly this applies to the selection of records I put together which seem, as I've already reflected, distinctly un-Progg-ish. I've sent Simon some morsels to contribute towards the feast, and for once I've decided to shut my mouf and not post them here. What a splendid bit of fun I must say!
Posted by Woebot at October 23, 2003 06:10 PM