Edmund Torpey (gee that's some seriously mid-seventies name) weighed in with praise for King Crimson's "Red" LP (though he too finds them patchy elsewhere). It occured to me, crikey this guy is coming at me from the otherside of some gaping cavern, the fact that we both dislike King Crimson wouldn't console us on a desert island where we would quickly be camping at opposing ends. Ed (who's clearly a hardcore dude) also opines in favour of British Jazz:
"I know you shouldn't try and compare like with unlike, but a lot of prog is found seriously wanting compared with this stuff (ie, in terms of musical invention - which surely should be a matter of pride for any progger). "
Ed provided me with a handy napkin map of the territory:
British Jazz/Prog Crossover figure Marc Charig.
Centipede's "Septober Energy"
Keith Tippett's Ark Project "Frames"
The Soft Machine's Third.
Ray Russell's CBS LPs
Hugh Hopper's "1984"
This is actually the very point, genuinely sophisticated classical structures and virtuoso playing, Prog makes me want to vomit. I'm with The Soft Machine (ahem, sort of, right up to the point at which Ayers and Wyatt debunk).
Old sparring partner Phil T on the other hand comes out fighting Henry Cow's corner:
"what about Henry cow, then??? everyone in this progosphere seems to want to live on the margins but disregard the most marginal of all. every single henry cow album is considerably more interesting, more succinct, more left field and more progressive than anything you've discussed."
Sure enough Henry Cow should have got a passing mention, but I'm embarrassed enough to admit that I can't stand them. I so desperately wanted to like "Legend" and "Unrest", those awesome covers, but once again straining to hold down my food when I hear the stuff. Leading me to conclude that when it comes to the thumbnail caricature of Prog, I'd happily never hear any; that my Prog selection was kind of as un-Proggy as I could reasonable make it BUT ALSO that there is more to the genre than the dominant stereotypes suggest. Ayers' solipsistic symphonies, Coyne's curmudgeonly non-blues, The Groundhogs uncomplicated rock, etc.
Both correspondents love The Hatfield and The North LP. What do I know eh! My own mind at the very least.
Posted by Woebot at October 19, 2003 01:07 PM