Overview of Prog

[Rook]

Imagine you had a friend who revealed that they had no idea what Prog was. After the spluttering and shaking of head in disbelief, you undertake to educate them. "But wait," they say."I am just about to go on a long road trip. Give me ten albums that will educate me about this Prog stuff".

What albums do you give them, and why?

[owen]

If he's an Oz rocker 10 albums of Kylie. If he's a Kylie fan 10 of AC/DC. Stick a copy of sergeant pepper and Milliontown in and you're sorted

[lyn]

Imagine you had a friend who revealed that they had no idea what Prog was. After the spluttering and shaking of head in disbelief, you undertake to educate them. "But wait," they say."I am just about to go on a long road trip. Give me ten albums that will educate me about this Prog stuff".

What albums do you give them, and why?

When is your friend leaving?
Is the vehicle fitted with a record player?
Will the sleeves get damp on the trip?

[owen]

If he has only got a record player he's stuffed because I've only got cd's and downloads

[Rook]

Maybe up there you use "album" specificaly to mean a vinyl record, but elsewhere it is used to denote a collection of songs. An album can be released on Vinyl, CD, Cassette, download, 8 Track, Minidisk etc. For example: http://www.apple.com/au/itunes/charts/albums/

album  (ˈælbəm)

— n
1.    a book or binder consisting of blank pages, pockets, or envelopes for keeping photographs, stamps, autographs, drawings, poems, etc
2.    one or more CDs, cassettes, or long-playing records released as a single item
3.    a booklike holder containing sleeves for gramophone records
4.    chiefly  ( Brit ) an anthology, usually large and illustrated

[C17: from Latin: blank tablet, from albus  white]

[owen]

Will the sleeves get damp on the trip?

Not if they use an umberella.

Rook, does this mean the Beatles White Album is a tautology?

[Mikey]

In a moment of madness I'll go for a strait answer.

Every 3rd album that was on Jem's list when he researched prog.
It spawned Milliontown 

[owen]

Wuss

[Mikey]

Wuss

OK then

Hemispheres - Rush, reason La Villa Strangiato
Triology - ELP, one of my first, if not the first prog album
Wish you were here - Pink Floyd, longest chord in the history of prog
Live at the Rainbow - Focus, Hocus Pocus still alive today

[Rook]

Here's mine:

*Pink Floyd - The Wall. The grand daddy of concept albums (not the first, I'll admit, but pretty definitive IMHO)
*Yes - Close to the Edge. Or Fragile. Or Relayer. But Probably CTTE.
*Jethro Tull - Aqualung. Demonstrates some of the folk leanings in Prog nicely.
*Rush - Moving Pictures. Look, people on the American continent can do it too!
*Dream Theater - Images and Words. The album that launched a million "me too" Prog Metal bands
*Cynic - Focus. Death Metal plus Mahavishnu Orchestra equals technical brilliance.
*Periphery- Periphery. To cover the modern Djenty end of prog.
*Marillion - ooh, what to pick. Would like to pick both a Fish and a Hogarth album to cover bases, but... I'll go with Brave, 'cause it is a corker and a personal fave.
*Symphony X - The Odyssey. Pantera meets Malmsteen meets Queen, and at a pinch it can give a nod to the Power Metal regions of Progdom.
*Frost* - The Rockfield Files. A nice collection of songs from everyone's fave band

Blimey, it seems a bit wrong to not be including any King Crimson or Genesis, and Neoprog got a bit of a short shift there; no IQ, Arena, Saga, Pallas. Also seems wrong to miss Fates Warning, who were just as influential to early Prog Metal as Rush and Dream Theater. But I think I at least got most of the flavours of Prog covered in a somewhat accessible manner.

[Rook]

Every 3rd album that was on Jem's list when he researched prog.

I don't suppose such a list is extant?

[lyn]

Maybe up there you use "album" specificaly to mean a vinyl record, but elsewhere it is used to denote a collection of songs. An album can be released on Vinyl, CD, Cassette, download, 8 Track, Minidisk etc. For example: http://www.apple.com/au/itunes/charts/albums/

album  (ˈælbəm)

— n
1.    a book or binder consisting of blank pages, pockets, or envelopes for keeping photographs, stamps, autographs, drawings, poems, etc
2.    one or more CDs, cassettes, or long-playing records released as a single item
3.    a booklike holder containing sleeves for gramophone records
4.    chiefly  ( Brit ) an anthology, usually large and illustrated

[C17: from Latin: blank tablet, from albus  white]

No, I was  just teasing  Up here we sometimes call it "taking the p*ss"!
Still working on my list...

[BrendanGee]

List by year of release:

• King Crimson - Red (1974)
• Genesis - A Trick of the Tail (1976)
• Rush -  Power Windows (1985)
• Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From A Memory (1999)
• Frost* - Milliontown (2004)
• Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet (2007) (Alt. Choice is Deadwing)
• It Bites - The Tall Ships (2008)
• Karnivool - Sound Awake (2009)
• Periphery - Periphery II (2012)
• Big Big Train - English Electric: Full Power (2013)

It's so difficult to make a list that doesn't exclude really commendable bands/albums.
With prog being so much about changing things going forward you could make the list using just one prog band alone and it would probably still work.

[owen]

Oh, alright

Sergeant Pepper: Beatles
Close to the edge: Yes
The hounds of love: KB
Remedy Lane: Pain of Salvation
Milliontown: *
Moving pictures: Rush
Picture: Kino
Crime of the century: Supertramp
In Absentia: Porcupine Tree
Seconds Out (is that cheating?) : Genesis

So no Tull or ELP. I'll change my mind in the morning

[lyn]

Fruupp - Modern Masquerades
Hawkwind - Hall of the Mountain Grill
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti
Steve Hillage - Green
Barclay James Harvest - Octoberon
Rush - Grace Under Pressure
Twelfth Night
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
Frost* - Experiments in Mass Appeal
DS - RPM

That'll do for today! It will probably change by tomorrow...