Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock

It was only going to be a matter of time before a book dedicated exclusively to progressive rock would hit the market, and this book from Edward Macan was one of them. It’s easy to forget just how popular prog rock was back in the early 1970s, because of all the musical fads that would follow, and how difficult it is to find people into this music.

This book starts off with how the progressive rock scene was born. They tend to divide the prog categories. “Proto-Progressive” is one of the categories and refers to groups who released albums before 1969, a time when progressive rock was in its embroyonic form. Bands like Pink Floyd, The Nice, The Moody Blues, and Procol Harum get covered.

Then there’s the “Symphonic Progressive” section covering some of the big names: Yes, ELP, Genesis, Gentle Giant, etc.. And then there’s the “Canterbury” section, referring to such experimental jazz-influenced groups that usually emerged from the famous town in Kent, England by the same name. Such groups included Soft Machine, Caravan, Hatfield & the North, Gong, National Health.

The book includes a section dealing with the lyrics of progressive rock, because, unlike your typical, mundane, three minute R&B derived love song, the lyrics in prog rock often tends to be indecipherable, only because it dealt with matter on a much higher and more intellectual manner (and so that’s why love songs, for the most part, were the exception, rather than the norm in prog rock).

I enjoy how the book mentions that the lyrics, although often cloaked with heavy sci-fi, fantasy, and surrealistic overtones, were often protests against materialism, totalitarian societies, conformity, very much like the hippie ideal. There’s also a section on how the mainstream rock critics reacted negatively towards prog rock.

The book basically states that many of the critics felt very uncomfortable that these bands hardly sounded like the R&B-derived music that they’re so accustomed to. Regardless of the negativety spewed out by the rock critics, the public continued on buying such albums, leaving many to question the credibility of such magazines as Rolling Stone and Creem. The two rock critics that were more critical of prog rock were Dave Marsh and Lester Bangs.

My opinion is, prog rock was not those critics’ cup of tea, and I felt they should have left that genre well enough alone and had someone else working for those magazines review such albums.

The book also covers four progressive rock pieces, ELP’s “Tarkus”, Yes’ “Close to the Edge”, Genesis’ “Firth of Fifth”, and Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”. This is the part where Macan gets in to technical details, about how the songs go through many different changes, and a bunch of technical terms that are a bit over my head.

You can’t talk about the subject of prog rock without talking about the rise of punk rock and disco which brought on the decine of progressive rock. And that’s what Macan also covers here. My opinion about why punk and disco brought an end to prog rock in the late 1970s was people stopped taking pot and LSD and turned to harder drugs like cocaine.
Although I can’t generalize, there were plenty of prog rock fans who didn’t light up the bong once in a while.

There’s also a section in the book that covers related styles, that is jazz-rock, minimalism, and folk. These styles can’t be called progressive, although many prog rock bands incorporated them in to their music.

Macan also covers the state of prog after 1981, with the neo-progressive scene, and the “post-progressive” scene. He mentions how the changing technology from the old Moogs and ARPs of the 1970s gave way to flashier, newer digital synthesizers like the Yamaha DX-7 in the mid 1980s. He seems to suggest that the new technology wasn’t alway the most friendly to progressive rock, that’s probably why Yes and Genesis went the pop route in the 1980s.

I don’t expect everyone to believe everything presented in the book as there are always going to be subjects covered that not everyone would agree with. Also don’t buy this book expecting a huge discography of every prog rock band to ever pick up a guitar and Mellotron. They do include a discography, but it’s basically of bands covered in the book.

I am a bit bothered that Macan’s book covers mainly England, almost forgetting that the rest of Europe does have many great prog bands and albums to offer (just look at the reviews I do here). Yes, the book does mention the occasional Continental European, American, and even Latin American prog band, but basically it’s England. Of course, many of the most important prog bands came out of England, and it’s the country where prog originated, but it’s not the only country for prog as Edward Macan almost makes it sound like. Anyway, if you want to learn more about progressive rock, pick up this book.