Script for "Prog-rock is not dead...it just smells funny."
...being a report submitted to National Public Radio in September,
1997, and again in November. It was rejected due to its running
time (too long) and the presence of ambient noise (crickets in the
background); however, the NPR spokesperson expressed an interest
in receiving more reports on the topic so stay tuned...
(Suggested intro: Progressive rock is a musical style that enjoyed
a considerable amount of popularity during the 1970's. Almost
anyone over the age of 40 remembers "Close to the Edge" by Yes,
and Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick". It may surprise you to
learn that the genre is still around. Three books on the subject
have been released by major publishers during the past year, and,
while the major record companies aren't lining up to sign contracts
with today's progressive rock artists, the style seems to be going
through something of a renaissance. Clay Gaunce [pronounced GAWNTS,
not GOWNTS], a progressive rock aficionado in Lexington, Kentucky,
offers this perspective on the re-emergence of progressive rock on
the popular music scene.)
(Excerpt from Genesis: "Watcher of the Skies" - 1972)
Frank Zappa once said, "Jazz is not dead. It just smells
funny." His comment came during a performance of the 15-minute-long
"Be-Bop Tango", released in 1974. At that time, popular music had
evolved from its formula of short songs with identifiable "hooks",
to long compositions...often instrumentals designed to showcase the
musicians' virtuosity. Sometimes called "art-rock" back then, it's
now more generally known as progressive rock, or, just prog-rock.
During the genre's classic period, roughly 1969 to 1979, it's
leading proponents were the British bands Yes; King Crimson;
Genesis; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and, Jethro Tull. With its
classical and jazz underpinnings, progressive rock was thought to
be a style with the sort of timeless qualities that would make it
last as a popular form of music. Of course, it didn't.
Music scholars are just now beginning serious studies of
prog-rock. John Covach, Associate Professor of Music at the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has written numerous
articles for the underground magazine, Progression, and co-edited a
forthcoming book entitled Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical
Analysis. I spoke with Covach at ProgDay '97, the annual prog-rock
festival held near Chapel Hill, where he explained that the decline
of prog-rock was precipitated by the advent of new wave, punk, and
disco music in the late 70's...
"A lot of people say, 'Well, by 1979, progressive rock
music was dead.' It wasn't really dead. It really kind of went
underground. There were still people doing that kind of music. It
just wasn't the same group of musicians. In the 80's you can see
two distinct trends: In England, the neo-progressive movement with
groups like Marillion, IQ, Pendragon, Twelfth Night, pretty much
working from the Gabriel-era Genesis mold; Marillion being the most
successful of those, charting a number of singles on the British
charts though never breaking through in the U.S."
(Excerpt from Marillion: "Jigsaw" - 1984)
"In the U.S., on the other hand, the influence of Yes,
Genesis, and the rest was not nearly as strong. Instead, what
you had were a lot of people who actually had art music composition
training, writing music that actively worked at blending modern
classical music with rock music. So groups like Birdsongs of the
Mesozoic get started. So, what happens toward the end of the 80's
is that there is a sort of movement that coalesces around what I
call these 'avant-prog' groups, both on the continent and in the
United States, and a kind of resurgence of interest in the original
70's prog; 'symphonic-prog', a lot of people call it. Add to that
the prominence of the Internet, the World Wide Web...home pages and
that kind of thing, and before you know it, lonely prog fans all
over the U.S. and Europe are able to connect with one another, and
these prog fests start to get going."
The headline act at this year's ProgDay festival was
violinist, David Ragsdale. David received his classical training
at the University of Tulsa and spent six years playing with the
group, Kansas, leaving that band quite recently to work on his
solo album, "David and Goliath"...
(Excerpt from David Ragsdale: "Bach Stabber" - 1997)
David has his own ideas on what happened to prog-rock, and
why it's receiving attention once again...
"It almost seems to me like when Genesis made their big
changeover to ultra-commercial, ultra-success and that sort of
thing, that the progressive rock movement just kind of...it didn't
die, but it just lost a whole bunch of steam. And I think just
recently it's starting to...I think people are getting tired of
bands that can't play their instruments. Really, I hope that's
what's going on because I'm sick of it. We've raised an entire
generation of kids that, you know, can't play the guitar. You feel
like going up to those guys and going, 'Hey, man, wouldn't you
rather be good at that?'"
Ragsdale's encore at ProgDay would likely have confused
many diehard rock fans. But the ProgDay crowd weren't your typical
rock fans...
(ProgDay '97 excerpt from "E-major Partite" by J.S. Bach)
Ragsdale later explained why he believes pop music fans and
the music press tend to ignore prog-rock...
"It's over their heads, to put it quite honestly. I mean,
that's not a fault, but it's an art of listening. And if you don't
listen and know what you're listening to...I mean, it's easy to
listen to (tempo #1) you know? But when you go (tempo #2) you know,
you get something in a different time signature and people are just
going, 'They're messing up.' Well, no, they're not. But if you
don't listen to enough of it, it can be difficult to listen to and
it can go right over your head. And you walk away worse for the
experience. But the more you listen to it, the more you start
going, 'Oh. I see what they're after.' And that's why you find
yourself often having to defend it because it can be difficult to
understand; because we don't have music education in the public
schools anymore, basically. If kids could learn how to listen; if
we gave them an alternative, maybe they wouldn't like some of the
stuff that they like today."
Another band that performed at ProgDay is Salem Hill. Carl
Groves formed the band in 1990 after receiving his masters degree
in composition from Middle Tennessee State University. While Salem
Hill's latest CD, "Catatonia", is musically very modern, Carl
Groves' approach to the lyrics is clearly influenced by the early
composers of prog-rock. For "Catatonia" is a concept album...
(Excerpt from Salem Hill: "Children Without Innocence" - 1997)
"I have no trouble, no problem, labeling Salem Hill as a
progressive band. I think, certainly, the music and the lyrical
depth that we strive for would, hopefully, get us into that train
of 'labeling', I guess. But I'm troubled by some of the
splintering already that is within the progressive community:
'the neo-progs are not as good as the retro-progs or the fusion-
progs.' This progs. That progs. It troubles me actually. It
seems like we're really striving as a collective to tell the public
that, 'Hey, there's some great stuff that's going to get you
thinking and get you feeling, and not just spoon-fed like a lot of
the mainstream music is.' And yet, within the ranks we're already
-- internally -- we're having some troubles already. And that
troubles me."
"Still, in all, do you think -- as objective as you can be
-- that you would say that there will pretty much always be a place
for progressive rock?"
"I think definitely. The progressive community, especially
the progressive fan, is loyal. I believe they're going to be
hungry for that. They're not going to let it go away."
So, prog-rock never went away. It continues to be
practiced by serious composers and musicians who believe rock music
can and, at least sometimes, should be an intellectual experience.
As Frank Zappa might have put it, progressive rock is not dead...
it just smells funny.
(Excerpt from Salem Hill: "Children Without Innocence" - 1997)
(Suggested outro: Clay Gaunce is a veteran of progressive rock
radio from the 70's, and currently produces a prog-rock program
for WRFL at the University of Kentucky.)
TOTAL RUNNING TIME = 8:45
©1997
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