Saturday, July 11, 2015

Prog Rock - Good Hair!


Yes, well, "Prog Rock" has been on my mind lately. I think it's because we have been binge-watching "Game of Thrones." It's the show where, as an acquaintance said, "everyone dies." Yes. And any character that shows a hint of innocence or happiness, gets squashed, humiliated, beheaded, raped, skewered, disfigured, burned, dismembered, hanged, or punished in some grim, and very dramatic manner.

We are talking very charismatic, beautiful, and talented actors, most with British or Australian accents, enduring all the slings and arrows of an outrageous fortune. For some reason, it's all quite entertaining. I mean, why is it entertaining? Maybe there's something enjoyable about watching young, beautiful, perfectly proportioned people with better hair than you, suffer terribly?

Why Prog Rock? Many of the male characters look and dress like Prog Rock musicians from the late 70's. I see members of Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Rush transported to the lands of George R. R. Martin. Prog Rock refugees, teleported to another time and place.

So I was happy to stumble upon Rolling Stones "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time." Seems so "top of mind." Maybe I'm not the greatest prog rock fan. I have only owned and played 10 of these albums.

But their #1 is definitely my #1 - Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." In fact, I just played the thing in it's entirety, earlier this week. I do think it's a flawless masterpiece. One of the greatest albums of all time. 

So I'm with the critical consensus on that one, although if pressed I might say that Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," is actually my favorite. I also own and enjoyed Genesis, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Emerson Lake & Palmer. But I missed most of the others on the list. But you know, for sure, almost all of these bands had great hair, and they could play their instruments. And many of these albums were "concepts." Mind-bending, heady stuff! And pretty damn entertaining too.