I am an unabashed progressive rock devotee. This goes back to Pink Floyd’s “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” in 1967. My musical history is older than PF as I grew up in a house with The Dorsey Brothers, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and many other jazz greats from the Forties and Fifties. My first purchases were 45’s. Al Hirt, Sam the Sham & the Pharohs. My first albums were by the Monkees, Beatles, & the Rolling Stones. I loved them all, but there was something about those albums with longer cuts that I could not get enough. In many cases the extended length of the song could allow complexities that intrigued me as a listener, in other songs the extra time was wasted. Eventually, I was able to discern between great improv and boring doodling.
By the time I finished high school in 1969 Pink Floyd had been joined by Traffic, the Doors, Deep Purple, King Crimson, Led Zepplin, the Who, and others. By 1970 I was working (really just lounging) at Record Paradise in Hollywood. Even though I was not getting paid, the owners (Roger & Ollie) treated me well and introduced me to Sound Music Sales, the distributor where they purchased the albums for their store. Sometime in 1971 I started working at SMS and from there I went to a string of positions in the distribution end of the music industry until I went back to school in 1981.
From 1969 to 1975 I was exposed to many other bands including: Genesis, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Gentle Giant, Captain Beyond, Roxy Music, Yes, etc. Due to my employment in the record industry I was able to see all of these acts. Most memorable was Genesis at the Roxy, Jethro Tull and Yes at the Forum (not on the same bill), and Roxy Music at the Whiskey a Go-Go. Bands that I wished I had seen Arthur Lee’s Love, Camel, Caravan, and Rush. I don’t go to many concerts these days as an accident in the 70’s permanently damaged my ears and I do not want to further the descent into deafness. Given that, I’ve seen Porcupine Tree during their first 2005 (Deadwing) tour and more recently in September 2009 (the Incident tour).
Here is a list of albums I enjoy or have enjoyed. It is somewhat chronological, but new items can appear in a given year. Why? Let me give you an example. Anglagard’s “Hybris” was released in 1992. I did not hear it until 2006 (thank you Ori). Hybris will turn up in the 1992 list, not the 2006 list.
I have started to link albums on my list to ProgArchives. At this writing (09/02/2010) ProgArchives has reviewed over 29,000 albums by over 5500 bands. Even if you like only 2% of the bands that translates to 110 groups of musicians that will intrigue you. Might be worth your time.
1966 – 1975 (coming soon)
1976 – 1985 (coming soon)
1986 – 1995 (coming soon)
1996 – 2005 (coming soon)
To be Continued