top 23 prog rock rekkids (blame M Sinker esq for this....)

anglagard i was already looking for; gryphon too i spose tho i long phorgot to actually LOOK look

(ps 23 not a number as kate m'boom will testify)

beside it is now the trendy thing to stress inexpertness: authority = uncool

(also: heh, padgett to thread!)

"The black queen chants the funeral march/the cracked brass bell will ring/to summon back the fire witch/to the court of the (drum roll, huge mellotron break) Crimson Kiii-iii-i-i-ing (etc)

Once I saw Pete Sinfield on telly being asked what a "Prism Ship" was, and how one could "Taste it's wind" (this from the above number also) his deadpan reply - "we used to take a lot of acid". Jon Anderson's lyrics also perplexing. (BTW I would poss add "Olias of Sunhillow" to the above list. Paul Stump's spiel on it in "The Music's all that Matters" is OTM IMO) However, prog lyrix at worst still nowhere near as bad as worst britpop lyrix. Time 4 bed, I think. Later U all....

Henry Cow/Slapp Happy - Desparate Straights

Gong - You (or even Shamal)

666 - aphrodite's child
cottonwoodhill - brainticket
music to eat - hampton grease band

barring mansun and high tide i am now familiar with all of norman's suggestions, what a difference 20 years makes eh

singing in king crimson still the primary barrier, this is now unlikely to change i feel

those high tide albums are pretty crazed

vocals are a big part of why i avoided prog in general for many years

high tide is godlike, what a band

way heavy

Also featured Simon House, later of Hawkwind, although I think he failed Hawkwind's requirement to be a worse musician than Dave Brock so had to go.

yeah they definitely feel more like a heavy rock/heavy psych vibe to me than prog I guess, that makes sense there's a Hawkwind connection

imprtant fact: simon house toured with bowie and plays on LODGER (the best bowie LP)

Boz Burrell's singing on Crimson's Islands is more approachable and less stentorian than Lake's or Wetton's. So is Gordon Haskell's on Lizard, but it's also thin and quavery.

It's nice to see Gryphon mentioned in the original post; perhaps because they were composers before they were a rock band, there are some genuinely beautiful melodies and harmonic passages on Red Queen to Gryphon Three. This in contrast to a lot of the lesser-known prog bands, who could imitate the styles of the big-name groups but didn't bring much originality to their compositions.

I first saw Simon House credited with violin on Gentlemen Take Polaroids by Japan. Later, I noticed he played on Quark, Strangeness and Charm, meaning I got into Hawkwind via Japan. He's also on the Third Ear Band record mentioned above.

Putting in a good word for IQ, the best of the 80s prog revival bands. They used to encore with 'Sweet Transvestite' inc. the singer in full Frank-n-Furter drag, which isn't something you got with the likes of Pendragon.

yeah IQ are exactly what I hoped neoprog would sound like. they're still making quality material too, all five albums they did in the 21st Century are amazing

Is the band It Bites any good? A scritti politti fan raced about them to me once but I’m a little scared.

raved not raced

I've got their first album (The Big Lad in the Windmill) and it's a lot of fun, kinda close to Invisible Touch though there's much less filler. all the songs were stuck in my head at some point. it's not really proggy at all. I'm pretty curious what their later records sound like.

I bought that It Bites album, and said elsewhere "they were a combination of Go West and 80s Yes" (aside from a funky Prince pastiche); the only thing I liked was a 30 second acoustic guitar instrumental at the end. Aside from some flashy guitar/keyboard dueling and fancy layered harmonies, they're even less prog than Marillion.

frogbs, the second album, 'Once Around The World' is the best It Bites record, and has the most progressive touches, but still very much in that rather 80s fashion in a way that you could draw easy parallels with late Genesis or A-ha (or yeah, maybe even Go frickin West) The keyboard and drum sounds are especially of their time, but it's really exuberant and a little eccentric.

My fondness for it is lasting purely because I grew up listening with it but gimme that over the dowdy 'Script From A Jester's Tear' any day.

If you like this track you'll get along with the rest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWTPy8lsrDw

I didn't like them, but I'll agree that they are "exuberant".

My fondness for it is lasting purely because I grew up listening with it but gimme that over the dowdy 'Script From A Jester's Tear' any day.

well, yeah. Script for a Jester's Tear does have the excellent "Garden Party" on it but overall it's kind of a poor album right? I always felt it was prog catered exclusively to weird teenagers. does still listen to this in the year 2021?

prog catered exclusively to weird teenagers

*cough*

As opposed to prog catered exclusively to men aged 50+?

Posting style was so weird in 2001.

Haven't heard IQ in several years, I seen a rave review for one of the solo albums, sounded interesting.

i can't deal with it bites or francis dunnery at all. tripe. I do like one Lonely Robot album.

Don't know anything about him. Lauryn Hill and Ian Brown credits are surprises.

he's done a bunch of session work, yeah, and is one of the other people rumored to be the new genesis vocalist before Ray Wilson (along with Kevin Gilbert).

Wow at High Tide. Really cool band. Guy sounds like Jim Morrison.