Quad Gods of Prog Rock (and some vintage concert shirts)

Any discussion regarding Progressive Rock (especially as an art form) is bound for disaster, particularly if you happen to be a musician, speaking of the subject with another musician. In such instances, it is better to have the conversation in a private setting, away from family and friends. It is also strongly recommended that both participants remain unarmed (as well as a considerable distance from any object that could conceivably be used as a weapon) and in general each participant should be respectively positioned at a distance of no less than five feet. In addition, such a topic can get pretentious, snooty, abstract and at times downright insulting. So why would I pick such a topic? Because everyone loves controversy. Well, that and the fact that there is some prog rock that I can handle and some that I just -- you get the idea.

Perhaps the obvious first choice is Rush -- the Canadian trio that names songs after fictional literary characters. Rush didn't really start out as a progressive rock band, things just kind of fell together that way. The late seventies were strange times and perhaps prog rock was simply an extension of hard rock's violent recoil from the rising popularity of disco.

This shirt is an original from 1985's "Power Windows" tour. Granted, much of the 80's for Rush was defined by synthesizers as opposed to their guitar driven hard rock beginnings, but you can't really get mad at a band for evolving. People were genuinely upset by Bob Dylan's shift to electrified rock, moving away from the folky acoustic Woody Guthrie style social protest songs that had come to define his work. But in hindsight, such a move was absolutely wise because it not only showcases Dylan's versatility but has also made him more accessible to subsequent generations. Just about everyone knows who Bob Dylan is or at the very least has heard of him -- unless you happen to be a cop in New Jersey on a rainy day. To stay alive sharks constantly swim forward. Obviously, there are varying points of view on this -- and even though some folks truly want the same thing over and over again in terms of their entertainment consumption, you really should give a new album three listens (without distraction) and preferably with headphones before deleting it from your iPod playlist(s). If your initial opinion doesn't change by the third time around, put it away for a while and then give it another shot. Maybe it is my personal form of brainwashing, but I have come to love many albums using the "three listen" method -- which can also be applied to films, though in such cases headphones are optional.

This Jethro Tull concert shirt is actually from the band's folk rock era ("Bursting Out" tour 1978), but for the sake of continuity I shall remain on the prog rock topic. From 1972 - 1976 the band entered what many consider its progressive rock phase. I say "phase" because I don't totally agree with the notion that Jethro Tull is essentially a prog rock band. Like Rush, their beginnings are rooted in hard rock - a contained four year period of experimentation can hardly define the band's entire 40+ year career. This may, however, further prove my theory that progressive rock was indeed a violent recoil from disco.

Completely disregarding the early 1980's (COMPLETELY), Yes is one of my favorite prog rock bands. Yes started and will end as indispensable prog rock pioneers (again, completely disregarding the early 1980's).

Ironically, this raglan concert jersey is from the early 1980's, but it is currently the best Yes item in our store, so here it shall be presented. Totally embarrassed by the outright contradictions throughout my own carefully crafted blog post, I will move on to my favorite item.

This shirt is one of my absolute favorites, among the thousands of items we have had/sold in the past. It is original, from the "Works" tour in 1977 and utterly cool (pardon my regression to teenage parlance). The collective album cover art of "Brain Salad Surgery" (art work originally done by H. R. Gieger, who also did art design for the first Alien film), "Tarkus", and "Emmerson, Lake & Palmer" make this shirt both indespensible and more for the framing and hanging (and less for the wearing).

Emmerson, Lake & Palmer is probably the premier progressive rock band. Hands down, with no exception. Rush & Yes (completely disregarding the 1980's) fans may be upset and riled to the point of violence - and though I cannot honestly say who would win a bar room brawl amongst the three bands -- my comment still stands.

Two radio friendly singles "Lucky Man" & "From the Beginning" had 1970's record album consumers wondering why the music contained on the rest of ELP's albums sounded nothing like the singles. I guess it is kind of a mean surprise -- you think you are buying some sweet Alvin Lee's Ten Years After and actually get "Tubular Bells." But such is progressive rock.

On a side note, "From the Beginning" has a similar intro to "Roundabout" by Yes so that during call-in radio contests asking listeners to identify a song based on a short riff, the two are constantly confused.

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