...down nostalgia's rocky road

Having burnt my political soapbox, I figured it was time to get back to something important.
Reading through my Sunday supplement of choice the other day I came across an article proclaiming the return of prog.
Progressive Rock, along with loads of 50-something intellectuals getting all nostalgic for 12" slabs of plastic, was making a comeback.

For those of you below that certain age, prog was what dangerously intelligent people, who could play musical instruments, did as a result of too many pot parties in the early to mid seventies.
Prog was where we were offered 30 minute chunks of stratospheric, mesmerising classical or jazz infused noodling that spanned whole sides of albums; concept albums, working through recurring themes and variations to the stage where, if the piece was something new to you, you couldn’t ever predict what was coming next.
Prog was what university students, with so much time on their hands that they could devour the entire works of JRR Tolkein, did when they should have been studying economics, law or politics.
Maybe that’s why the world is so f4cked. Maybe we’re being led by a bunch of space cadets, trapped somewhere between Olias of Sunhillow and the Court of the Crimson King straying Close to the Edge of something...

Definitely the edge of something but the edge of what, I never could figure out.
The songs of Yes, even as an adult, remain a total mystery to me.

Prog, in general, was totally unfathomable
Although, in my early teens at the time and playing catch up with the Beatles, Dylan and Zeppelin, I did dally with prog, really wanting to be into it.
I admit to having a number of albums by Yes, ELP, King Crimson and BC Genesis (that’s before Collins) but I don’t really recall having all the floaty, frilly crap that Jon Anderson and co used to wear, nor do I remember many prog gigs.

I do recall one particular gig though, late in the seventies, when I went to see Steve Hillage, or rather, Trevor Rabin, who was the support act. Having had a couple of beers during the break before making my way back to my seat, I guess I must have fallen asleep after about five minutes, only to wake up in time to hear him play a cover of the Beatles ‘It’s All Too Much’ and think, “God, this guys great”. I went to buy the album the following day and of course you can guess the rest.

I never listened to anything remotely prog ever again.

Punk was melodically marching us down a very straight, short and narrow street, prog on the other hand was taking us musically meandering down multitudinous long and winding passages of unfeasibly expansive breadth, passing through a network of underground tunnels into a fantasy world of Roger Dean inspired landscapes where dragon-guarded towers stood atop caves with milk white pools and five armed magicians.
By the time punk came along, the agenda had changed. Nobody could be bothered with all the pomp and circumstance. Nobody cared about major sevenths or diminished fifths anymore.
Nobody cared flying f4ck about whether or not Emerson, Lake and Palmer had a juggernaut each full of gear. Nobody could be bothered trying to figure any of it out any more.

Anyway, as I was saying, prog rock is back or at least so we’re told.
Big f4cking deal.
I could have predicted that.

Everything is cyclic. Everything comes around roughly once a generation.

Every form of Music, Art, Fashion and Film, along with almost every other form of artistic expression, becomes a limited currency as generations reach a point of saturation. Something more exciting and different comes along and the Mellotron and the mirror laden Vespa join shellac and wind-up gramophones in the dusty old museum of musical cliché.

Through the decades we’ve been witness to many a revival.
The 50s folk revival with Pete Seeger and The Kingston trio.
The 60s Roots revival with Mercedes Sosa and Miriam Makeba.
The 70s and 80s Ska revival with The Beat and Bad Manners.
The 80s Mod revival with the Merton Parkas and the Lambrettas.
The 90s Rock revival with Nirvana, the Foos and Pearl Jam.
We’ve even had the revival of probably all of the above revivals.

But is it really a revival?
I suspect not.
In just the same way as two Scots ex-patriates getting together will be dubbed a Caledonian society, two bands with a similar sound to, for the sake of argument, the Rolling Stones, will prompt the press to proclaim a British R&B revival when, in reality, they’re simply drawing upon different styles for inspiration.

Although it’s easy to figure out where the tags and labels come from, with the music scene jammed with so many different genres, it’s getting harder to tell where the inspiration comes from.

Left to it's own devices, the artistic half of the average human brain is capable of only so much invention before moving on. The other half of the average human brain is capable of absorbing only so much of one thing before going f4ck this; I’m off to listen to Girls Aloud.
Sometimes the stimulus comes directly from the source, in what we hear. Sometimes it comes subconsciously, allowing us to absorb the ideas of a previous generation.
The kids of course find this horrific but in the music industry at least, there are very few truly original ideas or original thinkers. Everything seems derivative. The pool is so big that osmosis is inevitable to a degree. Every avenue is so overgrown, and the pickings so rich, that it's virtually impossible to get to the end without absorbing something along the way. The fruit is out there for anyone who cares to take a taste.

So what does all this give us?

It gives us a good symbiotic balance where past and present feed of one another to harmonious effect. It gives diversity and eclecticism and that can’t be bad.
Without that, who knows what we'd be listening to!

And so, back to the realms of University Challenge, the Clangers and Moonmadness.
Is there really a new prog revival coming?
I don’t think so. Perhaps the listener is just growing up or looking for some newly ripened fruit.
Will the new fruit taste the same? Will the so called ‘prog’ bands of the future sound anything like the old ones and, more importantly, will they dress the same?
Although he has clearly stolen his vocal chords, somehow, I can’t see Elbow's Guy Garvey maturing to the Peter Gabriel style of stage wear and I certainly can’t see Oceansize's Steven Hodson opting for the Rick Wakeman style, flowing, sequinned, gown and cape ensemble.
Given how keen bands are to avoid being labelled, it unlikely they will opt for anything as lavish but you never know!!!


And so, resisting the obvious temptation to chuck up some Yes, Genesis and Camel gatefolds along side some Oceansize, Elbow and MGMT albums, to the music.

Del Amitri - Change Everything
http://rapidshare.com/files/106738804/Change_Everything.rar

David Knopfler - Release
http://rapidshare.com/files/106745270/David_Knopfler_-_Release_1983.rar

Seth Lakeman - Freedom Fields
http://rapidshare.com/files/106751530/Freedom_Fields.rar

Counting Crows - Somewhere In Middle America
http://rapidshare.com/files/106760861/Somewhere_in_Middle_America.rar

Rab Noakes - Standing Up
http://rapidshare.com/files/106767906/Standing_Up.rar

Luka Bloom - Riverside
http://rapidshare.com/files/106773462/Luka_Bloom_-_Riverside__1990_.rar

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Rattlesnakes
http://rapidshare.com/files/106777740/Rattlesnakes.rar

The Sundays - Reading, Writing And Arithmetic
http://rapidshare.com/files/106780991/Reading__Writing_And_Arithmetic.rar

Deacon Blue - Riches
http://rapidshare.com/files/106783780/Riches.rar

Shack - HMS Fable
http://rapidshare.com/files/106787673/H.M.S._Fable.rar

Aztec Camera - Milan 1984
http://rapidshare.com/files/106792174/Milan_84.rar

Pere Ubu - Cloudland
http://rapidshare.com/files/106795272/Cloudland.rar


Enjoy

Hooli