Progressive rock is like pornography, Will Romano admits in his intro to Mountains Come out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock (Backbeat Books). It’s hard to define but you know it when you hear it. That said, definitions are in orderand frustrating. If by “progressive” you mean rock that pushed beyond the boundary of its early years, reaching for new potential, then Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were prog by 1965. If “progressive” implies rock as a self-conscious art form, then surely Patti Smith, Television and Talking Heads deserve the label.
Romano is not entirely comfortable with what he calls the “textbook definition of progressive rock” as the effort to “fuse rock with different musical styles, usually of distinctly European origin.” Well, it will have to do. The history of prog begins in the mists of psychedelia with Sgt. Pepper and Piper at the Gates of Dawn and sets forth from there on an ambitious journeya postmodern Canterbury Tales where medieval minstrels traveled with futurists and technocrats. It was British in origin but spread rapidly. “Prog rock was, generally speaking, written, performed and listened to by white, middle class kids,” Romano adds. For some fans it was the most esoteric club in the world. Then again, Dark Side of the Moon was the best selling LP in pop history.
Romano has written biographies of bluesmen Jimmy Reed and Hubert Sumlin and his move into prog isn’t entirely surprising when you consider that many bands in that camp had obvious roots in blues and R&Bespecially Jethro Tull and Procol Harum but even Pink Floyd, where a feint echo of the blues could sometimes be heard like a record played softly in the night from across the way. He is a fan of prog and his enthusiasm precludes his willingness to distinguish artistically and intellectually challenging artists from pretentious and bombastic pretenders. Some bands actually found new horizons. Others were content to add a classic rock beat to the classics of the 19th century.
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Romano is an engaging writer nevertheless as he chronicles and champions bands as diverse as King Crimson and Rush, Gong and ELP. He misses an interesting point by overlooking the profound influence of Germany’s Can on John Lydon. Was PiL prog?
Of course, other fans might have written a different history of progressive rock with chapters devoted to Van der Graaf Generator, the Moody Blues and Amon Duul. What no one can doubt is that prog, sentenced to death by a generation of rock critics and ignored by mainstream media, stubbornly held on among true believers, including younger fans who formed bands such as Spock’s Beard and Porcupine Tree or melded the ambition of prog with the sonic kill of metal. The Internet allowed them to find each other and helped to knit a thriving subculture with its own network of festivals, little labels and blogs. That some of the music is more retro than prog nowadays, locked into the heady concepts of decades past, is almost inevitable in a world where virtually everything that can be said has been said.
