The Prog50

[jeffheikkinen]

If it comes as a surprise to you that I'm a progressive rock fan, you should probably double-check the name at the top of the page, because this is almost certainly not the blog you were intending to read.

This being the case, I took a fair bit of interest in a recent poll on progarchives.com, which, if your tastes in music are anything like mine,

Comments

<chuckle>

[brannie_bird]

Well, now. I for one am rather glad that you chose not to post the extended commentary ... 'brevity is the soul of wit,' as the saying goes. I found the silliness most fun.

(and all right, so Polonius was a pompous old windbag, but he sure hit the nail on the head with that one... Must read Hamlet again soon)

*HUG* I'm still decidedly hooked on Nightwish. And Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and Van Canto. Oh, and In Extremo, too, though I haven't bought any of their stuff yet. Must remedy that.

Good night! Resolving to be a better correspondent,

Brannie

Re: <chuckle>

[lenora_rose]

Hi, I'm going to usurp Jeff's entertaining commentary to grumble, now the worst of the chaos of school is done, we should get together!

Still wanting to borrow Hero, BTW...

[lenora_rose]

I suspect Nightwish didn't because they're usually classed as metal (or, more specifically, symphonic/orchestral metal), and few people put them or their subgenre (TSO, etc) into prog.

I'm not saying I agree, or particularly care. I'm just saying it is what it is. Edge cases always cause chaos.

[jeffheikkinen]

As pointed out above, that didn't stop the Beatles or Zeppelin, and it doesn't stop their readership as a whole (as opposed to this subset of it) from rating Oceanborn highly enough that, if that were the determining factor, it would be around number 40 somewhere.

[lenora_rose]

Again, though, it's an edge case thing. Trust me, I've seen arguments about what constitutes SF or fantasy that have caused undeniably fabulous stories to vanish from a list of "best of" where the fans were certain they belonged. Or the group of reviewers set up to pick the top 50 Canadian songs who vetoed Barrett's Privateers for, as far as I can tell, being too popular (One of the judges pretty much said that songs sung regularly by bad amateurs around campfires shouldn't count.) Who knows if there was some back room debate as to what constituted prog? Although if so, I agree that Metallica's appearance shows at least an inconsistency in thinking.

or it could be as simple as that most of these particular reviewers didn't like Nightwish. Do you get to see the lists the main list is culled from?

[lenora_rose]

BTW, speaking of groups you don't like as much, do you have Hold Your Fire or Presto on CD? I've been having no luck tracking the former down, and having the latter on cassette dowsn't help for getting Chain Lightning and the Pass (The only two songs I want to nap this particular way) onto my MP3 player.

[lenora_rose]

Oh, and just to add one more remark to the geekery:

I particularly liked your comments on annoying singers. I would have to say that Jon Anderson has an atypical voice, but that isn't the same thing as bad (It worked very well as a surprise touch on Moonlight Desires, as well as for those bits of Yes I like)

And Geddy Lee is like Richard Thompson: his voice started grating, and got noticeably better. (I find some early Rush hard to listen to, but middle-period and onward, it isn't even an issue - and the Richard and Linda albums from early on are much easier to take when she's singing, but he's usually risen to unremarkably good, and I can think of two songs RT's done since 2000 where I'd actually describe his singing as gorgeous.)

[jeffheikkinen]

Speaking of annoying singers, how could I forget James Labrie of Dream Theater? However, in his case I find the main complaint - that he resorts to stereotypical heavy-metal posturing a little more often than is entirely healthy - wholly justified. When he manages to contain that particular urge, as on Dream Theater's "Space-Dye Vest" or Frameshift's "La Mer", his stuff can be really lovely.