Comments on: Prog Wars

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 22:00:33 +0000

Steve Wilson produced Fish (Sunsets on Empire), not Marillion themselves. SoE is really more mainstream rock that prog, not that it isn’t Fish’s best album after “Vigil”. SW also wrote a lot of the music.

Actually some people in the Marillion camp have been slagging off “prog”, to the anger of some of their older fans (the flamewars on that topic were the main reason I quit the Freaks mailing list).

By: Jammiwam

Jammiwam — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 20:30:43 +0000

Any band who’s music was experimental in nature and isn’t shy about playing in time signatures that can’t be easily danced to or writing 20 minute epic pieces could and should be deemed progresive. After all… what does the word “progressive” actually mean? I hope that it will continue to mean “forward thinking” rather than “ELP, Genesis, or Yes sounding”. SW & Porcupine Tree are a great example of what a progressive band should be in that it doesn’t even conform to the format of its own genre. Progressive is a word to describe the listeners more than it is the bands. They are what keep this music alive… and not the memory of a few twangy gems Sid Barret plunked out 40 years ago.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 17:36:35 +0000

Interesting. And yet, Wilson treads the same atmospheric terrain as these bands.

And he’s produced Marillion.

By: NRT

NRT — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 08:58:38 +0000

Remember, the questioner singled-out TFK & Transatlantic specifically, and SW merely responded in the same terms. Apart from three sentences, SW seems to have been talking about contemporary ‘prog’ acts in general, *for example* Transatlantic and TFK, not solely those two bands. In the context of comments he’s been making for years, it’s not personal criticism of Stardust-Flower Stolt.

Why condemn? Because lazy journalists and the general public associate the truly progressive bands with regressive ‘prog’ clones of 70s bands (which were bad enough then, never mind regurgitated now) – they’re not aware of a distinction. Hence, I genuinely believe the existence of such bands has harmed the careers of progressive (not ‘prog’!) bands like Porcupine Tree.

As I sort-of said in the main piece, I like Transatlantic (not TFK), but I don’t think their music has *value* (whatever that means!).