In a great interview with Steve Wilson, along with talk of his most recent album “Grace for Drowning” and a lot interesting thoughts on the present and future state of the music industry, he touches on the image of progressive rock world.
We’re living in a time when a lot of bands are looking around and seeing that the climate has changed so much over the last 20 years. Many feel the right thing to do is perhaps go back and revisit what made their reputation. Yes famously did a return to that last year. For 20-30 years, classic progressive music was incredibly unpopular and unfashionable. I was talking to Steve Hackett about this. He feels for the first time that people actually appreciate the work he did in the ‘70s. He feels it’s only in the last three or four years that he’s begun to feel people value that work as his greatest achievement. For 30 years, he was told it was shit, that he was a dinosaur, and that the music was worthless and no-one was ever going to want to listen to that hippie stuff again. I cannot underestimate how these guys were brainwashed. Robert Fripp and Ian Anderson feel the same. They were brainwashed by the media into thinking everything they did in the ‘70s was worthless junk. It’s almost like abused child syndrome. It took a great amount of reassurance for them to begin to believe that people love that stuff and that it’s the work that their reputation will ultimately rest on.
This is what I’ve been saying for years. In 2012, nobody cares what punk-era hacks like Paul Morley, Tony Parsons or Julie Birchill think any more; their opinions have not stood the test of time, and they haven’t been “relevant” for years. Yes, a few ignorant music journalists who were in nappies where Johnny Rotten swore on the Bill Grundy show still parrot ignorant clichés from that era, but they’re increasingly a minority, and they’re far more likely to be called out for not knowing what they’re talking about.
As for progressive musicians, the cage is not locked, and the jailers have gone. There is no need to pretend they’re “not prog” because of the alleged stigma attached to the genre. So let us have no more of the nonsense about any musician having to completely disassociate themselves from “prog” because it would damage their career.
Interestingly, a number of people who poured scorn on prog in their younger days have adopted a more tolerant or supportive stance in later life. I guess they no longer feel the need to be ‘dedicated followers of fashion’ and can a the broader and more balanced view.
When interviewed about bringing Pink Floyd back together for Live 8, Bob Geldof talked about how a dislike of Floyd in his youth turned into recognition of their importance and admiration of Dark Side Of The Moon as he got older.