Romano - Prog rock FAQ: all thats left to know about rocks most progressive music

Copyright 2014 by Will Romano

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Published in 2014 by Backbeat Books
An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation
7777 West Bluemound Road
Milwaukee, WI 53213

Trade Book Division Editorial Offices
33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042

Except where otherwise noted, all images in this book are from the authors personal collection.

The FAQ series was conceived by Robert Rodriguez and developed with Stuart Shea.

Printed in the United States of America

Book design by Snow Creative Services

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Romano, Will, 1970
Prog rock FAQ : all thats left to know about rocks most progressive music / Will Romano.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61713-587-3
1. Progressive rock musicMiscellanea. I. Title.
ML3534.R676 2014
781.66dc23
2014027918

www.backbeatbooks.com

For Sharon, Molly, Maggie, and Gilligan

Contents

Id like to express my gratitude to those who have either participated in this project or given me the opportunity, time, assistance, support, inspiration, and encouragement to complete it. Id like to express my gratitude to those who have either participated in this project or given me the opportunity, time, assistance, support, inspiration, and encouragement to complete it. Many thanks to the following (and to anyone I may have inadvertently omitted): Mick Abrahams, Lee Abrams, Jan Akkerman, Roye Albrighton, Dave Anderson, Ian Anderson, Jon Anderson, Jody Ashworth, Brian Auger, Julian Bahula, George and Judy Bailey, Benton-C Bainbridge, Dave Bainbridge, Carl Baldassarre, Peter Banks, Hugh Banton, Martin Barre, Nick Barrett, Michael Beck, David Bedford, Ray Bennett, Ronald S. Bienstock, Robin Black, John Bradley, Johan Brand, Ann Barbara Brenells, Jon Brewer, Adam Budofsky, Jessica Burr, Christopher Buzby, Debi Byrd, Nic Caciappo, Dik Cadbury, Fred Callan, Phil Carson, Michael Cartellone, Colin Carter, Bob Catania, John Cerullo, Roger Chapman, Ryche Chlanda, Andr Cholmondeley, Andy Clark, David Clemmons, Lindsey Clennell, Simon Collins, Marian Conaty, Nicolae Covaci, Chris Cutler, Frank Davies, Daniel Denis, Dave Doig, Tom Doncourt, Dwight Douglas, Geoff Downes, Terry Draper, Andr Duchesne, Francis Dunnery, Rod Edwards, Phil Ehart, Colin Elgie, Terry Ellis, Keith Emerson, Kim Estlund, Guy Evans, Richard Evans, Thomas Ewerhard, Franco Fabbri, Walter Bella Wally Farkas, Jess Filardi, David First, Paul Fishman, Dave Flett, Kim Fowley, Fred Frith, Simon Frodsham, Peter Gee, Gregg Geller, Randy George, Jeff Glixman, Nigel Glockler, Mick Glossop, Ed Goodgold, Chip Gremillion, Patrick Gullo, Michelle Gutenstein, Jo Hackett, John Hackett, Steve Hackett, Randy Haecker, Roger Hand, Christopher Hansell, Michael Thor Harris, Annie Haslam, John Hawken, David Hentschel, Simon Heyworth, Rupert Hine, Mark Hitt, Steve Howe, Leslie Hunt, Tom Hyatt, David Jackson, Randy Jackson, Jakko Jakszyk, Gary Jansen, Eddie Jobson, Nat Johnson, Jessica Jones, Sidonie Jordan, Tim Kane, Dave Kean, Conrad Keely, Rick Kennell, Dave Kerzner, John Kosh, Bill Kotapish, Sonja Kristina, Brett Kull, Jean-Yves Labat de Rossi (M. Frog), Greg Lake, Justin Lang, Gary Langan, Jrme Langlois, Dave Lawson, Geddy Lee, Anne Leighton, Collin Leijenaar, Chris Letchford, Martin Levac, Ron Levine, Jessica Linker, Steve Luongo, Ren Lussier, Chris Macleod, Patrick MacDougall, Nick Magnus, Bernadette Malavarca, David Mallet, Brian Malouf, Mark Mancina, Gered Mankowitz, Ed Mann, Manfred Mann, Sue Marcus, Toby Marks, Lee Marshall, Ryan Martin, Ian McDonald, Dave McMacken, Bruce Meek, Lesley Minnear, John Mitchell, Paddy Moloney, Patrick Moraz, Alberto Moreno, Alan Morse, Neal Morse, Peter Morticelli, William Neal, Christiana Nielson, Per Nordin, Gerald OBrien, Eddie Offord, Martin Orford, Christopher ORiley, Dee Palmer, John Payne, Anthony Phillips, Gretchen Phillips, Shawn Phillips, Michael Phipps, Bruce Pilato, dUg Pinnick, Chris Poland, Peter Princiotto, Roger Quested, Paul Ramsey, Hossam Ramzy, Phillip Rauls, Luciano Regoli, Steve Reich, Keith Reid, Ron Riddle, Billy Ritchie, Robert Rodriguez, Mick Rogers, Michael Romano, Sharon Romano, Tony Romano, Glenn Rosenstein, Michael Rother, Steve Rothery, Coco Roussel, Paolo Rustichelli, Mike Sadler, David Sancious, Jonathan Schang, Paul Sears, Sandy Serge, Wil Sharpe, John Shearer, Peter Sinfield, Graham Smith, Martin Smith, Ray Smith, Sterling Smith, Chris Squire, Travis Stever, Gary Sunshine, David Surkamp, Kevin Sutter, Ty Tabor, Michael Tait, Stephen Takacsy, Jim Tashjian, Geoff Tate, Stephen W. Tayler, Sam Taylor, Rod Thear, David Thomas, Andy Tillison, Eric Troyer, Mick Underwood, Jim Vallance, Mark Volman (a.k.a. Flo), Virginia Gini Wade, Kevin Wall, Kelly Walsh, Darryl Way, Helmut Wenske, Paul Wertico, Ray Weston, John Wetton, Stanley Whitaker, Tony Williams, Steven Wilson, Bruce Wolfe, Frank Wyatt, Phideaux Xavier, and Carise Yatter.

Introduction

Throughout the process of putting this book together, what has struck the author time and time again were stories of progressive rock artists who have demonstrated continued perseverance, innovativeness, and resiliency, under some of the most adverse conditions of this post-punk music world.

Prog has come a long way since its perceived implosion in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For decades, prog rock had been largely relegated to fringe status, and today, the music continues to surprise and thrive in what can only be categorized as a hostile mainstream musical environment. Prog rock has returnedand with a certain amount of credibility and respectability that wasnt always afforded the pioneers of this style who were making music in the 1960s and 1970s.

Several historical, cultural, technological, and social factors have helped to pave the way for progs return, including the presence of the Internet in nearly every aspect of our lives, the formation of numerous record labels willing to claim and disseminate esoteric recordings (be they original or reissued), a loyal fan base with a long memory and attention span, artists commitment to musical excellence, and the affordability and accessibility of recording technologyaudio recording softwaremaking it possible for aspiring prog rockers to cut their very own masterwork in the privacy of their own home studio.

Labels

Knowing that mainstream culture did not reflect their musical values, enterprising individuals established avant-garde, avant-prog, and progressive rock labels, from the mid-1980s through to today, helping to rescue the genre from near obscurity.

Spurred on by the ubiquity of the Internet, labels such as Musea, Cuneiform, Cyclops, Magna Carta, Lasers Edge, Inside Out Music, One Way Records, Repertoire, Esoteric Recordings, Syn-Phonic, ProgRock Records, ProgQubec, ReR (Recommended Records, established in 1978), MoonJune Records, Vinyl Magic (and www.btf.it), Mellow Records, Japanese distributor Marquee, Kinesis retail site (www.kinesiscd.com), Kscope, Archie Pattersons Eurock (established as a radio program in the 1970s and eventually evolving into a mail-order company and retail website), and others have either discovered, promoted, or rehabilitated the reputations of artists in the progressive rock field. This is to say nothing of independent labels established by individual artists.