MB's 100 Greatest Progressive Rock Artists (lyric, blues, indie, jazz)

boo boo · 04-21-2009, 06:54 AM

At SATCHMO's request I made my own thread with my own list. Feel free to tell me what you think of it.

Criteria: The bands on this list are ranked by their influence, impact, originality and popularity. These criteria however are judged in the context of progressive rock, for example Pink Floyd would be number 1 if we were taking overall popularity, impact and influence into account. But instead the list is based on the influence and impact these bands have had within progressive rock, and how popular they are among prog fans.

For those of you who want to know how a band qualifies as progressive rock, see the prog ed thread. If you're too lazy to do that here's a brief definition. Prog is a very broad term (if both Fall of Troy and Rick Wakeman fall into the category, that's pretty damn broad) and much like punk and indie it's more of a philosophy than a specific kind of sound. An attempt to restructure rock music and put it into the plane of complexity and sophistication of classical music and jazz. Most prog bands have classical, jazz and folk influences, but just about any genre can get sucked into it, even punk.

Prog is usually associated with long, layered and complex compositions, ensembles of classically trained musicians, lyrical themes and ideas that are not familiar with most rock music (fantasy and deep philosophical themes for example), concept albums, the use of keyboards as lead instruments and various instruments unusual to rock music and of course an extremely high level of pretentiousness.

1. King Crimson
2. Yes
3. Pink Floyd
4. Genesis
5. Frank Zappa
6. The Moody Blues
7. Rush
8. Emerson, Lake & Palmer
9. Jethro Tull
10. Brian Eno
11. Can
12. Traffic
13. Mahavishnu Orchestra
14. Gentle Giant
15. Van Der Graaf Generator
16. Tangerine Dream
17. Hawkwind
18. Caravan
19. Marillion
20. Procol Harum
21. Roxy Music
22. Henry Cow
23. Mike Oldfield
24. Gong
25. Magma
26. Robert Wyatt
27. The Soft Machine
28. Wishbone Ash
29. Dream Theater
30. Uriah Heep
31. Hatfield & The North
32. Camel
33. The Strawbs
34. Porcupine Tree
35. Premiata Forneria Marconi
36. Renaissance
37. Focus
38. Art Bears
39. Colosseum
40. Amon Düül II
41. Barclay James Harvest
42. Queensryche
43. Univers Zero
44. The Mars Volta
45. Eloy
46. Tool
47. Pendagon
48. Muse
49. Alan Parsons Project
50. Faust
51. Ozric Tentacles
52. Fates Warning
53. Spocks Beard
54. Flower Kings
55. Peter Hammil
56. Neu!
57. Symphony X
58. Anglagard
59. Comus
60. Supertramp
61. Arena
62. Harmonium
63. Gryphon
64. National Health
65. IQ
66. Kayo Dot
67. Isis
68. Ayreon
69. Happy the Man
70. Nektar
71. Egg
72. Supersister
73. Coheed & Cambria
74. Pain of Salvation
75. Family
76. Khan
77. Fall of Troy
78. Oceansize
79. Riverside
80. Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
81. Mostly Autumn
82. Dredg
83. The Nice
84. Echolyn
85. Le Orme
86. S.B.B.
87. Greenslade
88. Lucifer's Friend
89. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
90. Klaatu
91. Magnum
92. Jade Warrior
93. Höyry-Kone
94. Picchio dal Pozzo
95. Kansas
96. Captain Beyond
97. Rick Wakeman
98. Liquid Tension Experiment
99. Goblin
100. Utopia

I also have a list of special honorable mentions. These are artists who have a decent amount of material that could be called prog, some of them were infuences on prog and others are influenced by it, but overall these artists are mostly associated with another genre or style, and are not commonly associated with prog.

SPECIAL MENTIONS:

Radiohead
Queen
Kraftwerk
The Residents
Captain Beefheart
Deep Purple
Talk Talk
Sigur Ros
Godspeed You! Black Emperor!
Electric Light Orchestra
Syd Barrett
Fairport Convention
Dixie Dregs
Return to Forever
Phish
Mr. Bungle
Vanilla Fudge
Arthur Brown
Primus
Ween
Super Furry Animals
dEUS
The Decemberists
Opeth
Mastodon
Between the Burried & Me
Iron Butterfly
Buckethead
Kate Bush
Peter Gabriel
Vangelis

Guybrush · 04-21-2009, 07:03 AM

Interesting list! It doesn't correlate too horribly with how I feel about prog either, but I'm a bit puzzled by some of your placements regarding influence and popularity. For example ELP has sold over 35 million albums which I think is a lot more than Genesis did in their proggy years. A lot of the Canterbury bands, even the most popular ones like Caravan, comparatively had little success and is revered by a minority, yet rank much higher than for example Kansas who, whatever you might think of them, represent a big chunk of 70s american prog and has had international hits.

So it's a reasonably good list over what I like, but I think influence is debatable. Do you mean influence on people in general or just influence on those relatively few who like prog?

edit :

And if it's about proggers influence on prog, why rank f.ex procol harum lower than Gentle Giant? Procol harum lower than Caravan?

boo boo · 04-21-2009, 07:11 AM

Well ELP were certainly more popular in the early 70s than Genesis, but as far as influence goes I'd give Genesis the edge, there's been a lot of prog bands since the 70s that tried to be Genesis. Genesis's influence and popularity among prog bands and prog fans today is greater than ever. ELP's popularity has waned even among prog fans.

Even though I like ELP, personally I feel a lot of bands below them are superior. ELP earn their high placement primarly because they were one of the bands that defined the genre and along with Yes brought it to the peak of it's popularity.

Anyway, you may not agree with my list completely, but my goal was to make a list that's not as sh*tty as the one DDD made, I think I did that.

Guybrush · 04-21-2009, 07:20 AM

No, I don't think you can make a list of 100 artists and please everyone with it. It's not a bad attempt at all, but I think a problem here is that you're trying to summarize influence over 40+ years. I mean, Procol Harum was a really big influence on early prog and it's birth, but today - perhaps not so much. To figure out it's place in the list then becomes very difficult.

Maybe it would make more sense to make a list of early prog and their influence on their time and then early prog and their influence today (and then you could include modern prog's influence on today too in that). Then and now are quite different so I think that might work better I think even though I understand you wanted to make a single 100 list.

boo boo · 04-21-2009, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

No, I don't think you can make a list of 100 artists and please everyone with it. It's not a bad attempt at all, but I think a problem here is that you're trying to summarize influence over 40+ years. I mean, Procol Harum was a really big influence on early prog and it's birth, but today - perhaps not so much. To figure out it's place in the list then becomes very difficult.

Maybe it would make more sense to make a list of early prog and their influence on their time and then early prog and their influence today (and then you could include modern prog's influence on today too in that). Then and now are quite different so I think that might work better I think even though I understand you wanted to make a single 100 list.

Yeah I want to keep it simple. Dont want to make any seperate lists.

Procol Harum and Moody Blues were basically the first prog bands. But even though Procol Harum set up the blueprints for prog, bands like VDGG and Gentle Giant did more to define the genre, became a bigger influence on future prog bands and are today more popular among prog fans.

I admit the list wont please everyone, everybody will find something wrong with it, and though I try to be as objective as I can I know it can't be comletely objective.

I just think lists are fun, I don't want it to be taken too seriously.

Guybrush · 04-21-2009, 07:45 AM

Yup, true ranking by influence is also impossible. Maybe one band in the list wouldn't even have existed without another lower ranking band in the list. For example, what would the Canterbury scene look like if there was no The Wilde Flowers? Even less direct, the success of some bands may have made it possible for other bands to sign with a label. It's all impossible to tell of course.

Other than that and based on my own taste, I prefer Yes to King Crimson at the moment .. Prefer Gentle Giant to Genesis and I have a soft spot for some of the canterbury acts that come up later in the list. That's an entirely different criteria though

I haven't been able to really get into Van Der Graaf. Maybe you can recommend something by them which is not "H to He"?

boo boo · 04-21-2009, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

Yup, true ranking by influence is also impossible. Maybe one band in the list wouldn't even have existed without another lower ranking band in the list. For example, what would the Canterbury scene look like if there was no The Wilde Flowers? Even less direct, the success of some bands may have made it possible for other bands to sign with a label. It's all impossible to tell of course.

Other than that and based on my own taste, I prefer Yes to King Crimson at the moment .. Prefer Gentle Giant to Genesis and I have a soft spot for some of the canterbury acts that come up later in the list. That's an entirely different criteria though

I haven't been able to really get into Van Der Graaf. Maybe you can recommend something by them which is not "H to He"?

Influence isn't the only criteria.

Try not to make too big of a deal over the precise placements, a lot are interchangable, what really matters is who made it onto the list.

Wilde Flowers aren't on the list because they were ridiculously obscure and hardly anyone has actually heard their material, they're known simply for being the band that spawned Caravan and The Soft Machine, they never even released a record.

Guybrush · 04-21-2009, 07:59 AM

No, I wouldn't expect wilde flowers to be in the list since they never put out a record. By the way, in response to the horde of ELP haters in the other thread, I like'em! They did a lot for prog, even if you disregard their music and narrow down their influence to just popularity. I think they do deserve a spot in the top 10.

Tarkus (song) is a masterwork, but if you wanna rip on them for the horribly misplaced "Are you Ready Eddie?" on that album, I won't argue.

jackhammer · 04-21-2009, 08:11 AM

Twelth Night? Magnum? Pure Reason Revolution?

There are a few bands in there that I don't agree with. Is this from another site or your own list?

boo boo · 04-21-2009, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackhammer

Twelth Night? Magnum? Pure Reason Revolution?

There are a few bands in there that I don't agree with. Is this from another site or your own list?

My own list.

Don't worry, I appreciate any suggestions for bands to add.

04-21-2009, 07:03 AM	#2 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	Interesting list! It doesn't correlate too horribly with how I feel about prog either, but I'm a bit puzzled by some of your placements regarding influence and popularity. For example ELP has sold over 35 million albums which I think is a lot more than Genesis did in their proggy years. A lot of the Canterbury bands, even the most popular ones like Caravan, comparatively had little success and is revered by a minority, yet rank much higher than for example Kansas who, whatever you might think of them, represent a big chunk of 70s american prog and has had international hits. So it's a reasonably good list over what I like, but I think influence is debatable. Do you mean influence on people in general or just influence on those relatively few who like prog? edit : And if it's about proggers influence on prog, why rank f.ex procol harum lower than Gentle Giant? Procol harum lower than Caravan? __________________ Something Completely Different

04-21-2009, 07:20 AM	#4 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	No, I don't think you can make a list of 100 artists and please everyone with it. It's not a bad attempt at all, but I think a problem here is that you're trying to summarize influence over 40+ years. I mean, Procol Harum was a really big influence on early prog and it's birth, but today - perhaps not so much. To figure out it's place in the list then becomes very difficult. Maybe it would make more sense to make a list of early prog and their influence on their time and then early prog and their influence today (and then you could include modern prog's influence on today too in that). Then and now are quite different so I think that might work better I think even though I understand you wanted to make a single 100 list. __________________ Something Completely Different

04-21-2009, 07:45 AM	#6 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	Yup, true ranking by influence is also impossible. Maybe one band in the list wouldn't even have existed without another lower ranking band in the list. For example, what would the Canterbury scene look like if there was no The Wilde Flowers? Even less direct, the success of some bands may have made it possible for other bands to sign with a label. It's all impossible to tell of course. Other than that and based on my own taste, I prefer Yes to King Crimson at the moment .. Prefer Gentle Giant to Genesis and I have a soft spot for some of the canterbury acts that come up later in the list. That's an entirely different criteria though I haven't been able to really get into Van Der Graaf. Maybe you can recommend something by them which is not "H to He"? __________________ Something Completely Different

04-21-2009, 07:59 AM	#8 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	No, I wouldn't expect wilde flowers to be in the list since they never put out a record. By the way, in response to the horde of ELP haters in the other thread, I like'em! They did a lot for prog, even if you disregard their music and narrow down their influence to just popularity. I think they do deserve a spot in the top 10. Tarkus (song) is a masterwork, but if you wanna rip on them for the horribly misplaced "Are you Ready Eddie?" on that album, I won't argue. __________________ Something Completely Different

04-21-2009, 08:11 AM	#9 (permalink)
jackhammer Ba and Be. Join Date: May 2007 Location: This Is England Posts: 17,331	Twelth Night? Magnum? Pure Reason Revolution? There are a few bands in there that I don't agree with. Is this from another site or your own list? __________________ It be my music and film collection. “A cynic by experience, a romantic by inclination and now a hero by necessity.”