Yes, & those mentions bring to mind the Beau Brummels, Amboy Dukes, The Main Ingredient....those type of bands which prog really grew off of/evolved/morphed into

Very cool looking cruise alight, gosh a 3 hour tour it is not tho w/that many bands, yow come one come all

What is Prog Rock to you all?

When I was younger, the answer would have been "music you get made fun of for listening to."

I once spent a good month of used-CD bin searching and listening to all the Van der Graaf Generator I could find.

I'm by no means the biggest metal freak, but Opeth is absolutely amazing.

Folks have mentioned Steven Wilson, that's how I found my way to Opeth. The Pineapple Thief, too.

Porcupine Tree is gone forever, but the Live At Tilburg DVD is in my top three live shows to watch, ever.

https://progreport.com/top-30-prog-albums/

Top 30 prog albums 2000-2019 according to the Prog Report

30. Symphony X – V: The New Mythology Suite (2000)
29. The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)
28. Opeth – Ghost Reveries (2005)
27. IQ – Dark Matter (2004)
26. The Pineapple Theif – Dissolution (2018)
25. Anathema – We’re Here Because We’re Here (2010)
24. Ayreon – The Human Equation (2004)
23. The Dear Hunter – Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise (2015)
22. Pain of Salvation – Remedy Lane (2002)
21. Dream Theater – Octavarium (2005)
20. Flying Colors – Second Nature (2014)
19. The Flower Kings – Unfold the Future (2002)
18. Riverside – Shrine of New Generation Slaves (2013)
17. Frost* – Milliontown (2006)
16. Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet (2007)
15. Big Big Train – English Electric Pt.2 (2013)
14. Rush – Clockwork Angels (2012)
13. Tool – Lateralus (2001)
12. Transatlantic – Bridge Across Forever (2001)
11. Devin Townsend – Empath (2019)
10. Porcupine Tree – In Absentia (2002)
9. Spock’s Beard – Snow (2002)
8. Marillion – Marbles (2004)
7. Haken – The Mountain (2013)
6. Opeth – Blackwater Park (2001)
5. Neal Morse Band – The Similitude of a Dream (2016)
4. Steven Wilson – The Raven That Refused To Sing (2013)
3. Dream Theater – Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)
2. Steven Wilson – Hand.Cannot.Erase. (2015)
1. Transatlantic – The Whirlwind (2009)

What about Dixie Dregs, was that Southern Prog?

I guess there is crossover but I consider at least half of that Top 20 to be Metal.

Dream Theater's Six Degrees is a great album. A freaking musical workout for sure. Opening song The Glass Prison is almost 14 minutes long with enough notes to fill a thousand albums. But it is 100% Heavy Metal. Real good heavy metal but undeniable Metal.

I have seen them many times and they hold the record for the longest show that I have seen any band do. Just under 5 hours and not a single cover in the mix. The last encore of the night was Change Of Seasons and was just shy of 37 minutes.

The Glass Prison - Starting at about 9:30 - they just go off the charts.

I guess there is crossover but I consider at least half of that Top 20 to be Metal.

Dream Theater's Six Degrees is a great album. A freaking musical workout for sure. Opening song The Glass Prison is almost 14 minutes long with enough notes to fill a thousand albums. But it is 100% Heavy Metal. Real good heavy metal but undeniable Metal.

I have seen them many times and they hold the record for the longest show that I have seen any band do. Just under 5 hours and not a single cover in the mix. The last encore of the night was Change Of Seasons and was just shy of 37 minutes.

The Glass Prison - Starting at about 9:30 - they just go off the charts.

Seems like a lot of crossover with metal now in prog.... I've been surprised at all the metal drummers praising Neil Peart as a huge influence in their playing.

I have some early Dream Theater and really enjoy them.... their early drummer Mike Portnoy was a friend of Neil's.

I'm looking forward to checking out his new release Sons Of Apollo MMXX..... quite a band with Billy Sheehan and Derek Sherinian.

I guess there is crossover but I consider at least half of that Top 20 to be Metal.

Well, there are 34,183 sub-genres of metal now, progressive metal is indeed one of them. 😛

I'd accept the Moody Blues as "prog". What about Procol Harum? If Kansas is "prog" - what about Styx? I always found Styx to be a cheesey, top-40, poor man's version of Yes. Rick Wakeman's son - who filled in for his dad with Yes (briefly) cited Styx as an influence.

I would classify Styx as "Schwog".

The term does get loose.

Did Styx have songs with long instrumental passages and classical flourishes that went far outside of blues rock cliches? Yeah, but at the time, they seemed like tame versions of what someone like Yes had done. As time went on, of course, they got very mainstream, so noone called them progressive.

I'm told early Journey (pre-Steve Perry) had more of a Santana / fusion sound. I dig Boston's "Foreplay" intro, which is like prog lite.

I think that terms like psychedelia and fusion had some overlap with progressive rock.

Someone mentioned Bowie's late 1970s stuff - those albums had Fripp and then Belew on them and focused on ambient sounds rather than virtuosity. I think they can be called progressive even if they don't sound like Yes. They can be seen as the precursor to what Radiohead does. They were wildly experimental

Uriah Heep? They at least had Roger Dean cover art. Let's face it, Lawrence Welk would be prog if he had Roger Dean cover art.

Listened to Camel slot way back when

The term does get loose.

Did Styx have songs with long instrumental passages and classical flourishes that went far outside of blues rock cliches? Yeah, but at the time, they seemed like tame versions of what someone like Yes had done. As time went on, of course, they got very mainstream, so noone called them progressive.

I'm told early Journey (pre-Steve Perry) had more of a Santana / fusion sound. I dig Boston's "Foreplay" intro, which is like prog lite.

I think that terms like psychedelia and fusion had some overlap with progressive rock.

Someone mentioned Bowie's late 1970s stuff - those albums had Fripp and then Belew on them and focused on ambient sounds rather than virtuosity. I think they can be called progressive even if they don't sound like Yes. They can be seen as
the precursor to what Radiohead does. They were wildly experimental

Good points.... I concour, the term does get loose.

Folks might disagree, but I have felt on some occasions that Govt Mule can get a little progy.

New prog from one of the originals - Rick Wakeman...

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/rick-wakeman-the-red-planet/

Starcastle was also a great prog band - from central Illinois no less. Their first 2 albums were excellent...

I have read Qeensryche described as Prog metal especially their "Operation Mindcrime" albums. Definately not your typical 80's hair metal bands.

From an interview with Ian Anderson...

"Progressive rock is a purely British phenomenon. And these days all of us and include the likes of ELP here, know that there was a sense of fun about it. Privately, we all saw the silly side, we were like John Cleese in a bowler hat lampooning the bureaucrats, while revelling in it."

"Any spoof done well enough enhances the perpetrators and intended victims, think of Spinal Tap and the heavy metal genre. But, surely if it's done too well then it becomes indistinguishable from the real thing?"

How does Anderson react to the fact that Thick As A Brick is frequently cited as the ultimate prog rock album?

" Job done, I'd say. We set out to make the mother of all concept records, as I stated earlier, and if that's the way people see the album after all these years, then we achieved the ambition. It is hard sometimes to differentiate what's serious and what's a send-up. But for me, that's the beauty of prog rock. it must have both."

John Wetton once said that much of the inspiration for what is known as "Prog" was rooted in English church music. If you think of all the organ, and the Catholic imagery (spells, darkness, light etc.) it makes sense. Upon being passed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Chris Squire said that Yes' music had nothing to do with Rock and Roll.

John Wetton once said that much of the inspiration for what is known as "Prog" was rooted in English church music.

Case in point...

Very churchlike. Choirboys on acid. Prog is basically classical jazz. Chris Squier said in his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame speech that Yes had nothing to do with rock.

Very churchlike. Choirboys on acid. Prog is basically classical jazz. Chris Squier said in his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame speech that Yes had nothing to do with rock.

That's interesting.... when I was young I had a friend who was only into Pink Floyd, Rush, King Crimson, Atomic Rooster, Yes and Genesis..... I'd say to him, why don't you play some real rock!

.... now I love all those bands!

I like the consideration of how English church music shaped British prog. You can hear it in early Genesis, Yes, Procol Harum.

You can certainly NOT hear it in Rush. There are waves of prog, and Rush is definitely second wave. I mean that as no insult whatsoever, but it is telling that the first wave had that big Mellotron & organ sound, while the slightly later bands from North America did not, and King Crimson got rid of that element too.

"Waves of prog?" Do you realize how weird this conversation would sound to all but a very few people? We might as well be speaking Westron in Middle Earth.

Hey, it’s not terminology that I invented. People discuss The Who as part of the second wave of the British Invasion or Iron Maiden as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and it makes sense.

If you follow prog rock classification, Marillion are (were) considered “neo prog” rather than prog as they imitated Genesis rather than actually progressing. The band IQ gets put in the same category.

Beware the Waves Of Prog and the perils that they bring.

Styx doesn't get much love on this forum but I love their first eight albums.... definitely prog to my ears!

Beware the Waves Of Prog and the perils that they bring.

Aye, verily there be dragons beneath The Waves of Prog, matey. Many is the unwary navigator that has scuttled his vessel beyond the Reefs of Doom.

an interesting newer band 'Consider the Source' seen a few times at Peachfest is pretty progressive but seems to cross over into metal too-pretty good. Of course the more memorable ones like King Crimson,Strawbs,ELP Tull,Genesis,etc in their early beginnings were the best. A few are still great.