One could play a song from their first, third, and fifth albums and the average listener would have no clue it was the same band. Certainly they were the most adventurous, with ceaselessly shifting line-ups inspiring entirely new sounds. When it comes to the absurdly resourceful bench of prog rock bands, King Crimson was probably the most versatile of them all. One final note: in general individual tracks are not discussed in part to avoid giving this article an even more unwieldy word count, but better still, because The Amazing Pudding will be examining the Top 100 Progressive Rock songs every other month throughout 2016. Anyone who loves progressive rock (and lists) can appreciate that many, many additional choices were affectionately considered. From Gentle Giant, The Power and the Glory from Camel, Mirage from Pink Floyd, Atom Heart Mother and Meddle from Jethro Tull, Minstrel in the Gallery and Songs from the Wood from Yes, Going for the One and Tales from Topographic Oceans from Genesis, Nursery Cryme and A Trick of the Tail from Rush, A Farewell to Kings and Permanent Waves from ELP, Pictures at an Exhibition and Brain Salad Surgery from King Crimson, Lizard, Islands and especially In The Wake of Poseidon and two wild cards: Traffic’s The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys and from the Moody Blues, On The Threshold of a Dream. So while many of these final choices were easy to make, it was still excruciating to cull what necessarily began as a large list.Ī quick shout out to some (but not all!) of the selections that didn’t quite make the final cut. This is not an exercise in anointing personal preferences, but an inventory of the best albums. If, inevitably, certain acts figure prominently, no apologies are offered. If a particular band is overlooked the ultimate question must be: however worthy, could any of their albums supplant any on this list? My conclusion, after weighing the options, is that they could not. Whether this decision is defensible is subject to debate, and I welcome (and can predict) alternative suggestions in the comments section. And, since debate will - and should– forever rage regarding which bands are or are not part of the progressive genre, I’m (quite contentedly) limiting discussion to acts hailing from the UK and here across the pond, including a certain trio from the Great White North. For me, the initial and still-golden era of prog rock starts in 1969 and ends in 1981. As such, and to ensure some measure of consistency, I’ve set up some sensible but entirely self-appointed guidelines. How many people do you know can declare, day-to-day, what their favorite albums or songs are? Would you, as a music enthusiast, necessarily trust anyone who could rank their all-time desert island discs and never revise or at least second-guess that list?Īnd yet, as the purpose of this column has been to revisit, reassess and, above all, celebrate all-things prog rock, it’s inevitable we grapple in some fashion with the best of the best. Although with utopias an individual vision is probably easier to articulate. Kind of like the old saw about one person’s Utopia being another’s Abaddon.
And that’s the thing with lists, especially lists about music: they are malleable. Editor’s Note: This list was researched and curated by Sean Murphy.Ī guarantee: you are not going to agree with this list.