When I think progressive rock, I was there at the start.
For me, that's rock bands that weren't about dancing any more,
but having songs that became orchestral with new musical instruments,
starting with the Fender Stratocaster,
the first musical instrument in the entire history of global music,
to feature two-way, adjustable bridges, for each string, tuning with an oscilloscope.
When synthesizers came out, the progressive rock genre really began.
These are the bands I remember, as defining that.
Some of their songs, have to be included on a short set list of twenty.
Alice Cooper, 1970: Standing side by side, with the same rock star clothing,
the same long, long, rock star hair, two guitarists tall and thin,
both playing '64 Gibson S.G.s with big P.A.F. Humbucker pickups,
both playing through a 100 watt Marshall stack with Jimi Hendrix effects,
Alice Cooper jammed like two L.A. studio session pros with Jimi Hendrix experiences,
and feedback effects, in high schools and arenas around North America.
After the first "cult album", "Pretties for You", the next one came out,
and "I'm Eighteen" became the biggest hit song of the year.
That's when Alice Cooper became the singer hanging himself on stage,
banging his mike stand with a hammer while he stared into an aircraft landing light,
really scaring the audience, breaking pillows and tossing feathers over everyone,
and creating a progressive rock genre that even preceded goth rock by many years.
The drummer, his solos, some say are still the best.
Other bands that hit it big when synthesizers came out:
Moody Blues, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, The Flock, Lighthouse, Max Webster, Leigh Ashford,
Fleetwood Mac, Chilliwack, Camel, Rhinoceros, The Family, Emerson, Lake and Palmer,
and if I can think of one more... yes... Pegasus,
from Buffalo, Billy Sheehans' first big band. I jammed with them in Welland, my home city.
That's only fifteen bands, and a song from each would only be fifteen songs, not twenty.
That's enough work for a new band of progressive rock players,
at least for the first get-together.
Five-way attenuated power cords with multiple sockets are required, for each member, first.
I'm not including The Jimi Hendrix Experience as a progressive rock band,
because it wasn't.
Jimi Hendrix was only a progressive rock and r'n'b guitarist,
but the trio was just that, one guitarist, one bassist and one drummer,
not even having a rhythm or back-up guitarist or keyboard player.
The extraneous instruments used on their albums, such as sax, flute,
with other debatable applications of recorded sounds of debatable musical content,
were not duplicated onstage, a failure of epic proportions,
that can even be said to have led to the too early deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell.
They say Noel Redding died of a heart attack, caused by too many denied royalties.
That still hurts too much, and that's why I won't discuss them here any more,
unless it's about their P.A. system, still original and unreplicated, in the entire world.
My first truly progressive rock moment here is typing this posting out,
exactly the same as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed, perfect, right from the start,
only he never did what we can do, and that's use photos and videos.
And may we photo-shop ourselves into rock star online uploading domain heaven.
This thread concept is a product of "The Power of Babble", owned by 'Cid-City-Blotters,
where our smog and your blog is in your face, eventually, you end user you.
