The message from Martin Ridgley rises higher:
 MR> Hi Michael,
 =-> Quoting MICHAEL DOYLE's epistle to BILL HARRIS re: survival of PROG <-=
 MD> Prog Rock doesn't fit the usual ROCK criteria of being rebellious,
 MD> simple, and youth-oriented.  Prog-rock is complex, made for the
 MD> intellegent discerning listener, a REAL music lover, and is not very
 MD> youth oriented.  I would love to see it survive as a genre, but my
 MD> fear is that it has already died back in 1979 and we are just seeing
 MD> a few spurts of aftershocks.
 MR> I'm not so sure that it's dead.  Rather it's evolved and shifted
 MR> focus, making it a bit harder to label.  The defining lines have
 MR> become blurred as progressive minded musicians search out and
 MR> incorporate a diversity of new influences.  As you indicated later in
 MR> For example, right now I'm listening to a John Goodsall acoustic
 MR> guitar piece from Brand X's 1992 release called, _X Communication_.
 MR> This album could either be referred to as `Prog Rock' or `Jazz/Rock
 MR> fusion'.
Or even avant garde and psych.  _Xcommunication_ is a very complex
album (more so than any other Brand X album), but it's extremely
exciting.
 MR> Bela Fleck & the
 MR> Flecktones are found in the jazz section.  And they're as much a
 MR> fusion band as Brand X and Mr. Holdsworth.
I agree.
 MR> I'd have to say that the
 MR> Flecktones could also be considered very progressive, although there's
 MR> little if any `rock' influence there.
Again, I agree.  I like the Flecktones very much, and I absolutely hated
banjo and harmonica in music before I heard them.  They forever changed
my attitude.
 MR> one of my favourite mid-70s Prog bands, Ambrosia.  But Jellyfish are
 MR> definitely more pop-oriented.  `Prog-Pop', I guess you'd call it!?
Bands like Supertramp, Kayak, Alan Parsons Project, Depeche Mode, mid
70s ELO, and others like that are Prog Pop, or at least that's how I
describe them, and their music is in no way inferior to Prog Rock; it's
just another genre of Prog.
Then there's bands like Tool, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains, who all
show aspects of Prog, but fit more in the alterna-metal category.
There's no denying the Prog influences, though.
NP: "Don't Pass Me By" -- The Beatles
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- Clark Ray                                                  -
- email: clarkray@psnw.com                                   -
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... empty in their fullness like a frozen pantomime
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