Entertainment For Lively Minds
Classic Rock
Posted by floyd1 on 8 June 2008 - 4:33pm.
Being an old git of 48 does anybody listen to some good old classic rock like
Deep Purple
ELP
Genesis
Yes
AC/DC
Iron Maiden
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You
betcha.
Echoing out over the local fields as I type: "Bo-tan-i-cal creature stirs, seeking revenge!".
Not 'arf.
Being an old git of 39...
you betcha. AC/DC my favourite of that lot...
Being 41 the answer is
Nope. But my Dad played a lot of ELO when I was 8 so don't mind 'em.
Being a 51 year old git
I remember with fondness Deep Purple, Yes and Genesis - I saw all of them in their classic lineups and Genesis before they were famous - in fact as support to Lindisfarne which is the tour that kicked them into the limelight.I personally don't think Genesis did much of any note after Gabriel left with the possible exception of Wind and Wuthering.
As for AC/DC,ELP and Iron Maiden - don't like them now and didn't like them then - nothing to do with the genre just didn't like them.
Am a 20 year old git...
...and I play most of those on a regular basis, especially Genesis and Yes- I would say those two alongside The Beatles are my favourite bands. Don't play AC/DC so much as the others but I do like 'Highway To Hell' and 'Back In Black'. Yep, classic rock is my first love, really.
Looking forward to the new album by Uriah Heep tomorrow, and despite the bad press they and most other AOR bands (though I can't say I go a bundle on Toto, REO Speedwagon etc.) have got over the years I was playing Journey's 'Escape' earlier and still enjoy it- so much so, I'm tempted to get their new album too...*ducks*
You're not really...
...twenty, are you? Not that there's anything wrong with liking whatever you like but surely it's very difficult to swim that hard against the tide.
I am indeed....
...and I did try to get into the bands my friends loved like The Strokes/The Libertines et al. but thought it was second-hand and very dull. Still keep my ears to the ground of contemporary rock though, of course...
Have endured some sneering over the years concerning my musical tastes but not that much when I think about it. Various other music forums I frequent have lots of other younger people into 60s/70s rock too.
Full marks
as a 41 year old even I'm tempted to sneer. Good on yer.
I'm 49.....
...and I'm sorry to spoil the party.
I don't think I've ever owned any album by any of the above bands! Of course I heard them at parties and at friends houses way back then but I never ever got any of them!
I liked Pink Floyd(and still do)but my main preference back then was the likes of Allman Brothers Band, Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston, BB King. For the record, I still play them all regularly.
I'm not exactly sure how I got into bands like that in the mid 70's....I think it would have to be my friends big brothers album collections and Bob Harris.
Keep your fingers out of my eye
Having just turned 36 I hardly feel I have one foot in the grave but I suppose by today's standards ie. Hate Magazine and Big Brother et al I am firmly in the "old fart" camp, and yes I am a massive Genesis fan. They are probably my favourite band as I think they really sounded like nothing before or since. When I was in my late teens I spent a lot of time at record fairs hunting for bootleg tapes. This was in the late 80s/early 90s so Genesis (and Yes, Tull, Zep etc) seemed like they were from an impossibly distant past.
Just recently I have found there are loads of bootleg blogs, and I have finally been able to get my hands on all the stuff that was so elusive back then (ie a good live version of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - back in the day I had that "Swelled & Spent" on tape which sounded like it was recorded from outside the building). There's tons of recordings of concerts around (seemingly every gig Zeppelin ever played), and it's reinvigorated my love for all of those bands.
Fireball......
I wasn't sure whether to be smug or embarrassed when Mr Random threw this up yesterday, during the first BBQ of the summer. Surprised that it actually sounded not too bad, but by and large prog and underground (was it too soon for the 'Purps to be called metal?) have dated badly, with more kitch appeal than genuine joy. As Big Stevie says, I think the Bob Harris oeuvre has aged better than the Alan Freeman (R.I.P.). And for all the fond memories of Peel, his 60s and 70s choices of taste have dated woorst of all, as the Dandelion label re-releases can demonstrate
Dandelion...
...I have to say, I don't think I've ever owned anything on that particular label- that one I'm very happy to admit really was before my time! I did find a CD compilation of that label recently, though, and left it there....
I see a fair few indie groups namecheck 60s/70s music (most enjoyably, The Mystery Jets' admiration of 70s progressive bands). Recently, there was much fuss made about Alex Turner and that other guy's professed love of Scott Walker for that Last Shadow Puppets thing considering their ages. I only really got into Scott Walker this year myself, to be honest...
I am 43 and recently bought
I am 43 and recently bought Selling England by The Pound at a record fair in Brighton (not particularly well attended although it was a sunny day, but I do wonder how long they can survive for in these download/Amazon days)and am really enjoying it, apart from the Battle of Epping Forest which I can't stand.
I also recently listened to the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its entirety for the first time on Last FM and thought it was terrific. Machine Head by Deep Purple was the soundtrack to a recent CD organising session (I know - my life is just one thrill after another); a uneven album but with some great stuff on it - Never Before is fantastic.
However, I can't stand ELP and have never been a fan of Iron Maiden - a bit of Yes in small doses now again doesn't hurt.
Epping Forest, battle of
By gum, Andy, I have suddenly realised, after 35 years, why I could buy no more Genesis LPs after SEBTB: Epping Forest is, as you say, dire and unlistenable claptrap, and however good I am/was told The Lamb lies down on Broadway may be, I just expect/ed to hear silly voices and silly time changes. And do you know, I have never heard it to this day. A man and his prejudices are seldom parted........
ELP and Iron Maiden as same sentence comparable, now thats a connection I hadn't seen before, but who is to say that Tarkus and Eddie are not cut from the same cloth, visually?
Give the title track, In the
Give the title track, In the Cage and Carpet Crawlers (which you must have heard at some point over the last 35 years surely?) a free listen on Last Fm at least - definately worth 15 minutes of your life.
The opening track
takes 15 minutes to listen to? I don't think I'm going to have my predjudices changed thank you very much.
Running time of the three
Running time of the three tracks together is around 15 minutes.
I've never understood the
I've never understood the whole length of a track thing anyway.
a) Some tracks say everything they need to say in 2'30", others require 15'00". The only problem is a track that says everything it needs to say in 2'30" that's 15'00" long.
b) Why does it seem (this is a general point) that so many people are incapable of listening to music for longer than five minutes? They can go to the cinema for two and half hours perfectly easily, but suggest a song that lasts a tenth of that time and people feel they can't cope.
I don't think its an incapable thing
But a lot of long stuff always feels like 2 or 3 songs welded together to me. 6 or 7 minutes seems ample enough time to me to get your point across.
I do admit to a few exceptions - Godspeed You Black Emperor I like a lot and mostly its 15 minutes plus. But their stuff seems to me to be more like a film scores than music. And classical.
I think a lot of musicians make it long to look clever. And it never does to me.
In a way, it's ironic that
In a way, it's ironic that you champion GSYBE (whom I like enormously) given that their stuff, like most post rock, rarely changes - though it is the effect over an extended period of time that is the point, of course.
As for songs being stitched together, it undeniably happens, I just don't see it as bad; it's like a change of scene in a play and as a dramatic device, I can't see why it's not valid as long as there's a strong enough narrative or conceit underpinning it.
Agree sort of
A further ponder reminds me that Sigur Ros bung out long tracks now and again. However, they are not my favourite ones so am not sure what this means.
Your point is a good one on the narrative or conceit - but I think I may have a high bar on this.
I suppose it comes down to the fact that 3 minute blasts of pop rock do it for me in general.
Answer to b)
It takes years to learn to like music. Until then it's just boring to sit there and listen to it, and that's why people struggle with anything over four minutes.
The solution is very simple - shut your eyes. If you sit there with your eyes open there are too many distractions and your mind will never stop wandering. So you end up reading the liner notes, going over the track listing every two minutes etc.
Close your eyes, and keep them shut, and you can concentrate on it. Time no longer moves at a snails-pace. Before you know it the album's over and it was an enjoyable enough experience.
Repeat enough times and before you know it you love music.
The eyes get bored very easily. If you're sitting in a room with a CD being played, you're presented with a very boring view. You might like the music but boy, aren't your eyes really bored? Close your eyes and suddenly the music isn't half as boring as it used to be.
Now sit in a room with a TV and you get a different thing to look at as a film changes its images every other second with camera cuts and on screen movement. Your eyes are engaged so you can sit through it for hours on end.
Watch "A Clockwork Orange". Interesting movie but the director had a thing for long unbroken static takes were two people stand talking. The eyes have nothing new to look at after ten seconds so you get bored during these scenes (Malcolm McDowell with his teacher in his bedroom and the scene in the prison library were he talks with a priest).
Pre and post pop video and Hill Street Blues
I don't think that long static unbroken takes were a peculiarity of Kubrick's; it is just how our viewing habits have changed over the years. I think the two major influences since the Clockwork Orange era were the pop video and Hill Street Blues - fast cutting particularly from the pop video and populated scenes that feed into each other from Hill Street Blues.
If you ever see an early episode of something like Coronation Street you'll find scenes run for a couple of minutes instead of 20 or 30 seconds. Or watch an episode of The Sweeney and be amazed at how few people actually apppeared in each episode.
I was struck a few years ago when the BBC repeated Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by 1) the slow but always absorbing pace and 2) the demands it made on the viewer. One scene that particularly struck with me was a static shot of Alec Guiness, as Smiley, sitting at a desk. Absolutely no camera movement and the only movement from Guiness was the very subtle change in his expression as he realised the devastating importance of the document he was reading. No thinking out loud; no-one coming into the room and getting the information fed to them; just the demand on the viewer's attention and the belief that the viewer was intelligent enough to pick up on what had just happened.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
I gave up after episode 1. 50 minutes that could have been condensed into about 15 - 20 minutes. There is nothing noble, or better, or deeper about dragging things out slowly. If that makes me a MTV generation cretin then so be it.
Ahh
I thought In The Cage and Carpet Crawlers was the opening track. My predjudice has just manifested itself.
The Lamb
was my point of departure, too, and once Mr Gabriel had called it quits, there was no going back.
I own the double vinyl, but it's never been played; I only got it to achieve some sort of completeness of Gabriel related Genesis material.
At the time, considering the amount of effort I'd need to invest to get the promised payback, I judged that it was simply too much like hard work to bother with.
Having hugely enjoyed fantastic story songs like the Giant Hogweed (Turn and run! They are approaching!) and Harold The Barrel (Up on the ledge beside him, his mother made a last request...) that manage to deliver cinematic story lines in 7 or 8 minutes of closely played engaging music, the thought of two whole album's worth to deliver one story (that no-one has ever satisfactorily explained to me anyway) was the final straw.
Giant Hogweed
I'm off at a tangent here, but has Giant Hogweed been exterminated in this country? There was a time when on any train journey you'd pass embankments covered in forests of the plant, but not a sign of it these days.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
They are still here, still plotting, still travelling silently and surreptitiously along our rivers and canals and still using sunlight to photosensitize their venom.
Unfortunately, as for ragwort, extermination has not been achieved. With the sun out, brushing against Hogweed, and especially getting sap directly on your skin, can be most unpleasant. It's nowhere near as common as it once was, but still thrives in obscure places. We need to stay vigilant.
When I found out the essential truth behind the song, I was very impressed with Peter Gabriel's research, and with his inspired decision to nudge the facts a little in the direction of The Triffids to make an altogether new yarn.
The Lamb...
...is overlong, if I'm honest, but it is made up of mostly short 4-5 minute songs. It loses its way on the last side though, for me. But yeah, 'In The Cage', 'Carpet Crawlers' and 'The Lamia' are the band at their best. The story? Not that sure, but I've never known what Captain Beefheart or Scott Walker are singing about either and they are critical favourites!
Even the band seem to dislike 'Epping Forest' but I always liked it!
I think the best of these bands' work still stands up today and hasn't dated too much. ELP perhaps less so, and Rick Wakeman's extravaganzas even less again (I do enjoy ELP's 1970-3 albums, at least, and Wakeman's come under the guilty pleasure category for me). I commented elsewhere about how The Moody Blues' work seems thoroughly rooted in its era to me too...
Not any of the above
Classic rock I go for would be Jimi Hendrix, Stones, Floyd and Led Zep. They seem more interesting to me than those listed in the blog, even if they are rather obvious choices. I just think they are more inventive and varied and not so stuck in a genre. Genesis and Yes are too whimsical and too irritatingly musically 'clever' and, er, I would also say twee and twiddly, for me.
Strange how people perceive
Strange how people perceive things so differently. To me, Yes were definitely self-indulgent, but Genesis were always about serving the song.
Love all of those listed in your post too...
...grew up hearing them either on the radio or parents' record collection and still love them. It's timeless music to me.
Just to clarify
by none of the above I meant 'above' as in the original first blog post at top - sorry if confusing but glad you like my choices too. I would also add Fleetwood Mac (early and late), Santana, Cream and Black Sabbath as classic rock likes, though I know their work less well.
I kinda straddle the fence...
I'm 37 and love all the Genesis, Floyd, Tull, Zep, Purple, Rush etc and did from when I was a teenager. Throw in Marillion and Porcupine Tree and Pure Reason Revolution and there's plenty of classic rock/proggy stuff in my CD collection.
But that's only half of my tastes, and I wouldn't be without the post-rock and the singer songwriters and the world music and the folk etc.
I like The Word a lot. I like the intelligence and the wit and I've got some good stuff from the cover discs. I love listening to the podcasts and laughing in inapporpriate places (Bank tube being one where I've had to suppress guffaws on more than one occasion). I love The Word, but I don't do indie-schmindie or post-punk very well and sometimes, even if it makes me feel slightly ashamed, I hanker after a bit of down and dirty Classic Rock.
Pure Reason Revolution
I wanted to like them but I can't. They're terrible. They nicked a lyric from Pink Floyd (the bright embassadors of morning line from Echoes) and then repeated it about forty times (NOT AN EXAGGERATION) over a fifty minute album. Retched and bland with it too.
Apparently...
...and this shocked me, Pure Reason Revolution were championed by Alan McGee! They were dropped by Sony and now reside on prog specialist label Inside Out.
The debut's OK; nothing earth-shattering but enjoyable enough. Kind of like Pink Floyd meets The Beach Boys- like Wolfmother, I don't think they filter the influences that well...
They're not shy
of their influences certainly (I'd also note the grungey/Pumpkin-esque guitars), but for me they're much more than a hybrid of other bands.
The new stuff has much more of an electronica flavour to it, so I think they're developing.
LOUDspeaker is right about them repeating the line 'Bright Ambassadors of Morning' a couple too many times though.
Iron Maiden.....discuss.....
Hmm...
Ok - first up, I'm not a huge fan. In fact, as an ego driven lead singer of our dodgy pub band, I once flounced off in a huff when our drummer fessed up to modelling himself on Nicko McBrain! I have one "Maiden" album, Live after Death, which is, by my ears, a decent live rock album.
However, I have to admit that Steve Harris and Bruce Dickinson are, frankly, musical and entertainment GENIUSES (geni-ii?) - Album after album, tour after tour. Hitting the nail on the head of their chosen demographic. Consistently. Something that bands such as Metallica, Slayer or Megadeth have never done. As the contemporary NWOBHM colleagues fall by the wayside or into self parody (Saxon, Def Leppard) - Maiden just keep on keeping on...
Which makes Steve Harris' absence from the richest rock star lists, all the more surprising!
Most of the 1990s were
Most of the 1990s were considered to be something of a low point by many fans.
No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
Fear of the Dark (1992)
The X Factor (1995)
Virtual XI (1998)
Yeah...
...those 90s albums are all turkeys, really. I like everything else they've done, though.
No Prayer for the Dying
My fave Maiden album. And I don't care who knows it.
Fear Of The Dark is pretty poor though.
I have to say that I like it when they play those 90's tracks on the live albums instead of the usual 80's classics. They're not as over-exposed so they sound fresher.
Blaze Blazey albums.....
Don't count!
Absolutely...
...I love the Maiden albums. That latest album 'A Matter Of Life And Death' even got the notoriously sniffy, anti-metal UK music press paying attention. They left the dungeons-and-dragons/sword-and-sorcery cliches behind and came up with an intelligent album with that one. Unlike most of Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer's output, Maiden generally have good tunes as well. I have a few albums of the above but a few Metallica songs aside, I couldn't recall any of their melodies off-hand.
At the other end of the spectrum, Judas Priest have done a double album about Nostradamus...will probably be an almighty musical car-crash spectacle but I still want to hear it! They get more and more cartoonish with every album they put out! :)
Can't stand the 'indie-schmindie' either, but I do like post-punk, more than punk itself actually. Got into bands like Magazine, Joy Division, early Simple Minds, Japan etc. last year and thought they were fantastic.
Man, man, your time is planned,
your days are leaves upon the tree.
I am the eyes of Nostradamus, all your ways are known to me.
Al Stewart beat them to it by over 30 years.
So, Iron Maiden.
Here's a challenge. I love all of the bands mentioned in floyd's original "Classic Rock" thread starter. I have loads of their albums.
Except the Maiden.
I have nothing of theirs, and I haven't heard anything apart from a couple of singles, either. I am a Maiden virgin. I had always assumed that they were "just another heavy metal band", and not really original enough to investigate. It seems I may be wrong.
So, my question is simple; where do I start?
Tell me which are their best 3 albums, and my lugs may well be subjected to a good Ironing.
Iron Maiden
You might be too old to "get it" now as being 13 is pretty much essential.
Buy "Edward The Great" Best Of.
Mutter to yourself about how samey everything sounds.
Dig it out six months later when you've suddenly got a hankering for some bad heavy metal.
Be surprised at how varied their songs suddenly sound.
Then buy "Piece Of Mind" as it's probably the most consistent album.
After that just get anything at random from the 80's (though I recommend skipping "Number Of The Beast" as it's only three classic tracks (two of which you will have on "Edward The Great") and a load of filler).
1 of 1 foxes found your review helpful.
Sounds like good advice, thanks. I'll try to cast my mind back to the age of 13... nope, you're right.
Care to suggest some bands from the "good heavy metal" category?
This is a nice little toe tapper...
it has a good beat, you can hear the words and it f**kin' ROCKS!
13/14...
...was when I got into metal really, yeah. I used to record Tommy Vance's 'Friday Rock Show' on VH1 which was usually filled to the brim with crap nu-metal like Limp Bizkit or tuneless wonders like Sepultura but I did encounter some good stuff on there.
As for 'good heavy metal', I always plump for the same albums as being the best of the genre- Judas Priest's 'Sad Wings Of Destiny' with a soupcon of early Black Sabbath, especially 'Volume 4' and 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. Iron Maiden never quite cut one definitive album, I feel, though the debut gets pretty close.
More modern metal I like includes Opeth and Mastodon. Opeth's latest album 'Watershed' has elements of folk and progressive rock amidst the usual metal mayhem- I wish more metal acts would have the same diversity, as I find the thrash metal stuff in particular rather wearying over the course of an album. They even cut an album which didn't have a note of heavy metal on it called 'Damnation' which kind of picked up where King Crimson left off on their debut album!
Mastodon play some fiendishly complex and aggressive stuff but like Opeth, do take their foot off the gas too.
Let's draw a veil under the whole 'hair metal' fiasco- I used to have some of those albums and it really was as cringe-inducing as legend suggests!
Opish
I tend to lump Opeth in with the rest of that tedious Scandanavian Goth Nonsense.
I do still love 'Trad Goth' - Sisters, Play Dead, Nefillim, March Violets etc.
NWOBHM
I sadly went through a "phase" around 1979 or 80 of going to the marquee and seeing all these bands..Maiden and Leppard made it but what about Saxon,Tygers of Pan Tang,Diamondhead,Angelwitch and all the others,did they give up the ghost or are they still out there desperately avoiding day jobs?
............anyone remember a band called Solstice who often played the Marquee with marillion in this period?I often wonder what happened to them.
Solistic are still going -
Solstice are still going - or rather, they're reformed.
http://www.solsticewebsite.com/
Andy Glass was once the guitarist in Electric Gypsy, the band from which Marillion eventually developed, fact fans.
Actually I saw Diamond Head
Actually I saw Diamond Head a few weeks ago. There is only one of the original line-up (lead guitarist Brian Tatler) but they were very good.
Back to the original subject, I'm 51 too and like almost all classic rock, with a special mention for Led Zep, Thunder, Pink Floyd, Eagles, Sabbath, etc. but there are many more too numerous to list.
Solstice...
...I read an interview with them in Classic Rock last year, they reformed at the time. Never heard a note of theirs, though.
I think almost all of those NWOBHM bands are still plodding away.
Moody Blues
were very very good and a bit swept under the carpet when it comes to celebrating the past. Concept albums! Working with orchestras! Letting the keyboardist write a track called 'Om'! What's not to like?
(I am 38, so on the cusp of being an old bugger but always make a point of knowing who's No.1)
Moody Blues
Two comments posted on a different blog page:
"As an avowed 20-year old progressive rock fan, even I have to say that most of The Moody Blues' albums are very much period pieces these days. The narrated sections on their albums are more laughable than profound and I've no idea what the concepts for most of them actually are! Having said that, I still love their album 'In Search Of The Lost Chord' which has some great tunes and no doubt lysergic-assisted lyrical content. I've always loved 'Have You Heard'/'The Voyage' on 'On A Threshold Of A Dream' too- manna from heaven for mellotron junkies like myself! Never liked much they did in the 70s and beyond, mind, save the hits like 'Question' and 'Isn't Life Strange'..."
and
"I have a 2CD Best Of and it's great but the albums are all dogs breakfasts.
"To Our Childrens, Childrens, Childrens" (about going to the moon in 1968?) is awful. What annoyed me was the way that it would begin to rock, and then it would immediately stop and then it would take about five minutes to build up again, and then suddenly stop just when it was starting to rock.
And the spoken word "songs" are terrible. Just awful.
They probably were the most pretentious band of that era, and that's saying something."
Oh alright then
In Search Of The Lost Chord is a chuckle, but hearing Days Of Future Passed on a trip in my brother in law's Granada when I was 9 blew my mind.
Harrumph
I'll have you know that all the first seven Moody Blues albums are wonderful. After that the mellotron player left and it was never the same again, but for a few years they were the biggest and best band in the world.
Planet Rock
Well I like to think I was the first on here to raise the prickly subject of actually liking some progressive rock. IIRC it opened something of a floodgate and many more were prepared to finally confess their dirty secret.
Planet Rock is my station of choice and I breathed a deep sigh of relief last week when it found a new buyer.
Please feel free to check out my Hawkwind topic that sank without a trace bar Mr. V V.
Oh and 50 this August.
thank you
>>>Planet Rock is my station
>>>Planet Rock is my station of choice and I breathed a deep sigh of relief last week when it found a new buyer.<<<
Me too! I don't know how I would have managed without it! I've just bought one of those Pure Highways for the car now we've had the good news:-)
Gnarled
veteran of punk rock wars (TM) sobs softly and heads tyo smoking room with revolve and gob-splattered leather jacket. I never thought I'd lose!
Given that during the
Given that during the Clash's hey day, Topper Headon saw Phil Collins at Heathrow, checked for any press and then ran up and said, 'You're my favourite drummer', did anyone ever really imagine punk killed prog and classic rock?
Topper spokesman for a generation...
I heard Mick Jones recently admitted a secret admiration for Steve Hackett, and Paul Simonon has often been seen out and about in Ladbroke Grove in deep conversation with Mike Rutherford.
Maybe it's not just the
Maybe it's not just the Clash and Genesis..?
The Damned obviously liked Pink Floyd and the Exploited were into Emerson Lake and Palmer. Or maybe not...
Loads
Clash records into firepit at bottom of the garden...... Am I the only person here who's never liked prog? Aside from Solsbury Hill, obviously, but I suspect it's some atavistic tribal throwback which lens me an antipathy to Tory frog prince Phil Collins and the migraine-inducing smugness of Rick 'F***ing' Wakeman.
And, vague link ahoy, I'm off one's rockers on paracetamol and ibruprofen for a 'orrible toofache - can I nominate George Lamb as the radio equivalent of prog rock? Tiresome, long-winded, dull and incredibly offensive to my ears.
ps The Exploited - well, Big John more than Wattie - were actually big Bill Nelson fans. He's erm progesque, ain;t he?
'That way lies death'
all is not lost...bring on Bill Drummond with the AK-47s.
I've seen the future and it's The17 with thier 'monotonous ahh sound'.
God bless him!
Classic Rock - there's no such genre
Deep Purple - a few good songs, maybe
ELP - fine (if a bit overblown) up to Works
Genesis - wonderful until the one after Duke
Yes - probably should have quit recording after Going For The One
AC/DC - a horrid noise
Iron Maiden - an even worse noise
Yes, Genesis & ELP are progressive, the others are hard rock.
ELP
ELP were never really fashionable even when they were selling out the Empire Pool (now Wembley Arena) for several nights at at time. I loved them when I was about 17 but it was never cool to admit it. I remember that Yes were considered cool but I could never get into them. Looking back now as a 51 year old I can see that a lot of ELP music was just flash for flashes sake and the lyrics were excrutiatingly embarrassing. But nothing can take away the excitement and passion I felt at the time and a little bit of that still lingers when I play the occasional track today (but only in small doses). Still can't hear the Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition without thinking of the ELP version - despite the "in the burning of our yearning" lyrics.
ELP
Great 2CD Best Of, duff albums.
ELP me father ELP me!
ELP would have to be one of the most boring bands of all time, Deep Purple had a few good albums like In Rock and Machine Head and a great live album. Genesis were only interesting when Gabriel was around. Yes = Yawn, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull and Hawkwind in the 70's did it for me, then came the revolution that was punk! Now there was a time!
Once You Get Over Some of The Cookie Monster Vocals
...Opeth's 'Ghost Reveries' is probably one of the best rock/metal albums in recent years.