Bloody Well Write
Send your letters to us at: Prog, Future Publishing, 1-10 Praed Mews, Paddington, London, W2 1QY, or email prog@futurenet.com. Letters may be edited for length. We regret that we cannot reply to phone calls. For more comment and prog news and views, find us on facebook.com under Prog.
ENCOURAGING SOUNDS
Thank you for producing Prog monthly. I grew up listening to (among others): Pink Floyd, Family, Captain Beefheart and The Grateful Dead (brilliant at Bickershaw) and, until reading Prog, did not realise that there were completely new bands developing this type of music.
Since reading your reviews my life has been enriched by listening to the wonderful Blackheart Orchestra, unfortunately missed in Guildford due to the lockdown. Also Mostly Autumn’s excellent Sight Of Day and White Rainbow made me realise that progressive music is alive and well. Thanks so much for your role in encouraging this.
James Whitehouse, via email
THE SPICE OF LIFE
I enjoyed your recent article presenting your thoughts on those albums that advanced progressive music over the last 50 or so years [The Most Influential Albums In Prog, #110]. As for how we all define progressive rock I felt compelled to write in as I really don’t think it’s intended to be so broad as to include any new sound or cross-pollination within any music (eg rap and new age). Still it’s challenging to constrain the definition too much. I think it needs to have some foundation in (what we call) rock music, and it probably needs to be more complex than a simple verse/chorus/verse song spat out by a three- or four-piece band of exclusively guitar, bass, drum and vocals. Like a good meal, it needs some spice, some colour and some presentation beyond just a slab of meat and a scrape of potatoes. But in order to be considered “progressive”, does that spice, colour or presentation need to always be new? For me I don’t think so. If, say, Porcupine Tree’s sixth album is every bit as good (in our subjective way of judging prog) as their first, is it no longer prog because it’s nothing new? Not in my book.