Beatles

 

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
June 1967

    

• The Beatles did three things that changed the course of popular music: 1) they wrote their own songs; 2) they took control of the recording process; and 3) they gave us Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Released at the height of the summer of 1967, the Beatles had been off the road for almost eighteen months and immersed at Abbey Road studios. That it is a conceptual album, and not just a collection of songs, makes Sgt Pepper the landmark that it is. From the jacket photo, to the music on the vinyl, to even the cutout inserts inside, exercising their creativity was the Beatles end game, and in this album it would fully manifest. While others had attempted it, the Beatles delivered the object - a record album - that everyone wanted and would want to create. After the previous year’s masterpiece Revolver, the first hint of the Beatles next move appeared on the Penny Lane" b/w "Strawberry Fields Forever" single released in February. When Sgt. Peppers arrived in June, it was their most intellectual statement yet, raising the bar for all of Pop music. From the adult theme of "Getting Better" to the blatant psychedelia of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", the Beatles offer their most mature and cohesive effort, best encapsulated in the epic track "A Day In The Life". Equally important was the reception that their audience, indeed the world, had to the album. In addition to burgeoning awareness of psychedelia, the album coincided with the advent of stereo headphones, and was the first album to feature printed lyrics. All points connected: with Sgt. Peppers, the Beatles and producer George Martin captured the minds and imaginations of a world waiting to be captured. So enough has been written about this album and with good reason: British art rock starts here. This was the pretense under which most Progressive rock was made.

• Pink Floyd
• A Saucerful of Secrets
  June 1968
  Tower

  The loss of Barrett may have seemed insurmountable, but with fellow Cambridge guitarist David Gilmour in tow, the group forged ahead into 1968. The band first released a single, "It Would Be So Nice" b/w "Julia Dream" in April, but driven by pressure from EMI for a hit, it was mostly throwaway. The album however fared better. A few of the songs, including Wright's "Remember a Day" and Barrett's "Jugband Blues", were recorded the previous year and, quite frankly, sound it. The remaining illustrated the transition to the post-Barrett Floyd. Barrett did in fact offer some guitar on the album, as it was recorded in various stages over the pervious year. But clearly it was Waters who came in to deliver the goods. "Let There Be More Light" was the first track recorded without any contribution from Barrett. It sounds a little dated but the opening bass riff certainly isn't - it has been sampled ad infinitum. Gilmour also stepped up to the microphone on the track, with a voice that became a signature for the band. The title track and "Set The Controls for the Heart Of The Sun" was classic. Brooding and pulsing, it was definitely an adult trip, propelled by Mason's deft but never busy drumming. The trip was still psychedelic, but now based on the chic avant-garde of their live set rather than anything "summer of love". The Floyd took another step toward the Progressive, relying on their execution and recording of the track, more so than Barrett’s discreet compositions. But the album wasn’t without some duds: Waters attempts at Barrett-like song-craft, "Corporal Clegg", and Wright’s second tune on the album, "See-Saw", entirely missed the mark. The sophomore album's marvel was that it existed at all. It was a definite success, breaking into the UK Top 10 at No. 9. The band released another single, "Point Me At the Sky" b/w "Careful With That Axe Eugene" in December, their last for almost a decade.

  Genesis
  From Genesis To Revelation
  March 1969
  London

 

The Genesis story began at the Charterhouse public school in Surrey. Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel, and guitarists Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips were all classmates in two competing bands. Adding drummer Chris Stewart, they joined forces in 1967 with the hopes of becoming a songwriting collective. The band’s earliest efforts were proffered through the old school tie, when fellow Carthusian Jonathan King agreed to produce some demos. This contact eventually led to a recording contract from Decca. It’s a point that can’t be avoided; the boys were middle class and that upbringing would heavily influence their music. Indeed, the Prog aesthetic was never lowbrow or pedestrian. Over the course of the next year, the band would record a pair of singles and their debut album From Genesis To Revelation at London’s Regent studios - whenever the boys were on holiday, and John Silver eventually replaced Stewart on drums. It is of course a very early effort from the group, a pre-history full of the naiveté of the era but more aptly their lives thus far. Chipping through the syrupy string arrangements, the album does reveal the talent of some very young artists. "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet" contains strong melodic sense, while "Am I Very Wrong" benefits from some heavy phasing. Gabriel’s vocals are particularly expressive, and in pop tradition, mixed right up front and center. There are also snippets of originality that would later evolve into Genesis’ grand twelve-string sound and Prog compositions. Witness the brief appearance of "Twilight Alehouse" between "The Fireside Song" and "The Serpent". Although the album and the associated singles sold very little, the inauspicious debut did not go unnoticed, earning a fine review in London’s underground newspaper, the International Times.

Yes

Time And A Word
July 1970
Atlantic

Time and A Word didn't break a whole lot of new ground for Yes, but it did confirm what most already knew: they were a force to be reckoned with. In the studio, one Eddie Offord sat fortuitously at the engineer’s desk for the first time. But their sophomore album wouldn't be the quantum leap, Yes needed to propel them into the big league. In fact, the only leap here was Tony Cox's orchestral arrangements, a rather de rigueur post-psychedelic ornamentation of the day. To their credit, the strings work better here than other albums of the time, thanks in part Tony Colton’s upfront production. The album’s got a huge sound, propelled relentlessly by the Squire and Bruford rhythm team. Yes still weren't 100% on original tunes; capable covers of Ritchie Havens and Stephen Stills songs comprised half of the first side. The Anderson penned "Then" is particular satisfying, while his "Clear Days" benefits from Cox’s "Eleanor Rigby" style arrangement. Anderson's lyrics first tackled some cosmic themes here on "Astral Traveler", something he’d more than return to. His old Warrior mate David Foster co-wrote "Time And A Word" and "Sweet Dreams", two great pop songs that would crop up in Yes' live set over the next decade. But wait, this was supposed to be Prog rock, wasn’t it? The album managed to crack the UK charts, rising to No. 45. Peter Banks left the band just after the album was released; so soon after, in fact, that it was Steve Howe who appears on the album'sUScover

Jethro Tull

Aqualung
April 1971
Reprise

On Aqualung, the lines begin to blur between myth and man: Is Jethro Tull Ian Anderson? Is Anderson Aqualung? Is Aqualung Jethro Tull? Like the disheveled character on the album's cover or the band’s portrait on the gatefold, Anderson and company became larger than life with Aqualung and were in fact all three. Anderson (and wife Jenny who penned the title track's lyrics) tackled his views on religion, giving the album the loose distinction of "concept". Undeniably Tull, the Aqualung is harder rocking than any previous effort and Anderson’s vocal delivery followed suit. "My God", "Hymn 43" and "Locomotive Breath" are chock full of classic riffs and hooks, with Barre’s double-tracked guitar the ace in the hole. The title track and "Locomotive Breath" were also undeniably FM radio-friendly, the album became standard issue to nearly every guitar-wielding teenager of the era. Simply put, Tull took Prog to a new level, bridging the hard rocking of Led Zeppelin into discrete and concise pop songs. The album was also interspersed with gentler moments and in particular "Mother Goose" hearkens to the Tull of the previous album. In a role he would hold for a decade, David Palmer debuts his orchestration skills on "Wond’ring Aloud". Jethro Tull toured the US extensively in support of the album, which finally cracked the US Top 10 at No. 7. In the UK, it would settle at No. 4. Aqualung was one of the first albums of the progressive era to earn a gold award and has since garnered multi-platinum status

Strawbs

Grave New World
February 1972
A&M

The Strawberry Hill Boys were a bluegrass trio founded by Dave Cousins, Tony Hooper and Ron Chesterman in 1967. Sandy Denny had a brief tenure in the band, recording one unreleased album before she quit to join Fairport Convention. In 1969 they shortened their name and landed a recording contract with A&M. The Strawbs recorded two early albums with production heavyweights Gus Dudgeon and Tony Visconti respectively. In 1970, Chesterman left and Cousins and Hooper added the rhythm section of John Ford and Richard Hudson. Session-keyboard wiz Rick Wakeman, recently extricated from the Royal Academy of Music, was next to join. His debut, Just A Collection of Antiques and Curios, was recorded live at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, however his role was really as soloist. The album managed to chart in the UK. Producer Visconti urged more electric influence to Cousin’s songwriting and the resulting From The Witchwood, though still reflecting the band’s folk roots, put the band again in the UK Top 40. By the time of Grave New World, Blue Weaver had replaced Wakeman. More importantly Cousins’ songwriting had gone Progressive, best demonstrated here in "Tomorrow" and "New World". The album ranges from the acoustic of "On Going Older" to the more eclectic rock of "Queen of Dreams". Cousins, too is a unique vocalist, his raspy voice not unlike Peter Gabriel. The album would become the bands best selling to date, reaching No. 11 in the UK. However, boosted by the single "Part Of The Union" at year’s end, their next album, Bursting At The Seams, proved to be their commercial peak. Hooper parted ways as the band drifted farther from their folk roots, with guitarist Dave Lambert replacing him. Cousins took the remainder of the year off to record a solo album, Two Weeks Last Summer. The Strawbs would continue with varying success until their demise in 1978.

 

Pink Floyd

Dark Side Of The Moon
March 1973
Harvest

There probably isn't a whole lot of need to introduce this album; chances are you are one of the countless millions that either owned the record or had one of its enclosed posters on your bedroom wall. Dark Side of the Moon refined a suite of songs Floyd debuted live as "Eclipse" the year prior. The band then spent the second half of 1972 recording the album, albeit interrupted for a US tour. Yet, as the prism on the cover suggests, this was a new direction for Pink Floyd. Gone were most every psychedelic reference and lengthy jams, but certainly not the experimentation: interspersed dialogue, tape effects and the VCS3 added a great deal of texture to Dark Side of the Moon’s landscape. Ironically, engineer Alan Parsons’ claimed, "we recorded everything very simply. The album sounds more complex than it actually is". Though the album had significant contributions from the other members, Waters would begin his mark as Floyd’s preeminent songwriter. Here he presents Floyd’s most direct and terrestrial collection since their debut. His lyrics, which straddle the various states of the human condition, certainly have universal appeal. It's no wonder that songs like "Time" and "Money" became radio staples. Gilmour, on the other hand, shines through as the performer, delivering his most powerful vocal and guitar work on record. The album reached No. 1 in the US shortly after its release, but would have to settle for the No. 2 slot in its native UK. The recording is one of the few albums of any era that is simply perfect, and as such, the logical heir to Sgt Pepper’s throne. Dark Side Of The Moon went on to spend the next fourteen years on the US album charts, eventually selling over 34 million copies. Floyd however, would spend the next two dealing with the after effects of this great success.

King Crimson

Starless and Bible Black
February 1974
Atlantic

Appearing a little over a year after their "debut", Starless And Bible Black was the second album from the new and improved King Crimson. However, the majority of the record was based on live improvisational recordings from a concert recorded the previous fall. It’s no wonder as Crimson spent the better part of March through November 1973 on the road with only a few weeks in the summer to rest. The first side contained shorter snippets, as well as a few (more or less) "songs". Both "The Great Deceiver" and "We’ll Let You Know" rely on fury to get their point across (which they did), while the gentler "The Night Watch" is simply resplendent. The other tracks on the first side are more or less short improvisations, the drum-less "Trio" a throwback to the Islands era band. The second side houses the improvisation of the title track. After a slow start, it gains significant critical mass, rising to a glorious climax. With the added studio overdubbing, "Fracture" is far more structured but nonetheless exciting. The first half of the track hints at its potential, but you’ll have to wait until the closing section for full climax. Again, the key is the bass and drums of Wetton and Bruford; as Fripp would later comment, they were "terrible to play over." Indeed. With only twelve minutes of studio recordings, the album seemed a little short on material, but taken as a live record it was another strong statement from the new kings of rock improvisation. The album charted in both the UK and US, at No. 28 and No. 64 respectively. Crimson was back on the road after the albums release and stayed there until their last concert on July 1st, 1974 in New York’s Central Park.

Hawkwind

Warrior On The Edge Of Time
May 1975
Atco

Since we last visited Hawkwind, their ranks continued to revolve: both Robert Calvert and Dik Mik left Hawkwind prior to 1974’s Hall of the Mountain Grill. Simon House, ex-Third Ear Band joined on keyboards. Their last album for United Artists, it rose to No. 16 in the UK. The band then added second drummer Allan Powell, but didn’t replace the departing Dettmar. Sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock eventually assumed Calvert’s role. Warrior At The Edge Of Time, their debut for Charisma (Atco in the US), found not only a new label but a new attitude as well. For one thing, it enjoyed a far better recording than any of their previous albums. The opener "Assault & Battery Part 1" and the ensuing "The Golden Void" still retain that patented Hawkwind rhythm, but Turner’s flute and sax and House’s keyboards add new texture. "Opa-Loka" displays the band’s new progression, while the atmosphere of Brock’s "Demented Man" enjoys a detail never before displayed. The second sides’ "Magnu" and "Spiral Galaxy" further attest to the change. Though the proto-punk single "Kings Of Speed" didn’t chart, the album reached No. 13 in the UK. Lemmy was fired after his drug bust derailed the band’s North American tour. Paul Rudolph replaced him and the band released the Astounding Sounds and Amazing Music in 1976. One further album, Quark Strangeness and Charm, with the excellent "Hassan I Sah Ba" was released in 1977 before the whole Hawkwind ship crash-landed. After a brief sidestep as the Hawklords, the boys would resurface just before the end of the decade

Kansas

Leftoverture
October 1976
Kirshner

Kansas’ roots are in the unlikely place of er... Kansas, when two local Topeka bands, White Clover and Kansas, joined forces in 1972. The six-piece band signed to rock promoter Don Kirshner’s label, and released three albums in the space of two years, each with incremental success as a result of touring. The second had a single, "Song For America", reach No 57 in the US charts. Kansas’s had an ace in the hole in Robby Steinhardt’s violin, and Steve Walsh’s voice also added to their unique signature. Hard and busy, their brand of prog wasn’t exclusively derivative of the English but rather took a lot of its cues from American southern rock. By the third album Masque, their sound had started to solidify, but Leftoverture is where it all came together. With big harmonies and manic riffing, "Carry On Wayward Son" kicks the album off in high gear. It’s no wonder that the song was a Top 10 single for the band. Tracks like "Miracles out Of Nowhere" and "Opus Insert" feature rich arrangements that always remains melodic yet never fail to rock hard. Producer Jeff Glixman’s hand deserves some credit too. Keyboardist and songwriter Kerry Livgren’s lyrics contain Christian undertones and, their overt sincerity sets them apart from anything British. The album’s closer, "Magnum Opus" was arranged from bits and pieces that the band had accumulated (and hence the title of the album) and illustrates Kansas at their best. The album was an unqualified success reaching No. 5 in the US charts while going double platinum. Kansas’ follow-up album, Point Of Know Return rode a similar course, reaching the US No. 4. It spawned two singles, including their "Stairway to Heaven" knock-off "Dust In the Wind". The band would release a live album thereafter, but by the end of the decade, personnel changes would put their best days behind them

Rush

Farwell To Kings
September 1977
Mercury

Rush were a Canadian trio who went from riff-laden heavy metal (read Led Zeppelin style) to British progressive (read Yes style) rock in just a few short years. They progressed steadily both artistically and commercially over a few short years, culminating in 2112, their 1976 album, in part based on the writings of Ayn Rand. Their US breakthrough was the result of touring, captured on the live album All The World's A Stage. Rush had an excellent and versatile guitarist in Alex Lifeson. Drummer Neil Peart, who joined after the band's second album, also provided lyrics to the band's music. Bassist Geddy Lee was known for not only his trebly bass, but also his high-pitched croon. They flew over to England and Rockfield studios to record this, their fifth album. It represented a substantial leap in their development. "A Farewell to Kings" opens the album. The song is typical of Rush sound: propelled by Peart's drumming, Lifeson and Lee hammer away until Lifeson's lead takes flight. "Xanadu" takes 2112 one further; Lee also doubled on keyboards, providing a further refinement of their sound. The straightforward "Closer To The Heart" received substantial airplay in the US, even charting as a single. If there was a formula to Rush's success, it was radio-friendliness. Theirs was the new face of prog rock, and it more than fit the changing landscape. "Cinderella Man" comes from the same mold. But by no means were Rush a push over. "Cygnus X-1" is the sci-fi opus; multi-parted, plodding and complete with the 'to be continued' byline. Yet there was something pedestrian to their virtuosity. It didn't alienate as it evolved. In fact, where most prog bands dropped it as they moved into the 80s, Rush relished in it. The album was their first to chart on both sides of the Atlantic, straddling the Top 30.

Emerson Lake & Palmer

Love Beach
November 1978
Atlantic

Well tanned, the members of ELP grace the cover Love Beach, on the shores of Nassau where the album was recorded. Certainly after the financially disastrous tours following the Works tour, the band was in need for a break. The album reflected the extremes of ELP - when they were good, they were great, but when they were awful, you had Love Beach. (The band has since acknowledged that the album was pursued only to fulfill their contractual obligation with Atlantic). Pete Sinfield provided lyrics for the record, though the sun may have also affected him as well: here’s the refrain from Love Beach" - "I'll make love to you on love beach". The first side contains a series of shorter songs, mostly penned by Lake that amounted to little more than over-arranged boogie rock, though "For You" was marginally tolerable. The second side however raised a more little hope, with the Emerson penned "Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentlemen". The first and fourth sections trace more familiar ELP (read classical) terrain, while "Love At First Sight" is the overly romantic sap we've come to expect. "Letters from the Front" however is most successful, offering a more modern take on the ELP sound. The album barely cracked the Top 50 on both sides of the Atlantic. That was all from ELP. The band folded with little fanfare, only a live album from the Works tour and a Greatest hits released posthumously. Palmer fronted the short-lived PM before joining Asia, while Lake released a couple solo albums a year later. Emerson found steady work in movie soundtracks

Pink Floyd

The Wall
November 1979
Columbia

Pink Floyd takes the honors of offering the last serving of excess of the decade, spread out over the double album The Wall. Just listen to the opening bars of "In The Flesh". Waters voice is the first heard and it’s no surprise. When the band went to record what would be this album, he offered two ‘song cycles’; the band chose the first (while the second would appear some years later as The Pros And Cons of Hitchhiking). Since their last album, the other members of Floyd had cut solo albums to little commercial (or artistic) success. The recording of the album was tumultuous at best; Wright was ejected by the end of the sessions, and producer Ezrin completed the album in Los Angeles with studio musicians. Fortunately, Gilmour leaves some evidence of his participation, especially on the excellent "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell", both co-written with Waters. The songs, on the other hand, are strictly Waters. It’s a perfectly choreographed script, offering almost none of the loose instrumentals that had defined the Floyd throughout the decade. That said, undoubtedly there are some classic tracks: the singles, "Mother", "Hey You" and "Nobody’s Home". But by the fourth side, it’s the album’s own weight that brings down the wall, and nothing else. There is no denying that The Wall was a phenomenal success. "Another Brick In The Wall" topped the single charts on both sides of the Atlantic, while the album would reach No. 1 in the US, and peak at No. 3 in the UK. Over the next two years the band would stage live renditions of the album in a series of concerts held in Los Angeles, New York, London and Dortmund. The movie of the same name, starring Bob Geldorf as Pink, would appear two and a half years later. Finally, a decade after its first release, Water’s would perform The Wall with an all-star cast in Berlin. If you didn’t think it was a load of bullocks in the first place, be sure then to watch that video. The End of an Era.