But is it Prog?

So I'm listening to the second album by The Buggles, and asking myself, is it prog? There are connections - for those who don't know, after their first album (The Plastic Age) Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of The Buggles joined the definitely prog group Yes, shortly after Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman had quit (Jon for the first time, Rick for the second). The resulting album Drama is one of my favourites, and is unquestionably prog-rock. It's got a cover by Roger Dean, and at least one song is 10 minutes long, that's all the proof you really need.

But when things didn't really work out, Yes fell apart, Downes and Yes guitarist Steve Howe went off to form Asia, and Trevor Horn finished off the second Buggles album more or less by himself. It's largely electronic pop, but there are shades of prog-ness about it all, including a different version of "Into The Lens" from Drama, here re-titled "I Am A Camera". There's a cinematic sweep to it all that could very well be in prog territory - but is it prog? Really?

More importantly, does it matter, if I like it what difference does a label make? The only benefit of such labels is maybe to tell other people "if you like X, you might like Y", which is how I got from Marillion to Genesis, Genesis to Yes, Yes to Porcupine Tree and so on. Labels do serve a purpose, as long as we use them to guide us on a voyage of discovery rather than tie us down and restrict us. The key element of progressive music for me is that there should be no borders, no restrictions, no pre-conceptions. Which is why I can start from The Buggles and go in one direction to Yes, another to The Art of Noise (although there are actually multiple connections between the prog behemoths and the electronic pioneers), or even a third way to Dollar (though that's a direction I may not go down very often!).

Prog Blogging!

It seems recently that progressive or "prog" (as a term applied to a musical genre) is no longer such a dirty word, which is good news for me as so much of the music I enjoy could easily have the prog label applied. No longer a guilty secret, it's now acceptable to step out of the wardrobe (if you can fight your way through all the silver capes) and say loudly and proudly (and preferably in 3/4 time with a key change in the middle) I Like Prog!

So when I decided to dip my toes into the cool waters of the blogosphere where better to start than with a blog on prog? Well, probably several better places but hey ho, I've started now. This won't be structured, it won't be chronological, it may not even make sense, but it's all good practice in writing and if no one else reads it at least I will!

I'm not going to set myself the impossible task of defining what is or is not progressive rock, not yet at least. But the music I like that can be considered under that heading includes the big names from the 70s like Genesis (my first prog love), Yes, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull, the second wave from the 80s like Marillion, IQ and Pendragon, and more contemporary exponents like Porcupine Tree, The Pineapple Thief and Big Big Train.

What do they have in common? I suppose a striving for something, well, bigger. More sweeping and passionate than standard pop music, something with a classical sensibility, and one not afraid to be influenced by or reference a wider variety of sources and musical forms than any narrow genre constraints.

Why call my post The Wonderer? Well, in full it's Melmoth the Wonderer, a poor pun on the title of a fine gothic novel "Melmoth the Wanderer" by Charles Maturin. Very complex, very passionate, very romantic, much like the music I love. I'm self delusional, I know, but I see myself as a Romantic - that is, in the Beethoven and Wordsworth sense of the term, not the Barbara Cartland version. Wind swept and interesting as Billy Connolly would say. Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, that sort of thing. I've amended it to The Wonderer to suggest the sense of wonder I get from the best music, and also because heading a blog The Wanderer sounds like someone who rambles a lot and moves away from the point all the time... hmmm, shot myself in the foot there.

That'll do for now, a sort of introduction - consider it as a sort of prelude or an overture, and hope something more meaningful follows afterwards! That may be a consideration of my beginnings in prog, or musings on what I'm listening to now. We'll see...