The 100 Best Classic Progressive Rock Songs: Part 2, 80-61
Sean MurphyKing Crimson “Red” (from Red) The progenitors of math rock on their last album of the ‘70s. <i>Red</i> is the paradigm that every pointy-headed prog rock band worships at the…
The 100 Best Classic Progressive Rock Songs: Part 1, 100-81
Welcome back, my friends to the show that never ends. After gamely, if humbly attempting to track the 25 best old-school progressive albums of all time, it’s inevitable to turn…
“On This Day” or, Take My Life, Please
The author, en fuego in '09 Remember when Facebook was still new? The novelty of being able to keep tabs on everyone, like e-mail on amphetamines, with pictures (and now,…
Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine: 10 Songs of Righteous Protest
Ian Anderson called it, in '74: The ice-cream castles are refrigerated; The super-marketeers are on parade. There's a golden handshake hanging round your neck, As you light your cigarette on…
Why Is Prog Rock So Inadequate, Simplistic, Reductive, Portentous and…Perfect? (Revisited)
It’s always crucial, when talking trends—musical or otherwise—to contextualize the times and remember that wardrobe malfunctions, chemical excess and unspeakable atrocities like porn-star mustaches never exist within a vacuum. To…
My Kind of Christmas Music (Revisited)
Tchaikovsky Corelli Bach A couple from John Fahey The Who Chuck Berry a three-fer from Jethro Tull! Sonny Boy The Godfather Donny Satchmo Ella! (An embarrassment of riches here, here,…
If I Could Wave My Magic Wand… (Revisited)
(Editor's note: Rush's last great album (in my opinion), Presto, was released this week, in 1989. A quarter-century plus one year ago. Yikes. Here is a piece I wrote in…
R.I.P. Glenn C. (Remembering Glenn Cornick and Jethro Tull’s ‘Stand Up’)
Glenn Cornick was, of course, Jethro Tull's first bassist. He and Ian did not get along (something that can be said for most of the other 10,000 ex-Tull musicians) so…
Reappraising Jethro Tull’s ‘Minstrel in the Gallery’
Jethro Tull, again? Seriously? Yes, seriously. The reason Tull warrants continued discussion is because unlike just about all other prog rock acts of the mid-‘70s, they were—in their businesslike, seemingly…
Ripe with Rich Attainments: Jethro Tull’s ‘A Passion Play’, Reassessed (Revisited)
For prog-rock aficionados, the hits keep coming, and one man above all deserves our gratitude: Steven Wilson. Whether it’s Yes, King Crimson, or Jethro Tull—all of whom he has worked…