Roll the Stone Away: Jethro Tull’s ‘A Passion Play’ at 50
During the years between my senior year in high school and my sophomore year of college Jethro Tull went from being an important band in my life to, by far,…
During the years between my senior year in high school and my sophomore year of college Jethro Tull went from being an important band in my life to, by far,…
It doesn't matter whether Pink Floyd's masterpiece is the best rock album of all time (just as we can agree that there are other worthy contenders for the imaginary throne,…
If Ian McDonald had done nothing other than be a crucial (arguably the crucial) member of the band that, in 1969, recorded the album that launched a thousand pretentious, proggy,…
Happy 75th to an artist who has not merely helped shape and define whatever it is, exactly, prog rock has managed to encompass, but as a positive force for music:…
He knows changes aren’t permanent, but change is. Taken from Rush’s most famous song, “Tom Sawyer,” this line might best illuminate the “elemental empathy” that came to define Neil Peart,…
Sad news to report the passing of original member Ray Thomas. In tribute, I'm reposting my entry on The Moody Blues (from my PopMatters column The Amazing Pudding), originally published…
Jethro Tull: “Heavy Horses” (from Heavy Horses) Meanwhile back in the year… 1978? It’s an embarrassing commentary on how close-minded so many folks are that they’ve probably never even heard…
Rush: “Cygnus X-1 Book One: The Voyage” (from A Farewell to Kings) Rush is now, rightly, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (not that this dubious honor from…
King 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…
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…