What are your Progressive Rock Roots?

[Mike413]

I was born in 1970 so I missed the first wave of prog as I was way too young to know about it let alone listen to it. My dad had a copy of "the Yes album" which I'm pretty sure I remember seeing and possibly hearing as a young kid but I also remember other albums he had such as ones by The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Santana, The Beatles, GF(RR ), The Doors, Janis Joplin just to name a few. I did like the Beatles starting from about age 7 but for the most part I mostly only remember what was played on the radio and it was mostly pop stuff. I first got into music in a major way around the age of 11 1/2-12 years old. I was mostly into buying top 40 singles at the time and distinctly remember hearing and buying "heat of the moment" when it was a hit but I had no clue at the time about the history of the band members. A few months later I got more into rock and pretty much abandoned top 40/pop stuff altogether. At this point I was buying cassette copies of stuff like Duran Duran, Rush(signals), Journey, Foreigner, etc. I bought Yes's 90125 when it came out and like it but didn't think of it as prog at the time. In the summer of 84 at camp a couple of brothers who were into Yes kind of got me more interested in the group and I subsequently slowly started to buy their stuff. I also had a cousin who was(is)a huge Genesis fan(he liked Yes also)so that helped a lot too. Remember this was the mid 80's and was not the best time to be getting into(or discovering)prog. I distinctly remember my cousin saying to me something like "if you like the earlier Genesis stuff you will like this record called "in the court of the Crimson King." I subsequently bought some KC stuff on cassette. It was a gradual process for me but to me this music was more adventurous and interesting than most regular rock that I heard on the radio. It was special to me then and it still is.

[SqualorMTL]

My roots go back to when my older brother came home with Genesis - Live, then Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot a week later. My sister also had Yessongs. I was really into Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin at the time (1975-76) but these albums really changed the way I listen to rock music, or music in general. I also discovered King Crimson, Gentle Giant and ELP and I've seen all these bands at least once before the 70s were over with my brother (the first time I ever smoked weed was at a Yes concert, Tormato tour) except for King Crimson when I saw the Discipline tour in Montreal in 1980 (?). In the 80s, I embraced punk rock and later, metal. I always went back to listening to the old prog classics when my friends weren't around!

Right now, I listen to pretty much every genre of music. But the constant for me are 70s rock, old school hardcore punk, sludge metal, early industrial and the old prog classics.

[wildk]

I was 12 my brother 19 and he suddenly introduced Family, Floyd, Genesis, Wishbone Ash, Zeppelin into my life - it wouldn't be the same again. I's always loved a great tune, I'd like weird stuff (some beatles) but to me a great tune, then a journey and a return home ( back to a good tune) meant prog to me. I guess that's what makes a good song but I have patience and can string it out for 20 minutes if you like. Suppers Ready heaven but it can be done in 5 - 7 minutes A farewell to Kings. Anything as long as I've travelled and arrived home happy.