cktimes.ca Archives for Classic Vinyl


Classic Vinyl

With John Gardiner

Progressive rock seemed the way to the future

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

So, there I was back on the Saturday evening of the Labour Day weekend, sitting in the ballpark in Walkerton, Ontario, getting ready for a terrific evening. One of the great bands of my youth was about to take to the stage to kick off the Watershed III Festival. Bloody well right – it was British progressive rock group, Supertramp.
And what do you think was the first sound that emanated through the P.A. system, reverberating off the surrounding hills? – right – it was the mournful sound of the harmonica at the beginning of School, the first cut on the immensely popular "Crime of the Century" album – the one that really got it started for the band, leading to a string of successful records through the 1970's.
And let me tell you that this group of aging rockers still has what it takes to really rock a good venue - and being outdoors under the stars in Walkerton was just that. Original members included horn guy extraordinaire John Helliwell, keyboardist Richard Davies and drummer Bob Benberg and they were certainly up to the job as were the new folks who've been added along the way.
They played hit after hit off their albums, including several from Breakfast in America, which firmly established them as a supergroup. I can well remember listening to The Logical Song back when the album first came out and while I was a struggling university student – I felt the song had been written just for me, the lyrics fitting so well. But that was one of the keys to Supertramp's success – great music and haunting lyrics that seemed to hit home.
I must add, too, that there were several new songs performed, and although they weren't what the audience was hungry for, a couple of them were terrific, drawing huge ovations and sounding the way you'd expect Supertramp to sound 25 years later.
Seeing Supertramp was a special treat for me because their type of music was my first love back in the '70's. The guys I was playing with and myself were right into what we called "progressive rock", the title for a certain type of rock music that contained outstanding and almost orchestral instrumention with plenty of amazing solos, enormous vocal work with multi-parted harmonies and great, expansive themes either to the songs or entire albums.
Bands like Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and a whole host of groups that played this type of music thrived during the 1970's. They rarely broke through onto the pop charts with their material but most attracted a dedicated fan base and achieved almost cult status. Some, like Floyd, broke through in a big way, while others like Yes, achieved a more limited breakthrough with one or two tunes that could be modified to fit radio format.
When we were really into these bands, we thought they were what was coming down the pipe in rock music. After all, during the 1960's, musical experimentation was the order of the day and with each new experiment, it seemed we were reaching further along the musical road.
It seemed to us that rock was evolving through various stages and its pinnacle was to be progressive rock, which in some cases, was almost symphonic in nature. After all, classical music is generally considered to be the work of true genius and if progressive rock mimicked it, then it might be genius as well. That's what we thought.
Progressive rock can trace its roots back to the mid-1960's, I think, to bands like Vanilla Fudge. This outstanding rock group was part of the acid rock tradition of 1965-69 and their album "The Beat Goes On" is simply a must have for any rock record collector.
There are a couple of Beatle covers on the disc, but the band's rendering of other interesting tunes like Hound Dog and In The Mood is also fairly unique. Great band and Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert would later back up guitar wizard Jeff Beck on an album of major proportions in rock history.
King Crimson were another early progressive rock band and their self-titled album with the unbelievable artwork on the cover is another must-own for rock album collectors. There is really no tune that says it quite like "21st Century Schitzoid Man" and you really should re-listen to the lyrics these days. Court of the Crimson King is an amazing tune.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer were another early one, giving us Lucky Man in about 1967 and the first charted use of the synthesizer. And, man, does their album "Tarkus" cook and tunes like Jerusalem and Karn Evil #9 were great. Keith Emerson had actually been in the Nice prior and they were of Vanilla Fudge vintage.
Progressive rock did indeed seem to me to be the pinnacle of rock music back in the days of Supertramp and the others. I was sure we were headed for Clockwork Orange territory with classical music being played by rock bands. But I guess it wasn't dance music and as the world got shallower, so did the music.
Check out some of these old albums. Great tunes are great tunes and these are a good example.



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.