Ruminations - January 20, 2001
by Michael Askounes



Nancy Reagan, Trevor Rabin, And The Right-Wing Conspiracy


Not That Anyone ASKED, but…

Just recently, I was asked by my wonderful Editor-in-Chief [at Eclectic Earwig Reviews] why I thought that progressive rock was beginning to fade away in popularity after its renaissance of the 1990's. He cited the demise of a few Progressive Festivals due to lack of interest as being a possible harbinger of a bleak future for progressive rock. I thought this was interesting food for thought, so I’ve decided to write a little editorial on why I think Progressive Rock was never able to sustain the heights that it reached in the 1970’s. And the simple answer to the question “What happened to progressive rock?” can – in my opinion – be answered in two words:

Nancy Reagan

A Skinny Red Dress And A Bony Head

"Just say no" was the phrase that rang the death knell for progressive rock – mainly because the mind-inducing drugs of the 70's lent themselves to opening one's mind enough to accept songs over 5 minutes in length. I never really got into the drug scene myself, but I did spend quite a bit of time around people who liked to... err... "fire one up" every now and again, and these folks liked to do nothing better during their high times than put on a trippy Pink Floyd or Yes LP, and let their altered minds flow with the music. A three-minute song just wouldn't have done it for people in this altered state -- true relaxation required periods of at least 15 minutes, and progressive rock music was the best game in town for extended trips and long mind-altering evenings. Now do I think every prog fan was a pothead? No... but the only concerts nowadays where the scent of cannabis is still prominent are these huge 70's prog act reunion shows -- at the Kansas/Yes show I attended, there were 40 and 50 year-old men breaking open a pack of wraps and firing up a fatty right there in the parking lot!

Anyway, back to Nancy Reagan -- when she launched the "Just Say No" campaign, it had a major impact on the America's drug culture. Potheads began turning into crack-heads, and since crack addicts make Tom Arnold look mellower than John Tesh on lithium, progressive music generally required a bit more patience than their rock-infested brains could handle. This is why crack addicts generally listen to music like rap that only requires approximate 5 brain cells to analyze: 2 to figure out which James Brown song is being ripped off, 2 to try and keep track of all the cursing, and 1 to determine why the Hell the guy rapping is so angry at everyone. I did have the fortunate(?) opportunity to live next to a crack addict who actually was a big fan of the group Yes. However, crack messed his brain up so much that to him a 30-minute epic was playing the 30-second Bruford piece "Five Percent For Nothing" 60 times in a row.

So just based on the fact that with Rosalyn Carter we had Steve Howe, and with Nancy Reagan we had Trevor Rabin, it's obvious that Ronnie's main squeeze was heavily involved in a mass right-wing conspiracy to bring on the demise of progressive rock music. A conspiracy that worked wonderfully for the most part.

However, one 80-pound woman alone could not bring about the demise of the huge cash cow that was 70's style symphonic rock. No, there were certainly other factors at work that contributed to the downfall of progressive music and its current struggles to gain more mainstream acceptance. I will outline some of the more obvious ones below.

1. A large number of progressive fans are annoying as hell.

To say that hardcore proggies can be a dogmatic and rude lot is like saying Mike Tyson has a little bit of emotional baggage. With all the negativity and overall inhumane treatment that newcomers to the genre receive from the self-proclaimed "leaders" of the progressive community (especially on the Internet), its no wonder that people don't want to become more involved in the scene. Between fans (ALL of whom are apparently professional critics) that constantly berate other people for their taste in music, to artists who are offended when any review is written that shows their music as being less than equal to Mozart and the Beatles, the entire progressive genre just reeks of arrogance, self-importance, and a bit of a delusional view of reality. For instance, let me use a conversation that would've taken place between me and a "hardcore proggie" at a recent Trey Gunn concert I attended, save for the fact that I'm making the whole thing up:

Me: Hey man, Trey really tore it up on that encore – don't you think?

Proggie: Yeah, I guess he's all right – but he was better last time I saw him, and he's sure no Tony Levin.

Me: Errr... yeah, I guess not.

Proggie: What YOU NEED to listen to is this new atonal RIO act out of Outer Mongolia called "Lava."

Me: Who???

Proggie: [Looking perplexed] You call yourself a prog fan and you've never heard of "Lava"??? You don't know what you're missing, dude! You see, "Lava" was founded by a Botwsanian autoharp player who wanted to toss aside traditional Western musical clichés for a more 20th Century "Bartok-ian" approach.

Me: [Rubbing my eyes] Uh-huh...

Proggie: They came out with three albums which were all tied together by a sweeping storyline that followed the chronicles of a second-string goaltender with the Manitoba Moose minor league hockey team and his quest for a seedless watermelon that tastes as good as the ones with seeds in them.

Me: What???

Proggie: Yeah... and all their songs are sung in a cross between Esperanto and Pig Latin! They're the real deal... if you don't dig "Lava," you don't know anything about music.

Me: ZZZZZZZZZ

It seems to me that progressive fans often profess their love for these outlandish bands as more of a "progressive rock fashion statement," than any actual enjoyment of the product. I suppose people feel important when a newbie asks them a question about a band like Spock's Beard, and their reply is something like "Don't waste your time with Spock's Beard... that's kid's stuff compared to [insert band that no one's ever heard of]." However, maybe a little more positive feedback would help the entire progressive community as a whole. Until fans of progressive music begin to realize that their opinions don't hold any more weight than those of the 13-year old, acne riddled teeny bopper with a copy of Eminem and ‘N Sync under her arm, this non-inclusive "stay out of our club" snobbish-ness will continue to drive fans away from the music we all love.

2. The Progressive community is often not "progressive" at all

A lot of times I'll hear opinions like "this band sold out in the 80s" or "all their stuff after [insert 20-year old album here] is crap." While sometimes these analyses are true, I feel that there are other times that progressive fans are so stuck on their favorite music or their favorite band lineups, that they often automatically denounce any change in the status quo without giving it a chance to prove itself. That's not very progressive thinking at all.

Case in point would be the Steve Howe vs. Trevor Rabin argument. Now I'm a huge Steve Howe fan, and am a very big fan of his work -- however, after watching Rabin play it became clear to me that he could play anything Steve Howe could play but play it faster and cleaner. And to top that off, he could play anything Rick Wakeman could play as well! Now whether you preferred Howe's style compared to Rabin is a different debate, but the bottom line is that this guy (Rabin) is probably one of, if not the most musically talented fellow ever to don a Yes uniform. But progressive fans do nothing but attack this guy to no end -- in my opinion because he's a) pretty good looking and b) likes to write a decent pop tune every now and again. These are pretty vapid reasons to dislike someone from a community that prides itself in its intellectualism and supposed open-mindedness.

So here we have a case of the progressive community clinging to the nihilistic view of "form over function," refusing to acknowledge a musician's talent simply because he's a "new guy" or "is ruining the band." Just as it's important to stop and give new progressive fans a chance to ease their way into the music before we start launch verbal attacks upon them, it's equally important to not sound so much like a jilted lover when our favorite bands change direction or lineups.

I mean, would you want to hang around a bunch of people who did nothing but complain? I know my friends hate it!

3. Performers are for the most part uncharismatic

In the hey-day of progressive rock, women attending concerts would get so stoned that they actually would see performers such as Geddy Lee and Roger Waters as being attractive. However, now in the 90s women have become smarter and more sober and are apparently much more interested in watching guys like Ricky Martin shake his butt, then they are in watching guys like Robert Fripp adjust his stool. I know it may sound sexist to say this, but most women I know are much more interested in having a "good time" when they go to concerts while men are more interested in the music itself. I know there are exceptions to this generalization, but I'm simply working from experience. I would imagine that most ladies would much rather spend an evening dancing and grooving than they would listening to a couple of guys argue about time signatures and which was the best Genesis album. By alienating over 50% of the population, mainstream success is going to be hard to achieve for progressive acts.

Conclusion

Despite the closings of recent progressive festivals, and the overall cantankerous and malcontented attitudes of many in the progressive community I still hold out hope that the genre will pull itself up by its bootstraps. Some of the modern progressive bands such as Flower Kings, Spock's Beard, Anekdoten, and Transatlantic are every bit as good as their 70's ancestors, but in today's age of quick information most music listeners simply don't have the time that's necessary to invest in a good prog CD. The dwindling of the American public's free time is simply a fact of life, and there's not much that can be done about that.

If progressive rock is to succeed in the future, I'm afraid it will most likely be without us - the hardcore progressive rock fans of yesterday's generation. The torch will more likely be carried by bands such as Radiohead, Third Eye Blind (who is considering doing a EP consisting of a 40-minute plus concept track), and other modern bands with large existing audiences and record contracts that allow them a great level of artistic freedom. These bands, and others, will hopefully elevate the progressive genre beyond the internal bickering and sad clinging to the past that results in the quagmire that is the current progressive scene.

But until more capable hands than ours can carry the progressive banner, I would urge the community to try and treat one another (especially newcomers) with a little more respect and dignity. Let's try to make new fans feel as welcome as we possibly can, and try and spread the word about bands that we feel strongly about to people who may otherwise have never heard of progressive music. Keep the faith!


Hmm... I'm struck by how some of the comments here echo... well, okay, presage... my recent editorial. I didn't have this piece in mind at all when I wrote my Sep 13, 2011 editorial. But, does the fact that the situation seems the same in 2011 as it did 2001 mean that the prog community is actually stable? That it is what it is and we disappointed we can't make it more and so become woeful? I don't know... ... -Stephanie Sollow, Sep 14, 2011








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Published on: 2001-01-20 (2253 reads)

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