Ruminations - April 4, 2004
by Tom Karr



Why Progressive Rock Sucks!!!



I recently watched the broadcast of the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame 2004 induction awards ceremonies. Following the broadcast, I looked up the full list of inductees on the Hall of Fame's website, hoping to see such influential rock legends such as Yes, Genesis, or perhaps Jethro Tull or Ian Anderson. Maybe the greatest musicians rock music has ever produced would be listed among the "luminaries" honored at this prestigious museum of the "best and brightest" of the music we call rock. Keith Emerson would surely be among those honored, or Bill Bruford. Steve Howe perhaps, or Steve Hackett? Surely SOMEONE among the great English musicians or bands that revolutionized the music world in the 1970s would have a place among the honored.

No, un-uh, not one, none, zilch, nada, zero.

PLEASE, don't point out Pink Floyd. Have you read any of De Paul's Professor Bill Martin's books on progressive rock music? Good books, actually. I refer specifically to Listening To The Future. I do not agree with every single notion he puts forward, but I agree with his theory regarding "the Pink Floyd problem." He points out that while Pink Floyd is an undoubtedly fine rock band, they are just that -- a rock band and not a progressive rock band. A fine psychedelic rock band even, but NOT a progressive rock band.

Let's look at it this way, shall we? This is a civil rights issue, no less really. Here is where it gets dangerous. Progressive rock music has been and is undoubtedly still thought of, by those who vote in the inductees, as an inferior genre. That much can be agreed upon by any one who has ever taken the few moments it takes to ponder this issue. This in itself is not inflammatory. I'll tell you what is inflammatory though. Do you think for a moment that progressive rock is snubbed because it reveals the heights that songwriting and musicianship can aspire to and achieve? Do you think it is snubbed because some of the canons of the genre are too long for the voters to sustain interest? No. It is because the genre originally drew influence from a despised group of persons, a disenfranchised class if you will: Dead, white European men. Is it outrageous for me to say this? In America, in the year 2004, yes, probably.

Music that does not draw its core influence and its origins from the forms of music ascribed to Black Americans cannot have any "authenticity" to the self-sanctified music snobs that cast their votes in the academy. That is an undeniable fact. Progressive rock draws heavily from the tradition of European classical music. Composers such as Prokfiev, Ravel, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky are among the critical composers who influenced progressive rock, or more specifically, symphonic progressive rock. They more so than Chuck Berry or Little Richard, or Leadbelly.

To be sure, many of the progressive rock artists that you might think would be worthy of inclusion in the Hall of Fame also incorporated elements of American jazz in their music. Jethro Tull started as a blues band. Both are African-American forms of music. BUT, the influence of dead white composers is an unforgivable sin. It insures the perpetual brand of pomposity and lack of authenticity.

Look here now (I want to be absolutely clear in this issue) I am not in any way denigrating the fundamental importance of Black music to the creature that is rock music. Not at all. I am saying that the importance of the aforementioned composers, to bands that also take from the pool of musical heritage that same spark of genius that Robert Johnson, Bo Diddly, Louis Armstrong, or Count Basie left behind for others to taste and share, cannot be fairly dismissed. Their influence cannot justly be vilified in the manner that it has been.

Whose sins, whose crimes, are more egregious? Ian Anderson, who once said that Jethro Tull stopped trying to play the blues because, to paraphrase Anderson, they had no right to this music, or Jimmy Page who stole the music of Willie Dixon, part and parcel, signed his name at the bottom and cashed the royalty checks that rightly belonged to someone else? Which one of these two musicians is honored at the Hall of Fame?

Progressive rock has other unforgivable faults as well, oh yes, many unforgivable sins. Among the most egregious of these faults is the lack of revolutionary lyrical content. Progressive rock bands of the 70s never told the kids in straightforward, unmistakable terms to pour out into the streets and stick it to the man. You never see anyone in a progressive rock band wearing a Che Guevera t-shirt. Ian Anderson was known to throw eggs at the establishment, but in oblique terms. On "E Pluribus Funk," Grand Funk Railroad sang, "People, let's stop the war." Ian Anderson, on the other hand, said, "Let's go walking out/while others shout of war's disaster/Oh no, no we won't give in/ lets go living in the past." Horrors! No, no, that won't do at all. I guarantee you this, Grand Funk Railroad, one of the most critically despised bands of the 70s, will get into the Hall before Jethro Tull will. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young cried about "Four dead in Ohio," but ELP told us a story about a mythical creature named Tarkus. Well, that did no harm to tricky Dick Nixon, did it? Nope.

Progressive rock is just, well ... too white, and not at all politically revolutionary. Well, maybe Yes's "Yours Is No Disgrace" is an anti-Vietnam War song but damn it, the kids probably didn't get it, you know?

There's another big, big problem with progressive rock music and the people who played it in the 1970s, which is the time you would have had to be doing it in order to qualify for membership in the Hall of Fame. In case you don't know the criteria for membership, you have to have been around for at least 25 years, which is why I am referring exclusively to bands from the 70s. The Flower Kings, Spock's Beard or Dream Theater won't even be considered for a long, long time, ok? So what is that other big problem with progressive rock, you might ask? Well, I'm soooooo glad you care enough to ask. Thank you. These guys are all still alive. Name three legendary progressive rock musicians who have died of drug or alcohol abuse. Hmmmm? Ok, name two. Still stumped? One then.

Here's another of progressive rocks big faults -- way too much sobriety. You know who the writers and voters idolize. Hendrix, who died of alcohol and barbiturate abuse. Joplin, ditto. Morrison, ditto. Moon, ditto, Bonham, ditto. They, or their bands, are all in the Hall. Marley, too. Maybe the weed didn't kill him, but it sure wasn't for lack of trying.

Yep, there are much more important things to the Hall voters than musicians who play beautifully and compose great, complex works of art. What exactly would that be, pray tell? Well, being the right color, or pretending you are, stealing someone else's heritage, having the right political views, and having the right kind of counter-culture lifestyle. Those qualities are very, very important to the voting members, no doubt. Honestly, do you have ANY doubt whatsoever that what I've said it true? Do you?

Let me bring up another thing worthy of some thought. Just who are these wise men and women who cast their votes up or down? Well, that's a hard list to come up with. We're not really supposed to know. There is a body called The Rock'n Roll Hall Of Fame Foundation that consists of sixty members, all quite wise in the way of these things. They apparently sprang fully formed from the forehead of Zeus, just like Athena. Gods, really.

We don't know who they are.

A very long day spent trying to discover the names of these committee members yielded very little information. I looked and looked, but only found two names. This was Seymour Stein, head of the committee in 2002 and, coincidentally, former head of The Ramones' record label. Odd how The Ramones are the only "punk" rock band in the Hall, isn't it? They invented the genre, didn't you know? (A lot of people think that The Sex Pistols were the first really, maybe the only, important punk band. But what do they know?) The other name I found was Danny Fields, formerly of Elektra records and that groundbreaking, cutting edge music journal, 16. You know, the magazine that your little sister used to look at. Remember, the one that made such music stars as, …oh, David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, The Osmonds. That 16 magazine.

The members of the nominating committee are clearly well able to carry on without our biased and ignorant oversight. Then, after this august body determines who will be voted up or down, a group of 1,000 experts, music writers and historians all, vote. A worthy nominee who receives more than 50% affirmative votes will be honored with inductance. I might point out here that of those whose work I have ever read, the majority of "music writers" are very well qualified to be the Sunday book critic in your local newspaper. Few rock music writers have ANY ideas about "music." A lot of them can identify the difference between live performance and lip-synching. Some can distinguish good from bad dance routines and judge the appropriateness of an artist's choice of stage attire. Some can, with great authority, tell the age and social status of members of the audience. Many can even judge the social impact of a performer's lyrics. But, they don't know much about "music." One thing I will give them credit for is the ability to read the numbers of recordings sold, and even then I doubt that this figure always plays a role.

Let's play a game now, shall we? You tell me who has sold more recordings, ok? Yes, or the Byrds? Tull or Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers? Let's play just one more game now, please. Let's try to guess which rock music genres are completely without representation in The Hall. Blues? No. R&B? No. How about Doo Wop, Fifties Rock'n Roll, Rockabilly, Soul, Funk, Psychedelic Rock, Reggae, Pop, Country Rock, Hard Rock, New Wave, Punk, ...no. They are all represented. I don't know who put out the first Rap/Hip-Hop recording, but you can be sure that the first year that one is eligible, they'll be a sure bet for inclusion.

No, only one genre is excluded. And to be sure, Yes and Jethro Tull have been nominated. But, they just can't make the grade with the "experts." How very, very sad. A real pity, isn't it, that these brilliant progressive rock groups, all of them combined, couldn't match the importance and legacy of Brenda Lee?

Let me give a disclaimer, I'd better. If it's not required by law now, it will be, one day soon. I have nothing against anyone in the Hall. Well ... almost none of them. Most deserve to be there. Without the influence of African-American forms of music, the blues, jazz, hell, even rock music itself, there would be no progressive rock at all. If you think that AC/DC has more importance to the history of music than all the progressive bands put together, so be it. I'll seriously question your intelligence, but so be it. Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Tina Tuner, and Chuck Berry deserve all the honors they have ever received.

Without the social consciousness of some of the 70s bands, the world might be a worse place than it is. But, that is not all there is to music. Music is also talent, ability, vision, wondrous, magnificent beauty, eternal -- not just topical -- relevance, and, not the least, endless entertainment. Things that transcend what is hip right now or what was hip when the voters still had hair are important and deserving of recognition. The lyrics of the Anderson's, Jon and Ian, have more to tell of the human soul, its glories and its foibles, than all the "classic rock" lyrics of all the inductee's combined. The music made by Gentle Giant or King Crimson has more to say about the human mind and its capabilities than all the cutting edge rock that has come and gone, or ever will come and go.

How many of the bands inducted changed the way you looked at music? How many are still beyond easy comprehension?

How many make you think, as well as feel? When you listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival, does the universe unfold, and reveal its secrets to you? When you hear The Young Rascals, do they tell you of the basic nature of mankind? Thirty-five years from now, will the music of The Ramones or AC/DC be played by symphonies?

Well, you have to answer all these questions for yourself. But I'll tell you one thing -- and you can bank on this -- we won't be seeing any progressive rock bands in the Hall of Fame in their or our lifetimes. One day Peter Gabriel will be inducted, but only because of his later R&B and world beat influenced releases and the political stance he took on apartheid. Not for his stunningly advanced, breathtaking work with Genesis. The only way one of the truly deserving members of Tull, Yes or ELP will ever get in would be to die, and even then, I sincerely doubt even that would satisfy the doctrinaire voting members.

That is, I say, shameful.


Links: Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Keith Emerson , Bill Bruford. Steve Howe , Steve Hackett , Pink Floyd, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, ELP , The Flower Kings, Spock's Beard , Dream Theater, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Doors, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Marley, The Ramones, AC/DC , Gentle Giant , King Crimson , Peter Gabriel








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Published on: 2004-04-04 (1936 reads)

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