Wow, and furthermore, wow. Rhino has a history of doing things up right, but this time it’s outdone itself. More than five hours of prog, from The Nice to Golden Earring, presented thoroughly and largely chronologically. Depending on your outlook, it’s either heaven or hell. There’s plenty here to occupy the idle, drug-riddled mind; some well known (Focus’s “Hocus Pocus,” ELP’s “Knife Edge,” Genesis) and some wonderfully obscure (Wigwam in their pre-Virgin days, when they were a [Read More...]
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I love progressive rock. It’s most plausable era was between 1968 and 1975. It continued to exist, but it lost it’s charm as late 70’s album rock became the norm for FM radio. Guitar rock with more simple-minded lyrics became more radio friendly. Progressive Rock took us to other worlds, other dimensions, other levels of consciousness. In other words, Prog rock was intelligent music. It was science-fiction in a form of unique music. It explored realms of fantasy, not everyday social dilemas. From my perspective, it was the keyboard-oriented rock that captured my fancy. Progressive rock artists were artists that wanted to explore other sounds and ideas that nobody may have approached before. Today’s record companies probably frown on such ideas. Today’s record companies are only concerned about the fast buck, not an artist pouring his (or her) heart into a unique idea for creative venturing in music. Progressive Rock ruled as music for the psyche. Supernatural Fairy Tales is a pretty good box set designed to represent the Progressive Rock era. Everyone has their own idea what some Prog Rock artist’s best projects were, so, true, not every track here will satisfy everyone’s idea of which track best represents the band. Just be grateful that your favorite Prog band has, at least, been represented here. And, if they were overlooked entirely, well, what can Rhino do about a sound genre that has thousands of bands world-wide. I’m remotely satisfied. There’s some good stuff here. My favorite Prog bands, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, Strawbs, Yes, The Moody Blues and the such, are here. My only grumble is that Aphrodite’s Child has more adventurous music than this bleak example they selected (Babylon). But, the best thing Le Orme has ever done is here (Ritorno Al Nulla). Plus, this collection features a 13 minute instrumental from Klaus Schulze (circa 1970) totally unavailable anywhere else. If I had to recommend some Prog artists overlooked here, I would suggest, Triumvirat, Mike Oldfield, Egg, Tangerine Dream, Eloy, and also Rick Wakeman. King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and Rush, sure. But, for five CDs, what do you want? 30 second samplers from every prog artist graced by God? This box is a great sampler package. I’m pretty fond of it. I really appreciate that Rhino put this together. Nobody else would touch it (here in America, anyway). Thank you Rhino, I’m loyal to you. (Any chance for a second box set?)
I noticed that there’s some grousing about the contents of this box set and what’s been left out; in the accompanying booklet it explains that some of the groups (King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, and Camel are mentioned) were left out because of Licensing Restrictions, but look at what’s included; Nice (w/ Keith Emerson), Moody Blues, ELP, ELO, Genesis, Yes, and Frank Zappa are the obvious choices, but there are also groups that do not get the attention they deserve though they are equally impressive; Can, Roxy Music, Strawbs, Savage Rose, Nektar, Van Der Graaf Generator, Amon Duul II, Atomic Rooster, Focus, and a host of other bands that rarely get any radio play even on so-called progressive music stations. A lot of these songs aren’t available on CD (domestically anyway). Ok, I’ll admit I groused a bit too (no Goblin, to name one band), but hey, if you want Rush buy a Rush CD. If you want Pink Floyd buy a Pink Floyd CD. I think this is a cool collection of bands that I would haven’t even consider listening to had not Rhino taken the time to produce this anthology. I doubt very much you’ll find a better collection of this type of music in one place. I love it! (and I have my Goblin CDs too now, thank you very much).