An Embarrassment of Prog William Tipper, Henry Tenney, Charlie Nieland

The English keyboardist, violinist and composer Eddie Jobson has a career that has touched nearly every corner of prog rock's strangely shaped universe. A prodigy who joined the band Curved Air at the age of 17, he went on to play with Roxy Music and Frank Zappa before becoming part of UK, prog's first "supergroup," in 1977, alongside bassist/vocalist John Wetton, drummer Bill Bruford (both ex-King Crimson) and guitarist Allan Holdsworth. UK burned briefly and brightly, and to lead us through the thrills of their self-titled debut and their follow-up "Danger Money" we're joined by NYC's favorite piano man, Joe McGinty, of Psychedelic Furs and Loser's Lounge fame.

On YouTube:
U.K.'s 1978 "Penn Landing" show https://youtu.be/12VFzCwub8M
U.K.'s debut-https://youtu.be/13RhulcC394
Danger Money-https://youtu.be/nX7XrfR3e3Q
Curved Air's "Metamorphosis" https://youtu.be/LzeWmEFa9e0
Roxy Music's "Out of the Blue"  https://youtu.be/2bC5LnCYHk8
Eddie Jobson & Zinc, "Resident" https://youtu.be/A9dYe67my-Y
Eddie Jobson/Richie Havens, There's Something About A Train (Amtrak Ad) https://youtu.be/2bC5LnCYHk8
For more Joe McGinty, Check out “Summer Wine” by Alyson Greenfield and Joe McGinty
Joemcgintymusic.com

If there's a single record that might be said to occupy the heart of prog rock, there's a good case to be made for Genesis's 1972 "Foxtrot," a record that begins with the cinematic, Mellotron-drenched "Watcher of the Skies," comments on rapacious landlords in a mixture of Dickens and dystopian sci-fi with "Get 'Em Out by Friday" and then winds up with "Supper's Ready," clocking in at almost 24 minutes, a journey through mystery, mythology, identity crisis, and the Book of Revelation that will have you humming along in 9/8. This week, Charlie, Henry, and Bill face down the task of explaining just why this thickly-packed, tuneful and ambitious record winds up an all-thriller, no-filler example of prog rock's pleasures.


On Youtube:
"Supper's Ready" live in concert (with costume changes!)
"Foxtrot" full album
 

"The Musical Box!" "Harold the Barrel!" "The Return of the Giant Hogweed! "You may be asking "Could these possibly be the titles of enduring classics that no home should be without?" You might already suspect that we'd answer that question in the affirmative, but whether you're already a fan of the 1971 Genesis album Nursery Cryme or just want to increase the amount of joy in your life, in this episode Charlie, Henry, and Bill tell the story of how Phil Collins and Steve Hackett joined Gabriel, Banks, and Rutherford to brew this delightful concoction. (And stay tuned for part 2, in which we forge ahead into 1972's Foxtrot and the apocalyptic "Supper's Ready.")
Links for listeners:

On Spotify: Songs from this episode.
On Youtube:
Genesis live on Belgian TV 1972

Genesis live at Bataclan Paris 1973
"Nursery Cryme" full album

“Have you walked on the stones of years?  When you speak, is it you that hears?” If these lyrical questions are familiar, you’re one of thousands of prog fans who looked at the crudely rendered, mechanical tank-armadillo creature on the cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s TARKUS and said “I want to know more.” Did you ask yourself "What is the 'Endless Enigma', anyway" as you gazed at their fused heads on the cover of their follow-up, TRILOGY? This week, Charlie, Henry, and Bill get an organ transplant (sorry) from prog rock’s keyboard-centric power trio to take you on a trip into a futuristic dystopia of heavy rhythms, jazz riffs and sci-fi themes.  Plus: we dare to ask—is there such a thing as “dirtbag prog”?
Discussed in this episode
The Nice's "America" on YouTube
Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Tarkus" full album on YouTube
E. Power Biggs "Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor" by J. S. Bach on YouTube
Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Trilogy" full album on YouTube

In a voyage to the borderlands of this podcast's announced subject, this week we listen to three records that might not be your (or anyone's) idea of prog rock, but which all share something elusive with the music that more comfortably flies the Mellotron Flag.  We start with the Incredible String Band's 1968 psych-folk opus "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter," cross an ocean and a continent to the sunny L.A.-based sound of Ambrosia's 1975 self-titled debut, and wind up in the studio with Kate Bush and her arrival as a sonic auteur, 1982's "The Dreaming." We finish by facing the question that haunts a project such as this: just what counts as "prog rock" anyway, and why?  Join us in perplexity.
Discussed in this episode
Incredible String Band's "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" on YouTube
Ambrosia's debut album on YouTube
Kate Bush "The Dreaming" video on YouTube
Kate Bush "Sat in Your Lap' video on YouTube
 

King Crimson's 1969 "In the Court of the Crimson King" stands for everything familiar about prog rock—the fantastical lyrics, the eerie ghost-choir Mellotron atmospherics, a brooding atmosphere of Heavy Tunes for Bookish People. But when guitarist Robert Fripp re-formed the band in 1981, after a long personal quest for spiritual and artistic renewal, the sounds that came out were from another universe, a tightly-woven, world-music-and-found-audio informed sound that was...danceable?  Can we even call records like "Discipline" and "Three of a Perfect Pair" prog rock?  Charlie, Henry and Bill talk about the unpredictable road that led to these surprising, thrilling records, the new King Crimson documentary, and why Robert Fripp's NYC album "Exposure" is the secret art-rock gem we want to make one of your new favorites. 3/06/23: UPDATED WITH SOUND CLIPS!
Discussed in this episode
King Crimson's "Discipline" full album on YouTube
King Crimson's "Beat" full album on YouTube
King Crimson's "Three Of A Perfect Pair" full album on YouTube
Robert Fripp's "Exposure" full album on YouTube
The League Of Gentleman's "Dislocated" Live Video 1980 on YouTube
King Crimson's "Elephant Talk" Live Video on Fridays 1981 on YouTube