MY STORY WITH PROGRESSIVE ROCK MUSIC

If I remember correctly, my first experience with the vast underground “prog scene” was around the mid-70s, when a fondness for GENESIS’ “Foxtrot” led me to purchase the rest of their albums. You know how it is at school, though: friends introduce you to strange new ideas and influences, and gradually you become hooked on new kinds of music. So it was with me. I listened intently to all the new sounds and styles with intrigue and delight. My collection of prog rock LPs was fairly extensive and growing, as I was buying about three new prog LPs each week, whenever my finances would allow.

At Sherbrooke University in Québec, my eagerness to explore progressive music led to quite a large collection of great bands and albums, including GENESIS (Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound), PINK FLOYD (Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals), ELOY (Dawn, Ocean), The STRAWBS (Hero and Heroine, Grave New World), BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST (Everyone Is Everybody Else, Time Honoured Ghosts), JETHRO TULL (Thick As a Brick, Aqualung), The MOODY BLUES (Days Of Future Passed, On The Threshold Of A Dream), RENAISSANCE (Scheherazade and Other Stories), and SUPERTRAMP (Crime Of The Century), among others. I also became fascinated with Italian progressive rock (BANCO, Le ORME, PFM), as well as other non-English European prog, and the expanding American prog scene.

I continue to expand my knowledge and appreciation for this rock genre which offers so many diverse styles and creative elements. My passion for prog rock has grown to encompass many groups, and lately I’ve realized that more and more of my favorites come from the neo-prog, symphonic prog, prog metal and space rock subgenres. This phase of my musical exploration has taken me into the realms of new groups like MARILLION (Script For A Jester’s Tear, Misplaced Childhood, Marbles), ANGLAGARD (Hybris), ARENA (The Visitor, Immortal?), AYREON (Into The Electric Castle, The Universal Migrator Part 1 & 2), CAMEL (Mirage, Harbour Of Tears), DREAM THEATER (Images & Words, Octavarium), IQ (Subterranea, Dark Matter), LANDS END (Natural Selection), PAIN OF SALVATION (The Perfect Element Part 1), PALLAS (The Dreams Of Men), PENDRAGON (The Masquerade Overture, Believe), PINEAPPLE THIEF (Variations On A Dream), and PORCUPINE TREE (Lightbulb Sun, In Absentia, Deadwing), among others.

In my opinion, recent years have brought us some very good and memorable Prog Rock music!

“Progressive Rock is a music made for the dream, the escape, to feel a multitude of emotions.”