As much as I respect your opinion, it falls under the "I only listen to the old style music" category LOL. Which I have zero issue with, Gavin and the like are part of the newer generation of drummers. I mean Gavin is not too young either, he is 55, but easily plays well below his age IMO. Gavin is very talented, his triplets and ghost hits are some of the best and his cymbal playing is some of the best, although Portnoy is really good there too. What I like about Gavin is he sounds huge, fast and musical without beating the krapp out of his kit, there is a calm flow.
And yea he was awesome with King Crimson when we saw them couple yrs ago.
For sure when you listen to older music of Yes, KC and even some of the live performances with Genesis, Bruford was a talented musician, I like him quite a lot. But he is part of a music scene that is over 45+yrs now, time to listen to the new drummers.
Well it certainly came across that you had no respect or liking of Gavin Harrison and most that don't is due to limited listening to newer progressive type rock, you even said: "Gavin Harrison? Oh please... I don't get what people hear in his playing, it's just boring, standard, run of the mill. He worked fine for Porcupine Tree, as that was somewhat simple music."
IDC if you like him or not but now it seems back and forth'ish as how you feel about his playing...
King Crimson music is very complex, and I for one can see what Fripp is doing with the multiple drummers as they add texture and many layers of rhythm. In a live setting it comes across pretty powerful, at least for me it does.
Good conversations...thanks
I know the type, dismissive folks who'll buy the 100th reissue of "In the court", but won't investigate any of the more obscure prog bands, old or new. It's a pity, and I'm definitely not in that camp, my 20k+ albums or so are here to prove it
I've bought a few of the recent live albums, and I saw KC live recently in San Diego, and it didn't change my perception that the 3 drummers is just a gimmick. Doesn't add anything, and in most songs, detract a lot.
Bad drumming is something that bothers me a lot. Unfortunately, there's a lot of new(-ish) prog bands with extremely poor drummers, or worse, drum machines. This is a tremendous turn off for me.
Are you familiar with La Maschera di Cera? This is an italian band from the early 2000s, that showed up pretending to be the 2nd coming of the great italian symphonic prog of the 70s. They surely put down an effort, with thick Rickenbackers, vintage sounding synths... and possibly the most boring, plodding drumming this side of Charlie Watts...
OTOH, you have a band like Anglagard, that, back in 1992, single-handedly brought prog back from the dead. These guys nailed the 70s prog sound, mixing all the right influences, and bringing it forward, with respect and reverence. While they do sound derivative, there's enough invention and creativity to make them distinctive, and not merely a pastiche.
This is the first time that I have looked at this thread. Ron has done an encyclopedic job in explaining prog rock, especially to someone like me who knows just about nothing about the subject. This past year I have started engaging in some serious trading of tapes (15ips 2 track) with different collectors. Although my main interest is classical music, most of them have non-classical as their main interest, so I have acquired a large number of these genres of music, well over 100 reels.
From Ron's essays and other postings, I think these would qualify for the prog rock categories. The advantage to these are that they are 15ips 2 track copies of master tapes or copies of copies, done with high quality professional machines, about 4 to 6 generations closer to the master tape than a typical vinyl pressing.
Led Zeppelin - LZ1, LZ2, LZ3, LZ4, House of Holy, Physical Graffiti
Pink Floyd - The Wall, Momentary Lapse of Reason (in addition my safety master collection has DSOTM, Animals, WYWH, Meddle, Atom Heart Mother, The Wall Live in Berlin)
Roger Waters - Amused to Death
Renaissance - Novella, Scheherazade and Other Stories, Prologue, Ashes are Burning, Turn of the Cards, A Song for All Seasons
Genesis - Abacab, Genesis
Peter Gabriel - Shaking the Tree
Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Eye in the Sky, I Robot, Turn of a Friendly Card
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Later, Pink Moon
Steely Dan - Aja (in addition in my safety master collection Katy Lied)
Moody Blues - Days of Futures Passed, To Our Children's Children's Children, Seventh Sojourn
ELO - Messages
Yes - Fragile
I may have missed these artists in the thread - not sure whether they are prog rock.
Dire Straits - Dire Straits, Love Over Gold, Brothers in Arms, Communique, Making Movies, On Every Street
Fleetwood Mac - Mystery to Me (also have in my safety master collection - Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk)
Christine McVie - Christine Perfect
Stevie Nicks - ( in my safety master collection Bella Donna)
The Who (in my safety master collection - Tommy, Who's Next)
Now I have to start listening to most of these.
Larry
The problem with progressive rock is the un-ending subgenres......less can be better and simpler. I hate the term "classic rock", I mean LZ is what it is cause at the time there was no "classic rock", so why label them this now?
. . .