Released by Island Records on October 19, 1969, King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King creates THE template (and benchmark) for all "progressive rock" albums and music that would come thereafter. (We must remember that the term "progressive rock music" (and/or "Prog") came much later than the albums we will be discussing in this post.) It is virtually irrefutable that In the Court of the Crimson King is the most influential, fully-developed, fully-intentional album of its kind: expressing wildly imaginative musical ideas through uniquely-structured and -engineered sounds and virtuoso-level musicianship. But was it the very first album to express/display/exhibit the kind of musical listening experience that the prog lover would come to associate with his or her beloved musical form?
I do not think so.
For me, the progressive rock album is more about a listening experience: one that transports the listener into a world that is far from the reality one is used to experiencing. Yes, In the Court of the Crimson King did this, but there were others before it that began to evoke that effect. For David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, it was the musics of John Coltrane and Ravi Shankar: these were the artists that expanded Roger's consciousness to the point of being able to create the landmark song "Eight Miles High." For many progressive artists--like Terry Riley, the Red Krayolas, Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, and Can--it was the influence of avant garde musical theorists like John Cage, LaMonte Young, or Karlheinz Stockhausen. For many guitarists it was the guitar machinations of Jeff Beck on "Shapes of Things" or Jimi Hendrix's sound and playing on Are You Experienced? For many keyboard players it was the work of Jimmy Smith, or perhaps Keith Emerson. For most prog drummers it was the playing of Tony Williams, Buddy Rich, or Billy Cobham. And the list goes on. For some it was a song, for others a sound, for still others a vibe, and for many it was the intriguing lure of technological advances (stereo, multi-track recording, electrical manipulation of sound using engineering effects, synthesizers, sequencers, and, later, computers and sampling, as well as digitized programming and recording techniques). For me it was all about the experience: what mind-altering journey was the music listening experience going to take me on; how would my reality be distorted or, better yet, transformed by the listening experience?
As to the albums and musics that helped usher in the form that we now identify as "progressive rock music," there have been many. The following is a list of albums that I've read as serious and legitimate submissions for this topic.
- August 30, 1965: the release of Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, his first album using electrified instruments.
- May 16, 1966: the release of The Beach Boys' landmark album, Pet Sounds (though I'd vote for their far more advanced September 18, 1967 release, Smiley Smile.)
- June 20, 1966: the release of the first ever double album on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde.
- June 27, 1966: I've read suggestions going back to The Mothers of Invention's debut album, a double concept album, no less, called Freak Out. It was released a week after Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde.
- August 5, 1966: The Parlaphone subsidiary of Capitol Records released The Beatles' seventh studio album, Revolver. It reflects great changes and experimentation going on in the recording and engineering styles as well as the band's dalliances into psychedelic drugs and expansive experiences from international travel.
- August 17, 1966: Verve Records released Holy Music, an album of music composed and performed by John Morgan Newbern under the working name of Malachi. Influenced by Indian music, it was an album intended to create elevated spiritual consciousness--as was the expressed purpose of a lot of Indian music at the time.
- October 17, 1966: release of The 13th Floor Elevators' cohesive debut, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators seems quite apropos.
- January 7, 1967: The Doors' self-titled debut album is released. The Doors is the first album on this list that gives me that transportive listening experience that I associate with the progressive rock music listening experience--but only on a song-by-song basis; not the whole album.
- February of 1967: Reprise Records released The Electric Prunes' debut album, The Electric Prunes. A listening experience that is more transportive in a psychedelic pop way, not as a progressive rock event.
- March 1967: release of The Free Spirits' Out of Sight and Sound. Recorded in early 1967, Larry Coryell and Bob Moses dynamic live jazz-rock fusion band tried to capture their dynamic live sound against the oppressive demands and restrictions of a very conservative record producer (who had specialized in producing jazz albums), one Bob Thiele. The band disavowed the album (entitled ) and broke up soon after its release. For a more accurate rendering of the band's tremendous power and impact, one can listen to the 2011 release of a live nightclub performance of the band from 1967 entitled, Live at The Scene.
- May 26, 1967 sees the release of The Mothers of Invention's highly-creative and sophisticated album, Absolutely Free. This is definitely a huge step forward on the road to the birth and establishment of "progressive rock" as its own musical idiom--much moreso than their previous Freak Out!
- June 1, 1967: release of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
- August 5, 1967: release of Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Definitely ground-breaking, innovative and even revolutionary, but still not a fully-formed whole-album listening experience.
- September of 1967: Procol Harum's debut album, Procol Harum was released in the United States (only) in with its monster Summer of Love hit "Whiter Shade of Pale." There is definitely a feeling of progressive rock emanating from this album. A qualifier. Procol Harum is one of my nine candidates for "The First Prog Album."
- May of 1967: the Strawberry Alarm Clock bursts onto the scene with its mega-hit, "Incense and Peppermints"--which turns out to be a very misleading representation of the kind of music the band would create for the October release of the album that would encapsulate it, also titled Incense & Peppermints. Like Days of Future Passed, this amazing album has the kind of flow-thru that I've come to associate with the progressive rock album listening experience. Incense and Peppermints is another one of my nine candidates for "The First Prog Album."
- November of 1967: Deram Records issues The Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed. This is the first album I ever heard that truly transported me to a world foreign to the one I'd been living in. Days of Future Passed is definitely one of my nine candidates for "The First Prog Album."
- December of 1967: Traffic's Dear Mr. Fantasy comes out.
- January 6 of 1968: Ultimate Spinach's self-titled debut album was recorded in 1967 but released in 1968. Ultimate Spinach was Bostonian Bruce Douglas' East Coast response to the West Coast/Bay Area Psychedelic music scene.
- Early 1968: Fifty Foot Hose's debut album, Cauldron, was recorded in 1967 but its release date is obscured by history. This wonderful album is more of a psychedelic trip than progressive rock.
- March 1, 1968: the release date of The Nice's The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack. Nice with quite a bit of that forward-thinking proggy feel but also steeped in bubble-gum pop, psychedelia, and a whole host of other recent and current sounds and trends (much of which is based in classical music training and traditions). A qualifier; definitely close. The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack is one of my nine candidates for "The First Prog Album."
- March of 1968: The lone album of the L.A.-based band, The United States of America, is released. Entitled, The United States of America, it is one of my nine candidates for "The First Prog Album."
- April 19, 1968: the release date of The Zombies' Baroque pop / psychedelic masterpiece, Odessey and Oracle.
- May 13 of 1968: Frank Zappa's orchestra-interspersed album of musique concrète, Lumpy Gravy, is re-released. A version of the album was first released on August 7 of 1967 only to be recalled due to proprietary disputes from the record label that Frank was under contract with. It was recalled, reworked, and re-released in the version you can hear today nearly a year later. Lumpy Gravy is one of my nine candidates for "The First Prog Album."
- June of 1968: release of Arthur Brown's The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
- June 28, 1968: EMI Columbia records releases Pink Floyd's sophomore album, A Saucerful of Secrets. The album has that consistent flow, consistent feel, both spacey and psychedelic with highly creative sound experimentation, from start to finish, that I think constitutes a true progressive rock album. Saucerful of Secrets is another one of my nine candidates for "The First Prog Album."
- July 19, 1968: Reprise Records releases Family's Music from a Doll's House.
- August of 1968: Phillips Records releases Blue Cheer's sophomore album, Outsideinside. A far more sophisticated and organized album than their debut (published earlier in the same year), it is an album that many laud as the "birth" of "stoner rock."
- August of 1968: Ultimate Spinach releases its second album in the same calendar year. Behold & See is a much smoother, more contrived and polished collaborative affair than the band's debut, but then, a little less bold and singular than the original.
- October of 1968: the release of David Axelrod's Song of Innocence, is mentioned for its landmark fusion of cinematic jazz rock and use of LA's famous "Wrecking Crew" with orchestration. Song of Innocence is definitely one of my nine candidates for "The First Prog Album."
- November 1, 1968: Electra Records releases Arthur Lee's third and most evolved Love album, Forever Changes. It is an album that illustrates just how influential the sounds of The Moody Blues had been.
- November 4, 1968: release of the Canadian band The Collectors' self-titled debut album. The Collectors is definitely a fully-fledged prog album and, thus, another one of my nine candidates for "The First Prog Album."
- November of 1968: the obscure psychedelic band Touch releases its lone album, Touch. This album has received many mentions in conversations about the first prog album. As highly touted as this experimental psychedelic album is, I still find it limited in its dimensionality--with a heavy reliance on organ at its center.
- November of 1968: The Nice's album Ars Longa Vita Brevis is released.
- December 1, 1968: The Pretty Things' release their fourth studio album, S.F. Sorrow. Though showing advances in songwriting and studio engineering techniques, it is mired in the imitation of the sounds of The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones.
- December 6, 1968: After an extensive American tour as Jimi Hendrix's opening act, The Soft Machine's debut album, The Soft Machine, was recorded and released in the United States.
- December: the release of Dutch band Group 1850's debut album, Agemo's Trip to Mother Earth. It is a psychedelic concept album in the same league with Pink Floyd's Saucerful of Secrets.
I've even made independent cases for Strawberry Alarm Clock's debut, Incense & Peppermints, The Don Ellis Orchestra's live capture of their genre-shattering September 18, 1966 performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival--released as 'Live' at Monterey !--as well as Pink Floyd's 1968 sophomore album release, Saucerful of Secrets.
By the time we reach 1969, I think the form had been incubating, congealing, and realizing itself. There are a whole slew of albums that were released in 1969 that seem to qualify as a full "progressive rock album"--many of which appeared long before In the Court of the Crimson King made its earth-shattering entrance in late October. The ones that have received the most mention include:
- In January of 1969, Caravan's self-titled debut.
- In February of 1969, East of Eden's Mercator Projected.
- The first "Krautrock" albums from Germany: the first published version of a recorded "stream-of-consciousness" "sit in" (which would become known in Germany as "Kosmische Musik," in England as "Krautrock") was released by Amon Düül on Metronome Records some time in early or mid-1969 as Psychedelic Underground. Amon Düül 2's Phallus Dei came out on June 1, 1969 while Can's debut, Monster Movie didn't come out until August.
Personally, the albums that give me the strongest realization of the reality-transforming whole-album listening experience that I equate with the progressive rock listening experience include:
- Procol Harum's self-titled debut, Procul Harum,
1. "Conquistador" (2:38)
2. "She Wandered Through The Garden Fence" (3:24)
3. "Something Following Me" (3:37)
4. "Mabel" (1:53)
5. "Cerdes (Outside The Gates Of)" (5:03)
6. "A Christmas Camel" (4:49)
7. "Kaleidoscope" (2:53)
8. "Salad Days (Are Here Again)" (3:38)
9. "Good Captain Clack" (1:30)
10. "Repent Walpurgis" (5:02)
Total Time 34:27
- North America release -
1. "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" (4:04)
2. "She Wandered Through The Garden Fence" (3:18)
3. "Something Following Me" (3:37)
4. "Mabel" (1:50)
5. "Cerdes (Outside The Gates Of)" (5:04)
6. "A Christmas Camel" (4:48)
7. "Conquistador" (2:38)
8. "Kaleidoscope" (2:53)
9. "Salad Days (Are Here Again)" (3:38)
10. "Repent Walpurgis" (5:04)
Total Time 36:54
Line-up / Musicians:
- Gary Brooker / lead vocals, piano
- Robin Trower / guitars
- Matthew Fisher / Hammond organ
- David Knights / bass
- Barrie James Wilson / drums & percussion
- The Strawberry Alarm Clock's debut, Incense & Peppermints,
- The Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed,
- a. "The Day Begins" (4:07)
- b. "Morning Glory" (1:42)
2. "Dawn" (3:49) :
- a. "Intro" (0:39)
- b. "Dawn Is A Feeling" (3:10)
3. "Morning" (3:55) :
- a. "Intro" (0:21)
- b. "Another Morning" (3:34)
4. "Lunch Break" (5:33) :
- a. "Intro" (1:53)
- b. "Peak Hour" (3:40)
5. "The Afternoon" (8:23) :
- a. "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)" (5:06)
- b. "(Evening) Time To Get Away" (3:17)
6. "Evening" (6:40) :
- a. "Intro" (0:38)
- b. "The Sun Set" (2:39)
- c. "Twilight Time" (3:23)
7. "The Night" (7:24) :
- a. "Nights In White Satin" (5:38)
- b. "Late Lament "(1:46)
Total Time 41:33
Line-up / Musicians:
- Justin Hayward / acoustic & electric guitars, piano & electric piano, sitar, lead vocals (2-b, 5-a, 7-a)
- Michael Pinder / piano, Mellotron, tambura, lead vocals (6-b), spoken voice (1-b, 7-b)
- Ray Thomas / flute, horn (?), piano, percussion, lead vocals (3-b, 6-c)
- John Lodge / bass, acoustic guitar (?), lead vocals (4-b, 5-b)
- Graeme Edge / drums, percussion, backing vocals
With:
- The London Festival Orchestra
- Peter Knight / conductor & arranger
- The Nice's The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack,
2. "Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack" (2:47)
3. "Bonnie K" (3:22)
4. "Rondo" (8:25)
5. "War and Peace" (5:13)
6. "Tantalizing Maggie" (4:30)
7. "Dawn" (5:07)
8. "The Cry of Eugene" (4:30)
Total Time: 37:50
Line-up / Musicians:
- Lee Jackson / lead vocals, bass, guitar, timpani
- David O'List / guitar, flute, trumpet, backing vocals
- Keith Emerson / organ, harpsichord, piano, backing vocals
- Brian Davidson / drums, timpani, tubular bells
With:
- Billy Nicholls / harmony vocals (2)
- The United States of America's self-titled debut, The United States of America,
2. "Hard Coming Love" (4:41)
3. "Cloud Song" (3:18)
4. "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" (2:39)
5. "I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar" (3:51)
6. "Where Is Yesterday" (3:08)
7. "Coming Down" (2:37)
8. "Love Song For The Dead Ché" (3:25)
9. "Stranded In Time" (1:49)
10. "The American Way Of Love" (6:38)
Total time 37:02
Line-up / Musicians:
- Dorothy Moskowitz / lead vocals (1-4,7,8)
- Joseph Byrd / piano, electric harpsichord, organ, Calliope, electronics, lead vocals (5,10), arranger
- Gordon Marron / electric violin, ring modulator, lead vocals (6,9)
- Rand Forbes / bass
- Craig Woodson / electric drums, percussion
With:
- Ed Bogas / organ, piano, Calliope
- David Axelrod's Song of Innocence,
2. "Holy Thursday" (5:32)
3. "The Smile" (3:26)
4. "A Dream" (2:30)
5. "Song of Innocence" (4:33)
6. "Merlin's Prophecy" (2:44)
7. "The Mental Traveler" (4:02)
Total Time 26:48
- David Axelrod / vocals
- Gary Coleman / vocals
- Gene Estes / percussion
- Freddie Hill / trumpet
- Howard Roberts / guitars
- Carol Kaye / bass
- Richard Leith / trombone
- Arthur Maebe / horn
- Lew McCreary / horn
- Ollie Mitchell / trumpet
- Earl Palmer / drums
- Vincent DeRosa / horn
- Don Randi / keyboards
- Frank Zappa's Lumpy Gravy,
- a. "The Way I See It, Barry"
- b. "Duodenum"
- c. "Oh No"
- d. "Bit of Nostalgia"
- e. "It's from Kansas"
- f. "Bored Out 90 Over"
- g. "Almost Chinese"
- h. "Switching Girls"
- i. "Oh No Again"
- j. "At the Gas Station"
- k. "Another Pickup"
- l. "I Don't Know If I Can Go Through This Again"
2. "Lumpy Gravy Part Two" (15:51) :
- a. "Very Distraughtening"
- b. "White Ugliness"
- c. "Amen"
- d. "Just One More Time"
- e. "A Vicious Circle"
- f. "King Kong"
- g. "Drums Are Too Noisy"
- h. "Kangaroos"
- i. "Envelops the Bath Tub"
- j. "Take Your Clothes Off"
Total Time 31:39
- Frank Zappa / composer, arranger, conductor & producer
With:
- Tommy Tedesco / guitar
- Al Viola / guitar
- Dennis Budimir / guitar
- Tony Rizzi / guitar
- Jimmy "Senyah" Haynes / guitar
- Lincoln Mayorga / piano, celesta, harpsichord
- Pete Jolly / piano, celesta, electric harpsichord
- Paul Smith / piano, celesta, electric harpsichord
- Michael Lang / piano, celesta, electric harpsichord
- John Rotella / woodwind, percussion
- Arthur Maebe / French horn
- Richard Parissi / French horn
- Jimmy Zito / trumpet
- Kenny Shroyer / trombone
- Roy Estrada / bass, chorus
- Bob West / bass
- Chuck Berghofer / bass
- Jimmy Bond / bass
- Shelly Manne / drums
- Frank Capp / drums
- John Guerin / drums
- Alan Estes / percussion
- Victor Feldman / percussion
- Gene Estes / percussion
- Emil Richards / percussion
- "Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra" / contracted strings, woodwinds & chorus
Percussion includes: gongs, bells, vibes, marimba, timpani, timbales & assorted insanity.
Woodwinds include: flute, bass flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, Eb clarinet, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, alto saxophone, bass saxophone, bassoon & contrabassoon.
- Pink Floyd's Saucerful of Secrets,
2. "Remember a Day" (4:33)
3. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (5:28)
4. "Corporal Clegg" (4:12)
5. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (11:57)
6. "See-Saw" (4:36)
7. "Jugband Blues" (2:59)
Total Time 39:23
Line-up / Musicians:
- Syd Barrett / acoustic & slide guitar (2), guitar (3, 7), lead vocals (7)
- David Gilmour / guitar & kazoo (1, 3-6), vocals (1, 4), voice (5)
- Richard Wright / organ, piano, Mellotron, vibraphone, xylophone, tin whistle (7), lead vocals (2, 6), vocals (1, 4), voice (5)
- Roger Waters / bass, percussion, lead vocals (3), vocals (1)
- Nick Mason / drums, percussion, vocals (4), kazoo (7)
With:
- Norman Smith / drums & backing vocals (2), voice (4), producer
- Stanley Myers Orchestra / brass (4)
- International Staff Band (Salvation Army) / brass band (7)
- The Collectors' lone album, The Collectors,
2. "She (Will of the Wisp)" (3:45)
3. "Howard Christman's Older" (5:10)
4. "Lydia Purple" (2:45)
5. "One Act Play" (3:40)
6. "What Love" (19:15)
Total Time 38:20
Line-up / Musicians:
- Howie Vickie / lead vocals
- Bill Henderson / guitar, recorder, vocals
- Claire Lawrence / tenor saxophone, flute, recorder, organ, vocals
- Glenn Miller / bass, vocals
- Ross Turney / drums, percussion
With:
- Larry Knechtel / piano & harpsichord (4)
- Jesse Ehrlich / cello (4)
- Norm Jeffries / vibes (4)
I will probably never give anything released in 1969 any credit due to the fact that such a large number of qualifying albums released earlier than that year.
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