The end of long-winded musicology for a while. Why almost all long-form music stinks, but Tales From Topographic Oceans isn’t as bad as you think.

I originally wrote this rant in November of 2014 but left it unpublished.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer recorded the album Tarkus in 1971. But since they disbanded many years ago, I think I’ve seen enough ‘solo versions’ of Tarkus for a Jon Stewart montage. Keith Emerson with a big band. Keith Emerson with an orchestra. Keith Emerson unplugged. Keith Emerson with some young guys. Keither Emerson with some old guys.

Look, Tarkus is a great piece of music. I don’t mean ‘for prog’, I mean of any kind of music. It may be the best instrumental piece of the entire genre. In fact, it may be one of the best pieces of music of any kind composed in my lifetime. It’s way better than almost any of the pretentious concert music I can think of at the moment. It sounds as fresh and challenging today as it did when Keith wrote it in 1971. But guess what? Tarkus was done in 1971. Complete. Fin.

The thing […]

Over the years, I’ve gotten into an ever-increasing number of serious flame wars (I guess even this speaks volumes. The youth of today don’t ‘flame’ because not much goes beyond 140 chars.) But I’m already digressing…

Several acquaintances/colleagues in the Progressive Rock community have finally gotten fed up with my emphasis on the ‘serious’ nature of high-level music making. Relax. Don’t take it all so seriously. This is awkward of course. It causes me to opt out of various ‘networking opportunities’ (festivals) where I know this attitude prevails, but it also makes it hard because I value the friendship of everyone in our little world. It’s sort of like politics: we all should be able to disagree in good conscience, but of course, that’s easier said than done.

Progressive music has had a pathological insecurity complex since he late 70’s. The whole genre got beaten to shit and unceremoniously kicked to the curb first by critics (who never liked prog) and then by fans who made a clean sweep of pretty much […]