Progressive rock

Yet another umbrella term?

Or a subgenre of rock?

Characteristics as a genre The Oxford Companion to Music:

• extending "rock's technical and compositional boundaries" by going beyond the standard rock or popular verse-chorus-based song structures,

• exploring "extended musical structures which involved intricate instrumental patterns and textures and often esoteric subject matter".

• Reportedly, the first progressive rock album was by the Beatles: Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

What bands belong here?Overlapping and loose categories

• Pink Floyd, or psychedelic rock• Yes, ELP: techno rock?• King Crimson, Manfred Mann’s Earth

Band: art-rock• Genesis, Supertramp:

theatrical/symphonic rock • Jethro Tull – folk influences?

Tentative grouping for treatment in class

• Pink Floyd as psychedelic?• Yes, ELP, King Crimson, Manfred Mann’s

as techno/art-rock? • Genesis and Supertramp, as symphonic

rock?• How about jazz-rock? Or afro-rock? Or

space-rock? Folk rock?• Plethora of categories: Southern rock,

baroque rock, conglomerate rock, etc.

• Party Music? Music while you are cooking? Oh, no…– Music for the concert hall and armchair (with your HIFI in front)– Not a working class band: The Anchor, Cambridge

• Where it all started– Psychedelic musical background– Space rock?

• 1967-1969 Astronomy Domine– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJh9OLlXenMhttps://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJh9OLlXenM• Careful with that axe, Eugene! Also from

Ummagumma, 1969– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMpGdG27K9o

• Synthesizer sound,tape loops and noises

Astronomy Domine

Lime and limpid greena second scene,A fight between the blueyou once knew.Floating down the sound resoundsAround the icy waters undergroundJupiter and Saturn Oberon Miranda and Titania Neptune TitanStars can frighten

Blinding signs flap flicker flicker flickerBlam pow powStairway scare Dan Dare,who's there?

Lime and limpid greenThe sound surrounds the icy waters underLime and limpid greenThe sound surrounds the icy watersUnderground

Growing into something different• Listening and viewing

– Time, from Dark Side of the Moon, 1973• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwYX52BP2Sk

– Shine on your Crazy Diamond…from Wish you were here… 1975• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT7bbgsyzKc

– Pigs from Animals, 1977• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOqblSqx_VI

• How did their music change direction? • Formulate your ideas and do some reading

– Encyclopaedia samples, lyrics on the web

Pink Floyd: Ummagumma and The Dark Side of the Moon

• A change of direction: „…a lot of the lyrics that we had been using were a little too indirect. There was definitely a feeling that the words were going to be very clear and

specific” • The Dark Side of the Moon built upon

experiments Pink Floyd had attempted in their previous live shows and recordings, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions of earlier years.

• Focussed on things that "make people mad", on the pressures faced by the band during their arduous lifestyle, and dealing with the apparent mental problems suffered by

former band member Syd Barrett

Time, from Dark Side…Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand wayKicking around on a piece of ground in your home townWaiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rainAnd you are young and life is long and there is time to kill todayAnd then one day you find ten years have got behind youNo one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinkingRacing around to come up behind you againThe sun is the same in a relative way, but you're olderShorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the timePlans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled linesHanging on in quiet desperation is the English wayThe time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

Shine on …

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.Shine on you crazy diamond.Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.Shine on you crazy diamond.You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, Blown on the steel breeze.

Come on you target for faraway laughter, Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.Shine on you crazy diamond.Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.Shine on you crazy diamond.Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,Rode on the steel breeze.

Come on you raver, you seer of visions, Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

PigsBig man, pig man, ha ha charade you are.You well heeled big wheel, ha ha charade you are.And when your hand is on your heart,you're nearly a good laugh, almost a joker,with your head down in the pig bin,saying, " Keep on digging", pig stain on your fat chin.What do you hope to find, when you're down in the pig mine?You're nearly a laugh, you're nearly a laugh,but you're really a cry.Bus stop rat bag, ha ha charade you are.You fucked up old hag, ha ha charade you are.You radiate cold shafts of broken glass.

You're nearly a good laugh, almost worth a quick grin.

You like the feel of steel, you're hot stuff with a hat pin,and good fun with a hand gun.You're nearly a laugh, you're nearly a laugh, but you're really a cry.

Hey you, Whitehouse, ha ha charade you are.You house proud town mouse, ha ha charade you are.You're trying to keep our feelings off the street,you're nearly a real treat, all tight lips and cold feet,and do you feel abused?

You gotta stem the evil tide,and keep it all on the inside.Mary, you're nearly a treat, Mary, you're nearly a treat,but you're really a cry.

British Invasion of the US3-part BBC video (2/2)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDAj-wsQR80– What was another American technical contribution?– What was the curry-story?– What is John Lord’s distinction?– What was the difference between the American critic’s

views and public reaction to Led Zep?– Bublic sentiment beginning to change? What about?– What was the end-note about managers?

Concise writing from Harmony encyclopaedia

AIso in 1972 came the film of the Floyd at Pompeii, made by AdrianMaben for European TV, and first shown at the Edinburgh Festival inSeptember. But most of the year was taken up with recording DarkSide of The Moon, which altogether took nine months of meticulouswork. It was premiered with a special presentation at the LondonPlanetarium, March 1973.

This was their magnum opus - indeed, the album which to manylatter-day aficionados is the Floyd. The group dealt with stress,lunacy and death in contemporary society; the whole conveyed viaone of the classiest production jobs (by the Floyd themselves) onrecord. Cynics have suggested that the album's success was in largepart due to the brilliance of its production - a stereo wet dream forhi-fi snobs everywhere - but it would be unfair to take credit awayfrom the band for what was a considerable achievement.

What are the stylistic/grammatical features that the bolded parts highlight?

Homework• Revise on the basis of the slides, songs,

lyrics, etc. • Watch the 4th part (2/2) of the BBC series• Read the 2 encyclopaedia entries• Language task on the basis of excerpt from

encyclopaedia of rock in slide 6. – Identify characteristics of concise writing style.

Among bolded clauses/phrases, find• 1 inversion• 1 non-defining relative clause• 1 defining relative clause• 1 nominal clause• 3 participle clauses