Listen Closely

Other progressive bands have been critiqued on their likeness to high art music and some bands have even been known to perform classical and baroque pieces. Macan in his publication Rocking the Classics, English progressive Rock and the Counter Culture, States “ Yes opened their concerts with an excerpt from Stravinsky's Firebird; the first incarnation of King Crimson performed Holst's "Mars" (from The Planets) live, while the Electric Light Orchestra arranged Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (from Peer Gynt). Jethro Tull's "Bouree" was based on a piece by J. S. Bach, as was Egg's "Fugue in D minor" (drawn from the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor for organ) and the main melodic idea of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale." Many progressive rock bands clearly saw themselves in the role of bringing high culture to the masses, and approached this task with an almost missionary zeal. Thus Carl Palmer of ELP remarked to an indignant Lester Bangs that "we hope if anything we're encouraging the kids to listen to music that has more quality." The liner notes of Gentle Giant's acquiring the Taste LP informs the listener that "it is our goal to expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of being very unpopular.... From the outset we have abandoned all preconceived thoughts on blatant commercialism. Instead we hope to give you something far more substantial and fulfilling." Likewise, Jethro Tull's self-written "review" of their album Thick as a Brick comments that "taken on the whole however this is a fine disc and a good example of the current pop scene attempting to break out of its vulgarisms and sometimes downright obscene derivative hogwash." (Macan , 1997, p168.)

Some as is said, see this merging of rock with high art music as pretentious and that rock music should not take its self to seriously, especially the critics of the time, but Macan feels that this hybrid music gave the kids of the time something more to aspire to musically. “To many rock critics, especially those associated with Rolling Stone and Creem, progressive rock's aesthetic stance was anathema, nothing short of heresy. First of all, the critics resented the insinuation that progressive rock's appropriation of the classical tradition somehow "expanded the frontiers of popular music," enabled the pop scene to "break out of its vulgarism," or "encouraged kids to listen to music that has more quality." They found this viewpoint elitist and a betrayal of rock's populist origins. I would not necessarily defend the viewpoint expressed by Palmer, Gentle Giant, or Jethro Tull, insomuch as I do not believe that drawing "classical" influences into pop music will necessarily make for music that "has more quality." However, I also believe that such references to high culture will not necessarily lead to pop music that is more "inauthentic" or "sterile," either. Furthermore, far too much emphasis has been put on remarks such as these in past assessments of progressive rock. As we have already seen, progressive rock musicians drew on symphonic music and the Anglican/Catholic choral tradition because it was part of their cultural heritage as middle-class Europeans, and it made perfect sense for them to do so. (Macan , 1997. p 169)

Taking all this into account, it is easy to see why the likes of Genesis and other progressive bands have been likened to art music and the audience and listener may resemble a classical audience in many respects even to the point of sitting and carefully listening as opposed to standing and even dancing. Genesis bassist Mike Rutherford is quoted as saying that “Genesis preferred their audience to sit down and listen to the music”, which supports what has already been suggested about how the listener receives the band’s music. Although Genesis came to embody the ideas of theatre rock with the stage antics of Gabriel, this was not the case when they first started out, with albums like From Genesis to Revelation and Trespass. Although the aspects of prog rock are still there with the song writing and stories, some of which have been said to be hard going to listen to and this again requires one to listen closely.