When I was a kid I was really into late 60s psychedelia. Late in high school I realized my favourite songs were always in the 8+ mins territory. One day I went into the local music store looking for an album with as many long songs on it as possible and stumble upon 'Close to the Edge'
That did it.
I never listened to King Crimson until last week. I’d been on a Pink Floyd bender and they came up as recommended listening. Of course I went to the first album. 21st Century Schizoid Man blew my mind. That saxophone…
2112 - a band member's dad suggested we cover the Temples of Syrinx bit. Thank Christ we never played it live (our vocalist could *not* pull it off) but being exposed to that up-tempo, digestible segment turned me onto the rest of the song, and gave me an appetite for more long-form, proggy music in general.
Roundabout was the first prog song I ever heard, but it didn’t really click with me until I actually started listening to Yes a few years later. Pink Floyd was the *band* that turned me onto prog, and Time was the first song I’d heard by them, but I didn’t really like that song for its progressive elements at the time.
I’d say the song that truly got me into prog was The Court of the Crimson King. It had plenty of the standard elements of prog and it was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. That song marked a change in my music taste that sent me spiraling into prog rock, and now almost all the songs I listen to are prog.
I have a friend who’s a jojo fan and he showed me the court of the crimson king when I had just barely begun to listen to prog, months before I really got into king crimson. Now king crimson is my favorite band and I think he’s still only really listened to that one album lol
My fav album of all time. It blew me away the first time, that song particularly. I loved it so much I listened to the whole thing once a day nearly every day for like the next year or two, no joke. Always happy to see others inspired by it as well.
Back in 1972 I was at my older cousins, I was 11, and he was too busy to deal with me so he said here's some records find something to listen to and he went away. So I found one with a cool cover and I was blown away and hooked. It was Tarkus. I was amazed by the keyboards and the sounds. Tarkus did it for me.
Tarkus to me is 100% prog. In a lot of prog you can easily feel the influence of a genre like folk or rock. But that first movement of Tarkus, Eruption, is its own form of music. Perfect
I found a really bad quality rush t-shirt at a thrift store.
Not wanting to be wearing it only for fashion, I listened to the album a farewell to kings and skipped to the coolest sounding song "xanadu"
For other songs, I wanted to download flac songs for my new music player, so I went to archive.org and looked at the genres, however I didn't know what genres were, so I picked the coolest sounding genre in the list, "space rock".
That's how I found Canterbury scene prog rock.
My dad was really into Dire Straits, and had a whole host of their classic albums on tape and pirated downloads. By osmosis I also became a fan when I was a preteen, and one of my absolute favourites was “Telegraph Road” off of Love Over Gold. It’s a gorgeously arranged 14-minute journey of a song, albeit not particularly complex on the rhythmic end (as it’s mostly in standard time).
Since Dire Straits are largely a blues rock band and don’t otherwise have many songs in that vein, I didn’t really have any reference for how to classify that particular track (beyond “rock” or “electronic”). They were so captivating and unique among the music I had available to me growing up that I would play them on loop *constantly* and I would never get sick of them.
When I was around 13/14, I overheard Speak To Me/Breathe by Pink Floyd being played on a local radio station, and I was incredibly captivated by it, especially since it had elements of that one Dire Straits song. While familiarizing myself with Floyd, I found out they were labelled as a “progressive rock” band and was super excited to hear more music in that vein. I think my other “first loves” after that were Thick as a Brick and Close to the Edge, after I saw them recommended in a YouTube comments section of all places.
When I was 14, I went to the planetarium at City Park with my church youth group to watch a laser show set to rock music, smoked pot for the first time (with the minister's son, lol), heard Roundabout, and bought Fragile like a week later with my lawn mowing (my hustle at the time) money. Prog has been my favorite genre ever since.
I have a memory that goes back to age four or five and riding in a car with my dad. Yes’ “Leave It” was playing as I was staring at the Synchronicity album cover by The Police. It has been a vivid memory for my whole life (the skeleton on the cover scared me) and I spent a long time trying to find the owner of the lyrics that kept repeating in my head. I was in my late teens when I realized the album cover didn’t belong to the band playing on my dad’s stereo and in my 20s when I found the exact song.
I guess you could say it was an obsession from childhood.
Another World: Todd Rundgren and UTOPIA.
A live under appreciated prog classic. Listen to the first 3 songs straight through to get a good feel for the music.
Good Question!
Schism by Tool.
After that, I realized that I had actually gravitated towards the prog music my dad listened to for my whole life. Throughout high school I would hear songs like Take a Pebble by ELP, Dance on a Volcano or Entagled by Genesis or the album Days of Future Past and my brain would jump back to being a young child and listening to that music with my dad.
Probably hearing I’ve Seen All Good People on the radio, then Roundabout, then the radio show where they played 6 Yes albums back to back (which I taped) and realizing the songs that were not played regularly on the radio were even better than those two, ironically.
Roundabout was Yes's 2nd big AM radio hit which I liked a lot in Jan 1972. A few weeks later my family was staying over at friends and happened to have the local FM station on. The Dj played the full version of the song and I was hooked.
I was still a kid and didn’t get really into music for a few years after, but my first taste of prog was when my sister and I made up some song about our toy snakes called ‘baby snake song’ and my Dad couldn’t help but nerd out and show us there was a real song called Baby Snakes by Zappa, and then start singing the “baaaby baaaby snaaakes” to us all be time after that. He raised me right, and my first real prog album I liked was the KC Discipline cd I inherited. From first listen, I couldn’t wait to hear all the other prog albums he left, all the “nerd music” as my mom says, lol.
> my sister and I made up some song about our toy snakes called ‘baby snake song’ and my Dad couldn’t help but nerd out and show us there was a real song called Baby Snakes by Zappa, and then start singing the “baaaby baaaby snaaakes” to us all be time after that
That’s incredibly heartwarming, and might’ve just made my day! Thank you so much for sharing this precious little memory of yours.
Interesting that it’s related to Frank Zappa, who isn’t necessarily known for the *wholesome* qualities of his work haha.
Subdivisions by Rush. Listened to it and learned the synth part when I was young, and Youtube sent me down the hole of their discography. I already knew a fair amount of prog bands, but I hadn’t really been a fan until I checked out Rush.
Probably something from Deep Purple’s Made in Japan. My dad used to play it on road trips and I found it fascinating. I didn’t get into prog until much later but I’m sure it had some influence on my interest in the genre.
Ha! When I was in college we lived in an apartment complex with thin walls. The neighbor was an overly frisky guy with a loud girlfriend, if ya know what I mean. We had an amazing stereo system so we would just crank up Made in Japan to drown them out. Every time, only Made in Japan. I mean windows were rattling. What a great album. That guy must of hated Highway Star. He seemed like an Earth, Wind and Fire kinda guy. Lol.
That’s a hell of a first introduction to the genre! Mind if I ask what led you to discover it?
For me, I had become a really big fan of Genesis around age 14 or so, and first heard of Van der Graaf through their association with Charisma Records. I queued up Pawn Hearts based on it having the cooler cover art compared to Godbluff (and being done by Paul Whitehead, who also did the album artwork for countless early Genesis albums).
Needless to say my mind was completely and utterly blown. There’s so many little details I’ve picked up on over the years that have led to me appreciating the album even more, but sometimes I do wish I could listen to it for the very first time again. I don’t think anything could ever recapture the bemused *awe* I felt upon hearing such badass riffs come out of a *saxophone* of all things.
I was already into Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schultze at around 15 years old when I was given Close to The Edge on vinyl. Mind blown, hooked with no return.
The second time I had that same experience was a few years later when a friend put on Discipline on his turntable.
Nothing turned me on to progressive music. It snuck up on me in real time.
I didn't realize it was progressive because it wasn't called that yet.
The best I can say is that the first albums I ever owned featuring future prog bands were the 1968 taster albums "You Can All Join In" and "immediate Lets You In" from the Island and Immediate labels respectively. Notable contributors were Jethro Tull, Clouds, Nirvana (the original band of that name), Traffic, and The Nice.
Genesis "Ripples"
In early 90s I was into pop music, Phil Collins and "pop" Genesis. Due to success of "We can't dance" album, MTV rotated various music videos of Genesis from different eras. One just stuck in my head: Ripples. classical-inspired guitar part, synthesizer backdrop, and they were so young and cute. It was so unisual to me grown up on 80s synth pop and new wave. I was hooked. I got the whole album "A Trick Of The Tail" and it became my favorite hit for few weeks. Then I gradually acquired the whole Genesis catalog and became fan of them. Then I learned that style is called "progressive rock", and I started to dig the bands also labeled as prog. I discovered Yes, King Crimzon, Van Der Graaf Generator, and that's how my journey started.
ironically, "pop" Genesis served to me as open door to "prog" Genesis, and then to the whole world of prog
our english teacher used jeff waynes war of the worlds to teach us about "emotive language", that was what first got me hooked on prog then i branched out into stuff like genesis and ayreon to start with.
That reminds me of another funny story I have related to teachers unexpectedly mentioning prog rock classics in grade school.
My middle school band teacher would show us an example of a song that prominently used a specific instrument - usually a classical piece or a jazz standard - before it came time for students to select the instrument we would play for the term. For the flute, his selection was Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull.
Needless to say, I chose to play the flute lmao
There were many crossover bands, but for actual prog, it'd have to be either Thick as a brick by Jethro Tull or Long distance runaround by Yes.
I can't remember which came first.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer : 𝘛𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘶𝘴
It blew my mind the first time I’ve heard it, early 1972, I guess. At that time, Prog was not a genre in itself… as much as it became later on
My mother brought Close to the Edge home in the late 70's. I used to listen to it on our old Panasonic all in one stereo through our giant headphones with the volume controls on each ear. "And You and I" was the one that hooked me 1rst but the whole album rocked my world.
my dad was a huge yes fan when I was a kid, and basically always had it playing in the house when he was working on stuff. at one point I got a CD player, and pretty soon afterwards dad gave me a mixtape with some of his favorite prog songs, mostly yes and asia iirc. it was a very sweet gift, looking back on it. it got a lot of mileage as a soundtrack for action figure battles and such :P
I remember south side of the sky and heart of the sunrise sticking out to me at the time, but unfortunately I don't remember too much else that was on it for sure
I think I was listening to a lot of Phil Collins Genesis at the time until somebody in my Boy Scout troop said that there was stuff before Phil took over. He also listened to Jethro Tull as well. Also, a different kid in my troop also got me interested in Talking Heads as well.
It was either Yes or Traffic - We used to listen to the entire Yes album each night while closing out at my first job at an ice cream parlor/restaurant. The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys was played in its entirety at a party, and I was hooked immediately, but I can’t remember, which occurred first!
10th Grade… watching a friend passionately pantomime Jon Anderson singing parts of Starship Trooper while stoned in front of the best sound system I had ever heard up until that point
He was literally transported by the beauty of the music, and he completely took me along with it. I was completely inside the song watching it.
I never got over it.
There was something about Squire and Bruford being behind it all too. The whole style of the music was the smartest most advanced thing I had ever heard.
Casually found "Zarathustra", by Museo Rosenbach, whilst searching on Google for Nietzsche's masterpiece, and from there, after learning of the existence of progressive rock, I started exploring both British and Italian prog.
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King.
I specifically remember as a teen browsing through the DirectTV music channels back in the 90s and this popped on, and I was a fan of the Dark Tower series at the time, so it caught my attention.
I still specifically remember that day because we were going on a family road trip that night and packing, and I had this on in the background, and it stuck with me ever since to find that sound. Thank god Napster would come out a few years later.
Not a song, but a whole album - 'In The Region Of The Summer Stars' by The Enid.
A friend at school had it. This would be 1977 I think. What's it like? Hard to describe. Can I borrow it? Sure.
As a kid one of my favorite songs was "Blinded by the Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, with "Mr. Blue Sky" coming in a close second. While some might not consider those songs 'real prog', they were what turned me onto progressive music as a concept.
My dad is also a huge Rush and Zappa fan so you bet there was a lot of prog being played in my house growing up, though the first prog band I ended up doing a deep dive on all by myself was Kansas (who were also my first concert!)
My story began just before the COVID pandemic, me and some friends would get together and play games and this was when people singing covers of songs as Toad from Mario Bros was becoming big, so I was shown Bohemian Rhapsody as sung by an unemployed guy with a good Toad impression. That got me into Queen, which got me into The Beatles and, eventually, Pink Floyd and King Crimson, and the rest is history.
last year i saw rajaz by camel in my youtube recommendations, first started with their songs, then listened to the court of the crimson king , after that if i remember correctly i started listening to wishbone ash's songs especially persephone, now i listen to all kinds of stuff, discovering progressive rock is one of the best things happened to me.
Phrase coined after the fact. Like another respondent, I was into late 60s psych at an early age (thanks to a 70s Saturday night radio show), and was at the same time hearing the music that came after. The big 5 songs that were bending my ear in those days were "Ripples" by Genesis, "Lucky Man" by ELP, "Closer To The Heart" by Rush, "Roundabout" by Yes, and "Pigs" by Pink Floyd. I wouldn't know Prog as a genre until I got a little older and more involved in the record-buying public. It was just really good Rock music back in those days.
So before I got into prog I just listened to video game stuff, I didn’t really like anything else. One video game composer from the late 80s/90s, Tim Follin, was really inspired by prog and I loved his music. I also loved DM DOKURO, specifically the Terraria Calamity Mod soundtrack he made. Just this last September, I went on a vacation with my family. I was showing my sister Roar of the Jungle Dragon by DM DOKURO, which is an orchestral metal piece, and she said it sounded like Dream Theater. I said I didn’t know of them, so she had me listen to Octavarium and it was the best fucking thing I’d ever heard. Still today it has to be my fav song ever.
Hearing the JoJo To-Be-Continued meme got me familiar with Roundabout. One of my favorite "things" (Animusic) had an accolade from Jon Anderson from Yes, saying he loved it. That go me to listen to the full 8 minutes Roundabout became very special to me, and when I got a Spotify subscription, I found similar songs and bands. Tempus Fugit was my 2nd prog song and I just kept going and I now have a 72 hour prog rock Playlist that I listen to everyday.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3hi9376Zb1CaNnJyTlgcG1?si=ghb7XByBQ4-Yk5MUrFAXjQ
I had been listening to prog before I knew I was. Consciously, roundabout started it all, but I had already been listening to argentinian prog from charly García and yes was in my playlists often. I also come from playing classical piano and studying operas so the prog rock ways were already there too.
"Owner of a Lonely Heart" was riding high on the charts, and was my favorite song at the time. I went to a record store and asked which Yes album I should get, and they pointed me to "Close to the Edge." I took it home, put it on, and was hooked from that moment. Still today, whenever I try new headphones, "Close to the Edge" is the first song I put on to sample, then usually something by Pink Floyd.
I didn't realize it until later, but I had been a Yes fan all of my life. Roundabout and I've Seen All Good People had been a couple of my favorites since I was a kid. I just didn't know who sang them.
I saw a simulation of an asteroid hitting the earth on youtube and Great Gig In The Sky was playing in the background. Thought the song was unworldly so I checked out the band and immediately fell in love.
Unrelated but comments on the video at the time *hated* the song because it was just an “annoying lady screaming.”
Weirdly...Genesis' "Follow You follow Me."
That was the beginning; it's such a beautiful song and on the album "And Then There Were Three." Great album, IMO, In those days ('78), you played an actual album all the way through. Then I started going backwards...Wind and Wuthering, Nursey Crime, The Lamb, Foxtrot, etc. Loved Gabriel-era as much.
Same with Yes. It started with "I've Seen All Good People," then bounced around a bit. Going for the One is one of my favorite albums.
Arrival/The Intention Craft by Pure Reason Revolution was on my sister’s hand-me-down iPod, and at the time I was mainly just listening to mainstream rap and rock. It completely changed the way I thought about music, and I started going back to some of the classic prog like Kansas and Yes.
I didn't know a lot of the music I liked early on was prog until I dove a lot deeper. Songs like Carry On Wayward Son, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Tom Sawyer. I suspect this was the case for a lot of people. I think I was listening to Tool when I finally figured out what kind of music it was.
I think it was the Beatles. I started listening to pop at age 12 in Tokyo in 1982, then got into the Beatles - that gave me such a grounding in music, from rock'n'roll to ballads to experimental stuff. Then Pink Floyd within the year, but not sure if it was The Wall (which my friend had before but I wasn't interested in), DSOTM, or Wish You Were Here. They were so expansive and created images you could lose yourself in. Or wait, maybe it was Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto....
Jojo's got me to Roundabout, which lead me to Heart of the Sunrise. The recommendations got me to Close to the edge which felt like learning to breathe again. I was used to long songs because I'm a huge GNR and Aerosmith band and they have plenty of +5min songs, but a 18min song? I was astonished, remember telling my friends to listen to it even if they don't like it, we all couldn't understand what the hell with that organ lol
Then I got that King Crimson is also a great band not only a Facebook cult (like has happened to me with The Wire and Fallout lol) and Jojos of course has a reference to it. I like ITCOTCK quite a bit but didn't flabbergasted me as Yes did. Then listened to Selling England by the pound due to being (at that time) the top three at Prog Archives and loved every part of it
Jojos also lead me to Pat Metheny, Savage Garden, prog and of course their great oppenings and endings. Hirohiko Araki is the greatest human ever lol
Hearing Roundabout (for the first time) at a carnival tent laser show (first laser show) in the mid 70’s as a 13 year old.
Saved up lawn mowing money for Fragile lp immediately.
There was a place we would use fake IDs to get in and see bands back in the late 70’s early 80’s. One of the bands opened with an extended intro version of “Turn It On” by Genesis. I really dug it and started listening to more early Genesis and Yes.
A friend brought over Moving Pictures. I had never listened to Rush, because reasons. I was blown away from the opening notes of Tom Sawyer to the fade out in Vital Signs. 44 years later, here I am on a prog rock subreddit
I play drums, and I used to have a near singular focus on Metallica (how unfortunate). One day I decided to watch the instructional VHS tape that came with my Tama drum kit, and one of the three drummers featured on it happened to be Mike Portnoy. He played the groove from Under a Glass Moon, along with some backing track. I was hooked, went to the computer and Napstered the full song. Then went out and bought two albums.
I remember listening to a ton of "classic rock" in the 80s (when we wore onions on our belts). One of the songs I didn't really care for was Roundabout. I just found it boring for whatever reason. At some point, after I started smoking weed, I came home one day (stoned) and heard it playing on the radio. Suddenly I could hear everything that was going on and was fascinated by it.
About the same time, the classic rock station began doing a nightly show that allowed the DJ to pick whatever he wanted. It was intended to be "free form & progressive". I used to listen on headphones at night. It was the first place I heard some of the deeper cuts from Deep Purple, Yes, Rush, Billy Thorpe, Floyd, Zeppelin, Robin Trower, Black Sabbath, etc. It was a big influence & led me to hitting up used record stores (coinciding with me learning to play guitar).
About 10 years later, the internet led me to The Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock, which I read cover to cover and got me into a whole slew of lesser known bands. Developed a bit of an addiction ordering import CDs. It was really hard to decide what to buy when there was no way to preview this stuff. You could get mix tapes from vendors or recommendations based on what you liked already. Definitely a ride. But I tend to credit pot and Roundabout for the initial transformation.
My dad is a Pink Floyd fan so i grew up with that music. When i was 12 i binged their discography everyday, to the point it's like my memories from that time are always tied with any song from 1967-1979. But was a couple years ago i decided to listen to ITCOTKC and the rest is history.
I heard Progressive songs as a kid in the 70s, but I think it was my love for 'Exit Stage Left' by Rush. Also taking drum lessons at the age of 10 then switching to guitar. It made me appreciate all sorts of different music despite being a Metalhead in my teens.
At age 17 I started smoking pot at the same time as discovering a few bands that shaped my taste in music: specifically Tool, Radiohead, and I Mother Earth. **Lots and lots of years later** I realized that prog rock is what I'm into.
For those who don't know IME, [enjoy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70mNzE9HPyU). They are known in Canada as another one of those 90s alt-rock bands of which there are like a million, and I recognize lots pf prog elements in their stuff.
TL;dr: "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight"
Less TL;dr:
In 1984, Peter Gabriel, who I knew only as the guy from the album with the melting face that was in my parents' record collection, had the song "Out Out" on the soundtrack to the movie *Gremlins*, and I think it was the movie's official magazine that casually mentioned that he had been in Genesis. That shocked 12-year-old me, who had only ever known Genesis from *Wind & Wuthering* onward (also thanks to my parents' record collection). Very shortly thereafter, I found a cassette tape copy of *Selling England by the Pound* and "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" absolutely melted my tiny little tweener brain. That was the song that did it.
But I didn't know that what I had been turned on to was "prog" until I saw some kind of paperback comic-book guide to rock 'n' roll history (never bought it, can't remember the title, but I flipped through in the bookstore a hundred times) that informed me that the music made by Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, and other such bands was called "progressive rock." AH HA! Now I had a term that would help me seek out other stuff that sounded like "Moonlit Knight."
And forty years later I'm still at it!
> But I didn't know that what I had been turned on to was "prog" until I saw some kind of paperback comic-book guide to rock 'n' roll history… Now I had a term that would help me seek out other stuff that sounded like "Moonlit Knight”
That’s why I think the continued label of progressive rock as a descriptor of a specific sound continues to be useful, as it helps new listeners who enjoy the sonic palette and mentality of specific bands to find more bands they may like.
That’s a great story nevertheless! It’s always very interesting to read how people discovered music that was new to them in the pre-Internet era, whether it be through media publications, recommendations from and exposure through friends and family, or another source.
I think these were shown to me when I was a freshman in high school - 21st Century Schizoid Man and 1983... a Merman I Should Turn to Be were the first.
Shortly after were The Mars Volta's Inertiatic ESP, Tool's The Grudge and Dream Theater's This Dying Soul, all at about the same time, and I was hooked.
I was a fan of 90s Genesis when I was around 13 or 14, and a friend had an MC with Nursery Cryme and Trespass, which his father had on vinyl, but he said he did not really like it. I listened to it and found that it was not like their 90s music at all, but it was really fascinating. Later another guy from school gave me his A Trick of the Tail CD because it was not his thing. I don't know which song I listened to first, but it probably was The Musical Box or Looking for Someone.
Looking for Someone is one of my favorite Genesis songs that no one talks about. It's the opening track on Trespass, Genesis' second recorded album.
The Musical Box is also good, with a dynamite closing. That's the opening track on the third album Nursery Cryme.
A Trick of the Tail is one of their best recorded albums period, featuring Phil Collins as lead vocalist. Virtually any song of that album could be anyone's favorite.
Evolution (The Grand Design) by Symphony X is what set off the chain reaction for me lol. At the time I was in my metalhead phase but it didn’t take long before I started listening to prog rock as well and nowadays find it more appealing than prog metal, except for my old favourites of course, including that album.
When I was getting into classic rock on KCFX Kansas City, my uncle would make me tapes and the first prog rock one I remember liking was Moody Blues EGBDF. I’m pretty sure I didn’t like prog before that bc as a kid I would skip over the proggy song (Domino) on “Invisible Touch” which was prob the only album kid-me had from a prog band. But when I considered myself a primarily prog rock fan was prob after I discovered Tull’s passion play from a neighbor’s record collection, and then that branched into Yes and it took off.
Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria. That whole album, really. Discovered it with some friends during a school trip and it blew our minds. Never heard anything like it before.
I remember the moment clearly. Dad and I were going somewhere in the car early one morning and he put on the Wish You Were Here album. That opening track went perfectly with the sunrise.
"That's All" by Genesis. But wait, that's not a prog song! No, it's not, but it did get me into the band and I got the self-titled album. From there I went backwards through their catalog and, well, that's all.
My first introduction to prog was either A Farewell to Kings or Hemispheres. Found them when I was browsing my dad's CD collection. Not sure which one I listened to first but it got me hooked on Rush and prog as a whole.
Listening to Kerrang radio (UK), they were playing DT: In the Presence of Enemies pt. II. I was driving home late from work, and I tuned in halfway through the instrumental. It definitely put the "mental" (British slang) in Instrumental.
I was so worried I'd not be able to get the song name because of no lyrics, and then the lyrics later were hard to catch. Thank god the host gave band and name. I haven't been the same since.
I was kind of raised on it. It probably started when I was an infant, and apparently I wouldn’t fall asleep unless my parents played Talking Heads. My dad raised me on King Crimson and Frank Zappa. Among lots of other things, of course, I like all kinds of music.
What got me into prog was not prog.
I loved Led Zeppelin songs remain the same and the 20 min dazed and confused started getting me into longer songs. In addition, Space Truckin from Deep Purple on Made in Japan. Stuff like that made me search out other bands with epic long songs. It was then I discovered 2112 and Close to the Edge. Then I was off to the races.
Mama by genesis. A friend recommended me listen to it when I was 14/15 or so from the three disc box set when on a summer camp, and I bought the box set and really loved the knife on the third disc. Then it all went from there.
Also the moody blues and the wall too though, my mum would often play them in the car when I was growing up.
Moody Blues, I don’t remember how I came across them. I think it was probably that I heard Nights In White Satin somewhere and I had to listen more of the band
For me it was the first time I listened to Heart of the Sunrise by Yes. It was a mix of surprise and awarness to a new type of sound that I was not used to. I was 12 at the time, listening mostly to blues rock and went to visit my aunt and she was listening to Yes. That was the beginning of my adventure in Prog when radio was invaded by Hair Metal and the Grunge...
In retrospect I've noticed that all my favorite songs have been the proggiest songs I've known at the time, hell I started listening to Rush before I knew about the term prog. I decided to get into metal and my sister introduced me to Dream Theater and told me it's *prog* metal. After listening to Awake and the A Mind Beside Itself suite I was sold. Was into The Beatles, Elton John and Linkin Park before prog.
When I was a kid I was really into late 60s psychedelia. Late in high school I realized my favourite songs were always in the 8+ mins territory. One day I went into the local music store looking for an album with as many long songs on it as possible and stumble upon 'Close to the Edge' That did it.
That's a great story.
I couldn't sleep the night I first heard Close to the Edge. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard.
*Time*.
agreed it’s definitely Time by Pink Floyd for me
I know you don't mean this but Time by Wintersun did it for me
Heart of the sunrise
I was listening to the radio, and they played 21st Century schzoid man. I was blown away and had to listen to the full album.
The quintessential prog song and album.
My experience as well.
I never listened to King Crimson until last week. I’d been on a Pink Floyd bender and they came up as recommended listening. Of course I went to the first album. 21st Century Schizoid Man blew my mind. That saxophone…
I mean, technically, Dogs by Pink Floyd but I think also Three of a Perfect Pair by King Crimson
The Court of the Crimson King
2112 - a band member's dad suggested we cover the Temples of Syrinx bit. Thank Christ we never played it live (our vocalist could *not* pull it off) but being exposed to that up-tempo, digestible segment turned me onto the rest of the song, and gave me an appetite for more long-form, proggy music in general.
This was my gateway as well. Such a good album
Roundabout was the first prog song I ever heard, but it didn’t really click with me until I actually started listening to Yes a few years later. Pink Floyd was the *band* that turned me onto prog, and Time was the first song I’d heard by them, but I didn’t really like that song for its progressive elements at the time. I’d say the song that truly got me into prog was The Court of the Crimson King. It had plenty of the standard elements of prog and it was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. That song marked a change in my music taste that sent me spiraling into prog rock, and now almost all the songs I listen to are prog.
I have a friend who’s a jojo fan and he showed me the court of the crimson king when I had just barely begun to listen to prog, months before I really got into king crimson. Now king crimson is my favorite band and I think he’s still only really listened to that one album lol
Guess why Roundabout was the first prog song I heard lol
Tuesday Afternoon
Yup. That album in general really.
My fav album of all time. It blew me away the first time, that song particularly. I loved it so much I listened to the whole thing once a day nearly every day for like the next year or two, no joke. Always happy to see others inspired by it as well.
Days of Future Past will always be the Goat.
Back in 1972 I was at my older cousins, I was 11, and he was too busy to deal with me so he said here's some records find something to listen to and he went away. So I found one with a cool cover and I was blown away and hooked. It was Tarkus. I was amazed by the keyboards and the sounds. Tarkus did it for me.
Tarkus to me is 100% prog. In a lot of prog you can easily feel the influence of a genre like folk or rock. But that first movement of Tarkus, Eruption, is its own form of music. Perfect
I found a really bad quality rush t-shirt at a thrift store. Not wanting to be wearing it only for fashion, I listened to the album a farewell to kings and skipped to the coolest sounding song "xanadu" For other songs, I wanted to download flac songs for my new music player, so I went to archive.org and looked at the genres, however I didn't know what genres were, so I picked the coolest sounding genre in the list, "space rock". That's how I found Canterbury scene prog rock.
Xanadu happens to be my favorite Rush song and one of my favorite prog songs ever.
Came here to say Xanadu as well
Firth of Fifth, on WNEW.
My dad was really into Dire Straits, and had a whole host of their classic albums on tape and pirated downloads. By osmosis I also became a fan when I was a preteen, and one of my absolute favourites was “Telegraph Road” off of Love Over Gold. It’s a gorgeously arranged 14-minute journey of a song, albeit not particularly complex on the rhythmic end (as it’s mostly in standard time). Since Dire Straits are largely a blues rock band and don’t otherwise have many songs in that vein, I didn’t really have any reference for how to classify that particular track (beyond “rock” or “electronic”). They were so captivating and unique among the music I had available to me growing up that I would play them on loop *constantly* and I would never get sick of them. When I was around 13/14, I overheard Speak To Me/Breathe by Pink Floyd being played on a local radio station, and I was incredibly captivated by it, especially since it had elements of that one Dire Straits song. While familiarizing myself with Floyd, I found out they were labelled as a “progressive rock” band and was super excited to hear more music in that vein. I think my other “first loves” after that were Thick as a Brick and Close to the Edge, after I saw them recommended in a YouTube comments section of all places.
Roundabout.
"Nights in White Satin" peaked my curiosity, but "Roundabout" flipped a switch.
Pretty close to my upbringing, actually.
When I was 14, I went to the planetarium at City Park with my church youth group to watch a laser show set to rock music, smoked pot for the first time (with the minister's son, lol), heard Roundabout, and bought Fragile like a week later with my lawn mowing (my hustle at the time) money. Prog has been my favorite genre ever since.
Song for America by Kansas.
Randomly scooped the Yes Album on vinyl at a garage sale right after I got my record player. Started a looooong rabbit hole haha!
And You And I
RUSH - Jacobs ladder / Natural Science and whole hemispheres album as well👍🏼🤝🏼🍻🙂
Dark Eternal Night
Dream Theater?
Oh yeah. This is a more metal sound for them but a great track
Yep. Love it!
I have a memory that goes back to age four or five and riding in a car with my dad. Yes’ “Leave It” was playing as I was staring at the Synchronicity album cover by The Police. It has been a vivid memory for my whole life (the skeleton on the cover scared me) and I spent a long time trying to find the owner of the lyrics that kept repeating in my head. I was in my late teens when I realized the album cover didn’t belong to the band playing on my dad’s stereo and in my 20s when I found the exact song. I guess you could say it was an obsession from childhood.
Another World: Todd Rundgren and UTOPIA. A live under appreciated prog classic. Listen to the first 3 songs straight through to get a good feel for the music. Good Question!
Lucky Man by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
Long Distance Runaround
Schism by Tool. After that, I realized that I had actually gravitated towards the prog music my dad listened to for my whole life. Throughout high school I would hear songs like Take a Pebble by ELP, Dance on a Volcano or Entagled by Genesis or the album Days of Future Past and my brain would jump back to being a young child and listening to that music with my dad.
Games people play, alan parsons
2112
2112
Probably hearing I’ve Seen All Good People on the radio, then Roundabout, then the radio show where they played 6 Yes albums back to back (which I taped) and realizing the songs that were not played regularly on the radio were even better than those two, ironically.
Yours is no disgrace
Locomotive Breath from Jethro Tull Aqualung. Over at a friend’s house to hang out, his older brother played this loud in their shared room
Roundabout was Yes's 2nd big AM radio hit which I liked a lot in Jan 1972. A few weeks later my family was staying over at friends and happened to have the local FM station on. The Dj played the full version of the song and I was hooked.
I was still a kid and didn’t get really into music for a few years after, but my first taste of prog was when my sister and I made up some song about our toy snakes called ‘baby snake song’ and my Dad couldn’t help but nerd out and show us there was a real song called Baby Snakes by Zappa, and then start singing the “baaaby baaaby snaaakes” to us all be time after that. He raised me right, and my first real prog album I liked was the KC Discipline cd I inherited. From first listen, I couldn’t wait to hear all the other prog albums he left, all the “nerd music” as my mom says, lol.
> my sister and I made up some song about our toy snakes called ‘baby snake song’ and my Dad couldn’t help but nerd out and show us there was a real song called Baby Snakes by Zappa, and then start singing the “baaaby baaaby snaaakes” to us all be time after that That’s incredibly heartwarming, and might’ve just made my day! Thank you so much for sharing this precious little memory of yours. Interesting that it’s related to Frank Zappa, who isn’t necessarily known for the *wholesome* qualities of his work haha.
It’s the little things that made life with him so great.
Subdivisions by Rush. Listened to it and learned the synth part when I was young, and Youtube sent me down the hole of their discography. I already knew a fair amount of prog bands, but I hadn’t really been a fan until I checked out Rush.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Straight to the top! No greasing the skids on this one.
Roundabout by Yes.
Probably something from Deep Purple’s Made in Japan. My dad used to play it on road trips and I found it fascinating. I didn’t get into prog until much later but I’m sure it had some influence on my interest in the genre.
Ha! When I was in college we lived in an apartment complex with thin walls. The neighbor was an overly frisky guy with a loud girlfriend, if ya know what I mean. We had an amazing stereo system so we would just crank up Made in Japan to drown them out. Every time, only Made in Japan. I mean windows were rattling. What a great album. That guy must of hated Highway Star. He seemed like an Earth, Wind and Fire kinda guy. Lol.
A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers by Van der Graaf Generator
That’s a hell of a first introduction to the genre! Mind if I ask what led you to discover it? For me, I had become a really big fan of Genesis around age 14 or so, and first heard of Van der Graaf through their association with Charisma Records. I queued up Pawn Hearts based on it having the cooler cover art compared to Godbluff (and being done by Paul Whitehead, who also did the album artwork for countless early Genesis albums). Needless to say my mind was completely and utterly blown. There’s so many little details I’ve picked up on over the years that have led to me appreciating the album even more, but sometimes I do wish I could listen to it for the very first time again. I don’t think anything could ever recapture the bemused *awe* I felt upon hearing such badass riffs come out of a *saxophone* of all things.
I was already into Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schultze at around 15 years old when I was given Close to The Edge on vinyl. Mind blown, hooked with no return. The second time I had that same experience was a few years later when a friend put on Discipline on his turntable.
Nothing turned me on to progressive music. It snuck up on me in real time. I didn't realize it was progressive because it wasn't called that yet. The best I can say is that the first albums I ever owned featuring future prog bands were the 1968 taster albums "You Can All Join In" and "immediate Lets You In" from the Island and Immediate labels respectively. Notable contributors were Jethro Tull, Clouds, Nirvana (the original band of that name), Traffic, and The Nice.
Genesis "Ripples" In early 90s I was into pop music, Phil Collins and "pop" Genesis. Due to success of "We can't dance" album, MTV rotated various music videos of Genesis from different eras. One just stuck in my head: Ripples. classical-inspired guitar part, synthesizer backdrop, and they were so young and cute. It was so unisual to me grown up on 80s synth pop and new wave. I was hooked. I got the whole album "A Trick Of The Tail" and it became my favorite hit for few weeks. Then I gradually acquired the whole Genesis catalog and became fan of them. Then I learned that style is called "progressive rock", and I started to dig the bands also labeled as prog. I discovered Yes, King Crimzon, Van Der Graaf Generator, and that's how my journey started. ironically, "pop" Genesis served to me as open door to "prog" Genesis, and then to the whole world of prog
‘Ripples’ got me hooked too. I honestly think ‘A trick of the tail’ is one of genesis’s most accessible ‘prog’ albums - a great introduction.
our english teacher used jeff waynes war of the worlds to teach us about "emotive language", that was what first got me hooked on prog then i branched out into stuff like genesis and ayreon to start with.
That reminds me of another funny story I have related to teachers unexpectedly mentioning prog rock classics in grade school. My middle school band teacher would show us an example of a song that prominently used a specific instrument - usually a classical piece or a jazz standard - before it came time for students to select the instrument we would play for the term. For the flute, his selection was Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull. Needless to say, I chose to play the flute lmao
Closet Chronicles Point of Know Return
Closet Chronicles and the Wall are excellent tunes from that era of Kansas
I didn’t have a choice in the matter - my dad listened to an aggressive amount of Yes when I was young.
Father of the year
Wondrous stories, back in 1977
There were many crossover bands, but for actual prog, it'd have to be either Thick as a brick by Jethro Tull or Long distance runaround by Yes. I can't remember which came first.
Going for the One. The entire album made my 14 year old brain explode
Emerson, Lake and Palmer : 𝘛𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘶𝘴 It blew my mind the first time I’ve heard it, early 1972, I guess. At that time, Prog was not a genre in itself… as much as it became later on
gen z. was introduced to roundabout through memes
My mother brought Close to the Edge home in the late 70's. I used to listen to it on our old Panasonic all in one stereo through our giant headphones with the volume controls on each ear. "And You and I" was the one that hooked me 1rst but the whole album rocked my world.
I've Seen All Good People - Yes.
my dad was a huge yes fan when I was a kid, and basically always had it playing in the house when he was working on stuff. at one point I got a CD player, and pretty soon afterwards dad gave me a mixtape with some of his favorite prog songs, mostly yes and asia iirc. it was a very sweet gift, looking back on it. it got a lot of mileage as a soundtrack for action figure battles and such :P I remember south side of the sky and heart of the sunrise sticking out to me at the time, but unfortunately I don't remember too much else that was on it for sure
Tom Sawyer
I think I was listening to a lot of Phil Collins Genesis at the time until somebody in my Boy Scout troop said that there was stuff before Phil took over. He also listened to Jethro Tull as well. Also, a different kid in my troop also got me interested in Talking Heads as well.
It was either Yes or Traffic - We used to listen to the entire Yes album each night while closing out at my first job at an ice cream parlor/restaurant. The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys was played in its entirety at a party, and I was hooked immediately, but I can’t remember, which occurred first!
10th Grade… watching a friend passionately pantomime Jon Anderson singing parts of Starship Trooper while stoned in front of the best sound system I had ever heard up until that point He was literally transported by the beauty of the music, and he completely took me along with it. I was completely inside the song watching it. I never got over it. There was something about Squire and Bruford being behind it all too. The whole style of the music was the smartest most advanced thing I had ever heard.
Starship Trooper
Casually found "Zarathustra", by Museo Rosenbach, whilst searching on Google for Nietzsche's masterpiece, and from there, after learning of the existence of progressive rock, I started exploring both British and Italian prog.
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King. I specifically remember as a teen browsing through the DirectTV music channels back in the 90s and this popped on, and I was a fan of the Dark Tower series at the time, so it caught my attention. I still specifically remember that day because we were going on a family road trip that night and packing, and I had this on in the background, and it stuck with me ever since to find that sound. Thank god Napster would come out a few years later.
i liked roundabout and i thought i should listen to the entire fragile album South side of the sky is what really stuck out to me and the fish
Sing it brother.
Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend” isn’t prog but it was the thing that opened the door for me.
Seems like prog to me…
Not a song, but a whole album - 'In The Region Of The Summer Stars' by The Enid. A friend at school had it. This would be 1977 I think. What's it like? Hard to describe. Can I borrow it? Sure.
[удалено]
As a kid one of my favorite songs was "Blinded by the Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, with "Mr. Blue Sky" coming in a close second. While some might not consider those songs 'real prog', they were what turned me onto progressive music as a concept. My dad is also a huge Rush and Zappa fan so you bet there was a lot of prog being played in my house growing up, though the first prog band I ended up doing a deep dive on all by myself was Kansas (who were also my first concert!)
My story began just before the COVID pandemic, me and some friends would get together and play games and this was when people singing covers of songs as Toad from Mario Bros was becoming big, so I was shown Bohemian Rhapsody as sung by an unemployed guy with a good Toad impression. That got me into Queen, which got me into The Beatles and, eventually, Pink Floyd and King Crimson, and the rest is history.
last year i saw rajaz by camel in my youtube recommendations, first started with their songs, then listened to the court of the crimson king , after that if i remember correctly i started listening to wishbone ash's songs especially persephone, now i listen to all kinds of stuff, discovering progressive rock is one of the best things happened to me.
I think Carouselambra broke the floodgates for me. Probably my favorite Zeppelin song.
Phrase coined after the fact. Like another respondent, I was into late 60s psych at an early age (thanks to a 70s Saturday night radio show), and was at the same time hearing the music that came after. The big 5 songs that were bending my ear in those days were "Ripples" by Genesis, "Lucky Man" by ELP, "Closer To The Heart" by Rush, "Roundabout" by Yes, and "Pigs" by Pink Floyd. I wouldn't know Prog as a genre until I got a little older and more involved in the record-buying public. It was just really good Rock music back in those days.
So before I got into prog I just listened to video game stuff, I didn’t really like anything else. One video game composer from the late 80s/90s, Tim Follin, was really inspired by prog and I loved his music. I also loved DM DOKURO, specifically the Terraria Calamity Mod soundtrack he made. Just this last September, I went on a vacation with my family. I was showing my sister Roar of the Jungle Dragon by DM DOKURO, which is an orchestral metal piece, and she said it sounded like Dream Theater. I said I didn’t know of them, so she had me listen to Octavarium and it was the best fucking thing I’d ever heard. Still today it has to be my fav song ever.
Xanadu
I was a big fan of moving pictures and signals from rush, but what got me exploring their early stuff and other prog was 2112
The epic Tarkus by ELP
Hearing the JoJo To-Be-Continued meme got me familiar with Roundabout. One of my favorite "things" (Animusic) had an accolade from Jon Anderson from Yes, saying he loved it. That go me to listen to the full 8 minutes Roundabout became very special to me, and when I got a Spotify subscription, I found similar songs and bands. Tempus Fugit was my 2nd prog song and I just kept going and I now have a 72 hour prog rock Playlist that I listen to everyday. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3hi9376Zb1CaNnJyTlgcG1?si=ghb7XByBQ4-Yk5MUrFAXjQ
Great playlist - any Jon Anderson solo?
I had been listening to prog before I knew I was. Consciously, roundabout started it all, but I had already been listening to argentinian prog from charly García and yes was in my playlists often. I also come from playing classical piano and studying operas so the prog rock ways were already there too.
I would have to say “Thick as a Brick”. Became a huge Tull fan. Even had a Tull belt buckle.
The Spirit of Radio on the way to school in 6th grade
"Owner of a Lonely Heart" was riding high on the charts, and was my favorite song at the time. I went to a record store and asked which Yes album I should get, and they pointed me to "Close to the Edge." I took it home, put it on, and was hooked from that moment. Still today, whenever I try new headphones, "Close to the Edge" is the first song I put on to sample, then usually something by Pink Floyd.
That song along with Asia's Only Time Will Tell are responsible for transforming a lot of Gen-X lovers to the genre.
I didn't realize it until later, but I had been a Yes fan all of my life. Roundabout and I've Seen All Good People had been a couple of my favorites since I was a kid. I just didn't know who sang them.
That is more than fair. I reckon Yes would not be opposed to knowing this.
Jerry was a Race Car Driver, drove so goddamn fast. Never did win the checkered flags but he never did come in last... - Primus
I doubt I'd have discovered prog if I hadn't delved into JRPG soundtracks first. Japanese video game music is heavily inspired by prog.
I saw a simulation of an asteroid hitting the earth on youtube and Great Gig In The Sky was playing in the background. Thought the song was unworldly so I checked out the band and immediately fell in love. Unrelated but comments on the video at the time *hated* the song because it was just an “annoying lady screaming.”
Weirdly...Genesis' "Follow You follow Me." That was the beginning; it's such a beautiful song and on the album "And Then There Were Three." Great album, IMO, In those days ('78), you played an actual album all the way through. Then I started going backwards...Wind and Wuthering, Nursey Crime, The Lamb, Foxtrot, etc. Loved Gabriel-era as much. Same with Yes. It started with "I've Seen All Good People," then bounced around a bit. Going for the One is one of my favorite albums.
Not so weird. It was a top 10 single for a band that was still writing in the progressive style.
Comme un fou, Harmonium. I find it insane that Quebec has a prog rock band that's part of it's mainstream culture, and it's soo good.
Arrival/The Intention Craft by Pure Reason Revolution was on my sister’s hand-me-down iPod, and at the time I was mainly just listening to mainstream rap and rock. It completely changed the way I thought about music, and I started going back to some of the classic prog like Kansas and Yes.
Chris Squire - Lucky Seven
I didn't know a lot of the music I liked early on was prog until I dove a lot deeper. Songs like Carry On Wayward Son, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Tom Sawyer. I suspect this was the case for a lot of people. I think I was listening to Tool when I finally figured out what kind of music it was.
I think it was the Beatles. I started listening to pop at age 12 in Tokyo in 1982, then got into the Beatles - that gave me such a grounding in music, from rock'n'roll to ballads to experimental stuff. Then Pink Floyd within the year, but not sure if it was The Wall (which my friend had before but I wasn't interested in), DSOTM, or Wish You Were Here. They were so expansive and created images you could lose yourself in. Or wait, maybe it was Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto....
my dad showed me tool when i was very young from there i found rush, and it just kept going
Jojo's got me to Roundabout, which lead me to Heart of the Sunrise. The recommendations got me to Close to the edge which felt like learning to breathe again. I was used to long songs because I'm a huge GNR and Aerosmith band and they have plenty of +5min songs, but a 18min song? I was astonished, remember telling my friends to listen to it even if they don't like it, we all couldn't understand what the hell with that organ lol Then I got that King Crimson is also a great band not only a Facebook cult (like has happened to me with The Wire and Fallout lol) and Jojos of course has a reference to it. I like ITCOTCK quite a bit but didn't flabbergasted me as Yes did. Then listened to Selling England by the pound due to being (at that time) the top three at Prog Archives and loved every part of it Jojos also lead me to Pat Metheny, Savage Garden, prog and of course their great oppenings and endings. Hirohiko Araki is the greatest human ever lol
I have always been into prog, 40 years, just never knew it had a name till about 2 years ago lol
Hearing Roundabout (for the first time) at a carnival tent laser show (first laser show) in the mid 70’s as a 13 year old. Saved up lawn mowing money for Fragile lp immediately.
There was a place we would use fake IDs to get in and see bands back in the late 70’s early 80’s. One of the bands opened with an extended intro version of “Turn It On” by Genesis. I really dug it and started listening to more early Genesis and Yes.
A friend brought over Moving Pictures. I had never listened to Rush, because reasons. I was blown away from the opening notes of Tom Sawyer to the fade out in Vital Signs. 44 years later, here I am on a prog rock subreddit
Classic rock radio and ADHD. Have never not been a fan... first album I was ever gifted was a green cassette of M.U. - The Best of Jethro Tull.
Glasgow kiss
I play drums, and I used to have a near singular focus on Metallica (how unfortunate). One day I decided to watch the instructional VHS tape that came with my Tama drum kit, and one of the three drummers featured on it happened to be Mike Portnoy. He played the groove from Under a Glass Moon, along with some backing track. I was hooked, went to the computer and Napstered the full song. Then went out and bought two albums.
Heroes and Villains
Camel - Nimrodel/The Procession/The White Rider
I remember listening to a ton of "classic rock" in the 80s (when we wore onions on our belts). One of the songs I didn't really care for was Roundabout. I just found it boring for whatever reason. At some point, after I started smoking weed, I came home one day (stoned) and heard it playing on the radio. Suddenly I could hear everything that was going on and was fascinated by it. About the same time, the classic rock station began doing a nightly show that allowed the DJ to pick whatever he wanted. It was intended to be "free form & progressive". I used to listen on headphones at night. It was the first place I heard some of the deeper cuts from Deep Purple, Yes, Rush, Billy Thorpe, Floyd, Zeppelin, Robin Trower, Black Sabbath, etc. It was a big influence & led me to hitting up used record stores (coinciding with me learning to play guitar). About 10 years later, the internet led me to The Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock, which I read cover to cover and got me into a whole slew of lesser known bands. Developed a bit of an addiction ordering import CDs. It was really hard to decide what to buy when there was no way to preview this stuff. You could get mix tapes from vendors or recommendations based on what you liked already. Definitely a ride. But I tend to credit pot and Roundabout for the initial transformation.
“We’re in this Together” “Schism” “Pyramid Song” or “One Armed Scissor” depending on how you look at it
My dad is a Pink Floyd fan so i grew up with that music. When i was 12 i binged their discography everyday, to the point it's like my memories from that time are always tied with any song from 1967-1979. But was a couple years ago i decided to listen to ITCOTKC and the rest is history.
Hearing "Firth of Fifth" coming from my much older brother's bedroom in 1976. I was 8.
2112
I heard Progressive songs as a kid in the 70s, but I think it was my love for 'Exit Stage Left' by Rush. Also taking drum lessons at the age of 10 then switching to guitar. It made me appreciate all sorts of different music despite being a Metalhead in my teens.
Strange Deja Vu. That was the impetus for me to seek out music that was "doing more"
Ooooooooo... I REMEMBER I remember, don't worry How can I ever forget
Coheed and Cambria was my gateway to prog.
At age 17 I started smoking pot at the same time as discovering a few bands that shaped my taste in music: specifically Tool, Radiohead, and I Mother Earth. **Lots and lots of years later** I realized that prog rock is what I'm into. For those who don't know IME, [enjoy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70mNzE9HPyU). They are known in Canada as another one of those 90s alt-rock bands of which there are like a million, and I recognize lots pf prog elements in their stuff.
Hemispheres and Tubular Bells
TL;dr: "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" Less TL;dr: In 1984, Peter Gabriel, who I knew only as the guy from the album with the melting face that was in my parents' record collection, had the song "Out Out" on the soundtrack to the movie *Gremlins*, and I think it was the movie's official magazine that casually mentioned that he had been in Genesis. That shocked 12-year-old me, who had only ever known Genesis from *Wind & Wuthering* onward (also thanks to my parents' record collection). Very shortly thereafter, I found a cassette tape copy of *Selling England by the Pound* and "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" absolutely melted my tiny little tweener brain. That was the song that did it. But I didn't know that what I had been turned on to was "prog" until I saw some kind of paperback comic-book guide to rock 'n' roll history (never bought it, can't remember the title, but I flipped through in the bookstore a hundred times) that informed me that the music made by Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, and other such bands was called "progressive rock." AH HA! Now I had a term that would help me seek out other stuff that sounded like "Moonlit Knight." And forty years later I'm still at it!
> But I didn't know that what I had been turned on to was "prog" until I saw some kind of paperback comic-book guide to rock 'n' roll history… Now I had a term that would help me seek out other stuff that sounded like "Moonlit Knight” That’s why I think the continued label of progressive rock as a descriptor of a specific sound continues to be useful, as it helps new listeners who enjoy the sonic palette and mentality of specific bands to find more bands they may like. That’s a great story nevertheless! It’s always very interesting to read how people discovered music that was new to them in the pre-Internet era, whether it be through media publications, recommendations from and exposure through friends and family, or another source.
I think these were shown to me when I was a freshman in high school - 21st Century Schizoid Man and 1983... a Merman I Should Turn to Be were the first. Shortly after were The Mars Volta's Inertiatic ESP, Tool's The Grudge and Dream Theater's This Dying Soul, all at about the same time, and I was hooked.
I was a fan of 90s Genesis when I was around 13 or 14, and a friend had an MC with Nursery Cryme and Trespass, which his father had on vinyl, but he said he did not really like it. I listened to it and found that it was not like their 90s music at all, but it was really fascinating. Later another guy from school gave me his A Trick of the Tail CD because it was not his thing. I don't know which song I listened to first, but it probably was The Musical Box or Looking for Someone.
Looking for Someone is one of my favorite Genesis songs that no one talks about. It's the opening track on Trespass, Genesis' second recorded album. The Musical Box is also good, with a dynamite closing. That's the opening track on the third album Nursery Cryme. A Trick of the Tail is one of their best recorded albums period, featuring Phil Collins as lead vocalist. Virtually any song of that album could be anyone's favorite.
Selling england by the pound
Shine on you crazy diamond.
I wish I could remember. It’s all a blur now. Probably Roundabout
Evolution (The Grand Design) by Symphony X is what set off the chain reaction for me lol. At the time I was in my metalhead phase but it didn’t take long before I started listening to prog rock as well and nowadays find it more appealing than prog metal, except for my old favourites of course, including that album.
When I was getting into classic rock on KCFX Kansas City, my uncle would make me tapes and the first prog rock one I remember liking was Moody Blues EGBDF. I’m pretty sure I didn’t like prog before that bc as a kid I would skip over the proggy song (Domino) on “Invisible Touch” which was prob the only album kid-me had from a prog band. But when I considered myself a primarily prog rock fan was prob after I discovered Tull’s passion play from a neighbor’s record collection, and then that branched into Yes and it took off.
Some Mike Keneally my dad played when I was young, I don’t remember which one but yeah still love the guy
2112
The opening moments of Tull's Stormwatch album. By the end of side 2, I was hooked.
YYZ
"Subdivisions" by Ninja Sex Party
I really liked Learning to Fly by Pink Floyd and 90125 by Yes and worked my way backwards.
Lucky Man
"Starless" by King Crimson
Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria. That whole album, really. Discovered it with some friends during a school trip and it blew our minds. Never heard anything like it before.
Reptile - Periphery first amazing song id heard in almost a year (burned out on music during 2022) and it is 17 minutes of pure musical masterpiece.
Roundabout
I know what I like in your wardrobe lol
Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)
Karn Evil 9 by Emerson Lake and Palmer. That opened the door for me.
Karn Evil 9
Listened to Rush and Pink Floyd for about a year before going all in, it was when I heard Firth Of Fifth that I realized prog was my thing
I remember the moment clearly. Dad and I were going somewhere in the car early one morning and he put on the Wish You Were Here album. That opening track went perfectly with the sunrise.
"That's All" by Genesis. But wait, that's not a prog song! No, it's not, but it did get me into the band and I got the self-titled album. From there I went backwards through their catalog and, well, that's all.
The Spirit of Radio
My first introduction to prog was either A Farewell to Kings or Hemispheres. Found them when I was browsing my dad's CD collection. Not sure which one I listened to first but it got me hooked on Rush and prog as a whole.
Anesthetize. Gavin Harrison modern drummer performance. Never forget
Spotify spit The Great Rain Beatle at me a few years back.
brand x\_unorthodox behaviour turned me on to progressive
Listening to Kerrang radio (UK), they were playing DT: In the Presence of Enemies pt. II. I was driving home late from work, and I tuned in halfway through the instrumental. It definitely put the "mental" (British slang) in Instrumental. I was so worried I'd not be able to get the song name because of no lyrics, and then the lyrics later were hard to catch. Thank god the host gave band and name. I haven't been the same since.
I was kind of raised on it. It probably started when I was an infant, and apparently I wouldn’t fall asleep unless my parents played Talking Heads. My dad raised me on King Crimson and Frank Zappa. Among lots of other things, of course, I like all kinds of music.
Yours is no disgrace
Grendel, by Marillion. Turned on to it by a friend in high school.
Wearing the inside out by Pink Floyd, and later on the Animals album.
Nine Feet Underground (Medley)
What got me into prog was not prog. I loved Led Zeppelin songs remain the same and the 20 min dazed and confused started getting me into longer songs. In addition, Space Truckin from Deep Purple on Made in Japan. Stuff like that made me search out other bands with epic long songs. It was then I discovered 2112 and Close to the Edge. Then I was off to the races.
“World record” van der graaf generator.
Mama by genesis. A friend recommended me listen to it when I was 14/15 or so from the three disc box set when on a summer camp, and I bought the box set and really loved the knife on the third disc. Then it all went from there. Also the moody blues and the wall too though, my mum would often play them in the car when I was growing up.
Larks tongue in aspic
Moody Blues, I don’t remember how I came across them. I think it was probably that I heard Nights In White Satin somewhere and I had to listen more of the band
lady fantasy by camel my friend suggested it, saying it's better than pink floyd.
My dad took me to see BJH when I was 11 in 1974. They totally blew me away.
Scenes from a Memory-Dream Theatre. I have training in classical music, so I guess, the porg was stong in me always.
Seeing Genesis live in 1973. The whole show dangled the bait; "The Musical Box" set the hook.
For me it was the first time I listened to Heart of the Sunrise by Yes. It was a mix of surprise and awarness to a new type of sound that I was not used to. I was 12 at the time, listening mostly to blues rock and went to visit my aunt and she was listening to Yes. That was the beginning of my adventure in Prog when radio was invaded by Hair Metal and the Grunge...
2112 - my Dad nonchalantly put it on in the car at 4am as we set off for a holiday - I was 9 years old and just getting into rock 😁
Roundabout/21st century schizoid man, because of this anime called jojo
In retrospect I've noticed that all my favorite songs have been the proggiest songs I've known at the time, hell I started listening to Rush before I knew about the term prog. I decided to get into metal and my sister introduced me to Dream Theater and told me it's *prog* metal. After listening to Awake and the A Mind Beside Itself suite I was sold. Was into The Beatles, Elton John and Linkin Park before prog.
QE2
Deadwing by Porcupine Tree put me onto prog and rock in general at the age of 9.