A Playlist Series

American Crisis Playlist #26

Progressive Alert

All eyes continue to stare at Georgia. Staunch Republicans there don’t know what to do. They’d like to keep believing that somehow, some way, the orange plague is still in contention to win back his presidency. And yet, no one in the state, most especially the staunch Republican officials who have certified the state’s votes and, to their dismay, admitted that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won Georgia by 12,000 votes, can provide any hard or damnable information that would confirm fraud or change the outcome.

So is it that Republicans are their own worst enemies?

In Valdosta, GA, Saturday night, while everyone should have been at home watching Alabama avenge itself on the artists formerly known as the LSU Bengal Tigers, many attended a rally where their infamous leader pounded the podium and proclaimed that everyone knows he won Georgia and the rest of the states. He lukewarmly mentioned the two senate races coming up in January and to some degree advocated that people get out and vote.

He said next-to-nothing about the pandemic, only that he was right about it.

And of course he was, at least last January when he admitted to Bob Woodward that the virus was far worse than anyone realized.

And so here we are. MAGAs are rallying without masks; Christmas is looming; and the most popular gift this year is the copper-infused mask available at Nufabrx.com. I got mine in a three-for-one sale on Black Friday.

I also started thinking about a long-forgotten genre of rock music, well, at least long-forgotten by me. So inspired by the anti-OP forces in our midst, I remind and give you…

Progressive Rock.

I can’t lay claim to knowing the first moment when a synthesized chord launched this genre, or which band came first. But I have tallied all the votes, certified the genuineness of this product and pronounced these fine artists and songs to be the winners.

And I didn’t need a rally to do it.

So get your mellotrons out; your beaded vests and elephantine plaid bell bottoms, and get ready to remember intricate variations on certain dark themes matched with lyrics that no one, including Eric Trump, could possibly understand.

AMERICAN CRISIS PLAYLIST #26

1. “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” Status Quo, from 1968’s, get ready, Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from The Status Quo. Is this progressive rock, you ask? I have no idea, but I figure that it was surely the precursor of something. This band was incredibly popular in Britain and in Germany. I remember being in Heidelberg in 1974, and the only band anyone wanted to listen to was Status Quo. I could be exaggerating just a bit, but isn’t that the point of progressive rock? A Birmingham DJ named Jim Batton once tried to convince his listeners that every Status Quo song sounded alike. I repeat the question above.
2. “Legend of a Mind,” The Moody Blues, from In Search of the Lost Chord (1968). As you’ll hear, the song invokes Timothy Leary, who might have been the true originator of progressive rock, what with his “tune in” mantras and astral planes. The song progresses and switches moods, tempos, and rhythms over and over, sounding both British and slightly far eastern as the Moodies find instruments that rock bands, short of The Beatles, normally eschewed. Yes, I said “eschewed,” because this is progressive rock we’re speaking of. Listen for the flute riff. And notice how I stayed away from the title since I don’t want to be making fun of anyone.
3. “America (2nd Amendment),” The Nice, also form 1968 and their record, Ars Longa Vita Brevis. Now you understand that progressive rock is in full swing because a rock band is titling its record in Latin. That’s progressive, right? Or bombastic. And speaking of bombs, does our second amendment guarantee us the right to own bombs? Not that I want to, but I’m trying to get a handle on what’s the buzz these days from the QAnoners. The Nice is otherwise known as Keith Emerson’s first band, and if you don’t know Keith, just wait. He’ll be reprised in an alternate reality coming up. It’s a fact, alternative or otherwise, that you can’t spell progressive rock without Keith Emerson and his synthetic sounds.
4. “The Knife,” Genesis from 1970’s Trespass. Of course you realize that progressive rock songs need to clock in at around nine minutes as this one does. I don’t know why, but in order to prove that rock music is serious, we need to turn short stories into novels. This, of course, was not the Genesis of MTV days, but it does have the keyboards of genius, and it continues our second amendment theme, the right to wield knives. I see basements in Valdosta, GA, and ten-foot high speakers, and old sofas where guys with head phones are sitting stoned out of their minds wondering how anyone could be listening to CSN&Y while this is happening inside their heads.
5. “Empty Pages,” Traffic, 1970, from John Barleycorn Must Die. Now there is no doubt that these guys knew how to put over a song. And this one runs only 4:35. It’s ornate enough to qualify, but still straightforward in its mix of rock and blues and jazz, not to mention Steve Winwood surely understanding that he had a career in front of him. I love how this song announces itself and refrains the announcement. We so overrate density. And they hadn’t gotten to the low sparks yet, either.
6. “The Endless Enigma, Part 1,” Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, from 1970’s Trilogy. This is hard for me, because back in high school, and for a little while in college, I loved ELP. Not so much the afore-mentioned Keith Emerson, but certainly guitarist Greg Lake. I stared to list “From the Beginning,” my personal favorite ELP song, but it’s so acoustic, and doesn’t provide the “range” of true ELP progressive sounds. Besides, look at the title and try to tell me that it alone shouldn’t qualify this band for one of the center spots in the progressive rock movement. I say “movement” as if it were and as it I know something more about it. I don’t, but I did see ELP twice, though the first time in Tuscaloosa, almost allowed me to see God, or at least know that my hearing had found some decibels it didn’t know it had or could possibly lose. This was one of those stoned evenings where, by all rights, I shouldn’t have been driving home, forty-five miles away.
7. “Astronomy Domine,” Pink Floyd from 1967’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The oldest song on the list, but even then, can we say that this one kicked off the genre? It’s only four minutes long, but if you want something more massive, further down the album is the nine minute “Interstellar Overdrive.” Sometimes I just don’t know what to do with myself, to quote Jack White who is progressive in another way. I so wanted to list my favorite Floyd songs, “Us and Them” and “Wish You Were Here,” but again, too ballady.
8. “Yours Is No Disgrace,” Yes from 1971’s The Yes Album. Okay Fred, you knew I was coming to you; you knew I wouldn’t let you down, because you know I know that Yes is the other centerpiece of the progressive rock movement. Now, sadly, I parted ways with them once they got to Tales From Topographic Oceans, because I was too impatient to follow concept albums that were three discs along. But this song I find still very listenable, just as I will always adore “Close to the Edge.” On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place…” This version was pre-Rick Wakefield, though his run of it on Yessongs is pretty brilliant, too.
9. “Buddha,” Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, from Messin’ (1973). In all seriousness, I was seventeen and boxing jewelry in my Dad’s old store, listening to progressive FM station WJLN (later WZZK) in Birmingham, and “my friend” Bob Gilmore played this song, and I wondered why I had been listening to CSN&Y. Why do some songs simply carry you away with a sound and words that maybe you’d already heard, and maybe shouldn’t have made that much of a difference to you, but they did. They do. I love how MM kept “progressing. I loved that radio station, too, though boxing jewelry left something to be desired. Still, my Dad gave me that job and let me listen to such tunes. Life was very rich.
10. “Cirkus,” King Crimson, from Lizard (1970). Apple Music calls this progressive and “ART” rock. Well all right. Robert Fripp was my God for the 90 minutes that I saw him and the band play live back in Birmingham at the Boutwell Auditorium, named for a former mayor who was anything but progressive, and I wonder if he knew about King Crimson and what they were doing on a stage in a hall bearing his name? This is my favorite KC song by far(check out the clarinet, oh my god), though the Schizoid Man comes in a distant second. Fripp played this one and Fred and I looked at each other and sealed what was already one of the friendships of my life. Ah life, I go forward now…

It’s definitely not a definitive list. Definitely not. But The Riff understands, as I hope do Noah Levy, Jessica Lee McMillan, Steven Hale and all those other progs out there.

More to hear if you haven’t already: