Outside the Court of the Crimson King: 5 proto prog favorites

Early on in the history of Spin It Or Bin It, while we were still trying to work out what the show would become, Paul and I made a very long episode covering the Prog Archives top 20 albums list. The first part actually ended up being our first published episode(although we have a pretty large backlog of unreleased “test” episodes in the archive) and the second part was released later on. I think we would both like to revisit some of the albums and bands we talked about in those two episodes now that we’ve changed our format to mostly one or two albums per episode, but if you’re interested in our quick thoughts on some of those prog classics, those two episodes are a good place to start. Using the prog archives website as a source for those episodes inspired me to go down a bit of a personal rabbit hole: I was interested in “proto-prog” material that predated King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, et al. but was clearly influential enough to be included on the website. It’s hard to pinpoint where prog truly begins, if not with King Crimon’s debut album. But there are some albums released the same year and even a couple years earlier that have clear progressive leanings. Some artists, such as The Moody Blues or even The Beatles, are heavily credited for influencing progressive rock, but don’t really get classified directly as such.

I wanted to go a little deeper though and explore some of the artists and albums that have been forgotten by time. I selected 5 albums from before 1970 that aren’t full on progressive rock, but clearly moving the music in the direction. Some of these artists made more acclaimed/recognized work later and some are highly respected within the niche but don’t have the same mainstream recognition as the likes of ELP or King Crimson, but all are worth hearing and help provide context for the progressive rock explosion that really takes shape in 1970. So, without further ado, here are 5 proto prog albums for you to enjoy.

Aphrodite’s Child - End of the World (1968)

If you’re already familiar with Aphrodite’s Child, you’re probably familiar with their third and final album, the ambitious conceptual double 666. If you’re not familiar with 666, you might be familiar with their keyboardist and main songwriter, Vangelis, who would go on to produce iconic film scores such as those for Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire. The first Aphrodite’s Child album is a far cry from even 666, but is still fairly ambitious for a debut album in the 60s. The album produced a minor hit, the ballad Rains and Tears, but the majority of this is pretty heavily steeped in British psychedelia (despite the band’s Greek origins). The hypnotic slow jam "The Grass Is No Green” has dreamy lyrics, sound effects, weird vocal processing, and jarring dynamic/tempo shifts that remind me of the long form prog pieces that would define the early 70s. You also get a hint of Aphrodite’s Child’s later work, which becomes much more high concept. The album’s opener, “The End of the World” is the perfect cross between runaway teenage stoner and Peter Gabriel-esque apocalyptic visions.

While the album shines in the aforementioned proggy/psychedelic moments, there’s a bit of blues rock in here as well which is typical of late 60s art rock music. Songs like “You Always Stand In My Way” have more of a boogie bar band feel, but this band’s quirkiness makes for a more interesting result than you would typically get from that type of music. It helps break up the headier ballads as well.

Recommended songs: The Grass Is No Green, The End of the World, The Shepard & the Moon

Frank Zappa & the Mothers - We’re Only In It For the Money (1968)

I initially wasn’t going to include this album, because Frank Zappa is too famous and too affiliated with progressive rock already, but it was hard to ignore just how many traits that would become staples for early prog can be found on this album. It’s a concept album, the two sides flow together like sidelong epics, it contains jazz and classical influences, advanced harmony for rock music, and some odd time signatures. All of this before the release of King Crimson’s debut, and from an American artist as well.¹ Zappa always kept his distance from the progressive rock label, and I think for good reason. He dabbled in a lot of similar ideas as the prog artists, but he dabbled in a lot of styles unrelated to prog as well. With that being said, I actually think the original Mothers is about as close as Zappa gets to “true” progressive rock, mainly because of how conceptual a lot of these early albums are. We’re Only In It For the Money is the rare example of a Zappa album that is purely a studio album experience. As Zappa’s career progressed, he started to emphasize his live recordings and even many of his studio albums were assembled with a mix of live and studio recordings. Songs off Money were played live, but many were not and very few became staples of a Zappa concert, nor did they translate live as well as his work typically does.

The lyrics also contain some of Zappa’s most cohesive social commentary. Satire and comedy poking fun at different groups of people can be found across the Zappa discography, but the humor on this album is a lot more subtle and at times quite dark. A song like Mom & Dad isn’t even really satire as much as it is a serious reading of the social struggles happening in southern California at the time. The album doesn’t have a plot, but the songs are tied together in a way that will come to be standard for artists such as Pink Floyd or even Jethro Tull.

I don’t think this is among Zappa’s most famous albums, but it is one of his strongest and probably the one I would reach for first when trying to introduce a progressive rock fan to his work, which is why I am including it here.

Recommended songs: Let’s Make the Water Turn Black/Harry You’re a Beast, Mom & Dad, Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

Procol Harum - A Salty Dog (1969)

Procol Harum is one of a few old school prog/proto prog bands that have been given new recognition because of their influence on later artists. They also hold the prestige of being the earliest band to record a multipart side long epic: “In Held ‘Twas In I” off of S_hine On Brightly_ (1968).² This epic and the title track to the third album, A Salty Dog (1969), were both covered years later by the progressive rock supergroup Transatlantic. Many fans, including myself, can probably credit Transatlantic with helping them discover a bit of a forgotten prog rock legend. Procol Harum’s biggest claim to fame is probably the single A Whiter Shade of Pale, but their influence goes a lot deeper and is most present on the following two albums. I picked A Salty Dog because I have a bit of a soft spot for it and I think it works more effectively as a full length album than either of its predecessors. Also, if I’m being honest, I don’t think “In Held ‘Twas In I” is great. This album is a nice mix of competent songwriting, vocal harmonies, and conceptual prog rock material. It gets a lot of criticism for being a bit all over the place, but I think it works in the album’s favor. The main event really is the opening title track, but there are quite a few interesting deep cuts as well. Bonus points for the album’s nautical theme.

As an interesting point of curiosity, A Salty Dog was reviewed in Robert Christgau’s first Consumer Guide for the Village Voice back in 1969! What did Christgau say? Well, the review is characteristically brief but the album did receive an A+ rating.

Recommended songs: A Salty Dog, The Milk of Human Kindness, Pilgrims Progress

East of Eden - Mercator Projected (1969)

This is probably the most ambitious album on the list, and also the most forgotten. Don’t let the bluesy riffing in the opening track “Northern Hemisphere” fool you, this album is quite adventurous. There’s a bit of classical influence, some blues, and even some eastern influences. Some of the material on here actually reminds me a bit of artists like Radiohead, using sparse arrangements to evoke an other worldly feeling. The lyrics are also evocative with lots of themes of traveling foreign lands, allusions to mythological figures, and songs that read almost more like prayers than lyrics such as in “Communion.”

The album really hits its stride for me on the second side. The album retains its jammy blues feel throughout, but begins to feel more trance-like and experimental on the second side. The song “Bathers” is one of the most deliciously hypnotic songs I’ve heard from this time period. I already mentioned Radiohead, but it feels very similar to something like “Pyramid Song” to me. Similarly, “Communion” is structured as a standard rock song, but the winds and strings mixed with the tribal drums during the verses gives the track a more exotic feel.

Somehow this band continued to make albums for decades even though they never really took off or had a major hit. I can’t speak to any of their later material, but I highly recommend this debut.

Recommended songs: Bathers, Communion, Isadora

Colosseum - Valentyne Suite (1969)

An early prog list wouldn’t be complete without something with more instrumental emphasis and overt jazz influences. Colosseum is a really interesting oddity that I think may have simply been a bit too ahead of their time. Some moments on this album such as the opener Kettle and Butty’s Blues feel mostly indistinguishable compared to other bar bands of the time, but there’s a surprising amount of jazz and classical influences here in songs like Elegy and the title epic that takes up all of side 2. This album just slightly predates the heyday of jazz fusion - Bitches Brew is still a year away and there’s still a bit of time before Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, and Weather Report form.

I can think of three albums that provide a similar approach to jazz infused rock music, all released within months of each other. Hot Rats by Frank Zappa, the first Santana album, and the Chicago debut. Frankly, I think Valentyne Suite fits in reasonably well with these and offers a different take on the music. Santana is more of a Latin infused rock experience, Chicago is still centered primarily on a blues sound, and Zappa is playing with more of a jam flavor although there are a couple tightly composed songs on that album.³ What impressed me about Colosseum was the amount of jazz language in the horn solos. Lots of chromatic bebop sounding lines that reminded me a bit of what Wayne Shorter would be playing years later in Weather Report, and the sort of vocabulary you just don’t hear in rock music. Centering more on the horns as lead instruments rather than guitar also distinguished this album compared to Santana/Zappa/Chicago. Finally, the title epic is far more ambitious than anything found on the aforementioned albums. While much of this track is made up of jamming, there are quite a few composed moments and some clearly classically inspired chord progressions rather than the standard bluesy backdrops that dominate other instrumental rock from this period. That mix of blues and classical influence would be crucial to the early sounds of King Crimson, Yes, and Genesis.

Overall I think this is an album that is stuck between that blues bar band sound and something more elevated, but the playing is great and this is a record that grooves hard even at its most generic sounding. Also, The Machine Demands a Sacrifice has some pretty zany moments that wouldn’t be out of place in something like a Van Der Graaf Generator album.

Recommended tracks: The Kettle, Valentyne Suite, Elegy

Footnotes

1. Maybe a topic for another day, but prog rock never really took off in North America in the 70s. The major exceptions include Rush and Kansas who both didn’t debut until prog rock was past its commercial peak and both bands thrived primarily through having FM radio hits over their prog bonafides. ↩

2. Well, almost side long. The preceding track Magdalene also appears on side 2, but nobody discounts Supper’s Ready despite sharing a side with Horizons! This also still predates The Beatles’ Abbey Road Suite, which is sometimes credited as an early sidelong epic. ↩

3. I actually think the closer 1-1 comparison with the Colosseum album is Zappa’s Grand Wazoo, which wouldn’t be released until 1972. ↩