Did King Crimson invent progressive rock? Were Yes and Genesis principally chargeable for creating its accepted formulations – all whereas furiously pushing its boundaries? Did Rush’s forays into synth-driven modernity open the door for comparable transformations by Yes, Genesis and a bunch of others?

Deciding who the “Big 4” bands of prog rock are is dependent upon answering these sorts of deep questions.

Inevitably, of course, vital acts get unnoticed. What about the outsized musical excursions and much more outsized live performance performances of Emerson Lake and Palmer? The groundbreaking folk-melded prog of Jethro Tull? Wait, is Pink Floyd truly a progressive rock band? What about Frank Zappa?

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Again, the questions run deep – and cheap followers can disagree. In the finish, nonetheless, selecting the Big 4 requires taking in these myriad impacts and accomplishments after which including an overlay of reputation. You do not attain the ultimate 4 with out having been a component of quite a bit of folks’s lives.

Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa, fairly frankly, have been far too rangy to be thought of strictly prog. Emerson Lake and Palmer and Jethro Tull might have held sway too briefly. Kansas and the Moody Blues have been normally extra targeted on pop. Others, like Gentle Giant and Camel have been sadly very area of interest.

So the place does that depart us? Actually, again the place we began. Here’s a take a look at the Big 4 in prog rock:

King Crimson

King Crimson fired the progressive-rock shot heard ‘spherical the world with 1969’s In the Court of the Crimson King, then made genre-refedining information in every of the three a long time to comply with. The faces round stalwart Robert Fripp would change, as Greg Lake, John Wetton, Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew and others cycled out and in of the band. But King Crimson one way or the other by no means misplaced the inventive alchemy that produced triumphs like 1973’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, 1981’s Discipline and 1995’s Thrak. Larks’ Tongue marked a career-shifting transfer towards extra free improvisation. Discipline added a jolt of new wave power with a remade lineup that featured Belew and Tony Levin. Sadly, Thrak was the lone studio venture from an eruptive double trio lineup that additionally included Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto.

Yes

Like every of the remaining members of the “Big 4” of prog rock, Yes scarcely resembled their future selves on the earliest recordings. The addition of Steve Howe after which Rick Wakeman helped rework a Jon Anderson-fronted group that typically dabbled in twee people music right into a dynamic long-form juggernaut on a trio of early ’70s albums highlighted by 1971’s blockbuster Fragile. By the time they returned to the Billboard Top 10 with 1983’s multiplatinum 90125, the lineup had been reconfigured round Howe alternative Trevor Rabin and Yes had utterly modernized their sound. This transformation supplied proof of idea that the group may survive any lineup change – even the dying of cofounder Chris Squire, who’d been half of each period. They saved touring and recording, with the now-returned Howe at the helm.

Genesis

Genesis did not actually discover their inventive footing till drummer Phil Collins and guitarist Steve Hackett joined. By the time 1973’s gold-selling U.Okay. Top 5 smash Selling England by the Pound arrived, the Peter Gabriel-led group had utterly come into its personal. With material and musical approaches shifting actually from tune to tune, Genesis was in contrast to anybody else. Then Gabriel left after yet another LP, adopted by Hackett a pair of albums later. Collins earned an in-house promotion to frontman and inside just a few years, Genesis had been remodeled from a band that sometimes dabbled in pop (amongst many, many, many different issues) right into a pop band that sometimes dabbled in prog – however solely on deep cuts. Millions purchased their singles, by no means understanding about the sometimes twisted, but strikingly lovely weirdness of Genesis at their ’70s finest.

Rush

Rush did not appear all that attention-grabbing at first both, as they trudged by way of surprisingly pedestrian songs like “Working Man.” Enter Neil Peart. His significance might not have all the time been self-evident on transitional early LPs like Fly by Night and Caress of Steel, however Peart unquestionably saved the band with 1976’s long-form 2112. By letting his creativeness run very wild, Rush redefined themselves (and averted getting dropped by Mercury). Hemispheres pointed the means ahead in the late ’70s, together with each the 18-minute Book II of their “Cygnus X-1” epic and a second aspect of extra compact tune concepts. “Tom Sawyer,” “New World Man” and “Subdivisions” then grew to become synth-driven early-’80s U.S. hits – however by the 2000s, they have been extending songs previous the six-minute mark once more. Rush’s final album included the even longer epic “Headlong Flight.”

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