Music Blog One

Prog Rock Sampler

The progressive rock sampler provided a wide range of what progressive rock is for me. There are both sounds I’ve hear before and songs I could live without ever hearing again, as well as exciting, upbeat songs and dreary ones.

“Day In The Life” was one of the songs I had heard before. I found this song really interesting because it combines unusual sound effects, which I would associate with “head music,” particularly the climax of what I presume to be orchestra instruments at the bridge, with seemingly optimistic, anecdotal lyrics similar to alternative rock music today.

“Siberian Khatru” immediately reminded me of a strange combination of Michael Jackson, jazz and modern guitarists such as Joe Satriani. The fact that this pice starts in an instrumental manner insinuates the meditation style of the hippie generation while providing upbeat lyricism and exciting guitar riffs.

“Lucky Man” was interesting to me, but almost no build-up left it hard for me to become interested until the chorus kicked in. The guitar in “Lucky Man” is very quiet and almost delicate, which ends up balancing the strong vocals of the chorus when they do come about. The chant/choir style also enhances the ability to meditate to this music while throwing in some stronger guitar riffs at the bridge.

“Dogs” required a lot of patience from me due to the slow build up of guitar chords. The vocals, however, were very intriguing and unique-sounding to me. They sounded music more modern with active lyricism. Once the entirety of the instruments kicked in it became apparently to me that it had a very 1970s feel and tune.

Overall, I found this sample to be efficient in showing the unique combination of music that comes out of the progressive rock label. It became obvious to me through a couple songs where some of the modern techniques used in rock music developed from as well.


Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (1965) & The Beatles: Rubber Soul (1965)

I’m not particularly fine of Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited purely based on his vocal style. While this is part of his persona and musical style particularly in the period, which makes sense, it doesn’t interest me in any way other than sounding whiney. The harmonica in “Like a Rolling Stone” really made me cringe, too.

Dylan has a rambling technique of lyrics while interjecting political opinion. For example, in “Tombstone Blues,” Dylan says “The bald with for Jack the Ripper who sits/At the head of the chamber of commerce.” This proves that Dylan was not an unintelligent person, which might have been inferred from his folk musical and vocal styles. While many of his songs maintain a folk sound, others have a blues outlook.

Movement is a prominent theme throughout Highway 61 Revisited. The most obvious example of this is through “Like a Rolling Stone” where Dylan exemplifies the concept with lyrics such as “How does it feel/To be on your own/With no direction or home/A complete unknown/Like a rolling stone.” This in particular mirrors the experiences of the hippies at that point in time who would stay anywhere they could for a night or two in order to avoid falling into the commercial trap that they believed America to be. This concept of movement is also inferred through songs such as “Ballad of a Thin Man” through the anecdote of wandering into a room where there is a strange man standing naked.

The Beatles’ Rubber Soul is a very “feel good” sound in my opinion, but it is also too “bubble gum pop” for my personal taste. It still strikes me as interesting that at this point in history, The Beatles were classified as a rock band as witnessed in the documentary we viewed. In today’s musical landscape The Beatles would never be classified as “rock,” but rather pop or easy listening. All of the songs are very catchy, however. They seem very danceable and singable thanks to what I would call the “choir technique” during several choruses, including “Nowhere Man” and “You Won’t See Me.” Also, even though The Beatles were part of the electric blues and British Invasion, many of their songs are not obviously blues tunes beyond their structure, which I found interesting.

The Beatles promoted this idea of no leadership in the 1960’s hippie movement through “Do What You Want.” The lyrics themselves state “Do what you want to do/And go where you’re going to/Think for yourself/Cause I won’t be there with you.” This concept follows in line with the fact that there were no prominent leaders in the hippie movement and The Beatles established that they did not wish to be the leaders even if they were a revolutionary music group at the time. They go on to say “Although you’re mind’s opaque/Try thinking more/If just for your own sake,” further encouraging another trend of the hippie movement -- to look within oneself to find answers and leadership.

Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention: Freak Out! (1966) & The Beatles: Revolver (1966)

My first impression of Frank Zappa and The Mother of Invention’s Freak Out! was annoying, based on the drab slurry vocals presented in “Hungry Freaks, Daddy.” That said, I was really drawn in my some of the riffs throughout the album in bridges. I felt like overall this album took a lot of patience for me to listen to because there was no draw-in or build-up at the beginning of songs.

Freak Out! follows the political mindset of the hippie movement as well, which can be seen through lyrics immediately on the album. In “Hungry Freaks, Daddy” they state “Mister America on by/Your schools that do not teach/Mister America walk on by/The minds that won’t be reached/Mister America try to hide/The emptiness that’s you inside.” This mindset continues throughout the album in songs such as “Who Are The Brain Police.”

I also felt like portions of Freak Out! would definitely be considered “head music” in my book. Songs such as “Who Are The Brain Police” really threw my for a loop with the section of “Wahh I think I’m gonna die,” because it was a very abstract musical style and hard to listen to. I think the point of such a concept being put into music was for the internal examination of each listener to discover themselves and what these particular songs meant in their own interpretation.

Right away I ended the introductory riffs of “Taxman” on The Beatles’ Revolver. This song was obviously meant to be a parody of actual taxmen throughout the country and a political statement against the number of taxes citizens undertake every year, through lyrics such as “If you drive a car/I’ll tax the street/If you try to sit/I’ll tax your seat/If you get too cold/I’ll tax the heat” and on and on.

This album portrays The Beatles in a more rock style in my opinion. The riffs and musical instruments stand out more and more of a prominent source of sound in Revolver. In Rubber Soul, vocals were a main source of sound in a cappella style. This new rock sound is best seen in “Eleanor Rigby,” “Good Day Sunshine” and “Yellow Submarine.”

A wide range of other sounds were presented in “Yellow Submarine” that I found both interesting and distracting. There are wave sound effects, people yelling, choir effects and what sounds like a bong bubbling. There is simply a lot going on in this song that is based on an acid trip, which is both interesting and makes sense. The distracting effects reflect what an acid trip would be like, experiencing multiple visions and sounds all compacted into one strange theme: a yellow submarine.