Top 10 Prog Rock Bands 

He toured with Gong also

😊😅😮 4:00 ​@@MichaelRoy-hc3lz

Saw Bill Bruford in concert with King Crimson and Yes, but never went to a Genesis concert.

@@deadmanrunning6670 He played drums very little in 1976 in concerts...

@@alfredolegorreta8795 June 30, 1974 Palace Concert Theater, Providence King Crimson Steeleye Span

Tool

Barclay James Harvest

agree pink floyd is number 1think would flip 3&4

@@mikehubbard1067 Oddly enough, I think I grew up out of the Pink Floyd output, but back in my youth I really placed them on a pedestal. Now a playlist of prog bands works great for me, but Floyd seems out of place on it. Jethro Tull really stands out now -jumpy, positive, fun. I'm addicted to Genesis so that's hard to judge. I've only had one album in mind for King Crimson (Court of the ....). For the reaction listener's that I frequent, old Genesis is a treat because it really entertains, it is so original for them, so diverse from one album to the next. and so well written. It works so well because that old stuff works best with a hard attention vs background party music. Anywho, forgot what my point was. Cheers.

Birthcontrol

How weird. All of this lists somehow misspelled King Crimson and their album Larks' Tongues In Aspic

Me too

Me three. @@timwhite-stevens1721

Yes

I clearly remember their arrival. They were heralded as rescuing the Genesis fans from the loss of Peter and Steve and the changes that Genesis was morphing into (I was ok with it, though). I admit I was excited at the prospect and bought the first two albums. It did herald back to old Genesis but alas it didn't stick for me and I stopped following them. But I think that was more about me than them as they have had a great career.

Omega

Thank you

Thé best of all those's!

정신:Spirit 국적과인원수??몇명이죠.알고싶어요.😅 12:16 😅

I agree. Supper’s Ready is brilliant!

​@@wendycrawford1792This work always moves me to tears, a mixture of religious inspiration and the incredibly fantastic instrumental and vocal implementation👍🎵

Hemispheres is a classic album.

Rush would have easily made a "best of" list, but they're a Canadian band. The list is apparently limited to UK. Oh well. I am happy someone mentioned them. Thanx.

Rush are the ultimate progressive band, in terms of an evolving sound, utilising technology while still retaining (unlike Genesis) an overall uncompromising 'outside' sensibility. Geddy Lee's distinctive vocal aside, it's hard to believe that Hemispheres and Signals were made by the same band, yet they are only 4 years apart. My introduction to prog was via my brother who played Bursting Out (the Tull double live album) to death when it came out. I was 7 years old and transfixed, especially by Conundrum; a kind of insane prog version of Moby Dick, complete with an unbelievable 10min drum solo by the legendary Barrymore Barlow. My infant peers at the time, were obsessed with the toys from a new blockbuster movie called Star Wars. I was at home listening to bearded men in fishing hats and capes searching for 'the lost chord' in 25 minute 'song cycles divided into 'suites'....... The attraction for me and what unifies bands who are so categorised yet can't really be described as a single genre stylistically, is a pure and earnest artistic ambition to make the best possible music for its own sake; to really push themselves to say something both lyrically and harmonically more thoughtful and cerebral than boy meets girl, girl dumps boy......not that that doesn't also have a significant place in my music library. The fantasy themes aesthetic and sartorial ludicrousness offered pure escapism. Martin Barre, Tull guitarist's stage wear consisted of a hand cut tweed suit, cravat. He shredded his Les Paul while wearing a monocle and smoking a huge fuck off Sherlock Holmes pipe! The common misconception that has evolved regarding death of prog at the hands of Punk; hailed as some revolutionary artistic force from the streets is of course utter horse shit. The sex pistols, were a band manufactured by two middle class graduates of London's prestigious Central Saint Martins Art School (Vivienne Westward and Malcolm McLaren) as a promotional tool for a clothes shop and who's music was produced and marketed by a rich public school layabout called Richard Branson....about as revolutionary as One Direction. The pistols fired their bass player (and main songwriter) because he didn't have the right image. The emptiness of the 'Punk ethos' reached heights more preposterous than Wakemans King Arthur on Ice gigs with The Clash's (dreadful) set at the US festival in '83. (Public School educated son of a British overseas diplomat) Joe Strummer kept interrupting the gig (no bad thing in and of itself) to make completely inarticulate speeches about the corrupting evil force of capitalism while performing a single show for a fee of $750,000 paid personally by the co-founder of the always welfare conscious Apple Computers.........The speeches, it later transpired, were pure sour grapes, Strummer having spent the previous fortnight complaining when he discovered that Van Halen and David Bowie were being paid double in secretly negotiated 'favoured nations' contracts. His tantrums came to a head in a series of press conferences in which (the infinitely sharper) Dave Lee Roth ran rings around him, showing him up for the hypocrite he was. The festival organisers got so pissed off during the clash set they projected an image of a copy of the bands 3/4 million dollar cheque onto the stage back screen while the band 'played' (if you could call it that).....Fast forward 30 years, whatever 'punk' that still exists can barely fill the back rooms of pubs with their amateurish twoddle, while Roger Waters rakes in a billion dollars performing the ultimate prog concept album The Wall. Salad Days of 'sticky black' hash, gatefold sleeves.....lost in the mists of time.....Which ironically could almost be a concept for a jazz infused triple album musical novella......

Good jump on point, Rush is great

I agree

Selling England by the Pound is ageless music.

@@Vince-lq3ve Agreed, that it's a great album - but, if one, not knowing the band, were asked what decade that album was made, there would be a very good chance they'd get it right - because the style of instrumentation and the production quality of the album are very typical of 70's prog.

@@roygaiot7968 So you're saying they would listen to a Genesis album and immediately say, that's 70's Prog music but with Yes they wouldn't know where to place it -kinda unrecognizable. Hmmm, so maybe you are actually saying Yes wasn't a Prog band at all. I still think Yes should be left somewhere on the list, though. (just havin fun)

@@Vince-lq3ve You got a point there -- Yes transcends 70's prog.

@@roygaiot7968 I just listed to YES Big Generator not sure I agree.

This ^

After "Wind & Wuthering" Genesis ceased to be, and should/could have been renamed. (I would have still followed them, but still...) As for Renaissance, their omission from this list was genuinely painful !

@@drmanny1957 it would be easier to dismiss Genesis after Steve left except for the fact that those three remaining members wrote virtually the entire Lamb music -without Peter who wrote the lyrics in another room. Steve wasn't writing at that point and never really did with Genesis though he did add a great sound to it when he had a chance. The core was Tony first, then Mike and then Phil (once Peter left).

Disagree on Genesis. The Hackett/Gabriel lineup was by far superior and Hackett minute Gabriel was likewise great but post-Hackett has its own allure. That being said, Renaissance is awesome and I mention them whenever I get the chance.

I couldn't!

@hansmoerenhout Agree. Mother Russia is amazing.

Great band!! and too Rush, Nektar, U.K and Colosseum.

Yes, King Crimson were unbelievable and unfortunately one of the bands l didn’t get to see. I love Renaissance! however, they are definitely in a different genre than the ten bands mentioned.

I'd include Strawbs.

@@delby66 Yes, Strawbs were amazing, think Benediction. One of the first albums l bought. I had the good fortune of seeing them in concert, Massey Hall, Toronto. Saw Camel in England-didn’t know a thing about them. Couldn’t believe how good they were! Smiling a lot. Snow Goose was brilliant and beautiful! Focus was another brilliant band, and Exception both Dutch. Vangelis was brilliant but a different genre maybe. Gentle Giant had my heart though. Got to see them 4 times. So lucky! Cheers

Leave Mr Downhill out of this!

And the creators of what would come to be called _New Age,_ also.

But a lot people try ...

@@fabiorabelo3506 2 no avail ??

Totally agree. 🪈🎶❤️

Watch a classical flutist doing a first listen of Jethro Tull. He has a unique style doing things a classical artist wouldn't think of.

Chris Wood from Traffic was great.

Moody Blues were the greatest of all of them..

@@BlueberryStinkFinger62 King Crimson and Moody Blues were truly the first prog rock bands, both brilliant bands.

Yeah. PT, The Mara Volta, and Tool are probably the three most notable bands from the prog revival of the aughts. All three of them stand up to the 70s greats.

@@samuelstephens6904 i somehow find Radiohead's OK Computer the ultimate new age prog for me (me being a late 70's prog listener in my teens). That album is just so immersive and inventive -prime stuff. Didn't think I would get so caught up in a "new bad " when I started that listen on my early 50's (a young 61 now).

@@Vince-lq3ve I wouldn’t really call _OK Computer_ capital P Prog, except the song “Paranoid Android.” That being said, I do think Radiohead were a major influence on the British prog bands of the 00s. Porcupine Tree, Muse, Oceansize, Marillion, and others had obviously been listening to Radiohead. Not so much the American prog bands though.

@@samuelstephens6904 I kinda self labelled that on them thinking of the album and it's overall musical theme but true enough they sure aren't 70's prog. Course then I start to wonder if the Lamb Album is capital prog. I think there is a similarity to the two albums in the way they speak from an inside your head kinda psychedelic vibe.

I clearly remember when Marillion arrived. As Genesis had started to move to a more commercial sound with Phil as lead, Marillion were touted as a new "old Genesis sounding" band with lead Fish portraying a Peter Gabriel-style to satisfy fans of that 70's version of Genesis. I was definitely excited and still own the first two original vinyl's. Hence, they were a derivative of Genesis, not a pioneer of Prog -so unfortunately they wouldn't go on this particular list which is really leaning on the first prog outfits. Great band though.

Porcupine Tree for sure.

Also Susumu Hirasawa's first band Mandrake!!

Thanks, I was looking for Japanese Prog Rock but couldn't easily find any, the only one I found was Moondancer.

Far East Family Band

Far east family band was a great prog band too

URIAH HEEP British LEGENDS. With the great vocals of David Byron

Heavily underrated prog-band. Was very surprised to see it on the list.

@user-ng2nt2tx4p Cogito Cogito Sum Ergo Sum Cogito. I may have made a botch of that...trying do the spoken intro to The Moody Blues "On The Threshold Of A Dream: "I Think. I Think I Am. Therefore I Am. I think." I am very bad with Latin.

Carmen (Spanish motifs), Yezda Urfa (Gentle Giant on steroids), Spring (3 mellotrons!), Fantasy, Cressida, Cirkus, Beggars Opera...

Curved Air sounds really good to me and it would've been nice to have them mentioned.

thing about Genesis is yea start out prog rock but after Peter Gabriel left they because a pop rock band

I agree with this statement 100%! I would also have liked to see the bands Pallas, IQ, and Kayak get a mention. I am a huge Mike Oldfield fan right from the beginning but you just never see him mentioned in these kind of poles/queries, so it was great to see you do so. One other would be ‘Starcastle’. I know their sound was very much similar to classical era ‘Yes’, but still… they did it very well… and hell, if it had been yes that produced those songs I expect they’d have been excepted with open arms. Besides, at this point Yes was moving on to a different sound anyway, (not to mention changing players enough to consider them as a different band every few albums) lol.

@@mikehubbard1067 they were still prog after Gabriel left. they became pop after hackett left but even then, they'd keep at least one or two or even 3 prog songs/long songs

defo! ..we have the same ears!!

Crimson are definitely the best

I am cursed as I can't handle VDGG. The music is very well done but the singing just kills me. I have tried again and again...maybe one day it will work.

@@Vince-lq3ve ironic, peter hammill is my favorite singer of all time and is part of the reason why I love them so much

@@BriskyShark Funny how our ears can work differently. Hammill definitely has a passionate fanbase. i guess it wasn't meant to be. I also don't like Turkey stuffing and I believe I am the only one.

You're a youngster compared to some of us. It was Emerson Lake and Palmer who yes even opened up for in 1971 which you wouldn't have been going to concerts by then

King Crimson and Moody Blues were really the first 2 bands to bring prog rock to the forefront.

Met Adrian Belew at Gruen's Music about 20 years ago. Very nice guy who is just a mind blowing guitarist

Rush is more prog metal.

Where's Renaissance? Nectar was a Huge commission also

@@ThomasRogan-gc5pi The are very good, more Folk Prog in the Top 20 no doubt. I saw them with Gentle Giant in 1977' 🎶

7 ELP?!?! Nah bro

@@loziockeme3995 Lol well saying Nah Bro means your quite young my guess and most likely don't know the other bands well ? I'm 65' and seen all these guys many times in the 70s from Boston, RI, CT and NYC. We all have our favorites and trust me the are all very close and my choice is how they were Live in concert and their albums and how interesting their writing was and musicianship for that music okay man !! 🎶✌

I'm 68, and saw ELP sell out Madison Square Garden for a week, stadiums, headlining pop festivals and over 50 million albums. For five years, they were as big as any band in the world. But at your age, ELP wasn't considered prog because the term largely didn't exist.

👓

I love CAMEL ! My number 1

Starcastle were an American band. Hardly fitting for a list of UK bands.

Indeed, Grand Hotel my personal favourite by them.

Yes, Crimson and ELP are widely regarded as the classics and the pioneers of prog. That has been the consensus among prog aficionados and anyone who knows anything about the genre. A no-brainer. I suspect Procol Harum weren't included for the same reason The Moodies and The Nice were omitted.

I just started listening to them today! I really like them.

@RobinsTaste to quote a somg of theirs. When did you start listening? Answer "it happened today"

Glad to see hawkwind finally mentioned on here 😅

There was also an Australian band: Sebastian Hardie. They had 2 albums: 'Four Moments', and 'Windchase'.

I was 13 when I discovered them (1973) on records and in live concerts. I still listen to Gentle Giant first 7 (up to Free Hand) albums + their live albums with awe and delight. Octopus and In a Glass House remain masterworks.

You're right! Thé only prog rock band i listen yet today. Very Big influence in Quebec in the 70's.

Yes and thank you he did😊

Do y'all not watch the video

@mikereiss4216 I have only their eponymous album, but that could be prog..."Plus Belle Qu'une Poubelle/Why Are We Sleeping." And years ago, a friend had there 3rd album on 8 track tape...I did't care for it, as it seemed a bit too jazzy for me...but then, I was only 20, and it was 1971 or there about. I was more into rock and psychedelia at that time.