: Kevan Furbank
: 1977 How Progressive Rock Defied Punk
: Sonicbond Publishing
: 9781789524437
: 1
: CHF 8.80
:
: Musik
: English
: 160
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

The prevailing wisdom is that, in 1977, punk rock killed prog - presumably by drowning it in spittle. But is this really true? Absolutely not! Prog didn't just survive what turned out to be the short-lived rule of the barbarians, it evolved and arguably, prospered. In 1977 - the year punk supposedly conquered the world (well, the UK anyway) - many of our most well-established progressive rock bands released some of their best albums, including Pink Floyd's Animals, Going For The One by Yes, Rush's A Farewell to Kings, Jethro Tull's Songs From The Wood and the debut from American band Happy The Man, while Godley and Crème released their astonishing triple album Consequences. Van der Graaf, ELP and Brian Eno each released two albums in a busy year. These were infinitely varied takes on a genre that was still, for a while at least, in rude health despite the column inches devoted to punk.
In this informative, readable and - for punk fans at least - annoying book, Kevan Furbank looks at the progressive rock bands and albums that left punk reeling in the moshpit. To misquote the Sex Pistols, never mind the b*llocks - here's the progressive rock of 1977.


The Author
Now happily retired, Kevan Furbank was Managing Editor of Reach Ireland, publishers of the Irish Daily Mirror and the Irish Daily Star and a journalist on local and national newspapers for more than 40 years. He has published books on local history and written stories, articles and columns on practically every subject under the sun. This is his fifth book for Sonicbond. His music tastes encompass prog, rock, folk and jazz, and, in his spare time, he likes to pretend he can play guitar, bass, ukulele, bouzouki and keyboards. He is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in Northern Ireland.
Chapter1

Pink Floyd – Animals


Personnel:

David Gilmour: lead vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, talk box

Nick Mason: drums, percussion, tape effects

Roger Waters: lead vocals, harmony vocals, acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, tape effects

Richard Wright: Hammond organ, ARP string synthesiser, Fender Rhodes, Minimoog, Farfisa organ, piano, clavinet, EMS VCS 3, harmony vocals

Recorded at Britannia Row Studios, London, between April and December 1976

Produced by Pink Floyd

Engineered by Brian Humphries Label: Harvest (UK), Columbia (US)

Release date: 21 January 1977

Chart places: Holland: 1, Germany: 1, Italy: 1, New Zealand: 1, Spain: 1, Austria: 2, Norway: 2, UK: 2, Australia: 3, Sweden: 3, US: 3, Finland: 9

Tracks: ‘Pigs On The Wing (Part One)’, ‘Dogs’, ‘Pigs (Three Different Kinds)’, ‘Sheep’, ‘Pigs On The Wing (Part Two)’

All tracks composed by Waters except Dogs by Waters/Gilmour

The Story So Far…

London architecture students Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright joined Sigma 6 in 1963 before changing the name to The Tea Set in 1964, rebranding themselves a year later as The Pink Floyd Sound after the addition of Syd Barrett. A performance at the Marquee Club in London interested economics lecturer Peter Jenner and business partner Andrew King, who became their managers.

Signed by EMI, their first singles, ‘Arnold Layne’ and ‘See Emily Play’, hit number 20 and number six in the UK singles chart, respectively (despite radio stations banning ‘Arnold’ over cross-dressing references), and their debut album,Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, was a top-ten UK psychedelic hit. Concerns over Barrett’s mental health resulted in the recruitment of Cambridge-born guitarist David Gilmour. Barrett was dumped in early 1968 before their second album,A Saucerful Of Secrets, which signalled a more space-rock direction. Subsequent singles failed to register, and the band went through a period of uncertain and patchy albums:More (1969),Ummagumma (1969) andAtom Heart Mother (1970).Meddle in 1971, with side-long epic ‘Echoes’, was critically well-received and commercially successful in the UK, Netherlands and Italy but failed to break the US.Obscured By Clouds (1972) was a patchy but interesting soundtrack album. Then, in 1973, Pink Floyd releasedThe Dark Side Of The Moon, catapulting the band to megastar status.Wish You Were Here in 1975 was an inevitable disappointment in comparison, but still reached number one in the UK and US.

The Album

The punks were not the only ones to gob on their audience. Roger Waters did it in July 1977 at the Montreal Olympic Stadium on the final date of theIn The Flesh tour. After weeks of playing cavernous arenas to stoned fans screaming for ‘Money’, Waters had become increasingly depressed and disillusioned. He was also unwell, suffering from stomach cramps from