Thanks for indulging me, everyone, and hope you have a wonderful new year with plenty of inspiring music!
# | Song | Artist | Album | Year |
7 | Inca Roads | Frank Zappa | One Size Fits All | 1975 |
6 | Atom Heart Mother | Pink Floyd | Atom Heart Mother | 1970 |
5 | Take a Pebble | ELP | ELP | 1970 |
4 | 2112 | Rush | 2112 | 1976 |
3 | The Court of the Crimson King | King Crimson | In the Court of the Crimson King | 1969 |
2 | Supper's Ready | Genesis | Foxtrot | 1972 |
1 | Close to the Edge | Yes | Close to the Edge | 1972 |
#7) Band: Frank Zappa, Song: Inca Roads, Album: One Size Fits All (1975)
I suspect a couple songs in this last group of seven may be considered controversial with this Frank Zappa song being one of them. This is a unique song. Nobody writes music like Frank. It contains more different time signatures than overall minutes of running time. Frank had the luxury of having percussionist Ruth Underwood in his band. I tend to believe he wrote this piece because of her ability to play it, not unlike Duke Ellington who wrote to accentuate the strengths of his band members. And with tongue firmly in cheek, Zappa used the lyrics to skewer the absurdity and pretension of prog rock. Ironic that he should do that so well as to have the song land on lists like this. Certainly over-rated on mine because of its ingenuity, originality and fun–the whole One Size Fits All album is a masterpiece..
Inca Roads by Frank Zappa
#6) Band: Pink Floyd, Song: Atom Heart Mother, Album: Atom Heart Mother (1970)
The other controversial pick, “Atom Heart Mother” places the orchestra at the forefront with a full choir, horns, and strings. The band provides more of a backing track so this piece sounds more classical than rock by a lot. Several other songs from Pink Floyd may be better placed at this lofty ranking but from a prog rock focus, Atom Heart Mother fits due to its classical bones. Personally, I just love the melodies especially in sections one and four (Father’s Shout and Funky Dung). In the more atmospheric moments, you can hear shades of The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon which would come in a few years. There’s just enough freeform meandering in the fifth section to create the tension which is resolved beautifully as the piece moves to its culmination. Believe it or not, the band played this song live in the early 70s, mostly without an orchestra. It becomes a totally different piece of music. Still great but the strings and the brass are what make this song the epic that it is.
Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd
#4) Band: Rush. Song: 2112. From the Album 2112 (1976)
No Rush fan will argue with 2112 landing towards the top of any list. It is Rush’s greatest piece of music. Nitpickers could claim it is overwrought and overlong. Or that the lyrics are hokey (about a distant future, though my daughter may see that year, when folks live under tyranny, need to rediscover music for themselves and eventually launch a revolution.) They’re wrong. It’s exactly the piece of music Rush needed to make in 1976 to put the band on solid footing. They had cut their teeth with the ambitious “Fountain of Lamneth” but this time around, they nailed it. This song and this album forms the heart of the lore of Rush, with its images carrying across the decades. Rush had found themselves. This song gave them the clout to carry their message into the next forty years.
2112 by Rush
#3) Band: King Crimson. Song: The Court of the Crimson King. From the Album In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
As it should, this song features a regal, stately melody. Patient and grand, we get to hear young Greg Lake once again with his soothing voice. I love the sparse but colorful drumming of Michael Giles, especially in the opening movement (“Return of the Firewitch”). The flute interlude is pretty but it’s all about this expansive melody which begins and ends the song. Right out of The Book, this song grounds the entire debut album which set King Crimson on their half-century path through music-making.
The Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson
#2) Band: Genesis. Song: Supper’s Ready. From the Album: Foxtrot (1972)
There was never any question in my mind about the top two songs on this list. They are my go-to tracks on brilliant go-to albums (Foxtrot by Genesis and Close to the Edge by Yes). It’s more a question of mood rather than quality. These are both finely crafted, intricate and interesting songs. “Supper’s Ready” began as a patchwork of tunes which were stitched together to form the whole. Only “Willow Farm”, the pop digression in the middle, feels somewhat out of place as it could have been released as a standalone single. The catchiness and lightness don’t fit as well in “Supper’s Ready” though the generous listener could credit the band with ensuring that this long song contains sufficient variety. It works, don’t get me wrong, but the shift to “Willow Farm” is jarring (indeed, Peter yells out “All Change” at its outset.) The rest of this piece contains allusions to relationships, religion and war, right out of the Book of Revelation. So much to sift through and with so many interesting musical choices, I’m truy jealous of those who get to hear this piece for the first time. In addition to the studio version, you might track down the example of a fan who set it to an animated video or also any live performance from the band.
Supper's Ready by Genesis
#1) Band: Yes. Song: Close to the Edge. From the Album: Close to the Edge (1972)
The river is right out of Siddhartha, that much is certain. The rest of the lyrics? Well, Jon Anderson says that he employs words based on how they sound more so than what they mean, so deriving meaning from these lyrics can be elusive. I hear this song as an embrace of nature (with the opening and closing sounds of water and birds) with man’s imposition on it beginning at the :56 second mark. And what an imposition it is. The guitar screams in an odd-time, odd melody that kicks off the first section (“The Solid Time of Change”). Of course, Squire’s bass just barrels us over. But Steve Howe is front and center with a completely off-kilter guitar solo right away, demanding our attention. At 2:00 and also at 2:10, Jon Anderson would like to be heard so the whole machine comes to a complete stop for less than a second when a single chord of three-part harmony interjects. So completely weird and wonderful. Resolution comes at the 3-mimute mark when the band finally settles into what could be called a normal groove with a hummable melody of this first section. This main melody will suffuse the rest of the piece, through the sections “Total Mass Retain” and “I Get Up, I Get Down.”
After some downright catchy moments, the piece settles into an ambient section around the nine-minute mark. Nice patience with the slow crescendo on the back of Anderson’s wonderful singing along with harmonizing from others in the band. Very evocative and patient, pretty stuff. The church organ emerges around the 12-minute mark with a simple solo that ends with some fancy runs on the synthesizer. Then come those three notes at 14:14. All hell breaks loose once Wakeman intones those three notes, kicking off the last section of the piece. We return to the cacophony of the opening, crazy as before and then finally the resolution back to nature at the end. An amazing piece of music on a seminal album. The LP only contains three songs; “And You and I” made this list earlier and only “Siberian Khatru” is missing due to its relatively straightforward structure. Similar to their subsequent release Relayer which contains three worthy songs, two of which are represented here. Those two albums combined, six total songs, represent the apex of progressive rock from the 1970s.
Close to the Edge by Yes