A Progressive Approach

In 1977, I was sitting in the Air Conditioned Cobo Arena with my friends watching Emerson, Lake & Plamer play their set with a full orchestra.  They were said to be past their prime.  The Works Vol. 1 album was not received like Brain Salad Surgery, but Cobo was still full of fans, listening to one of the best 'progressive rock' bands around.


Progressive Rock is an interesting phenomenon, or at least it seemed like it was, because when the 80s hit, progressive music fell to the background.  The landscape became baron   Genesis became a pop band.  Skinny ties and keytars were the rage.  Progressive rock, on the other hand was complex.  It was music that was rooted in a classical tradition.  It was harder to listen to, and to appreciate it, you had to take the time to listen.

I enjoy that music.  The music of my youth were as follows:

ELP
Roxy Music
Genesis/Peter Gabriel
King Crimson
Yes
Eno
Gentle Giant
Rush
Pink Floyd
Jethro Tull
Talking Heads

The last few were not specifically classified as 'progressive' but I enjoy all music.  I've seen ZZ Top and The Red Hot Chili Peppers almost as many times as I've seen Yes and ELP.

As the years have passed, progressive music has fallen to the background of the musical landscape.  The era where these bands play arenas is over.  I recently saw Asia (a more mainstream band made up of members with a progressive background) at a small sit-down venue (the Ram's Head in Annapolis).

Recently, progressive rock has enjoyed a renaissance.  Great bands like Porcupine Tree and Spock's Beard are out there.

Last week I received the new album from Spock's Beard, Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep.

This project was totally fan sourced through Indiegogo. The project earned almost three times their modest goal and produced a truly excellent album.

I highly recommend this album.  It sent me back to those days of my youth.

OZ

I was going to write a blurb on the movie ‘OZ the Great and Powerful’, but thought it required more than just a few words.  OZ was a good, not a great movie.  I enjoyed it, but upon reflection thought it was doomed from the start.  OZ suffers from three divergent examples of cannon in the land of OZ.

First of all, there is the 1939 classic movie, which is loosely based on the L. Frank Baum novel.  The original movie was, and continues to be, a classic.  The Baum novels should be the definitive cannon for any OZ story, but the original movie overshadows those novels in the popular mindset.  More recently, Wicked, the story of the wicked witch, has essentially become cannon in the popular culture.

So, when OZ, the Great and Powerful hit the streets, it starts off from a point where the audience has multiple expectations that are almost guaranteed to not be met.  OZ acts like a straight up prequel to the 1939 movie with a few items cherry picked from the Baum novels, and it almost works.  One of the major obstacles is that the 1939 movie is owned by Warner Bros. and this movie is produced by Disney and Disney couldn’t buy the rights to the movie.  Therefore, there was no mention of the Ruby Slippers in OZ and the color palate of the new movie was slightly off of the original.  Therefore, the movie doesn’t work as a straight prequel.

Recently, the story of Wicked has entered the pop culture psyche as the unofficial prequel to The Wizard of OZ, and this movie does nothing to even try to acknowledge that work.  The acting in OZ isn’t bad.  I like all of the leads, although Mila Kunis isn’t great when she starts cackling (and it pains me to say so, because I love Mila Kunis).

Therefore, OZ is okay, but not great, but I think that it was doomed from the start.