Way back in the 1970's, which I guess could be considered the Golden Age of progressive rock, music recordings were released on 12 inch (30 cm) vinyl discs. Music was recorded on both sides of the disc and played back using truly exotic analog equipment known as a turntable. This may, and probably will, sound outlandish to those born after said decade.
Vinyl discs may seem cumbersome to contemporary music lovers who collect their favorite songs as MP3 or MP4 files in their iTunes collection or, simpler still, use the advanced streaming services of today, available over the internet from various service providers. But back in my youth, they were the definitive way of collecting music. And, as it happens, they had a profound effect on how longer songs and compositions were shaped when it came to certain, shall we say more ambitious genres of popular music.
Pioneers of progressive rock were not content with the simple 3-minute song format that had become popular before their heyday. They wanted to challenge, perhaps even educate, their listeners by creating not only memorable songs or instrumental compositions, but complex works of art that rejected the traditional pop song structure, time signatures, and limitations in length. At the same time, simple lyrics concentrating on young love were replaced by metaphysical meditations on existence, fantastic fables, historical tales, or basically anything with a grandiose scale or implied deep meaning.
However, there was one limitation that the 1970's masters of prog were not able to overcome. A single side of a vinyl disc could contain little more than 25 minutes of music. This meant that, regardless of how overblown the ambition and the imagination of the artist, there was always a limitation that was impossible to exceed. This situation gave birth to the 20-minute prog epic, one of the great gifts of that decade. Both the most popular and obscure acts were forced to fit their efforts to this time frame.
Many albums were released with only two songs included: one massive prog epic on the A side of the vinyl disc, another on the B side. Sometimes side B was a direct continuation of side A, in an effort to create one single 45-minute track such as Jethro Tull's ambitious A Passion Play (1973). Similarly, certain double albums had only four tracks, such as Tales from the Topographic Oceans (1973) by one of the decade's best loved prog acts Yes.
All of these songs had ambitious form and content, complex structures and impeccable instrumentation, but by the time the 20th minute was approaching, you could count on the track to have started climbing towards its big finale.
The following series of articles aims to honour the greatest among these great works. Not everything that came out during the 1970's in the 20 to 25 minute format was great, obviously, but some of the most magnificient popular music created in the entire 20th century was actually shaped as a result of the time limitation dictated by the physical size of a vinyl disc. My intention is to extensively present and analyse what I think are the 20 absolute best works of progressive rock that more or less follow the 20-minute format and, in case of some of the later works, actually exceed it in length due to the removal of the vinyl disc limitation.
I have set the minimum duration of my top 20 tracks to 12 minutes. That is around three times the length of your average single hit, which already implies considerable ambition but not necessarily repetition. Some of my favourites are able to break the 25-minute barrier because the were recorded in the CD era, but admittedly the majority of the titles listed originate from the 1970's and therefore the vinyl era.
I have decided to exclude some 1970's favourites that at the time were considered by many to be part of the progressive rock genre, but which on hindsight turned out to be something else. These rejections include for example the German group Tangerine Dream, who made several approximately 20-minute masterpieces that might be considered progressive but which to my mind are pioneering works of the electronica genre. Same applies to artists like Mike Oldfield who composed several outstanding and extremely well received 20-minute masterpieces but, looking back, was always first and foremost a New Age composer. Another German group Popol Vuh always sounded like a cross between these two, and was also not considered for top 20.
What exactly was I looking for then? Here are some examples that were considered, but did not make it to the list.
The Remembering (High the Memory) by Yes, from aforementioned Tales from the Topographic Oceans (1973). A lovely, melodic progressive rock piece that clocks just under 20 minutes. Best remembered for Rick Wakeman's keyboards, this is a nice and pleasant composition but on the other hand also way too simple to fully please - same can be said for the entire double album - let alone qualify in top 20.
Tarkus (1971) by Emerson Lake & Palmer. The only track by one of the most overrated progressive rock acts of the 1970's that fully complied to the 20-minute format and is actually pretty good. Not good enough to fit in the top 20, but kind of neat anyway. It filled the A side of ELP's second album, while the B side was filled with crap, more or less the story of their career.
And, as an example of more recent works, The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 (1995) by Porcupine Tree. Even in the CD era, Steven Wilson composed a techno-influenced prog composition that clocks around 20 minutes and as such, is an exception in PT's discography. An interesting work worth listening to but not quite worthy of the top 20.
OK. Enough about those who didn't quite make it. Next article will be about one of the long songs that did make it, to #20. I am aiming to complete this series by the end of July 2012. Please feel free to give your own comments and by all means criticize my choices, be they undeserved inclusions or unbelievable omissions. At the time of this writing, I am not even sure what the top of the list will look like - I have a general idea, but it will take a lot of re-listening to come up with a final order for the absolute best. Let's hope I will be able to do justice to the greatest of the great.
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