– Geoffrey O’Brien, in his always-a-pleasure-to-sample “Top Forty” chapter in Sonata for Jukebox, unveils prog’s secret history in certain forms of early rock silliness?
Harvesting Silliness
Category: Prog Rock
Silly Wars Cool Down
…it may well be true that Sgt. Pepper is more bound to a moment than in a lot of the Beatles’ earlier music. The postadolescent philosophizing and premusicianly jamming of some of this music sounds silly now. But if the energy of early rock and roll is bound up in the realization of personal autonomy, this music is about beginning to discover that autonomy carries with it identifiable powers and — these sometimes take a while to come to the surface — responsibilities. Often it’s quite delighted with its incipient maturity. And that doesn’t sound silly at all.
Robert Christgau, Dec. 1967
Prog Wars Heat Up
Not one, not two, but three prog-lovin’ critics lace into Rob Sheffield’s New York Times review of Yes is the Answer (And Other Prog Rock Tales), a new critical anthology about prog rock edited by Marc Weingarten and Tyson Cornell. Check out Phil Freeman in Running the Voodoo Down, Rick Koster in The Day, and Glenn Kenny in Some Came Running.
I actually agree with some of the criticisms here (not all, but some), but if this means it’s no longer acceptable to crack “Return of the Giant Hogweed” jokes, sorry Proglodytes — that’s a bridge I just refuse to cross.
But on a more serious note, what do you think?
RockCritics.com 