Mind Blowing!
Red Hot Chili Peppers Guitar Wizard John Frusciante on how Prog Rock takes him to another dimension…
When I was seven years old, my father was a concert pianist and I found a couple of things in his record collection that sparked my interest. Two of the first albums i discovered were ELP (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)’s Trilogy and Fragile by Yes. I didn’t have any idea what progressive rock was, but those two albums really caught my attention. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard. What i feel about them now is the same thing that I thought about them then: they took me to a place. Yes, ELP, King Crimson, Genesis and Pink Floyd all offered the listener the chance to lose themselves.
To people like me, growing up in southern California, the Englishness of those records also gave them a very exotic, otherworldly flavour. The original progressive-rock bands were all about taking music somewhere new. One of the most important aspects of this music that people overlook is that it was all against stagnation. They didn’t just want to repeat the music of the 60’s; they wanted to do something different. That was the same attitude that punk rock had later in the 70’s: it was all about freedom and mind-opening music, and this idea that the door was open to anything.
Progressive rock was threatening. It was unusual music made by people taking chance, by bands on the edge. The extent that these people went to be different is something people should take time to notice. Musicians and fans today are becoming more aware of this era now. There’s so much to hear. This music that can still take you to another dimension.
