Hey Auricauricle...

[bobsticks]

...analyze this shiznit, Doc...


1)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTv8jvKwAzY

2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBZQElvAV-k

3)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGnlocoej5E

4)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5-UktZB-kc

5)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bygKpwcTpn4

[Auricauricle]

That's pretty impressive shtuff....Kinda like a cross between Strawbs and Genesis with a bit o' eighties synth thrown in to spice it up....

Thanks. I'll keep listening and offer my thoughts as they gel....

[bobsticks]

....Kinda like a cross between Gilbert & Sullivan and Genesis with a bit o' eighties synth thrown in to spice it up........

Fixed.

Evidently nobody likes to talk about uber-pretentious, neo-prog these days. Oh how the worm has turned on this forum.

[Auricauricle]

Oh, willow,
Tit willow,
Tit willow!

[bobsticks]

Jah, I can just see paint-faced Peter Gabriel singing, "Miya Sama, Miya Sama..."

[Auricauricle]

You just...ain't...right...man!

(Tha's why you my friend!)

[Auricauricle]

After listening to Misplaced Childhood this morning, I came away wondering if it was a good thing that this genre was better left in another time and in more capable hands. No doubt, the boys of Marillion are very capable and deft, but this does not mean that they are talented. Music like this, overwrought and overwritten, verges on the border between pretentious and darling, fatal flaws that can undo any well-thought but poorly executed production. Like the album cover, which is freakishly garish and reminiscent of velvet paintings, the production is much too richly textured to be taken very seriously.

I suspect that Marillion knows and are canny to this. In spite of the rather sordid subject matter of "Misplaced Childhood", there is a thread of irony running through. Reading the lyrics of the album, I thought of other prog works I have listened to over the years and wondered if Marillion had amassed a collage that they pasted up in one fashion or other to lampoon its predecessors. Marillion has a massive following reminiscent of previous ensembles. Is this, then, some colossal stab at Gabriel et al., who were quite possibly as pretentious while, nevertheless, well suited for their time?

I have a brother, a poet, who loves words and lines so much that when he finally applies his pen to the page, the ornamental and frilly thing produced is barely readable. IMHO, this is Marillion's Misplaced Childhood. There is some good in this production, but between the almost syrupy vocals and the overdense jungle of sound, there remains very little that can be listened to.

[bobsticks]

The guy's name is "Fish" fer cryin' out loud. Whadya 'spect, brothamang?

[3-LockBox]

two thoughts:

Oh crap, I can't believe I missed this thread.

I can't believe Sticks was ever into neo-prog.

These guys are still around, and they do put out a song I like every now and then, they only have a few albums I'd listen to, and all are post Fish. Most of Misplaced Childhood makes me wince, and I likes my prog. That song Lavender is got to be one of the worst songs covered by a rock band, ever.

I don't go for most '80s neo-prog. Oh, it has its place being that the '80s bands influenced the '90s wave of neo-prog as much as the '70s classic prog did. But something about an '80s take on classic prog just slays me - its pretentious to be sure, but so was '70s prog. But something about '70s prog seems pure in its intent, while '80s neo-prog (and a slew of '90s neo) seems so garrish and plastic. But then again, this is the '80s we're talking about, and the same can be said for hairy metal and pop of the same period.

If yer interested (and I don't know how you couldn't be ;)) there are better examples of neo-prog (from the '90s), and great examples of modern takes on classic prog style (Ritual for example). I will admit though, I've been petering out on prog as of late, but there are good prog bands playing today that you've never heard of...really. Yep, the pretense is still there, and sometimes its borderline darling as you said, but much of '90s prog and beyond is just way way better executed than that particular era of Marillion you heard, (that even includes a couple of post-Fish Marillion albums).

[bobsticks]

Oh crap, I can't believe I missed this thread.

I can't believe Sticks was ever into neo-prog...

Hey what's not to love? Who couldn't love an out-of-shape, mongoloid cockney dude wearing Billy Squire's outfit from the "Rock Me Tonite" video with a feather boa and a kabuki mask while snorting coke off a copy of Fodor's Guide To Madrid, and singing a campy, falsetto version of "Sir Joseph's Barge Is Seen" all the while ensconced amid the lububriously sonorous wailings of Adrian Belew's fay cousin with OCD...whew...stop me before I sub reference again.

[ForeverAutumn]

Hey what's not to love? Who couldn't love an out-of-shape, mongoloid cockney dude wearing Billy Squire's outfit from the "Rock Me Tonite" video with a feather boa and a kabuki mask while snorting coke off a copy of Fodor's Guide To Madrid, and singing a campy, falsetto version of "Sir Joseph's Barge Is Seen" all the while ensconced amid the lububriously sonorous wailings of Adrian Belew's fay cousin with OCD...[I]whew[/]...stop me before I sub reference again.

I didn't realize that Swish was Cockney.

[bobsticks]

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[Auricauricle]

Gill of my Dreams, Fish!

I was talking with my friend at the coffee shop the other day who mused that perhaps music is often a product of the times, that somehow or another, it rises through circumstance and environment to become a unique event that can at no other time be experienced.

I suspect that this is true. The great recordings, the ones that really epitomised the creative energy of the artists, were singular events: Miles Davis' Kind of Blue; Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon; Fleetwood Mac's Rumors; Brand X's Moroccan Roll, and others were carefully crafted affairs, but the confluence of musical performance and compositional expertise speak to that transcendant quality that I have described before.

Progressive Rock bands work to cultivate this energy, I suppose. When listening to Peter Gabriel, PFM or other such musicians and bands, I get the sense that they become possessed of some spirit--call it muse, call it what you like--that takes over their being, and gives them the freedom and license to create something amazing.

I have an artist friend, Nathan Durfee, who has spoken to me of this state. In his creation of art, it as if he goes on autopilot at times, and creates things almost outside the realm of consciousness as he does so. Look his art up in the web. It is very whimsical, almost childish in a sense, but the in that playfulness there is a sense of freedom that cannot be easily described. Nathan studied art and at one time or another, he learned to paint within the lines like every good student. Yet Nathan's work shows that he has now transcended line and form, creating works that express this freedom in effortless motion.

Compare this type of expressionism with the work of Marillion's Misplaced Childhood (MC). In contrast, MC is over-studied and over-wrought, as if the artists at work are trying too hard. Like the talented student who pores upon his work feverishly in dogged pursuit to please his teacher and attain the Eternal Sublime (excuse me), MC aspires but never reaches that zenith.

I remember the first time I saw the movie, Amadeus. In that film is a scene that shows Salieri listening to Mozart, realizing that his protege is possessed of something that he will never have. It is the gift of music, of art itself: that rare gift that all talented individuals aspire to, yet only few experience.

It is something that can be cultivated, and so Mariliion, Salieri and the rest should not despair. Yet they should also realise that, in spite of all the hard work and heartbreaking effort, some people are truly touched.