I found out he had been a big Kansas fan, so I lent him the new “Somewhere to Elsewhere”, which to my delight he thoroughly enjoyed. Thinking he was ready for something newer I next gave him Spock’s Beard “Beware of Darkness”. To my surprise he found it, as he said “too spinney.” He explained how he and his wife sat down Sunday morning with the newspaper and a cup of coffee, then put the CD on. You can see the problem right now. This is not the best setting to enjoy Spock’s Beard. So he was not that impressed. His wife was speechless. I thought it best to go back to some familiar territory, so I next took him “The Ladder” from Yes and “Roots to Branches” from Jethro Tull. This seemed to be nice friendly terrain. After a week he returned them, thanking me for them saying that while they were good, well played, well produced, and familiar sounding, they just didn’t have the same magic. My prog introduction to Peter was unsuccessful.

It would appear there was no going back and going forward was a whole different challenge. That’s when I came to understand that music is experiential. It’s most important to the individual when you are living it. We all remember events and activities when we were discovering progressive rock for the first time. All those experiences help shape the love a person has for the music. Those experiences give the music a substance and a place in our lives. They build associative memories. However once a person moves on and either gets involved with a job, family, whatever, it’s very easy for the music to be left by the wayside. Once that happens you no longer have those experiences to attach to any new music you hear. It all becomes background music for you today. Hence Peter’s comment that the new Yes and Jethro Tull were good but didn’t have that same magic. It’s not the music, it’s the fact that he has associative memories attached to the earlier work that make them larger than life.

What this means is that in order for prog to continue growing, it needs to be exposed to young people who still hold music as an important part of their life. Once music leaves its place of importance it’s virtually impossible for it to regain its place of prominence. Think about this in your own life or those of your friends. I’ll bet you have some friends who are still into music and some that aren’t. Take a look at their situations. In my case, there was a period in the mid eighties where this almost happened to me. In the early eighties I had been hosting and producing a progressive rock radio show for almost six years and always looking for new stuff to put on the radio. Prog was very much a part of my life. I had finished the rough draft of The Progressive Rock Files and was set to get turned down by half-dozen of the top publishers in the world. Then I moved to another city and was no longer working at a radio station on a daily basis. I began to lose touch with the prog contacts I had developed. Music was beginning to slip out of my life, to be replaced by other activities. Although I do remember placing one order for a stack of LP’s from Steve Robert’s ZNR Records.

It wasn’t until I began working on the book again to update it in 1993 that once again the music came back into my life in some form other than background music. Then while writing and watching my daughter grow up, the music was being played and I began building associated memories to where today, as I write this I’m at the computer listening to prog. There is rarely a day that goes by where I’m not listening to something.

I have another friend. We’ll call him Ray. Ray also works in the radio industry, plays guitar and is in his late 30’s. Ray is a big Kansas fan who had no idea of the rest of the prog world until we had lunch one day to discuss a mutual client. Unlike Peter, upon finding out about all this new music Ray took it upon himself to seek it out and make some purchases. He’s now right in the thick of it, with loads of new CD’s from Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic, The Flower Kings and others. The fact that Ray has kept in touch with music has allowed him to make the leap into the world of progressive rock and enjoy it. Ray found it easy to get into the new progressive rock because he had an active music listening life and was constantly attaching new associative memories to the music he was listening to. For Ray music was experiential, tied to events happening in his life today not just in the past. My prog introduction to Ray was successful.

So the next time you try to introduce a friend to some new progressive rock and hear them say “It’s not as good as it was” what you are hearing is that there are no memories associated to the new music. There is no emotional attachment. It’s not that the music isn’t as good. In virtually every case the production will be better, the musicianship superior and the compositional skills more advanced as a result of years of experience that wasn’t present in the early days. What’s changed more than anything is that the music no longer plays an important part in their life and therefore no longer has the same effect on their life. Bridging that musical gulf may be the most challenging part.

About the Author:
Jerry Lucky is the author of the book The Progressive Rock Files, now entering its 5th edition. Please feel free to send feedback to Jerry at www.jerrylucky.com.