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DRONING
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Pit-eh-schoo, blugh, buh-doov...
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Jun-jing, jun-jing, jun-jing,
jing, juh-jing, jun-ding, jung...
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00:00:19,915 --> 00:00:22,677
BOOF!
Rata-da-da-da, da-da-da, da, da...
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00:00:22,712 --> 00:00:25,440
Doo-doo, doo, doo,
doo-doo, doo-doo...
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00:00:25,475 --> 00:00:26,857
Eh-eh-eh, neh-neh...
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00:00:26,892 --> 00:00:28,106
Da, da, da, da-da...
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00:00:28,141 --> 00:00:29,320
Eh-eh-eh, Neh-neh...
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00:00:29,355 --> 00:00:31,245
Neeeh...
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00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:33,080
Digga-digga-digga-digga...
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Digga-digga, dah-dah...
Over. Then some chords!
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00:00:36,315 --> 00:00:38,725
"The Assyrian came down
like a wolf from the fold
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"and his cohorts were gleaming
in silver and gold..."
Diddle-liddle, dum-dum, doo-doo...
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00:00:42,995 --> 00:00:47,085
"The sheen of his stars were like
stars in the sky," whatever it is.
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00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:50,800
It's gonna go, "Meeh, doo-doo,
doo, doo". Then it's gonna go
"doodle-oodle, oodle-oodle."
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00:00:50,835 --> 00:00:54,080
Continual "lul-uhl-lul-uhl"
notes without a single break-in.
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00:00:54,115 --> 00:00:55,245
Boof!
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00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:57,320
And I almost lost it there!
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00:00:57,355 --> 00:01:00,840
HE LAUGHS
Easy!
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From the British pop revolution of
the 1960s, emerged an entirely new
breed of musician -
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a post-Beatles, post-psychedelic
generation that saw a future of
limitless possibilities.
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It was time for pop music to move
beyond the three-minute love song
and chart success.
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With little or no concern for fame,
fortune or the audience, they
plundered every musical form
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on an adventure into
uncharted territories
in search of the lost chord.
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This is the story of
that generation of new bands,
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Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, ELP,
Jethro Tull and many more.
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From the land that time forgot,
the glory days of Prog Britannia.
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00:02:01,115 --> 00:02:04,120
MUSIC: "Time Of The Season"
by The Zombies
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00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:12,325
In 1967, pop music, like the world
it inhabited, was about to explode.
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In London, the British beat boom
fused with American pop in a blaze
of invention that would ransack
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00:02:17,595 --> 00:02:22,560
jazz, folk and anything else it
could find in the many basement
clubs of the city.
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00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:28,445
I do think there are periods which
are golden ages and, you know,
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the stars are aligned,
and whatever is happening, and
it produces a lot of creativity.
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00:02:33,515 --> 00:02:39,000
Where I was at college was like
a snapshot of music at the time.
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00:02:39,035 --> 00:02:43,525
The angry bot people
liked The Beatles.
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The side I was on was blues upstairs
and, in the cellar, Bob Dylan
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and then you had the modern jazz
guys and the classical guys.
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00:02:54,800 --> 00:03:00,920
Otis Redding and Sam and Dave
and Booker T and the MGs came over
and you suddenly realised that
39
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you know, it's "game up".
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00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:06,285
You can't pretend to be them
any more when they're actually here.
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00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:09,445
There was some white music that even
black musicians were listening to,
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00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:14,520
for example, Jimi Hendrix was
listening very hard to Bob Dylan,
you know, there was stuff going on.
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00:03:14,555 --> 00:03:18,845
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00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:22,880
There was huge social changes
and huge chemical changes...
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00:03:22,915 --> 00:03:26,845
going on. There was something
definitely in the water.
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00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:32,880
I mean, timing is everything.
The smartest thing I did was get
born in 1949. Brilliant, brilliant.
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00:03:32,915 --> 00:03:39,720
Cos at 18 you're in 1968.
Europe's aflame, the Paris Riots.
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00:03:39,755 --> 00:03:41,645
Perfect.
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00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:46,880
I was in the States in '68
and there were three major
assassinations while we were there.
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A few Kennedys
and an Andy Warhol or two.
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00:03:49,675 --> 00:03:51,560
You know, it was all happening.
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It WAS all happening. But much of
the music only reached eager young
British ears courtesy of outlaws.
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00:04:00,875 --> 00:04:03,805
Offshore pirate radio stations,
broadcasting illegally
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00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:08,880
to a nation still dominated
by something called
the BBC Light Programme.
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00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,680
MUSIC: "Summer In The City"
by The Lovin' Spoonful
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MUSIC WARPS INTO DIFFERENT SONGS
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'It was unreachable.
You felt like you were
tuning into another planet.
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'Contacting the aliens.
It was coming from another world.'
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You could only reach it on little
transistor radios...late at night.
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00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:46,760
Then, in May 1967, a song
that fused Bach with Percy Sledge
via Bob Dylan and Geoffrey Chaucer
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00:04:46,795 --> 00:04:48,480
was heard leaving for the coast.
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00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:52,605
A Whiter Shade Of Pale
by Procol Harum.
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00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:58,880
I wouldn't be exaggerating
when I said that the world
was waiting for that.
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00:04:58,915 --> 00:05:04,120
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00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:07,765
cross the floor...
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00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:11,840
The Beatles and the beat boom
had been going for...
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00:05:11,875 --> 00:05:15,077
certainly three or four years.
68
00:05:15,112 --> 00:05:18,376
'It was all getting a bit tired.'
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00:05:18,411 --> 00:05:21,640
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I wanted to do something
and I didn't want it to be
like anything else.
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00:05:27,555 --> 00:05:31,165
Because we've had, we've had it all.
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"This, I've never heard this before,
really." That's what you think to
yourself. Therefore, "I like this."
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00:05:37,635 --> 00:05:42,617
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00:05:42,652 --> 00:05:47,565
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And so it was that later,
only two weeks later,
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as the miller told his tale,
The Beatles released an album
that was a concept,
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00:05:57,075 --> 00:05:59,640
a world unto itself.
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00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:04,040
A blueprint for progressive rock.
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00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,200
MUSIC: "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band (Reprise)" by The Beatles
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00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,860
Lonely Hearts Club Band
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00:06:15,895 --> 00:06:19,000
enjoyed the show...
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00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,965
A Whiter Shade Of Pale
topped the British Singles Chart
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00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:28,640
the very same week
that Sgt Pepper announced
the artistic triumph of the album.
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00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:34,440
Bands were still making singles,
you know, Cream - Strange Group,
85
00:06:34,475 --> 00:06:37,720
Pink Floyd - Arnold Layne
and See Emily Play.
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00:06:37,755 --> 00:06:40,965
And Procol Harum -
Whiter Shade Of Pale.
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00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:46,640
All of these records were amazing,
creative, interesting singles
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00:06:46,675 --> 00:06:51,205
and they also were incredibly,
commercially successful.
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00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,520
So the bands at that moment were
getting the best of both worlds.
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00:06:54,555 --> 00:07:02,400
It was Sgt Pepper, and the
creative amazement of Sgt Pepper,
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00:07:02,435 --> 00:07:04,765
that really convinced everybody that
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00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,005
you can extend ideas onto an album,
you can make concept albums.
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00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:11,560
In fact, with the album, you can do
almost exactly whatever you want.
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00:07:11,595 --> 00:07:15,085
It was a strange mixture of...
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00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:20,760
almost music hall
and totally other-world music -
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00:07:20,795 --> 00:07:23,685
that was the wonderful
thing about it,
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00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:29,120
it bridged the gap between the real
world and this other world. And the
other thing,
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00:07:29,155 --> 00:07:32,600
it was all totally new. You'd never
heard anything like that before.
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00:07:32,635 --> 00:07:35,565
It's more fun in the record
if there's a few sounds that
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00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:39,485
you don't really know what they are
and really they're just instruments
101
00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:43,920
only something happens on here.
I couldn't tell you what
cos we have a special man
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00:07:43,955 --> 00:07:48,285
who sits here and goes like this
and the guitar turns into
a piano or something.
103
00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:53,200
And then you may say, "Why
don't you use a piano?" Because
the piano sounds like a guitar.
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00:07:53,235 --> 00:07:58,120
If you look at the leap
in terms of musical vocabulary
and sophistication between
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00:07:58,155 --> 00:08:02,725
the first Beatles album and
Sgt Pepper which is like five years,
106
00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:07,680
everything that could be done with
that form has already been done in
those five years.
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00:08:07,715 --> 00:08:11,400
Where else can you take it except to
make it more and more sophisticated
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00:08:11,435 --> 00:08:13,965
and more and more
musically interesting or just
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00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,600
for rock music to go on repeating
itself and regurgitating itself?
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00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,725
I liked... There's a lot of
classical music I liked.
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00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:26,325
I was always frightened of classical
music and I never wanted to listen
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00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,560
because it was Beethoven and
Tchaikovsky and big words like that.
And Schoenberg.
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00:08:30,595 --> 00:08:35,480
I think a lot of people started
to appreciate many other genres.
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00:08:35,515 --> 00:08:40,005
Pop music is the
classical music of now.
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00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:43,520
Probably The Beatles had been
listening to the same stuff,
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00:08:43,555 --> 00:08:48,217
smoked the same cannabis...
now and again.
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00:08:48,252 --> 00:08:52,845
A lot of people were
smoking on the quiet
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00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:56,240
and they actually got furious
when the hippies came along
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00:08:56,275 --> 00:08:59,565
because suddenly there was
a lot of notice being taken
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00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:04,400
whereas they'd been quietly,
you know, enjoying themselves
for a long time.
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00:09:04,435 --> 00:09:07,880
This was the era when if you
wanted to try something, you could.
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00:09:07,915 --> 00:09:09,737
You knew a mate who
had some hashish,
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00:09:09,772 --> 00:09:11,525
or you knew a mate who had some LSD.
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00:09:11,560 --> 00:09:17,000
But you had to be careful.
If you were very cautious and
took very little of these things
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00:09:17,035 --> 00:09:20,960
you could meddle and not lose
your mind and end up in hospital.
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00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:28,005
Cannabis was a stimulant.
And it did enable you to
hear a lot more in the music.
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00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:33,760
It was there, you weren't imagining
it. It was in there. But you
concentrated more on listening to it.
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00:09:33,795 --> 00:09:39,880
What came from that was
the ability for people
who would normally...
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00:09:39,915 --> 00:09:45,845
copy American music suddenly
wanted to express themselves.
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00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:52,720
And so you had this strange
thing at that time that almost
every band had a unique sound.
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00:09:52,755 --> 00:09:55,365
Nobody sounded quite
like anyone else.
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00:09:55,400 --> 00:10:01,920
shatter me to drops of rain
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00:10:01,955 --> 00:10:05,405
134
00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:09,920
I moved across to what was
really a new movement in music
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00:10:09,955 --> 00:10:12,445
which was the psychedelia period.
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00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:17,080
And that was Arthur Brown and
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
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00:10:17,115 --> 00:10:20,720
I mean, we didn't know
what it was and we were in it!
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00:10:20,755 --> 00:10:23,000
It was pretty confrontational.
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00:10:23,035 --> 00:10:25,805
For that time, shocking.
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00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:31,640
Arthur's concept was basically
about the beginning of time, the
beginning of life.
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00:10:31,675 --> 00:10:35,165
I am the god of hellfire
and I bring you...
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00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:38,520
The original for the make-up
was the death mask, which goes back
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00:10:38,555 --> 00:10:41,600
right through English history
and further than that.
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00:10:41,635 --> 00:10:45,925
to destroy all you've done...
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00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:48,525
It was kind of deep, really.
It was real, you know.
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00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:53,845
HE CHUCKLES
Sometimes the bar would be filled
with petrol and the roadie would
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00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:59,480
stand there throwing matches,
a good distance away, until
one landed and then... BOOF!
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00:11:04,680 --> 00:11:10,285
The British beat boom had been a
predominantly Northern or working
class phenomenon.
149
00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:15,960
But the architects of progressive
rock were escapees from entirely
different backgrounds.
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00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:20,560
I suppose for a rock and roller,
my education was completely wrong.
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00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:27,500
My mum and dad, I mean, literally
did go without food to send me to
piano lessons.
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00:11:27,535 --> 00:11:32,280
I never found that out
till many, many years on
and I went there when I was five.
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00:11:32,315 --> 00:11:34,165
And I loved it.
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00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:39,040
My family had a very varied
take on music and they were
very opinionated about it.
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00:11:39,075 --> 00:11:42,417
Course I liked Cliff Richard and
The Shadows and they were going,
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00:11:42,452 --> 00:11:45,760
"Nonsense, you won't even know
who these people are next year."
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00:11:45,795 --> 00:11:50,725
MUSIC: "Do You Wanna Dance"
by Cliff Richard and The Shadows
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00:11:50,760 --> 00:11:56,200
I was in this attic and I put on
this Vivaldi record, The Four Seasons
or something, and I just flipped.
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00:11:56,235 --> 00:11:58,920
I just went,
"This is fantastic stuff."
160
00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:08,920
Studied Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks
concerto. Did a lot of church music,
sang in choirs.
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00:12:08,955 --> 00:12:14,280
At the same time as being
obsessively interested in...
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00:12:14,315 --> 00:12:15,645
The Shadows.
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00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:19,485
Went to the Guildhall.
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00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:24,040
Went to the Royal Academy.
Had lots of private tuition,
LOTS of private tuition.
165
00:12:24,075 --> 00:12:28,325
But never REALLY wanted
to be in an orchestra.
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00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:31,925
Or a jazz group for that matter.
I wanted to be a rock drummer.
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00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:37,640
I got a scholarship to the Royal
College of Music. And I went there
and I left after a year and a half.
168
00:12:37,675 --> 00:12:43,320
I thought, "This is NUTS, this whole
thing." The college were really,
really anti any form of music
169
00:12:43,355 --> 00:12:45,445
that wasn't serious classical music.
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00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:48,485
They would've either have become
classical musicians,
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00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:54,120
because a lot of them have classical
training to grade whatever-it-is,
or they would have become jazzers.
172
00:12:54,155 --> 00:13:00,160
But the jazz scene in Britain
was never THAT exciting,
it was always such hard work.
173
00:13:00,195 --> 00:13:03,605
'66, '67, jazz was in a bad place.
174
00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:07,280
Jazz was Free Jazz, it was
squeaky-bum jazz, you know, going
175
00:13:07,315 --> 00:13:11,605
rhee-aiir! Squeaking away.
And any red-blooded drummer,
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00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:16,240
age 17, at that time, would've
wanted to play with Jimi Hendrix,
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00:13:16,275 --> 00:13:20,480
rather than the
Spontaneous Music Ensemble.
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00:13:20,515 --> 00:13:24,205
MUSIC: "Gypsy Eyes" by Jimi Hendrix
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00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:28,560
But what made pop
so attractive to some
inexperienced young musicians was...
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00:13:28,595 --> 00:13:30,840
well, the girls.
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00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:35,725
There's this whole other
half of the human race
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00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:40,520
and, like it says in Some Like It
Hot, "I tell you, it's a whole
different sex." There was girls.
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00:13:40,555 --> 00:13:45,880
Where were they? They were
in caffs. What were they doing?
They were sitting there.
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00:13:45,915 --> 00:13:49,405
They had chalk-white pink
lipstick on. And I thought,
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00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:53,080
"I don't quite know what they're for
or what you're meant to do with them,
186
00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:57,565
"but, I couldn't..."
But I thought, you know...
187
00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:02,280
"There's something great about this
lot." You couldn't talk to them,
but what you could do
188
00:14:02,315 --> 00:14:07,997
was put on a Little Richard
record on the jukebox and
it would unify the room.
189
00:14:08,032 --> 00:14:13,096
You couldn't put on Bartok,
Violin Concerto. That wouldn't
have impressed anybody.
190
00:14:13,131 --> 00:14:18,160
It wouldn't have unified the room.
Wouldn't have got everybody
tapping their feet.
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00:14:18,195 --> 00:14:21,200
CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS
192
00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:27,280
But the classical tradition
had gripped a generation of
rock 'n' rollers determined to show
193
00:14:27,315 --> 00:14:30,440
that pop music could also be
profound and grown-up.
194
00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:39,800
In the winter of love, Procol Harum
scored another first when they
recorded an 18-minute suite
195
00:14:39,835 --> 00:14:43,840
In Held 'Twas In I,
for their album Shine On Brightly.
196
00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:48,160
The search for meaning
and significance was on.
197
00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:54,200
I said, "I think we should do,
like, a great work."
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00:14:54,235 --> 00:14:56,240
That's what I called it.
199
00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:00,960
In fact it was called
O Magnum Harum for a while.
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00:15:00,995 --> 00:15:04,000
MUSIC: "In Held 'Twas In I"
by Procol Harum
201
00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:13,720
Start off at the beginning of the
universe... And ended in Heaven.
202
00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:18,960
And all the trials and tribulations
that come in between.
203
00:15:18,995 --> 00:15:20,720
With a bit of sitar chucked in.
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00:15:20,755 --> 00:15:23,760
MUSIC CONTINUES
205
00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:32,120
You know, somebody had to do it,
I suppose. If it hadn't been
Procol Harum at that point,
206
00:15:32,155 --> 00:15:35,560
it would have been somebody,
you know, four weeks later.
207
00:15:35,595 --> 00:15:39,445
Now... We can actually write music.
208
00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:44,640
And if we're gonna write music,
the model is classical music
209
00:15:44,675 --> 00:15:49,325
and classical music has
extended forms, sonatas,
210
00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:56,120
symphonies. So we're gonna
do structures and pieces
that last a long time
211
00:15:56,155 --> 00:16:00,760
that try and give us that
credibility, musically.
212
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:11,120
The Nice, originally PP Arnold's
backing band, set the controls
for the heart of classical music,
213
00:16:11,155 --> 00:16:16,480
jazz and the modern stage musical
on their maiden voyage
into progressive rock.
214
00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:23,880
Front man Keith Emerson was the
Hendrix of the Hammond organ, making
his instrument scream and sigh
215
00:16:23,915 --> 00:16:27,720
in dazzling displays of technical
virtuosity and crazed physicality.
216
00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:37,440
Their first unlikely hit
was a seven-minute version
217
00:16:37,475 --> 00:16:41,457
of Leonard Bernstein's America,
from West Side Story,
218
00:16:41,492 --> 00:16:45,440
transformed into an instrumental,
prog rock protest song.
219
00:16:45,475 --> 00:16:48,480
MUSIC: "America" by The Nice
220
00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:04,560
CHURCH ORGAN MUSIC
221
00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:14,805
Progressive music didn't
only come from the big cities.
222
00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:20,440
Welcome to Canterbury, the posh
cathedral town that seeded those
musicians that would, in time,
223
00:17:20,475 --> 00:17:25,577
grow into Soft Machine,
Caravan, Hatfield and The North
and Matching Mole.
224
00:17:25,612 --> 00:17:30,680
All stemming from
a little-known local group
called The Wilde Flowers.
225
00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:36,285
The Wilde Flowers didn't do
loadsa gigs, probably only about
226
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:40,960
one a fortnight, maybe one a week.
Cos we weren't very popular! No.
227
00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:51,160
Those lads were very
much into Thelonious Monk,
John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie.
228
00:17:51,195 --> 00:17:56,000
We tried to do sort-of
danceable versions of
that kind of music, you see.
229
00:17:56,035 --> 00:17:58,085
Just to be different and awkward.
230
00:17:58,120 --> 00:18:00,245
MUSIC: "Impotence"
by The Wilde Flowers
231
00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:02,880
and the things that we do...
232
00:18:02,915 --> 00:18:04,565
233
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:08,925
I don't like it if people
think that we thought that...
234
00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:13,160
clever grammar school-y people
came in and thought we we're doing
235
00:18:13,195 --> 00:18:17,325
something better than mere pop.
We were awestruck by pop music.
236
00:18:17,360 --> 00:18:22,800
By the magnificence of Beatles,
of Motown and really we just
wanted to participate in it.
237
00:18:22,835 --> 00:18:28,205
But getting our little group
together, our own dialects of
other stuff we'd picked up
238
00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:34,760
crept into what we did. I'm playing
beat drums and I'm trying to sound
like a rhythm and blues drummer,
239
00:18:34,795 --> 00:18:38,680
but I had been listening to all
these sophisticated jazz drummers
240
00:18:38,715 --> 00:18:42,125
and I was sort-of cluttered
with...with stuff.
241
00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:46,240
You can't pretend you haven't
heard Elvin Jones if you have.
242
00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:51,960
Soft Machine was the first band
to emerge from The Wilde Flowers.
243
00:18:51,995 --> 00:18:55,645
They headed for London's newly
established underground clubs,
244
00:18:55,680 --> 00:19:01,120
playing with groups such as
Arthur Brown and Pink Floyd
at Middle Earth and UFO.
245
00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:06,205
In that club you got
everything from vaudeville
246
00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:12,365
to rock, to jazz,
to electronics, to pure percussion
247
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:17,760
to theatre, to poetry, to dance,
to naked people wandering around.
248
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,960
That was what we all gravitated
towards, UFO and Middle Earth.
249
00:19:23,995 --> 00:19:28,885
That was the...
the culture that defined us.
250
00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:34,720
There were all these
stoned people listening
to music played by stoned bands.
251
00:19:34,755 --> 00:19:40,520
And as long as everybody was stoned,
everybody thought it was really good.
252
00:19:40,555 --> 00:19:43,560
MUSIC: "We Did It Again"
by Soft Machine
253
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:49,085
We hadn't really got enough
tunes...to just do songs.
254
00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:54,380
So, we thought, "Oh, I remember,
what do you do about that? I know,
what do jazz musicians do?"
255
00:19:54,415 --> 00:19:59,640
They improvise. So you just
pick a couple of chords in there
and just...keep going on them.
256
00:19:59,675 --> 00:20:02,080
And so tunes become
ten-minute events.
257
00:20:02,115 --> 00:20:05,120
MUSIC CONTINUES
258
00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:12,485
This is not because we've all
become virtuosos, not in our case.
259
00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:16,320
It's because we haven't got
enough tunes to stretch
one-and-a-half hours.
260
00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:23,120
Our organist Mike Ratledge
was older than us, taller and
his father had been a headmaster
261
00:20:23,155 --> 00:20:27,320
and who had an Oxford
degree, so therefore assumed
immediate seniority.
262
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,640
Well, this is the fuzzbox
which sounds like this...
263
00:20:31,675 --> 00:20:33,845
HE PLAYS DISTORTED NOTES
264
00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:38,160
Once he puts his fuzz on,
you had to keep playing,
you couldn't take your hand off.
265
00:20:38,195 --> 00:20:41,285
Cos it would start feeding back.
So he developed a solo style
266
00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:45,440
of absolutely continual
"lul-uhl-lul-uhl" notes
without a single break-in.
267
00:20:45,475 --> 00:20:48,480
MUSIC: "Why Am I So Short"
by Soft Machine
268
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:14,085
So we can do these
trance-like things,
269
00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:19,760
with sound going on for ages
and ages without a single pause.
270
00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:40,280
Just round the corner from UFO,
the more established Marquee Club
was already showcasing bands
271
00:21:40,315 --> 00:21:43,800
that would become the virtuoso
kings of progressive rock.
272
00:21:43,835 --> 00:21:46,645
Like Jethro Tull.
273
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,280
And Yes, fronted by
vocalist Jon Anderson.
274
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:55,125
I went to see Yes with 30 other
people at The Marquee one night.
275
00:21:55,160 --> 00:22:01,040
And guy next to me said, "You know
they're looking for a drummer?"
And I met Jon, introduced myself.
276
00:22:01,075 --> 00:22:03,285
He said, "Oh, yeah, man,
yeah. Give us a call,
277
00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:08,440
"come back next Tuesday.
We'll give you audition."
And I never called, you know.
278
00:22:08,475 --> 00:22:12,040
And I often wonder if I'd called,
what would have happened to my life!
279
00:22:12,075 --> 00:22:15,080
MUSIC: "Beyond And Before" by Yes
280
00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:20,720
Life in Yes, for jazz drummer
Bill Bruford, was like this...
281
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,480
The group started as a cover band,
like most groups do.
282
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:34,000
You start playing Beatles
tunes and a couple of tunes by
The Fifth Dimension, like you would.
283
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,205
And then we got bored
and extend a section.
284
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:42,040
"It's quite good up to here but
let's stick in another bit here
where it goes rhythm and blues."
285
00:22:42,075 --> 00:22:46,200
And we'd stick that in.
And then the thing would
get longer and longer and longer
286
00:22:46,235 --> 00:22:49,040
until eventually
somebody inevitably said,
287
00:22:49,075 --> 00:22:50,840
"Let's make one up ourselves."
288
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:59,680
Jon was a very keen listener
and absorber, bit like blotting
paper, he absorbed music.
289
00:22:59,715 --> 00:23:01,765
290
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:07,245
He was mad keen
on Sibelius and TV themes.
291
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,960
He'd start singing things, "Jon,
this is the theme to Bonanza!"
292
00:23:10,995 --> 00:23:13,445
And he'd say,
"Oh, never mind, stick it in!"
293
00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:17,520
MUSIC: "No Opportunity Necessary,
No Experience Needed" by Yes
294
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:24,160
Yes never said no. They stitched
movies soundtracks to folk music
295
00:23:24,195 --> 00:23:27,645
to modern jazz to classical
music to TV themes...
296
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:33,640
And the only people we didn't
concern ourselves with at all,
I think, was the audience.
297
00:23:33,675 --> 00:23:38,040
when you're lonely
298
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:43,600
city ears don't hear...
299
00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:47,325
If you couldn't
make the London clubs,
300
00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:51,840
couldn't find progressive
rock albums in the shops and
rarely heard it on the radio,
301
00:23:51,875 --> 00:23:54,405
you could,
by the end of the sixties,
302
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,880
see every band in one glorious
drug-and-rain-drenched experience
303
00:23:57,915 --> 00:23:59,645
at a pop festival near you.
304
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:02,720
MUSIC: "Dharma For One"
by Jethro Tull
305
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:13,045
This was the first golden age
of the British music festival.
306
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:17,360
A new community in which
no-one was more welcome than
the progressive rock group.
307
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,325
Everybody had a festival.
308
00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:26,860
You went along and played and heard
all different types of band.
309
00:24:26,895 --> 00:24:31,307
And people would listen to a jazz
orientated band, a hard rock band,
310
00:24:31,342 --> 00:24:35,720
a dance-type band. And they would
sit there and listen to the lot.
311
00:24:37,360 --> 00:24:41,680
Certainly, the outdoor live
experience was generally freeing.
312
00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:49,005
It always seemed like
it was a sunny day,
313
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:53,200
and the weather was gorgeous.
Everybody was smiling and happy.
314
00:24:53,235 --> 00:24:55,480
It was a very sort of hippy thing.
315
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,800
It was really music.
It really was music.
316
00:25:01,835 --> 00:25:03,325
It wasn't any other reason.
317
00:25:03,360 --> 00:25:07,960
Yeah, people got a bit smashed,
and bonked in the open air,
318
00:25:07,995 --> 00:25:09,565
and that was just the road crew.
319
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,360
MUSIC: "The Court Of The Crimson
King" by King Crimson
320
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:27,005
The great Suffolk seaside town
of Aldeburgh,
321
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:31,440
now home to Pete Sinfield,
original lyricist for
the intimidating new band
322
00:25:31,475 --> 00:25:35,200
he inadvertently named King Crimson.
323
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:38,685
We had an ethos in Crimson.
324
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:41,605
I'm sure people like Gentle Giant
and other bands...
325
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:46,880
we just refused to play anything
that sounded anything like
a Tin Pan Alley.
326
00:25:46,915 --> 00:25:49,480
If it sounded at all popular,
it was out.
327
00:25:49,515 --> 00:25:50,885
So it had to be complicated.
328
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:55,680
It had to be more expansive chords,
it had to have strange influences.
329
00:25:55,715 --> 00:26:00,040
If it sounded too simple,
we would make it more complicated.
330
00:26:00,075 --> 00:26:02,840
We would play it in 7/8, in 5/8,
just to show off.
331
00:26:02,875 --> 00:26:08,605
of the Crimson King...
332
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:13,240
Crimson's first big show-off
opportunity came in July 1969,
333
00:26:13,275 --> 00:26:15,965
when they supported
the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park.
334
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:22,640
Unleashing their unique,
highly-rehearsed sound
on a totally unprepared audience.
335
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,000
They played Schizoid Man
particularly well on that day.
336
00:26:29,035 --> 00:26:32,360
They really steamed it.
It was a monster.
337
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:39,640
338
00:26:39,675 --> 00:26:43,165
339
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,640
340
00:26:46,675 --> 00:26:50,080
341
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:06,480
We played Mars, or Schizoid Man,
one of our heavier pieces.
342
00:27:06,515 --> 00:27:08,965
And there was a silence at the end.
343
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,040
And no-one knew
whether to clap or not.
344
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,000
"That was good"!
Then they would go...
345
00:27:15,035 --> 00:27:16,365
HE IMITATES LOUD APPLAUSE
346
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,960
That was the sort of stuff we liked.
We really liked shocking people.
347
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:27,205
Unbelievable.
348
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:29,605
We were scared to death.
349
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,760
No-one knew that rock musicians
could play like that.
350
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,325
To execute rapid passages
deafeningly loud...
351
00:27:40,360 --> 00:27:43,080
MUSIC: "21st Century Schizoid Man"
by King Crimson
352
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:48,440
..then exactly the same passage,
everybody playing in unison thing,
353
00:27:48,475 --> 00:27:49,480
but very quiet.
354
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:55,160
I mean, this was scary. This was
the best group in the world.
355
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,960
Mike Giles one night was playing
the cymbals at Mothers in Birmingham,
356
00:28:00,995 --> 00:28:03,320
he ended up playing the cymbals
like this...
357
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:06,245
..till there was no noise at all.
358
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:09,880
And he just...poised,
and didn't do anything.
359
00:28:09,915 --> 00:28:11,765
And we thought, "Wow!"
I thought...
360
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:14,165
And Fripp panicked,
and took off his boot,
361
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:18,520
and started banging the stage
with his boot because he
couldn't stand the tension!
362
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:25,400
The amount of ego and power
and experience that went into that
first album was extraordinary.
363
00:28:25,435 --> 00:28:28,885
Maybe that's inherent in that,
364
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:32,040
and that strength was the seeds
of its destruction.
365
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:40,640
MUSIC: "Ride" by Caravan
366
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:48,080
The shock and awe that both defined
and deified King Crimson
367
00:28:48,115 --> 00:28:50,605
were completely absent
from the whimsical,
368
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:54,480
slightly stoned sound
still emanating from Canterbury.
369
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:04,000
The remaining Wilde Flowers
now took the road out of town
370
00:29:04,035 --> 00:29:06,440
as a band called Caravan.
371
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:16,960
When half of the Wilde Flowers
went off and formed Soft Machine,
372
00:29:16,995 --> 00:29:19,165
and managed to get a record deal,
373
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,725
we thought that perhaps
we could do the same,
374
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:26,320
so we were very much looking
to see how they were doing,
375
00:29:26,355 --> 00:29:28,405
trying to do
the same thing ourselves.
376
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:32,880
I suppose with the Canterbury scene,
you have progressive music
at its most melodic.
377
00:29:32,915 --> 00:29:37,325
It's do with these people being able
to write quite good tunes
378
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:41,600
being in contact, I think, with a
kind of British melodic tradition
379
00:29:41,635 --> 00:29:44,680
that maybe has more to do with
20th-century classical music
380
00:29:44,715 --> 00:29:46,405
than with pop music.
381
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:50,600
You hear distant echoes of
Vaughan Williams and Britten
and that kind of thing.
382
00:29:50,635 --> 00:29:54,537
383
00:29:54,572 --> 00:29:58,405
384
00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:01,940
Certainly the surrounding
countryside and what-have-you,
385
00:30:01,975 --> 00:30:05,440
we seemed to get a bit
of inspiration from all that.
386
00:30:05,475 --> 00:30:07,680
Sitting about in the sunshine.
387
00:30:07,715 --> 00:30:11,097
Making up bits of music.
388
00:30:11,132 --> 00:30:14,445
389
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,520
Living off girlfriends, you know.
390
00:30:17,555 --> 00:30:18,965
Great fun.
391
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:25,960
if you please...
392
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:36,080
Court jesters, crimson kings,
lost souls and magic men.
393
00:30:36,115 --> 00:30:38,325
This was a broad church.
394
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:41,920
A very English music,
infused with childhood fantasies
395
00:30:41,955 --> 00:30:44,600
and the quirkiness
of a small island race.
396
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:53,720
Spike Milligan, Edward Lear,
Lewis Carroll, stuff like that.
397
00:30:53,755 --> 00:30:58,137
And we had our own kind of
popular surrealism
398
00:30:58,172 --> 00:31:02,520
right from the humorous poets
and writers
399
00:31:02,555 --> 00:31:05,085
of the late 19th, early 20th century.
400
00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:08,320
A long time before they invented
surrealism on the continent,
401
00:31:08,355 --> 00:31:09,480
we had Lewis Carroll!
402
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,480
At that time, we were making
quite a large effort to be English.
403
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:22,680
Probably why we didn't go down too
well in Germany when we were there!
404
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:29,800
MUSIC: "Horizons" by Genesis
405
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:37,885
Charterhouse Public School.
406
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:43,520
A group of young scholars, inspired
by the ambitious compositions
of Procul Harum and King Crimson,
407
00:31:43,555 --> 00:31:46,805
embraced this new, mature pop music
408
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:50,280
as a way of dodging the professions
for which they'd been groomed.
409
00:31:50,315 --> 00:31:53,720
We had a bit of a tag over us,
you know. Public schoolboys.
410
00:31:53,755 --> 00:31:56,960
"What are they doing?
What do they know about music?
411
00:31:56,995 --> 00:31:58,880
"Where's their pain?" sort of thing.
412
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:07,200
We were in a school that was
designing people to go
into the civil service.
413
00:32:07,235 --> 00:32:09,217
You often talk
about getting into music
414
00:32:09,252 --> 00:32:11,165
as an escape from poverty and stuff,
415
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:13,960
which perhaps it was for
a certain kind of people
416
00:32:13,995 --> 00:32:15,565
in the late '50s and early '60s.
417
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:21,640
For us, it was a kind of escape
from a totally pre-determined
career choice, if you like.
418
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:29,565
I was banned from playing the guitar
for my entire time at Charterhouse.
419
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:34,040
I don't quite know why.
I think they saw the guitar
as a symbol of the revolution.
420
00:32:34,075 --> 00:32:36,725
And I was gonna start it off
in my house with my guitar.
421
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:41,080
So I was always under the thumb
of my house-master for that reason.
422
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,685
They wanted to be songwriters.
423
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:53,180
But bands were now making
their own material.
424
00:32:53,215 --> 00:32:55,605
So they formed their own band,
called it Genesis,
425
00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:59,320
and did what every other group
now seemed to be doing...
426
00:32:59,355 --> 00:33:03,000
retreated to the country
to get their heads together.
427
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,965
There was a phrase, "Getting
together in the country, man,"
428
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:12,200
but actually, I think being removed
from the business was quite
important for us.
429
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:17,600
The time at Christmas Cottage was
where we sort of became a band
430
00:33:17,635 --> 00:33:20,160
and started writing
with our own sound.
431
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,365
And it's what came
naturally to us, really.
432
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:29,040
We were embedded in English and
obviously European classical
traditions as well,
433
00:33:29,075 --> 00:33:33,680
but also, in terms of a lot of
the lyrical stuff we would take
from English things,
434
00:33:33,715 --> 00:33:36,977
influenced by TS Eliot and fairy
stories, and stuff like that.
435
00:33:37,012 --> 00:33:40,205
People forget there weren't
that many bands in those days.
436
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:43,720
It was like a blank canvas. So as
long as you were half-decent,
437
00:33:43,755 --> 00:33:46,897
and had a bit of a sound,
and were good live,
438
00:33:46,932 --> 00:33:50,005
'you had a chance it was a career,
you know.'
439
00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:53,120
We like audiences that sit down
and listen to the music
440
00:33:53,155 --> 00:33:56,445
rather than get drunk
and pick up girls.
441
00:33:56,480 --> 00:33:59,000
We like audiences that will
sit down and listen.
442
00:33:59,035 --> 00:34:01,520
MUSIC: "White Mountain"
by Genesis
443
00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:08,165
While Genesis focused
on songwriting,
444
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,680
other bands were mastering their
instruments and finding new ones.
445
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:18,600
Technical virtuosity was fast
becoming the essential protein
in progressive rock's DNA.
446
00:34:18,635 --> 00:34:21,600
I just don't believe that a
drummer should just keep time.
447
00:34:21,635 --> 00:34:25,320
Cos if you want time,
buy a metronome.
448
00:34:25,355 --> 00:34:26,685
Don't come and speak to me!
449
00:34:26,720 --> 00:34:29,085
I think music...
you make it for yourself.
450
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:31,920
If the chap next door likes it,
isn't that fantastic?
451
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:35,605
I do think self-indulgence
452
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:39,000
is a good thing in art,
because if you're trying
453
00:34:39,035 --> 00:34:40,845
to please other people all the time,
454
00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:43,245
you just stick to the same model
all the time.
455
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:46,920
Nobody hears anything new,
so nobody expects anything new.
456
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,525
You play a note,
and you project it out.
457
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:54,880
Even if it's one note,
it can go "donnnng"... hmm.
458
00:34:54,915 --> 00:34:56,285
You can make it go...
459
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:57,845
WITH DEEP ECHO: "Donnnng"!
460
00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:01,880
It's more than just
playing the instrument.
461
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:05,680
It's not cool today
to play your instrument.
462
00:35:05,715 --> 00:35:07,645
Jangly guitar music...
463
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:09,325
It's jangly! That's what you do.
464
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,445
But to actually play a solo,
something nice,
465
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:16,320
something that speaks, something that
gives you a little kind of emotion,
466
00:35:16,355 --> 00:35:19,760
a little buzz, makes your hair
stand up on the back of your neck,
467
00:35:19,795 --> 00:35:22,280
that's not cool.
That's not part of this age.
468
00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:28,720
But this was
the dawning of the age of
the highly-accomplished player.
469
00:35:28,755 --> 00:35:30,320
The name musician.
470
00:35:31,720 --> 00:35:34,500
In 1970, Crimson man Greg Lake,
471
00:35:34,535 --> 00:35:37,245
plus Nice man Keith Emerson,
472
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:39,640
plus Crazy World man Carl Palmer,
473
00:35:39,675 --> 00:35:42,357
equalled bass, keyboards and drums,
474
00:35:42,392 --> 00:35:45,040
equalled prog rock's
first supergroup,
475
00:35:45,075 --> 00:35:47,405
equalled ELP.
476
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:50,600
MUSIC: "Hoedown"
by Emerson, Lake and Palmer
477
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,565
We weren't a rock band,
we weren't a blues band.
478
00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:06,600
Emerson, Lake and Palmer was a
kind of...was a European group that
played classical adaptations.
479
00:36:06,635 --> 00:36:11,285
Yes, we could rock out.
But we didn't hang our hat
on being a rock band.
480
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:16,800
In actual fact,
it really was a thoroughbred
musical statement we were making.
481
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:23,440
You need the playing expertise
so that your colleagues know
that you are the bee's knees,
482
00:36:23,475 --> 00:36:27,400
but just give them some
entertainment as well, and that's
what it's all about.
483
00:36:27,435 --> 00:36:28,600
That's my philosophy.
484
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,085
I think I'd call it
showbusiness, actually!
485
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:43,680
Somebody jumping over their organ,
or sticking in knives
486
00:36:43,715 --> 00:36:45,960
to hold down a fifth or a fourth,
a chord.
487
00:36:45,995 --> 00:36:48,165
Musically it's valid,
488
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:49,960
visually it's right on it,
489
00:36:49,995 --> 00:36:51,720
and it is rock'n'roll!
490
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:01,740
ELP's technical expertise
and crowd-pleasing antics
491
00:37:01,775 --> 00:37:05,107
elevated musicianship and
ticket sales to new heights.
492
00:37:05,142 --> 00:37:08,491
Progressive rock popped its
head out of the underground
493
00:37:08,526 --> 00:37:11,840
and glimpsed not only showbusiness,
but big business.
494
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:16,765
Progressive rock wizard Rick Wakeman
495
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:19,800
was amazed when he first saw
what Yes were now up to
496
00:37:19,835 --> 00:37:22,280
with their psychedelic guitarist
Steve Howe.
497
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:28,680
Everything that happened in the '70s,
this is it,
498
00:37:28,715 --> 00:37:31,365
was to do with psychedelia, you see.
499
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:36,280
Psychedelia may have quit
as a fashion in 1968,
500
00:37:36,315 --> 00:37:39,725
but when I joined Yes,
501
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,600
I was still a psychedelic
guitarist in my mind.
502
00:37:42,635 --> 00:37:45,440
I would not play blues cliche
for love nor money.
503
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:53,400
I was just bowled over, because
everything was wrong.
504
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:59,760
Bill Bruford had the most incredible
unusual tuning of the kit,
505
00:37:59,795 --> 00:38:02,925
and they mic'ed it up.
No-one mic'ed it up then.
506
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:06,200
And it was the most fantastic
drum sound I'd ever heard.
507
00:38:06,235 --> 00:38:08,720
MUSIC: "Yours Is No Disgrace"
by Yes
508
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,485
There were funky elements,
there were classical elements,
509
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:21,360
there'd be a free section,
or some sort of psychedelic vamp
or funk thing,
510
00:38:21,395 --> 00:38:24,720
cos we liked Sly and the Family
Stone, so we needed some of that.
511
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:32,520
Chris Squire. Most bass players try
to get as low as they could,
to make your trousers flap.
512
00:38:32,555 --> 00:38:36,297
Chris wiped out all the middle,
and had all the treble turned up,
513
00:38:36,332 --> 00:38:40,040
and used a Rickenbacker while
everyone else was using Fenders.
514
00:38:40,075 --> 00:38:41,765
I thought, "That's outrageous"!
515
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:45,200
And then Steve Howe, when everybody
else was using big stacks,
516
00:38:45,235 --> 00:38:51,080
had a little Fender Twin,
and a Gibson semi-acoustic.
517
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:58,605
I played any kind of guitar
you could think of that I liked.
518
00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:04,680
So I went on to mandolin, steel,
and all the kinds,
six, twelve, Spanish...
519
00:39:04,715 --> 00:39:07,045
"Eh, what? What's going on?"
520
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:10,640
And then, of course, at those times,
every lead singer was six foot six,
521
00:39:10,675 --> 00:39:13,817
long greasy black hair, you could
smell 'em from the back row,
522
00:39:13,852 --> 00:39:19,126
and along comes this little fella
who's got an alto voice.
523
00:39:19,161 --> 00:39:24,400
Yours is no disgrace...
524
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:29,200
Wakeman wanted in.
525
00:39:29,235 --> 00:39:30,405
PHONE RINGS
526
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,400
But when he got the call,
it wasn't an easy decision.
527
00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:37,525
On the same day that
Yes asked me to join,
528
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:44,200
David Bowie asked me to form
Spiders From Mars with Mick Ronson,
529
00:39:44,235 --> 00:39:50,840
um...which, when I look back,
that was one hell of a choice!
530
00:39:50,875 --> 00:39:54,597
waiting in the sky...
531
00:39:54,632 --> 00:39:58,285
Progressive music wasn't
the only gig in town.
532
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:04,080
Top Of The Pops, regarded
as a sell-out by any
self-respecting prog rocker,
533
00:40:04,115 --> 00:40:09,000
was by now home to artists
such as Bowie, Roxy Music and T Rex.
534
00:40:09,035 --> 00:40:12,240
Bands still making singles hits,
and girls dance.
535
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:23,480
For Robert Wyatt, the Soft Machine
party was all but over.
536
00:40:23,515 --> 00:40:27,097
The band had matured into a
jazz-fusion quartet
537
00:40:27,132 --> 00:40:30,680
with little sympathy for
his pop sensibilities.
538
00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:33,480
Goodbye, the UFO Club...
539
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:36,040
..hello, the Albert Hall.
540
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,080
You know, pretty respected, and so
on, but nobody's dancing any more,
541
00:40:48,115 --> 00:40:49,845
so I sort of thought, aww, you know,
542
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:52,920
I never really quite made it
as a proper pop musician!
543
00:40:55,720 --> 00:40:58,005
We thought we were a pop band!
544
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:03,200
It's just that... I try to
make normal records, they just
don't come out like that.
545
00:41:10,240 --> 00:41:14,440
We could have made a really good
pop LP, and been in the charts,
546
00:41:14,475 --> 00:41:17,560
and been in those films
about the '60s.
547
00:41:17,595 --> 00:41:18,800
And we blew it.
548
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:27,520
Wyatt was eventually sacked
from his own group.
549
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:31,760
I think I resented it for a while,
550
00:41:31,795 --> 00:41:33,045
and when I got cross,
551
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:38,720
I used to feel about Soft Machine
the same way that Palestinians
think about Jerusalem.
552
00:41:38,755 --> 00:41:41,640
"This once was mine!"
553
00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:50,560
Without Wyatt, Soft Machine
moved into purely
instrumental compositions,
554
00:41:50,595 --> 00:41:52,320
avoiding the problems of lyrics.
555
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:57,440
"My baby done left me"
never did work with
complex musical structures.
556
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:01,320
This music didn't want the blues.
557
00:42:01,355 --> 00:42:03,280
It needed fantasy and myth.
558
00:42:04,240 --> 00:42:06,220
Cupid meets Psyche,
559
00:42:06,255 --> 00:42:08,200
not boy meets girl.
560
00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:14,245
We hadn't really experienced
much outside education.
561
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:18,680
So I suppose that's partly why we
wrote about...fantasy lyrics,
562
00:42:18,715 --> 00:42:23,080
different situations about life
rather than boy/girl things.
563
00:42:23,115 --> 00:42:26,080
I had come from a
public school background,
564
00:42:26,115 --> 00:42:27,365
very self-conscious.
565
00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:30,245
Could never have expressed that
in a song in those days.
566
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:34,045
So it was much easier
to go back to Greek myths
and write things like that.
567
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:39,480
So we plundered Ovid
and anybody else we could find.
We were all the same, really.
568
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:45,280
There was an audience of
newly-educated university students
569
00:42:45,315 --> 00:42:47,325
who were crying out for something
570
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:51,540
that they had read in science
fiction and they wanted a musical
version of that.
571
00:42:51,575 --> 00:42:55,720
And of course, there was
The Lord Of The Rings, and Mervyn
Peake and Gormenghast,
572
00:42:55,755 --> 00:42:58,400
and people wanted that
in their music.
573
00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:05,840
Ambitious music demanded
ambitious presentation.
574
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:12,725
What began with Sgt Pepper
now became the glorious norm.
575
00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:17,480
Albums adorned with lyrics,
paintings, cut-outs,
pop-ups and pull-outs.
576
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:26,480
The gatefold sleeve opened like a
window onto brave new worlds,
577
00:43:26,515 --> 00:43:30,200
and provided the perfect prop
on which to roll a joint.
578
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:35,040
Yeah...
579
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:38,725
I think the album cover,
the artwork, and a vinyl...
580
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:42,360
when you bought that, it was a piece
you could hold, you could look at it,
581
00:43:42,395 --> 00:43:44,045
it was big, you know.
582
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:47,960
When it suddenly went down
to the jewel case, to the CD...
583
00:43:47,995 --> 00:43:48,965
HE SIGHS
584
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:53,880
You couldn't have the detail,
because it was too small.
I needed one for each eye.
585
00:43:53,915 --> 00:43:58,760
It's hard not to start sounding
like, you know, "In my day...
the gatefold sleeve..."
586
00:43:58,795 --> 00:44:00,925
but it's changed now, you know.
587
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:05,640
Music is now...it's not something
that people hold, the article.
588
00:44:05,675 --> 00:44:09,405
It was a whole event
of getting an album.
589
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:13,400
Getting your album home,
putting an album on,
reading the bits and pieces,
590
00:44:13,435 --> 00:44:16,885
learning a bit about it...
it was absolutely fantastic.
591
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:20,840
And we lost that. And when we
lost that, we lost an awful lot.
592
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:26,240
So, welcome back
to days of future past.
593
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:31,205
This is the home of Roger Dean.
594
00:44:31,240 --> 00:44:36,800
The artist who most successfully
translated progressive rock's
soundscapes into landscapes.
595
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:42,485
He gave Yes their
distinctive brand logo,
596
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:46,800
and imagined worlds that
at the time still seemed like
beautiful possibilities.
597
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:53,445
Whether you're designing
just a box of matches,
598
00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:56,960
you're predicting one tiny,
miniscule part of the future.
599
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:03,000
I think what's terribly astonishing
and disappointing
600
00:45:03,035 --> 00:45:06,405
is how little the promise of the
future turned out.
601
00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:10,760
In the '60s, people walked
on the moon, in the '60s,
there was colour television.
602
00:45:10,795 --> 00:45:13,757
And no-one has gone
back to the moon.
603
00:45:13,792 --> 00:45:16,685
I think people would
have been shocked
604
00:45:16,720 --> 00:45:21,440
if they could see the year 2008
from a 1968 perspective,
605
00:45:21,475 --> 00:45:27,200
at how astonishingly little
the world had improved
606
00:45:27,235 --> 00:45:30,205
compared to our ambitions
and expectations.
607
00:45:30,240 --> 00:45:36,520
Had we planned it properly
in the '60s, this is how
it might have turned out!
608
00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:47,320
I try and find out what was
motivating them to make the music,
609
00:45:47,355 --> 00:45:51,040
and work on the same sort of ideas,
if that was possible.
610
00:45:51,075 --> 00:45:53,725
Wasn't always possible,
but sometimes it was.
611
00:45:53,760 --> 00:46:00,560
Sometimes there was a great
synergy between the ideas
that motivated the music-making
612
00:46:00,595 --> 00:46:03,565
and the ideas that
motivated the art.
613
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:08,325
But it was not the music itself.
It was the ideas behind it.
614
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:15,440
I was lucky that the images
and the music seemed to be an
absolute perfect fit sometimes,
615
00:46:15,475 --> 00:46:20,640
when in actual fact,
the process was beyond analysis.
616
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:27,200
Yes recording sessions were
also moving beyond analysis.
617
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:32,800
The hippy democracy
the band chose as a way of life
618
00:46:32,835 --> 00:46:35,397
made for difficulties
in the studio.
619
00:46:35,432 --> 00:46:37,776
Their fifth album,
Close To The Edge,
620
00:46:37,811 --> 00:46:40,120
took over three months to perfect.
621
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:43,765
It took three months because
Simon and Garfunkel
622
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,120
had done Bridge Over Troubled Water,
which took three months.
623
00:46:47,155 --> 00:46:48,605
We heard this and we thought,
624
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:52,320
"By golly, our next record's
going to take three months
and a day if it kills us!"
625
00:46:52,355 --> 00:46:55,720
So of course, this was
the infantile way we behaved,
626
00:46:55,755 --> 00:46:58,000
we took three months and a day.
627
00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:03,240
We established a whole new plane
of length of how long we play.
628
00:47:03,275 --> 00:47:05,245
So we've got some musicians here,
629
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:09,000
we've got a lot of writers
in the band, cos Bill wrote,
everybody wrote in the band.
630
00:47:09,035 --> 00:47:14,040
"Can I trade your idea for my idea?"
You've got five guys writing...
631
00:47:14,075 --> 00:47:15,765
Imagine five guys writing a book!
632
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:20,160
Steve said, "I've got this silly
little line that I've had lying
around for ages,
633
00:47:20,195 --> 00:47:23,805
going, "Ding-ding-ding-doo,
de-doo, diddly-iddly-um-dum..."
634
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:28,320
It was all horse-trading, muscle
power, strongest guy, thickest skin.
635
00:47:28,355 --> 00:47:32,320
Chris said,
"I've got this...bass run."
636
00:47:32,355 --> 00:47:35,245
Diddly-iddly-um-dum-dum-dum-dum.
637
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:39,360
And that was it, really.
And I went, "Anything else?"
638
00:47:39,395 --> 00:47:41,417
And he went, "No, that's it."
639
00:47:41,452 --> 00:47:43,405
Diddly-iddly-um-dum-dum-dum-dum.
640
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:48,800
And when we got to, what turned out
to be for me, the high spot,
which was Close To The Edge,
641
00:47:48,835 --> 00:47:51,200
really, I don't know how
that record got made.
642
00:47:54,240 --> 00:47:57,925
Some days, we got into the rehearsal
rooms after, like, yesterday,
643
00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:02,840
we got in the next day and said,
"Does anybody remember how we went
from the last verse into that?"
644
00:48:02,875 --> 00:48:04,005
"No"!
645
00:48:04,040 --> 00:48:07,400
I said, "I want that bit on the end
of that, and I don't want to do it
in that key,
646
00:48:07,435 --> 00:48:10,565
"because it works nice with the way
I play it on guitar on that,"
647
00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:15,120
so they'd say, "We'll get a cup of
tea, Rick, you work out how we get
from there to there"!
648
00:48:15,155 --> 00:48:19,045
We couldn't do a song
in five minutes. It went
to ten minutes on the Yes album.
649
00:48:19,080 --> 00:48:24,440
And we got to Close To The Edge and
we thought, "This just isn't long
enough! This is like...a symphony!"
650
00:48:24,475 --> 00:48:28,320
round by the corner
651
00:48:28,355 --> 00:48:33,325
652
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:37,880
down by the river
653
00:48:37,915 --> 00:48:38,925
654
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:42,280
In those days there were two or
three albums that weren't so good,
655
00:48:42,315 --> 00:48:44,565
getting you towards the winner.
656
00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:48,660
The one that the thing existed for,
which was Close To The Edge.
657
00:48:48,695 --> 00:48:52,685
That's the moment you exist for
in a rock group, and it's terrific!
658
00:48:52,720 --> 00:48:57,040
And you think, "That's the cookie.
That's the one, right there!
Done deal! I'm gone!"
659
00:48:57,075 --> 00:48:58,080
I left then.
660
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:07,680
Bruford defected to the less sunny,
less democratic regime of Robert
Fripp's all-new King Crimson.
661
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:16,840
In 1972, this was akin to going over
the Berlin Wall into East Germany.
662
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:23,520
No papers required,
just extreme chops.
663
00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:28,240
Everything you've heard
about King Crimson is true.
It's a terrifying place.
664
00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:43,685
Whatever you do before
you join King Crimson,
665
00:49:43,720 --> 00:49:46,520
would you please not do it
when you're in the band?
666
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:59,600
You're required really
to develop a new style, if you can,
667
00:49:59,635 --> 00:50:01,765
specifically for that group.
668
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:06,480
The implication being that you
would play that way in King Crimson,
669
00:50:06,515 --> 00:50:07,880
and King Crimson alone.
670
00:50:09,240 --> 00:50:11,405
Yes was an endless debate
671
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:16,920
about whether it should be F-natural
in the bass with a G-sharp on top or
should it be the other way round?
672
00:50:16,955 --> 00:50:19,560
In King Crimson,
almost nothing was said.
673
00:50:19,595 --> 00:50:22,320
You're just supposed to know.
674
00:50:31,240 --> 00:50:32,845
Robert Fripp was a purist.
675
00:50:32,880 --> 00:50:38,160
Unlike the Jimmy Pages of rock,
he didn't brandish the guitar
like a phallus.
676
00:50:38,195 --> 00:50:42,960
His was more like a probe.
An instrument of science, not sex.
677
00:50:42,995 --> 00:50:45,157
And to use it properly,
678
00:50:45,192 --> 00:50:47,320
you had to sit down.
679
00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:50,885
The very first few gigs we did,
680
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:53,965
Robert didn't sit down.
And he was very unhappy,
681
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:57,880
because in rehearsals,
he'd have his stool and his thing,
682
00:50:57,915 --> 00:50:59,405
that was how he'd been taught,
683
00:50:59,440 --> 00:51:03,245
and Robert's very strict about,
"That's how it should be,"
684
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:08,360
and eventually we'd had to give him
a stool, because he was sulking.
685
00:51:08,395 --> 00:51:11,037
And he was so happy on that stool.
686
00:51:11,072 --> 00:51:13,645
Robert's not a gyrator, is he?
687
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:16,885
He may be many things,
but he's not a gyrator.
688
00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:22,360
And Robert's idea of sexy
is to smile with his glasses and...
689
00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:26,845
Fripp wasn't alone.
690
00:51:26,880 --> 00:51:30,180
Sexual energy, the very lifeblood
of rock'n'roll,
691
00:51:30,215 --> 00:51:33,480
was conspicuously absent
from the prog rock stage.
692
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:38,720
Bands like Egg had enough
on their hands just playing
the complicated arpeggios.
693
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:42,925
Well, we weren't very sexy,
694
00:51:42,960 --> 00:51:48,720
and we regarded overt sexual display
as extremely uncool.
695
00:51:48,755 --> 00:51:53,117
It was something...rather
humiliating to have to admit to
696
00:51:53,152 --> 00:51:57,445
that we were actually trying
to get into girls' knickers.
697
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:00,840
We wouldn't admit to it. It was very
duplicitous, very dishonest.
698
00:52:00,875 --> 00:52:03,880
But there you are. We certainly
wouldn't do it on stage.
699
00:52:03,915 --> 00:52:08,165
I would have been
completely unconvincing!
700
00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:14,920
Imagine me doing pelvic thrusts on
stage while playing in 25/8. No.
701
00:52:19,240 --> 00:52:23,165
No sex on stage,
and no sex backstage.
702
00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:26,720
All the groupies were at
Led Zeppelin concerts,
703
00:52:26,755 --> 00:52:28,965
not waiting for
progressive rock maestros
704
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:31,245
to demonstrate the delights
of the diminished chord.
705
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:36,000
The rock bands in America had
groupies. We didn't really have any.
706
00:52:36,035 --> 00:52:38,725
The pop stars had groupies.
We wanted groupies too.
707
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:44,360
We never had any Egg groupies. We
never had any girl groupies at all.
708
00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:50,520
No girls ever came to the side
of the stage after a gig.
709
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:53,925
Sad, isn't it?
710
00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:57,960
When we went to America,
we had lots of groupies.
711
00:52:57,995 --> 00:52:59,925
By the dozens!
712
00:52:59,960 --> 00:53:02,245
Because they loved our English
accents,
713
00:53:02,280 --> 00:53:06,560
and the fact we weren't
American rock stars
and we were something different,
714
00:53:06,595 --> 00:53:08,080
and exotic to them.
715
00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:13,920
IN AMERICAN ACCENT:
"We love your accent! Y'all
wanna take a shower with us?"
716
00:53:13,955 --> 00:53:16,560
IN POSH ENGLISH ACCENT:
"What, both of you? Gosh!"
717
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:22,320
Progressive rock audiences
certainly weren't screamers.
718
00:53:22,355 --> 00:53:24,240
They were an infinitely patient lot.
719
00:53:24,275 --> 00:53:27,400
Too much yang, not enough yin.
720
00:53:28,360 --> 00:53:33,840
What we started to realise...
our audience were nice
and reserved people, really.
721
00:53:33,875 --> 00:53:38,720
You know, fishing hats, greatcoats,
bunch of albums under the arm...
722
00:53:38,755 --> 00:53:41,960
Public school sixth-formers really,
in greatcoats!
723
00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:45,245
Ugly-looking audience, you know.
724
00:53:45,280 --> 00:53:48,960
Pipe and glasses, yeah.
Beards and stuff, we used to have.
725
00:53:48,995 --> 00:53:51,845
It was very male-orientated.
726
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:56,040
I would say, in those days,
95% of our audience were male.
727
00:53:56,075 --> 00:53:58,120
We never used to have
females come and see us.
728
00:53:58,155 --> 00:54:01,480
Not many girls, no. All chaps.
729
00:54:01,515 --> 00:54:03,405
Lots of guys. No girls.
730
00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:05,645
What is it, some kind of homo band?
What is it?
731
00:54:05,680 --> 00:54:12,120
It was the odd woman,
mostly dragged along,
who used to just look bewildered.
732
00:54:15,120 --> 00:54:19,560
If the sexiness of '60s
psychedelia was absent
from the prog performance,
733
00:54:19,595 --> 00:54:23,077
theatricality, used so effectively
by Arthur Brown,
734
00:54:23,112 --> 00:54:26,560
was becoming an essential part
of any Genesis show.
735
00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:30,720
Flower...
736
00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:35,365
737
00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:39,885
flutterbys, gutterflies...
738
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:45,400
Initially it started off because the
PA systems we had...only the voice
went through the PA in those days...
739
00:54:45,435 --> 00:54:48,085
were pretty bad,
so you could never hear any lyrics.
740
00:54:48,120 --> 00:54:51,165
Quite complex lyrics, and the lyrics
were quite important.
741
00:54:51,200 --> 00:54:55,040
So Peter felt he had to act
them out a bit, so he started
acting them out on stage.
742
00:54:55,075 --> 00:54:57,320
MUSIC: "Supper's Ready"
by Genesis
743
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:09,480
The prog rock movement really
stimulated the visual aspect
744
00:55:09,515 --> 00:55:12,677
as well as the playing
and the conceptual side.
745
00:55:12,712 --> 00:55:15,805
The visual thing was in.
Theatre was important.
746
00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:20,080
It started with that psychedelia
period, Arthur Brown, wherever,
747
00:55:20,115 --> 00:55:22,445
and went on and got developed.
748
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,000
MUSIC: "Brandenburger"
by The Nice
749
00:55:29,040 --> 00:55:33,040
Progressive rock now had such
a loyal male record-buying fan base,
750
00:55:33,075 --> 00:55:37,040
that both the major and independent
labels happily signed new bands,
751
00:55:37,075 --> 00:55:40,125
and let them record
whatever they wanted.
752
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:43,125
They weren't even expected
to make money at first.
753
00:55:43,160 --> 00:55:47,200
This was the age of company
investment and artistic freedom.
754
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:56,800
Egg recorded all their albums
with zero interference.
755
00:55:56,835 --> 00:55:59,880
MUSIC: "Fugue In D Minor"
by Egg
756
00:55:59,915 --> 00:56:03,765
They were interested in us,
757
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:06,800
because I think they thought we
sounded a bit like The Nice,
758
00:56:06,835 --> 00:56:08,965
who had already had a chart hit,
759
00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:13,040
and they thought, "Maybe these
guys can make us some money."
760
00:56:13,075 --> 00:56:17,080
So they signed us up, but we
had no input from them at all.
761
00:56:17,115 --> 00:56:21,097
I don't think we spoke to any
Decca executive ever.
762
00:56:21,132 --> 00:56:25,080
I don't know why we got
away with it, to be honest.
763
00:56:25,115 --> 00:56:27,605
That was the style then.
764
00:56:27,640 --> 00:56:31,340
For some reason, we set the
precedent that we'd make an album,
765
00:56:31,375 --> 00:56:35,040
when it's finished, we'll hand
it over to the record label.
766
00:56:35,075 --> 00:56:37,245
I mean, how nice is that?
This is the album.
767
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:42,120
We were still allowed to do
what we wanted to do by the
record labels and management.
768
00:56:42,155 --> 00:56:45,537
We were still allowed
to come up with ridiculous ideas,
769
00:56:45,572 --> 00:56:49,346
and then somehow find people
who could make it happen.
770
00:56:49,381 --> 00:56:53,085
Until groups like Yes,
a song was taken and played.
771
00:56:53,120 --> 00:56:57,080
A guitar player played the chords,
a bass player played the roots,
772
00:56:57,115 --> 00:57:00,040
a drummer played the rhythm
and the singer sung the song.
773
00:57:00,075 --> 00:57:02,605
Yes said, "No, no!
We don't want to do it like that.
774
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:07,045
"We want to have a theme to start.
We want to have a riff
behind the song.
775
00:57:07,080 --> 00:57:12,520
"We want to take out the chords of
that section, cos everybody's heard
those before. Stick some lines in."
776
00:57:12,555 --> 00:57:17,317
More like an orchestral approach.
Violins do this,
the bassoons do that.
777
00:57:17,352 --> 00:57:22,080
It's a thinking man's music,
as opposed to a...
just from the gut music.
778
00:57:22,115 --> 00:57:24,957
Rock was just from the gut, I think.
779
00:57:24,992 --> 00:57:27,765
Everyone was looking eagerly to see
780
00:57:27,800 --> 00:57:32,160
what was new, what was gonna happen.
That was definitely a heady time,
781
00:57:32,195 --> 00:57:37,760
for sure, and one that I rather
suspect we won't see again.
782
00:57:37,795 --> 00:57:43,525
'72, '73, we were kind of
in that prog rock camp.
783
00:57:43,560 --> 00:57:46,805
Albeit we were the band
that were making a joke of it.
784
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:51,920
We were doing a bit
of a send-up of prog rock
for a couple of albums back then.
785
00:57:57,160 --> 00:58:01,560
Despite Jethro Tull's
determination to stay outside
the prog rock establishment,
786
00:58:01,595 --> 00:58:05,920
their fourth album, Aqualung,
seemed suspiciously profound.
787
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:16,120
It was not a concept album.
People just ignored it.
"It's a concept album!
788
00:58:16,155 --> 00:58:18,805
"It's got a picture
about God and stuff,
789
00:58:18,840 --> 00:58:21,765
"and tramps and things...
and...concept, yeah!"
790
00:58:21,800 --> 00:58:26,480
So in the wake of that, I just
thought, "Let's give them the mother
of all concept albums."
791
00:58:26,515 --> 00:58:29,877
Have a bit of fun with the whole
thing, and do a spoof concept album
792
00:58:29,912 --> 00:58:33,240
and pretend it was written by a
12-year-old precocious schoolboy,
793
00:58:33,275 --> 00:58:37,445
and do the ridiculously
convoluted 16-page cover,
794
00:58:37,480 --> 00:58:41,860
which actually took longer to do
than record the album, I think.
795
00:58:41,895 --> 00:58:46,240
So it was a bit of a send-up.
It was a pre-Spinal Tap moment.
796
00:58:47,480 --> 00:58:51,960
are worn at the heels
797
00:58:51,995 --> 00:58:56,605
798
00:58:56,640 --> 00:59:02,640
don't know how it feels
799
00:59:04,240 --> 00:59:06,845
800
00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:11,400
Ironically, the mischievous prank
that was 1972's Thick As A Brick
801
00:59:11,435 --> 00:59:14,840
is now hailed as the ultimate
progressive rock album.
802
00:59:17,680 --> 00:59:20,125
MUSIC: "Tubular Bells"
by Mike Oldfield
803
00:59:20,160 --> 00:59:23,120
That same year,
multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield
804
00:59:23,155 --> 00:59:26,045
was composing his
progressive music masterwork -
805
00:59:26,080 --> 00:59:29,405
the near-scientific experiment
that was Tubular Bells,
806
00:59:29,440 --> 00:59:32,640
for which he played all the 26
featured instruments himself.
807
00:59:36,360 --> 00:59:41,080
A nightmare for me to explain
to another musician
how it should be played.
808
00:59:41,880 --> 00:59:45,720
I can't tell them, "Play it like
I would play it," cos they can't!
809
00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:50,160
I made my own notes that
only I could understand,
810
00:59:50,195 --> 00:59:51,485
so I did sort of map it out.
811
00:59:51,520 --> 00:59:57,840
It's a kind of piece of classical
music, but with the instruments
that I could play.
812
01:00:00,840 --> 01:00:02,605
We were working in Abbey Road,
813
01:00:02,640 --> 01:00:06,400
and Paul McCartney was in the big
studio next door, number one,
814
01:00:06,435 --> 01:00:10,077
and somebody told me
he was playing everything.
815
01:00:10,112 --> 01:00:13,685
And I understood from the
technology we were using
816
01:00:13,720 --> 01:00:17,165
that you could overdub one
instrument while listening
to the rest,
817
01:00:17,200 --> 01:00:21,240
and I said, "Oh! He's probably
doing it all like that!
I can do that with my one!"
818
01:00:25,400 --> 01:00:28,045
The album launched Virgin Records,
819
01:00:28,080 --> 01:00:31,280
and was licensed in America with a
help of an accompanying film
820
01:00:31,315 --> 01:00:34,557
put together for the BBC's
Old Grey Whistle Test.
821
01:00:34,592 --> 01:00:37,800
It went on to sell 50 million
copies worldwide.
822
01:00:39,280 --> 01:00:43,440
Vintage footage, probably
black-and-white era,
823
01:00:43,475 --> 01:00:45,640
late '20s, early '30s, of skiers.
824
01:00:48,360 --> 01:00:52,800
Pull out a reel of film, and, "Er,
let's have a look at this one...
825
01:00:52,835 --> 01:00:54,725
"Ah, this one might fit, yeah."
826
01:00:54,760 --> 01:00:58,200
With the snow going up, the powder...
827
01:00:58,235 --> 01:01:01,640
Dun-din-dun-din-dun-din-dun-din...
828
01:01:01,675 --> 01:01:04,440
It was just beautiful.
829
01:01:06,560 --> 01:01:10,680
That was incredible. Mike Oldfield,
and just a part of Tubular Bells.
830
01:01:16,240 --> 01:01:21,680
But commercial success
and an underground reputation
was still a contradiction.
831
01:01:21,715 --> 01:01:26,245
A shy Oldfield couldn't
deal with the attention,
and took to the hills.
832
01:01:26,280 --> 01:01:32,120
The press, in pursuit of Britain's
biggest international progressive
music success story,
833
01:01:32,155 --> 01:01:33,920
were denied its star.
834
01:01:35,160 --> 01:01:37,245
I left the human civilisation,
835
01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:42,320
and lived with my sheep on
a little house on the Welsh border.
836
01:01:43,320 --> 01:01:48,400
Major psychological problems,
nervous breakdown kind of things,
837
01:01:48,435 --> 01:01:50,800
which wasn't very nice.
838
01:01:50,835 --> 01:01:53,005
HE COUGHS
839
01:01:53,040 --> 01:01:56,245
Upset a hell of a lot of people.
840
01:01:56,280 --> 01:01:59,640
There was one journalist
who was furious with me,
841
01:01:59,675 --> 01:02:02,017
cos I wouldn't do an interview.
842
01:02:02,052 --> 01:02:04,325
I was already so successful,
843
01:02:04,360 --> 01:02:11,160
what difference would it have made
if I had done 500 interviews
and toured the world?
844
01:02:11,195 --> 01:02:15,680
So I thought, "What are you all
bothering me about? Leave me alone!"
845
01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:36,125
If Oldfield rejected mainstream
acceptance of his rarefied
musical experiment,
846
01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:42,240
other musicians embraced the success
that British progressive rock was
now achieving around the world.
847
01:02:42,275 --> 01:02:44,680
Most significantly, in the States.
848
01:02:50,280 --> 01:02:55,000
The Americans loved progressive rock.
It was evidence of skill.
849
01:02:55,035 --> 01:02:58,685
Now, Americans, funnily enough,
are a little unlike us,
850
01:02:58,720 --> 01:03:05,920
in the sense that they are not
immediately embarrassed by
an overt display of capability.
851
01:03:05,955 --> 01:03:10,000
The Americans...fantastic
at doing that. Brits, crap.
852
01:03:10,035 --> 01:03:11,365
The Brits come to a solo...
853
01:03:11,400 --> 01:03:15,560
"I can actually play a lot better
than this but I won't, cos I don't
want to show off,
854
01:03:15,595 --> 01:03:17,325
"so I'll just stand in the corner."
855
01:03:17,360 --> 01:03:20,080
Suddenly, we're doing...
"Hey! Cop a load of this!"
856
01:03:25,640 --> 01:03:30,640
Now, let's bang the drum for
somebody who for three years running
has been voted Drummer Of The Year.
857
01:03:30,675 --> 01:03:34,840
He's just taken delivery of a new
kit, and here he is to demonstrate
it - Carl Palmer.
858
01:03:34,875 --> 01:03:38,285
It was a stainless steel drum kit.
I was sponsored by British Steel.
859
01:03:38,320 --> 01:03:42,400
Eight different engineering
companies were involved in the
making of this kit,
860
01:03:42,435 --> 01:03:46,320
which is the very first
electronic stainless steel
drum kit in existence.
861
01:03:46,355 --> 01:03:48,245
'I decided to get a jeweller,'
862
01:03:48,280 --> 01:03:51,500
using a dentist's drill,
a chap called Paul Raven,
863
01:03:51,535 --> 01:03:54,685
to do these hunting scenes
on each of the drums.
864
01:03:54,720 --> 01:03:57,760
I'd seen them on Purdey rifles,
and I was quite impressed.
865
01:03:57,795 --> 01:04:01,240
There's a beautiful squirrel,
nibbling away there,
866
01:04:01,275 --> 01:04:03,365
there's a fox,
really nice, they are,
867
01:04:03,400 --> 01:04:06,525
and there's even somewhere
a hedgehog. There it is.
868
01:04:06,560 --> 01:04:10,960
And they said, "Did you want
the shells a quarter-inch thick
or half-an-inch thick?"
869
01:04:10,995 --> 01:04:14,200
I said, "What's the difference in
price?" They said, "The same."
870
01:04:14,235 --> 01:04:16,805
"I'll have half-an-inch."
It's the '70s, excess,
871
01:04:16,840 --> 01:04:19,080
not thinking it'll take two guys to
lift the bass drum!
872
01:04:19,115 --> 01:04:20,725
I know it weighs a couple of tons?
873
01:04:20,760 --> 01:04:24,120
Two-and-a-half. And you'll be taking
this around the world on tour?
874
01:04:24,155 --> 01:04:27,080
Yes. How do you fly with it?
Er, very well, thank you!
875
01:04:27,115 --> 01:04:29,325
'The stage had to be reinforced.'
876
01:04:29,360 --> 01:04:32,685
We didn't think of transport costs,
we didn't think of weight.
877
01:04:32,720 --> 01:04:38,080
'It went on from there. We decided
to add the electronic drums, the
first electronic drums at the time.'
878
01:04:38,115 --> 01:04:40,920
Everyone thought it was keyboards.
They were drums.
879
01:04:40,955 --> 01:04:43,080
DRUM BEAT TRIGGERS
ELECTRONIC ARPEGGIO
880
01:04:46,920 --> 01:04:48,405
SECOND DRUM BEAT STOPS IT
881
01:04:48,440 --> 01:04:52,000
Have it! It's the '70s, innit?
The bigger, the better!
882
01:04:55,400 --> 01:04:57,605
If there was something
that was available
883
01:04:57,640 --> 01:05:01,040
from a technology point of view
that would enhance the sound
of the band,
884
01:05:01,075 --> 01:05:03,485
we wanted it yesterday.
885
01:05:03,520 --> 01:05:06,640
HE RINGS BELL WITH
STRING IN HIS MOUTH
886
01:05:13,840 --> 01:05:16,480
MUSIC: "The Ancient
(Giants Under The Sun)" by Yes
887
01:05:18,640 --> 01:05:21,520
Progressive rock
was now colonising the outer limits.
888
01:05:21,555 --> 01:05:25,257
In 1973, Yes had set sail
on Topographic Oceans,
889
01:05:25,292 --> 01:05:28,925
a double album comprised
of only four tracks,
890
01:05:28,960 --> 01:05:32,600
each packed with unusual sounds,
key changes and time signatures.
891
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:38,200
There was this constant quest. Could
you hit this and it sounded good?
892
01:05:38,235 --> 01:05:39,240
"Doing!"
893
01:05:42,080 --> 01:05:46,240
We got Slinkies and put mics
in them and threw them downstairs
and recorded them
894
01:05:46,275 --> 01:05:50,400
to hear what they were like.
And you put a lot of reverb on them,
it's great.
895
01:05:50,435 --> 01:05:54,200
And it was!
"Pchkowwhoossssh-bthwooooom"! Yeah!
896
01:05:56,560 --> 01:05:59,960
It was that kind of insanity.
It was a nice kind of insanity.
897
01:05:59,995 --> 01:06:01,360
It was a musical insanity.
898
01:06:15,080 --> 01:06:17,960
We were...totally self-indulgent.
899
01:06:22,720 --> 01:06:26,280
But it was serious music. There was
something more serious about Yes
900
01:06:26,315 --> 01:06:28,137
than some other bands of that time.
901
01:06:28,172 --> 01:06:29,925
We took ourselves a little serious!
902
01:06:29,960 --> 01:06:36,360
And our quest was to make something
we thought was kind of grand,
903
01:06:36,395 --> 01:06:39,920
not grandiose, but had
a kind of grandeur about it.
904
01:06:39,955 --> 01:06:43,360
It had scale, but it had drama.
905
01:06:44,920 --> 01:06:49,480
But this quest was even
more arduous than the Beatles'
Magical Mystery Tour.
906
01:06:49,515 --> 01:06:53,040
Audiences were showing
signs of fatigue.
907
01:06:59,080 --> 01:07:00,685
Robert had stopped King Crimson,
908
01:07:00,720 --> 01:07:03,600
Robert Fripp had stopped King Crimson
around that time.
909
01:07:03,635 --> 01:07:04,960
Very prescient. Very smart.
910
01:07:06,000 --> 01:07:10,240
I mean, I'd only just settled down.
Just got my sticks out.
Just settling in.
911
01:07:11,520 --> 01:07:14,605
But that's a bit like...
That's life in King Crimson.
912
01:07:14,640 --> 01:07:19,680
It broke up at least three times,
in my certain knowledge.
913
01:07:19,715 --> 01:07:22,960
Probably several other times
while I was in it!
914
01:07:25,120 --> 01:07:30,800
If Fripp sensed an artistic
cul-de-sac ahead when he put the
brakes on King Crimson in 1974,
915
01:07:30,835 --> 01:07:32,485
others put their foot down
916
01:07:32,520 --> 01:07:38,200
and drove headlong into fame,
fortune and near-fatal solos.
917
01:07:40,680 --> 01:07:44,200
These bands were...
shockingly, to my mind...
918
01:07:44,235 --> 01:07:47,045
going on a transition away from
919
01:07:47,080 --> 01:07:53,680
the kind of honesty and real
experimentalism we were involved in,
920
01:07:53,715 --> 01:08:00,520
into an un-self-consciously
showbizzy way of doing things.
921
01:08:02,640 --> 01:08:06,440
In the Genesis camp, Peter Gabriel's
taste for the theatrical
922
01:08:06,475 --> 01:08:09,357
threatened to swamp
the subtlety of the music.
923
01:08:09,392 --> 01:08:12,496
But enthusiastic audiences
and an attentive press
924
01:08:12,531 --> 01:08:15,565
pushed the band closer
to commercial success.
925
01:08:15,600 --> 01:08:19,240
Americans, particularly,
pushed past the rest of us
926
01:08:19,275 --> 01:08:21,205
to say "Great show, Pete!
Great show!
927
01:08:21,240 --> 01:08:24,440
"You were great tonight!"
And I just got fed up with it.
928
01:08:25,440 --> 01:08:29,600
So I made my feelings
known about that.
929
01:08:33,000 --> 01:08:37,880
It did irritate us a bit that he got
all the attention, but we kind of
knew that in the back of our minds.
930
01:08:37,915 --> 01:08:40,177
We knew it gave us
incredible publicity as well.
931
01:08:40,212 --> 01:08:42,405
So we weren't too sad
about that side of it.
932
01:08:42,440 --> 01:08:46,400
I didn't have a problem.
Maybe once during
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.
933
01:08:46,435 --> 01:08:50,920
A couple of costumes went too far,
you couldn't sing through them.
934
01:08:50,955 --> 01:08:52,800
But I always liked the visuals.
935
01:08:53,800 --> 01:08:55,445
It was all part of what we did,
936
01:08:55,480 --> 01:08:57,325
and nobody else was really doing it.
937
01:08:57,360 --> 01:09:01,085
To the show that never ends
938
01:09:01,120 --> 01:09:05,800
Come inside, come inside...
939
01:09:05,835 --> 01:09:08,885
ELP were busy establishing
the power of British prog,
940
01:09:08,920 --> 01:09:12,805
conquering the four corners
of the globe with tours
built on showmanship.
941
01:09:12,840 --> 01:09:18,160
Technical extravaganzas
light years away from
underground clubs and hippy ideal.
942
01:09:20,240 --> 01:09:24,720
you'll get your money's worth...
943
01:09:24,755 --> 01:09:29,405
You have to say that by '75, '76,
944
01:09:29,440 --> 01:09:33,440
it all got over-indulgent.
It just all did.
945
01:09:33,475 --> 01:09:35,525
This is the Hilton, is it?
946
01:09:35,560 --> 01:09:39,680
Conrad, Conrad. If you're
looking in, I've got one soft one,
and one hard one.
947
01:09:39,715 --> 01:09:42,317
What use is that?
What's all that about?
948
01:09:42,352 --> 01:09:44,920
I remember doing some filming
with ELP.
949
01:09:44,955 --> 01:09:50,245
They had three 40-foot trucks.
950
01:09:50,280 --> 01:09:53,920
There was this moving
ELP thing across...
951
01:10:00,360 --> 01:10:03,085
It just seemed to me a betrayal.
952
01:10:03,120 --> 01:10:05,880
How could these people,
who were my heroes...
953
01:10:05,915 --> 01:10:07,840
how could Keith Emerson do that?
954
01:10:15,920 --> 01:10:22,720
There was no finesse, to my mind,
or sophistication or sensitivity
about what they were doing at all.
955
01:10:22,755 --> 01:10:24,080
It was hysterical.
956
01:10:25,560 --> 01:10:30,400
This whole stadium thing, with Yes
coming out of big petals that opened,
957
01:10:30,435 --> 01:10:34,517
and stage design...there'd almost
begun now...a tipping point
958
01:10:34,552 --> 01:10:38,416
where the presentation,
the stage design and everything else
959
01:10:38,451 --> 01:10:42,280
was almost taking over from the music
in terms of importance.
960
01:10:42,315 --> 01:10:44,160
They were all out-doing each other.
961
01:10:46,080 --> 01:10:49,480
"We think that progressive rock,
the things you do,
962
01:10:49,515 --> 01:10:51,805
"is overblown, it's pretentious,
963
01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:54,600
"completely over-the-top
and thoroughly pompous.
964
01:10:54,635 --> 01:10:55,920
"What do you say to that?"
965
01:10:57,080 --> 01:10:58,880
Yeah, you're about right, really!
966
01:10:58,915 --> 01:11:00,165
Then...
967
01:11:00,200 --> 01:11:04,800
some people came along who thought,
"We can make this sexy,"
968
01:11:04,835 --> 01:11:06,157
and you've got Queen...
969
01:11:06,192 --> 01:11:07,445
970
01:11:07,480 --> 01:11:12,040
..who had a lot of prog elements but
managed to get back to having tunes,
971
01:11:12,075 --> 01:11:16,440
and just devastating
emotional climaxes
972
01:11:16,475 --> 01:11:18,777
instead of intellectual doodlings.
973
01:11:18,812 --> 01:11:21,080
MUSIC: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
by Queen
974
01:11:28,240 --> 01:11:32,320
When Peter Gabriel left Genesis
in 1975 to go solo,
975
01:11:32,355 --> 01:11:34,445
grammar school interloper
Phil Collins
976
01:11:34,480 --> 01:11:37,565
became the front man
for the Charterhouse boys.
977
01:11:37,600 --> 01:11:43,765
A new Genesis became even more
successful, with Trick Of The Tail,
978
01:11:43,800 --> 01:11:48,680
an album that seemed to sniff
an approaching storm in its
return to simpler songs.
979
01:11:48,715 --> 01:11:52,957
in the city of gold
980
01:11:52,992 --> 01:11:56,836
deep distance?" he cried
981
01:11:56,871 --> 01:12:00,815
led him away to a cage
982
01:12:00,850 --> 01:12:04,725
read the sign...
983
01:12:04,760 --> 01:12:09,120
Some of the things became
very simplified in some people's...
984
01:12:09,155 --> 01:12:12,645
or shortened, or "commercialised"
is the dirty word.
985
01:12:12,680 --> 01:12:17,885
They think that was my fault. I won't
take the glory or blame for that.
986
01:12:17,920 --> 01:12:23,325
There are certain songs
that people always put down,
"That's a Phil song." Phh!
987
01:12:23,360 --> 01:12:29,080
After Peter left we were kind of
conscious that do you carry on
and do what you've always done,
988
01:12:29,115 --> 01:12:32,005
these long, half-hour pieces
or concept albums?
989
01:12:32,040 --> 01:12:37,240
You think maybe you've done that,
you know, and you move on a bit.
990
01:12:37,275 --> 01:12:39,680
MELLOW ROCK MUSIC PLAYS
991
01:12:45,960 --> 01:12:49,720
What's this song called?
It's not a song, Stubbs.
992
01:12:49,755 --> 01:12:52,640
It's the first movement
of a rock symphony -
993
01:12:52,675 --> 01:12:54,805
Apotheosis Of The Necromancer.
994
01:12:54,840 --> 01:12:57,445
That's a dead cert
for Top Of The Pops(!)
995
01:12:57,480 --> 01:13:03,320
Rick Wakeman may be your God,
but let me tell you something -
concept albums are out.
996
01:13:03,355 --> 01:13:06,977
There was a scene in The Rotters'
Club where the school band
997
01:13:07,012 --> 01:13:10,600
morphs from being a progressive band
to a punk band in mid-song.
998
01:13:10,635 --> 01:13:12,685
MELLOW ROCK MUSIC PLAYS
999
01:13:12,720 --> 01:13:15,760
Bollocks to this
for a game of soldiers.
1000
01:13:17,040 --> 01:13:19,045
HE CHANGES HIS DRUMMING STYLE
1001
01:13:19,080 --> 01:13:25,240
That was meant to be a sort of
comic caricature of what
actually happened in '76, '77.
1002
01:13:27,400 --> 01:13:30,260
1003
01:13:30,295 --> 01:13:33,085
1004
01:13:33,120 --> 01:13:37,200
Punk stumbled on a time tunnel back
to pre-Sergeant Pepper days
1005
01:13:37,235 --> 01:13:41,280
and returned armed with only three
chords and angry as hell.
1006
01:13:41,315 --> 01:13:43,957
1007
01:13:43,992 --> 01:13:46,600
1008
01:13:47,600 --> 01:13:50,685
1009
01:13:50,720 --> 01:13:52,880
It was a big explosion
1010
01:13:52,915 --> 01:13:55,397
of resentment
1011
01:13:55,432 --> 01:13:57,880
against the...
1012
01:13:58,880 --> 01:14:00,960
..highbrows.
1013
01:14:02,320 --> 01:14:04,325
What they were saying was,
1014
01:14:04,360 --> 01:14:10,200
"This glam rock and progressive rock
is not communicating to me...
1015
01:14:11,200 --> 01:14:14,040
"..and I feel marginalised."
1016
01:14:16,080 --> 01:14:19,000
I didn't think it was us
they were talking about.
1017
01:14:20,600 --> 01:14:25,480
OK, let's lose the guys that go...
HE IMITATES A PRECIOUS MELODY
1018
01:14:25,515 --> 01:14:27,920
Let's get rid of that!
1019
01:14:31,800 --> 01:14:35,560
What I didn't like was
the great hate that those people
1020
01:14:35,595 --> 01:14:38,377
pretended to have
for the establishment
1021
01:14:38,412 --> 01:14:41,046
of rock bands
at that particular point.
1022
01:14:41,081 --> 01:14:43,645
Anybody that played,
like, you know,
1023
01:14:43,680 --> 01:14:48,600
something a bit more complex or a bit
interesting, that was out the window.
1024
01:14:48,635 --> 01:14:51,045
MUSIC: "Teenage Kicks"
by The Undertones
1025
01:14:51,080 --> 01:14:54,245
On one hand I liked it
because it was trashing things,
1026
01:14:54,280 --> 01:14:57,765
but on the other hand, I didn't
because it was a return to infancy.
1027
01:14:57,800 --> 01:15:03,840
There's this permanent tension in
rock music between the three chords
and the truth merchants -
1028
01:15:03,875 --> 01:15:06,000
you know, four-four
and three chords -
1029
01:15:06,035 --> 01:15:08,765
and the other people, like me,
1030
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:12,085
who say, "What if we add a fourth
chord and put it in five-four?"
1031
01:15:12,120 --> 01:15:17,480
There's always people like me
messing up what these people
think is pop music.
1032
01:15:19,280 --> 01:15:25,680
A lot of pretty good bands came out
of punk, but they were excellent
writers and musicians,
1033
01:15:25,715 --> 01:15:30,920
but that wasn't what punk was about.
Punk was all about NOT being musical.
1034
01:15:30,955 --> 01:15:35,480
The British Isles was the only
country that fell for it.
1035
01:15:35,515 --> 01:15:39,200
They didn't manage
to do it anywhere else.
1036
01:15:40,680 --> 01:15:46,680
One of the things proper musicians
objected to with punk was that
they were always out of tune.
1037
01:15:46,715 --> 01:15:50,165
If you listen to Schoenberg
and Cecil Taylor,
1038
01:15:50,200 --> 01:15:55,005
there's no such thing as out of tune.
It's just another bunch of notes.
1039
01:15:55,040 --> 01:16:01,040
If you're going to play the same
three chords, instead of learning
all kind of fancy ones,
1040
01:16:01,075 --> 01:16:05,200
why not have them play
the guitar out of tune? That'll
give you something different.
1041
01:16:05,235 --> 01:16:10,360
That was a very lovely, home-made
solution to harmonic inventiveness.
1042
01:16:10,395 --> 01:16:15,800
Just don't tune up. Don't sing
in tune. How far out can you get?
1043
01:16:15,835 --> 01:16:18,400
The notes between the notes,
we're hitting them.
1044
01:16:18,435 --> 01:16:20,440
SHE PLAYS BOOGIE-WOOGIE
1045
01:16:22,760 --> 01:16:29,760
The next generation had arrived,
determined to overthrow Daddy
in the Oedipal battle for supremacy.
1046
01:16:31,400 --> 01:16:34,845
Only this time,
Daddy was a prog rocker.
1047
01:16:34,880 --> 01:16:41,640
You initially grow up with the music
that the generation before you,
your parents, have chosen.
1048
01:16:41,675 --> 01:16:47,160
And you don't want it.
My mum and dad used to listen to
Pearl and Teddy Johnson.
1049
01:16:47,195 --> 01:16:50,805
1050
01:16:50,840 --> 01:16:54,485
Always be mine - hey!
1051
01:16:54,520 --> 01:17:00,800
I don't want to listen to Pearl
and Teddy Johnson so along comes
The Who and bands like that. Yeah!
1052
01:17:00,835 --> 01:17:03,205
Absolutely, that's what I want!
1053
01:17:03,240 --> 01:17:09,480
And it belongs to you.
I mean, prog rock, to some extent,
killed the pop bands.
1054
01:17:09,515 --> 01:17:14,600
The pop bands killed the crooner.
Punk killed prog rock.
1055
01:17:14,635 --> 01:17:17,160
ABSTRACT ROCK MUSIC PLAYS
1056
01:17:20,640 --> 01:17:27,680
'70s Britain bore no resemblance
to the imagined, mystical worlds
of prog rock and Roger Dean.
1057
01:17:29,560 --> 01:17:34,320
It was plagued by shortages, strikes
and post-'60s disillusionment.
1058
01:17:36,080 --> 01:17:41,840
In 1979, an Iron Lady
would be crowned Queen
in the Court of the Crimson King.
1059
01:17:42,840 --> 01:17:50,120
Lyrically, progressive music in the
'70s was very divorced from social
reality. Just not interested in it.
1060
01:17:51,560 --> 01:17:54,685
The lyrics are always a problem
in this kind of music
1061
01:17:54,720 --> 01:17:59,080
because it is about music, doing
interesting things with instruments
1062
01:17:59,115 --> 01:18:03,565
and making interesting
musical shapes and landscapes,
1063
01:18:03,600 --> 01:18:08,600
but if you're gonna have a singer,
what's he going to sing about?
1064
01:18:08,635 --> 01:18:13,600
Often the solution was to go down
the talking Roger Dean route,
1065
01:18:13,635 --> 01:18:16,645
to sing about fantasy worlds
and so on,
1066
01:18:16,680 --> 01:18:22,640
and there's a kind
of embarrassment about that now
which I certainly share.
1067
01:18:25,120 --> 01:18:27,925
Genesis missed
the British punk revolution.
1068
01:18:27,960 --> 01:18:32,680
Like many progressive bands,
they were too busy
being successful abroad.
1069
01:18:35,800 --> 01:18:41,040
On their return, they not only
weathered the punk front,
now sitting firmly over the country,
1070
01:18:41,075 --> 01:18:43,525
but, perversely,
enjoyed an Indian summer.
1071
01:18:43,560 --> 01:18:50,440
We were unaware of punk because
we were touring so much, not really
aware of anything else going on.
1072
01:18:50,475 --> 01:18:55,480
All we knew really was that groups
like Yes had disappeared a bit,
1073
01:18:55,515 --> 01:18:58,520
so in a sense we were
the last ones left standing
1074
01:18:58,555 --> 01:19:00,925
so we picked up
everybody else's audience.
1075
01:19:00,960 --> 01:19:07,280
We always had that side to us
which was based more on the
songwriting than on the playing,
1076
01:19:07,315 --> 01:19:09,325
and that carried us through.
1077
01:19:09,360 --> 01:19:12,400
MUSIC: "Follow You Follow Me"
by Genesis
1078
01:19:28,760 --> 01:19:31,245
And we started having hit singles.
1079
01:19:31,280 --> 01:19:37,365
Follow You Follow Me opened a door
for us. It was a reasonable hit.
It wasn't massive.
1080
01:19:37,400 --> 01:19:43,460
But after that, we were able
to put out singles and they'd
always get played for many years.
1081
01:19:43,495 --> 01:19:49,520
A lot of them did well
so suddenly that meant the potential
audience became much bigger.
1082
01:19:52,000 --> 01:19:54,005
Most bands weren't so lucky.
1083
01:19:54,040 --> 01:19:57,325
Procol Harum's 10th album,
Something Magic,
1084
01:19:57,360 --> 01:20:01,520
an ambitious concept in which
their instruments played characters
1085
01:20:01,555 --> 01:20:05,680
in a story that was narrated, not
even sung, became their swansong.
1086
01:20:09,680 --> 01:20:14,120
We'd finished it. I don't know how
we managed to record this thing.
1087
01:20:14,155 --> 01:20:18,560
And then we turn around and there
it is, of course, punks and...
1088
01:20:21,160 --> 01:20:28,360
The way we left was just to sort of
pack up on our last night of a tour
and we said, "That's it, then."
1089
01:20:28,395 --> 01:20:30,600
And we all went our separate ways.
1090
01:20:46,960 --> 01:20:54,080
In the 1980s, original King Crimson
lyricist Pete Sinfield uncovered
a secret path into pop music
1091
01:20:54,115 --> 01:20:56,365
as a writer of chart-topping hits.
1092
01:20:56,400 --> 01:20:59,440
MUSIC: "The Land Of Make Believe"
by Bucks Fizz
1093
01:21:09,720 --> 01:21:13,600
Try and write something a lot
of people will like quickly,
1094
01:21:13,635 --> 01:21:15,605
yet still get something of you in it.
1095
01:21:15,640 --> 01:21:20,400
"Something nasty in your garden,
waiting till it'll steal your heart,"
1096
01:21:20,435 --> 01:21:22,717
which for me,
is like a King Crimson line.
1097
01:21:22,752 --> 01:21:26,456
I've just taken it into
a different setting.
1098
01:21:26,491 --> 01:21:30,160
MUSIC: "The Land Of Make Believe"
by Bucks Fizz
1099
01:21:34,440 --> 01:21:40,240
King Crimson itself, staged several
comebacks and its 1974 album, Red,
1100
01:21:40,275 --> 01:21:44,240
would, in time, influence
grunge guru, Kurt Cobain.
1101
01:21:47,880 --> 01:21:49,125
Somewhere in 1987,
1102
01:21:49,160 --> 01:21:53,645
I probably gave up noisy rock.
1103
01:21:53,680 --> 01:21:55,645
I mean, there was the odd
reunion tour.
1104
01:21:55,680 --> 01:21:58,680
But in my mind, I was redefined
as a jazz musician,
1105
01:21:58,715 --> 01:22:01,680
which I probably should have been
in the first place.
1106
01:22:03,040 --> 01:22:06,565
Yes, teamed up with hip '80s
producer, Trevor Horn,
1107
01:22:06,600 --> 01:22:10,040
who helped tune their songs to the
ears of a very different decade.
1108
01:22:10,075 --> 01:22:14,680
MUSIC: "Owner Of A Lonely Heart"
by Yes
1109
01:22:52,720 --> 01:22:55,725
But the expedition
to the far reaches of pop music,
1110
01:22:55,760 --> 01:23:00,440
had left camp in the late '60s,
was by now lost, forgotten,
1111
01:23:00,475 --> 01:23:03,040
or only spoken of in hushed tones.
1112
01:23:07,200 --> 01:23:11,125
Prog had become a really dirty word,
you know.
1113
01:23:11,160 --> 01:23:14,405
It's the sort of thing that
you didn't mention in public.
1114
01:23:14,440 --> 01:23:20,160
It's almost the only kind of music
where people write off everything
1115
01:23:20,195 --> 01:23:21,605
that's in the genre,
1116
01:23:21,640 --> 01:23:26,120
without embarrassment, actually, and
just say, you know, "It's all shit."
1117
01:23:27,720 --> 01:23:33,640
People would go to a record store
and say, "I'd like some, er...
1118
01:23:33,675 --> 01:23:37,277
"couple of Country and Western,
a bit of New Age,
1119
01:23:37,312 --> 01:23:40,845
"and bit of Modern Romantic,
please, as well.
1120
01:23:40,880 --> 01:23:44,040
"A couple of punk albums,
I'll have that, thank you very much,
1121
01:23:44,075 --> 01:23:45,680
"a bit of classical, and, um...
1122
01:23:46,640 --> 01:23:48,205
"..(have you got any prog rock?)"
1123
01:23:48,240 --> 01:23:51,680
There were people out there
that might not have liked Yes,
1124
01:23:51,715 --> 01:23:53,685
but liked a bit of Genesis,
1125
01:23:53,720 --> 01:23:56,660
might not have liked the Floyd,
but liked Jethro Tull.
1126
01:23:56,695 --> 01:23:59,565
"Er, yes, Sir, hold on.
I'll do it under the counter."
1127
01:23:59,600 --> 01:24:03,320
They do it under the counter in a
brown paper bag and round the side.
1128
01:24:03,355 --> 01:24:07,720
It was like...it was like
the porn of the music industry.
1129
01:24:07,755 --> 01:24:11,405
I went out and bought
the first Sex Pistols album,
1130
01:24:11,440 --> 01:24:15,445
and didn't mind telling people
I had, and that I listened to it.
1131
01:24:15,480 --> 01:24:18,960
Whereas Jonny Rotten, at the time,
wouldn't admit to listening
to Jethro Tull.
1132
01:24:18,995 --> 01:24:22,760
But, many, many years later,
admitted that one of his, sort of,
1133
01:24:22,795 --> 01:24:26,445
seminal influences
was the Aqualung album.
1134
01:24:26,480 --> 01:24:33,720
I met Rat Scabies in an airport,
right about to get on a plane,
1135
01:24:33,755 --> 01:24:36,120
and he came up to me...
1136
01:24:38,600 --> 01:24:42,520
..and he said, "Just want you
to know, I'm a big fan of yours."
1137
01:24:42,555 --> 01:24:46,357
But, you know, he just wanted
to make sure nobody was looking.
1138
01:24:46,392 --> 01:24:50,125
We were living the dream, you know,
but it would be stupid
1139
01:24:50,160 --> 01:24:54,360
for people to keep thinking that
life was easy because of that.
1140
01:24:54,395 --> 01:24:55,365
It's not easy.
1141
01:24:55,400 --> 01:25:00,600
It's a lot of hard work and these
lines on my face are evidence!
1142
01:25:02,440 --> 01:25:03,965
The lost chord!
1143
01:25:04,000 --> 01:25:08,880
You're always looking for that thing
you haven't heard yet.
1144
01:25:08,915 --> 01:25:12,400
Not everyone persevered in
The Land Of Make Believe.
1145
01:25:15,440 --> 01:25:18,285
There had been early casualties.
1146
01:25:18,320 --> 01:25:22,040
The reason I stopped doing it
rather suddenly...
1147
01:25:25,120 --> 01:25:30,320
..was...simply because
of my dependent psychology.
1148
01:25:31,560 --> 01:25:34,760
I needed praise
and I wasn't getting it.
1149
01:25:37,240 --> 01:25:44,880
It was a bit like a child that dies
aged three of malnutrition.
1150
01:25:44,915 --> 01:25:51,485
You know, it gets born, there's all
sorts of hope and...
1151
01:25:51,520 --> 01:25:56,640
good expectations. It learns to walk,
it learns to run, it learns to talk,
1152
01:25:56,675 --> 01:26:01,040
and suddenly it gives up, because
it didn't get enough nourishment.
1153
01:26:01,075 --> 01:26:03,080
It was like that.
1154
01:26:04,160 --> 01:26:05,360
For me.
1155
01:26:12,600 --> 01:26:17,360
At its purest, progressive rock
wasn't about money, celebrity,
1156
01:26:17,395 --> 01:26:20,217
record contracts or the audience.
1157
01:26:20,252 --> 01:26:23,005
It wasn't even a type of music.
1158
01:26:23,040 --> 01:26:25,960
It was a belief. A value system
of the early '70s.
1159
01:26:25,995 --> 01:26:29,160
One that now seems like
old time religion.
1160
01:26:31,240 --> 01:26:34,685
Its creators, often precocious,
sometimes indulged,
1161
01:26:34,720 --> 01:26:39,520
occasionally deluded, but always
uncompromising, baptised the decade
1162
01:26:39,555 --> 01:26:44,080
with a soundtrack of stark
virtuosity, weird time signatures...
1163
01:26:44,115 --> 01:26:47,125
strange poetry
and surprising beauty.
1164
01:26:47,160 --> 01:26:51,325
The musical experiment,
now labelled prog rock,
1165
01:26:51,360 --> 01:26:55,320
and stored under the counter,
or placed almost out of reach,
1166
01:26:55,355 --> 01:26:56,680
on the top shelf.
1167
01:26:59,200 --> 01:27:02,445
It grew out of rock music,
and that's why it was written about
1168
01:27:02,480 --> 01:27:05,880
in the rock press. But it's kind
of a shame it ever became regarded
1169
01:27:05,915 --> 01:27:07,725
as part of rock and roll, because...
1170
01:27:07,760 --> 01:27:10,925
because it's not. I think the ethos
is completely different,
1171
01:27:10,960 --> 01:27:14,640
and if you judge it by the standards
of rock and roll then it fails.
1172
01:27:14,675 --> 01:27:18,005
It's actually a bunch of very
talented musicians,
1173
01:27:18,040 --> 01:27:22,800
who were kind of cursed with
very musically intelligent brains,
1174
01:27:22,835 --> 01:27:27,877
who got bored very quickly with
playing three chords all the time,
1175
01:27:27,912 --> 01:27:32,856
and wanted to do stuff which was
more complex and more challenging.
1176
01:27:32,891 --> 01:27:37,765
I say, John? Yes? Tense up, control
room. We're ready to do one. Right.
1177
01:27:37,800 --> 01:27:43,800
There's an expression which I like
a lot, which is, success is buried
in the garden of failure.
1178
01:27:43,835 --> 01:27:50,160
So, if you're willing to go to that
garden, and dig and dig and dig,
1179
01:27:50,195 --> 01:27:52,125
and try and try and try,
1180
01:27:52,160 --> 01:27:57,405
eventually you'll succeed
with some ideas and some success.
1181
01:27:57,440 --> 01:28:02,520
So if you possibly, tense up a little
and we'll try and wax a hot one.
1182
01:28:12,680 --> 01:28:17,120
Ah, that's better. Thank you.
Um, sorry. What were you saying?
1183
01:28:17,155 --> 01:28:20,325
1184
01:28:20,360 --> 01:28:25,060
1185
01:28:25,095 --> 01:28:29,767
1186
01:28:29,802 --> 01:28:34,440
1187
01:28:35,960 --> 01:28:40,560
to travel.
110040
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