From: Henry Potts <henry@bondegezou.demon.co.uk.REMOVE-TO-EMAIL>
Subject: Re: Was Vanilla Fudge the First Prog band?
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 98 07:32:00
Message-ID: <3UxjPkBT7150EwW9@bondegezou.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.music.progressive
Organization: Bondegezou

Liquid Len <?@?> writes
>IMHO, either Frank Zappa or Velvet Underground were the first
>progressive band. They both began around 64/65 when rock itself was
>just beginning to evolve into blue-eyed soul from syrupy ballads and
>hillbilly rythym and blues. Velvet Underground influenced bands like
>the Doors and David Bowie and could well be considered the first punk
>band. They were the first to experiment with feedback and
>non-traditional rock instruments (violin). [...]

Of course, contemporary classical composers had been experimenting with
feedback and all sorts of non-traditional ways of making noise at least
as far back as the '50s. Some future prog rockers, like Daevid Allen,
were already trying to mix that tradition with rock at the beginning of
the '60s, even if they did so with less people being aware of their work
than for Zappa and VU later.

It is important to differentiate between who was the first to do such-
and-such and who was the first to be *heard* doing so. From the latter
point of view, the more experimental work by The Beatles on _Revolver_  
following is of supreme importance. They may not have been the absolute
first to do these things, nor did they go as far a long the road to
progressive rock as some contemporaries, but they were heard by far more
people than anyone else.

Who was first is not as important as who were the big influences and The
Beatles are repeatedly mentioned by the early prog rockers as being an
influence, as too is Miles Davis. In comparison, Zappa does not seem to
have been as important an influence. Prog was an English invention and
Zappa was on the wrong side of the Atlantic to have had as large an
impact as he might have had.
--
Henry