Rock: well recorded bass...60s/70s

ghost: yes was uncool because of (a) sci-fi lyrics and incomprehensible dungeons 'n dragons imagery (b)bloated, purposely difficult "compositions" with long drum solos, (c) technical proficiency as opposed to punky attitude, and (d)no one i know admits to liking them. also, "tales of topographic oceans" is a terrible title.

Thanks Bill, I'll start looking around seriously now.

Ghosthouse---Loomisjohnson is absoluely correct. In the 70's it was cool to find Prog rock uncool, especially amongst the influential New York critics. The whole Punk movement was often said to be a reaction against it. Of course, fans of Prog may just as easily find Punk beneath contempt---they couldn't be more diametrically opposed! Those wanting Rock n' Roll to stay true to it's roots felt Prog was getting above it's raisin', as they say in Country. The claim of many Prog musician's of having beem "Classically trained" became a sort of red flag, ya know? Well la de da, Mr. Classically trained.

ELP were a despised group by every musician I knew in the Bay Area, but I saw Keith Emerson in his pre-ELP Group The Nice live at The Fillmore (along with Leslie West in his pre-solo Group The Vagrants) and found them interesting. Prog started with the Psychedelic movement, LSD making some people want to take the music where no one had gone before.

My personal favorite is Can where in all theri albums no exception the bass recorded and sounding top notch-- Holger Czukay or Reebop Kwaku Bah(played in Talking heads as well) on bass.
Certainly Talking heads -- Tina especially in the album Stop Making Sense
Rich bass is also heard in Van Der Graaf Generator, but from the Hammond organ instead of guitar or string bass
Stray Cats -- love that string bass dontcha?
David Sylvian and Japan with Mick Karn on Fender bass -- nearly all of Japan and solo David Sylvian albums have rich and deep sound of bass. I admit the band is kinda jazzy, but still considered to be art rock.
Finally why not Pink Floyd DSOM or Momentary Lapse?

A lot of recordings in the 60's were unable to capture a clean bass tone. Some of it was due to the hardware used, while others was due to the engineer. Nothing on the playback end can correct for this!