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

All of those records mentioned- the Yes stuff, the early Free, sound pretty great! For Free, I have early Island pink labels and pink rims, for Yes, some not so hard to find good US pressings, and a couple UK plums. Terrific records, terrific music. I didn't focus much on "prog" at the time- but came back to it with a vengeance a few years ago- mainly as a result of buying a lot of ye olde English pressings from the late '60s and early '70s. Got turned on to a lot of music I never heard, that never made a dent in the U.S.
Some amazingly inventive stuff, at the time, the attempt to get out of the 3 minute radio hit formula and explore different genres, mix them together, long form, more formal compositional elements, etc, was interesting. Some of it doesn't hold up, or is dated or a tad pretentious, but it is still worth exploring. One of my favorites is Gracious! on Vertigo, and the Cressida self titled album, also on Vertigo. There is a cheap way to get some of these...
Buy the 1970 Vertigo Annual, a double record sampler issued in the UK in 1970.

BDp24- happy to do a search for you, but short of buying it, play testing it and reselling it to you at my cost, I couldn't guarantee that it is pristine. You can find these records and I'm happy to help you look. You know where to email me, right? (I'm not a used record dealer, but happy to turn you on to any sources I have, and I often resort to good old searches, eBay, discogs, etc. just like everybody else!

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.