Best progressive rock album side

@larsman: Procol Harum’s first three albums include the contributions and influences of organist Matthew Fisher, whose musical education greatly informed the groups music (his organ part in "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" is well-known to have been copped from the J.S. Bach composition "Orchestral Suite No.3"). His departure after the A Salty Dog album resulted in them becoming imo basically just another English blues-based band, with guitarist Robin Trower moving from a supporting role to the focus of the group's style---guitar riffs instead of great chord progressions and melodies.

I didn’t see and hear Procol Harum live until after Matthews departure, on the tour in support of their Home album. Though they were still a very good band (particularly drummer B.J. Wilson), they played mostly songs from the Home album, which I did not at all care for. But soon after leaving the group Matthew made two albums (the first for RCA Records, the second A & M), which I quite liked (still do). Though Matthew is not nearly the singer Gary Brooker was (R.I.P.), I liked his new songs much more than those of Brooker.

@bdp24 - I was a huge fan of Procol Harum right up until 'Grand Hotel'. My favorite P.H. album was 'Home', and my opinion is quite different from your's on that matter, as I don't think they ever sounded like 'just another English blues-based band'! 😀 I wish I would have seen them on that tour that you did....

But differing opinions are good, and so sad about Gary Brooker, such a fantastic singer and music songwriter....

Oh @larsman, you’re quite right about PH not sounding "just like" any of the other English Blues-based bands; they couldn’t with Gary Brooker singing! My feeling is that they became "just another" English Blues-based band. Perhaps too fine a distinction?

At any rate, I knew several other early PF fans who, like you, liked the Home album just as much as the first three. It’s not the first time I’ve disagreed with someone about a musical matter ;-) . My favorite Fleetwood Mac album is Kiln House, for instance. I know a guy whose favorite album of theirs is Tusk, an opinion shared by few!

@sns 

By the way, I'm a boomer NOT solely dedicated to reminiscing. I regularly stream music from virtually all genres and eras, prog rock stands up over time as legitimate genre. Some great musicianship, composition and explorations, certainly there can be excess, but what genre doesn't have it's filler.

I am also a boomer, but my tastes in music have never stopped evolving.

The vast majority of people have their tastes in music set by their early 30's. Most people have a large nostalgia component in the music they listen to. As you mention about reminiscing, many people seem to want the music they listen to, to be music that was part of the 'soundtrack' of their youth.

Music tastes stop at age 30

The things I like in music are, most or all of the following* (no particular order): high level of musicianship, complexity, deep and broad range of emotional and/or intellectual content, avoidance of verse>chorus>bridge song format, (usually) extended song structure, avoidance of an obvious 'hook'.

Within those attributes, I am pretty genre agnostic, so to speak. As long as music has all or most of those attributes, I will most likely enjoy it.

Since I enjoy music with these attributes, more than any particular 'style' of music, I was able to get into prog-metal and technical-metal in my 50's, despite not really being a metal fan previously. 

I was also able to get into modern classical music in my 50's, despite not being much of a classical fan previously.

All the following have all or most of those attributes, and are the genres and subgenres I listen to. Prog and most of its subgenres (avant-prog, Zeuhl, Canterbury, classic prog, prog-metal, technical-metal), jazz and many of its subgenres (post-bop, fusion, avant-garde, M-Base, chamber-jazz), and classical (avant-garde, serial, modernism, contemporary).

Yes, I still listen to plenty of prog from the 70's, but it is not about reminiscing or nostalgia for me. Either the music holds up on its own merit, or it doesn't. But I also listen to plenty of recent prog as frequently as the 70's stuff.

*it's not as if I consciously chose to only like music with these attributes, I just noticed at one point, that music that did not fit them, was uninteresting to me