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Early Art and Prog Rock

In the late sixties, as rock became more sophisticated and the teenagers of the fifties became adults,

the music’s audience broadened beyond just teens. One of the directions that the music took during

this time was to draw from “serious” music – mainstream and avant-garde classical music. The

result were the genres called art and progressive (usually shortened to “prog”) rock.

1. Earlier we discussed the mutual influence between Bob Dylan and the Beatles, which eventually

led to a more serious and artistic type of rock. One of the results of this is that Dylan’s lyrics in the

late sixties were no longer grounded in the folk song tradition, or even in reality for that matter.

Read the short description of surrealism on the Surrealist.com welcome page and listen to Dylan’s

“Desolation Row.”

• We have encountered Dada a couple of times in the course already. What relationship does

surrealism have with Dadaism?

• Who was André Breton and what was his contribution to surrealism? How did Breton

describe surrealism?

• Comment on the lyrics of “Desolation Row.” What meaning do you draw from them? Do

they appear surreal to you? Why or why not?

2. The Beatles made their first foray into art rock in 1966 when they recorded “Tomorrow Never

Knows.” Read the Wikipedia article on this recording.

• What techniques were used to produce the sounds in the recording?

• The Beatles used a small number of tape loops over and over in this recording. How many

different loops can you hear? What do the sounds in each loop sound like?

• “Tomorrow Never Knows” was an attempt to capture the LSD experience in song -- the

loss of one's sense of time and feelings of unreality and the feelings of separation from the

body accompanied by an inability to concentrate. Intense sensory experiences, such as

brighter colors, and a mixing of the senses, such as hearing colors may also be experienced.

How does this recording (both in sound and lyrics) capture the LSD experience?

3. How were the tape loop methods in “Tomorrow Never

Knows” drawn from the work of avant garde classical

composers?

The Beatles acknowledged one of these influences on the

cover of the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band LP. Who

is the man in the fifth position from the left on the top row?

You may need to do some research to answer this question.

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4. Read Robert Palmer’s “Walk on the Wild Side” from Blues and Chaos.

• What are the two routes to success that Palmer cites in this article?

• Which route was taken by the Velvet Underground?

• On page 275, what does John Cale say they wanted to do? Were they successful?

• What happened to the band? Did they ever “make it” in a commercial sense?

• What does Palmer have to say about their ultimate importance and influence?

5. Watch the documentary video from YouTube on the group.

• The commentator on the video says that the Velvets were testing the “limits of rock in a way

no other band had ever dared.”

o What does he mean?

o What limits were they challenge?

o What does John Cale say they were insistent on?

• What famous artist became the Velvet’s manager and mentor? The “Velvet Underground

and Nico” album was produced by this artist.

• How does Lou Reed say that this artist made it possible for them be so adventurous on this

album?

• What was the multimedia show that the Velvets became part of? Describe it.

6. Listen to the three assigned songs by the Velvet Underground from this CD: “Heroin,” “I’m

Waiting For the Man” and “Venus in Furs”

• Bill Martin says that the Velvets truly were an alternative band in the sixties. How is this

illustrated by the lyrics of the three songs on your assigned listening? What is the subject

matter of each song?

• With what avant-garde composers did John Cale of the Velvets study and perform? How is

the influence of the avant-garde evident in the instrumental sound in all three songs?

• How does the drum beat and tempo in “Heroin” work along with the lyrics to make an

effective song?

7. Read “Crazy Diamond” by Nick Kent, listen to Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play,” and watch the

1967 video from YouTube based on this song.

• Who role did Syd Barrett play with Pink Floyd? How did he figure in their early success?

• According to Barrett, what inspired “See Emily Play”?

• In question #1 we asked about surrealism and Dylan’s lyrics. Would you describe this song

and the accompanying video as surreal? Why or why not?

• What happened to Barrett? Why is he no longer with the group?

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8. Read the section on Frank Zappa in “The Maverick Core” and watch the YouTube video of

Zappa’s posthumous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Lou Reed is the person

making the onstage talk about Zappa.)

• Generally we have seen that classical music only indirectly influences popular music. In

“The Maverick Core,” how does Broyles say that Zappa tried to do more?

• How does Broyles describe Zappa as a maverick? In a field such as popular music where

mavericks abound, how did Zappa distinguish himself? How does the R&R Hall of Fame

induction video illustrate this?

• Was Zappa classically trained?

• What classical composer’s discovery was an important part of Zappa’s development?

• Why did Zappa switch from classical to popular music? What was his principle creative

venue in this field? How does this correspond to his favorite composer and to the Beatles’ in

the late 60s?

• What was the name of Zappa’s recording group? How did his first release Freak Out! set the

tone for all of his later popular music releases?

9. Listen to the three Zappa songs we have assigned. One of them, “Trouble Every Day,” is from

Freak Out!

• What is more important in Frank Zappa’s “Trouble Every Day” – the music or the lyrics?

• What is the subject matter of the song? You may need to look up what happened in the

Watts section of Los Angeles in 1965.

10. Who is Zappa satirizing in “Flower Punk”? What is unsettling about the rhythm in “Flower

Punk”? What about the last section?

11. How would you describe “Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny”? What avant-garde

movements and composers does it bring to mind? Why?

12. What about Jefferson Airplane’s “Cushinaroro”? What avant-garde movements and composers

does it bring to mind?

13. Where is Dachau and what is it known for? Is Captain Beefheart more similar in style and

subject matter to the Beatles, Lou Reed (of the Velvets), or Frank Zappa?

14. Your reading says that Trout Mask Replica is a masterpiece that is a post-Cage study on

tonality. Is “Dachau Blues a good example of this”?

15. One of the Beatles many contributions to rock was the concept album – an album that is not a

collection of individual songs, but instead an artistic unit in itself. What album mentioned in your

reading was the Beatles’ most important concept album? Concept albums were the staple of

progressive (usually shortened to “prog”) rock. One of the best-known prog rock groups is Pink

Floyd1, who we listened to earlier in this lesson when Syd Barrett was still a member of the group.

1 As an aside, the “Pink” in “Pink Floyd” comes from Pink Anderson, a blues singer from Spartanburg.

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16. You will listen to “Brain Damage” from the hugely successful album The Dark Side of the

Moon, which was issued in 1973. How does this song compare with the mainstream music you

heard from the sixties – the Stones’ “Satisfaction,” Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner,” Jefferson

Airplane’s “White Rabbit” or the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” for example. To which of these is

Pink Floyd closest? Ignoring this one exception, how is the prog rock typified by Pink Floyd

different from sixties rock?

17. Here are the lyrics to “Brain Damage.”

The lunatic is on the grass The lunatic is in my head

The lunatic is on the grass The lunatic is in my head

Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs You raise the blade, you make the change

Got to keep the loonies on the path You re-arrange me 'till I'm sane

The lunatic is in the hall You lock the door

The lunatics are in my hall And throw away the key

The paper holds their folded faces to the floor There's someone in my head but it's not me.

And every day the paper boy brings more

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear

And if there is no room upon the hill You shout and no one seems to hear

And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes

I'll see you on the dark side of the moon I'll see you on the dark side of the moon

I can't think of anything to say except...

I think it's marvelous! HaHaHa!

Who was the probable inspiration for “Brain Damage”?

18. Listen again to all the music in this lesson and ask yourself the following questions:

• What is new in this music? What sets the art and prog bands apart from the music of the late

sixties?

• Is this music more experimental or more of a consolidation of previous experiments?

• What do these bands and their music have in common?

• How are the bands and their music different from each other?

19. In this course we are following four general trends that characterize most, if not all, of the ways

that the avant-garde music has influenced popular music. Which of these trends is evident in the art

and prog rock to which you have listened today?

• Simplicity

• Decomposition of Musical Structure

• Electronic Music

• Noise as Music

• Pastiche