Listening to the Future: The Time of Progressive Rock, 1968-1978

by Bill Martin

In the early seventies, King Crimson, Yes, Jethro Tull, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and many others brought forth a series of adventurous and visionary works, often of epic length. Responding both to the new possibilities in rock music opened up by "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", as well as to the countercultural politics and aesthetics of the late sixties, these musicians applied consummate instrumental and compositional skill to transgressing boundaries. Since the late seventies, histories of rock music have either ignored or marginalized the progressive rock era. In part, this has occurred because rock music criticism has taken an almost completely sociological turn, with little or no interest in musical form itself. In "Listening to the Future", Bill Martin argues that it is a musical and political mistake to ignore this period of tremendous creativity, a period which still finds resonance in rock music today. He sets the scene for the emergence of progressive rock (showing that, in fact, there has always been a progressive trend in rock music, a trend that took a quantum leap in the late sixties), and develops a terminology for understanding how an avant-garde could arise out of the sonic and social materials of

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Bill Martin (born 1956) is a professor of Philosophy at DePaul University whose academic work concerns Derrida, Sartre, Marxist theory, Aesthetics, and critiques of Richard Rorty. Martin has also written on progressive rock bands including Yes

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's a thought experiment. Imagine a scholarly tract written by an American philosophy professor of academic Marxist bent, trying to make a case for the political and cultural importance of 1970s Progressive Rock in the context of social transformation and the creation of a radically optimistic alternative to capitalist structures, with particular reference to the revolutionary potential of the band Yes.

This is that book.

It is, of course, splendidly bonkers. I don't think Prof Martin would resent a description of him as a Prog Rock and Yes obsessive. He is a tremendous enthusiast for his subject, and immensely knowledgeable about it - his record collection must be a thing to behold. He is (or was - this book was published in 1998) a practising Prog musician (bass-player), so he knows intimately whereof he speaks. His overview of the field is panoramic - and he is highly opinionated, and knows it. Strangely, this quantity of awareness doesn't translate into quality of description when talking about the records over which he enthuses: even his favourites rarely rise above 'very good', and 'quite good' covers some recordings that to my knowledge verge on the transcendent. Yet at the same time, some of his socio-cultural analysis verges on the pompous absurdity of Dudley Moore in the "Not Only But Also"/"Derek & Clive" sketch "Bo Dudley"...

Naturally, this latter mode is linked to Martin's avowed political position. Marxists - like the True Believers of all religions with a delusional claim to explain everything - can always find a way - usually a highly tortuous one - to show how something they like is fully in compliance with the teachings of their prophets and gurus. Like all good disciples of Marx, Engels, etc, Prof Martin demonstrates convincingly - to himself at least - that Yes and other Prog Rock luminaries of the 70s were indeed part of a cultural vanguard challenging existing class structures and bringing the Good News of revolution to the proletariat. These views are interesting, but ultimately rest on some fairly shaky premisses, not least of which is the author's complete misunderstanding of elements of the British culture which he acknowledges as a major influence on his genre - and his complete failure to engage with some of the class- and sectarian conflict issues in the UK in the 1970s which one would have thought essential to his thesis if it were to stand up !

Martin is, as I have said, highly opinionated, and his scorn for certain rock critics who made a point of disrespecting his beloved Prog - notably the late Lester Bangs - is withering. For my part, I have a major beef with his relegation of the greatest of the Prog bands, Van der Graaf Generator, to what he calls the 'second line' of 70s bands, on the spurious grounds that they represent 'Thanatos' rather than 'Eros'. This appears to translate as meaning (a) they didn't maintain a sunnily optimistic attitude to the world and humanity, and (b) they weren't Yes. Ironically for Prof Martin, of course, VdGG have lasted longer than any of the other bands dealt with (Jethro Tull and - intermittently - King Crimson excepted), are widely acknowledged as having had the broadest influence on various other bands, musicians and genres, are still producing quantities of quality new material, and are still playing concerts to audiences of all ages and backgrounds keen to embrace their artistry, lyricism and aesthetic, 47 years after they first appeared on the scene !

[Nick Pilmeyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a good book, however, Martin uses waaaaay to many of his own opinions in the book, which destroys the objectivity of the book. However, it does still have good anekdotes, good stories, and a good overall history of progressive rock. It also sometimes deviates too much from the subject at hand, which makes it a little bit cloudy at times. Could have been a much better book!

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started and didn't get very far. This book is very long winded and has a text book feel about it which does not suit the material at all.

[Adam Patterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

WHOA. Although serious academic music criticism of RnR is a cool thing and all, I was pretty astounded by the extent Martin chose to put what was obviously "fan writing" into the great big cauldron of philosophy and aesthetics in order to publish this resultant book.

He is DUH a real smart philosopher and musician. And maybe I didn't penetrate far enough into this joint to get at his thematic kernel, to hear what he really had to say about this subject. I was just really turned off by the amount of musical minutiae and down-right shit -talking and hair-slitting he chose to comprise most of the stuff I peeked at. The whole thing seems exploded/warped in its scope to an extent that what could be a very approachable subject and music comes off as an impossibly esoteric and particular field of music with an immense gravity.

[Michael Gao · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book would not be terrible if the author's definition of progressive rock was not so narrow or if he didn't try to sell his opinions as facts. Regardless, there is alot of information about the specific time period it is talking about and is a very interesting read at many points.

[Tom Blurbgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant topic and manages to resist being too anecdotal, but still not too groundbreaking and doesn't get to the heart of the genre. Worthwhile though, especially for anyone at entry level.