BEYOND THE OUTER LIMITS
Great to see the mighty Groundhogs featured in Prog 116. I saw them live a few times way back when and, prog or not, they were a fine, if somewhat underrated, band with Thank Christ For The Bomb and Split being two of the best albums ever.
When trying to answer the question thrown out regularly by The Outer Limits
– “Are They Prog?” – I suppose you first have to consider the definition.
In the late-60s/early-70s the term ‘progressive’ was applied to a number of artists: Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, and, of course, The Groundhogs, to name but a few. Even Savoy Brown considered themselves progressive as witnessed by their album sleeve notes and Chris Youlden’s pronouncement on Savoy
Brown Boogie from the live side of the album A Step Further. Very few of these artists are now considered prog and yet were definitely progressive.
The term ‘progressive’ was coined to demonstrate an artist moving away, progressing, from what had come before – usually blues or pop. The Groundhogs are a classic example of this, especially as they announced it to the world with Blues Obituary! Arguably the best example of being progressive in the 60s was The Beatles. Their progression is clearly defined album by album. Maybe they should feature in The Outer Limits?
So then progressive got shortened to prog in order to differentiate the various types of rock – jazz, folk, heavy, hard, classical, blues, space, etc etc – and so at the same time was only applied to certain types of bands such as Yes, King Crimson, Pink Floyd. All of whom, of course, just to confuse things further, incorporated some elements of those different types of rock!
The irony of all this is threefold. Once an artist has attained prog status they tend not to progress but maintain a particular prog sound; the progressive artists from way back when get forgotten. Thank heavens for The Outer Limits and writing about The Groundhogs – I look forward to features on The Pretty Things, Deep Purple, Leafhound and many more!
It sounds as though I’m knocking prog – I’m not, I love it. I’ve already preordered the new Transatlantic album and
I haven’t yet heard a note! At the end of the day what’s important is good music, however you pigeonhole it, and that, my friends, is the answer to that perennial question put by The Outer Limits in each issue of Prog.
We get a lot of letters about The Outer Limits and yours details just how much effort goes into making the section. We covered The Pretty Things back in Prog 92 but the others are certainly food for thought. – Deputy Ed.