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Title: The Music's All That Matters: A History of Progressive Rock by Paul Stump ISBN: 0-7043-8036-6 Publisher: Quartet Books Ltd Pub. Date: March, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.17 (12 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Is the music all that matters?
Comment: To have a better understanding of this book one must take into account its author's ideology. As pointed out by Edward Macan (whose musicological and sociological analysis is much more superior to Stump's), the ranks of music critics were dominated by neo-Marxists. That explains Stump's preferences and prejudices. Henry Cow and Soft Machine get his praise because of their ideological beliefs rather than their artistic merits (in the long list of acknowledgments, he thanks Chris Cutler for "intellectual inspiration"). Accordingly, Stump's sarcasm towards Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, etc., is focused mainly on their decadence, not their music. But Stump's objectivity in his venom distribution is skewed too - for example, his bourgeois ways notwithstanding, Bill Bruford (as well as all Stump's interviewees) gets a much better treatment than other members of Yes. Kind of a payback.
Writing a history of progressive rock is quite an ambitious undertaking, and it's hard to expect one person to know everything about the multitude of bands and musicians. Claiming encyclopedic knowledge, Stump can't leave out less-popular-yet-major players. Here Stump's pretense is apparent, as his familiarity with those bands is rather minimal in many instances. Take Gentle Giant. Stump's upcoming book implies that he must be a great scholar of their work, but his overview of the group looks more like a compilation of opinions. At the very first mention, he defines them as a part of "by far the more commercially successful form of Progressive rock" (page 97). This statement should not even be contested because of its obvious fallacy. The fact alone that one of their best records, In a Glass House, had never been released in the U.S. as too "uncommercial" leaves no uncertainty about their moneymaking success. Their statement about "blatant commercialism", ridiculed by Stump, really reflects their approach towards music. Stump repeats every silly epithet used by critics (except for "pretentious") and then refers to Jan-Paul van Spaendonck whose opinion he evidently respects and whose high praise is in total contradiction with Stump's pearls. This dualism reveals his total lack of knowledge of the subject. He is tempted to side with the majority, but few respected voices confuse him. So it came out pretty confusing and quite pathetic too.
Stump's interpretation and philosophizing of the social side of the movement is rooted in his ideology. It's full of customary Marxist truisms, and is pretty shallow and weak.
On a minor note, Stump's universally praised vocabulary is an intellectual show-off, a sign of self-infatuation, typical for unrecognized self-achievers. A standout evidence of that is his comparison between prog "big guns" and "ascetic and virtuous Stakhanovites" (page 12). For the record, the Stakhanovites were super-productive workers during the industrial build-up in the Soviet Union in the '30s. These people were neither ascetic nor virtuous. Their only virtue was their productivity. Otherwise, they were quite arrogant because they were well-paid (i.e. rich) and famous. Stump's desire to impress results in his attempts for neologisms and improper use of words ("atavism" and "lumpen" come to mind) as he tries to impose his "intellectual superiority".
All in all, ignore Stump's ideological assault and don't succumb to his pseudo-intellectual pressure, and you have a good historical overview of progressive rock although his pretentious style really spoils it.
Rating: 5
Summary: easily the best book on prog available
Comment: I find this book to be superior to the other two leading works on prog by Macan and Martin, respectively. Macan is a musicologist who admittedly has fallen out of interest with popular music since the time of progressive rock; thus, his book is useful only insofar as he can present a musicologist's opinion about certain pieces. When it comes to putting progressive rock in the context of other music happening simultaneosly, or evaluating progressive rock in terms of rock music history as a whole, Macan is mostly useless.
Martin approaches the subject from a sociologist's perspective, and this is valuable. Also, Martin probably goes into depth with the most individual albums than the other writers. However, Martin's knowledge of the genre is too incomplete, too biased towards Yes and too full of needless Marxist claptrap to be on Stump's level.
Why is Stump's book the best? Well, it's easily the best written of the three -- it's an invigorating, entertaining read. Martin even admits in his own book that he wished he had Stump's facility with language. Secondly, Stump isn't just presenting the history of prog from the rose-colored glasses of a fan. He is a fan, but his goal was to describe what actually happened, and what is worth reconsidering and what is not. The fact is, some prog rock *was* garbage, and Stump is perfectly willing to expose what he thinks fits this bill.
Is the book perfectly comprehensive? No. Stump (like the others) focuses almost entirely on British prog. Also, it is arguable that more information on certain major bands would have been preferable. But that would likely have come at the expense of the wealth of information included on lesser-known artists.
Still, there isn't a more intelligent or accurate volume on progressive rock available, so make this your first purchase on the subject.
Rating: 3
Summary: The least essential Prog book I've read
Comment: Stump's The Music Is All That Matters, attempts to describe exactly how Progressive rock in England evolved from its psychadelic beginnings in the late 1960's to its current cult-like status. While highly opinionated, it mostly succeeds in this effort. However, I find it to be the least essential of the books on Progressive Rock that I have read. This is because Stump's writing style is somewhat taxing, and I don't find myself gaining a deeper understanding of the music, or discovering new bands to listen too.
I wanted to briefly address some of the comments made by some of the other insightful reviewers.
1-I do believe that Stump thoroughly enjoys progressive rock. He just likes Robert Wyatt, (he sounds like the only person I have ever heard that has actually listened to EVERY Soft Machine album), Henry Cow and The Enid more than Yes, Pink Floyd and ELP. He does present with the bias that somehow if you became popular the music was no longer valid. Now this did happen to the most popular progressive bands as the 70's wore on, but he is also highly critical of the most successful progressive bands better work as well. However, I take his criticism to be that of an insider, one of us. It is like family making fun of each other, its ok when it is with each other. With that said, I question does he really think ELP covered Pictures at an Exhibition because they thought it would make them international pop stars? It was about the music baby (at least in the beginning and I think among the current prog groups). I found myself wanting to apologize to Bradley Smith (Billboard's Guide to Progressive Music) for saying in an Amazon Review that his writing was preachy, cause by comparison, Stump is MUCH more highly opinionated, and much more direct in his presentation that HE knows what is the really good and essential music. (Hey, Ant Phillips seems like a great guy, and Trespass is my favorite Genesis album, but a whole section devoted to him? Some of those Private Parts albums are about as exciting as listening to someone tune their guitar!! That said, go buy Phillip's The Geese and the Ghost- it is a fantastic, sensitive progressive work).
2. Stump's writing is, as other's have pointed out, often difficult. (Who were you trying to impress Stumpy?). I mean, progsters are often educated folk, but only a few of us are actually Professors of literature. It is interesting that Stump has also written a book on Roxy Music because a friend of mine used to say that Brian Ferry sounded like he was singing to hear himself sing/amuse himself. Sometimes I felt like this book was written solely to amuse the author. I found myself comparing the writing to music and coming up with the two following analogies.
1-At times the writing is like those dissonant bits in Henry Cow, you know the ones where you know it has some significance, but you really just keep listening to see if you are strong enough to take it.
2-The best album I could think of to compare the writing to was ELP's Works. Self-indulgent (nothing wrong with some self-indulgence on occassion), bombastic and "clodhopping" in its attempt to be more than it is. Also, so obvious in its attempt to be clever that it at times becomes self-parody. None the less, it is still something I drag out on occassion and thoroughly enjoy bits of.
And that is what I thought of this book. It was often too much work. While there are some amusing thoughts on prog and some prog albums, (some of his criticism of the most popular progressive rock albums is actually fairly humoruous) overall, it isn't an essential read on the subject. But, most progster like to collect things, so you are probably going to buy this anyways. I did.
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Title: Progressive Rock Reconsidered by Kevin Holm-Hudson ISBN: 0815337159 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture by Edward L. Macan ISBN: 0195098889 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: January, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Progressive Rock Files by Jerry Lucky ISBN: 189652270X Publisher: Collector's Guide Pub Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: In the Court of King Crimson by Sid Smith ISBN: 1900924269 Publisher: Helter Skelter Publishing Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Listening to the Future: The Time of Progressive Rock, 1968-1978 (Feedback (Chicago, Ill.), V. 2.) by Bill Martin ISBN: 081269368X Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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