‘Progressive Rock’ – A Wayward Link in Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Saga?
The Rock Hall of Fame Seems to Be in No Hurry to Find a Place for Prog Rock
Editor’s update: Congratulations to Yes and most recently, The Moody Blues, for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s about time.
I came of age at the genesis of progressive rock. To be honest, I don’t remember thinking a lot about it, or saying to someone, hey man, I just love this progressive rock. My orientation to rock ‘n’ roll was through the blues (“The blues had a baby, and they named it rock ‘n’ roll!“), and prog rock was a strenuous departure from blues-based rock.
It seems I’m not alone. No less than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has found it difficult to honor significant artists who happen to populate prog rock’s roster. We’ll get to that.
I was bound to make an exception or two. Ironically, I didn’t dig the Moody Blues when they started as this Merseybeat blues-rock quartet out of Birmingham, England, flush with a hit single, “Go Now,” which charted #10 in 1965. Nor was I particularly impressed with their first major album, “Days of Future Passed, with its monster hit, “Nights in White Satin.” The band supposedly recorded the album with the London Festival Orchestra, which turned out to be non-existent. The band employed the Mellotron, which just happens to be a key component in progressive rock.
The Moody Blues got my full attention with their 1969 release, In Search of the Lost Chord, and its groundbreaking and mind-bending single, “Legend of a Mind.” The song begins with the lyric,
Timothy Leary’s dead,
No, no, he’s outside, looking in…
and we’re left to guess whether the song is a tribute to the spiritual leader of LSD or an elaborate joke that has to do with another man named Timothy Leary (“the little man who sells you thrills along the pier”). I’ve heard both stories. I have no idea which one is true. In any case, the song is magnificent.
The several Moody Blues albums that followed–On the Threshold of a Dream, To Our Children’s Children’s Children, A Question of Balance, Every Good boy Deserves a Favour and Seventh Sojourn–were a delightful smorgasbord of melody, mature lyrical content and musicianship (“every song is good!”), and positioned the Moody Blues, in my opinion, in rarefied, almost Beatlesque territory.
And yet: the Moody Blues are not in rock’s hall of fame. Go figure.
What Is Progressive Rock?
When it’s not being called bombastic, pretentious or pseudo-intellectual, progressive rock is generally regarded as “serious” music in the rock idiom. There is of course no standard definition, but prog rock can be described as follows:
- Its practitioners are mostly based in England. Prog rock’s “golden era,” according to Sean Murphy of Pop Matters, began in 1969 and ended in 1981. Its roots are found in sixties psychedelic rock.
- Prog rock abandons the danceable beat that is a pillar of rock ‘n’ roll for experimentation in complex compositional structures, with most songs lasting longer than the three-minute pop single. Some influential prog rock songs are “musical suites” that play 10 minutes or more.
- But it’s not jazz: most prog rock songs contain lyrics and loosely adhere to the familiar structure of verse, bridge and chorus. It just takes longer to consummate.
- There is an emphasis on harmony and instrumental virtuosity. Elements of classical music occasionally pop up in prog rock songs. (“Scaramouch, scarmouch, will you do the fandango…”)
- As experimentation required additional sounds not found in a guitar, prog rock favored synthesizers to achieve a more substantive sonic landscape. The Moody Blues and other prog rock stalwarts used the Mellotron to mimic virtually any instrument.
- Prog rock didn’t invent the “concept album,” but it sure made good use of it. Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” (1981) was perhaps prog rock’s last blast of pure excellence.

Deep Purple skirt the definition of prog rock, in my opinion, but their induction was a step in the right direction.
My Top 10 Progressive Rock Bands
Of course, of course…your band is not listed. Feel free to use the comments section below this post. In any case, each one of these rock bands have achieved a lengthy musical resume along with celebrity status. Each will be instantly recognizable to you. But here’s the thing: less than half of them have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. My list:
Inductees
Pink Floyd
Queen
Genesis
Rush
Still Waiting (most over 20 years)
Moody Blues
King Crimson
Yes
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Electric Light Orchestra
Jethro Tull
One reason for this can be found on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s website blog, where the hall’s former vice president of education Dr. Lauren Onkey took a crack at it:
Prog rock’s status in the Rock Hall is less about bias and corruption than it is a reflection of a changing history of the definition of rock ‘n’ roll itself. From its inception, prog rock got a mixed reception…By drawing from classical elements, prog rock implied to some that rock wasn’t artistically interesting or important enough to contain complex ideas. And for many critics, prog strayed too far from rock’s African American origins.
She implied that it’s only a matter of time.
I’ll let the Moody Blues have the last word on this topic, courtesy of YouTube:
The facts remain…The Moody Blues are not only still going strong but it will be their 50th year! Now what are the criteria of Rap artists??? Hip Hop??? Why are THEY in The “Rock and Roll” Hall of Fame??? The concept album was not original to PROG….(does the word Progressive mean anything at all to those morons in the RRHOF??) So what is the criteria really?? There is none, down to personal taste and unfortunately when you listen to the Moody Blues, Yes, Tull , E,L &P, and all the others you need a BRAIN! The words and music are beautiful and align with an intelligence you could not ever get with “ooh ohh Baby!” which is in most lame rock lyrics! I am a huge fan because I am an intelligent woman who happens to like listen to beautiful music and deep, insightful and emotional lyrics which paint a melodious story I WANT TO HEAR! I think the Rock and Roll Hall of SHAME should shuffle off the Buffalo where they belong and their henchmen and women, tasteless morons who would not have a clue or recognize talent if it fell on them! Long Live the Moody Blues and all the Prog groups!!!! Now THAT is Rock and Roll! (record sales and longevity should have SOMETHING to do with it, eh???????!!!)
The London Festival Orchestra certainly did (and does) exist; it was the Decca house orchestra at the time. It didn’t perform on any of the songs on Days of Future Passed, but it provided all the orchestral interludes between songs.
The hostility of the Rolling Stone / Hall of Fame establishment to the Moodies is perplexing. They weren’t simply a key progressive band. They also pioneered symphonic rock, blazing a trail for Queen, Styx, Kansas, ELO, etc., and creating room for mainstream acts from Abba to The Who to weave symphonic elements into their songs.
And maybe they should get Hall of Fame props for another key development in rock music. While the Carpenters get credit for inventing the power ballad with “Goodbye to Love” (1972), The Moodies’ “Our Guessing Game” came out a year before that. And unlike the Carpenters’ effort, which is simply a standard ballad with a fuzz guitar solo incongruously thrown in, “Our Guessing Game” is a genuine power ballad throughout.
I totally agree with SMC above. I have been a Moody Blues fan for longer than the required time to be an inductee in the Rock & Roll Hall of Shame (42 years). And yet, every year is another disappointment for us fans as we watch one hit wonders, rap and punk rockers be inducted into a place that should be reserved for the epitome of those who have earned it!! It’s a shame that The Moody Blues chose prog rock as their genre; if not, they would have been inducted years ago!! But the powers that be who get to decide who gets in and who doesn’t have decided that prog rock, no matter how beautiful and how rockin’, is just not worthy rock and roll!! Are they serious??? Prog rock touches the heart and soul of its writers and fans. It is a part of who we are!!! Without prog rock, the world would be a sadder, less joyous place. I hope like Shawn I have a brain that appreciates what it is hearing and knows the difference between prog rock and trash!! Put The Moody Blues where they rightfully belong – in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and end this travesty!
The Moody Blues has never been everyone’s favourite, it’s music for people for “melancholy” people (to some extent), so maybe one in ten people will realise the greatness of their souring music. And one in fifty is a lot of people worldwide, and they are extremely high fans of their music cause it goes deep in their souls. But probably there wouldn’t be enough people in the board of Rockn roll Hall of fame who understand the dephts of their music,but maybe to many who only a appreciate more commercial music
The Moody Blues had me from “Hello” with “Nights in White Satin” and every album after thats, as did the other bands Andy listed. I was drawn to the long tracks because they let me stay in a different world for a little longer. And I didn’t even need drugs to do it. I was never really interested in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame races. If I liked a song, it was in my collection. People have been known to call my taste eclectic while others said, “He has no taste. He will listen to any shit that comes along.” There was truth in this. It just mattered how I felt at the time, but my home was in Progressive Rock, with trips to the old ancestral homestead of Folk Music and Blues. “He will listen to any shit that comes along.”