Blame it all on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
when the Beatles decided that neoclassical arrangements,
psychotropic drugs, and vague, album-long story lines made for good
rock. It did, but they couldn’t have foreseen the excess that
followed. Now, with the Neptunes’ Chad Hugo name-dropping
Rush, it seems like a good time for a beginner’s guide to
this enchanted world of bewigged weirdness.
THE MOODY BLUES DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED (DERAM/DECCA, 1967; 1997) What began as a recording session for a rock version of Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 produced prog's biggest hit, "Nights in White Satin" -- now playing in a Victoria's Secret near you. The LP also made a prog signature of the Mellotron, a primitive tape-loop-triggering keyboard that tripsters still covet.
