50 Fun Facts About Progressive Rock

Which animal is the only thing pictured on the front cover of Pink Floyd's 1970 album Atom Heart Mother?

A cow named Lulubelle III is all the sleeve shows, with no band name or title. Designer Storm Thorgerson drove into the countryside and photographed the first one he saw.

Which horror film made Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells a worldwide hit by using its opening piano motif as a theme?

The Exorcist rescued a record that had been selling slowly. Mike Oldfield was 19 when recording began and played almost all of the instruments himself through overdubbing.

Which band lost a 1989 Grammy to Jethro Tull in one of the award show's most famous upsets?

Metallica got the last word in 1992: accepting a Grammy for their self-titled album, drummer Lars Ulrich jokingly thanked Jethro Tull for not releasing an album that year.

Which drummer stepped up as lead singer of Genesis after a long search for a new frontman failed?

Phil Collins had been singing backing vocals for the applicants during the auditions. He took the lead himself on the album A Trick of the Tail.

Which classic film do fans play in sync with Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, claiming the two match?

The Wizard of Oz pairing, nicknamed Dark Side of the Rainbow, spread after a 1995 newspaper article. Members of Pink Floyd have denied any connection between the album and the film.

Which instrument did Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson make his trademark, often playing it while standing on one leg?

The flute replaced the electric guitar Ian Anderson had started on. His one-legged pose began by accident: he used to balance that way, holding the microphone stand, while playing harmonica.

Which music movement of the late 1970s is conventionally blamed for the fall of prog from popularity?

Punk rock made prog's utopian ideals look unfashionable. John Lydon was recruited to the Sex Pistols after being spotted in a Pink Floyd T-shirt he had defaced to say he hated the band.

Which American band scored 1970s hits with Carry On Wayward Son and the acoustic ballad Dust in the Wind?

Kansas owe Dust in the Wind to a practice routine: guitarist Kerry Livgren devised its guitar line as a finger exercise while learning fingerpicking.

Which member of Pink Floyd conceived The Wall after spitting on a noisy fan at a Montreal stadium show?

Roger Waters was troubled enough by the incident to imagine building a wall across the stage between the band and the audience. That idea grew into the 1979 double album.

Which artist, later the designer of the creature in Alien, painted Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery cover?

H. R. Giger painted the skull-and-machine sleeve in Zurich and designed the ELP logo the band used from then on. His design work on the film Alien later won an Academy Award.

Which Pink Floyd co-founder walked unannounced into the studio while the band was recording its tribute to him?

Syd Barrett had shaved off his hair and eyebrows and put on weight, and his old bandmates did not recognise him at first. He had left seven years earlier as his mental health declined.

Which member of Genesis startled his bandmates by appearing mid-show in a red dress and a fox's head?

Peter Gabriel borrowed his wife's dress for the stunt in Dublin in 1972, copying the cover of the album Foxtrot. The others at first mistook him for a fan invading the stage.

Which Rush member joined two weeks before the band's first US tour and became its main lyricist?

Neil Peart replaced original drummer John Rutsey in 1974. The other two members had little interest in writing words, so his lyrics became as noticed as his playing.

Which Yes keyboardist ate a takeaway curry on stage in Manchester in protest at the band's setlist?

Rick Wakeman was tired of playing all of Tales from Topographic Oceans, a double album of four side-long tracks. His technician brought him the meal mid-show, and he left Yes when the tour ended.

Which band's 1969 debut, with a painted face filling its gatefold cover, is often regarded as the first true prog album?

King Crimson got the painting from Barry Godber, a computer programmer who used his own face in a mirror as the model. He died of a heart attack shortly after the album came out.

Which London design group created the prism sleeve for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon?

Hipgnosis took its name from graffiti its founders found on their apartment door. After the prism, the firm was hired for sleeves by Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Black Sabbath.

Which keyboard, developed in Birmingham in 1963, supplied the string and choir sounds on many 1970s prog albums?

The Mellotron works like an early sampler: pressing a key pulls a length of recorded tape across a playback head. Yes and Genesis both relied on it during the 1970s.

Which band recorded Days of Future Passed with the London Festival Orchestra, producing the hit Nights in White Satin?

The Moody Blues had been asked to record classical pieces to show off their label's new stereo sound. They agreed, then quietly recorded their own songs instead.

Which band's album Breakfast in America shows a diner waitress posing as the Statue of Liberty on its cover?

Supertramp's waitress, named Libby, holds a glass of orange juice where the torch should be. Behind her is a view of Lower Manhattan as seen through an aeroplane window.

Over which London landmark does an inflatable pig float on the cover of Pink Floyd's album Animals?

Battersea Power Station lost its pig during the photo shoot. The balloon broke free of its moorings and drifted over Heathrow, causing panic and cancelled flights.

Which English artist painted the fantasy landscapes on Yes album covers and designed the band's bubble logo?

Roger Dean began with Fragile in 1971 and also built stage sets for Yes with his brother Martyn. He later sued James Cameron, alleging that Avatar had copied his images, but a judge dismissed the case.

Which Russian composer's piano suite did Emerson, Lake & Palmer turn into the live album Pictures at an Exhibition?

Modest Mussorgsky wrote ten movements, but the trio used only four of them, joined by new sections of their own. They played it live as one continuous piece at Newcastle City Hall.

Which band's 1967 debut single A Whiter Shade of Pale set a Bach-derived instrumental melody against soulful vocals?

Procol Harum's single was reported in 2009 to be the most played song in public places in the UK over the previous 75 years. Its organ line resembles Bach's Air on the G String.

Which British record label launched in 1973 with Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells as its very first album release?

Virgin Records had been founded the year before by Richard Branson and three partners. They were persuaded to open the catalogue with a long instrumental album by a newcomer.

Which instrument did Keith Emerson attack on stage, wedging knives between its keys to hold down notes?

The Hammond organ was also whipped, pushed over and ridden across the stage like a horse. Emerson's dagger was a gift from Lemmy, later of Motörhead, who was a roadie for his band The Nice.

Which 1983 single, written mostly by guitarist Trevor Rabin, became the only US number one for Yes?

Owner of a Lonely Heart began as a Trevor Rabin solo demo, taped at home on a 4-track machine. Singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire and producer Trevor Horn all added to the final version.

Which engineer of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon later led a hit studio Project under his own name?

Alan Parsons joined Abbey Road Studios at 18 and earned his first credit on the Beatles' Abbey Road. He declined Pink Floyd's next record to start the Alan Parsons Project instead.

Which supergroup of prog veterans topped the US album chart for nine weeks with a debut featuring Heat of the Moment?

Asia united Steve Howe and Geoff Downes of Yes with Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Billboard ranked their debut the number one album in the United States for 1982.

Which subject were Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and Richard Wright studying at a London polytechnic when the band began?

Architecture classes at the polytechnic in Regent Street are where the future members met in 1962. Their group there became a sextet called Sigma 6, one of several names tried before the famous one.

In which ancient Roman amphitheatre did Pink Floyd film a concert with no audience beyond the camera crew?

Pompeii struck director Adrian Maben after he lost his passport there and went back to the deserted amphitheatre to look for it. He thought its silence would make a good backdrop for the music.

Which Jethro Tull album came wrapped in a spoof newspaper crediting its lyrics to a fictional eight-year-old poet?

Thick as a Brick was conceived as a parody of concept albums, one continuous piece of music split across two sides. The joke was subtle enough that some fans believed the schoolboy was real.

Which novelist did Rush credit in the liner notes of 2112, prompting a British critic to call the band fascists?

Ayn Rand's novella Anthem has a plot much like the album's title suite, and the credit was added to avoid legal action. The fascist jibe stung singer Geddy Lee, whose parents were Holocaust survivors.

Which city's airport code gave Rush the title and the Morse code rhythm of the instrumental YYZ?

Toronto Pearson's identifier is sent out in Morse code by a navigation beacon at the airport. The band first heard the pattern as guitarist Alex Lifeson flew them in.

Which British band, fronted by the singer Fish, led the 1980s neo-prog revival and reached number two with Kayleigh?

Marillion started out as Silmarillion, after the Tolkien book, before shortening the name. Kayleigh was popular enough in 1985 to cause a significant rise in babies being given that name.

Which band did three Berklee College of Music students form in 1985 under the name Majesty?

Dream Theater became the name after a Las Vegas group also called Majesty threatened legal action. Drummer Mike Portnoy's father suggested it, borrowing from a small theater in Monterey, California.

Which band's title track Lateralus has vocal lines whose syllable counts follow the Fibonacci sequence?

Tool's singer Maynard James Keenan climbs and descends the pattern in the first verse, from one syllable up to eight and back down again.

Which English cathedral city gave its name to the jazz-tinged prog scene of Soft Machine and Caravan?

Canterbury's scene grew from the ashes of a single 1960s group, the Wilde Flowers. Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper called the label an artificial, journalistic thing.

At which English boarding school did the founding members of Genesis meet as pupils in the 1960s?

Charterhouse also supplied the band's first producer. A former pupil turned pop impresario named the group and arranged the recording of its debut album.

Which country produced Focus, whose hit Hocus Pocus mixes hard rock riffs with yodelling, whistling and accordion?

The Netherlands got a US top ten hit out of it: Hocus Pocus peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. Keyboardist Thijs van Leer performed all of its yodelling, whistling and accordion breaks.

Which country's 1970s prog scene produced the bands PFM, Banco and Le Orme?

Italy's PFM, short for Premiata Forneria Marconi, were the country's first rock band to succeed internationally. They took the name from the sign of a bakery in a small town near Brescia.

Which English band, fronted by singer-songwriter Peter Hammill, released the 1971 prog album Pawn Hearts?

Van der Graaf Generator borrowed the name of a machine that makes static electricity, the Van de Graaff generator, and misspelled it by accident.

Which band began in 1987 as Steven Wilson's hoax, complete with an invented history and fictitious members?

Porcupine Tree was a joke about a legendary 1970s group, with made-up members such as Sir Tarquin Underspoon. By late 1993 Steven Wilson had recruited real musicians and made it a working band.

Which band's instrumental album based on Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose had to be retitled after the author objected?

Camel had first planned to adapt Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha. Gallico's protests cost the record its planned lyrics, and it came out as Music Inspired by The Snow Goose.

Which French band, founded by drummer Christian Vander, sings most of its lyrics in an invented language called Kobaïan?

Magma's first album follows refugees from a doomed Earth who settle on the planet Kobaïa. Vander said he invented the tongue because French was not expressive enough.

Which band did Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala form after the break-up of At the Drive-In?

The Mars Volta's debut album tells the story of a man in a drug-induced coma. Having no bassist of their own, they borrowed Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the sessions.

Which band's rock opera Kilroy Was Here, set in a world where rock music is outlawed, produced the hit Mr. Roboto?

Styx named the album after a famous World War II graffiti tag. Keyboardist Dennis DeYoung sang the single in character as Kilroy, a rock performer escaping from a futuristic prison.

Which Pink Floyd album cover shows two businessmen shaking hands while one of them is on fire?

Wish You Were Here used a real stuntman, dressed in a fireproof suit under his business suit. The picture plays on the idea that people hide their true feelings for fear of getting burned.

Which American Beat writer's 1961 novel gave the English band Soft Machine its name?

William S. Burroughs named a second group without trying: Steely Dan took their name from an object mentioned in his novel Naked Lunch.

Which farm machine was invented by Jethro Tull, the 18th-century agriculturist whose name the rock band borrowed?

The seed drill of 1701 sowed in neat rows instead of scattering seed by hand. A history enthusiast at a booking agency gave the band the name, and Ian Anderson assumed it was made up.

Which prog band scored Dario Argento's horror films Deep Red and Suspiria in the 1970s?

Goblin got the Deep Red job when the original composer walked out, and were given one night to write the score and one day to record it. It went on to sell more than a million copies.