A NEW DAY YESTERDAY: UK Prog Rock And The 1970s

I’ve been reading A NEW DAY YESTERDAY: UK PROGRESSIVE ROCK AND THE 1970S, by Mike Barnes, which isn’t a bad book, although some of the more striking stories and quotes so far seem largely sourced from other biographies rather than the extensive interviews he undertook. The problem is, you read the expansive descriptions of some of the musics he discusses, and then you go to YouTube to give them a listen, and…

…well, I always enjoy reading about innovative artistic movements, and there was a lot of invention happening there in a unique period in popular music and its industry and space, but…

…I just don’t like prog rock.  

If you do, you will love this book.  And it’s pretty readable so far, and Barnes’ personal perceptions of these works are really quite inspiring.  They relate to what I’m actually hearing not at all, but I’d like to hear things that sound like what Barnes describes.

And it is teaching me things.  Frankly, I could have done with a lot less Pink Floyd and a lot more about Ron Geesin, a sort of one man electronic sound lab from darkest Ayrshire, who I hadn’t been aware of previous to reading this book. So thanks for that, Mike Barnes!

A NEW DAY YESTERDAY (US) (UK)