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The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock
The Show That Never Ends is the definitive story of the extraordinary rise and fall of progressive (“prog”) rock. Epitomized by such classic, chart-topping bands as Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, and Emerson Lake Palmer, along with such successors as Rush, Marillion, Asia, Styx, and Porcupine Tree, prog sold hundreds of millions of records. It brought into the mainstream concept albums, spaced-out cover art, crazy time signatures, multitrack recording, and stagecraft so bombastic it was spoofed in the classic movie This Is Spinal Tap.
With a vast knowledge of what Rolling Stone has called “the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill,” access to key people who made the music, and the passion of a true enthusiast, Washington Post national reporter David Weigel tells the story of prog in all its pomp, creativity, and excess.
Weigel explains exactly what was “progressive” about prog rock and how its complexity and experimentalism arose from such precursors as the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper. He traces prog’s popularity from the massive success of Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale” and the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” in 1967. He reveals how prog’s best-selling, epochal albums were made, including The Dark Side of the Moon, Thick as a Brick, and Tubular Bells. And he explores the rise of new instruments into the prog mix, such as the synthesizer, flute, mellotron, and—famously—the double-neck guitar.
The Show That Never Ends is filled with the candid reminiscences of prog’s celebrated musicians. It also features memorable portraits of the vital contributions of producers, empresarios, and technicians such as Richard Branson, Brian Eno, Ahmet Ertegun, and Bob Moog.
Ultimately, Weigel defends prog from the enormous derision it has received for a generation, and he reveals the new critical respect and popularity it has achieved in its contemporary resurgence.
With a vast knowledge of what Rolling Stone has called “the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill,” access to key people who made the music, and the passion of a true enthusiast, Washington Post national reporter David Weigel tells the story of prog in all its pomp, creativity, and excess.
Weigel explains exactly what was “progressive” about prog rock and how its complexity and experimentalism arose from such precursors as the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper. He traces prog’s popularity from the massive success of Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale” and the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” in 1967. He reveals how prog’s best-selling, epochal albums were made, including The Dark Side of the Moon, Thick as a Brick, and Tubular Bells. And he explores the rise of new instruments into the prog mix, such as the synthesizer, flute, mellotron, and—famously—the double-neck guitar.
The Show That Never Ends is filled with the candid reminiscences of prog’s celebrated musicians. It also features memorable portraits of the vital contributions of producers, empresarios, and technicians such as Richard Branson, Brian Eno, Ahmet Ertegun, and Bob Moog.
Ultimately, Weigel defends prog from the enormous derision it has received for a generation, and he reveals the new critical respect and popularity it has achieved in its contemporary resurgence.
346 pages, Hardcover
Published June 13, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 224 reviews
May 1, 2020
I both wanted and expected to love this book: Have been a fan of Dave Weigel's political writing for years, and he has been entirely engaging on the subject of progressive rock in both online posts and in-person talks. But The Show… is an incoherent wreck, an insular book that feels almost unedited, failing to put its material in a context that helps us understand why England and America fell in and out of love with prog—why people were drawn to its ambition and scale, and why they got bored.
Yes, many of us have long defended prog rock—at least the high spots—and will read all the way to the book's end to pick up any scraps of information. And Weigel clearly enjoyed spending time in the archives of '70s music magazines, chatting with musicians about their glory days, and hanging out on Cruise to the Edge. But he fails at the most basic task: explaining not only how prog broke with the prevailing musical trends of the time but why audiences responded. By the conclusion, we still don't understand why millions filed into sold-out stadiums to endure ELP concerts, and why, a few years later, they stopped buying tickets. (Were fans the same people who bought Joni Mitchell and James Taylor albums? Led Zeppelin albums? Classical albums? Jazz albums? Shouldn't we get some sense of that?) The view here is nearly all from the inside, usually in musicians' quotes from magazine interviews, with careers often reduced to a single anecdote or issue, including bits of silliness (Greg Lake's backstage groupies, Rick Wakeman's onstage boredom) and, for a handful of tracks, second-by-second breakdowns of chord names and sound effects that somehow fail to capture what the songs sound like, or why they're good or bad or significant or insignificant.
In places, the prose reads like a Deuteronomy of music writing, with endless who-begat-whoms, only less systematic. We closely follow the obscure solo careers of the former members of Soft Machine—an oft-cited but seldom heard '60s psychedelic band—without learning why Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers are worth the space. We get a lengthy chronicle of the making of Mike Oldfield's one-off Tubular Bells and way too many pages on the quirky life and fringe career of experimental guitarist Robert Fripp. We stick with Genesis, album by album, long after the band went pop but drop its contemporaries that stayed both popular and more prog. We learn about every time a member of Yes joined and left and rejoined the band but not what made its three 1971-72 albums the best that progressive rock produced. It all feels almost random, and the egregious typos—one every several pages—don't add much confidence that Weigel is in control of his material.
It's a massive missed opportunity. There are countless books on punk and R&B, each covering much of the same material, but I don't have high hopes that we'll ever get another attempt at an overview of the prog years.
Yes, many of us have long defended prog rock—at least the high spots—and will read all the way to the book's end to pick up any scraps of information. And Weigel clearly enjoyed spending time in the archives of '70s music magazines, chatting with musicians about their glory days, and hanging out on Cruise to the Edge. But he fails at the most basic task: explaining not only how prog broke with the prevailing musical trends of the time but why audiences responded. By the conclusion, we still don't understand why millions filed into sold-out stadiums to endure ELP concerts, and why, a few years later, they stopped buying tickets. (Were fans the same people who bought Joni Mitchell and James Taylor albums? Led Zeppelin albums? Classical albums? Jazz albums? Shouldn't we get some sense of that?) The view here is nearly all from the inside, usually in musicians' quotes from magazine interviews, with careers often reduced to a single anecdote or issue, including bits of silliness (Greg Lake's backstage groupies, Rick Wakeman's onstage boredom) and, for a handful of tracks, second-by-second breakdowns of chord names and sound effects that somehow fail to capture what the songs sound like, or why they're good or bad or significant or insignificant.
In places, the prose reads like a Deuteronomy of music writing, with endless who-begat-whoms, only less systematic. We closely follow the obscure solo careers of the former members of Soft Machine—an oft-cited but seldom heard '60s psychedelic band—without learning why Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers are worth the space. We get a lengthy chronicle of the making of Mike Oldfield's one-off Tubular Bells and way too many pages on the quirky life and fringe career of experimental guitarist Robert Fripp. We stick with Genesis, album by album, long after the band went pop but drop its contemporaries that stayed both popular and more prog. We learn about every time a member of Yes joined and left and rejoined the band but not what made its three 1971-72 albums the best that progressive rock produced. It all feels almost random, and the egregious typos—one every several pages—don't add much confidence that Weigel is in control of his material.
It's a massive missed opportunity. There are countless books on punk and R&B, each covering much of the same material, but I don't have high hopes that we'll ever get another attempt at an overview of the prog years.
May 26, 2025
"Progressive rock has two almost competing aspects to it. One of them is compositional - how do you, in the traditional way, find something for everyone in the band to play? The other is improvisational. You want to allow the players to get their rocks off, but still find a framework to have it that evinces the traditional aspects of songwriting." -- singer/songwriter/musician (and Pennsylvania native - woot woot!) Todd Rundgren, on page 159
Hitting the music scene just after 1967's 'Summer of Love,' the progressive (a.k.a. 'prog rock') genre more or less debuted with the arrival of Procol Harum's 'Whiter Shade of Pale' and the Moody Blues' 'Nights in White Satin,' both now considered classic songs of that pop/rock era. With their ranks often comprised of U.K. university students who fused classical and jazz music while also being fond of then-new British Invasion bands, these groups - such as King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Yes and Pink Floyd - were born in the late 1960's but hit their critical and commercial stride in the early 70's to briefly become a dominant force in FM radio, albums sales, and concert tours. However, in-fighting and feuding often meant the acts would experience a continual revolving door of members and/or sometimes flame out after that initial surge in popularity. Author Weigel - whose stock-in-trade is covering politics - details the above-mentioned groups (plus the second-generation mid-70's spawns like Rush, Marillion and various others) in his The Show That Never Ends, appellation courtesy of lyrics from that Emerson, Lake & Palmer's opus with the unwieldy title 'Karn Evil 9 1st Impression Part 2.' A candid and respectful tribute to the guys - and this was a male-dominated field, both in terms of the musicians AND the fans - it was also not afraid to inject some knowing humor into the proceedings, such as this description of the attendees of a 21st century reunion / festival - "These are nostalgic, brainy people. Nobody wants to read rundowns of stereotypes, but every third person either teaches science or reads about it to distract from a computer programming day job . . . or runs a record shop." - which smacks of the truth. I spent my formative teen years of the early 90's listening to a number of these groups on classic rock radio (R.I.P. 94 WYSP-FM of Philadelphia!) in addition to Pink Floyd's '94 tour being my first concert experience, so there was nostalgia in the mix with this book . . . plus the urge to dust off my CDs like The Very Best of Yes for yet another listen.
Hitting the music scene just after 1967's 'Summer of Love,' the progressive (a.k.a. 'prog rock') genre more or less debuted with the arrival of Procol Harum's 'Whiter Shade of Pale' and the Moody Blues' 'Nights in White Satin,' both now considered classic songs of that pop/rock era. With their ranks often comprised of U.K. university students who fused classical and jazz music while also being fond of then-new British Invasion bands, these groups - such as King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Yes and Pink Floyd - were born in the late 1960's but hit their critical and commercial stride in the early 70's to briefly become a dominant force in FM radio, albums sales, and concert tours. However, in-fighting and feuding often meant the acts would experience a continual revolving door of members and/or sometimes flame out after that initial surge in popularity. Author Weigel - whose stock-in-trade is covering politics - details the above-mentioned groups (plus the second-generation mid-70's spawns like Rush, Marillion and various others) in his The Show That Never Ends, appellation courtesy of lyrics from that Emerson, Lake & Palmer's opus with the unwieldy title 'Karn Evil 9 1st Impression Part 2.' A candid and respectful tribute to the guys - and this was a male-dominated field, both in terms of the musicians AND the fans - it was also not afraid to inject some knowing humor into the proceedings, such as this description of the attendees of a 21st century reunion / festival - "These are nostalgic, brainy people. Nobody wants to read rundowns of stereotypes, but every third person either teaches science or reads about it to distract from a computer programming day job . . . or runs a record shop." - which smacks of the truth. I spent my formative teen years of the early 90's listening to a number of these groups on classic rock radio (R.I.P. 94 WYSP-FM of Philadelphia!) in addition to Pink Floyd's '94 tour being my first concert experience, so there was nostalgia in the mix with this book . . . plus the urge to dust off my CDs like The Very Best of Yes for yet another listen.
June 10, 2023
I've been a fan of various prog groups--and the style in general--for a long time. I didn't even know what it was called, just that bands like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Pink Floyd and Rush played amazing music, complex songs featuring formidable musicianship and jaw-dropping solos. In time, I started drifting into goth and punk and industrial and all manner of other varieties, but never forgot my prog roots. So I was excited to hear about this book.
Prog tends to be sneered at by rock critics, looked down upon as uncool. Whatever. My musical tastes are my own, developed not to impress others, but to keep me happy and interested. Coolness is irrelevant. And it occurs to me that I should stop talking about myself and say a word or three about the book.
Weigel gives an impressively detailed history of the genre, from bands that laid the groundwork, to some of the most recent artists keeping it alive. Since part of prog fandom revolves around the constant quest for obscure bands, I'm sure there are all sorts of favorites that didn't get mentioned. Weigel's main focus is on those who defined the form: Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, ELP, Gong, King Crimson, and a few others. He's conducted interviews and delved deeply into all sorts of archives to put together a clear-eyed picture that celebrates the music while acknowledging the missteps and excesses. About the only thing this book lacks that would be helpful is a soundtrack, a common failing of books about music.
In all, this is an impressive history of a type of music that doesn't get nearly the respect that it deserves. Definitely a must-read if you're a prog fan, and worth reading even if you're just curious.
Prog tends to be sneered at by rock critics, looked down upon as uncool. Whatever. My musical tastes are my own, developed not to impress others, but to keep me happy and interested. Coolness is irrelevant. And it occurs to me that I should stop talking about myself and say a word or three about the book.
Weigel gives an impressively detailed history of the genre, from bands that laid the groundwork, to some of the most recent artists keeping it alive. Since part of prog fandom revolves around the constant quest for obscure bands, I'm sure there are all sorts of favorites that didn't get mentioned. Weigel's main focus is on those who defined the form: Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, ELP, Gong, King Crimson, and a few others. He's conducted interviews and delved deeply into all sorts of archives to put together a clear-eyed picture that celebrates the music while acknowledging the missteps and excesses. About the only thing this book lacks that would be helpful is a soundtrack, a common failing of books about music.
In all, this is an impressive history of a type of music that doesn't get nearly the respect that it deserves. Definitely a must-read if you're a prog fan, and worth reading even if you're just curious.
April 27, 2017
Since this was an ARC, I am giving it the benefit of the doubt--that the orphans, inexact paragraphing, references in shorthand to people not mentioned before and the like will be fixed prior to publication. If so, this will still be a junk store of interviews and incomplete history, with far too much talk about Robert Fripp and ELP and far too little about Brian Eno and Can.
Yes of course I ate it up.
Yes of course I ate it up.
April 9, 2018
A super-great history of 1970s progressive rock, aka "prog rock," in fact perhaps the most exhaustive look at the subject in literary history. This gave me a great appreciation for something I never understood before, of why the origins of heavy metal in the early '70s is so closely associated with such un-metal bands like Pink Floyd, Yes and Jethro Tull (short answer -- because both genres essentially started from the same primordial soup of dissatisfied former '60s hippies, only separating into their distinct branches as the '70s continued into the '80s and the music popified into MTV-friendly genres like New Wave and Hair Metal). You don't need to be a fan of this music to love this book, although certainly it helps to have at least been alive when all these developments were actually occurring. One of my favorite reads of the last year.
October 7, 2024
Mostly curious because a friend lent me some Opeth albums a few years ago-- a Danish black metal band-- and I thought one kinda sounded like vintage Genesis and the other like vintage Jethro Tull.
Can't say I'm huge into the genre, but this is certainly a fond tribute, and connects a lot of dots about who we were hearing on the radio, late seventies / early eighties.
Can't say I'm huge into the genre, but this is certainly a fond tribute, and connects a lot of dots about who we were hearing on the radio, late seventies / early eighties.
May 17, 2021
I've read this book about Prog Rock over the span of two years, mostly when I couldn't fall asleep. As someone whose love for Prog doesn't really expand further than listening to "The Yes Album" on repeat a lot (and loving Pink Floyd, although I never really thought of them as prog), I learnt some things. But, boy, the writing is dry! It never really engages you, and there's a lot of names and a lot of bands. The book is mostly done chronologically, and still it feels like it's mostly scraping the surface. Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes are the only bands I kind of got a feel for while reading this book. It did make me curious about some albums (Kansas used to be prog? Wow), but most bands didn't come away sounding very likable.
The author talked a lot about how uncool most people consider Prog, and I know it's true, but it would have been nice to have a little bit of analysis or hypothysis about this. From one year to the other a whole genre is out of fashion? And it never recovers? Most genres go out of fashion without becoming SO uncool. Sadly, this is mostly an overview, and a rather detached one too. But I don't regret reading it.
Wonderful cover art, by the way, and me saying this probably kind of explains why Prog works for me...
The author talked a lot about how uncool most people consider Prog, and I know it's true, but it would have been nice to have a little bit of analysis or hypothysis about this. From one year to the other a whole genre is out of fashion? And it never recovers? Most genres go out of fashion without becoming SO uncool. Sadly, this is mostly an overview, and a rather detached one too. But I don't regret reading it.
Wonderful cover art, by the way, and me saying this probably kind of explains why Prog works for me...
July 17, 2017
in depth look at the progressive music scene from the mid 1960's to the present day taking from personal interviews , press cuttings, music newspapers and how it changed after punk and adapted.
July 16, 2017
All right, I owned or own six Emerson Lake and Palmer LPs, six Yes LPs, King Crimson's
In the Court of the Crimson King
, three (yes, three!!) Rick Wakeman solo albums and a handful of other progressive rock albums. There's probably a half dozen or more such albums on my iPod right now. Caught up in the midst of the prog rock movement, I also admit I'm one of those who bailed when, by the end of the 1970s, it was derided and ridiculed.
Where prog rock came from, its decline and what it left behind are the subject of David Weigel's The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock . As Weigel notes, The Rock Snob's Dictionary describes prog rock as "the single most deplored genre of postwar pop." And it was only 1984 when This is Spinal Tap , a peerless send-up of "prog rock" and some of the metal bands it influenced, was released. Te book, the title of which comes from a 1973 Emerson Lake and Palmer album, is a thoroughly researched and entertaining look at the genre. Yet the nature and history of prog rock is such as to create difficulty for any writer and, as a result, The Show That Never Ends stumbles with a couple unavoidable hurdles.
One confounding factor is the seemingly continuous changes in band personnel. Take drummer Bill Bruford, for example. In addition to forming two bands of his own, he was with Yes for its first five albums (1968-72) and part of a reconstituted Yes in 1991-92, part of two different incarnations of King Crimson (1972-74, 1981-84), the drummer for Genesis on its 1976 tour, and part of a band with three other original members of Yes in 1989. Or consider King Crimson. While its 1969 In the Court of the Crimson King is generally viewed as one of prog rock's best albums, it came and went for decades with 21 different musicians in its various formations.
Despite that, Weigel, a national political correspondence for The Washington Post, seems at his best in delving into the origins and early development of prog rock, following a handful of its preeminent artists and showing the music it spawned. It also reflects the heavily British source of the musicians.
The biggest challenge in examining prog rock is the music itself. The musicians not only aimed at creating complex music with unusual time signatures they sought new sounds, largely through the use of synthesizers and polyphonic keyboards. Yes even bought Slinkys, put microphones on them and threw them down stairs. "If you put a lot of reverb on it, it sounds great," said Yes guitarist Steve Howe. Moreover, Weigel notes, many lyrics "had as much or as little meaning as the listener wanted from them."
Even with a straightforward and traditional approach to any genre, there's the adage that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Add in the unusual and unconventional sounds in prog rock and the level of difficulty is even greater. As a result, The Show That Never Ends has passages like this one, describing the last track on the Yes album Fragile :
Weigel's efforts to translate this music into words are admirable but there's a few too many times when they muddle rather than enlighten. Readers could greatly enhance their enjoyment of the book using streaming music services as a supplement.
Naturally, the most well-known bands, such as Yes, King Crimson and ELP, get plenty of attention. The book also examines the role of many lesser known artists in prog rock's development and its legacy. Oddly, despite its success, Pink Floyd is discussed far less, although that is perhaps because entire books have been written about the band and by its members.
The reasons for the precipitous decline of prog rock are harder to define than the factors that gave rise to it. Declining record sales and Changes in the music industry led to labels dumping progressive rock bands. Yet listeners also abandoned the genre in droves, perhaps in response to the music's complexity. Or perhaps it is just as simple as the fact the bands and the music tended toward bombast, pretension and self-indulgence. I know that was what pushed me away. Still, Weigel makes a good case for prog rock's role in shaping rock music and what would come.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)
Where prog rock came from, its decline and what it left behind are the subject of David Weigel's The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock . As Weigel notes, The Rock Snob's Dictionary describes prog rock as "the single most deplored genre of postwar pop." And it was only 1984 when This is Spinal Tap , a peerless send-up of "prog rock" and some of the metal bands it influenced, was released. Te book, the title of which comes from a 1973 Emerson Lake and Palmer album, is a thoroughly researched and entertaining look at the genre. Yet the nature and history of prog rock is such as to create difficulty for any writer and, as a result, The Show That Never Ends stumbles with a couple unavoidable hurdles.
One confounding factor is the seemingly continuous changes in band personnel. Take drummer Bill Bruford, for example. In addition to forming two bands of his own, he was with Yes for its first five albums (1968-72) and part of a reconstituted Yes in 1991-92, part of two different incarnations of King Crimson (1972-74, 1981-84), the drummer for Genesis on its 1976 tour, and part of a band with three other original members of Yes in 1989. Or consider King Crimson. While its 1969 In the Court of the Crimson King is generally viewed as one of prog rock's best albums, it came and went for decades with 21 different musicians in its various formations.
Despite that, Weigel, a national political correspondence for The Washington Post, seems at his best in delving into the origins and early development of prog rock, following a handful of its preeminent artists and showing the music it spawned. It also reflects the heavily British source of the musicians.
The biggest challenge in examining prog rock is the music itself. The musicians not only aimed at creating complex music with unusual time signatures they sought new sounds, largely through the use of synthesizers and polyphonic keyboards. Yes even bought Slinkys, put microphones on them and threw them down stairs. "If you put a lot of reverb on it, it sounds great," said Yes guitarist Steve Howe. Moreover, Weigel notes, many lyrics "had as much or as little meaning as the listener wanted from them."
Even with a straightforward and traditional approach to any genre, there's the adage that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Add in the unusual and unconventional sounds in prog rock and the level of difficulty is even greater. As a result, The Show That Never Ends has passages like this one, describing the last track on the Yes album Fragile :
It started with a rumble, a 6/8 bass line from [Chris] Squire and a drumroll from Bruford. Then came [Rick] Wakeman, with a horror-film keyboard melody in 3/4. Back to the ascending riff, joined by Howe’s guitar. The melody suddenly changed, to a 4/4 beat, with the original riff being phased in slowly by the mix. Then a dropout, to a melody that Anderson had written on his acoustic guitar. The themes repeated, announced at various intervals on keyboards, by what the band came to call "Rick-recapitulation."
Weigel's efforts to translate this music into words are admirable but there's a few too many times when they muddle rather than enlighten. Readers could greatly enhance their enjoyment of the book using streaming music services as a supplement.
Naturally, the most well-known bands, such as Yes, King Crimson and ELP, get plenty of attention. The book also examines the role of many lesser known artists in prog rock's development and its legacy. Oddly, despite its success, Pink Floyd is discussed far less, although that is perhaps because entire books have been written about the band and by its members.
The reasons for the precipitous decline of prog rock are harder to define than the factors that gave rise to it. Declining record sales and Changes in the music industry led to labels dumping progressive rock bands. Yet listeners also abandoned the genre in droves, perhaps in response to the music's complexity. Or perhaps it is just as simple as the fact the bands and the music tended toward bombast, pretension and self-indulgence. I know that was what pushed me away. Still, Weigel makes a good case for prog rock's role in shaping rock music and what would come.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)
April 25, 2019
Interesting to those with only the most passing familiarity of Prog. Serves well as a primer, but that’s about it. I was hoping to get turned on to some obscure nazz beneath my radar; 20-pages in I began shitting in the other hand. The writing is fine for the broad scope, but I want minutia!
Fripp, Bruford, and Wakeman are three funny bastards, though. Ho hum (in 15/9 time).
Fripp, Bruford, and Wakeman are three funny bastards, though. Ho hum (in 15/9 time).
July 1, 2017
I grew up in the pre-Internet age of music journalism, which included the Rolling Stone Record Guides (remember the red and blue rock volumes and notorious yellow jazz guide?) with their narrow, doctrinaire spectrum of acceptable taste. Those books expended an enormous amount of critical invective on disco, soft rock, hard rock, and jazz fusion, rejecting anything that demonstrated “empty virtuosity” or committed the cardinal sin of being "over-produced." Punk, new wave, classic jazz, soul and the 60's rock canon generally received the best reviews, canonical lines of critical thinking that remained more or less untouched for decades. Inevitably, there’s been recent change. Critical obsessions have shifted away from forgotten sub-genres, and monolithic taste-makers like Greil Marcus or Lester Bangs have been replaced by splintered Internet reviewers. One could even argue that rock itself has nearly vanished as a cultural interest.
That makes it a good time to reevaluate, or at least revisit progressive ("prog") rock, the popular 70’s sub-genre that emphasized virtuoso instrumental technique, abstract lyrics written in defiant answer to pop's simplicity, and extended forms that owed more to jazz and classical. Enough time has passed since the chart-topping Nixon- through Carter-era achievements of Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Genesis to ensure that any affront to culture or taste have vanished like the smoke bombs at a Gentle Giant concert. Prog is now tied to a distant, evocative cultural moment.
Where did it begin? Prog laid roots as soon as bands like the Beatles and Beach Boys began to experiment with classical instrumentation, oblique lyrics and unconventional song structures. Those initial forays quickly splintered into innumerable ambitious and over-ambitious musical efforts: psychedelia, orchestral rock, and a range of albums made in the dubious name of "art." As Weigel points out, prog's key architects found their musical direction almost by chance; most came of age in the 1950s, where they were as likely to be exposed to jazz, classical and Anglican hymns as Chuck Berry. Those with natural virtuosity, such as keyboard star Keith Emerson, followed an instrumental, as opposed to song-based, path to stardom.
So why is prog maligned? Or is it really? On examination, it's as much a curate's egg as any genre, with respected masterpieces from Pink Floyd and King Crimson, works of eccentric and brilliant virtuosity from Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes, and offbeat instrumental blockbusters such as Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells." Prog also encompassed cult "art" music that was more Terry Riley than Rolling Stones: Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, the progressive jazz of Soft Machine and its numerous interrelated projects of the Canterbury scene. Prog offered some towering musical successes and as many failures, both fueled by a sense of ambitious overreach.
Fortunately, Weiss does not have a precise critical agenda, and “The Show That Never Ends” is more cultural history than apologia. Genre titans like ELP and Yes loom large, but so does Robert Fripp, whose protean career with various incarnations of King Crimson and a body of solo work illustrates how a musician at the edge of the movement could thrive by adapting even the most oblique musical visions to changing times. Similarly, “The Show That Never Ends” is a chronicle of shifting tastes and a commentary on the protean nature of pop culture. Prog’s solos may have been longer and its ideas more floridly ambitious, but this could be the story of any trend that burns brightly and dies a natural death at the whims of a restless public.
That makes it a good time to reevaluate, or at least revisit progressive ("prog") rock, the popular 70’s sub-genre that emphasized virtuoso instrumental technique, abstract lyrics written in defiant answer to pop's simplicity, and extended forms that owed more to jazz and classical. Enough time has passed since the chart-topping Nixon- through Carter-era achievements of Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Genesis to ensure that any affront to culture or taste have vanished like the smoke bombs at a Gentle Giant concert. Prog is now tied to a distant, evocative cultural moment.
Where did it begin? Prog laid roots as soon as bands like the Beatles and Beach Boys began to experiment with classical instrumentation, oblique lyrics and unconventional song structures. Those initial forays quickly splintered into innumerable ambitious and over-ambitious musical efforts: psychedelia, orchestral rock, and a range of albums made in the dubious name of "art." As Weigel points out, prog's key architects found their musical direction almost by chance; most came of age in the 1950s, where they were as likely to be exposed to jazz, classical and Anglican hymns as Chuck Berry. Those with natural virtuosity, such as keyboard star Keith Emerson, followed an instrumental, as opposed to song-based, path to stardom.
So why is prog maligned? Or is it really? On examination, it's as much a curate's egg as any genre, with respected masterpieces from Pink Floyd and King Crimson, works of eccentric and brilliant virtuosity from Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes, and offbeat instrumental blockbusters such as Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells." Prog also encompassed cult "art" music that was more Terry Riley than Rolling Stones: Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, the progressive jazz of Soft Machine and its numerous interrelated projects of the Canterbury scene. Prog offered some towering musical successes and as many failures, both fueled by a sense of ambitious overreach.
Fortunately, Weiss does not have a precise critical agenda, and “The Show That Never Ends” is more cultural history than apologia. Genre titans like ELP and Yes loom large, but so does Robert Fripp, whose protean career with various incarnations of King Crimson and a body of solo work illustrates how a musician at the edge of the movement could thrive by adapting even the most oblique musical visions to changing times. Similarly, “The Show That Never Ends” is a chronicle of shifting tastes and a commentary on the protean nature of pop culture. Prog’s solos may have been longer and its ideas more floridly ambitious, but this could be the story of any trend that burns brightly and dies a natural death at the whims of a restless public.
March 26, 2019
OK, I can't imagine anyone reading this who is not a fan of progressive rock, but it really is for fans only (which I am). The author does no hand holding; from the start you are barraged by names of musicians and bands with the assumption that you know exactly who he is talking about (and I usually did, though some of them barely made a dent in the US market). This is (again to the fans) exactly what the title says, and though he gives too much attention to Rush (not in my mind a true progressive band) and the various incarnations of Yes, I very much enjoyed a look at the formation of the bands and music. Of course we all have our quibbles at who is left out: no Renaissance! no Nektar, no Kayak, no Triumvirate, no mention of ELO's masterpiece Eldorado, and only a side reference to the Strawbs, big misses to me. I admit to skimming some of this and would have liked more pictures, but if you are a progressive rock fan you will enjoy this book.
January 19, 2018
Progressive rock often struck me a pompous and cold when I was younger. I couldn’t handle the silly, spacey lyrics and endless jams. As I got older I appreciate the skill and musicianship these groups possessed. Frankly, they are more interesting than the bands who know three chords. This book was a fun romp through the history of select prog bands, mostly Yes, Genesis, the Soft Machine, King Crimson, and ELP. It is sad to see how high they flew and how hard they crashed. Also, it is sad how so many recently died without the accolades they deserved.
June 20, 2017
Audible Audio version. This book was fun to read and obviously written with love for the much maligned, prog rock. It focused on King Crimson, Rush, Yes, Early Genesis, Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake and Palmer but also other lesser known bands that tried to carry on the prog tradition (Porcupine Tree). I don't care...I like prog rock. I got a fever and the only cure is more moog synthesizer
January 29, 2025
Solid read. Did you know that Yes decorated their studio with a cardboard cow and hay bales during their recording of the much-maligned Tales from Topographic Oceans?
October 25, 2019
Wow, what a major disappointment. I won't be able to write a better review than - Matthew Budman - so see his review. Don't waste your time on this book.
January 8, 2018
It's good, not great. I enjoy Weigel's clear and enthusiastic writing, however the book itself is something of a mess in terms of structure and aim. It is essentially a summary of the big hits of progressive rock, starting with the mid-sixties and ostensibly, the present day (although the bulk of the narrative ends at the eighties). However in casting so wide a net we end up with a pretty shallow book that fails to do much else than package anecdotes and tales in a chronology.
Weigel's background in political reporting is clear. He is focused on shifts in power and dynamic like lineup changes, royalty disputes, rivalries, industry maneuvering, and so forth. But, when it comes to the music, it is rote and vague, as though he were describing the sheet music to you. You read a lot about a song's time signatures, when players dip in and out, the length of the songs, but very little of the experience one has listening to songs about cyborg armadillos and sewer monsters covered in genitalia. One does not glean that there's much joy or excitement in the music, rather than the vicarious thrill of listening to thinking-peoples' music.
The reader is treated to a long string of anecdotes, many of them quite fanciful. There is a tale of Procol Harum walking into a furniture shop in London to find the Beatles - all of them - gathered around a piano singing "Whiter Shade of Pale." Yes, and then the entire classroom gave a standing ovation, I am sure. Such stories are presented with no skepticism, insight, or critique, but just that they were alleged to happen and such is the mythology of the sound. Thus, in a book that purports to argue for prog rock, we are treated to the antics of self-absorbed twits like Greg Lake, Chris Squire, and Robert Fripp running around wondering why more people don't realize what geniuses they are.
Despite its aims, the book is surprisingly shallow and limited in scope. We hear a lot about King Crimson, Genesis, Yes, and ELP, with some asides for Mike Oldfield, Rush, and Soft Machine. We do get a chapter about Marillion, which is great, I suppose, but even then half of it is preoccupied on endlessly reminding us that Genesis got commercial, and so did Yes, and everyone was pretty upset about punk music and whatnot. He spends very brief periods of time on other bands, other sounds, and anything going on outside of prog is essentially ignored. Instead, we get to hear about how mad the ELP boys are at each other, over and over again.
Ultimately, this lack of context is the book's biggest flaw. So much goes uncontested, primarily the very racist undertones of "trying to replace the American influences of pop music with European ones," that it almost feels like Weigel assumes that prog rock is something that, if you just listen to it and take it seriously, you'll see what it's so great. There is no attempt to make a case for the importance of prog music in the modern landscape, no comparison or contrast between them and the experimentation going on elsewhere in music. It's not going to change anyone's mind or expand anyone's thinking, for sure.
Weigel's background in political reporting is clear. He is focused on shifts in power and dynamic like lineup changes, royalty disputes, rivalries, industry maneuvering, and so forth. But, when it comes to the music, it is rote and vague, as though he were describing the sheet music to you. You read a lot about a song's time signatures, when players dip in and out, the length of the songs, but very little of the experience one has listening to songs about cyborg armadillos and sewer monsters covered in genitalia. One does not glean that there's much joy or excitement in the music, rather than the vicarious thrill of listening to thinking-peoples' music.
The reader is treated to a long string of anecdotes, many of them quite fanciful. There is a tale of Procol Harum walking into a furniture shop in London to find the Beatles - all of them - gathered around a piano singing "Whiter Shade of Pale." Yes, and then the entire classroom gave a standing ovation, I am sure. Such stories are presented with no skepticism, insight, or critique, but just that they were alleged to happen and such is the mythology of the sound. Thus, in a book that purports to argue for prog rock, we are treated to the antics of self-absorbed twits like Greg Lake, Chris Squire, and Robert Fripp running around wondering why more people don't realize what geniuses they are.
Despite its aims, the book is surprisingly shallow and limited in scope. We hear a lot about King Crimson, Genesis, Yes, and ELP, with some asides for Mike Oldfield, Rush, and Soft Machine. We do get a chapter about Marillion, which is great, I suppose, but even then half of it is preoccupied on endlessly reminding us that Genesis got commercial, and so did Yes, and everyone was pretty upset about punk music and whatnot. He spends very brief periods of time on other bands, other sounds, and anything going on outside of prog is essentially ignored. Instead, we get to hear about how mad the ELP boys are at each other, over and over again.
Ultimately, this lack of context is the book's biggest flaw. So much goes uncontested, primarily the very racist undertones of "trying to replace the American influences of pop music with European ones," that it almost feels like Weigel assumes that prog rock is something that, if you just listen to it and take it seriously, you'll see what it's so great. There is no attempt to make a case for the importance of prog music in the modern landscape, no comparison or contrast between them and the experimentation going on elsewhere in music. It's not going to change anyone's mind or expand anyone's thinking, for sure.
April 29, 2025
You never notice good editing more than when it's absent, like it is in this book. Every chapter references people, songs, and events that haven't been discussed yet. This left me confused and googling again and again, except when I was lucky enough to already know what Weigel was talking about. Sometimes, however, I also knew better (as when Weigel writes about Dream Theater) and noticed mistakes that probably hint at more mistakes in other sections.
As a pure chronicle of prog rock, the book is okay. It somewhat reliably recounts the careers of prog's biggest bands, Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and ELP (and their many side projects), mostly through interviews and contemporary magazine articles, sometimes through song or album analyses that don't seem to follow any discernible pattern. Weigel sprinkles in sections on some smaller bands and goes a bit more in depth on some of the most influential second-wave bands like Rush, Marillion and Porcupine Tree, understandably cropped to the essentials.
The biggest flaw of the book, however, is that it doesn't really put forward any interesting ideas other than one expressed at the end of the book: "The progessives' revolution was the weirdest, and the best." Which is not an idea, just an opinion. Countless times, Weigel references a zeitgeist without explaining or expressing any thoughts about it. He doesn't seem to have any real thesis about why prog was huge for a while and then wasn't anymore. Which, at least in my opinion, should really be the objective of a book like this.
As a pure chronicle of prog rock, the book is okay. It somewhat reliably recounts the careers of prog's biggest bands, Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and ELP (and their many side projects), mostly through interviews and contemporary magazine articles, sometimes through song or album analyses that don't seem to follow any discernible pattern. Weigel sprinkles in sections on some smaller bands and goes a bit more in depth on some of the most influential second-wave bands like Rush, Marillion and Porcupine Tree, understandably cropped to the essentials.
The biggest flaw of the book, however, is that it doesn't really put forward any interesting ideas other than one expressed at the end of the book: "The progessives' revolution was the weirdest, and the best." Which is not an idea, just an opinion. Countless times, Weigel references a zeitgeist without explaining or expressing any thoughts about it. He doesn't seem to have any real thesis about why prog was huge for a while and then wasn't anymore. Which, at least in my opinion, should really be the objective of a book like this.
February 27, 2019
Quite enjoyable walk through the history of progressive rock. Just to be clear, the author basically begins this era with King Crimson, pinnacles at ELP, and is in awe of early Yes. There is then the ongoing saga of second and third wave of progressive rock against a background of the intertwining destinies of the creatives who took part in the inception - wending their way through band breakups, reunions, punk and commercialism.
I listened to the audio book, and there were a few gaffs, maybe misprints, maybe audio errors e.g. the wrong band name used at the wrong time which threw the narrative off a little (Yes/Genesis etc) but as I listen on my commute it’s also possible I just missed a beat (I didn’t go back to check that they said Misplaced was the second Marillion album for instance). To make up for that the reader actually does some accents, the Scottish is almost worth just listening to the book for!
It’s definitely front heavy on history with less detail on bands in the later waves of progressive, but it also depends on your definition I guess.
Would make, in my mind, an excellent documentary or podcast series with the music actually intertwined, and for the audiobook that was he biggest thing missing. Off to my back catalog right now....
I listened to the audio book, and there were a few gaffs, maybe misprints, maybe audio errors e.g. the wrong band name used at the wrong time which threw the narrative off a little (Yes/Genesis etc) but as I listen on my commute it’s also possible I just missed a beat (I didn’t go back to check that they said Misplaced was the second Marillion album for instance). To make up for that the reader actually does some accents, the Scottish is almost worth just listening to the book for!
It’s definitely front heavy on history with less detail on bands in the later waves of progressive, but it also depends on your definition I guess.
Would make, in my mind, an excellent documentary or podcast series with the music actually intertwined, and for the audiobook that was he biggest thing missing. Off to my back catalog right now....
August 4, 2017
While THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS gives a decent summation of the history and development of prog rock (starting with King Crimson's debut album in 1969 and continuing with more modern bands such as Dream Theater) Weigel still tends to gloss over certain spots which makes the narrative feel a bit choppy. He spends a lot of time detailing the careers of Genesis, Robert Fripp (King Crimson's founder), Yes and ELP (Emerson, Lake and Palmer), but he seems to leave out things. For example, Weigel gives a brief account of how guitarist Steve Hackett joined Genesis (the band had already recorded their first two albums at this point), but mentions nothing of drummer Phil Collins becoming a part of the group (he came on the same time as Hackett, leading to Genesis's first classic album NURSERY CRYME in 1971). So that bugged me a little bit.
Also, as the story moves into the 1980s Weigel begins discussing bands I never heard of and therefore songs I've never heard so I became a little bit less interested as the book went on. Not Weigel's fault, but familiarity with the music being written about is key to the enjoyment, I think.
One final minor complaint: Weigel has clearly done his homework when it comes to music theory. There are numerous times when Weigel is discussing the actual notes to a particular melody or the chord structure for a song. But for someone like me, it didn't help. I would need to hear the actual piece of music Weigel was talking about. Getting the rights to the various songs discussed in this book would probably be too expensive to be worth it, but a CD containing the songs discussed in such detail would have been a great addition, especially for any and all songs the reader is not familiar with.
Also, as the story moves into the 1980s Weigel begins discussing bands I never heard of and therefore songs I've never heard so I became a little bit less interested as the book went on. Not Weigel's fault, but familiarity with the music being written about is key to the enjoyment, I think.
One final minor complaint: Weigel has clearly done his homework when it comes to music theory. There are numerous times when Weigel is discussing the actual notes to a particular melody or the chord structure for a song. But for someone like me, it didn't help. I would need to hear the actual piece of music Weigel was talking about. Getting the rights to the various songs discussed in this book would probably be too expensive to be worth it, but a CD containing the songs discussed in such detail would have been a great addition, especially for any and all songs the reader is not familiar with.
August 28, 2024
A very enjoyable book for a fan of prog rock. Apart from occasional digressions, it mostly serves as a history of four bands: ELP, Yes, Genesis and King Crimson. It gives a little bit of everything: anecdotes about the band members and how they arrived and left, unique features of the music, the experience of live performance and studio recording, the management and business behind the scenes, and so on. There was much in it that I hadn't heard before, but I also suspect the book would have made much less sense if I wasn't already familiar with as many of the important names as I already am.
If there's a more in-depth book on the music itself, I would be interested. Bill Bruford's autobiography is the next book I intend to read on the subject.
If there's a more in-depth book on the music itself, I would be interested. Bill Bruford's autobiography is the next book I intend to read on the subject.
January 7, 2018
This is...OK. It's not a bad book, by any means, and if you're interested in prog rock, I do recommend it. But I was still a bit disappointed by it, because there's not a lot of flare in the writing, and not a whole lot that conveys the idea that for author Weigel writing this book was a labor of love. The book is a straightforward, journalistic recounting of the basic history of one particular genre of rock music. As such it's a decent read that left me wanting more personal interjection and reflection on the part of the writer.
September 16, 2018
As you might imagine, this is really for fans of progressive rock, though one not need be deeply into it. All the usual suspects are here, of course--Yes, King Crimson, Rush, ELP--but we get a tour of the genre's beginnings with less well-known names (Daevid Allen, Mike Oldfield), as well as some maybe surprising personalities (like Richard Branson). All in all worthwhile for prog fans, or even those interested in the history of music. Best tidbit (IMO): Crowdfunding, so commonplace now, was started by a Marillion fan on a message board, encouraging other fans to pitch in to ensure the band could tour the States!
August 27, 2017
A great primer on an unfairly-maligned genre. The book's principal weakness is its obsessive thoroughness -- too much recitation of band line-up changes, album releases, recording dates, and so forth. It's far too dry for long stretches. In his effort to convey the sweep of the genre, Weigel spends too little time contextualizing the music's broader place in the culture. His entire thesis is reserved for the book's final pages -- I wish he'd brought that editorial voice into more of the book's body.
June 30, 2017
A good history of Progressive Rock, but my main complaint is that the book tails off sharply by the mid-80's after Marillion is introduced. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since "rise and fall" is in the title, but I still would have liked more than passing mention of the bands that have come forth since that are keeping the Prog Rock flag flying.
March 1, 2018
A concise, sympathetic (but not sentimental) history of a musical movement that still resists packaging into any definable shape. Now that some of the primary actors in prog rock are dying, it seems time for some less petulant reassessments, and this one is a good start.
October 30, 2019
This book is basically a really long Wikipedia article.
But like a wiki piece I learned a lot of info, just no real why questions answered.
Also did Moody Blues die in 1967? Because they get almost no mention after that.
But like a wiki piece I learned a lot of info, just no real why questions answered.
Also did Moody Blues die in 1967? Because they get almost no mention after that.
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October 4, 2019so good, I know nothing about music but I know everything about king crimson now
October 5, 2017
The Show that never ends, the name based on a the lyrics of a ELP song (that is, Emerson, Lake and Palmer for those not in the know), was good for introducing Progressive Rock bands to an ear whom had never once heard of them. However, I found that the author was a tad too King Crimson-centric for my tastes. Also, he tended to skip around too much, sometimes to the point of confusion.
September 11, 2023
A history of progressive rock. Covers all the main bases, writing style is jumpy and fragmented. Gained a little new knowledge.
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