The 100 Best Classic Progressive Rock Songs: Part 5, 20-1

Welcome back, my friends to the show that never ends. It's the 100 best classic progressive rock songs.

                                      
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Welcome back, my friends to the show that never ends. It's the 100 best classic progressive rock songs.

After gamely attempting to track the 25 best old-school progressive albums of all time, it's inevitable we turn our attention to the best songs of the genre.

The purpose of this column has been to revisit, reassess and, above all, celebrate classic prog rock, so it’s inevitable we name names and select the best of the best.

On the eve of a US tour with Toto, Yes bassist Billy Sherwood talks about the band's past, future, and the phone calls that forever changed his life.

It's not as if Rush's classic '70s output needed reassessment, but their new vinyl reissues are still revelatory.

Prepare to travel back in time to an era where an eight-minute progressive rock song was a smash hit.

Anthology serves its purpose -- that is, to compile Howe’s solo stock and spotlight him outside the confines of his day job.

The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd talks with PopMatters about new group Electric Würms, his thoughts on progressive rock, and decades of musical exploration.

Steve Howe and his Yes bandmates are obviously driven by a desire, perhaps an obsession, to measure up favorably, and to improve upon what they’ve already achieved.

Last month, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced the 16 contenders for its Class of 2014. Sound Affects picks five artists from a very strong ballot that it would vote for.

In addition to being one of the pivotal bands of the early '70s, Yes perfected prog-rock as a kind of performance art in sound.

Excellent writing from Rick Moody, Peter Case, Jim DeRogatis, and the man formerly known as John Wesley Harding. All on the subject of prog.

One day, Jon Davison was singing in a Yes tribute band. Then, he actually became the touring lead singer of Yes. Now, he shares his tale, along with how he and the band prepping to play three albums in full every night of their upcoming tour ...

It's 1977. You're young and pissed off. If you wanted noise and petulance, you had the Sex Pistols. But if you really wanted to rattle some cages, you had Animals.

Prog that doesn't actually progress anywhere.

Pick an established classic rock band which celebrated its heyday in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. The group stubbornly refuses to hang it up. They just need a new frontman.

Yes is now without Jon Anderson again, and they manage to not fall flat on their faces with Fly From Here.

Put as simply -- and starkly -- as possible, many beautiful babies were thrown out with the bath water by hidebound critics who were content to sniffingly dismiss the more ambitious (pretentious!) works that certain bands were putting out as a matter of course in the early-to-mid-‘70s.

Continuing our look at the year’s most notable television events, here’s what happened in December 2010.

When it comes to matters of taste and ranking (a particularly combustible combination), there is no pleasing everyone. In fact, there is no pleasing anyone, since the list makers themselves are invariably disappointed or frustrated. And yet...

A growing list of bands unpopular with critics, but genre-defining nevertheless, is impatiently awaiting their admittance into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It's a solid concert from 2001, but it won't be converting a new generation of fans.

Finally, a superproducer/veteran pairing that yields dividends. Sorry, PETA, Pet Shop Boys aren't going anywhere.

Easily the best Asia album in 25 years. If only it hadn't been released a quarter of a century ago.

Does the world really need another Karen O. clone fronting a Blondie-influenced punk band?

If Yoko Ono is truly a witch as she professes, then her new collaboration with some of today’s hippest artists is a haunting mixed-genre brew.

The cabaret feel is still there, but Virginia’s more refined sound makes the Boston duo’s second album a winner.

If you can ignore Yes's somewhat ridiculous stage habits, and the confetti, you'll find that this semi-recent live DVD shows that progressive rock, at its best, can atone for its sins.

How can anyone but the most hard-hearted cynic hate Yes?"