I knew rock music for the first time when my mom bought a tape recorder Panasonic for our home in small city, Madiun, located around 750 mile away from Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta. My big brother, Henky, bought six rock cassettes which one of them was Uriah Heep “Demons and Wizards”. This album quickly became our home’s favorite cassette. Even my mom liked Uriah Heep cassette and almost everyday we put “He was the wizard of a thousand kings ….”. I considered this period as my first introduction to rock music with other groups like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Golden Earring, El Chicano.
A year later Henky went to university in Yogya and he did broadcasting work in the evening for local radio station, Geronimo. Sometime in 1974, my school mate - named Cahaya Utama - told me that there was a great song by a group called ELP which titled “Yes”. I sent a letter to Henky if he could help me to find the song. He brought me a recorded cassette (from an LP) with type-written song titles under YES “Fragile”. I was not happy because he did not bring the ELP song titled “Yes”. With that regret, I played the cassette anyway. Oh man … the first song “Roundabout” really blew me away!!! I could not believe that human being could create such brilliant song! I was hooked to this kind of music (a kind that later would be called as progressive rock). I did enjoy also “Southside of the Sky” and “Heart of the Sunrise”. Since then, I love this kind of music. So, I would consider the year 1974 as my first introduction to prog rock through YES “Fragile”.
Then I got “Yessongs” where I felt in love with “Perpetual Change” performed live – so energetic! Damn great mannnnn!!!! About the same period, Henky also gave me Genesis “Nursery Cryme”. But I explored more on YES until I got “Tales from Topographic” and “Relayer”. These two albums have pushed me forward and made me realize that Yes was a rock group with no comparison. They are just terrific! “The Revealing Science of God”, “The Ancient” and “The Gates of Delirium” were my top list favorites, especially the latter. In this period also I got Rick Wakeman’s solo “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “The Six Wives” which I admired as well. Later, I explored into many other groups like Genesis, ELP, Kayak, Focus, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Van der Graaf, etc.
I was frustrated – in 1983 – because many prog bands like Genesis and Yes changed their music direction. The new wave era was everywhere and finally on one afternoon I listened to for the first time “So here I am once more. In a playground of a broken heart. One more experience one more entry in a diary self penned!” Wow !!! What a terrific piece of opening from an “unknown” band that later I realized as MARILLION. Soon, this band was becoming my “only” favourite! I could not imagine what would happen in progressive world if there was no MARILLION who dare to stand up and challenge the punk and new wave music under their era?!!!! Tell me, my friend .. Yup, confirmed! Marillion is the hero of progressive music. I know, some of you might say that their music is derivative. So what? The fact was that they’re so brave with their singleness of purpose to get their prog ideas across. Having noticed that major prog bands were heading into other directions (going poppy) Marillion carried the torch and succeeded. And now, many groups have been heavily influenced by Marillion. This is not only prog rock but also in the arena of power metal or prog metal.
And … this is how prog rock affected me personally, and the world around us, in three ways ..
First. 1984 was my last year in the university where I studied industrial engineering. Marillion “Script” and “Fugazi” albums helped me a lot during the nights and days when I struggled with my thesis. I kept playing those two albums every day and night to boost up my spirit to complete my study. During the night when I wrote my thoughts on paper, I always play Marillion or Genesis. I remember clearly with the song Fugazi …. “Vodka intimate, an affair with isolation in a Blackheath cell. Extinguishing … “ uh mann … these parts of lyrics really stimulate my adrenaline to explode! And it continued nicely with a pondering vocals of Fish “Of a bleeding heart poet in a fragile capsule. Propping up the crust of the glitter conscience. Wrapped in the christening shawl of a hangover. Baptised in the tears from the real” – guitar fills (nice!) - and when it turns into this part: “Drowning in the liquid seize on the Piccadilly line, rat race … etc” I add my amplifier volume high. WOW!!! With the spirit of Marillion, I did complete my engineering degree with “distinguished” score man….!!! Yeah …..!!!!
Second. Sometime in 1994, I was a management consultant for Price Waterhouse Consulting Indonesia with a big project to reengineer the business process of a large distribution network company for a commodity products spanned across 27 provinces. Couple months I struggled with the project challenges and when it came into final report where I had to put my final thoughts together, I was totally BLANK with all reengineering efforts that I got involved with. But one night when I was about frustrated with what I should put on my final report, I sipped a coffee at home while staring at a wall where I hung a huge (1 meter X 1 meter) cover of Marillion “Script for A Jester’s Tear” album. I looked at the cover in great details and imagined what the cover meant. It looked to me that the cover was depicting someone (jester) who is working very hard in disorganized room where he might have struggled days and nights to craft the best tunes he is going to make. Notes were everywhere, his face was gloomy – not sure what’s going to happen next “would the result of my hard work sell?”. Or something like that. Suddenly, something struck into my head:” I’m a jester too …!!! Yeah exactly man … I’m now fully confused on what to do despite all the hard work and dirty hands work with distribution people, got nowhere how to make a robust recommendations for my project!”, I said to myself. But hold on … the jester in “Script” cover has successfully made a great work (my view) with great album. What about me then? Ehm …. I have to make it happen! Yeah, I have to create a wonderful product as the jester has made it!
So, that night all my wild ideas came out from my mind and I grabbed a book by Kenichi Ohmae “The Mind of The Strategist” and Yeah .. I got the idea! You know what? I proposed that idea to my Managing Partner the next morning and he approved my idea about the final recommendation ! Two weeks later, my managing partner and I made a presentation to the client and … they accepted our ideas man …!!! Oh man … I could not believe that prog ideas (with some reference to Kenichi Ohmae) can make a difference!! By the way, the recommendation was finally implemented and surprisingly when I had a “reunion” lunch with my ex Managing Partner last month, he still talked highly about the work that I contributed – a decade ago – to that massive reengineering work.
Third. In 2004 I started my career as prog reviewer in progarchives. I got nothing but “passion” in my mind. I did not know how to write a music review. I just wanted my ideas flow from my heart and my mind. I wrote whatever I wanted. The Admin group offered me as PROG REVIEWER! So, I was very happy with it. What makes me happy is that, I got a lot of excellent feedbacks from the readers as well as my colleague reviewers – thanks!. When tsunami strike my country, I received a lot of emails that sympathized the situation. They sent condolences and made sure that I was OK. I have seen also many prog websites and progheads formed a charity for those who are suffering in areas impacted by tsunami. One thing that I have learned from being active in prog community : prog solidarity! So, prog unites people!
While I’m writing this, I’m amazed that everything has substantial meaning every 10 years time: 1974 (my first intro to prog through YES), 1984 (the year MARILLION and GENESIS affected my engineering graduation), 1994 (the year Marillion cover “Script” inspired me for final recommendation as management consultant) and 2004 (the year I started my career as PROG REVIEWER and how prog community concern for tsunami).
Gatot Widayanto
You can visit my reviews of progressive rock music at:
http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=46
