Re: What the hell is Progressive?

[Jeff House <jjthandmeh@juno.com>]

keets: "Not only did they choose punk style songs over pop for the album,
but they've actually made a statement by trashing a pop genre song."

and  "Hmmm.  Maybe that's pretentious, after all."

I think "The Ox" is progressive (by your definition), but it is not
pretentious.  It is full of playfulness and humor.  I was trying to relate
the music of The Who to the Prog Rock sub genre.  To me, Prog Rock is
pretentious because it is an attempt to bring more high brow sensibilities
(as you pointed out) to rock, which at is base is very low brow.  Pretension
is not necessarily a bad thing, but can be annoying when it goes unchecked. 
One of the great things about The Who is that they have stretched all kinds
of boundaries in rock but have always been able to maintain a
self-deprecating sense of humor about what they are doing.

Of course, this was the role that Keith played in the band's philosophy (and
John to some extent).  Keith really knew how to deflate Pete's art school
bullshit and keep the pretension in check.

Jeff