The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock

by David Weigel Narrated by Rudy Sanda

Overview

The Show That Never Ends is the behind-the-scenes 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, and their successors Rush, Styx, and Asia.



With inside access to all the key figures, Washington Post national reporter David Weigel tells the story with the gusto and insight Prog Rock's fans (and its haters) will relish. Along the way, he explains exactly what was “progressive” about Prog Rock, how it arose from psychedelia and heavy metal, why it dominated the pop charts but then became so despised that it was satirized in This Is Spinal Tap, and what fuels its resurgent popularity today.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Audio

09/04/2017
Washington Post reporter Weigel draws on interviews with musicians, industry insiders, and fans in this history of progressive rock. He traces its beginnings from the early 20th century to its initial influencers in the 1960s, full emergence in the ’70s, and downward turn in the ’80s and ’90s, profiling numerous musicians along the way, including the Beatles, ELO, Kansas, and King Crimson. Voice actor Sanda stands in for Weigel in the audio edition, but never captures the author’s enthusiasm for his subject. Too often, his narration is flat. The book makes use of a lot of quotes from the people Weigel interviewed, but in Sanda’s reading there’s no way of distinguishing when a quote ends. As with other productions that adapt text about sound into an audio format, this one fails to capitalize on using sound creatively or to its advantage. A Norton hardcover. (June)

Publishers Weekly

04/10/2017
Drawing heavily on interviews with musicians, music industry insiders, and fans, Weigel, a progressive rock enthusiast and Washington Post reporter, provides a workmanlike, sentimental, and well-researched survey of a music genre that became popular in the mid-1970s. Weigel defines three musical modes of progressive rock: retrospection, futurism, and experimentation. He then highlights the artists who led the rise of the music— Emerson, Lake, and Palmer (ELP), Genesis, King Crimson, the Moody Blues, Procul Harum, and Yes, among others—as it developed out of psychedelic music and heavy metal. Prog rock trades in the ethereal and the spiritual; according to Robert Fripp, one of the founders of King Crimson, the music “leant over us and took us into its confidence.” Weigel instructively reminds readers that some bands wove in the elements of classical music—ELP released an entire album of their version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition—and creatively used instruments such as the Moog synthesizer to experiment and go beyond the borders of rock. Progressive rock’s popularity eventually waned in the late ’70s as punk came into vogue, but Weigel wistfully reminds readers that prog rockers were once pioneers in writing “gooseflesh-raising music.” (June)

Los Angeles Review of Books - Anthony Mostrum

"Weigel’s detailed, gossipy coverage . . . is a very good thing."

The Wire - Phil Freeman

"A well-researched, informative, and entertaining chronicle of the music’s emergence, golden era, and eventual transition from rock’s future to its past."

Rob Salkowitz

"[The Show That Never Ends] tells a story of interest to both fans [of prog rock] and readers interested in the business of popular culture. . . . Weigel delivers a fun, compulsively readable account."

The New Yorker - Kelefa Sanneh

"Savvy . . . [and] too short."

Edgar Wright

"A deep, detailed, funny and affectionate dive into the history of prog rock."

Pitchfork - Ryan Dombal

"A diligently researched chronicle [that] aims to grant the much-maligned genre something that has eluded it for decades: respect."

John Williams

"A new history of [prog] written by an ardent, straight-faced defender who also understands what is most outlandishly entertaining about it."

NPR - Jason Heller

"Weigel weaves the stories of platinum-selling bands like Pink Floyd and Rush into a broader portrait of a rapidly shifting musical landscape. His training as a journalist is everywhere, from the crisp reporting to the deeply researched quotes. His knack for lean, efficient music analysis is refreshing . . . and his obvious passion for the music elevates the narrative."

Library Journal - Audio

09/15/2017
Progressive rock originated in the 1960s and reached its height in the 1970s. Washington Post journalist Weigel's history of the style begins with its classical origins and influences and takes a deep dive into its psychedelic roots, tracing the complex cross-pollination among bands as prog evolved. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's and King Crimson's stories form the heart of the book, with artists such as Genesis, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Marillion, and Rush orbiting the narrative. The overview wraps up with a chapter on the genre's continuing influences from the 1990s to the present. Rudy Sanda's narration is personable and bright (though prog purists may ding him for his pronunciation of "Moog"). VERDICT For fans of prog, naturally (especially ELP and Crimson devotees), or readers interested in a thorough and affectionate history of a slice of 1970s rock.—Jason Puckett, Georgia State Univ. Lib., AtlantaRead by author: Alexie's "raw, superb" memoir; Petersen's "perceptive, illuminating" essays

Kirkus Reviews

2017-04-17
Dinosaurs once roamed the Earth. Then came prog rock, as this partial but pleasing account of the love-it-or-hate-it genre chronicles.As Washington Post reporter Weigel cheerfully admits, professing a love for progressive rock—that sometimes-pretentious, sometimes-endless blend of rock, classical, and jazz forms whose chief premise would seem to be an absence of any discernible African-American influence—can quickly get a person branded as a dweeb. Indeed, as the narrative opens, the author is among "the most uncool people in Miami," preparing to climb aboard a cruise ship with "the living gods of progressive rock," namely mostly old men with what rock writer John Strausbaugh uncharitably called "melting cheese faces." They are also mostly British, and Weigel does a good job of describing what happened to American rock when it fell into the hands of the British kids in orchestra, filtered by way of psychedelic rock and its "simple formula" of guitar, drums, bass, vocals, and keyboard. By 1969, bands like Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and King Crimson were beginning to come together, forming a distinct genre marked by compositional complexity and odd time signatures. Some of Weigel's roster is debatable—purists may argue about including Jethro Tull in the annals of prog, since Tull was really a blues band to which something strange happened along the way—and it's a little light on the Canterbury scene, but the author ably captures the ambition of rock nerds who, as Yes singer Jon Anderson put it, saw "the possibility of rock music…really developing into a higher art form." Points and plaudits are due for enlisting Rush, too, and for including the yobbos of Marillion, one of whose fans Weigel credits with inventing crowdfunding in the service of reviving a genre nearly killed off by prog-hating punk in the 1970s. Prog fans will take to this book like Keith Emerson to an upside-down Hammond.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170128440
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	06/13/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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