Seyo

I was born in 1964 and got my first turntable (case-shaped with speaker in the covering part!) around 1970 from my parents. In Yugoslavia of the time there were few LP records, mainly singles were sold, so we had a mini collection of 1950-60s pop music: Ray Charles, Tom Jones, Pat Boone, Engelbert Humperdinck, Mary Hopkin, Rita Pavone, Sergio Endrigo.

.. Italian staff.

.. French chansones, to name a few.

Among these I had a pop single of KORNI GRUPA/KORNELYANS who would later act as a pioneering Yugo prog band. During the 1970s when I was in my teens the preferred music was the local popular bands like BIJELO DUGME, SMAK, INDEXI or YU GRUPA so I was no exception, with occasional interest in international hard rock, glam rock even disco which all were still quite popular in the late 70s. To illustrate variety of music styles I listened, just to mention that among my first LP records there were Louis Armstrong's double album "Starportrait" and ABBA's "Arrival" which I adored!

I was first introduced to progressive rock in the high school around 1980 via PINK FLOYD's "The Wall" and GENESIS' "Nursery Cryme". Actually it was psychedelic rock that I was hooked on in the first place thru early FLOYD albums and the Californian sound of THE DOORS and JEFFERSON AIRPLANE. At the turn of the decades there was a famous discotheque/music club called "Cactus" in Sarajevo (Bosnia) which played mostly "progressive" music of the 1960-70s with some obligatory follow-up of the contemporary new wave scene.

It was allegedly named after the American blues rock band CACTUS and again allegedly it was quite unique place across former Yugoslavia and all of the Eastern Europe. This was where I heard for the first time the acts like VANGELIS, MMEB, GOLDEN EARRING, JANE, STRING DRIVEN THING, UNDISPUTED TRUTH, NEU!, RARE BIRD, RARE EARTH, THE TEMPTATIONS, ALLMAN BROTHERS, BRAINTICKET, CAN, SWEET SMOKE, BJH.

.. and many others.

Having said this, it may sound strange to many prog fans, but I never considered punk/new wave as opposition to prog rock, because I generally try to listen and explore the individual artists rather than genres and labels as such. Among my top favorite music ever are several punk/post punk era artists namely THE CLASH, THE STRANGLERS, JOY DIVISION, THE CURE, TALKING HEADS, NICK CAVE, TUXEDOMOON, DEAD CAN DANCE, THE SMITHS..

. Especially the new wave scene in ex Yugoslavia was highly prolific and eclectic, giving the sense of a real social movement and urban art for the first time in a "socialist" country, acting that way as a real opposition to the ridiculous cultural rural-based establishment of the already decaying political system (Tito died in 1980!).

Again maybe surprisingly for some prog purists, I simply love American West Cost folk rock/country rock/psychedelic/Americana styles and artists like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, CSNY, THE BYRDS, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, GRATEFUL DEAD, THE DOORS, LOVE, FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS, GRAM PARSONS, LEONARD COHEN up to 1980s "roots revivalists" like GREEN ON RED, DREAM SYNDICATE, early REM, VIOLENT FEMMES and THIN WHITE ROPE. This is probably my favourite genre of music worth exploring, along with prog rock. Although never a fan of any form of hard rock/heavy metal, I did like some early works of DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH, URIAH HEEP or BLUE OYSTER CULT, while I always considered LED ZEPPELIN a bit further ahead into progressive territory due to their exploratory nature and imaginative sound and Tolkien-inspired lyrics.

I had a collection of some 500 LP records resembling for the most part the musical spectrum I just described, alas it was all destroyed in 1992 during the war in ex Yugoslavia (shelling and siege of Sarajevo where I live). So basically I needed to refresh my entire old collection on CDs + some new stuff, approaching now the same number of 500. In addition, I still have around 200 cassettes with taped music.

Roughly 50% or more can be considered "progressive rock". Now regarding my choice it is very difficult to single out favourites because probably if asked another time it would be considerably different, but this is my best shot below. 2.

"H to He Who Am the Only One"- VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR 3. "Lark's Tongues in Aspic"- KING CRIMSON 4. "Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other"- VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR 8.

"Selling England by the Pound"- GENESIS As I already said above, my musical taste is very eclectic and diverse so here are my favourite non-prog artists, squeezed to top 20 (in no order): 20. DEAD CAN DANCE As a separate entry I would mention my favourite ex Yugoslavian music artists prog or non-prog, trimmed to top 10 by geography: 2. ZABRANJENO PUSENJE ("new primitives", pop-rock, rock-satire) Sarajevo, Bosnia 4.

IDOLI (new wave, pop, art-pop) Belgrade, Serbia 7. AZRA (new wave, pop-rock) Zagreb, Croatia 8. HAUSTOR (new wave, reggae/folk/art-rock) Zagreb, Croatia 10.