Cressida

Among my closest friends, there's very little that arouses more musical revulsion than the word "prog." Not that my friends are opposed to progress in music (I like to think that by and large, they're a rather forward thinking bunch). Rather, they're put off by the progressive genre - and I can't necessarily blame them. As a whole, the genre is peppered with bands that have very little to say, yet take upwards of ten minutes per song to say it anyway. Furthermore, progressive bands often abused their musicianship to a masturbatory extent, and many of them also incorporated extraordinarily nerdy (read: dungeons and dragons) themes and lyrics. This is a genre that alienates quite a few people - it's too wanky for fans of song-based pop, too raw for classicists, and often not competent enough for jazz-heads.

Nonetheless, I will confess that I have a few favorites in the genre. King Crimson's first few records were all very solid (particularly their criminally underrated 1970 record, In the Wake of Poseidon). I've even been known to get into a little Emerson, Lake, and Palmer from time to time. Say what you will about their genre - Keith Emerson was a motherfucker of an organ player, and Greg Lake's voice is one of the strongest out there. Still, I'm generally put off by most prog "masterpieces" - a little too much style and far too little substance for my tastes.

Despite this, I'm fascinated with the origins of prog - specifically the genre's connection to psychedelic rock. As the psychedelic era came to a close, many bands sought to gradually expand the horizons of rock music by looking towards jazz and classical influences. Some incorporated horns, mellotrons, and woodwinds to augment their rock lineups. Others began basing their music around keyboards as opposed to guitars. Still more ditched traditional song structures entirely and tried their hands at writing improv-heavy instrumental suites. The bottom line is that the musical community didn't snap its fingers and suddenly start churning out music that sounded like peak era Rush or Genesis - rather, there was a short transition period between pop and what we've come to think of as prog. It's bands that straddled this line that particularly interest me - "proto-prog," if you will.

Among these bands is Cressida, an English group with trappings of both pop and prog. Existing only briefly from 1969 through 1971, Cressida managed to put out only two records before splitting up. Today's upload, "To Play Your Little Game" is the first track on their self-titled album, and it is fairly representative of the LP as a whole (most notably due to the fact that it's under four minutes long). The song seems to be undergoing something of an identity crisis. For one, the lyrics (which are quite poor, I might add) are squarely based in pop. The song structure is fairly normal - outside of the lack of a bridge, it's textbook pop structure. There is no excessive soloing. Still, the song is driven by a Hammond organ (which is pretty tastefully employed, save the wanky bit before the choruses) and much if it is in a frantically-paced 3/4 time signature. This is clearly not mainstream rock, but it's also not strict prog, either. It's quite a curiosity. And it's got one hell of a chorus, to boot. Also note the album cover, which looks as if it could have come from the height of the psychedelic era.

Cressida (1970)

To Play Your Little Game