In the middle of the sixties there was a distinct rock evolution, that strayed ever more from the simple and by then expected rock'n'roll of the beginnings. While in the USA all this was evident in the rising psychedelic art of Jefferson Airplaine, Grateful Dead and Velvet Underground, in the electric folk of Dylan and Byrds and in the work of Zappa, in Great Britain there was quite a different story.

There, in fact, they preferred to put in a rock contest forms and style taken from blues, folk, and classical music. The white blues-rock of Cream, John Mayall, Animals, Ten Years After, the folk-rock of Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Incredibile String Band, Steeley Span got a good result.

But between the 1967 and the 1969 bands like Nice, Procol Harum and Moody Blues started to put in their albums classical airs, classic music arranged in a rock transposition and whole orchestras. The Nice, led by the keyboarder Keith Emerson, drew attention on themselves with an handful of albums in which for the first time they tried to review classic pieces with a rock equipment: "The thoughts of Emerlist Davjack", "Ars longa vita brevis", "The Nice", "Five bridges" (with orchestra) and "Elegy" are the records in which the Nice revised pieces of Mozart, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Bach, together with tracks similar to the psychedelic beat of that time. There are some little failings, but they were the first to explore those fields.

Those who got a sensational success were the Procol Harum with their single A Whiter Shade Of Pale, based on the Bach's Aria Sulla Quarta Corda. They entered the charts, dragging the album "Procol Harum", "Shine On Brightly" and "A Salty Dog".

But the first band that made a record combining rock and symphonic music was the Moody Blues in 1967 with Days Of Future Passed. This album, besides its historical importance, is also remarkable from the artistic point of view. The orchestral accompaniment is magnificent, the tracks are very good and combine wonderfully pop and classical music. The mellotron, an instrument that would be much used in the following years, carves out a considerable niche for itself. These three bands laid the foundations of the symphonic rock.
At the same time, the most important English band, the Beatles, started to experiment with new solutions in their albums, trying to go beyond the stock "beat" that made them famous. Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and White Album were very elaborate pieces of work and were fundamental for the evolution of the English psychedelic scene and for a more mature rock. And emergent bands like Pink Floyd and Soft Machine contributed to that rock more elaborate, visionary and very experimental. Having in common their debut at the legendary "UFO Club" in London, these two bands experimented hard during their live shows.

The Pink Floyd, led by the prominent personality of Syd Barrett, achieved a great fame in the Swinging London underground because of their visionary gigs. From these experiences will come out an unique album such as The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, regarded by many as the landmark of the English psychedelic scene. But the Barrett's excesses drove him beyond every psychophysical limit and the band had to carry on without their guide.

The following albums showed again a great will to experiment and A Saucerful Of Secrets and Ummagumma are much loved records by those who prefer this period of the Pink Floyd.

In a similar way, the Soft Machine with strongest personalities of Daevid Allen, Kevin Ayers, Mike Ratledge and Robert Wyatt release two innovative albums: Soft Machine and Volume Two. The changes in the line up led then the band to get much close to the jazz rock right in the next record Third. So, in this lively outline of great music started to develop that current today known as progressive rock.

Peppe
June 2002