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The Show That Never Ends
- The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock
- Narrated by: Rudy Sanda
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
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The Show That Never Ends
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Summary
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.
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- papapownall
- 04-06-19
A tale of when dinosaurs ruled the world
If you put any two Progressive Rock fans in a room you can guarantee that they will disagree about what Prog actually is. One of them will argue in 11/8 time and the other in 5/4 (changing to 7/4 time for the second movement) about the intricacies of how the music is defined and how it differs from other styles of music. David Weigel, the author of this book, has a very clear idea of what he thinks prog is, it is about ELP and King Crimson but it is mostly about Yes, which is just fine. I consider myself to be a Prog fan but I have never really got into Yes. That might sound sacrilege to some, but it is the truth. David Weigel tells the story of Prog mainly through the trials and tribulations of the various incarnations of Yes and the various offshoots and side projects of its members through the glory days of the 1970s and then the less ostentatious but more commercial 1980s and then various reunions and re-imaginings in later years. The characters are larger than life and the stories of excess are legendary. Of course this isn't just about Yes and the story does touch on other Prog bands such as some of the founding fathers including Gentle Giant, Hawkwind, Gong, Soft Machine etc and onto the new wave of the 1980s with Marillion getting special attention (the narrator's Fish impression is stranger than anything I have heard on any Prog album) and then onto the renaissance more recently with the arrival of Steve Wilson. If I were to be a grumpy old man (ala Rick Wakeman) I could grumble about the lack of coverage of Frank Zappa (which would have needed a whole book to itself) and the lack of depth regarding artists such as The Enid, Camel, Caravan and Alan Parsons Project from the 1970s, IQ, and Palas from the 1980s and more recent acts such as Mostly Autumn and Big Big Train but that would be churlish.
Prog needs all the support it can get and is tremendously rewarding to anyone who is willing to open up their mind and ears and David Weigel should be applauded for this excellent book.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- M Broders
- 06-07-17
For prog rock fans but
''Tis good however it features heavily on a few bands. ELP YES King Crimson and Robert Fripp etc. Could have more on some other bands such as Pink Floyd. Some missed.
Some accents (there are not a huge amount) are off putting Ian Anderson does not have a Scottish accent!! but....
Worth a listen
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 25-04-24
Fairly interesting if you like Prog
I got through to the end of this, which I don’t always. There were some interesting bits and some other bits that weren’t so interesting. I would just add that the narrator decided that he was going to attempt accents and this was quite extraordinary at times. He portrays Kevin Ayres as a bit of a cockney which of course he wasn’t even remotely, but the absolute pinnacle is his impression of Fish. I have never heard anybody anywhere do such an awful accent. You might almost say that it was worth listening to the whole of the book just to get his Fish.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Martin Mckee
- 18-09-17
pretty good story of prog - v interesting
very interesting tale of the classics bands. I learned so much about their conceptions, challenges, how they created some of the music and how their fame grew and dwindled for some.
Unfortunately the modern era of prog is sloppily squeezed into last chapter barely scraping the surface of what has actually happened since approx. the late 80s. But one might claim they're not prog rock bands in the old sense.
Sometimes though the telling of the history has been a little haphazardly put together and explains things briefly over a large period of time, followed by an event that then focuses on one or two specific times. The lack of chronological order makes it a little confusing if you're not really paying attention. In some regards it's downright misleading. the telling of dream theater's development for example was a mess (but that's part of the poorly put together last chapter so...)
Narration is OK. Sound quality is great. I just would have preferred an English narrator over an American for this particular book. I mean the majority is about English bands in English places. And I won't even mention the attempted accents.
I enjoyed it overall don't get me wrong. I did learn a lot about classic prog. I just think the writer should have quit while they were ahead and not gone into modern era at all. And the narration could have been done better to make it perfect.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Brinkus
- 27-09-21
Good book - awful narration
A very enjoyable book, written well . Sadly the narrator rather lets down the material by not having researched the correct pronunciation of names - such as Moog - and indulging in ridiculously bad attempts at both English and Scottish accents. If you are going to try to speak in an approximation of someone's voice - I would have thought it might be a good idea to research what they sound like. It is not difficult to Google Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and discover he does not speak with an exaggerated Scottish accent.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-12-18
Great for any lover of Prog Rock!
All the important bands and moments are here... very enjoyable! A really good narration, too.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Eric perry
- 02-02-20
Informed but sterile
This history of Progressive rock is an attempt to tell a story that is full of myth and opinion. In its own way it tries to tell a straight up version of events from the mid sixties to the new prog of the 21st-century. However it really only catches a narrow viewpoint of events particularly because it focuses heavily on ELP and Emerson and Fripp. It also fails to capture a real emotional resonance of the music or the real success of the first wave. Instead it feels sterile and factual in a nerdy but bland way.
In the audio version there are some truly dreadful moments where attempts at English and Scottish accents are teeth grinding really bad and it would’ve been much better if the narrator had not attempted them.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Kim
- 06-03-23
HACK WORK
This book is not very good. It is a cut and paste history of prog. The author does not appreciate the era in which prog arose in the UK, they do not understand the touring opportunities at the time to a band on the college circuit, the impact of the press and frankly it all comes over as a rush job. A New Day Yesterday by Mike Barnes [available on Audible] offers a far more detailed and sympathetic perspective.
This book is a written by someone with only a passing interest in prog, no connection is made to those bands of the 2000s, such as The Decemberists who effectively used elements of prog. It comes across as a sterile paint by numbers account.
Worse than this by far is the narrator! What a hack job! American William Burroughs is given a pantomime Scottish accent! Why? The urban Kevin Ayers [Aye-yers to the narrator] is initially given Dick Van Dykes cockerney accent! I suspect Mr. Sanda was dragged in off the street and asked to read it.
Avoid this book at all costs.
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