| # | Artist | Song (click to play) | Album | Year | CD label |
| 1 | King Crimson | In The Court of the Crimson King | Epitaph | 1997 | Discipline Global Mobile |
| This is an archival King Crimson release that features several different live performances of their early material. This version of ItCotCK is from BBC Radio Sessions. Most of the songs are from their first album _In the Court of the Crimson King_, except for a couple of early versions of songs that would appear on _In the Wake of Poseidon_ the following year. | |||||
| 2 | Third Ear Band | Stone Circle | Alchemy | 1969 | Drop Out Records |
| A very odd and original group. The instrumentation is completely acoustic featuring tabla, violin, viola, cello, pipes, oboe, and light percussion. Meditative, experimental, and complex. Really good stuff, although it is wildly different from your standard progressive rock music. The song forms are more like Indian ragas than western song structures. | |||||
| 3 | John McLaughlin | Extrapolation | Extrapolation | 1969 | Polydor/Polygram |
| This is John McLaughlin's first solo album, which is a classic early jazz-rock effort. In this same year, John also recorded with the amazing Miles Davis group on _In a Silent Way_ and _Bitches Brew_. In between recording on those 2 albums, John also recorded the _Emergency!_ album with the Tony Williams Lifetime, also featuring Larry Young on keys. He also recorded with Wayne Shorter, Miroslav Vitous and Jack Bruce in 1969. Anyway, this is a very enjoyable album. | |||||
| 4 | Deep Purple | The Painter | Deep Purple | 1969 | Tetragramatton Records |
| Deep Purple's third and last album with Rod Evans as vocalist. It's an interesting album with some psychedelic moves, balls-out hard rock, and their first attempt of melding a rock band with symphony, which works much better here than on the following year's _Concerto for Group and Orchestra_. | |||||
| 5 | Al Stewart | Life and Life Only | Love Chronicles | 1969 | Epic (LP only?) |
| Al Stewart's second album, which features Jimmy Page on lead guitar. On bass is Brian Odgers who also played on John McLaughlin's Extrapolation album. It's basically electric folk-rock not unlike Roy Harper. Sometimes the words are a little corny, but usually pretty good. | |||||
| 6 | Soft Machine | Pataphysical...A Concise...Hibou...Hullo Der | Volume Two | 1969 | One Way Records |
| A seminal album that helped define progressive music, especially the Canterbury variety. Essential listening. Some similarities I hear are the American group Spirit and Vince Guaraldi. The Soft Machine were also very influential in the jazz-rock movement. | |||||