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Various - Wondrous Stories

roProgressive rock was one of the most important and influential trends within rock music and enjoyed it’s heyday in the early to mid 1970's before the arrival of punk swept it away.

Groups such as Yes, ELP and Focus were taking the basic elements of rock n roll and fusing them with musical virtuosity and classical influences.

Many of these groups sold albums in enormous quantities without even making tracks available as singles. It is principally for this reason that relatively few mass-market progressive rock compilations have been released.

Wonderous Stories does not pretend to be a definitive collection of prog rock (something which is impossible to achieve anyway due to compilation restrictions from a number of bands). It does not even claim to be a “pure” prog rock compilation as many of the tracks are coming from periods in the groups development where they had arguably stepped away from what is traditionally thought of as prog rock.

However what it does offer is a double CD with huge sales potential for the 40 –50- somethings who were more than likely indulging in illegal substances and listening to these bands 35 years ago and are now looking for something that reminds them of the music they loved back then but minus the tracks that now sound too extreme or commercial.