• The Show That Never Ends

  • The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock
  • By: David Weigel
  • Narrated by: Rudy Sanda
  • Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (112 ratings)

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The Show That Never Ends  By  cover art

The Show That Never Ends

By: David Weigel
Narrated by: Rudy Sanda
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Publisher's 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.

©2017 David Weigel (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

"Reminiscence has gone astray." So disappointed.

I come at this from two points of view. 1] I'm a 54-year-old American who grew up devouring and playing prog rock. 2] I'm an enormous fan of audiobooks. Bonus: I'm a fan of Dave Weigel's political commentary and reportage.

It just doesn't come together here at all. I get that Weigel is a megafan of prog. But his writing about it is hampered by a pretty glaring lack of basic knowledge about music in general. His descriptions of famous songs are plodding and sophomoric — and often plain wrong. Meanwhile, he provides scant details about the creation of some of the most impressive and challenging music ever recorded.

He gives some interesting insights into the lives of a few key musicians — mostly about the sex and drugs, less about the rock 'n' roll. Perhaps it's because I just finished listening to Mark Lewisohn's "Tune In, Volume I" about the early years of the Beatles, but it just feels that Weigel is out of his depth here. This is a labor of love, to be sure. But if prog rock has taught us anything, it's that labors of love rarely connect with an audience.

The bigger problem by far, though, is the narration. Rudy Sanda really has no business reading professionally. This sounds harsh, I know. But, I paid good money to have a book read to me by a professional. And that didn't happen.

For starters, Sanda refuses to pronounce the letter "T" at all. And not in the cool British way. No, this is the post valleygirl way. "Great Britain" becomes "Gray Bri—in." And "Manha—in." This is inexcusable.

Worse, he mangles the many European names he has to pronounce — including some English ones — and at one point refers hilariously to a "Bach FOO-gay."

The word is "fugue."

When reading quotes by British musicians, he affects an accent only about a quarter of the time. And not particularly well. He reads sentences as if it's the first time he's ever encountered them. Pauses curiously long after every period. And I swear I can hear his voice changing.

Why the producers didn't select a British reader with a bit more gravitas — especially considering the primary focus of the book is the birth of a musical genre in Canterbury, England — is unfathomable to me. I mean, if prog rock has taught us anything, it's that the voice is everything.

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14 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well written but poor narration

Someone should have told the narrator to skip the accents. they're painful to hear.. Aardvark. (I had to type at least 15 words.)

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting story but...

It's a good recollection of a music genre that I enjoy and I'm guessing for anyone that has enjoyed some prog rock. This might be one that I wish I'd read the written version of so that the really awkward accents the narrator used frequently could have been avoided. To me it seemed that Yes is given more attention to than other bands. Still an informative listen.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

From Genesis to Revelation to Apocalypse

That was the name of the first Genesis album -- From Genesis to Revelation -- which was then shortened. Dave Weigel's review of progressive rock follows it from its genesis in the late 60s to when it became a revelation to the world of music in the 70s to its apocalypse in the 80s under the weight of its growing pretention -- if I had room, I'd add resurrection to the list, thanks to YouTube reaching a worldwide audience of prog rock fans who never bought into its demise.

My first concert ever was Yes, King Crimson, and Procol Harum in 1971 -- the latter, the headliners, were the only ones well known to American audiences at the time. Two years later, I saw Pink Floyd debut Dark Side of the Moon in the U.S. at Radio City. From 1973 through the first Lamb tour, I saw Genesis every time they came through New York City. So yeah, I'm a prog rock fan -- despite numerous detours through Deadheadland, alt rock, grunge, Americana and blues (which I play) and whatever else interests my ears, trying to never get too parochial about it.

You can tell Weigel, despite being way too young to hear this music when it first came out, is fan who knows his material in depth -- I can certainly tell by him starting things off, after a prologue about the fan base, with Daevid Allen, the head pixie of Gong, an outfit not very well known except to hardcore prog listeners (though Weigel not paying much attention to the Radio Gnome trilogy is an unfortunate omission). As a musician, I can't tell if Weigel himself plays any instrument -- there is a ton of discussion of the music itself, in some detail.

The bulk of the story is about Yes, King Crimson, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, as it should be, they being the Divine Trinity of Prog Rock. Genesis, Jethro Tull, Rush, and Mike Oldfield get their fair share of attention. Pink Floyd is surprisingly under-represented, as are the first big prog rock bands, Procol Harum and the Moody Blues. I'm personally disappointed that there is no mention at all of one of my favorites, Stackridge, though I recognize that they are virtually unknown in the U.S.

Ultimately, this is a book that will be of full value to prog fans, even if they might (like I just did) dispute some details here and there. The big question to me as a reviewer of subjects that I may or may not already be well acquainted with is whether there is any level of interest to those who are not fans -- in this case, I'm going to err on the side of caution and say that if you're a Genesis fan who doesn't remember when Peter Gabriel was the lead singer or only know Yes for Owner of a Broken Heart or don't already know what a curmudgeonly genius Robert Fripp is, yeah, maybe not.

The narration, as others have pointed out, is mediocre at best. Rudy Sanda has a lengthy resume but nothing you ever heard of, so not an A-lister, and you can tell. Especially mispronouncing names and titles and places -- although as much blame for that has to go to the director/producer for not making sure the narrator gets them right.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

meh

I like his political writing his talent does not translate. this book is rather scattered and overlooks the last decades influx of focus on prog influenced music no mention of phish Umphrey's Mcgee or even more mainline prog bands like Gordian knot. its a skip.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Interesting history, but short on insight

Weigel has put together a fairly comprehensive history of Prog, from its earliest psychedelic roots to its various post-modern revivals, up to modern bands like Porcupine Tree. What is missing, however, is any kind of thesis, or really much analysis or any kind of conclusion. Instead, it is pretty much a straight telling of history, and leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions, which ultimately leaves the reader unsatisfied. This is likely because the author assembled most of his history from magazine and TV interviews, and not first-hand interviews with most of the subjects.

I have often wondered why prog died in the late 70's, and hoped that this book would shed some light on this cold case. Weigel trots out the usual suspects: Punk, Disco, record labels and Tormato. Really, that's it? No deeper insight than that?

As far as the narration, I didn't have the same issues as other people. It was serviceable: Not great, but not distractingly bad either.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable Tale of Musical Omphaloskepsism

Listening to The Show That Never Ends made me nostalgic for the distant future, Oh!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Worst. Narrator. Ever.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He mispronounced band names, song names, and character names. The lead character in "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" is not "rah-EL"! If the narrator took a few moments to zip through YouTube and listen to some pronunciations for song titles in particular, the book would have been much better. This aging prog-rock geek, for one, would have given it a better review.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me mad. For a book about meticulous musicians and the meticulousness, it was shoddily read. Ugh, I'm still furious over it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

I learned a lot, but wish there was more

I enjoyed this book, and learned a lot. This is especially true of the central prog bands such as Yes and ELP. If there is a flaw to the book, it is simply that the author focuses so heavily on a few bands during the late 60s and 1970s that some of the history that would most interest me is given limited consideration. For example, Styx is mentioned a few times, but not really discussed. Albums like Yes's 90125 are given limited coverage relative to Yes's earlier work. As a child of the 80s, I would have liked more information on subjects such as these. However, and in fairness to the author, these are not central events/bands in the history of Prog rock, so I guess I can't really complain. Overall, this is an excellent, informative, well-written book.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A Must for Prog Lovers

Your enjoyment of this book will be contingent upon your enjoyment of prog rock, but if you like prog, you'll like the book.

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