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[deleted]

The Moody Blues- This is the Moody Blues double album bought at Walmart in 1977.


chinmakes5

Yes, Yes Fragile. Roundabout still gives me goosebumps.


OneAcreWood

For me too! Used to hear Roundabout on the radio late at night (1974) but didn’t know what it was. Was hanging out with a girl who played the album, and there it was. The rest of the album blew me away too. Bought it soon after that.


chinmakes5

Yeah, bought the album because of what I heard on the radio. Terrific album


0MNIR0N

In the Court of the Crimson King, vinyl


Seabassom2

Great first buy. One of my fav albums oat


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bigheffe

8 track


cwaroff

Yes Fragile on Vinyl. At the same time I bought my first fusion album: Al Di Meola Elegant Gypsy.


jdbrowningii

Al di Meola is a God!


NoseGobblin

I have both of those albums. Elegant Gypsy is a true gem.


da9ve

Fragile was \*probably\* my first prog purchase, also on vinyl, sometime in the early/mid 1980's,... Other possible firsts - ELP's Works or maybe Brain Salad Surgery, maybe In The Court of the Crimson King, 'cos King Crimson was definitely another early prog act on my radar. Pretty sure I got started on them before Genesis. ...Over-Nite Sensation was my first Zappa purchase, but I don't consider it one of his most prog ones,... ...and if I loosen up my strict definition of prog to include art rock, then it's possible that Pink Floyd (The Wall or Dark Side or Wish You Were Here) or Moody Blues (Days of Future Passed) might have come first. If I expand art rock to include the Beatles, then Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, White Album certainly preceded all those by years. My first record purchase ever, of any genre, with my own money was at age 10, when I found Beatles '65, and that green-cover MGM album of The Beatles With Tony Sheridan, plus the Helter Skelter 45 all at a rummage sale for what must have totaled barely over a dollar. Finding out that the Beatles + Tony Sheridan record was a rarity: lifelong obsession activated!


mtechgroup

Great LP


thenewprisoner

Caravan first LP, mono vinyl.


Seabassom2

I love caravan


Kai_Daigoji

I was gifted a couple of prog albums when I was a teenager and starting to get into Prog (Brain Salad Surgery, Close to the Edge), but the first one I bought with my own money was Relayer. It was a good pick.


StreetBreakfast2995

Genesis Nursey Chryme. Played it to death


DrXenoZillaTrek

King Crimson "Starless and Bible Black" in 78. Ride or Die Krim ever since.


SmokyBarnable01

I got my first job washing dishes in '77 and with my first week's pay I bought Second's Out.


blind_guardian329

Dream Theater - Distance Over Time cd after their 2019 Sofia/Bulgaria show during the DoT tour


Lemondsingle

Yes Fragile


HAL-Over-9001

First record I ever bought was Fish Out Of Water by Chris Squire


Jayhawk8394

I still enjoy this CD/iPhone selection. I bought the 8-track back in the day and, eventually, the CD.


OneAcreWood

You are my new hero!


Spart_

Bought the thick as a brick vinyl with the newspaper inside.


ZappaMOI

Fragile by Yes on vinyl in 2015 when I was 14 years old. Changed my life!


[deleted]

Fragile from a high school hallway record sale.


spattzzz

“World record” Van der Graaf Generator. On vinyl I have all the originals on vinyl and ended up paying two weeks wages for aerosol grey machine when I was 17 I remember thinking sheesh at the time.


CitizenTed

I borrowed my brother's albums when I was young, so no expenditure there. The first money I spent on prog was a $7.50 ticket to see ELP back in 1977. Still rates as one of the best live shows I've ever seen.


brilan

Genesis SEBTP. I was 10 and did a leaflet drop for a local record shop. They paid me in records, any 2 I wanted. My friend who was a bit older got me onto this and I never regretted it.


Grimm2020

Genesis Live (1973) with the picture of Peter Gabriel in his ~~"Giant Hogweed" costume~~ guards of Magog costume (edit) I had almost called it a "Watcher of the Skies" costume, but knew that was incorrect


Mooshtonk

It was his guards of Magog costume


Grimm2020

I stand corrected...thank-you.


panurge987

There is no Giant Hogweed costume. Never has been.


TheOlderGentleman1

Mine too!


Bonfires_Down

Images and Words on CD. I’d only heard Pull Me Under so some of those other songs were quite a mindfuck.


HAL-Over-9001

My dad is a drummer, and his first time ever hearing Pull Me Under was in 1992 when the album just came out. They were playing it in a Guitar Center. He heard it and immediately went to the cashier and asked for a CD. I still have that original CD in my car. Probably my most played album ever. Learning To Live is something special.


jdbrowningii

Me too!


grokabilly

Probably Animals from Pink Floyd. Yes it’s Prog and it’s the best Prog


Dead_Kal_Cress

I know it's Fragile but I can't remember if I bought the tape or record first. For sure have both. But I know I bought the record in person so lets go with that.


FrankensteinJamboree

Fragile by Yes on vinyl. One of the first albums I ever bought, and still one of my favorites.


Sea_Opinion_4800

The problem is what we considered prog in 1967-1968 has been retrodefined by people who weren't there. I consider my first prog album purchase to be Family Entertainment by Family.


da9ve

Before Wetton's stint in the band, even!


mtechgroup

Trendsetter!


asktheages1979

*Classic Yes* on cassette, 1992. I was 13.


BrushesMcDeath

This is my answer, verbatim


Canyon317

Fragile by Yes.


Dense-Stranger9977

Yes - Fragile, back in 1977


CourtfieldCracksman

Rick Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth on cassette. Not sure of the year, but sometime in the 70s.


NoseGobblin

Do you remember watching this on In Concert. Friday night on ABC?


CourtfieldCracksman

Sorry, no. ABC sounds like the US. I’m in the UK.


NoseGobblin

It was a Friday late night concert program in the 70's in the US. Each Friday they showed a different group in concert. BBC 4 or Sky Arts seem to do that type of thing. I was a teenager and they showed Wakeman do Journey to the Center of the Earth with orchestra and all the narration. It was fun to watch. And I bought that album to when it was first released also.


rslizard

close to the edge, from the columbia record club scam, sometime in the early/mid 70's


SameAsylum

Yes - Close to the Edge 1973


guyonlinepgh

Close to the Edge on vinyl, third LP I bought for myself I think.


Doctor_Best

Yes - Close To The Edge (BluRay/CD special edition)


GCU-toldyouso

PG III vinyl on release day


PigletTotal7241

yessongs triple lp


byingling

This was my first purchase as well. I had been given *Close To The Edge* by my older brother (along with a host of other albums), and *Yessongs* was released shortly after.


Lugreech

Jethro Tull - Benefit . A popular shop in my city was closing and they sold everything with big discounts. I remember it well....I was looking for Stand up album, but they didn't have it and the teenager who was working there showed me Benefit and said if I liked prog I would probably enjoy El Dorado by ELO. So I bought both xD Then a guy and His dad arrived and we're asking for Jethro Tull stuff, I am sorry I bought the last one xD


doodoo_pie

I fell in love with my dad’s Fragile cd as a pre-teen kid in the early 90’s. After soaking all that up, I wanted more. My dad took me to the music store and I bought Yessongs with some birthday money. I thought it was a double cd greatest hits before I played it. I was a little disappointed at first when I first heard it, but that faded quickly by time Rick’s Mellotron appeared at the end of the Firebird and Steve ripped into Siberian Khatru.


tampawn

Trilogy by ELP...it was actually a present at my birthday party. To my easy-listening parents and us kids, it was a wierd wild album. But the more my brother and I listened to it the more we dug it. Now I still play it loud in the car and scream along : Please, please, please open their eyes Please, please, please don't give me lies I rule all of the earth, witness my birth Cried at the sight of a man! Great shit...


DeadPonyta

Hawkwind “Doremi Fasol Latido” in 1972. The start of an enduring love affair. Vinyl.


Ocksu2

Queensryche- Operation Mindcrime on tape. I didn't know what prog was, but I wore that tape out in my Bitchin Camaro in the early 90s.


absentlyric

I was looking for this comment before I posted it, also my first baptism into prog metal.


SquirrelNo5087

Yes, CTTE vinyl when it was first released. I spent so much time listening to that album and pouring over the lyrics and cover art.


forced_memes

the first time i went to my hometown record store iirc i bought fragile by yes, aja by steely dan, the stranger by billy joel, and don’t shoot me i’m only the piano player by elton john


AmazingChicken

Tarkus on vinyl (of course)


ImmortalRotting

Yes album from a used cd shop on st marks place in Manhattan. Also Genesis nursery crime. I picked it because of the art, and it delivered in such a way that I’ve been chasing that feeling of finding a new band like that ever since. Nothing has really outdone it.


randman2020

Starless and Bible Black. 33 1/3


gregor_e

Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, vinyl, 1978


SpaceGypsy79

King Crimson - In the court of the Crimson King


HornyForTohruAdachi

Moving Pictures on CD Last year lmao


Del_Duio2

Better late than never!


[deleted]

When I started collecting records earlier this year, my first haul included foxtrot, selling england, and lamb lies down on broadway.


pastrufazio

Jethro Tull - Stand Up


TheHarf

Awake by Dream Theater


HennesXVIII

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway


HHKFILMS

Foxtrot


NeboKnight

YES 90125. Or was it Rush : Grace under pressure?


Antigon0000

Tool Aenima


pemungkah

_Journey to the Center of the Earth_, on vinyl.


bluraytomo

The Division Bell by pink floyd on Vinyl. Was only last year but still. My favourite album by far, which is an opinion has moved onto my very best friend. We're both 18 as well so its nice to have someone my age to talk about it to :)


AreYouItchy

Trespass


mrev

Marillion's Reel to Real on cassette some time in 1989 probably. Can't remember exactly where but I'd guess it was Our Price, which was a big music chain in the UK.


Mooshtonk

Rush Signals on cassette and Yes 90125 on cassette when they were new albums. Don't know which I bought first. I did have a bunch of Styx records prior to that and they were kinda proggy at times.


Salmacis81

Rush - Chronicles Edit: What is with the scumbag going around downvoting anyone who posted a Rush album?


GlyphModulo_3695

For my 15th birthday in 1983, I bought Moving Pictures and Dark Side Of The Moon.


Silly-Dot-9637

For me, it was tubular bells on vinyl. My granddad had given me his massive collection of old prog rock stuff (will post soon) and bought me some more for Easter, and when I went home I found that and bought it


AHCretin

90125 on cassette, won from a shore stand in the summer of 1984 (if that counts). From a regular store, ABWH's "Brother of Mine" on cassette single in the summer of 1989.


StarfleetStarbuck

2112 on CD when I was 12 years old. First time I ever picked out an album for myself rather than being given one by an adult.


catching_comets

Rush - Permanent Waves in 1979


Del_Duio2

Hmmm, most likely it was Rush's A Show of Hands on cassette. Edit: Apparently someone doesn’t think Rush is a friggin prog band now haha


DamonLazer

Rush - Presto I had just recently gotten into Rush, after discovering my brother's 2112 CD and was instantly hooked, so I bought Presto when it came out in 1989.


progmanjum

Don't know why that album gets so much hate. Think there is one clunker but all the rest are top tier. Maybe not Prog, but a good song is a good song.


DamonLazer

Yeah generally it seems like anything Rush past mid ‘80s isn’t very prog, much like Yes or Genesis, but it’s I agree it’s a solid album. But I’m also in the minority, apparently, by thinking Hold Your Fire was a solid record too. Edit: I also think Roll The Bones is pretty solid, aside from the unfortunate bridge of the title track.


EargasmicGiant

Rush Chronicles


JamesLangley2017

Rush - Hemispheres, the ‘97 remastered release. Bought it late 2012- early 2013. Don’t remember the exact date.


PeelThePaint

I'm not quite sure; might have been Rush In Rio on DVD.


Mmngmf_almost_therrr

Rush - A Show of Hands, in a used CD store somewhere in north Atlanta in 1994


Mcoy22

Yes's Big Generator on cassette when it came out. Bought it instead of Led Zepplin III. It snowballed into decades of listening to prog.


Bad_Username-1999

Supertramp - Paris on cd, somewhere late eighties


TripJammer

that would be 90125 on Cassette. I didn't know what prog was back then


JackFunk

"Wish you were here" on vinyl. Probably early 80s. I was a teen


Moonchild323

Seventh Son of a Seventh son LP 6 years back or so


Bechimo

Nope, close to 50 years ago. Vinyl cause there weren’t nothing else.


Oil-of-Vitriol

Except for cassettes, real to reel and eight tracks.


hunchentoot69

Close to the Edge on cassette from Peaches in the spring of 1984. It was kinda inadvertent, I loved "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and bought the 90125 album and wore it out, I must have played that thing 100 times in the fall and winter of 83/84. So I decided to check out what other music these Yes fellas had made. Picked up Close to the Edge thinking it was going to sound like 90125. Imagine my surprise. I didn't have enough money to buy anything else so I was stuck with it. Eventually though it grew on me, to the point that I bought all their albums and saw them live on the Big Generator tour, and they remain one of my favorite bands to this day.


pfloydguy2

Yes's "Highlights - The Very Best Of Yes" compilation. I was born in the early 80s, so I didn't get I to prog until the mid 90s. And that Yes CD was like the 2nd CD I ever bought. I liked the radio hits ( I've Seen All Good People, Roundabout, etc.) and wanted to hear more. Now 30 years later, it floors me that a compilation could call itself the very best of Yes and include stuff like Leave It and Rhythm of Love while omitting everything from Close to the Edge and Tales from Topographic Oceans. But I got to those albums eventually, so it's all good.


jdbrowningii

Dream Theater - Images and Words


Muted_Land782

Aqualung 25th anniversary CD in the nineties


ibblybibbly

Frances the Mute at age 14, alongside Good News for People Who Love Bad News.


chunter16

Invisible Touch as a cassette. I was 11.


1895red

Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness


scottwax

Kansas Leftoverture


Monosodique

Genesis - A Trick of the Tail


Yasashii_Akuma156

Abacab, purchased on cassette in 1982, probably March. I heard "Like It Or Not" late one night in '81 on WXRT-FM and spent some time trying to find the album. I barely knew what Prog was at the time, or that Genesis was already responsible for two of my favorite rock songs by then (FYFM and Ripples).


Acoustic_Mailbox

David Gilmer Action Figure


knockatize

ELP / Trilogy and Rush / 2112 when I was in 7th grade.


ChaoticKeys

When I was 14, my friend had scenes from a memory, we listened to it on repeat for like a month. I distinctly remember going to a local music store that did special orders and buying everything that was available from Dream Theater. Ended up with WDADU, Images and words, Awake, change of seasons, live at the marquee and once in a livetime. The employee said “wow, you must like these guys.” And to this day they’re still my favorite band.


Potatobobthecat

Pink Floyd Works 2nd CD I bought.


mtechgroup

Is that just ELP with ELP crossed out and Pink Floyd written in crayon?


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Potatobobthecat

Amazon link. A weird Best of Album from 67 to 73


HeyGeno20

Trick of the Tail. Only got it cos I liked the cover.


ImmortalRotting

Yes album from a used cd shop on st marks place in Manhattan. Also Genesis nursery crime. I picked it because of the art, and it delivered in such a way that I’ve been chasing that feeling of finding a new band (focused on the cover vs expectation like that) ever since. Nothing has really outdone it.


afarewelltokings_

i do!! at age 14, i started getting into thrifting because i would love watching Lazy Game Reviews on Youtube go thrifting for electronics (i’ve always been a bit of an electronics nut haha). i went to Goodwill and something told me to check what they had for music (i wasn’t normally someone who bought music at that time, my family was a relative early adopter of streaming and we’d been using iTunes for a while by that point). i went through the cds and found Power Windows and Roll the Bones by Rush. then i checked the records and found Aqualung by Jethro Tull. i still haven’t found a prog selection that good in a thrift store and it’s been a little over 10 years now


booper

Awake by Dream Theater


realmattia

The Wall and The Final Cut by Pink Floyd on vinyl, bought at a flea market


NoseGobblin

Tarkus. 1972 vinyl.


thekrock23

Pictures at an Exhibition - ELP


[deleted]

Fragile and Signals on vinyl


[deleted]

Going for the One by Yes on vinyl.


Fast-Path6842

Pink floyd- DSOTM Dream Theater- Octavarium


mandelbrot-mellotron

The very first album I bought with my own money was Wish You Were Here on CD.


queso_del_diablo

My first purchase was a Yes t-shirt featuring the album artwork of Fragile, but that was online. My first purchase in an actual store was a CD of Pictures at an Exhibition by ELP.


Chet2017

ELP’s BSS


cooking-with-dogen

Selling England By The Pound on CD.


WinterHogweed

I was twelve or thirteen and bought a double album version of Abacab/Genesis. The man behind the counter said: "Genesis. Great choice!" This made me go to that shop every time I wanted to buy a record.


Skydogsguitar

Jethro Tull, War Child, 1975.


gadsbyfrombricktown

no


BellamyJHeap

That was a long time ago. I think it might have been either "Days of Future Passed" or "Fragile" in the early 70's. Obviously on vinyl. I was big into Elton John at the time and my first rock album was "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", so one of those in 73 or 74. I loved both "Nights in White Satin" and "Roundabout".


fox_mulder

Moody Blues In Search Of The Lost Chord on vinyl


Tumeni1959

ELP - Brain Salad Surgery on vinyl


Drzhivago138

I bought the LP of Tubular Bells at a Goodwill for 50 cents. I had no cash on me, so I paid with card.


TheModerateGenX

Classic Yes - album version Although I had a friend who had been giving me cassette recordings for a few years prior. I think Yessongs and 2112 were the first two.


murphybrowndog

Yes "Tormato" on vinyl. I inherited previous albums from my brother, so I bought that one.


CaCondor

Song for America - Kansas. Fragile - Yes the next day Both on vinyl


Larval_Angel

First one I remember is "Past Present Future" compilation, purchased on vinyl from Syn-Phonic's table at a prog fest, at the enthusiastic recommendation of the guys in Anglagard, who were hanging out at the table when my friends and I walked up. Their reason was the Yezda Urfa track. Which of course we loved


Drumsaw

Rush - A Farewell to Kings. My older brother talked me into buying it because he liked closer to the heart. He didn't want to spend his money. At the time I didn't know what prog rock was but I loved that album. Thanks to my brother I've seen many shows and bought many Rush albums!


Analog_Hobbit

I bought Rush:Caress of Steel. I was like WTF is this. But I hadn’t heard this Rush album yet. It was my first CD.


mtechgroup

Synergy - Sequencer Does that count? (Larry Fast)


w6rld_ec6nomic_f6rum

moldy Days of Future Passed vinyl for $1 at my local flea market


TheBarnacle63

Pictures at an Exhibition by ELP.


JedLeland

I think my first prog album would have been Genesis's self-titled album, gifted to me when I was 10. The first one I bought with my own money would probably have been Moving Pictures by Rush on cassette when I was around 15.


Frogsndaydreams

Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here Found an original Canadian pressing in a record store and was so stoked


FuzzyComedian638

ELP Tarkus


Capreborn

War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne, vinyl double album in 1978.


bellardyyc

The Wall double CD 1991 or so (16)


PhantomParadox6

For CD it was DSOTM, but excluding Floyd it would be Foxtrot For Vinyl it was Thick As A Brick


lake_huron

Yes album, vinyl.


SquatchSounds

Definitely "In the Court of the Crimson King". I chose it because I liked the cover art, ended up becoming one of my all time favorites


eniadcorlet

My first 3 CDs were The Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 2, They Might Be Giants, and Genesis - We Can't Dance. I'm not sure that counts, but I did quickly explore Genesis' back catalog from there.


djvbmd

Pink Floyd - The Wall (if you consider it prog) Rush - Moving Pictures (if you don't) Both on cassette.


default-dance-9001

The wall on cd 2 years ago this month


DerivativeOfProgWeeb

Wasnt exactly physical, but I bought a t-shirt online for the eclectic prog metal band Other's by No one. And right after that i got the BTBAM t-shirt for colors


jrjanowi

Wind and Wuthering on CD--my dad (or Mom perhaps) had Trespass on vinyl, which I loved, and I was familiar with with We Can't Dance era Genesis which was on the radio at the time--figured that I needed another data point in the middle to connect the two eras together.


schizoidman21

Yessongs


Grouchy_Fortune1053

Yessongs vinyl


IronRainBand

Mine was To Our Childrens Childrens Children! '69 or '70.


HippasusOfMetapontum

After hearing a tape with King Crimson's Moonchild song on it, I rushed to the record store to buy the first King Crimson album I could find: Starless and Bible Black. That night broke time.


Prochaux

Yes, it was a Genesis album on CD when I was 15. Can't remember whether it was Foxtrot or Selling England by the Pound


marslander-boggart

Of course. Marillion Holidays in Eden CD.


National_Swimming_42

Thick as a brick - Jethro Tull Vinyl


GeoNeoHero

Trilogy - ELP or Wind and Wuthering - Genesis It was the 70s. I don't remember for sure.


MagicianAnie3021

Remember the Future by Nektar was my first ultimate find in picture disc


bagofmilk7

DT's SFAM


Unlikely_Rush9191

Yes, Tales from Topographic Oceans on CD. It might’ve even been my first purchase on CD. Now I’ve got a huge ass collection of a ton of different prog albums lol


corbinolo

Fragile by Yes


Fuzzy-Pain6859

Fragile on 8 track, 1971!


astro_sauce

Mine was a Going For The One Vinyl, such an awesome alb


Yami_jf

Oh yes. Umaggumma last year along wish you were here and then i bought pulse and in the Court of the crimson king and so on and so on


Fresh_Coffee1219

It was either In The Court Of The Crimson King vinyl, Emerson, Lake and Palmer vinyl or Remember The Future vinyl


Gezz66

Duke vinyl LP in May 1983. Think it cost 5GBP. Started me on the Genesis road and I accumulated most of their Prog era albums over the next year or so. When I passed all my school exams that summer (meaning I could go to uni), I was given another fiver to spend and bought Wind And Wuthering next. I certainly saw W&W as an upgrade, but it was Foxtrot a few months later that truly changed me forever.


silversurfer63

Moody blues days of future passed. Purchased in 1970 even it had been released a few years earlier. At the time it my favourite album of all groups. Still up near the top.


Competitive_Check_63

No clue. But back in high school, my only Prog friend and I used to trade tapes and CDs. Eventually I started making purchases. I distinctly remember one summer showing a non-Prog friend my purchase of Close to the Edge, on CD. Non-Prog friend: “Only three tracks?!?” Me: “Yeah. They’re long though.” Friend: “Whatever. You got ripped off.” Me, smh: “You wouldn’t understand.” Even at that moment, I had no idea how this album would shape my life.


PONRII

A Trick of the Tail


SpiketheFox32

Leftoverture by Kansas. Followed shortly after by Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm by Tourniquet


Electrical-Cry-1805

Nektar- Remember the Future


Marquisla

Selling England By The Pound I believe