Competition Results!

The prog-rock comp has now ended. According to my statcounter, a lot of people viewed the relevant page, but I had very few entries and nobody at all got the answer I was looking for! There were three entries worth mentioning.

The first came from Cate Gardner who pointed out that Michael Moorcock was involved with Hawkwind; the second from Tim Vermeulen who revealed to me that 'Stand on Zanzibar' was the title of a Bill Bruford song; and I had a flurry of suggestions from Paul Graham Raven which included the fact that there was once a marginal prog band called The Floating Opera and another called Alastor.

Paul's most ingenious guess, however, was this one: "If you're willing to accept Queen as a late example of prog (albeit one that valued memorable songs alongside the kitchen-sink stylistic excess and theatrical stageshow elements), then it could be pointed out that Freddie Mercury failed to "stand on Zanzibar", as his family fled the place during the revolution of 1964."

Brilliant! More brilliant than the real answer...

And what is the real answer? Well, I have zoomed in a little closer to one part of the photo of that section of my bookshelf...

As we can see, the volumes in the SF Masterworks series were originally numbered. Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker positioned next to George R. Stewart's Earth Abides forms the number 2112, which can be regarded as a futuristic year; the same year in which the action of the following concept album takes place:


All together now... "We've taken care of everything / The words you hear, the songs you sing / The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes / It's one for all and all for one / We work together, common sons / Never need to wonder how or why..."