Music journalist Mike Barnes (MOJO, the Wire, Prog, and author of the acclaimed biography Captain Beefheart) goes back to the birth of progressive rock and surveys the cultural conditions and attitudes that fed into, and were in turn affected by, this remarkable musical phenomenon. He examines the myths and misconceptions that have grown up around progressive rock and paints a vivid, colorful picture of the Seventies based on hundreds of hours of his own interviews with musicians, music business insiders, journalists, and DJs, and from the personal testimonies of those who were fans of the music in that extraordinary decade.