I had the VHS of Union. A very optimistic time with 2 keyboards, 2 drummers, As well as the dredful Rabin, and Jon Chris Steve.
It was a good effort.
I liked the album too but there were some emotional tracks I soon learned to hate. Two reasons. One is that emotional tracks need to avoid cliche and sickly sweetness; these do not. ANd I was going through a devastaing breakup in which access to my baby son was denied for several months.
[i]" I would have waited for ever", is particularly annoying and “miracle of life” for its religious overones is dredful.
WIth hindsight I much prefer the old stuff than the later stuff.
“Yes” was a bit of a shakey start better with Tine and a Word, but really hit the spot with the Yes Album.
Fragile, CloseTTE, Tales oTO, Relayer are the best, late 70 cracks start to show and the wheels nearly fall of the cart with Drama.
Big Generator and 90215. too rhythmy. Cheesy rock ballads. Nothing remarkable.
After than there is a hell of a lot of cheesey ballads, and too much religious crapology; Face to Face and Messenger from “Ladder” for example.
Admit that this one from the Rabin period is actually quite good. It includes the segue at the beginning where Rabin noodles a bit on guitar, but really his talent in writing, producing and vocals is shown in this song. It think it was actually a hit for a while but I can’t remember.
You’re analysis of the band was crucial. I too have always thought of Anderson’s influence on the song writing… no I should say Anderson’s character, rather, was/is overtly over-optimistic in point of view… so that cheesiness vibe from the music is coming from him mainly. If YES ever became a new age fad in prog rock, it would be because of Anderson’s lyrics, singing and contribution to song writing in general. The guy’s just too fuckin happy for his own good, man, and sometimes that gets nauseating when listening to him go on about astral planes. Hey wait no wonder he invited ecmandu into the band.
We used to think of king crimson (who we discovered via bruford) as the dark twin brother of YES, and I quite prefer Fripp’s outlook on life and whatever over Anderson’s and ecmandu’s.
I read that they thought ‘tales from topographic oceans’ was their worst album, but I argue that it was the experimental nature of the music and the conditions in which it was recorded, that made it so odd and seemingly obscure in comparison to their more rigid songs recorded in real studios.
I love that album dude and I can sing that whole bitch note for note. Say I can’t.
I really do not think that happened that way.
Jon was gay and may well have been on the hunt for a bit of spare.
You are right about him being “too happy”. The Christianity creeps out too. I remember an interview with Rick Wakemen when he was chiding himself for being the only meat eating atheist on board!
Having assassintated Ander son I abosolutely adore Olias of Sunhillow. Maybe because of the drugs I was consuming at the time, but it still takes me on a transcendent trip. I 've yet to listen to Oilias II - probably diasppointing. Maybe I should drop a tab of something first. Not sure Anerson wrote much of it anyway.
KC, great. Not sure I’ve heard anything of theirs I do not like.
Me too!! Talk to the sunlight caller, soft summer mover distance mime, called out the tune but I never saw that face I ventured to talk but I never lost my place, cast out a spell …
Wakeman has been moaning about it for years. I suppose when you were in the middle of it, working on the themes again and again, you might find it a bad memory. I love it, and think it is near the top of the best they have ever done.
I am at this precise moment listening to Heaven and Earth. I’d acquired it a few years ago but not given it much attention.
It is okay. It’s sort of easy listening Yes.
You mean ‘gay’ like happy not gay like gay, right? I know he was married and had kids, but I did just find this out about him (which could make him suspect):
“In the interview, he also stated he had a spiritual adviser that “helped him see into the fourth dimension”. Before live performances, he often meditates in a tent with crystals and dreamcatchers, a practice he started in the 1980s. Anderson’s religious beliefs are syncretic and varied, including respect for the Divine Mother Audrey Kitagawa.”
Jesus christ crystals and dream catchers, Jon? See that’s what I’m talking about.
So then obviously you’ve heard wakeman’s ‘journey to the center of the earth’. If not, you must, because it’s one of the greatest prog rock operas you’ll ever hear.
Just wanted to throw this one into the mix.
3 guys at it for 50 years and still at the top of their game.
When I saw this on TOGWT in 1980 I had to know more.
ZZ Top and REM is about as close as I get to any kind of Country and Western which I absolutley hate, being feed Dolly Parton and Taimy-wine-eet and other such garbage when I was young
I never had a problem with ZZ Top but it’s not something I’d ever buy or listen to on purpose (unless my only other options were worse). Definitely a fun group of guys with personality. There just isn’t enough in the music to keep me interested, though. They’re like a blues rock gimmick, but a damn decent one.
Lol I’ve been on a YES marathon since yesterday thanks to y’all’s mention of it. I swear to god that 7:50 - 10:20 stretch in ‘the gates of delirium’ is the greatest thing I have ever heard… and I hope it’s the last thing I ever hear. You wouldn’t know four human beings could produce that sound until you heard em do it. The stuff is unearthly, bro. Like fuck Homer and Dante and Blake and all those niggas in between. They ain’t got nothing on The Gates. Shit get you twisted.
What’s the difference between this and Starship Trooper that Sculptor posted earlier in this thread? They are about the same quality. The main difference seems to be that “Owner of a Lonely Heart” is far more popular.
I guess you weren’t popular guys back in school so you’re now taking it out on poor Yes.
Clearly, poor and cheesily written songs when played by trained musicians of extreme talent can sound good. The arrangement of this song is great, thought the sentiment is pop.
Well Andy that’s exactly how it happened, in fact. I was in the eleventh grade at a redirectional school in the hood (literally across from Halifax court, and I ain’t even tryna tell u about Halifax) which I was to drop out of two months before the end of the eleventh grade, and I met Zonk, another miscreant like myself. Well it happened that he was a drummer too so we became pals. So we’re in his truck and he’s playing Fragile, but only the left speaker works… so all we can hear is the bruford and squire isolated track and I’m like holy shit what is this? That’s how I discovered YES. I mean I knew they existed but nothing about them. I was already into crimson but I had no idea they had the same drummer for a time.
THing about Pachebels canon is that some things that are simple work well - But you could not listen to it back to back without getting bored to death.
Beethoven is a treasure trove of brillance. From the audacious first bar of his 1st Symphony to the last movement of the 9th composed whilst completely deaf.
My high point, or one of them is 7th 2nd movement. youtube.com/watch?v=3xeuqbi-CPU
It lifts me bodily back to a cinema, now pulled down, where in 1976, my Dad had returned from a 4 year absence from Hollywood, and we saw John Boorman’s Zardoz together. The tune is used in the movie.
When you listen to Yes, do you have Zonk looking over your shoulder?
I was introduced to Yes by a guy called Clive (who looked like RIck Wakeman), we did not know each other long, but he’s sometimes in the background when I listen to early Yes. I tried to catch up with him, via social media, this year, but after 43 odd years he did not remember me! It was a shock since he sorta never left me in my head.
And I think this is a big topic on the subjective reception of music. It matters a lot who you were with, how old you were, and what was the settting when you listen to music for the first time.
There are a few objective critieria for the appreciation of music but none so important as the subjective ones.
PS I became drummer too, though not played for 12 years.