Black Cat Bone

Fragile, for me. Some real songs and everybody gets their little moments of indulgence discreetly relegated to a minute or two bits that act as links or breathers. It's a good formula for this band. "Roundabout" and "Long Distance Runaround" are two of my favorites by them. I've also got a soft spot for 90125's "Leave It"; it both embraces and transcends that terrible sleek synth pomp of 80s prog pop. But my pick is going to be the painfully obvious choice of "I"ve Seen All Good People".

And, for the record, Chris Squire is one of the absolute masters of the bass guitar, is he not? It's an agressive, powerful sound he gets, like a combination of Entwistle and Mike Watt, and is a perfect counterpoint to the airy hippieness of John Anderson.

Favorite Album - Fragile

Favorite Song - "I've Seen All Good People"

Yes have been perennial whipping boys for the anti-prog brigade. Too bad they never bothered to listen to their prime material, which is rockin' and smart in all the right ways. Also, Squire's bass is Godlike, one of the most unique instrumental sounds in rock.

Album: Close To The Edge

Song: "South Side Of The Sky" (among many others. that's the one I'm playing right now)

And it is Chris Squire who is the only person who has been present in every lineup of a band called 'Yes'. As a consequence, he holds copyright on the name.

The Yes Album is next into the slot.

For me it's The Yes Album. It was the album that introduced me to them and it still sounds great. Less proggy than the ones that followed and every song is great. Can't think of one song that I favor over so many so I won't choose one.


Holy Shit! I went to look for The Yes Album and I don't have it anymore. It must have been lost in the flood of '90. I need to get another copy. Should I get the cd version or try to find the original vinyl? Can anyone comment on the sound quality of the cd version(s) out there?

I was going to play it, but now it looks like it will have to be Close to the Edge.

Six String wrote:For me it's The Yes Album. It was the album that introduced me to them and it still sounds great. Less proggy than the ones that followed and every song is great. Can't think of one song that I favor over so many so I won't choose one.


Holy Shit! I went to look for The Yes Album and I don't have it anymore. It must have been lost in the flood of '90. I need to get another copy. Should I get the cd version or try to find the original vinyl? Can anyone comment on the sound quality of the cd version(s) out there?

I was going to play it, but now it looks like it will have to be Close to the Edge.

The widely-available remastered CD sounds really fine. It does the trick for me.

In fact, I'm importing it into iTunes right this second. It sounds so refreshing that I am tempted to change my album vote...

Nah. Close To The Edge also has theraputic value: it's good to get lost in those songs when I'm feeling down.

For me my favourite album would have to be Going For The One. I know people will invariably vote for The Yes Album or Close To The Edge and both are great albums but I feel that Yes finally came of age with Going For The One. Following the albums that contained extended pieces I feel that Going For The One really nailed what it was that first interested me in the band. True there is still the extended workout with Awaken and the melodies throughout are just great as is the playing on the album. I also managed to catch the band on the Going For The One tour and was so impressed with them. They seemed to be renewed.

If I had a second choice of album it would definitely be Drama which I feel is an unfairly maligned album. Musically the band are just as good as they ever were and also vocally I think the blend of Trevor Horn and Chris Squire to be a good replacement for Jon Anderson. True I feel the album would be a little better had Anderson remained and I would still like to hear Jon Anderson sing some of those songs but I still think people are put off by the Buggles connection which is a little unfair.Both Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes were and indeed are still great musicians

So in closing my choices are

Favourite Album: Going For The One

Favourite Song: Starship Trooper

[quote="king feeb
I was going to play it, but now it looks like it will have to be Close to the Edge.[/quote]


Nah. Close To The Edge also has theraputic value: it's good to get lost in those songs when I'm feeling down.[/quote]

It sounds like a good idea. I think I'll put it on now. I still have the first pressing I bought so many years ago. The cover didn't survive the flood, sadly, but the record did. I haven't heard And You and I in ages.

NO.

album Tales From Topographic Oceans

song To be Over

Album - The Yes Album

Track - The Gates of Delerium

I first got into them at around age 13, I guess. I remember getting Fragile as an eighth-grade Christmas present from the girl in class who drew my name.

Definitely loved them for a long time -- buying the beltbuckle, trying to draw Roger Dean-esque landscapes in that pre-drugs time of youthful fantasy doodling, even going so far as to incorporate into my handwriting the lower-case d that the calligrapher used on the Close to the Edge lyric sheet. (The upward strut of the letter actually leans left over the round part of the letter. I used this for years, and it still shows up once in a while.)



In my twenties, I started trying to learn some of the bass lines. I had most of the song "Close to the Edge" down at one point, though I never quite mastered that fast pattern at the end of the first guitar solo in "The Solid Time of Change". Around that time, my job required me to walk about an hour to work, so I had many great times walking to and from work listening to them. I think I chose Yes over a lot of other groups because it was something I could really concentrate on, and that made the walks more enjoyable. This was when I really got to know Tales from Topographic Oceans. It's an album which, for me, is no longer a failure but just -- like any album you know that well -- a collection of sounds that really couldn't sound any other way. In other words, I have achieved acceptance of this album.

I still think it would be interesting to get Jon Anderson and the other guys together for an afternoon and just talk about Tales. Not only to revisit the times, but also to go through the lyrics section by section and find out what they were going for and thinking at each point. Some of the lyrics are beautiful poetry, open to different interpretations, but as the piece was inspired by a specific thing (a footnote in Autobiography of a Yogi discussing the idea of the four shastras [an idea which itself could use a little clarifying]), I imagine a lot of the bits have quite specific meanings.

Album: All in all, when all is said and done, probably Going for the One, just edging out Close to the Edge. Relayer and Tales are the ones I'm most likely to listen to, though. I really love Alan White on those albums. I used to be a big Bruford fan, but now I think White was better for the band. Bruford was right to move on to King Crimson.

Song: That's a toughie. "The Gates of Delirium" is incredible, but "Turn of the Century" still gets to me after all these years. "Close to the Edge" is pretty darn good too.

Wow! They made the 100? I'm kind of surprised, they seem to have mostly haters here. And for good reason, I think- they got very self-indulgent. I've tried so many times at various points in my life to get through Tales From Topographic Oceans, for example, and I just can't do it. Just too dense lyrically and musically, seemingly for its own sake. It just doesn't engage me at all. That said, when they break it down to simple pop songs- I mean pre-Owner of a Lonely Heart, anyway, I'm not a fan of that song- they definitely had something. Glad to see Chris Squire getting some love here, but for me the one that exudes inspiration more than any other is Steve Howe. Usually goes interesting places, and I like his solo bits.

Album - Toss up between the debut and The Yes Album
Song - Your Move/I've Seen All Good People - nice folky little song (with Lennon references!) into Steve Howe's brilliant guitar work. Although I have to give props to their version of "Every Little Thing"- one of my favorite Beatle covers.

Album: The Yes Album
Track: Starship Trooper

Nothing else on the Yes Album could displace the three behemoths on Close to The Edge. And as great as Going For the One is, Parallels and the title track mean it is always going to lag behind the green one.
Thre is no song in the world better than I've Seen All Good People. Except maybe And You and I. But that has really stupid lyrics. I mean what the fuck is a 'coloured door of time'?

Album - Close To the Edge

Song - I've Seen All Good People

king feeb wrote:Yes have been perennial whipping boys for the anti-prog brigade. Too bad they never bothered to listen to their prime material, which is rockin' and smart in all the right ways.

As a charter member of the anti-prog brigade, I'm suprised the Yes seems to be as loved around these parts as they are. I would assume the opposite.

Speaking of assumptions, I am one anti-progger who has more than bothered to listen to Yes. I grew up with a brother who worshipped Yes. From the eponymous debut to 90125, I spent years with these albums - not to mention Rick Wakeman's Six Wives of Henry the Eighth, Journey to the Center of The Earth, Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water, and several other solo efforts. I even still vividly recall seeing them in the round on the Tormato tour.

But damn...I can't help but hate this band.

No doubt these guys were fine players, but there is almost no subtlety in this music. I just feel beaten about the head after two minutes of listening to them.

Rubbish band, 99% of the time. But they always had the potential to release moments of pure brilliance.

Album : Fragile

Track : Heart Of The Sunrise

Davey The Fat Boy wrote: there is almost no subtlety in this music.

This is, I think, one of the strangest comments I have ever heard passed on Yes.
Subtlety is one of their main strengths. I'll grant you they sometimes choose to use other colours from the musical pallet, but to suggest it is an attribute they lack is quite mystifying to me.

The Slider wrote:

Davey The Fat Boy wrote: there is almost no subtlety in this music.

This is, I think, one of the strangest comments I have ever heard passed on Yes.

Quite so.

In fact, are you sure there aren't two Yes's & he's been listening to a different one?

Album: Going For The One
My most played Yes album. A couple of great rock songs, a gorgeous ballad, a perfect bit of pop and a majestic epic all wrapped up in a beautiful light and airy production that fills the whole house with the sound of summer.

Track: Awaken
A soaring combination of dynamics, power and subtlety.

The Slider wrote:

Davey The Fat Boy wrote: there is almost no subtlety in this music.

This is, I think, one of the strangest comments I have ever heard passed on Yes. Subtlety is one of their main strengths.

I don't think e are talking about the same thing. My guess is you are talking about musical complexity. They certainly had plenty of that - often for its own sake. But there was literally nothing subtle about them. Their songs were generally long and meandering, and often the arrangements seemed to be geared towards showcasing their musicianship, rather than bothering to be evocative in any meaningful way. Lyrically they were equally obscure and grandiose.

And fuck it all - their keyboard player wore a cape. A cape for the love of God!!!


"Taste of fruitful inhibitions of a human.
Incapable of future seeing
beyond his thoughts of music.
Birth of music, birth of child is one.
Language of the world, the missing sense."