The Official Yes Thread

[Orbert]

It was crazy, but yeah it was fun.  Drama is top-tier Yes to me, but I also liked 90125 when it came out and still do.  I'm apparently in the minority in liking Yesshows, but I'm okay with that; it's an important document of some good live stuff and the CD version is even better.  I nabbed Classic Yes when it came out as well, just because I'm a completist and there were the bonus live tracks.  That was rare shit back in those days.

I'm 100% with you. I think Yesshows is criminally underrated. Those performances of Ritual and The Gates Of Delirium are not from this world.

I always quite enjoyed Yesshows, it's a little different snapshot and a representation. I do revisit it from time to time and enjoy it. I also love the Keys to Ascension sets (both live stuff and studio) shame that stuff wasn't widely heard beyond the diehards. 

I like Keys to Ascension, too.  I have the studio stuff and live stuff as separate "albums" on my iPod (rather than Keys and Keys 2), because that's how I listen to them.

[Architeuthis]

Keys To Ascension has my favorite version of Starship Trooper! 

[romdrums]

The Keys studio tracks are really good, probably my second favorite batch of songs by the lineup of Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White.  They should have been released as a proper album, and if I’m not mistaken, the fact that they weren’t was one of the reasons Wakeman left that time.

[Architeuthis]

The Keys studio tracks are really good, probably my second favorite batch of songs by the lineup of Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White.  They should have been released as a proper album, and if I’m not mistaken, the fact that they weren’t was one of the reasons Wakeman left that time.

I didn't know that, but it makes sense. Those studio tracks are all pretty solid and Wakeman really shines.  Imagine if Wakeman got his way, it could have re-written Yes' modern day history.  The disastrous "Open Your Eyes" album likely would have never happened. 

[The Curious Orange]

I bought the Keys sets when they came out, and while I agree they are brilliant, there's a clearly audible difference in the mixing between the Keys1 and Keys2 live stuff - the bass and bottom end is much louder on Keys2, and it has a grungier sound to it. I've never bought the DVD of the shows, but I would imagine all tracks are mixed to the same sound.

But I agree - the KeyStudio tracks are about the best thing Yes have recorded since their glory days. But then the entire history of Yes' later years is a series of bad decisions by record company execs.

[Max Kuehnau]

I bought the Keys sets when they came out, and while I agree they are brilliant, there's a clearly audible difference in the mixing between the Keys1 and Keys2 live stuff - the bass and bottom end is much louder on Keys2, and it has a grungier sound to it. I've never bought the DVD of the shows, but I would imagine all tracks are mixed to the same sound.

But I agree - the KeyStudio tracks are about the best thing Yes have recorded since their glory days. But then the entire history of Yes' later years is a series of bad decisions by record company execs.

I agree but I actually like Magnification and Fly From Here.

[Fritzinger]

Imagine the KeyStudio tracks with the production and sound of Fly From Here 

[KevShmev]

The two new tracks from Keys 1 both had their moments, but had these weird awkward melodies, almost like they hadn't been refined yet.  Meanwhile, all of the new songs from Keys 2 sounds like finished products.  Mind Drive gets the most love, and that is a really good tune, but Bring Me to the Power and Children of Light are my favorites, and Foot Prints is really good as well.  While I still kinda like Open Your Eyes for what it is, you can't help but wonder what Yes could have done had Wakeman stayed in the band after the Keys sessions and they kept making records with that lineup.

[ytserush]

It was crazy, but yeah it was fun.  Drama is top-tier Yes to me, but I also liked 90125 when it came out and still do.  I'm apparently in the minority in liking Yesshows, but I'm okay with that; it's an important document of some good live stuff and the CD version is even better.  I nabbed Classic Yes when it came out as well, just because I'm a completist and there were the bonus live tracks.  That was rare shit back in those days.

I happen to like Yesshows more than Yessongs. Not really for the set, but it used to be one of the better albums for capturing the Yes live sound. Yessongs doesn't really do that for me.

[ytserush]

I'm 100% with you. I think Yesshows is criminally underrated. Those performances of Ritual and The Gates Of Delirium are not from this world.

And they really show what Patrick Moraz brought to the band - really makes me wish he'd stuck around longer.

I've always wished that. I like him more than Post-Relayer Wakeman.

[Orbert]

Post-Relayer Wakeman still has some chops, but runs hot and cold a bit these days, and often more cold than hot.  It's disappointing, but he's a self-proclaimed grumpy old man.  He just doesn't give a fuck anymore, does what he wants.

[Stadler]

I just saw his solo show.   He's certainly struggling a bit physically (a LOT of hand-shaking in between songs) but the man can still play like no one's bidniss. 

[gzarruk]

I just saw his solo show.   He's certainly struggling a bit physically (a LOT of hand-shaking in between songs) but the man can still play like no one's bidniss.

IIRC, he said he's been dealing with moderate arthritis on both hands, so it's amazing he can still play like that.

[Orbert]

I guess I was thinking more about his collaborative work than his solo work.  He did some good stuff with ARW, but it seemed more apparent than ever that he's got his bag of tricks and uses them all in various combinations and people think he's amazing.  His speed has always been impressive, but it's reached the point where he's just playing the same shit over and over.  So... impressive yet boring at the same time?  Prior to that, my last real exposure to Wakeman was with Yes, and he'd deviated into some truly horrendous patches.  This meant he was playing boring shit, super-fast, and sounding horrible, all at the same time.  That's really quite an achievement.

Rick Wakeman is one of my personal heroes.  There are tricks and techniques of his that I employ to this day (though obviously on a much smaller scale).  So my ranting is mostly out of disappointment.  I miss the old Rick, or I guess I miss the young Rick.  Young Rick isn't coming back; I get that.  But I still miss him.

[EPICVIEW]

https://youtu.be/p5wQV7_Sfyw


Drama  Into the lens  so good

[ytserush]

I guess I was thinking more about his collaborative work than his solo work.  He did some good stuff with ARW, but it seemed more apparent than ever that he's got his bag of tricks and uses them all in various combinations and people think he's amazing.  His speed has always been impressive, but it's reached the point where he's just playing the same shit over and over.  So... impressive yet boring at the same time?  Prior to that, my last real exposure to Wakeman was with Yes, and he'd deviated into some truly horrendous patches.  This meant he was playing boring shit, super-fast, and sounding horrible, all at the same time.  That's really quite an achievement.

Rick Wakeman is one of my personal heroes.  There are tricks and techniques of his that I employ to this day (though obviously on a much smaller scale).  So my ranting is mostly out of disappointment.  I miss the old Rick, or I guess I miss the young Rick.  Young Rick isn't coming back; I get that.  But I still miss him.

I even enjoyed his solo stuff up until about the early '80s. Beyond that he kind of lost me. I should check out some of his live solo stuff somewhere between 2000-and 2015.

[Orbert]

Wakeman himself admits that he has boatloads of material out there, and not all of it is necessary top quality.  I have a dozen or so Wakeman solo albums of all different genres, and I can't say any of them are really bad, but I think some are weaker than others.

I think my favorite "later" Wakeman solo stuff is the 1991 "Suntrilogy".  Three albums of cheesy New Age stuff, mostly solo piano or just a few different keyboards, but pretty nice for chilling.  I mean, it's cheesy, but it's really good, smooth cheese.  Thick and rich.  His last really good work with Yes was in 2005, the 35th Anniversary Tour (Songs from Tsongas) which also happened to be the last time the classic five (Anderson Howe Squire Wakeman White) toured together.  Wakeman was great on that tour.  The last couple of tours before that, he was getting a bit carried away with the high-speed noodling, and that combined with some really weak patches was getting pretty irritating.  But the 2005 tour was great, he reined it in quite a bit and things were better for it.

[ytserush]

Wakeman himself admits that he has boatloads of material out there, and not all of it is necessary top quality.  I have a dozen or so Wakeman solo albums of all different genres, and I can't say any of them are really bad, but I think some are weaker than others.

I think my favorite "later" Wakeman solo stuff is the 1991 "Suntrilogy".  Three albums of cheesy New Age stuff, mostly solo piano or just a few different keyboards, but pretty nice for chilling.  I mean, it's cheesy, but it's really good, smooth cheese.  Thick and rich.  His last really good work with Yes was in 2005, the 35th Anniversary Tour (Songs from Tsongas) which also happened to be the last time the classic five (Anderson Howe Squire Wakeman White) toured together.  Wakeman was great on that tour.  The last couple of tours before that, he was getting a bit carried away with the high-speed noodling, and that combined with some really weak patches was getting pretty irritating.  But the 2005 tour was great, he reined it in quite a bit and things were better for it.

He really lost me with the new age thing.  He could really play when he wanted to but he chose to work on that.

[Stadler]

It makes it hard for a fan like me.  I would love an album of the "Cans and Brahms" piece on Fragile, and what I remember of Six Wives, I love (it's on my list for upgrade to CD).   I checked out a two-CD album from the library that I thought was instrumental piano versions of Yes songs, but was very.... new age-y for a lack of a better word.  Cheesy electronic sounds, and not what I was looking for. 

[Orbert]

Maybe it's a piano-player thing.  Ever since I can remember, I've liked working up solo piano arrangements of songs I like.  I'm actually rather proud of some of them.  But if someone says "Hey Bob, play something" and I whip out one of my arrangements, they say it sounds like New Age crap.  What the fuck?  I'm playing a piano.  It's not going to sound like drums and electric guitars are also playing; it's going to sound like a solo piano arrangement of a rock song.

I do get the hate of cheesy electronic sounds.  Wakeman has way too many of those.  But his solo piano stuff is great.

[ytserush]

Maybe it's a piano-player thing.  Ever since I can remember, I've liked working up solo piano arrangements of songs I like.  I'm actually rather proud of some of them.  But if someone says "Hey Bob, play something" and I whip out one of my arrangements, they say it sounds like New Age crap.  What the fuck?  I'm playing a piano.  It's not going to sound like drums and electric guitars are also playing; it's going to sound like a solo piano arrangement of a rock song.

I do get the hate of cheesy electronic sounds.  Wakeman has way too many of those.  But his solo piano stuff is great.

Agreed. I do like his piano work.  I can do without all of that other stuff during that period

[ytserush]

Stumbled on this a few days ago.  I figure most fans already know about this.  Not in 5.1 or HD or anything like that.  It's a bit rough around the edges, but I'm not sure if I've ever seen a full 90125 show before so I thought it was pretty cool.  This band can play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcnplMQln80

[Stadler]

Not being critical at all, because that's a rare find, but it misses an essential point of that show (I saw two shows on that tour).  At that point, I had never seen anything like that stage set; it was essentially an angled circle, metallic silver, almost in the round, but not really, and it was amazing for how it allowed even Alan White to seem like they were at the front of the stage.   Add to that the lasers (which you could see at the very beginning, but not much after) but which formed glistening, spinning, dancing hearts during Long Distance Runaround, haha, no, Hearts, and it was an amazing show. 

Not my first concert, but first major arena act I had seen with no opening act (they played a Bugs Bunny cartoon, I think it was "Ali Baba Bunny") and it was really a special evening.  I saw the second leg as well, and it wasn't as good (they ditched the lasers, for the most part).  For me, the high points of the Howe era were higher, but the Rabin era was far more consistent in my opinion.   Even the worst of the Rabin era ("Almost Like Love", "Big Generator") is still pretty strong.

[pg1067]

Funky little microphone that JA was using.

[lonestar]

So a favorite band of mine, Allegaeon (melodic death metal) released a fantastic cover of Roundabout today, complete with a small bit of very tasteful growls. They paid respect to the original for sure, but also made it their own. I personally feel they knocked it out of the park. And the artwork is just 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_qQyJMlc4E

[Stadler]

I like that homage to the Fragile cover (the original album for Roundabout).

[lonestar]

Yeah, whoever does their artwork has real talent. All their album covers are brilliant.

[pg1067]

So a favorite band of mine, Allegaeon (melodic death metal) released a fantastic cover of Roundabout today, complete with a small bit of very tasteful growls. They paid respect to the original for sure, but also made it their own. I personally feel they knocked it out of the park. And the artwork is just 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_qQyJMlc4E

Roundabout is a REALLY tough song to cover.  I was pleasantly surprised by the beginning of the first chorus.  Didn't like the middle section ("along the drifting cloud"), except for the very end right before the acoustic guitar break.  To me, "tasteful growls" is a complete oxymoron.  Didn't love the 4-4-4-2 solo sections, but the sections over the fast, ascending bass line were good.  Really liked the ending section.  Overall a solid effort.  I'd give it a B or B-.  I watched the same band's cover of Rush's Subdivisions.  I liked the vocals, but the REALLY low guitars on most of the song didn't appeal to me.

This is probably my favorite cover of Roundabout:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frai3asSZW0

[Orbert]

Re: the Allegaeon cover

Wow!  I did not expect to like that, but it was really, really good.  The respect they have for the original arrangement is obvious.  An excellent cover.

[Ben_Jamin]

That's a badass cover. I've been getting into Allegaeon more, this was a nice surprise.

[JayOctavarium]

Fantastic cover imo

[lonestar]

That's a badass cover. I've been getting into Allegaeon more, this was a nice surprise.

They've been my favorite band this last year or so, their last album was flat out brilliant.

[ytserush]

Not being critical at all, because that's a rare find, but it misses an essential point of that show (I saw two shows on that tour).  At that point, I had never seen anything like that stage set; it was essentially an angled circle, metallic silver, almost in the round, but not really, and it was amazing for how it allowed even Alan White to seem like they were at the front of the stage.   Add to that the lasers (which you could see at the very beginning, but not much after) but which formed glistening, spinning, dancing hearts during Long Distance Runaround, haha, no, Hearts, and it was an amazing show. 

Not my first concert, but first major arena act I had seen with no opening act (they played a Bugs Bunny cartoon, I think it was "Ali Baba Bunny") and it was really a special evening.  I saw the second leg as well, and it wasn't as good (they ditched the lasers, for the most part).  For me, the high points of the Howe era were higher, but the Rabin era was far more consistent in my opinion.   Even the worst of the Rabin era ("Almost Like Love", "Big Generator") is still pretty strong.

I'm sure the lasers were great and all and the video probably doesn't scratch the surface on what it was like to be there, but the music is flat out off the charts amazing.  I kinda get now why Squire said that Rabin breathed new life into the band.  Nobody seems happier than Squire and he's nearly possessed. My only reference from this period is the 90125Live edit and it's pretty good but not all that remarkable. I have no idea if this show was just a good night or par for the course.
To me it doesn't really matter who is in this band as long as they bring it.

[Stadler]

Not being critical at all, because that's a rare find, but it misses an essential point of that show (I saw two shows on that tour).  At that point, I had never seen anything like that stage set; it was essentially an angled circle, metallic silver, almost in the round, but not really, and it was amazing for how it allowed even Alan White to seem like they were at the front of the stage.   Add to that the lasers (which you could see at the very beginning, but not much after) but which formed glistening, spinning, dancing hearts during Long Distance Runaround, haha, no, Hearts, and it was an amazing show. 

Not my first concert, but first major arena act I had seen with no opening act (they played a Bugs Bunny cartoon, I think it was "Ali Baba Bunny") and it was really a special evening.  I saw the second leg as well, and it wasn't as good (they ditched the lasers, for the most part).  For me, the high points of the Howe era were higher, but the Rabin era was far more consistent in my opinion.   Even the worst of the Rabin era ("Almost Like Love", "Big Generator") is still pretty strong.

I'm sure the lasers were great and all and the video probably doesn't scratch the surface on what it was like to be there, but the music is flat out off the charts amazing.  I kinda get now why Squire said that Rabin breathed new life into the band.  Nobody seems happier than Squire and he's nearly possessed. My only reference from this period is the 90125Live edit and it's pretty good but not all that remarkable. I have no idea if this show was just a good night or par for the course.
To me it doesn't really matter who is in this band as long as they bring it.

I think it was more par for the course.  Like I said, I saw two shows on that tour and they slayed it.  That Rabin-Squire-White trio was on FIRE.  Squire was always a rock bass player in a prog band anyway.

[ytserush]

Not being critical at all, because that's a rare find, but it misses an essential point of that show (I saw two shows on that tour).  At that point, I had never seen anything like that stage set; it was essentially an angled circle, metallic silver, almost in the round, but not really, and it was amazing for how it allowed even Alan White to seem like they were at the front of the stage.   Add to that the lasers (which you could see at the very beginning, but not much after) but which formed glistening, spinning, dancing hearts during Long Distance Runaround, haha, no, Hearts, and it was an amazing show. 

Not my first concert, but first major arena act I had seen with no opening act (they played a Bugs Bunny cartoon, I think it was "Ali Baba Bunny") and it was really a special evening.  I saw the second leg as well, and it wasn't as good (they ditched the lasers, for the most part).  For me, the high points of the Howe era were higher, but the Rabin era was far more consistent in my opinion.   Even the worst of the Rabin era ("Almost Like Love", "Big Generator") is still pretty strong.

I'm sure the lasers were great and all and the video probably doesn't scratch the surface on what it was like to be there, but the music is flat out off the charts amazing.  I kinda get now why Squire said that Rabin breathed new life into the band.  Nobody seems happier than Squire and he's nearly possessed. My only reference from this period is the 90125Live edit and it's pretty good but not all that remarkable. I have no idea if this show was just a good night or par for the course.
To me it doesn't really matter who is in this band as long as they bring it.

I think it was more par for the course.  Like I said, I saw two shows on that tour and they slayed it.  That Rabin-Squire-White trio was on FIRE.  Squire was always a rock bass player in a prog band anyway.

I know he's done some amazing bass solos over the years, but the one here is pretty sick. It's on 9012Live but it's heavily edited on that and doesn't do his solo justice.