The Official Yes Thread

[KevShmev]

As a noob in the Yes world of prog, I have a question for everyone on this thread.

Recently I picked up Close to the Edge on vinyl. When I brought it home, I listened to the title track once. I don't know if it was me, the record player, the production, or a number of these things, but the song didn't do anything for me. I already have Fragile on vinyl and the first time I heard that I was hooked. Am I missing something? Am I not listening right? Does it take a few listens?

What's wrong with this picture?

Long songs usually take me at least a few listens so catch on to a lot of what is going so, so give it more spins here and there, and hopefully enough of it will grab you to keep you listening.  I remember the first I listened to "Close to the Edge" and being completely mesmerized by Rick Wakeman's keyboard sounds during the long intro (talking the first three or four minutes here).

[Quadrochosis]

I think I shit myself the first time I heard CttE.

[King Postwhore]

Hearing And You and I as a 10 year old changed what I knew of music and with Rush sent me down the path of more grown up music and into the Prog world.  Even though it wasn't called prog back then.

[ThroughHerEyesDude6]

What was it called? Just good rock and roll?

[ZBomber]

It takes me a few listens to really appreciate longer pieces as well. There is just so much there, its hard to take everything in at once.

[Orbert]

With "Close to the Edge" there's a lot of really cool things they've done in terms of the arrangement.  The first verse is in 12/8, the second verse has the same melody but cuts the rhythm back to 6/4 but the eighth note stays the same, and much later, after one of the most amazing Hammond solos ever recorded (which he plays over the first verse progression), the final verse actually combines the rhythms of the first two verses in a pretty bizarre way that works somehow.

During the intro, which is nearly atonal, listen to the 12/8 pattern the bass plays, which the guitar doubles near the end.  The keyboards are playing the exact same pattern, twice as fast, three octaves higher.

On the hill, we viewed the silence of the valley...

[ThroughHerEyesDude6]

Just listened to Close to the Edge twice today and holy crap it finally hit me. There is so much to digest but once I digested it all, it was sooooooo yummy. Thank you Orbert for the in depth analysis. I listened to the album once more for the little trinkets you talked about, and damn. Shit's deep.

I think to this day the song that took the longest to digest was "The Count of Tuscany", just cause of the lyrics (cheese is no gouda). But anwyay, I am so glad I picked up this record. I'm listening to Fragile right now (vinyl) but once I'm done I'm going straight back to Close to the Edge.

Thank you DTF!

[Orbert]

What was it called? Just good rock and roll?

In the 70's, yeah it was.  You had your Rock station, and maybe a separate Oldies station as well, if there was enough demand for 50's music.  I still remember hearing "Roundabout" on the radio back then, and realizing how incredibly special it was.  Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, three-part harmonies, fast and slow movements, a double round of solos with the guitar and organ trading off, all in the same song.  Nobody did that in the early 70's, but Yes did, and it was even a Top 40 hit.  I think I knew then that I would always be attracted to music that pushed the envelope.

[ThroughHerEyesDude6]

Yes was once on the radio? And on the top 40?? Nowadays when I start a conversation about Yes (with people my age), they look at me like I'm weird and ask "There's a band called 'Yes'?, that's funny".

Somedays I think I was born in the wrong time era. And then I remember bands like Dream Theater, Opeth, Children Of Bodom, and Between the Buried and Me, and I still get depressed that prog never gets the amount of respect it deserves.

[Quadrochosis]

bands like Dream Theater, Opeth, Children Of Bodom, and Between the Buried and Me

One of these things is not like the others.

[wolfking]

I've come in to admit that the only Yes song I've heard is Owner of a Lonely Heart.  But yesterday I picked up a best of and Going For the One extremely cheap.  I haven't listened to them yet.  By reading this thread, looks like I should have picked up Close to the Edge.

[King Postwhore]

What was it called? Just good rock and roll?

As a kid I heard the term "experimental rock".  It was only later that the term "Prog Rock" surfaced.

[Orbert]

"Art Rock" was another early term that I heard a lot.

The early 70's were an amazing time for rock music.  People figured out that you could create rock music for listening to and not just dancing to.  Some of this actually made it to the radio, because radio stations were independent, not all programmed by some idiot in an office in New York who decides what you think is cool.  People were willing to try new music, put stuff out there and see what sticks.  Promising new bands were given three-album deals, which is completely unheard-of these days.  They had time to develop their sound and do some great, interesting stuff along the way.  Today, if you don't have a Top 40 hit on your first album, you don't make a second one.

I heard "Roundabout" on the radio and decided to buy Fragile.  To this day, I still remember riding home from the store, my mom driving the old Ford, tearing off the shrink wrap, opening the gatefold (all the coolest albums "opened up") and just savoring the moment.  Just checking out the artwork and lyrics, I knew I was going to hear some cool shit when I got home.

[King Postwhore]

How could I forget Art Rock.  Thank Orbert!  The late 60's into the 70's was a great time of bands streching the limits of the definitions of what music was in peoples eyes and ears. 

[Perpetual Change]

I've come in to admit that the only Yes song I've heard is Owner of a Lonely Heart.  But yesterday I picked up a best of and Going For the One extremely cheap.  I haven't listened to them yet.  By reading this thread, looks like I should have picked up Close to the Edge.

Going for the One is awesome. It's like getting Six Degrees or Scenes From a Memory instead of Awake or Images and Words. Not what most people consider the best, but it certainly has its following. You still made a great choice.

[ThroughHerEyesDude6]

bands like Dream Theater, Opeth, Children Of Bodom, and Between the Buried and Me

One of these things is not like the others.

Whoops, I mean Coheed and Cambria. My mind was completely somewhere else.

[ytserush]

What was it called? Just good rock and roll?

In the 70's, yeah it was.  You had your Rock station, and maybe a separate Oldies station as well, if there was enough demand for 50's music.  I still remember hearing "Roundabout" on the radio back then, and realizing how incredibly special it was.  Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, three-part harmonies, fast and slow movements, a double round of solos with the guitar and organ trading off, all in the same song.  Nobody did that in the early 70's, but Yes did, and it was even a Top 40 hit.  I think I knew then that I would always be attracted to music that pushed the envelope.

Now music gets classified and thrown unfiltered into niches where 90 percent of the people never experience it. In 1973 most people who listened to the radio knew who Yes was.   

You could hear Yes, Slade, Elton John and Sly and The Family Stone within 20 minutes of each other.

Today, the scope of what you hear on the radio is very narrow. It's unlikely that you would hear the band Live and The Mars Volta on the same commercial/satellite radio station.

[lonestar]

How could I forget Art Rock.  Thank Orbert!  The late 60's into the 70's was a great time of bands streching the limits of the definitions of what music was in peoples eyes and ears. 

Another thing to think about was that it wass all fresh and new at the time.  We've had forty years of music to dilute the pool since then.

[Orbert]

 

What was it called? Just good rock and roll?

In the 70's, yeah it was.  You had your Rock station, and maybe a separate Oldies station as well, if there was enough demand for 50's music.  I still remember hearing "Roundabout" on the radio back then, and realizing how incredibly special it was.  Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, three-part harmonies, fast and slow movements, a double round of solos with the guitar and organ trading off, all in the same song.  Nobody did that in the early 70's, but Yes did, and it was even a Top 40 hit.  I think I knew then that I would always be attracted to music that pushed the envelope.

Now music gets classified and thrown unfiltered into niches where 90 percent of the people never experience it. In 1973 most people who listened to the radio knew who Yes was.  

You could hear Yes, Slade, Elton John and Sly and The Family Stone within 20 minutes of each other.

Today, the scope of what you hear on the radio is very narrow. It's unlikely that you would hear the band Live and The Mars Volta on the same commercial/satellite radio station.

I think the proliferation of satellite and internet radio stations is great if you know what type of music you want to listen to already.  Every niche is pretty much covered.

I grew up in Lansing, Michigan in the 70's, and we had a Rock station, a Country station, an Easy Listening station (mellower pop stuff, pretty much anything you wouldn't consider Rock) and an Oldies station.  So pretty much everything popular was divided between the Rock and the Easy Listening; Country wasn't nearly as fragmented as it is today, and the Oldies covered everything else.  So you picked a format and listened.  You'd hear the stuff you like and a whole bunch of stuff you wouldn't necessarily pick, but everyone got exposed to all different kinds of stuff.  Then in my case, I went and bought albums by bands that sounded interesting.  Some of my friends bought singles (45's) but I liked albums.  You got a better feel for what a band was about.

[Gadough]

Is it abnormal that I find Fragile much easier to listen to and much more enjoyable than the 3 albums that followed it? Granted, I like CttE, Tales, and Relayer, but I've listened to them maybe 2 or 3 times each, whereas I've probably listened to Fragile about 10 times by now.

[lonestar]

Just give it time, man.  Yes is not a fly by night girl, but a life long obsession.  I have been listening to said albums for over 25 years, and still discover new shit about them at every listen.  Protip-find a beautiful outside area, put the headphones on, and watch the nighttime stars while listening to Rituals off of Tales.  It will, no pun intended, become a ritual for you, I do it every year at my annual camping trip in the Sierras, and it still brings tears to my eyes.  Not tomention that it always makes me feel about this fucking big.

[Gadough]

That's pretty cool. I rarely listen to music outside of the darkness of my room, but I may give that a go.

Speaking of Tales...like I said, I've listened to it 3 times in full, but I remember nothing about it. I distinctly remember liking it each time, but...I can't recall anything about any of the songs. When I finish listening to it, it's like "that was cool, but...what the fuck did I just listen to?"

[lonestar]

I said it before a while back in this thread, but Yes is the one band I know of that you almost have to sacrifice yourself to the music, just give it up, and let the music fo what it may with your spirit and soul.  I always felt that is the only way to truly appreciate Yes.  (sidenote, Yes is my favorite band, with DT being a close second, I have seen Yes many, many times, and each one was like a speaking in tongues spiritual ritual for me)

[Orbert]

Fragile is more accessible than the albums that followed it, mostly because the songs are shorter.  The next three albums are basically all epics and yeah, it can be overwhelming.  As with most large-scale pieces of music, any of the songs on those albums (even the "short" ones) can take a while to grasp.

While I agree that it really requires something of an investment and surrender to get into, I also understand that it's just not for everybody.  A long, complex piece of music of any genre can be exhausting to listen to, because it takes a lot of energy just to stay with it the whole time, and it will take you on emotional highs and lows along the way.  Not everyone is looking for an serious emotional investment when they listen to music; they just want something good to listen to.

But man, people I know who are really into Yes are really, really into Yes.  If it speaks to you, it is seriously like no other prog.

[Zydar]

European tour dates:

Here is a list of the concerts that have been confirmed so far:

11/8 – Corn Exchange - Cambridge, UK
11/9 – City Hall - Sheffield
11/11 - Symphony Hall – Birmingham, UK
11/12 – Clyde Auditorium - Glasgow, UK
11/13 – Apollo - Manchester, UK
11/15 – Dome – Brighton, UK
11/16 – Colston Hall - Bristol, UK
11/17 – Hammersmith Apollo – London, UK
11/19 – Olympia - Paris, France
11/20 – Ancienne Belgique - Brussels, Belgium
11/21 – Vereeniging - – Nijmegen, Holland
11/23 – Volkshau – Zurich, Switzerland
11/24 – Teatro Smeraldo – Milan, Italy
11/25 – Palazzetti de Chiarbola - Trieste, Italy
11/27 – Koncerthaus - Vienna, Austria
11/29 – Kulturpalast - Dresden, Germany
11/30 – KKL Hegensaal – Stuttgart, Germany
12/1 – Konings-Pilsner Arena - Oberhausen, Germany
12/3 – Tonhalle - Munich, Germany
12/4 – Ringlokschuppen – Bielefield, Germany
12/6 – Amager Bio – Copenhagen, Denmark
12/7 – Sentrum Scene – Oslo, Norway

[King Postwhore]

So Geoff Downes seems to be in the band again.  Some of the new album was recorded with Oliver Wakeman and some with Geoff.  I wonder if Geoff rerecorded the parts or they used Oliver's parts?

[Orbert]

That's the big speculation discussion on Yes boards these days.  The new album Fly from Here gets its title from the track "We Can Fly from Here" which was originally a Drama-era song that they played live but which wasn't on the album.  Trevor Horn is producing the new album, and he of course sang lead vocals on Drama.  He brought in Geoff Downes to play keys on just the one track, as Geoff played on the original version of the song.  They worked with Chris Squire on reworking the song and updating it, and somehow during that process it went from a "regular" song to an epic of over 20 minutes and the centerpiece of the album.

Last week it was announced that Geoff is the keyboard player for Yes, and there were pictures of the lineup.  Downes is in and Son of Wakeman is out, but no one seems to know where that leaves us as far as how much of Wakeman's tracks will be on the new album.

[King Postwhore]

I'm interested to hear the new CD because, well, first it's Yes but I love Horn's production on a few different bands and now seeing if it translates to 2011.

[Perpetual Change]

Is it abnormal that I find Fragile much easier to listen to and much more enjoyable than the 3 albums that followed it? Granted, I like CttE, Tales, and Relayer, but I've listened to them maybe 2 or 3 times each, whereas I've probably listened to Fragile about 10 times by now.

Nah, Fragile is easily a better record than Tales and Relayer IMO.

[Mladen]

Good to see some tour dates, but unfortunately the closest show to me is Austria. 

[jonny108]

Fuck me, I'll be at Sheffield!  FUCK YEAH!!!!

[Quadrochosis]

Wait, Oliver is out? lol I love how Yes can never go more than 6 months without a lineup change.

I'm excited for the new album though, seeing as they played a lot of Drama tunes on the past few tours, and that they've now begun working with the two guys that were in Drama, I think that this album should be pretty good.

[ZBomber]

Thank god Wakeman is out, he didn't fit in the band at all imo...

I'm more interested in the album, but still wish they had a different singer. Wasn't that impressed with Benoit.

[Quadrochosis]

Well, compared to Anderson everyone else falls short when it comes to singing for Yes.

[ZBomber]

That's true. He might sound better in studio too. I didn't mind his tone, but he was very pitchy live. However, in the studio they can run through the songs as much as they need.