great great band. i was on a HUGE yes kick in 1996. of course, i liked them before and since, but i just don't really keep up with them much anymore.
bill bruford is a brilliant musician and a massive influence on me.
my favorite yes tune ever is "heart of the sunrise".
besides all their classic albums, there are some really excellent ones that are generally overlooked. 1974's Relayer - the first with alan white on drums and only with patrick moraz on keyboards - is amazing. i also love 1978's Tormato (which i'm gonna spin now, thanks to this post!). some of the later ones and side projects (like ABWH) were also good.
i can understand the love/hate relationship with this band, but there's no denying the exceptionally high level of musicianship and that's something i both dig and admire.
[1] White played on Topographic Oceans, first, I believe...anyway a lot of Yes fan friends swear by Relayer but I could never get into it. I'm afraid I'm largely hung up on that classic trio of The Yes Album, Fragile and Close To the Edge.
BTW, break out the Yes Album when you're desperate to induce a Yankee rally. Starship Trooper summons the score truck!
[2] ya know, you're absolutely right! i always overlook that album, 'coz i'm not that much of a fan. i have like 30 yes cd's, but not that one. i have, i think, 3 of the 4 long tracks on the box set, so i just didn't bother to think about the lineup, as far as the drum chair is concerned. thanks for the correction!
i'm glad you've got friends that dig Relayer! the extracted single "soon" is well known, but the entire "gates of delirium" is impressive.
for me, "Soundchaser" is easily in my top 5 of favorite Yes tunes, if not #2. squire is killin' it, great stuff in 5 and that one middle section is sooo Mahavishnu-like. i mean, it's slammin' 70's Fusion for a minute and i adore that! : )
the Yes Album, of course, is classic. i can do w/out the Clap, but that's fine. everything else is great. the last two tracks - A Venture & Perpetual Change - i think get lost in the shuffle and are the best offerings! those two songs are also waaaay high on my Yes list!
"I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way".
What exactly did that mean? I must have song that line 1000 times when I was teen. Yes was cool, and the musicianship was first rate, but the bombastic production was a little precious...so British
"Seasons will pass you by, I get up, I get down" Again, does it simply mean that many sleeps go by fast, so do the years? Trippy, man.
[3] And Thelarmis, interesting that you mention the Mahavishnu Orchestra, it seemed at the time, that from Yes the natural progression was to Mahavishnu, and many of us made the graduation. That band ROCKED, and opened up our teen ears to Jazz from then on.
[6] sooo cool you dig mahavishnu! my old fusion trio is even mentioned in their biography. : ) [we covered "you know, you know", amongst some other pieces...]
i think the debut Yes album predates the first mahavishnu by about a year, or so. but by the time Relayer came out (1974), i think Yes were certainly influenced by the coupla mahavishnu albums released by that time. i'm sure part of it was alan white being in the band and loving cobham, but how could ANY top flight musician group not be influenced by mahavishnu at that time?! : )
[7] thelarmis, you KNOW I have to join in when the conversation turns to Mahavishnu! Johnny Mac and Billy Cobham are not human on those records..impossible technique!
I liked Yes in high school too, but despite the great chops of all the members, too much poitnless noodling..and "Tales from Topographic Oceans"...yikes, that's pretty unlistenable these days...stll dig Starship Trooper though!
Thelarmis, I always loved the dry snare sound Bruford had on the "Long Distance Runaround" recording. And maybe it's just me, I feel like Geddy Lee has a lot of Chris Squire in his playing, particularly with the use of treble and the real grinding type of picking during certain eighth and sixteenth-note sections. A great rhythm section, and this is right there among their best work.
And [8] ... impossible technique is probably the best way to put it. Not as impossible as anything Terry Bozzio does or a very underrated Phil Collins did on his Brand X stuff in the late '80s, but damn near close.
great great band. i was on a HUGE yes kick in 1996. of course, i liked them before and since, but i just don't really keep up with them much anymore.
bill bruford is a brilliant musician and a massive influence on me.
my favorite yes tune ever is "heart of the sunrise".
besides all their classic albums, there are some really excellent ones that are generally overlooked. 1974's Relayer - the first with alan white on drums and only with patrick moraz on keyboards - is amazing. i also love 1978's Tormato (which i'm gonna spin now, thanks to this post!). some of the later ones and side projects (like ABWH) were also good.
i can understand the love/hate relationship with this band, but there's no denying the exceptionally high level of musicianship and that's something i both dig and admire.
[1] White played on Topographic Oceans, first, I believe...anyway a lot of Yes fan friends swear by Relayer but I could never get into it. I'm afraid I'm largely hung up on that classic trio of The Yes Album, Fragile and Close To the Edge.
BTW, break out the Yes Album when you're desperate to induce a Yankee rally. Starship Trooper summons the score truck!
[2] ya know, you're absolutely right! i always overlook that album, 'coz i'm not that much of a fan. i have like 30 yes cd's, but not that one. i have, i think, 3 of the 4 long tracks on the box set, so i just didn't bother to think about the lineup, as far as the drum chair is concerned. thanks for the correction!
i'm glad you've got friends that dig Relayer! the extracted single "soon" is well known, but the entire "gates of delirium" is impressive.
for me, "Soundchaser" is easily in my top 5 of favorite Yes tunes, if not #2. squire is killin' it, great stuff in 5 and that one middle section is sooo Mahavishnu-like. i mean, it's slammin' 70's Fusion for a minute and i adore that! : )
the Yes Album, of course, is classic. i can do w/out the Clap, but that's fine. everything else is great. the last two tracks - A Venture & Perpetual Change - i think get lost in the shuffle and are the best offerings! those two songs are also waaaay high on my Yes list!
Boy, I was really into Yes in high school, esp. my last couple of years. Since I stopped abusing substances they don't appeal to me as much.
This makes me wonder about Thelarmis.
[4] : )
"I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way".
What exactly did that mean? I must have song that line 1000 times when I was teen. Yes was cool, and the musicianship was first rate, but the bombastic production was a little precious...so British
"Seasons will pass you by, I get up, I get down" Again, does it simply mean that many sleeps go by fast, so do the years? Trippy, man.
[3] And Thelarmis, interesting that you mention the Mahavishnu Orchestra, it seemed at the time, that from Yes the natural progression was to Mahavishnu, and many of us made the graduation. That band ROCKED, and opened up our teen ears to Jazz from then on.
[6] sooo cool you dig mahavishnu! my old fusion trio is even mentioned in their biography. : ) [we covered "you know, you know", amongst some other pieces...]
i think the debut Yes album predates the first mahavishnu by about a year, or so. but by the time Relayer came out (1974), i think Yes were certainly influenced by the coupla mahavishnu albums released by that time. i'm sure part of it was alan white being in the band and loving cobham, but how could ANY top flight musician group not be influenced by mahavishnu at that time?! : )
[7] thelarmis, you KNOW I have to join in when the conversation turns to Mahavishnu! Johnny Mac and Billy Cobham are not human on those records..impossible technique!
I liked Yes in high school too, but despite the great chops of all the members, too much poitnless noodling..and "Tales from Topographic Oceans"...yikes, that's pretty unlistenable these days...stll dig Starship Trooper though!
Thelarmis, I always loved the dry snare sound Bruford had on the "Long Distance Runaround" recording. And maybe it's just me, I feel like Geddy Lee has a lot of Chris Squire in his playing, particularly with the use of treble and the real grinding type of picking during certain eighth and sixteenth-note sections. A great rhythm section, and this is right there among their best work.
And [8] ... impossible technique is probably the best way to put it. Not as impossible as anything Terry Bozzio does or a very underrated Phil Collins did on his Brand X stuff in the late '80s, but damn near close.