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stonebeard View Drop Down

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Posted: February 18 2006 at 20:04

TFTO kind of disgust me. That album is a rambling mess.

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Rust

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Posted: February 18 2006 at 20:15

stonebeard wrote:

TFTO kind of disgust me. That album is a rambling mess.

I have learned to love it preety quickly, only took me about 4 or 5 listens for each song. That's preety fast for me when it comes to Yes, or any band for that matter. Once I learned to appreciate TFTO alot like I do now, it became a whole lot easier to love their other albums. I have so much good to say about it. If you pay very very close attention you will know it's not a rambling mess, but it is so detailed and there are so many movements in each song that is is not rambling, but ingeneous.

For example, Close to the Edge has 4 deffinite movements, well, The Remembering has atleast 8 movements, some are repeated, but they are so perfectly timed and each movement is so carefully chosen and placed after the next that it is ingeneous, not "padded" like so many think. If you decided to take out the repeated movements in each song so that each movement is only played once, the songs would lose so much of their meaning and would be almost pointless, as opposed to keeping the songs the leangth that they are.

The album is perfect, any second less on any of the tracks would be murder.

We got to pump the stuff to make us tough
from the heart
Its astart
What we need is awareness we cant get careless
Mental self defensive fitness
Make everybody see in order to fight the powers that be

kev2307

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Posted: February 18 2006 at 20:52

You have lost me with TFTO what ??????????

Each album has a mood = TOPO GRAPHIC - is a great cure for a hangover - well it stops the room spinning.

I have all the albums and MAGNIFICATION and OPEN YOUR EYES are not very good but part of the KEYS are excellent.

From YES through to UNION I have only been partly disappointed. Patrick was ok as a Rick replacement and Tony Kaye was good early and on 90125.

YES are so so good in every way = hence why I have seen them at every opportunity.

Soul Dreamer View Drop Down

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Posted: February 18 2006 at 22:25

To me Yes is ... the best musical experience ever to have emerged on this planet.

There are very good bands of whom I like the music very much ... Genesis (1970-1977), Pink Floyd, Marillion (Fish AND Hogath era), I recently discovered Riverside Thanks to PA!), Pain of Salvation, some of Dream Theater's albums, Ayreon (especially the Electric Castle), Metallica before 1991, Carlos Santana etc etc.....

AND THEN THERE IS YES.

Yes to me is emotion coupled with technical (instrumental and compositional) excelence.

I remember being a schoolboy, and "hooked" to Creedence, Golden Earring(s) and Deep Purple and then hearing "Close To The Edge" for the first time (1973). I couldn't understand it. What was this music about? I had never heard anything even closely resembling that. It haunted me. But after my best friend bought the album and I listened to it more than once, I started to see the patterns and now (almost 34 years later) the magic of that music is still there, although I must have played it more than 1000 times. Everytime I hear Jon singing "I get up...I get down" I still feel the sensation and when the Church organ of Rick sets in ... goose bumps. This music alone makes Yes stand out to me compared to anything else. Ofcourse I discovered also The Yes Album, Fragile, Yessongs and Relayer later. My nick here is from "To Be Over".

Then, in 1977 came the album "Going for the One". The songs "Turn of the Century" and "Awaken" will allways have a special place in my life. My mother died the end of 1976 in a car crash. I had a hard time dealing with that. Turn of the Century is about death and love which extends over this boundary ("Like leaves we touch, we see, we will know the story"). I got a huge emotional support from this song. Awaken shows the spiritual connection between us humans and the divine.
This album has not been away on my "Play list" ever since and I still love it as much as when it came out (or even more!).

Anyway, I still play Yes music every day and it helps me getting along with my life. I thank Jon, Steve, Chris and all the others they played with for that.

bruin69

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 06:54

I first heard Yes when a friend put the vinyl "Yes Album" on his record player back in 1971 (God I'm old). He was raving about the album. I'd never been particularly interested in music - hated the Beatles (still do!) and all the chart stuff, and had dismissed music as an irrelevance to my life. Then I heard "Yours Is No Disgrace"... and "Starship Trooper"... and "Perpetual Change"...

My life changed right there, on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Yes opened my eyes to the power of music to transcend your humdrum life and lift your spirits.

Ever since then I've been disappointed whenever a new Yes album came out - bought it with huge enthusiasm, put it on, thought "That's not much good," whinged about wasting money on it, then realised on second (or sometimes twentieth) listen that it too was a masterpiece.

And so it went on, through all the classic albums: Fragile, CTTE, TTTE (THAT was hard work but I got there!), Relayer (my personal favourite, and I wish Patrick Moraz had stayed for another few albums), GFTO, Drama (really good album and sometimes unfairly dismissed because of Tevor Horn, who didn't do too bad a job at all), Tormato (yes it is "child-like" and "Circus of Heaven" a little clumsy, but there are some beautiful moments, particularly "Future Times" and "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom").

The Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe collaborations are pretty damn fine. The 80s albums, "Yes-Lite" as some call them, are still recognisably Yes, more poppy but still beautifully played; these guys are consummate musicians and it shows. Let's not assume that all music HAS to be progressive! Shorter, simpler compositions can be fine...

For me, only "Open Your Eyes" falls completely flat, but "The Ladder" and "Magnification" have reawakened hopes that Yes aren't completely spent as a force.

And then the live shows... I've seen Yes more than any other band, on every British tour they did since the "CTTE" tour. With two exceptions, those live shows were a truly awesome experience. The power of Steve Howe's guitar work is astonishing on every tour, and the band just seems to thrive on playing to an audience. They can move an audience like no other band. The "Relayer" tour was my personal favourite.

The two exceptions - the "Drama" tour where I felt quite sorry for Trevor Horn, whose fragile voice completely gave up on him and it brought the rest of the band down, and "The Ladder" gigs, when Igor Khoroshev had only recently joined Yes and really couldn't contribute anything to the sound, and struggled to match Wakeman's pyrotechics.

But like Soul Dreamer, the previous reviewer, I listen to Yes on my mp3 player just about every day, simply because it cheers me up! Yes was the perfect name for them, because the music is so life-affirming. Even though I'm a lifelong atheist, I recognise the positive spiritual aspects of the lyrics, and I thank Jon Anderson and Squire, Howe, Bruford, Wakeman (shame he's a Tory but nobody's perfect!) Moraz and all the others for changing my life for the better.

Topographic Oce View Drop Down

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 10:03

This thread could have been written back in 1973 at my school because YES were the band that always totally divided opinion,you either loved them or hated them but for me they were and always will be one of the greatest bands the world has ever seen.

My only qualification on that is that the period after Tormato be ignored because really that was the end of an era and nothing that came after was really up to the standards they had set themseves.

On the other eternal YES topic of tales From Topographic Oceans I have always thought it was a gem and not the "Load of pretentious crap" that even some YES fans classify it as

micky

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 10:08

bruin69 wrote:

My life changed right there, on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Yes opened my eyes to the power of music to transcend your humdrum life and lift your spirits.

For me, only "Open Your Eyes" falls completely flat, but "The Ladder" and "Magnification" have reawakened hopes that Yes aren't completely spent as a force.

wow other than first hearing Yes in 1971, I'm old but not as old as you hahahahha, that post encapsulates pretty much how I feel about Yes. Let's hope that Yes does indeed get back to the studio later this year like Wakeman said.

The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip

Winter Wine View Drop Down

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 10:38

micky wrote:

When did he say that!!!!!!!!! I NEED TO KNOW!!!!!!

My computer's broke

micky

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 10:52

Winter Wine wrote:

micky wrote:

When did he say that!!!!!!!!! I NEED TO KNOW!!!!!!

[/QUOTE]

I posted my 'review' (hahahah) of a radio interview Wakeman did with a local radio station here (

) in the Non-Music Prog lounge. He is hopeful to get back into the studio at the end of the year, and he seemed to imply that it was discussed with Steve Howe. Who knows.... I really don't think Yes will go out without a 'farewell' album/tour. I think they've probably got at least one more left in the chamber so to speak. Let's hope so at least hahahah.

The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip

Winter Wine View Drop Down

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 10:58

micky wrote:

Winter Wine wrote:

micky wrote:

When did he say that!!!!!!!!! I NEED TO KNOW!!!!!!

I posted my 'review' (hahahah) of a radio interview Wakeman did with a local radio station here (

Yeah, I really hope I get to see them one day, And i'd give my left foot to talk to the guys, I'd say Wakeman's a right laugh. If they do plan to release another album then it will by the first Yes album that I can get on its release! God i'd be so excited!

My computer's broke

Devil's Haircut View Drop Down

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Joined: February 19 2006
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Posted: February 19 2006 at 16:01

Today I registered on to this cool website and would like to reply to the 'Open descussion' on Yes. I have bought "Close to the Edge" which I found quite interesting at first but have began to expand my prog taste and now LOVE it. I also bought "Relayer" and "The Yes Album" and think they're both really great too. As I learn more about the group i'll post some more

Edited by Devil's Haircut

Starship Trooper flying high above

laztraz

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 16:06

My wife hates Yes because of the vocals. To me they just wouldn't be Yes without them.

laztraz

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 16:08

stonebeard wrote:

TFTO kind of disgust me. That album is a rambling mess.

But what a fine rambling mess it is!

micky

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 16:26

laztraz wrote:

stonebeard wrote:

TFTO kind of disgust me. That album is a rambling mess.

But what a fine rambling mess it is!

I have in it my top 5 list of rambling messes alltime hahahha along with such cringeworthy works as ELP's debut, GG's Three Friends, PFM's Per Un Amico, and il Balletto di Bronzo's Ys.

The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip

Fritha

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 17:15

Hmm, until today I was wondering whether I would ever purchase TFTO, but having enjoyed Ritual on the Symphonic DVD earlier this evening, I am beginning to think that perhaps I really ought to shed those 10 euros for a copy of it. It´s the only Yes album from the 70´s still missing from my collection.

Besides, I read Andy Tillison's (of The Tangent fame) passionate review of it the other day on his band´s website and it was a good read, especially for anybody, who has a special bond with TFTO

Let me see if I can find a link...

http://thetangent.org/

Ah, found it. It´s in the "articles" section.

Edited by Fritha

I was made to love magic

marktheshark View Drop Down

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 18:28

micky wrote:

laztraz wrote:

stonebeard wrote:

TFTO kind of disgust me. That album is a rambling mess.

But what a fine rambling mess it is!

I have in it my top 5 list of rambling messes alltime hahahha along
with such cringeworthy works as ELP's debut, PFM's
Per Un Amico.

You can't be serious?! Are you sure you're in the right forum? I can understand TFTTO, but those albums are staples in prog. I think you need to go to prog-bootcamp!

micky

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Posted: February 19 2006 at 18:31

marktheshark wrote:

micky wrote:

laztraz wrote:

stonebeard wrote:

TFTO kind of disgust me. That album is a rambling mess.

But what a fine rambling mess it is!

I have in it my top 5 list of rambling messes alltime hahahha along
with such cringeworthy works as ELP's debut, PFM's
Per Un Amico.

You can't be serious?! Are you sure you're in the right forum? I can understand TFTTO, but those albums are staples in prog. I think you need to go to prog-bootcamp!

a joke..... about the rambling messes that is...

Edited by micky

The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip

soundspectrum View Drop Down

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Posted: February 20 2006 at 09:10

I think they are excellent musicians (well from what i hear jon has just got natural pitch with little to no training) but the song are just not good. Im going to see rick wakeman soon but istill cant get into yes. To me their sound that makes them yes is the sound im not to happy with.

BaldFriede View Drop Down

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Posted: February 20 2006 at 09:20

Yes used to be the epitome of prog to me until I discovered other and more interesting artists. I still like them, but keep your feet on the floor, boys; there is a lot more original stuff out there than Yes. I admit they are all excellent muscians though. And "Relayer" even gets 5 stars from me. But in the whole they are not quirky enough for me to be my favourite band.

BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.

chopper

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Posted: February 20 2006 at 11:12

Winter Wine wrote:

micky wrote:

Winter Wine wrote:

micky wrote:

When did he say that!!!!!!!!! I NEED TO KNOW!!!!!!

I posted my 'review' (hahahah) of a radio interview Wakeman did with a local radio station here (

[/QUOTE]

What a shame we're in the age of the CD then! I still remember the excitement I felt when I bought Going For The One when it came out and discovered the triple fold out sleeve.