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YES - Close to the Edge (1972)
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 28028 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 26 2024 at 22:55
Originally posted by essexboyinwales essexboyinwales wrote:

Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

Tormato was my first exposure to Yes so it took me nearly another 2 decades before I took them seriously. I was told at school that if I liked ELP (who were my favourite band and everyone knew it!) then I would like Yes. That was so not true as they were actually quite different. 3 piece versus 5 piece, baritone versus falsetto etc. The only thing that was similar was Emerson and Wakeman's ever expanding keyboard stacks! My music taste was always all over the place. I liked some metal , some funk, some punk and some prog and some electronic. When I used to go on the ELP and related forums back in the day (late 90's early 00's) there were plenty of users who loved ELP but didn't like much other prog stuff. Yes were not necessarily the go to other prog band for ELP fans it seemed which was perhaps surprising. Pink Floyd were more that.

Wakeman once compared Yes to the 'Boston Symphonic', you could change the musicians and it would still be the same group. He said this in interviews around the time of Union but 30 odd years later and it seems plenty true enough. For me CTTE is a perfect album. It represents 'order', it represents clarity, it represents excellence in prog. It's the centre of the universe. Fragile is equally a great album but the elements were still coming together. Some fans like their prog messy but I've never been one of those!


And yet I find CTTE to be very messy!!!🤣

Had another listen a few days ago and it still hits the spot for me. The sound and performances are incredible. Lots of goosebumps especially on the I get up and I get down section with Wakey buidling the tesnion beautifully. Bruford's importance to the band also resonates, he and Squire are just so good playing together. Just so much detail and not a wasted moment. 
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Dellinger View Drop Down
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Points: 12732 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (3) Thanks(3)   Quote Dellinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 29 2024 at 19:38
This album is a dissappointment, it only has three good songs.
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Hugh Manatee View Drop Down
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Points: 1587 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Hugh Manatee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 29 2024 at 20:05
The album makes a lot more sense to me if I alter the running order:

1. Siberian Khatru
2. Close to the Edge
3. And You and I

In its original vinyl format this running order was impractical of course. 
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 28028 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 29 2024 at 20:12
^ I would just reverse it but ELP had made the Tarkus epic as Side One a year earlier so Yes couldn't tuck the epic away on Side 2. The rivalry was a bit of a thing that was hyped up by the record company but then ELP were still top dogs. Hilariously Brian Lane later (in 1974) asked Keith Emerson if he wanted to replace Wakeman in Yes but that's another story!
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Hugh Manatee View Drop Down
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Points: 1587 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Hugh Manatee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 29 2024 at 20:22
^ No reversing for me, just an adjustment of the flow of the songs.

The thing that bothered me about CttE was how long the title track took to "find its way" as it were. 

This running order eases me into the title track more comfortably.

But then again maybe it isn't about being comfortable.




Edited by Hugh Manatee - January 29 2024 at 20:23
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 28028 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 29 2024 at 20:29
CTTE opens as well as any epic I've heard , the main complaint of it over time is that it's a suite of 4 songs but they didn't hide that fact. Gates is maybe more cohesive though.
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Hugh Manatee View Drop Down
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Points: 1587 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Hugh Manatee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 29 2024 at 20:45
I'm not objecting to the opening of the song, rather as the song being the opening of the album.

Do I need to qualify that this is just my opinion?
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Psychedelic Paul View Drop Down
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Points: 40087 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Psychedelic Paul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2024 at 00:57
Jon Anderson was reportedly given a hard time over his abstruse lyrics during the recording sessions for Close to the Edge. At one point, a clearly irritated Bill Bruford asked, "What on earth does 'Total Mass Retain' mean?" Anderson replied, "What's wrong with 'Total Mass Retain'? I had to think of something quickly", to which Bruford replied, "Why not just call it 'Puke'?"......  That was the beginning of the end of Bruford's time with YES. Tongue
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Points: 50 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kirk782 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 24 2024 at 04:06
Quote Am I alone in thinking "And You and I" is mediocre at best?

On a later day Yes album, this song might be the standout track :p. But when compared to the other 2 tracks, it does feel a little dull even to me.I like Fragile as good as this [though not with all the intermediatery tracks like Five Percent for Nothing; they are a good one time listen but nothing to be kept on loop unlike the classics].

Quote Tarkus

That was a great album from ELP. Even the side stuffed with shorter songs were eminently listenable. I still haven't listened to each ELP album [last three missing] but Tarkus is till now, my favorite from them.


Edited by kirk782 - September 24 2024 at 04:10
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Points: 50 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote kirk782 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 24 2024 at 04:13
Quote Still, perhaps the most likely to succeed would be Dark Side of the Moon

Isn't Pink Floyd err, more publicly known than probably any other progressive rock band? With their success of Dark side of the Moon and The Wall, they were as successful as any mainstream rock band, I assume.
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Points: 1524 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Floydoid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 24 2024 at 13:11
Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

Am I alone in thinking "And You and I" is mediocre at best?


To me it is an excellent example of a quieter and beautifully constructed more melodic song which gives some relief (balance) amongst the aural assault of the rest of the tracks on the album. Other examples I'd put in this category would be 'Child in Time' from Deep Purple in Rock, 'Stairway to Heaven' from Led Zeppelin IV, and 'Take a Pebble from ELP's debut album..
'We're going to need a bigger swear jar.'
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Points: 18269 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 24 2024 at 16:30
I was too young to be much of a music fan when this album first came out (well, technically I was around but I was only two) but nonetheless it seems to me that this album is possibly more famous now then in the 70s. It always seems like Fragile was their big one but these days it seems like CTTE is. Anyway, regardless it's a well deserved classic prog album and one of the top 5 albums in the genre. 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - September 24 2024 at 16:31
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 28028 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 24 2024 at 22:59
Originally posted by kirk782 kirk782 wrote:

Quote Still, perhaps the most likely to succeed would be Dark Side of the Moon

Isn't Pink Floyd err, more publicly known than probably any other progressive rock band? With their success of Dark side of the Moon and The Wall, they were as successful as any mainstream rock band, I assume.

Indeed although they weren't always called 'progressive rock'. For me only Animals fully fits. DSOTM is what PA would call 'Crossover' nowadays (somehow Crime Of The Century is even more 'prog') while their psyche roots are fully realised on WYWH. The Wall is more rock opera in the vein of Tommy or Quadrophenia for me. I am splliting hairs of course. It's all very creative but Yes remain the quintessential prog band and you might be suprised how many have heard of Tales From Topographic Oceans although Owner Of A Lonely Heart is way more remembered and perhaps for the public at large that is what Yes are.
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