Yes vs. ELP - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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kawkaw123

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Posted: April 20 2011 at 07:45

YES. ELP just wanted to show off.

richardh

Prog Reviewer

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Posted: April 20 2011 at 14:25

akaBona wrote:

richardh wrote:

akaBona wrote:

YES.

Average Yes material beats top ELP material easily. ELP has nothing equal if you think timeline from Yes Album to Going For The One. And still there are lots of Yes albums after that which are much much better than any ELP effort, Union and Magnification just to name few.

What do you class as 'average Yes material'?

Average Yes is something like Union, Tormato, Talk, Open Your Eyes, 90125 and Ladder.

no way do those albums beat the best ELP albums unless you have your Yes tinted glasses on.

jean-marie View Drop Down

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Posted: April 20 2011 at 15:40

I love both bands but there so much differences between , can't vote need Tarkus and Trilogy as weel as Fragile and CTTE

richardh

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Posted: April 21 2011 at 01:38

Thought I would look at the ratings of the albums on this site.

The results:

1. Yes - Close To The Edge 4.63

2. Yes - Fragile 4.39

3. Yes - Relayer 4.32

4. Yes - Yessongs 4.27

5. Yes - The Yes Album 4.23

6. ELP - Emerson,Lake and Palmer 4.20

7. ELP - Welcome Back My Friends... 4.12

8. ELP - Brain Salad Surgery 4.09

9. Yes - Keys To Ascension 4.06

10.Yes - Going For The One 4.04

11.ELP - Trilogy 4.03

12 ELP - Tarkus 3.99

13 Yes - Keys To Ascension 2 3.93

14.Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans 3.86

15.ELP - Pictures At An Exhibition 3.83

16.Yes - Magnification 3.82

17.Yes - Drama 3.75

18 Yes - Keystudio 3.59

19.Yes - The Ladder 3.36

20.ELP - Emerson,Lake and Powell 3.23

21.Yes - Time and A Word 3.20

22.Yes - Yes 3.17

23 Yes - Talk 3.07

after that there is nothing with a reasonable number of ratings that gets over 3.

Yes have 16 albums with decent ratings compared to 7 by ELP. Yes have the top 6 although ELP have the next 3 spots.Certainly demsonstrates Yes superiority over ELP over their entire careers. Yes best albums beat ELP's best albums. Yes second best albums beat (well slaughter) ELP second best albums.

The ratings for ELP albums fall off the end of a cliff after 1974 with only Emerson.Lake and Powell achieving over 3. Presumably the line up change helped refresh ELP ,something Yes did on a regular basis.

As an ELP fan I'm not too suprised at any of this. ELP were always likely to be shortlived. 3 peice bands are usually volatile with too much of the creative input usually having to come from just one or two people. Rush have managed to buck the trend somewhat thanks to the amazing Neil Peart. Carl Palmer (bless him) was just a drummer. When Emerson ran out of inspiration and ideas ELP died.

Edited by richardh - April 21 2011 at 01:42

giselle

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Posted: April 23 2011 at 05:32

Unfair to compare. Two bands from the same early stages of the genre, both with something to offer that was different from each other, both outstanding in their field. I personally couldn't choose between them in terms of who's best, it's like asking which of your children you prefer.

jean-marie View Drop Down

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Posted: April 23 2011 at 05:49

giselle wrote:

Unfair to compare. Two bands from the same early stages of the genre, both with something to offer that was different from each other, both outstanding in their field. I personally couldn't choose between them in terms of who's best, it's like asking which of your children you prefer.

yes!

i feel always the same as you through these various polls, it's like the question about the island, kind of choose 10 albums you would bring with you on an island, why would i go with 10 records,on an island ( where, probably, ther's no electricity)

brainstormer View Drop Down

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Posted: April 23 2011 at 06:47

Yeah, I wouldn't want to make a comparison. Both have given me an incredible amount of edification.

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TheLastBaron View Drop Down

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Posted: April 24 2011 at 00:25

I love both bands. Brain Salad Surgery, Trakus, Trilogy and self titled are all steller ElP albums. The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Relayer are all great, I haven't listed to tales in its entirety yet. I would say that overall I like Yes more but I really enjoy both bands for different reasons. I will say that I prefer Bruford over Palmer though.

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resurrection View Drop Down

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Posted: April 24 2011 at 01:42

Yes for me. More range and colour than ELP. Would be interesting to compare Emerson and Wakeman though.

esky

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Posted: May 17 2011 at 11:06

ELP knew when to throw in the towel while we are still beleaguered by the many versions of Yes assaulting us on a nearly every-two-year cycle (especially enjoyable though was 2001's Wakeman-less edition promoting Magnification - even Jon Anderson had the cajones to tell the audience at the Hollywood Bowl that the band hadn't performed with each other for quite some time, but they carried on regardless and played a great show riddled with key tunes from their catalog).

Alitare

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Posted: May 17 2011 at 11:40

I'll take my Yes, thank you. ELP just didn't know a good melody from a hole in the ground. Yes knew a good melody froma hole in the ground some of the tiiiime.

giselle

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Posted: May 17 2011 at 11:47

Yes to that, sort of.

Repner

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Posted: May 17 2011 at 15:16

I'll have to agree with the majority here. I love ELP, but they seem to have some songs I would consider filler (not counting side B of Tarkus. That was supposed to be filler). With Yes I can listen to any 70's era album and enjoy all the way through

dasa

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Posted: June 26 2011 at 13:50

ELP song "The Barbarian" is one of my favoruite prog songs and i really love ELP and stupid to say but i love more solos of Keith Emerson than Rick Wakeman's (they are both masters of their domain) but Yes have somehow stronger albums can't describe this feeling, so i vote for Yes.

P.S. both bands at my top list

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QuestionableScum View Drop Down

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Posted: June 26 2011 at 15:51

Alitare wrote:

I'll take my Yes, thank you. ELP just didn't know a good melody from a hole in the ground. Yes knew a good melody froma hole in the ground some of the tiiiime.

This is more or less what I think.

Moogtron III View Drop Down

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Posted: June 26 2011 at 17:54

I love both bands, but there are more Yes albums that I like than ELP albums.

Garion81

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Posted: June 26 2011 at 23:01

I do like both and both are instrumental to the development of this sort of progressive rock music.. With Yes I sometimes find a sameness to the music and I am turned off to Steve Howe's guitar sound (not his playing he is brilliant of course) ELP explored way more styles of music and were not afraid to spread it out and improvise. Yes can bore me at times where i have never had that issue with ELP. Yes has a more prolific output and if that is the criteria then they would win hands down but if the issue is what do I grab to listen to first ELP wins hands down.

Edited by Garion81 - June 26 2011 at 23:32

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ghost_of_morphy View Drop Down

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Posted: June 27 2011 at 14:38

richardh wrote:

Thought I would look at the ratings of the albums on this site.

The results:

1. Yes - Close To The Edge 4.63

2. Yes - Fragile 4.39

3. Yes - Relayer 4.32

4. Yes - Yessongs 4.27

5. Yes - The Yes Album 4.23

6. ELP - Emerson,Lake and Palmer 4.20

7. ELP - Welcome Back My Friends... 4.12

8. ELP - Brain Salad Surgery 4.09

9. Yes - Keys To Ascension 4.06

10.Yes - Going For The One 4.04

11.ELP - Trilogy 4.03

12 ELP - Tarkus 3.99

13 Yes - Keys To Ascension 2 3.93

14.Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans 3.86

15.ELP - Pictures At An Exhibition 3.83

16.Yes - Magnification 3.82

17.Yes - Drama 3.75

18 Yes - Keystudio 3.59

19.Yes - The Ladder 3.36

20.ELP - Emerson,Lake and Powell 3.23

21.Yes - Time and A Word 3.20

22.Yes - Yes 3.17

23 Yes - Talk 3.07

after that there is nothing with a reasonable number of ratings that gets over 3.

This post kinds of gets to the points. ELP hit the heights Yes reached a couple times, but Yes hit those heights a lot more often. Still, I wish somebody would give ELP a pity vote.

criticdrummer94 View Drop Down

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Posted: June 27 2011 at 23:17

I may be a minority on this but i prefer ELP just because I enjoy their good albums more than Yes IMO but Yes is still a great band

verslibre

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Posted: June 28 2011 at 00:21

^^^ This. Musically they're so different it's hard to compare. White/Bruford and Palmer? Totally different. If you bring up Cozy Powell, then many his and Alan's styles may have some overlap. Bass playing is even farther apart. Vocals? There is no comparison. It'd be like comparing Ozzy and Paul Simon. The keyboards are where you could discuss a few things. Lots of great synth work. Emerson's piano style is notably bluesy, Wakey's is anything but. And on and on! Can't we just enjoy both bands?

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