Yes vs. ELP

Two big names of ProgRock ...  I prefer YES. I guess also that YES could better be compared to Genesis or King Crimson, rather than to ELP. I love ELP, I consider them great performers and arrangers but not as great as composers. When it comes to work on the music written by someone else (some classic composer for ex.) ELP do their job in a stunning, original way. But when they have to write original music and give it the form of a progressive song (or suite) they sound in many cases rather dull (Pirates could be a cure for people who can't sleep at night  ), probably they confuse complicated with interesting music ...  moreover I have the impression that Lake didn't have much fanstasy about what melodic lines to sing over Emerson's music (probably it was really a hard task). 
I have got everything of YES discography, they're my favourite band... but Keith Emerson has more imagination and more freedom than Rick Wakeman, who is the perfect classical musician applied to Rock. I would choose Keith as organist and improviser and Rick as pianist and composer.
Chris Squire is the number 1 progressive rock bass player, and both Bruford and White to me are better than Palmer. Jon Anderson has a better voice than Greg Lake (Greg has lost most of his vocal talent) even though I love the acoustic ballads by Lake.  

Anyway, to reconcile both, I am an ASIA fan too ...  

I meant to write "while I like them the same," etc.

verslibre wrote: leadsynt wrote: I have got everything of YES discography, they're my favourite band... but Keith Emerson has more imagination and more freedom than Rick Wakeman, who is the perfect classical musician applied to Rock. I would choose Keith as organist and improviser and Rick as pianist and composer.   While I like the same, that's a pretty good way to look at it. Too bad Keith hasn't released more material on his own apart from ELP. KEB with Marc Bonilla is great.      Agree , the one with Bonilla is very good, it could been a nice ELP album

esky wrote: Saw an adequate Clint Eastwood-produced documentary on Dave Brubeck, and lo and behold, Mr. Emerson showed up in praise of the musician. "Bluesy" is a fine way to describe Keith's style, and Mr. Wakeman rarely pursued that line when playing Yes music. These are two bands that are hard to compare and quite possibly shouldn't be. They both brought something unique and extraordinary to the table.

Yes

Simply because I enjoy them more.

rogerthat wrote: richardh wrote: Keith Emerson is actually a very talented composer. Comparing to Rick Wakeman I don't find anything he has done is inferior to Rick except Six Wives which is a masterpeice.   Actually, Six Wives is the only Rick album I have heard and I didn't like that one all that much either.  In Yes, Squire and Anderson contributed more in terms of composing.  Yes were just a more balanced lineup which is kind of inevitable with a five piece instead of a power trio.

richardh wrote: rogerthat wrote: richardh wrote: Keith Emerson is actually a very talented composer. Comparing to Rick Wakeman I don't find anything he has done is inferior to Rick except Six Wives which is a masterpeice.   Actually, Six Wives is the only Rick album I have heard and I didn't like that one all that much either.  In Yes, Squire and Anderson contributed more in terms of composing.  Yes were just a more balanced lineup which is kind of inevitable with a five piece instead of a power trio.   Six Wives is imo a very powerfull instrumental work.Rick admittedly wasn't entirely satisfied with only because he intended the tracks to be longer but for some reason (presumably record company intervention) they were clipped. But there are some of the best melodies and themes Rick ever composed on that album and the contribution of great musicians such as Chas Cronk and Bill Bruford adds another dimension. The other Rick Wakeman album I really like is Myths and Legends which also has some very strong material. I never got what was good about Journey though which was the other of his very successfull trilogy of solo releases. Like Keith ,Rick's career ran off the rails mainly because of personal issues and the general shift away from proggy /instrumental stuff that occured in the post punk music scene.

     Indeed, Six Wives is a magnificent album, 5 stars for me. I believe the songs ended up being shorter than Wakeman intended because they wouldn't fit in an LP, and that's the reason Wakeman didn't include his intended song for King Henry himself. Though the live release of that album at Hampton Court, with orchestra, does include much longer versions of his songs, plus the Henry song, plus an intro and a closer... this release may be even better than the original (or at least very close). Oh, and about the musicians on the original 6 wives, don't forget Alan White, he gives an awsome performance on Anne of Cleves (if I remember the name of the song correctly).

     A fun fact about this album is when Wakeman showed it to the record company, he had just about completed it, but they went like, ok, it will be great when you add the vocals. Then Wakeman said it was an instrumental rock album and they didn't quiet like the idea, they thought it would be a failure, and said so. However, Wakeman had his way and the album actually was a success. One of the persons that had said the album would be a failure had to give Wakeman some sort of public recognition for the good sales of the album.

     I also love Myths and Legends, and Journey I find very good too, though if falls somewhat short of the grandeur I find in 6 Wives and Arthur.

     I still find some other albums from Wakeman that are very enjoyable after Arthur, specially The Criminal Record (which has 3 songs with Squire and White), and on the 90's he release Return to the Center of the Earth, which has some very very good songs. Out There is also an excellent album, almost on par with his 70's greats. And the Retro pair of albums both have some very good songs... and some not so good, but I guess I could make a 5 star album by choosing my favourite songs from both albums. As a matter of fact, for me Wakeman solo has more 5 star albums than Yes themselves.

It's interesting to read how people describe the differing contributions of Emerson and Wakeman to both band's output.
For ELP, the keys are always the uncontested focal point of the music while for Yes, there is a much more even distribution between Wakeman and the guitar of Howe. It also seems clear to my ears that Emerson has a lot of jazz under his fingers, while Rick patently does not. (I'm guessing that's what esky meant by bluesy?) That's just an observation, not a criticism as they're both great in their own individual ways.

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.

You gotta' be kidding!

YES