YES - Close to the Edge (1972)

Floydoid wrote: If someone asked you to define prog rock, you'd tell them to listen to 'Close to the Edge'.

OH NO I WOULDN’T!!!

😉

essexboyinwales wrote: Floydoid wrote: If someone asked you to define prog rock, you'd tell them to listen to 'Close to the Edge'. OH NO I WOULDN’T!!! 😉

It would actually be the most honest album to show them. Though also the perfect way to scare them off if they are not predisposed to like the music. Perhaps it would have to go along with In The Court of the Crimson King and Selling England by the Pound. Still, perhaps the most likely to succeed would be Dark Side of the Moon, and then go with the next Floyd albums, and then, perhaps some Tull, like Aqualung. From there dive into something deeper.

Floydoid wrote: Dellinger wrote: essexboyinwales wrote: Floydoid wrote: If someone asked you to define prog rock, you'd tell them to listen to 'Close to the Edge'. OH NO I WOULDN’T!!! 😉 It would actually be the most honest album to show them. Though also the perfect way to scare them off if they are not predisposed to like the music. Perhaps it would have to go along with In The Court of the Crimson King and Selling England by the Pound. Still, perhaps the most likely to succeed would be Dark Side of the Moon, and then go with the next Floyd albums, and then, perhaps some Tull, like Aqualung. From there dive into something deeper. Oh excellent choices... I'd also chuck in TAAB sooner rather than later, and maybe 'Tubular Bells' even tho it's not strictly prog.!

Oh, 70's Mike Oldfield is more than prog enough for me. If Pink Floyd is prog, then Oldfield is prog, and both have the elements I most love of prog.

Floydoid wrote: Dellinger wrote: essexboyinwales wrote: Floydoid wrote: If someone asked you to define prog rock, you'd tell them to listen to 'Close to the Edge'. OH NO I WOULDN’T!!! 😉 It would actually be the most honest album to show them. Though also the perfect way to scare them off if they are not predisposed to like the music. Perhaps it would have to go along with In The Court of the Crimson King and Selling England by the Pound. Still, perhaps the most likely to succeed would be Dark Side of the Moon, and then go with the next Floyd albums, and then, perhaps some Tull, like Aqualung. From there dive into something deeper. Oh excellent choices... I'd also chuck in TAAB sooner rather than later, and maybe 'Tubular Bells' even tho it's not strictly prog.!

Most 70's Floyd for psyche, early Tull for bluesy folk and Camel (first 3) for symphonic work well enough. Marillion for neo. King Crimson's debut is a mix hence why they are electic. I think it could go either way with Schizoid man (no pun intended) as it's really heavy and jazzy and very challenging. Greg Lake's normal melliflous vocals are subverted somewhat but it makes a statement! 

Edited by richardh - January 06 2024 at 23:48

Floydoid wrote: Funnily enough in my digital music collection I have Mike Oldfield filed under New Age.

Actually, originally I knew Mike Oldfield as a New Age artist. I guess there are many reasons to consider him so, and depending on the definition of New Age it might not be so far away from prog itself. I mean, 70's Mike Oldfield definitley fits my idea of what New Age is supposed to be, and at the same time it fits prog... but then, Enya, though obviously New Age, I would definitley never consider her prog.

He certainly did a lot to kick start what would become the New Age movement of the 1990's.

I first heard Close to the Edge as a teenager in the late 80s, and other than I liked the title track, the album never really clicked with me. I was a massive fan of Fragile at the time. I have tried it on and off again throughout the decades since, but still it just doesn't really do much for me. I think I might have liked it more had I not been exposed to Fragile first. I remember my friend who introduced me to Close to The Edge, and had introduced me to Fragile before that, telling me that it was better than Fragile. Maybe I had the wrong expectations, maybe I was defensive as I was so into Fragile, and probably I was just too obsessed with Fragile at the time. The timing was bad and I was just put off. Nowadays I very rarely listen to Yes as my interests have kept changing/ morphing/ adapting/ progressing through the decades as I have been exposed to more music and more styles. One thing commonly leads to another, and sometimes some major curveballs and very oddballs take my fancy. Not much of what I liked as a teen would be what I would return to now. And I don't get that kind of nostalgia value that some do from music with some exceptions (like Laurie Anderson's Big Science).

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!!!🤣

Boojieboy wrote: Still my favorite of the band. Seems like the stars all aligned with this one. The right chemistry, mood, approach, production, etc. for greatness.

Not to mention the writing, performance, production and artwork... it's not often all those factors come together and result in a truly classic album.