Which of these 2 songs do you prefer?

Well, it's really tough.

Close to the Edge, was the track that sold me to prog rock. It's genious, so cohesive, interesting musically, but so catchy. Very accessible, but not shabby musically either.

Suppers Ready, is also absolute genious. The song is very intense, however, it doesn't seem as much as one song as it does 5 songs sewn together. That being said, it works EXTREMELY well. And Peter Gabriel is like the best vocalist in prog.

All in all, i'll pick Close to the Edge because of the sheer immediate and lasting effect that the song has. However, i'm very unhappy calling Supper's Ready worse than anything.

39-39 now.

I saw the CttE/SOYCD before this one. Also this is a match between two 10/10 songs in my book, but current ranking has Supper at #93 versus #168 for CttE.

Let´s compare:

 Vocals: Peter Gabriel.- The most theatrical and expressive vocalist in the prog world ever

              Jon Anderson.- The least expressive

 Lyrics:        Close to the edge:    "Close to the edge down by the corner, close to the edge down by the river", "Close to the edge down by the corner, close to the edge down by the river", "Close to the edge down by the corner, close to the edge down by the river", "Close to the edge down by the corner, close to the edge down by the river", 

 "I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down,"I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, I get up I get down, .

 Supper´s ready: With the guards of magog, swarming around,
The pied piper takes his children underground.
Dragons coming out of the sea,
Shimmering silver head of wisdom looking at me.
He brings down the fire from the skies,
You can tell he's doing well by the look in human eyes.
Better not compromise.
It won't be easy.

666 is no longer alone,
He's getting out the marrow in your back bone,
And the seven trumpets blowing sweet rock and roll,
Gonna blow right down inside your soul.
Pythagoras with the looking glass reflects the full moon,
In blood, he's writing the lyrics of a brand new tune.

And it's hey babe, with your guardian eyes so blue,
Hey my baby, don't you know our love is true,
I've been so far from here,
Far from your loving arms,
Now i'm back again, and babe it's gonna work out fine.

Songwriting: (Includes creativity, innovation, song structure)

  Close to the edge: An 18 minutes Prog-pop song. With the structure of a conventional pop song. Simple line catchy Choruses repeated over and over. Repeated themes more than once. Simplistic middle section of 5 minutes with yet simplier chorus repeated for a hundred times.

       Supper´s ready: Full of diferent images, moods, ideas, concepts, sounds, feelings..you name it. Not a single second wasted with no music like "I get up I get down".

      Supper´s ready never repeats a single word. Or at least, they don´t do it with the intention of making it catchy, as a pop band would.

       It may well be considered a 23 minutes song made out of 5 different songs, yes. However, I´d rather listen to these 23 minutes of creativity than to a 3-chorus-driven-18-minutes-pop-song with great playing. Plus, there is nothing as original and bizarre in "Close" as "Apocalypse in 9/8".

Playing:  YES thinks playing music is an olympic discipline. Still, it´s not that impressive when you realize the strongest aspect of their playing is the individual playing. Every single instrument sounds clean and perfect, strong and powerful. However, after paying attention you´ll reallize the instrumentals are always driven by this drum and bass layer that work as base for the multi notes per second of Wakeman all over. Pay attention to the Bass and drums, they never change dramatically to shift the direction of the instrumentals. I repeat, everything sounds great but it´s not as complex as many argue.

About Genesis´playing. They may never show off. They may even could have not. Still, they are not any  "one arm musicians" either.  Yet, I think the instrumental in "apocalypse" is played in a  more interesting way as a team than anything in "Close".

 So, a 3-1 score for "Supper´s ready". Vs. the multi commented PROG-POP song "Close to the edge" 

Another Close to the edge match?. What´s the deal ?.

I´ll choose Close to the edge when someone compares it to either "Atom heart mother", "Pigs", "Sheep", "Lizard", ..."Gates of delirium" 

But this time Vs. "Supper´s ready" ?. I´ll come back later to be more explicit, although I´ve already writen enough of "Close" in other Polls

MustShaveBeard wrote: Close to the Edge...hmph... more like Close to the Really Terrible Song!!!.......Nobody gets it

Yeah, I don't get it.....

But your avatar is really funny!