How many really listen to Yes?

American Khatru wrote: Dr. Occulator wrote: American Khatru wrote: PS.  Sorry to hear about the doggie head.  Get well soon. Thanks...it's really becoming a challenge in my life...It's actually the name of a song by Yezda Urfe...and the photo of my dog's head on my body seemed appropriate Oughta get you some rawhide chewies then .  (Why oh why did that band not get signed?)

Actually I think they were signed and I prefer pigs ears instead of rawhide
Yezda Urfa's album Baboon:
http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=1402

Funny.....actually listening to Fragile right now. Always listening to old YES, old Genesis, old Gentle Giant, old Be Bop Deluxe, old Pink Floyd, old Nektar, old Rush and old Utopia. Anybody notice a trend here? Everything is friggin' OLD!

Dr. Occulator wrote: American Khatru wrote: PS.  Sorry to hear about the doggie head.  Get well soon. Thanks...it's really becoming a challenge in my life...It's actually the name of a song by Yezda Urfe...and the photo of my dog's head on my body seemed appropriate

Oughta get you some rawhide chewies then .  (Why oh why did that band not get signed?)

[QUOTE


PS.  Sorry to hear about the doggie head.  Get well soon.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks...it's really becoming a challenge in my life...It's actually the name of a song by Yezda Urfe...and the photo of my dog's head on my body seemed appropriate

Padraic wrote: I don't listen to Yes too much these days, but only because I've almost got their tracks memorized note for note at this point - I've been an uber fan for almost 20 years now.

Ditto that...I can listen to Yes in my dreams...note for note...instrument by instrument...harmony by harmony...after so many listens some things become ingrained in the brain!

I don't. I've never heard of them, except for the fact they're in the top 40 popular bands on this site.

moshkito wrote: Hi,   I still think that "Tales of Topographic Oceans" is one of the best rock albums ever made ... maybe it was because I had a sensibility and leaning towards long cuts, had enjoyed classical music since I was a tiny tot ... and always looked forward to seeing musicians my age ... show their art ... instead of overloaded, and grossly over rated, pop music!   I thought of things like Thick as a Brick, A Passion Play, Topographic Oceans, Mike Oldfield, Vangelis, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream ... and many other long pieces as the "classical music" of our time ... unffortunately many people decided that it was not rock'n'roll and trashed it silly ... and trahsed it hard ... it didn't help that even Ian Anderson was making fun of the long cuts, albeit in a weird way but still good, as the title was related to stuffed up folks and musicians ... that had a lot more to do with their ego than it did with their musicianship!   No one sits here and trashes Beethoven, or Mozart, of whomever ... and says that is is self indulgent and that the lyrics are pooh and paah ... and what not ... and that's almost like saying that the sacred stuff is now considered "good" and any attempt that you or I, or Yes in those days will put together  .. is automatically defined as poop'ery.   In my book, all it is showing is the lack of knowledge and ability on many people, and specially those that can only have a 3 minute orgasm ... for them I don't even feel sorry, or care.   I respect the talent and the beauty ... and above all ... the desire ... to do something like Topographic Oceans ... it's hard ... and playing it is probably nerve wrecking since it is not chuck berry or some simple stuff that is just repetitions on a theme ... it takes no talent to do that btw ... compared to the other example.   You decide ... prog for me is about people trying things ... that were not done before ... Topographic Oceans is massive ... and one of the best that prog will ever create ... if we only give it a chance to let it play out. I wish I was a symphony conductor ... I would orchestrate that in a minute ... and I bet the concert hall would fill up ... the second part of the concert would probably be some Frank Zappa! hehe

Moshkito, you and I ought to hang out.  I entirely agree.  Great post. 

It's thanks to Yes and a few others that I learned what it takes to listen to long forms, a difficulty with far greater dividends than any passive-listening experience can give.  Thanks to the few and proud bands like this, I came to the music of Beethoven and then, far better and subtler, Mozart.  People, if you don't know the Piano Concerti you ought to!  Allow me to suggest (they're all very good, nearly all great, but...) #9 Eb, #22 Eb, #23 A (that almost killed me, since I could fill the page with other suggestions just as good).  And then of course there's the amazing Brahms.  I feel sometimes like he's practically a progger!  Symphonies 3, 4, brilliant; all late works involving clarinet, totally out of hand and can be understood well by prog listeners; the two Piano Concerti.  (Again, plenty else.)  When I came to César Franck I knew I was hearing the same sorts of ideas of form used by Yes in Tales - speaking only of form now, not content - in that all themes are generated from a very few, or one, simple idea.  Came to learn this was dubbed "cyclic form."  That was an immensely exciting discovery for me!  Ah, and Shostakovich... let me stop.

(Please don't anyone chime in to say that people who post stuff like the above are showing off or are pretentious - that'd be too much here among friends on a site dedicated to the deepness of prog.)

So I count myself in that happy number who heard Yes early and got into the wonders of the classical and romantic eras that moved them.

***
Tales is great front to back.  I try never to listen to just parts of it, any more than I would just slap on the second movement of the 18th concerto, perfect little machine that it is.  If I put Tales on, it's the whole 4 movement piece.  Greatest record of the genre perhaps.

***
Do I listen to Yes still?  You bet.  I've even decided in recent months to never again be ashamed of it.  Sometimes a person will smirk or laugh, but whatever.  Maybe, by being open, I'll occasionaly meet a kindred spirit. 

I had work to do the past two days which put me in need of a rental car to drive to points in New Jersey and Long Island.  I burned some mp3 CD-RWs, since the car had an mp3 cd player.  Of my own free will I listened, loudly, to all of Gates, much of Drama, all of Going For The One, with Awaken real loud.  Almost brought Fragile and Close, but I knew that with the above I had enough to get me by.  I had other stuff with me too (Decemberists, Le Orme, Rovescio della Medaglia, Höyry-Kone, others), things I planned to listen to because I'm getting to know them better.  But what did I end up blasting on the Turnpike, singing with on the Expressway almost to the point of tears?  "Pounding out the Devil's surmon..."   "High vibration go on..."  Never a dull moment.

To borrow from what some others in this thread have already said, I love everything from Time And A Word to Drama.  And I consider everything from Yes Album to Going to be true art; and everything from Close to Relayer is High Art imo.

(As an aside, I bet a whole lot of people listened to them back in the day (perhaps still today) in a quite, well, stoned condition.  But I say their music stands up to an eager listener's total awareness and waking, logic-bound scrutiny.) 

Not played anything for over a year. Gonna make me a playlist for the short walk to town and back:

Edited by el dingo - May 06 2009 at 03:31

I've not listened to Yes lately, since I have been on an Italian Prog binge, but tonight while I get caught up on homework I think I'll listen to TFTO. i used to listen to CTTE quite alot, though.

I'm listening to YES frequently. It depends on the mood though