Steve Howe (post-CTTE) is rubbish

Fashionably contentious???  Well I admitted in my opening post that I hoped the thread would be contentious, but I honestly had no idea how to make it fashionable.  Is ripping Steve Howe up particularly 'in' at the moment, or have I stumbled upon a rich vein of form????

Clearly your definition of 'amazing' and 'awesome' are equatable to my definitions of 'overblown' and 'irrelevant', and I'm sure these would be reversible if I told you what music is currently 'fashionable' in my house at the moment. 

With regards to the Howe works you mention, yes I have heard them all except for the Turbulence album, and I await your review of it with grim intensity.  By the way, merely saying that certain songs/albums are 'awesome' and 'amazing' doesn't really convince me that I have made a horrible mistake, and should retract everything.  I have tried to explain (in admittedly poor metaphorical language) what it is that annoys me about Howe.  Perhaps you could try the same to explain to me why you LIKE his widdly-diddlying so much, particularly on these later works (given the theme of the thread....)

I think you need to consider the following... OPINION. whats yours is yours, it dosent make your word divine. i personally love howe's work and i'll continue to love it.

alan_pfeifer wrote: I really like Relayer, but moreso for White.  But that's another post.  It can be tough at times to deal with his more techinical playing on some songs, espescially Gates. However, that Guitar line at the "Soon" portion of the song saves it.

Yes, White is immense - indeed, the whole band (bar Howe) are immense - its a great album.  Howe does have a couple of good moments on Relayer, like the one you mention, but his sound is still hellish.  Why is he so high up in the mix??  By the way, I think what 'saves' it are Moraz's keyboards and the beauty of Anderson's voice.

I really like Relayer, but moreso for White.  But that's another post.  It can be tough at times to deal with his more techinical playing on some songs, espescially Gates. However, that Guitar line at the "Soon" portion of the song saves it.

I like his needless noodling, it's part of his appeal and style.
Technically he's probably one of the most gifted guitarists around.
The point you make is quite correct, but I see it the other way around.
Where most guitarists go for a more cohesive melodic sound.
Howe try's to create that same atmophere in a different way,
with more notes and more technical 'difficult' textures.

That may not applease all listeners, but I for one enjoy it.

Right, I've just about had enough of Steve Howe.   I used to really like Yes, but I cannot listen to them anymore because of Steve Howe's inane weedling.  I LOVE Close To The Edge, I LOVE Fragile, and I LOVE the Yes Album, but my all time favourite Yes album was always Going For The One.  Unfortunately I've started to get irritated by Howe's playing on it, and now I can barely listen to it without grinding my teeth and drumming my fingers in agitation. 

I knew things had started to go wrong on Topographic Oceans - gone were the delicate atmospheric touches, the ghostly sounds, the meaningful attack, the sheer gorgeous melody, and in their place came....inane practice sessions of relentless arpeggios and cramming notes a al Maria Carey on anti-depressants.  Then things, got really bad.  He started to peek through the layers of my second favourite Yes album, Relayer - already suffering from the lack of Wakeman, but beautifully balanced and pitched with no instruments really dominating - the Howe effect started to ruin it for me.  Utterly pointless fret runs replaced any melody, whilst the SOUND of his guitar is just bloody awful.  My First Guitar Amp.  Ear-melting shrill and totally at odds to the brilliant ambience created by Moraz and Squire.

THEN, oh God, I NEVER thought it could happen - I started in small doses, noticing his inanity on Going For The One - his guitar runs, his pointless overworked licks, his sheer audacity in standing outside the immense vision of the rest of the band.  His 'slide' contribution to the title track is ear-grating enough, but his doddering open to Turn Of The Century is contemptable.  Indeed, I'm convinced Jon Anderson just gets bored and comes in half way through it.  Listen to it, you'll see what I mean.  I think Parallels was actually Howe's composition, and listen to the solo in it.  Its utterly awful, bending fruitlessly out of tune without any discernible relation to his own backing.  Thank God he was curtailed for the epic Awaken.  Somebody take that volume pedal off him.

In short, I hope this is contentious as the recent topics have been a little glib, but Howe represents everything that is WRONG with prog guitarists. His contributions to CTTE and Fragile were perfect, but after this time, he got totally carried away with his own technique-driven weedling, and in the process, the greatness of subsequent Yes albums was vastly reduced.   

He should've spent a bit more time listening to Franco Mussida.....