Which of these 2 songs do you prefer?

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" 

two of my three favorite songs....

but I'll go for Supper's Ready.

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.