Fragile Slam?

Faint Bell now that IS a great name for a Prog band!!!

Or a template for 90% of Prog Songs!

To all those who took the opposite side of the debate, I leave you in the spirit of good sportsmanship and healthy, respectful debate summarized in the words of the French Soldier from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

"I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries...Now go away before I taunt you a second time."

(I was prepared to give in if the facts ended up betraying me...then Fitz appeared with the deus ex machina )

Well I have no proof ,but Yes is everything BTO isn't and vice versa...I could easily see how direct polar opposites like these two bands could draw animosity toward one another ...or in this case..BTO's disapproval of Yes's approach to rock music. I don't think I need to point out the differences as they are quite obvious to anyone who has any sort of knowledge of these two bands repetoire of music.

and the thought that these guys are just a couple of nice guys from Canada let me point out that Randy Bachman was part of the band that wrote American Woman...so he is at least capable of slamming Yes.

There's a *lengthy* interview with Randy Bachman here:

http://www.classicrockrevisited.com/trax/classic%20trax%20BT O.htm

which states:

<< Randy comments on the thudding, angular, jugular title track. "'Not Fragile' is a great track because Fred Turner wrote that and it was the antithesis of the Yes album, which is called Fragile, which was such intricate playing. I'm not putting down Yes, because I really like them and their sound; they had some good hits. But the Fragile album is like the ultimate, you know, almost being too much, almost too cluttered. Obviously this was before the heavy metal speed guys, but there was a lot of stuff to ingest in your brain when all you wanted to do is enjoy the music. So Fred came up with this absolutely simple, mindless but headbanging riff (sings it), to scream and sing over. And the thing about that was that anybody can pick up the guitar and play 'Not Fragile'. Nobody could go play the Fragile album by Yes; that was the difference. One was the LCD, the lowest common denominator that always ran through the band. That's what BTO was, the lowest common denominator. You don't want the guy who's 40, who's been studying guitar for 30 years, to buy your record, to learn your riff. You want the 13-year-old kid who can't play, to buy your record to learn your riff, and you want him to be able to learn and play the riff because then he'll keep playing your records and keep buying them. I learned that long ago." >>

So it looks like I have to eat the razor!

Thanks Peter and James for your amusing banter; I had to laugh.

Peter Rideout wrote: James Lee wrote: my motto is: believe in nothing, disbelieve in nothing   However do you manage to put one foot in front of the other, you sad, lost, confused little man?

why, phenomenologically of course! Husserl (with a big secular helping of Kierkegaard) helps keep my mind from being too confused and lost...although 'sad' is frequently appropriate for my demeanor...

Peter Rideout wrote: My motto? "All things in moderation -- especially moderation!"

Peter Rideout wrote: Thanks James, you insufferable smartass!

Hey, how did you know my wife's pet name for me?

Peter Rideout wrote: Seems I likely stand corrected re my assumptions on the BTO thing! (More self-loathing and therapy looms. AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH! ) So: got any dead aliens or yeti sh*te in the freezer?

I couldn't help it...ever since I was humiliated by a philosophy professor about Occam's Razor, I've turned into him whenever the moon is full

I'm also a diehard Fortean Times reader...nothing satisfies the cynical escapist in me quite like reading earnest scientific reports of aliens contacting Bigfoot in the hollow center of the earth...my motto is: believe in nothing, disbelieve in nothing

Well, let's not get into that...I could go on for hours about the multitude of exceptions to Occam's Razor...the simplest explanation depending (for one thing) upon the social and technological sophistication of the community versus that of the phenomena that is attempting to be explained...or are you telling me that those are NOT little people putting on plays inside the TV box?

and then there's the frequent misunderstanding of how capable or comprehensive the scientific efforts to explain our surroundings actually are...we can laugh at pre-Keppler common sense, but we don't always want to admit that the sum total of human knowledge versus that which remains unexplained (or ultimately unexplainable) makes for a pretty bottom-heavy fraction. Come to think of it, William of Occam himself probably believed that the world was flat.

or, if those examples don't move you, how about the fact that "Not Fragile" was directly inspired by the successful Yes album of the opposite name?

http://www.arrow1035.com/jocks/challenge.asp

Granted, it's not the definitive informative answer we need, but it's also not alone. In less than a minute I was able to come up with at least five other sites which make the same assertion. For us to dismiss the assertion due to the possibility of shared mistaken assumption, we'd have to agree that the matter can only be decided by asking B, T, or the other members collective sharing the O. Anyone have any of their emails? 

Fitzcarraldo wrote: I think Occam's razor applies here.

I am sorry..perhaps I am too thick headed but I miss your point

  I doubt it - the cover, with the shipping crate of the machine/gear parts stamped "Not Fragile" always seemed to point to the heaviness of the contents, rather than any anti-Yes or prog bias.

Could have been inspired by Fragile, but not likely an attack, methinks....

BTO were/are nice guys, & Yes were a highly respected band here in Canada (and elsewhere) at the time. So could be a tongue-in-cheek reference, or unconscious response, but simplest & likliest explanation (K.I.S.S.) is as above, IMHO.