Yes - Or how I stop worrying about new music

cacho wrote:

this

I think El Bothy's analysis is very fine. I think Yes has come to a stage where they are not as hungry anymore as they were. Chris Squire once said it in an interview: a young dog (he means 70's Yes) is restless, but there will be a day when he is mature ('90's Yes) and gets rest in his body after all.

So, the Yes members, although they still like to make something that goes beyond the average pop song, have lost the restless artistical hunger. Which is not nice for a lot of us Yes admirers, but one can understand this: they have given a lot of adrenaline in the '70's, and they walk an easier path now that they are older.

For me, I'm happy with any unexpected moment that they show something of their brilliance of earlier days. I went to the Open Your Eyes tour and was very disappointed, but then I went to the Magnification tour and once again they shone, and I don't expect any more from them anymore.


Edited by Moogtron III - March 18 2009 at 02:41

God the lyrics for Magnification are soooooooooo bad. That's just one of the reasons why I like it so much less than their old work.


Teach me to teach me
How the key unlocks the door
As we open we surrender, holding hands with many more
There’s a feeling that’s coming
There’s a feeling so real
To justify, to magnify, to realize that
Everything is love

Now, after all the love you have
You can always get it back
Knowing how you really see
Knowing it will come to you
Knowing it can really be

Magnificate, magnification
Magnificate, magnification
First you’re smaller being alive
Growing taller learn to survive
Magnificate, magnification
Magnificate, magnification
First you’re smaller being alive
Growing taller learn to survive

Perception of living
I realize I’m not alone
The rings that divide
Break again upon the stone
I will show you a necklace
Where the pearls would all be lost
Without the thread between together
This would be the golden thread of trust

Probably just the age thing, but to me the holy trinity will always be The Yes Album, CTTE and Fragile.

Nov wrote: el böthy wrote: Nov wrote:   I grew up with Yes but stopped worrying about them when I fell asleep at a Yes gig at Hammersmith Odeon in 1980.   My advice? Just enjoy the amazing albums they released before 1978 and if you want some fantastic new music roughly in the same vein then just listen to The Flower Kings who (for me) are every bit as good as 70s Yes.   Easy     Thanks, but I really don´t like The Flower Kings... way too cheesy for me, still a band I respect a lot.   Fair enough but if The Flower Kings are "cheesy" then that just makes Yes mature cheese

Modern Yes... yes! Old Yes... no way Jose!

Having almost completed a series of Yes studio LP reviews (just Magnification to go now), I have to say that I have really enjoyed revisiting the entire Yes library. In the main part, Anderson has made his lyrics somewhat more comprehensible than they were at some stages of the '70's. As I said in my TFTO review, he was simply incomprehensible for the most part. He clearly still writes lyrics about his spiritual and personal journeys through life, but I think he's just got a lot better at putting them in terms that the majority of ordinary folk can comprehend. Also, as a previous poster stated, he is very clearly highly influenced by his second wife.

There is nothing wrong with commercial music (or pop, if you wish). I take the view that if it is good, then fine. Yes have made some fine commercial music. Wondrous Stories, Roundabout, and Don't Kill The Whale are but three examples from what many regard as being the epitome of the Yes era, but 90125, Talk, and The Ladder are fine LPs, mixing great prog with more commercial music. Big Generator and Open Your Eyes, on the other hand, are, to my ears, simply dreadful, not because they were commercial, but because they were bad. Each to their own!

I'm listening to Magnification now and really enjoying it (I'll get round to the review some time in the week), and the thought that is going through my mind is how absolutely tragic it would be if this was the very last statement on disc that we will ever get from an outstanding and hugely influential rock band. Let's hope not - this and The Ladder prove that they still have so much to offer.

By the way - Anderson is Standing on Sacred Ground as I write

Epignosis wrote: el böthy wrote: Yes, I know, it´s prety hard to put into words. What I mean is pretty much the type of weirdness they had if you will, with Jon´s strange lyrics and a sense of curiosity also, It seems he had something to say (even though his lyrics don´t really amount to a lot jejeje) or at least so would it seem by his singing. I listen to Close to the edge, I listen to Tales, I listen to Going for the one and I feel like Anderson is trying to get something thru, something which he wants let me know, something not very simple to understand, but rather to feel... I don´t get that with modern Yes. Maybe it´s just me. Now everything is simpler, more direct but not more urgent, quite the opposite. I think I said it as good as I can, if it´s yet not clear I don´t think I can make it anymore clearer. I can certainly understand your pining for more music closer to what the band has done in their glory days, but for the most part, those days are gone, and we as fans have no choice but to live with that. This is mostly because the band members are different people, largely for being much older- they're grandparents now, and I suspect a lot of that esoteric mysticism they dabbled in during the Tales sessions no longer holds much interest to men with failing health (two canceled tours in the span of about a year), retiring members, and the advent of the digital market. Honestly, I waver between granting The Ladder and Magnification four or five stars- they are both amazing albums, and I couldn't ask for more, even if the lyrics are a little The Flower Kings-ish. That said, I think Anderson's lyrics are almost just as good as they were on classic albums, only not on every song.  Sure, "Don't Go" or "If Only You Knew" are on the cheesy side a tad bit, but check out the masterful lyrics of "Homeworld," "Face to Face," "Magnification," "We Agree," or "In the Presence of," just to name five.  I think these are some well-crafted words very close to the mystical nature of lyrics on earlier albums. Now if Walsh and Livgren can just put another one out there...

I guess you are right... but it´s still a shame. I was so excited when they said that they had 4 new songs in the Tales fashion, but then Anderson´s health problems... will we ever get to listen to those songs? I was hoping for a live album...or a DVD

Talk is excellent; Drama is excellent; 90125 is good; Big Generator is good; The Ladder is good.

In fact, I don't like Magnification much. Too much bulk, too much songwriting without inspiration.

Epignosis wrote: All right el bothy- just up front I want to point out that I want our discussion to be as polite as possible, and my response to you was nothing but polite, but it was also straightforward (sorry I don't use a plethora of smileys to keep things light).  It was the politest way to say "I think you're being selfish and contradictory" when it comes to Yes- not going to apologize for saying so, but you asked for discussion regarding what you posted, and I read it twice very carefully before responding.  I just prefer to be candid. That said, note these two statements you made: el böthy wrote: but if you ask me, yes, I´d rather have him make music the way he used to. el böthy wrote: Second not any change is good. You critizes me for being cotradictory for saying I welcome change but complaining about what they are doing now. That´s kinda narrow minded, there are hundreds of other ways to make music. I don´t have to be conformed. And I say they should mantain the edge of the ´70, not necesarly the sound. Now not all change is good, I would agree.  But you claim you want Yes (Anderson in particular) to write the way he used to, and you also state "they should maintain the edge of the '70;" don't you consider that narrow-minded?  You note that there are hundreds of ways to make music, and that you don't "have to be conformed."  And yet, you want them to write the way they used to and "maintain the edge?" Speaking of "edge," just what do you mean by that?  It sounds like a rather vague term.

Yes, I know, it´s prety hard to put into words. What I mean is pretty much the type of weirdness they had if you will, with Jon´s strange lyrics and a sense of curiosity also, It seems he had something to say (even though his lyrics don´t really amount to a lot jejeje) or at least so would it seem by his singing. I listen to Close to the edge, I listen to Tales, I listen to Going for the one and I feel like Anderson is trying to get something thru, something which he wants let me know, something not very simple to understand, but rather to feel... I don´t get that with modern Yes. Maybe it´s just me. Now everything is simpler, more direct but not more urgent, quite the opposite. I think I said it as good as I can, if it´s yet not clear I don´t think I can make it anymore clearer.