Compare and contrast yes with genesis

Responding to a lot of things being mentioned in this thread.

IMO Supper's Ready is the greatest and most powerful composition that I've heard. It is bits and pieces (colors) of all different kinds of sounds that meld together to form one song. We are judging this on the songs entirety right? Nothing reaches the powerful emotive summit of Supper's Ready. Than again thats my opinion. CttE is a masterpiece as well, but it is much more one dimensional when compared to Supper's Ready IMO.

As for Tormato: I think its a decent album. In NO WAY does it even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as "Calling All Stations." CaS isn't even real as far as I'm concerned. 0 stars for that album. I'd give it negative if I could.
    
EDIT: I guess it was only responding to two these. Oh well, thought it was more.

Edited by FragileDT - June 01 2006 at 13:10

CttE is of a whole, and much as I love Supper's, it's still a few diferent songs joined together, abeit fairly well. The way an early bass line returns at the end, but in another meter at the very end of CttE is typical of the kind of detail that song has - it was what blew my mind that summer in 1984 in a cold tent on a rainy summer's day, and my musical world hasn't been the same since.

sleeper wrote: Paul K. wrote: YES are virtuosoes. GENESIS aren't. Wrong, Genesis were virtuoso composers, Yes were virtuoso musicians (though Genesis knew how to play just as well as Yes did).

By saying this, I meant virtuosity in terms of technique.

Maybe Genesis did know how to play just as well as Yes, but I definitely don't hear it on their albums.

    

Edited by Paul K. - June 01 2006 at 14:27

micky wrote: Teaflax wrote: CttE is of a whole, and much as I love Supper's, it's still a few diferent songs joined together, abeit fairly well. The way an early bass line returns at the end, but in another meter at the very end of CttE is typical of the kind of detail that song has - it was what blew my mind that summer in 1984 in a cold tent on a rainy summer's day, and my musical world hasn't been the same since. exactly... regardless of how well it was done.. Supper's Ready is not whole like CTTE..  now call me stupid (wouldn't be the first time ahhahaha) but I would think that writing a 18 minute long song... that holds up over 30 years... by it's nature a stronger compostion than a similar popular song... composed of different fragments joined together... no matter HOW well done it was...  most anyone can find something to like in Supper's Ready in one of the various parts... Close to the Edge does not have that luxury... if you don't like the 'jist' of it.... you've wasted 3/4 of the song.. and probably wouldn't find 'I get up I get Down' interesting as well .. .so the song is a total loss.

Im sorry, but your words seem to be like eggs hurled at the stone wall that is my brain. I just can't seem to understand why CttE is better than Supper's Ready purely because it's just one, long song. To me, at least, Supper's Ready being a so called 'cut and paste' epic is certainly no reason to dismiss it as a composition that could not rival the likes of CttE.

Also, you constantly seem to be mentioning how CttE has stood up for 30 years... making it a stronger composition somehow? I dont understand this one either... does it make CttE edge special in some way? I ask this because most of the classics we discuss here are around 30 years old... so why mention it?

Personally I enjoy Supper's Ready far more than CttE and it may have something to do with the fact that it DOES have different parts... The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is 23 songs correct? Most of them are different from one another, but does it not work together as a whole? I think Supper's Ready works as a single song, and I dont skip from one part to another like some people apparently do (though I may rewind and listen to a part over again if I like it [Which I dont do with CttE for some reason]) ... anyways I dont want to ramble so Ill quit while Im ahead.

^Pneubauer, i agree with what you're saying here. I don't think it's much use analyzing
both pieces to death, it's clear that both epics are generally loved by prog lovers. Which one is the better one is purely a matter of taste i think. I'm a CTTE man myself.

Tormato wrote: Gog/Magog wrote: Oh and Genesis have never made an album as rank as "Tormato" (not even Calling All Stations)   Tormato is much better than anything Genesis did after ATTW3. I have them all and I like many songs distributed among them, but come on, Future times-Rejoices are excellent songs, and also the rest. Skip Circus of Heaven and Arriving UFO if you are a perfectionist, and you'll have a master piece.

micky wrote: Gog/Magog wrote: Oh and Genesis have never made an album as rank as "Tormato" (not even Calling All Stations) hahahhah .... this must be the point where the thread gets interesting.... logic fails so cheap shots reign supreme. Tormato is not a rank album or even a bad album..... mind telling me what is so bad about it hahahha.  It some great songs on it.  Some poor as well... but far from a bad album.

Equality 7-2521 wrote:   Yes CTTE may have been more difficult to compose and much more impressive that a song of that nature would have such unanimous popularity decades later, but that does not mean it is a better song. Personally I find the raw emotion and quirkiness of Supper's Ready a much more valuable aspect.

I don't think it necessiarlily makes it better either.. .though I may have been sidetracked, and inadvertently used 'better'  along the way... it was never my intent to say that CttE was better than Supper's Ready.  I was trying to say it was a better composition  than Supper's Ready in response to a post that said that Genesis were better composers.  Emotion and all that is great... but he lack of is not necessarily a negative either....  Yes were emotional more through the music than through Anderson's voice.  The I Get Up I Get Down section is a wonderful emotional section... the beautiful vocal harmonies and the ethereal keys by Wakeman do elicit strong emotions in me.  That's all personal in how the music reacts to you personally.

 I happen to love both bands and which one I play depends on my mood at the time. 

    Geez Micky, you almost lost me for a while there, but I am very biased. "Supper's Ready" was the first prog opus I ever fell in love with. As others have said. it is the fragmentation that makes it so compelling to me. I had never heard a piece of rock music with different movements before. Now, what I love about Yes is their ability to have one long composition remain just that. Many bands did long, free-form jams, but you don't "compose" those.
    I can't argue with your points though. I have to look at it objectively, and you are right. However, my love for the piece that "did it for me" will never diminish.