Steven Wilson, Prog heritage and legacy

Still it's obvious in many of his songs that he is influenced greatly by the classic prog bands and is a big fan of KC obviously so he does contradict himself at times.

But hypocrite..? I don't think so.

 

When I listen to Luminol, Numbers and the Fly From Here suite it is only the latter two that become interchangeable. That's not a criticism, I like Banks of Eden and Fly From Here, but Stolt, (or Horn, Downes and Squire), could have written either piece and they would sit comfortably on either album.

 

Sure there are knowing references to Fragile era Yes in Luminol with the Squire-esque Rickenbacker bass, (albeit played on a Fender Jazz Bass... probably), punctuated jazz drumming, snapped guitar soloing, symphonic keyboard swells and treated electric piano riffs - and as someone said, "it may as well be straight from Fragile" ... take that as a compliment rather than a critique because Numbers and Fly From Here would not have made the final cut against South Side Of the Sky (to pick one track at random) because the abrasion and aggression comes up lacking. For me Yes produced some of the most abrasive music of the 70s for all the harmony and symphony there is an aggression in those core era albums that has been diluted by modern symphonic prog bands, including latter-day Yes themselves unfortunately - perhaps what was seen as  "following the blueprint from 1972 so closely" was in reality not following it closely enough, but merely following the perception of what that blueprint was.

 

 

I will accept the fact the Steven likes to have his cake and eat it though. He likes to be seen as the leader of the modern prog scene while reserving the right to 'plunder' seventies ideas and styles. A neat trick if you can pull it off

in terms of getting a discussion going then I suppose its okay but I just don't like the word. Its quite a strong criticism of someone's personality and is a bit like calling someone 'arrogant' ( and I used to think this true of Wilson). At the end of the day you have to be careful about branding other people like this. Would you be okay with being called a hypocrite on something whatever it may be? People are just people (not perfect) and sady will not behave in a way and say things that you like all the time. You have a choice not to buy his albums if you feel that strongly enough about it.