Close to the Edge: Best prog song ever?

yeah man.. a lot of nos.. and little in the way of examples much less reasons why anything could or did top the execution and performance of CTTE.

put it his way as some sh*thead reviewer once did...


One of more defining.. yet at the same time moth eaten prog cliches is the side long epic. Of course other groups had tried them before. Some were just extended instrumental jams where structure and composition were an afterthought. Most were of the cut and paste variety. Song vignettes of several minutes apiece strung together with instrumental bridges. What made Close to the Edge so powerful.. and at the same time so ..progressive was that it was a single 19 minute composition. The dangers inherent in that are obvious if you take any time at all to consider the music.. and the prospective audience. There is no way to quantify musical quality.. or is there? The proof is in the numbers.. and in the logic. Take a piece like Supper's Ready that some would proclaim to greatest side-long ever. Say there is a piece that doesn't really catch the listeners ear.. it is no problem.. Willow Farm is right around the corner. By the time you've grabbed a ham sandwich.. the musical context has changed. The listener is happy and goes on his merry way. With Close to the Edge.. not so fast. If the merry men of Yes hadn't paid extreme attention to perfection on that song and crafting a near flawless piece of music you would have been left with 19 minutes of sheer boredom.

Close to the Edge is nothing more earthshaking than possibly the world's first..hell maybe only 19 minute long pop song. Complete with the intro/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/middle8/instrumental-break/verse/chorus/outro format that supposedly seperates prog from lesser forms of music hahaha. While everyone went on thinking that standard popular song formats would only support 2 or 3 minute long songs.. Yes showed that the standard pop format could support complex and sustained melodies. The trick of it again.. to pull it off it had to be all about quality. Otherwise.. you would have to aural equivilant of having 19 minutes of 'My Heart Will Go On: Love Theme from Titanic' pumped into your brain. Even with the kick ass rickenbacker.. I suspect that would not be enough to hold on to many listeners.



Edited by micky - August 15 2015 at 23:17

No, but it's up there.

I think many more are of higher caliber. Gates of Delirium comes to mind.

And You and I is a better song, and that's on the same album.

I'll have to be very straight (whaaat?!) about this: I dont believe that there is one best album or one best song of all times. There is multiple of best somethings, always depending on the reference you're using.

Man, this sicks me. What is the problem of have a great variety of things we like without making so many lists and putting one thing on top of other things!? What is this? A Monty Python skecth? Oh, it is...

See, Battle of Albums? Quite fun. List of better albums? Fun if you use it without loosing your head. But putting one thing in a pantheon and then EVERYTHING ELSE below... man... no... lets not go there. I believe that this is one of the most beautiful songs of music, so, if we put CTTE high there, is this one inferior?

All of this to say: is Close to the Edge one of the most beautiful, great, paradigmatic and awesome song of progressive music? Yes, no doubt. It is the best song ever? I dont believe in such a thing.

micky wrote: WrytXander wrote: micky wrote: hard to say if it is.. but you know what ...  harder still to try to think of one that might be more than Close to the Edge would be.  Really only Tarkus comes to immediately mind of the right mix of import, influence, quality and lasting appeal.One those even non prog fans knew and loved.  One was the greatest (without a shread of a doubt because of was the very few to attempt a single 18 minute song.. most epics were of the 'cut and paste' variety and Tarkus is one of the greatest, if not THE of those types.  Because of what it was... an 18 minute prog POP song.. I'd definitely say yes.. Close to the Edge So you're with me in thinking that it's the best, or do you prefer Tarkus? I personally prefer 10 other songs to Tarkus, including ELP's very own Karn Evil 9. I see the points you're making though, nice choices  oh definitely Close to the Edge.. one could argue till the cows come home.. for years.. what was the best 'cut and paste' prog epic.. I think it Tarkus but it is highly open to debate...but there is no debate which is the more challenging.. for also it was the least atttempted.. to do an 18 minute long SONG.. a single composition. Not an insturmenta jam not a long song made of bits of other songs..l.. but actual song with.. yes.. a pop song structure with the intro/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/middle8/instrumental-break/verse/chorus/outro forma. brillaint.. and so the question stands.. what other prog song can touch that.. even adding on top the instrumental brillaince of Yes.  Best composition... typical Yes brilliiance on the performance side.  A no brainer actually...

Pretty much on the money there mate. One of my all time favourites that is for sure, and most assuredly one of the most important but 'best' may well be too hard to quantify.

WrytXander wrote: micky wrote: hard to say if it is.. but you know what ...  harder still to try to think of one that might be more than Close to the Edge would be.  Really only Tarkus comes to immediately mind of the right mix of import, influence, quality and lasting appeal.One those even non prog fans knew and loved.  One was the greatest (without a shread of a doubt because of was the very few to attempt a single 18 minute song.. most epics were of the 'cut and paste' variety and Tarkus is one of the greatest, if not THE of those types.  Because of what it was... an 18 minute prog POP song.. I'd definitely say yes.. Close to the Edge So you're with me in thinking that it's the best, or do you prefer Tarkus? I personally prefer 10 other songs to Tarkus, including ELP's very own Karn Evil 9. I see the points you're making though, nice choices

oh definitely Close to the Edge.. one could argue till the cows come home.. for years.. what was the best 'cut and paste' prog epic.. I think it Tarkus but it is highly open to debate...but there is no debate which is the more challenging.. for also it was the least atttempted.. to do an 18 minute long SONG.. a single composition. Not an insturmenta jam not a long song made of bits of other songs..l.. but actual song with.. yes.. a pop song structure with the intro/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/middle8/instrumental-break/verse/chorus/outro forma.

brillaint.. and so the question stands.. what other prog song can touch that.. even adding on top the instrumental brillaince of Yes.  Best composition... typical Yes brilliiance on the performance side. 

A no brainer actually...

sleeper wrote: Absolutely not.

Ehh, "Definitely not" sounded reasonable at the time of creating this poll. Just disregard that if you can.

It's good, but there are many better.