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Topic ClosedClose to the Edge: Best prog song ever?
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Poll Question: Do you think, personally, that CttE is the best prog song ever?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
4 [5.97%]
18 [26.87%]
42 [62.69%]
3 [4.48%]
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progmatic View Drop Down
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Points: 1785 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 16 2015 at 09:29
When I listen to it, Close to the Edge is THE best prog song ever -- at that moment. However, I can say that about several hundred other songs that just blow me away when I listen to them. It's ludicrous for me to try to decide what is the best song when it's impossible to truly compare Brand X to Yes to Renaissance to Porcupine Tree to Genesis to Frank Zappa etc.
Each great band has its own identity, and every great band has songs that when you're done listening to them, you are blown away. I could list hundreds, perhaps thousands of examples of 10/10 songs without even taxing my brain, and have no way of deciding which I like best. I like them all best.
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WrytXander View Drop Down
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Points: 237 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 16 2015 at 09:40
Originally posted by GKR GKR wrote:

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.

Thing is, sometimes you just listen to a song and realize that you DO, in fact, like it more than all the other songs you know. Other times you think to yourself "I don't think anyone could come up with something that affects me this deeply/ appeals to me this much/ is as beautiful as this". 

I used to obsess over listing things and putting things above one another. Then I realized that you can't ever be totally satisfied with that kind of practice, as there will always something you left out or put too low on the list. Not only that, but I realized that there is no point whatsoever. Not being able to put a song on your list shouldn't take away from your listening experience and making these countdowns and the sort is only a burden on that front.

With your "favourite song" or "the song you consider the best", that's not the case. There is no extra effort spent on trying to fit it into one position, and you don't think of it as "putting all the other ones below"; you've simply been touched by a song in places never before touched, and after a while you start taking note of these sensations before you ultimately decide that this is your favourite song. 

That's been my experience anyway, and that's what makes it all the more entertaining for me. Close to the Edge, to me, is the best song of all time, and that's just fine.


Edited by WrytXander - August 16 2015 at 09:44
20+ prog bands discovered and explored in 3 years, still going strong...
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someone_else View Drop Down
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Points: 24671 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 16 2015 at 11:16
Option #3 for me. I would grant the title to Supper's Ready instead. But the album on which it resides is the best prog album ever - in my book.
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Progosopher View Drop Down
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Points: 6472 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 16 2015 at 13:04
Originally posted by Manuel Manuel wrote:

Originally posted by Progosopher Progosopher wrote:

Definitely one of the contenders, and a top one at that.  But absolute best?  I prefer to avoid such terms unless I can declare others as best as well.  Depends on criteria.

Well said, and I should add there's not an absolute best prog song, or classical piece, jazz, blues, etc. Personally you might prefer one over the others, and that's fine, but absolute is a very radical term, and hardly one that everybody will agree upon.
 
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We constantly see this sort of approach in the modern day.  We have lost sight of the fact that such lists in the past were merely means of promotion.  I watched a run-down of the top musical screams on MTV many years ago when they were still showing music videos.  The late comic Sam Kinneson won.  His parody song was on rotation at the time, as were most of those in contention.  No Child in Time or Won't Get Fooled Again.  Ancient history.  The problem is that now we too often take such an approach as legitimate.  To an extent, I am just about as guilty as anyone for I frequently view lists.  I rarely take them seriously, but I do like to see who places where in the listing.  Favorites are one thing, but, as is implied, objectively the best?  Even with clear criteria, that is debatable.  Still, CTTE is a great song.
The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"
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Points: 7766 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 17 2015 at 06:24
" . . . it is up there with the other greats."
Welcome to the middle of the film.
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Points: 20671 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 17 2015 at 09:20
One of many great tracks by classic prog bands , but for me it's too long which is the same problem I have with TFTO and Suppers Ready. I like the music on those ,but  I tend to prefer the shorter epics from 9-12 min long that don't overstay their welcome.
Not sure what my favorite 'epic' is but for repeated listening on a desert island I wouldn't choose CTTE.
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin
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