Yes vs Flash

Hi,

Interesting. I like the comment that "FRAGILE was not human" ... and in a sense that is so true as the whole album is so well defined and designed that it made it almost inhuman and too perfect an album for us all to ignore.

As much as I like FLASH, and have always had those first two albums, I think that lyrically and compositionally, they needed to get past that "human" thing, not that they had to create an album that was "superhuman", which was never what they were about, but something that helped them transcent what they think they were that helped see them through a different sphere and set of fans. FRAGILE might not be human, but it got our attention ... the first two FLASH albums were nice but did not get our attention compared to the other monster.

There is something to be said about that "human" thing, and it would come alive 20 years later with NIRVANA, for example, but in the end, it renders a band repetitive, and one can not find a reasonable understanding for the pieces of music, that are a bit more than just a 4 minute song ... the solos become meandering in the ears and eyes of the listener, and that is something that hurts the idealism around music, so much of which propels it!

The same thing happened with IRON BUTTERFLY, who could never get past their first piece of music that sent them to the stratosphere, and mostly because it was not about the trip itself, but about the song and its this and that for the trip, and that did not last long enough for us to even listen to the 2nd album of theirs!

The writing was on the wall, proverbially, for the music scene ... it was going to make you buy everything to confuse your understanding of things. All of a sudden, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE was not as intelligent a rock band as one song made it out to be, even though it had nice stuff, and one beautiful song, did not help IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY become any better and more appealing, in favor of louder, and less interesting music around the time.

And then, something like LZ showed up. And "human" was taken to a personal level that most could not even relate to and could only fantasize about. That was "superhuman"? 

Neither Dellinger. I try to word my best in regards to these things, about how I feel, and how I have heard and understood some of this stuff for 40 some years. FLASH was not new to me yesterday, and I heard it almost at the same time as FRAGILE, if I am not confusing dates in my head.

But looking at the whole thing from a different perspective, and a historical one, I would say that FLASH did not have the ability to "overcome themselves" and do better, like YES did, and Jon speaks about. I won't say "lazy", because some of us can meditate and some can not -- very simple -- but in the end, and the new material shows it ... there was something missing ... it was still very nice and enjoyable ... but something missing, that I can not put a finger on!

But I did enjoy that video clip above...and that one rings a bell.

If you're going to compare Yes and Flash (a reminder—comparisons are always a dubious enterprise at best), it's wise to limit your comparison to the first two years of both bands. Flash broke up so early, they were just getting started and who knows what they would have sounded like on a fourth album, and with the time to work out all the initial problems and growing pains of a new band (like kicking out the source of most of their problems—Pete—just as producer Derek Lawrence suggested and Yes actually did.)