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Yes
We Can... talk about something other than FISA!
Yes is the name of an English progressive rock band formed in 1968, forty years ago. Apart from a short pause in the early 1980s, the band has been active all those years.
When I was born, Yes was already famous, and some might say past their zenith. The first time I recall hearing about Yes was in 1990 on late night music radio. A year or two later I was staying at a friend's house over the summer and while browsing through his vinyl collection, I came across Close To The Edge, an album with strikingly simple light green sleeve and beautiful, haunting music. But the summer ended and with it ended my acquaintance with Yes, at least as far as the 1990s were concerned.
Fast forward 15 years; iTunes finally arrives to my laptop. Looking around the iTunes store I found Yes and remembered the green cover. After expending a modest amount of dollars I discovered that I liked the music just as much as I had fifteen years ago.
I like British prog rock music (Pink Floyd, Van der Graaf Generator) so naturally I started exploring Yes. And I liked what I saw, or rather heard. Relayer, Going for the One, Keys to Ascension, Magnification, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Tales from Topographic Oceans, even the first eponymous album from '69.
The music of Yes is... well, for one, not pop music. It's almost an anathema of pop music with long tracks (many around 20 minutes), extended instrumental sequences, high dynamic range, and somewhat impenetrable lyrics. Definitely not suited for radio play and possibly something of an acquired taste. Plus a lot of it sounds like it was made in the 1970s... because it was.
I find much of the Yes music very compelling and fascinating. I'm no musician but even I can tell that many of the Yes compositions are structured exactly like classical music, with clearly identifiable movements and main themes, yet sound so unlike classical music.
I always wonder what the music of Bach or Vivaldi or Tchaikovsky would look like if they lived today. Maybe some of it would sound a lot like Yes.
Worth mentioning are also Yes cover versions of songs by other artists, for instance Every Little Thing by the Beatles and America by Simon & Garfunkel. In both cases, it takes a bit of careful listening to realize what the originals are, but the Yes covers are different and beautiful in their own way.
It is probably wholly coincidental that Yes is also the name of a track on the latest Coldplay album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. Compared to Yes, Coldplay is much poppier and easier to listen to. Coldplay music is colorful, sweet, mellow, inoffensive, bright, glittery, attractive, soft. It's difficult not to like Coldplay, which is probably a good reason for musical snobs to hate them.
Viva la Vida is very well produced and compared to the previous releases, it's more of an album and less a collection of independent tracks. This is also reflected in slightly longer tracks, with two around the seven minute mark.
I rather like Viva la Vida and in my opinion it's a notch above the earlier albums. I doubt anyone would claim that it's a step back for Coldplay. Certainly the charts show that Coldplay hasn't lost its fans - not that I think the charts mean anything.
If I had to guess which music will be more popular 20 years from now, Yes or Coldplay, I'd be hard pressed to make a choice. Yes has already proven its worth and while Coldplay might be a fad, I don't think it is. Coldplay is more accessible but then again, the fact that the music of Yes is more challenging is also what makes it worthwhile. We'll just have to wait and see.
As always, I'm interested in hearing recommendations of other similar music.
Comments (47)
Heh, I saw the Yes tour when former and current band members went on tour, also saw them earlier "in the round."
I haven't got coldplays latest yet, but I did enjoy X&Y a lot..
What is amazing is that Yes DID get quite a lot of airplay back in the 1970s. I've always been partial to the Fish which follows seamlessly from long distance runaround. They did play them back to back in the day.
Radio used to play longer songs. For instance this Deathcab for Cutie song runs about 8 minutes, but the radio cuts out the first 5. (we discussed it yesterday-so this link is for others that missed that conversation)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq-yP7mb8UE
Pity, really. The Cure was another band that had long instrumental intros, that I also am fond of.
June 29, 2008 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you liked X&Y, I can pretty much guarantee you that you'll like Viva la Vida as well.
And yes, Yes did have some radio playable songs... but for me at least, that's not what I value most of their music (which is not to say the songs are bad in any way!).
Hmm, The Cure. I'm passingly familiar with them. Liked their "Anniversary" song.
June 29, 2008 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Disintigration is a good album, if a bit moody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5_CROC3Xh8&feature=related
Here's the title track
June 29, 2008 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uriah Heep. Would love to know where they got that name. Beautiful, haunting, even quirky. "The Wizard" is a classic combination of shifting rythums and powerful prose. "Easy Livin'" is exactly that. "Sunrise" - perfect. Most of theirs are at least 4 minutes in length, many 6 or more. Bugs me that radio play tunes always have to be a shorter version. Especially bugs me when artists create a shorter version specifically for radio play. Why? Yea, I get the money, fame, etc. issue - but doesn't seem true to the music. To the song in it's purity.
Rambling thoughts. Queen could have made a song out of that -
June 29, 2008 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
I believe Uriah Heep was a Dickens character.
June 29, 2008 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Which one? Which story?
June 29, 2008 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
David Copperfield
June 29, 2008 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
David Copperfield.
The hideous Heep works for Mr. Wickfield as clerk. Heep is scamming Wickfield and trying to marry his daughter Agnes and Copperfield enlists the help of Mr. Micawber to scam Heep and save the day...Wickfield's daughter Agnes -- longtime friend of Copperfield becomes his wife after Copperfield's first wife Dora dies. Mr. Wickfield is lawyer to Copperfield's aunt Mrs Trotwood where David runs to escape the workhouse he lands in after his mother remarries and his new stepfather had sent him to a horrid boarding school.
Plot twists abound in this the most "autobiographical" of Dickens' novels.
June 29, 2008 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cool! And thanks for the link, Ben.
June 29, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Funny... I don't really know Uriah Heep, but the first time I heard of them was on the same radio program that introduced me to Yes. Their Sea of Light album cover looks a lot like some of the Yes cover art. Will have to check this band out.
June 29, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Try "The Wizard" first. Totally cool song. I'd send along a link, but have no doubt you've already found a few. ;) I'm not as quick-
June 29, 2008 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
That makes me no music snob. I like Coldplay.
June 29, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your taste in music is as impeccable as your taste in dresses and cold steel weapons :)
June 29, 2008 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Careful. I might have to declare my love for you. Of course, being notoriously fickle, I'd retract it by morning, but still...;-)
June 30, 2008 12:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oooh. Being loved by a well armed woman sounds like it might place high demands and considerable responsibility on a guy. You don't satisfy the mistress and the next thing you know, you lost your head.
Still, who doesn't want to live dangerously...
June 30, 2008 5:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
And do you have Viva la Vida yet?
June 29, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
No yet. You recommend, I see. Perhaps this upcoming week as I get ready to go out West. Something to listen to in the air. ;-)
June 29, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, this will really date me. My dad took us to live in London in 1968-69 when he was assigned to a bank there. I went to the Cream farewell concert at Royal Albert Hall (my older brothers were nice enough to let me tag along--I was 13). Yes was the opening act. Perpetual Change is still one of my favorite songs of all time, or maybe I've Seen All Good People...hard to decide....although I'm pretty sure they didn't perform them at the concert. My memory fades...If you are interested in other vintage rock of the time, try Nazz, Todd Rundgren's first band.
June 29, 2008 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of dating yourself (and byw if you haven't tried it, don't knock it), I remember a rumor that Boston was only one person. Seriously. They never toured because of it, the music was all done in studio 'cause one person played all the instuments.
Blood Sweat And Tears. Now THERE'S a good name for a band.
June 29, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, bother. The y keeps getting in the way of my t. Haye iy when yhay happens.
June 29, 2008 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The first concert I ever went to was Boston, in Los Angeles
:)
They toured
June 29, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course they did! That's what made the rumor so silly. And the ensuing arguments that the band that toured was a "front", not the same as in the studio recording (the one guy).. ;)
June 29, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is true that founder Tom Scholz did the original demos alone in his home studio, but the record execs forced him to put together a band and do a regular in studio performance.
Without this demand there probably never would have been such a thing as a Boston "concert", since Scholz is notoriously shy. Over their most popular albums the only constants in the band lineup were Scholz and lead singer Brad Delp.
So the band really is just Scholz and whomever he gets to help him out.
June 30, 2008 2:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
As always, every rumor holds a glimmer of truth. I had no idea. Thanks for the information. Must have been tough on him, not being able to be true.
Also, kinda thanks for backing me up. With nothing less than the truth.
June 30, 2008 2:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
They have a "new" song out here
June 30, 2008 10:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe not one person.
But definitely one song.
Over and over and over and over and over.
Oh!
And over.
June 29, 2008 9:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually I give them a bit more credit than that.
There were really two songs. "More than a Feeling" and "Smokin'". Every other song they released was basically a new set of verses, or maybe a new instrumental bridge, for one of those two songs.
June 30, 2008 2:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
there's a flaming lips album that was released as 4 cds, that are meant to be listened to simultaneously on 4 separate players.
i listened to it with some friends in high school. unfortunately, it was before we had discovered mind altering substances.
even so, i remember it being a completely unique and mindwarping musical experience.
ahh. i found it.
zaireeka
June 29, 2008 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually I give them a bit more credit than that.
There were really two songs. "More than a Feeling" and "Smokin'". Every other song they released was basically a new set of verses, or maybe a new instrumental bridge, for one of those two songs.
June 30, 2008 2:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
HOW DID THIS GET HERE??
It was supposed to be here.
This happens to me all the flippin' time. Am I doing something wrong?
June 30, 2008 2:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Man, I'm going to join y'all in the dating myself game. I saw Uriah Heep in concert at the Mid South Collisseum in Memphis sometime in the mid-70's I think I was 13 or 14. Opening band was Mott The Hoople. I still have the vinyl "Magisian's Birhtday" and the Mott The Hoople album with "All the Young Dudes" and "All the way from Memphis" on it. And for some reason I remember vaguelly a thrid band that night, maybe Black Oak Arkansas, but I may be conflating 2 different concerts.
June 29, 2008 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mott was great. That band was also named after a fictional character--in the the book Mott the Hoople. Great rock factoids from years ago.
June 29, 2008 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Magician's Birthday! One of my all-time favorites.
June 29, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
All the young dudes was a David Bowie song, I think
June 29, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was. He wrote it for Mott and did a cover. Or perhaps the other way around. But he wrote it.
June 29, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm guessing that the Tchaikovskys and the Vivaldis would probably be more like Philip Glass and co if they were around. I remember music teachers always trying to convince kids at school that Beethoven was cool because he was like the David Bowie of his day. ....he really, really wasn't. The division between 'popular' and 'classical' music has existed for far, far longer than some people seem to think.
June 29, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, what's "far longer"? Was the distinction always there?
Are you sure Mozart wouldn't be composing musicals today?
June 29, 2008 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mozart composed populist stuff (Magic Flute) as well as high-brow stuff (Don Giovanni). But on the whole, the equivalent to "pop-music" would have been well-known folk songs, etc. Even then, there was a distinction.
But I find this whole frame a little pointless, other than as a rhetorical device.. (anacoenosis, if you're a rhetoric geek like me) in which case it can be useful. cf Clinton's speech at Mason Temple, '93. (What would MLK say if he came back today. "You did a good job, he would say..." etc).
I have no musical recommendations, by the way. I'm just gatecrashing this conversation.
June 29, 2008 7:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not into rhetoric, thanks :) Of course the frame is pointless, but it's fun speculation. In reality, I don't think contemporary music spectrum really compares to what there was 200 years ago.
June 29, 2008 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I saw Yes "in the round" at Madison Square Garden when I was in 9th grade. My parents drove us in from the burbs. We bought some black hash at the show, though I don't think it had much of an effect, and a black concert t-shirt that I wore until it was ragged. In those years I would smoke large quantities of bad pot, close my eyes and listen to their epic live album at excruciating volume on the headphones while my parents wondered what kind of strange and addled offspring they had begotten. At school, my friends and I would study their sci-fi album covers and marvel at the musicianship of "classically trained" Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Chris Squire. By the end of high school, I moved on and saw them as just so much cosmic debris. Every now and then, I will hear "Roundabout" or "And You and I" and be reminded of my awkwardness and innocence in those times. I can't say I think they earned a place in the rock history pantheon (sorry, don't mean to burst your bubble - to each his own), but they will always hold a special, slightly uncomfortable place in my heart.
June 29, 2008 10:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grr. I managed to lose my longish response due to my own ineptitude, so I'll keep this short.
In my view, the music of Yes is a bit artsy (for the lack of a better word) and not the kind "everyone" would like. That makes it less popular and maybe, just maybe more valuable.
I like it, and that's all that matters to me :)
June 30, 2008 5:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
My trajectory is similary to ex-journalist's, but now that I have been reminded, I will be sure to revisit the music of my youth. In the car... alone, of course.
June 30, 2008 9:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Siberian Khatru (...even Siberia goes through the motions...)
South Side of the Mountain (...were we ever warmer/colder on that day? a million miles away it seemed from all eternity...)
Heart of the Sunrise (...love comes to you and you follow...)
Starship Trooper (...the proud sons and daughter who knew the knowledge of the land...)
And You and I (...coming quickly to terms of all expression laid...)
I've Seen All Good People (...don't surround yourself with yourself...)
Roundabout (...the eagles dancing wings create as weather spins out of hand...)
Perpetual Change (...and then you'll say even in time we shall control the day, when what you'll see deep inside the day's controlling you and me...}
Close to the Edge (...seasons will pass you by...)
Going for the One (...here you stand no taller than the grass sees...)
Yours is No Disgrace (...Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face...)
Mood for a Day ()
Good Stuff, Good Stuff all.
When I was in high school, I wore out a (vinyl, of course) copy of the live triple album "Yessongs" (then I got smart and started wearing out cheap cassette recordings of the album, using the vinyl only to make tapes). I still have the original covers though, with all that great Roger Dean artwork.
Like AG, I also saw Yes in the round, in Denver ('79, I think?), but I was a sophomore in college. It was not a sellout by a long shot, but the band still gave it everything they had! Rick even did his medley of "The Six Wives of Henry VIII," just like on Yessongs.
BTW Rick Wakeman's solo (rock-keyboard/orchestral) efforts are also favorites of mine:
Six Wives of Henry VIII
White Rock
Journey to the Center of the Earth
All were absolutely the pinnacle of British rock/jazz/classical fusion.
And we aren't alone in our high opinions of Yes, about a year or two ago, Atrios went through a phase for a couple of weeks where he used lines from '70's Yes songs as the body text of his "Open Thread" postings.
June 30, 2008 12:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
As far as similar music goes, people are always pointing out King Crimson, Tesla, and even pale imitators like Starcastle, but for my money Kansas is the most similar in the most important ways:
- talent and virtuousity,
- interesting and experimental sounds and rhythms,
- and, most importantly, uplifting sweeping emotive music that is still unmistakably rock-and-roll.
I fully expect to get flamed for this heresy, but, so it goes.
June 30, 2008 12:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
No flame here, BalDog. Love Kansas, on my mellow side.
June 30, 2008 12:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, Yes. 1976. I was nine. A teenage family friend was a big fan, and for a nine-year-old, teenagers are the coolest thing in the world, so I guess I was lucky. "Fragile" was the first piece of vinyl I bought with my own money a year or two later. Saw them twice.
Nowadays they're a little overblown for my taste, but at the time Yes gave me a deeper appreciation for the possibilities in music.
I later caught on to the so-called "punk" scene, which was a direct rebellion against the "arena-rock" culture that was getting old by then. Those arena shows had the feel of a High School function after a while, regardless of how much pot was in the air. Cattle in, cattle out.
But one of the results of the punk revolution was that you were considered a jerk if you played well. Kind of an over-compensation for the conservatory-style virtuosos in bands like Yes.
Through it all, they kept an important place in my personal pantheon. I still listen to them, but not a whole lot. Alone in the car is best.
If you do check them out, try not to judge them by current standards. "Relayer" is a personal favorite, but it does not have the classic lineup and is a little more challenging than some of the other stuff.
"All that is not music is fed to the flame."
-- Rober Hunter
June 30, 2008 3:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Codegan86: Thanks for your post. It was a fun and graceful discussion. I love hearing from other people about music. It was a nice break from the rancor here.
June 30, 2008 9:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
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