YES - The Ultimate Hippy Band

I like "YES". I just don't think of them as a "Hippy" type of band.
I do like the harmonics though.

 

An interesting thought. One of the amazing things about YES music is that it works on many different levels. YES has achieved everything from number one hit singles like "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" through to inspired adventurous epics like "Close To The Edge", so there is pretty much something for all tastes. The message from YES throughout has been love and peace. I think its a message that goes hand in glove with a hippy philosophy but equally, its a universal message for everyone.

 

Oh first! yeah, yes are the ultimate kynd band. they're so positive and imaginative. Jon's lyrics and singing are so powerful.
i'll give "close to the edge" my vote for best album. the title track is 20 minutes...and it comes at you full force right at the beginning, just pulling you into the energetic monster prog. siberian khatru is great, and the play between vocals and instruments is interesting throughout.

 

Oceans, you are saying all the stuff i want to say about the band.
i have lots of friends who don't seem to get into them the same as me, and i wish they could, because i feel like Yes music is inspirational and exciting, and downright fun with stuff from "the yes album" or "fragile." i'm listening to perpetual change right now. i like the lyrics (the pawns metaphor is extended enough for a complete image) and the end jam @8:00 or so, but it all rocks..... wooot.
peace

 

i oughta add in here that in my opinion, some Yes sounds like overproduced 80s crap. Big Generator and some of 90125 are especially tacky, or whatever you want to call it. i'm a firm believer that a dislike for music comes only from a misunderstanding by the listener, but with that said, i don't often get into the mindset or groove of these albums or like that feeling as much as CTTE, TfTO, Yes Album, or GftO.

 

Brad, you obviously have a real appreciation of what makes YES music so special. If YES music received the heavy rotation on commercial radio that some pop artists receive, I’m sure that there would be an avalanche of new YES fans. I’d recommend to anyone who is new to YES music to listen to the songs several times before drawing any conclusions – YES music really rewards repeated listening. If some of your friends need encouragement to listen to YES, I’d suggest letting them listen to “The Ultimate YES” 35th Anniversary compilation and getting them to read “The Extraordinary World Of YES” by Alan Farley. It might help to open their eyes to another world of truly great music.

 

True, the 80s music of YES was less adventurous than the YES music of the 70s and the more recent music of YES. We all have different tastes and it certainly does get down to how the listener perceives the music. It would be difficult to find any music more inspired than albums like Close To The Edge and the others you mention.

 

I dig Yes' '70s material, but I'm not as into them as I was 10 years ago. (Tormato is the cutoff for me-- man, I used to love the opening track "Arriving UFO"!) A favorite album? Tough call... I would probably have to go with Fragile; sure, "Roundabout" is horribly overplayed (I usually skip past it unless I need to hear BB's killer snare drops) but the album as a whole is excellent. Go ahead and flame me because Relayer isn't my favorite (or try to persuade me against my folly), I could care less...

 

Yes is easily my favorite band. While I also love the music of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, CSN (and sometimes Y), Led Zeppelin, the Doors, the Grateful Dead, Phish, Dead Can Dance, Pink Floyd, Michael Hedges, XTC, and a few hundred others, none of these bands inspired me as much, none so completely took me to a new reality, none opened the door to a completely different dimension as consistently as the 70s incarnation of Yes.

Close To The Edge gets my vote as one of the all time great albums by anybody in any genre. Locked in a six way tie for my second favorite Yes album are Going For The One, Fragile, The Yes Album, Tales From Topographic Oceans, Relayer and Magnification. Freakin' brilliant stuff.

 

I was in high school when The Yes Album was totally cuting edge.

They sold-out lots and lots of concert areans. I remember a 5 night
stand in Madison Square Garden, NY round 1979. Touring for several
years.

For YES Frreaks the: Tales From Totpgraphic Oceans is the ultinmate opus.
A seamless 4-sides ( vinyl ) of dreamy music.

The advent of MTV style music TV in approx 1983 caused a shift in taste
that moved YES out of the spotlight.

 

I thoroughly agree with your thoughts about the "Close To The Edge" album. There is also a strong argument that no other band has equalled the creativity of Yes in that sequence of great albums from "The Yes Album" through "Fragile", "Close To The Edge", "Yessongs", "Tales From Topographic Oceans", "Relayer" and "Going For The One". And of course Yes made it right to the top in an era when many of the biggest stars in the history of rock music were flying high like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, CSN &Y, etc etc.

 

guess what, i just learned how to play "THE ANCIENT" classical guitar part this weekend. i love it. im almost done learning "THE CLAP" too.

 

lost on a wave, that your your dreaming
dream on, on to the heart of the sunrise.

 

congratulations. Clap is so fun, but i can never get over that they introduce the live version on the album as "the clap"... did they call ghonorrea that back then? wtf. oh well.

 

XTC? i bought the Oranges and Lemons tape of theirs without ever having heard em, just because i dug the album art... i don't like the lyrics cuz they're so childishly cynical (even though "cynical days" seems to offer an apology of sorts for that) the rhythms are so unique, and i love the guitar work. anyway, this is a Yes thread, so i'm done. i just never hear them brought up, so i responded. hehe

 

Hmm... I believe roundabout would be my favorite song. Steve Howe has always been one of my favorite guitarists. I love 'em.

 

dude roundabout rules

 

i'm a huge Yes fan!

 

The opening of "Heart of the Sunrise" is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard.
I find Steve Howe's acoustic stuff very difficult to learn and play. His fingerpicking technique(s) is/are well beyond my own.
I nailed "Mood for a Day" a long time ago, but thats the easiest of his solo pieces.
On his first solo album "Beginnings" there's a piece called "Ram" that has stumped me for ages.
Not the finger positions or the chording.. but the fingerpicking.. It's insane.

 

"Close To The Edge" was the first album I ever bought, and man did it blow my mind. I think they were one of only a few bands who could your attention during a 20-minute+ song.