i think that it’s time to remedy that situation, no?!?
This might be my favorite Youtube music clip. Dig Yes in the raw:
I listened to Relayer yesterday, cranked up considerably loud in the afternoon. It was fuckin’ awesome.
I keep forgetting I even have Relayer (it was an iTunes purchase), thanks for the reminder. Listening now.
Relayer was my last Yes purchase. So great, and I was so disappointed by what followed.
Don’t Kill The Whale didn’t do it for ya? that’s crazy talk! (Dig It)
Go on, you know you want it
I can’t find the clip on the ‘tube, but there’s a pretty funny Yes interview bit (I think early 70s) where Bill Bruford talks about how predictable the Yes audience is in every town — affluent male hipsters with “clothes that are just a little bit tattier than they should be.”
Don’t Kill The Whale didn’t do it for ya? that’s crazy talk! (Dig It)
Was that from Tormato, or 90210?* I not only didn’t like those, I actively hated them, though I only heard what was on the radio, never the entire LPs. At least Genesis had a reason for going to shit...
* I known that’s not the name, but that’s what I call it.
according to amg, that “hold on to love” song was co-written by lamont dozier(!!!)
jon’s mullet in that video by itself makes me regret that punk ever happened — would he have done such a song, and had such an ape-drape, had the pistols never existed?!?
and thanks, hurting, for the yes in the raw video — steve howe is almost like a bizarro universe-version angus young there. i also presume that the ass-shakin’ keyboardist is a (not-yet-prematurely-gray) tony kaye and not rick wakeman?!?
nickn—it’s tormato (which i have a strange fondness for, not having anything to do with it being any good, cuz it ain’t)
eisbar—that is rick wakeman, sans cape!!
RELAYER!!!
I have been waxing rhapsodic about my new stereo gear on other threads, but side 2 of Relayer is probably in the top three revelations-in-sound that I have experienced so far. Shit sounds so good.
eisbar—that is rick wakeman, sans cape!!
i thought that it MIGHT be — the absence of the cape and the beard was what threw me off. rick could really shake his ass back in the day!
Going For The One is the last great Yes album, but it’s pretty fuckin’ great.
Rick is quite sexually ambiguous in that clip.
I found the Bruford clip. Immediately followed by Jon Anderson sounding not-too-bright.
the dude is seriously in some weird, magical, psychdelic, hippie, fairy world. he thinks he sees angels n shit. i love him.
Relayer was my last Yes purchase. So great, and I was so disappointed by what followed.
“Parallels” is pretty outstanding. And let’s not forget Drama...
“Heart of the Sunrise” is fucking amazing.
For all their transgressions (and there are many), Yes are a great, great band. Close to the Edge is about as good as any record from the Seventies — for sure, it’s one of the two or three best prog albums. And yeah: Relayer.
the first half of tormato (including “don’t kill the whale”) is OK — not prime yes, but decent (the shitty guitar solo on “release release” notwithstanding). it’s the rest of the album that begins to suck wind IMHO — “arriving UFO” and “circus of heaven” are the two REAL stinkers on the album. they’re so twee that they make stuart murdoch (of belle & sebastian) sound like lemmy in comparison.
Yeah, but “On the Silent Wings of Freedom” rox, dude...
Wow, I missed Relayer in high school and now I want to hear it. I wasn’t a big Yes fan but I had Close to the Edge and the live album (Yessongs?).
I’ve never really bought into Relayer beyond a few isolated moments in the tracks (and most of Sound Chaser—the stuff that isn’t Howe soloing), though I know it’s one of those records that diehard Yes fans tend to like (and TfTO is often a dark horse fave as well). I still like Yes Album, Fragile, CttE, GftO best.
Relayer is def. FFO — if nothing else, it’s easily the densest prog rock record ever, replete with Howe’s aforementioned “soli” in “Sound Chaser” and sound fx overload.
As for its merits, I dunno — I certainly enjoyed the shit out of the thing growing up. The melodies are really quite good, the textures are interesting (and different with Moraz replacing Wakeman), a couple of reasons Paul Stump loved the thing in The Music’s All That Matters (it also has my favorite Yes cover ever). I’d love to hear it remastered...
that revolver album cover:
let’s try this again:
I do love the relayer cover
NTI, it was remastered (for maybe the 3rd or 4th time) a couple of years ago, and sounds good to me
Yeah, I bet! I just get funny about buying records I used to own sometimes. That said, I’d really like to pick this one up. I totally understand all the criticisms of Relayer — that it’s garish and ugly, that it’s silly, that it’s just plain difficult to listen to. But if you can get into it, you’ll realize the record’s also really unique. You have the fusion-y stuff on “Sound Chaser,” the all the parts to “Gates of Delirium,” and just melody after melody coming in waves. By the time “To Be Over” comes in, you’re fucking exhausted.
Obv. it sounds like some weird tangent today, but given that it was 1974, it was Yes, and they were huge at that point (as was their scope), you almost can see how some might’ve fancied pop music was reaching some kind of peak when Relayer came out. It may not be their best, but in a lot of ways, it’s kind of the ultimate Yes album.
I actually like prog that sound noisy and dense, but Relayer always struck me as coming from a band just trying way too hard to do something, anything after TfTO — mid-70s Yes sounds pretty exhausted to me. in fact, from that point onward, it seems like they go through about a 25 year cycle of being exhausted to reinvigorated to played out to reunited...
(I’ve also heard Relayer described as all that is good and bad about symphonic prog — and it does kind of sound like they wanted to write symphonies in parts). “Awaken” from GftO sounds like what I wish Relayer sounded more like — just really not holding anyting back at all, but also sounding a lot more like a piece that fits together, instead of just climax to climax to climax to climax (which come to think of it, is probably the reason Cardiacs remind me of Yes sometimes)
I don’t know if I’d disagree with any of that, actually. It’s just that given their makeup, Yes’s version of “exhausted, trying way to hard to do something” was creating these furious keyboard and guitar battles behind snappy tunes in 7/8 time. And however forced it sounds, unlike “Awaken” (which, at 16, was nirvana to me), Relayer’s forced in directions you never would have expected them to go.
I’ve always wondered what all the CttE records would sound like w/Bruford in the band. I bet I would have liked them a lot more — it seems like he managed to make stuff sound tighter, more spidery just by being around. and yet w/Relayer, I almost wish was more noisy and chaotic than it is — the big jam in Gates of Delirium is actually kind of awesome, but still basically sounds like a big, long rock jam to me, instead of heaven and earth crashing down. not sure if bruford could have made it that, but Yes always manages to sound “pretty” to me, maybe moreso than they wanted to?
listening to “Sound Chaser” now, this whole first third of the tune is great — it’s like avant disco prog (which is awesome just on principle)
“Awaken” (which, at 16, was nirvana to me)
Age or minutes? :-D
At last, a thread whose (nearly) every word I agree with! The Yes Album, CTTE and Relayer, best music before 1980.
Yeah, I said that*.
BTW, has there been a tribute act called ‘Yeah’ yet? And if not, can I start it? And will people not confuse it for an LCD Soundsystem tribute act?
Better still, Dominique has referenced Cardiacs. Thanks to Mr. Everything 1967 (you can blame him), their output is now all mine. I haven’t really gotten past Sing To God, though; that album is, and again I freely permit you to quote me on this, perhaps second only to Mansun’s Six on my 90’s list. If they remind you of Yes, they’re both in exalted company! Myself, I’m yet to figure out whom they actually remind me of. Probably for the better that I don’t, I don’t want the spell broken just yet...
*As for actually talking about their actual music, I’ll go into that after posting my ‘big statement’ (i.e. this)
*‘actually talking about their actual music’ = a literary abomination, take my life, please. WHY NO EDIT FUNCTION ILX WHY
I dunno, I thought it was kinda funny...
And The Yes Album wins everytime.
OWNER OF A LONELY HEART
“I’ve always wondered what all the CttE records would sound like w/Bruford in the band.”
Butbutbut... Bruford is the drummer on CttE...
White was a pretty fucking phenomenal drummer in his own right, anyway.
I mean post CttE. White was solid, but I wouldn’t say phenomenal
Well, maybe I have low standards, but his work throughout Relayer is IMO magnificent. His fills in the section from 12:47 to 14:49 of GOD (also the second-best section Yes ever did after ‘Eclipse’ and just ahead of ‘Wurm’) are actually perfect.
well I agree, I do like his playing — I also like his pattern on “Awaken”. he was a session drummer before playing w/Yes, and his time is good, he’s a really “tasteful” drummer, never over plays. I prefer Bruford’s playing though — not only because he had all those some qualities, but I just think he was a more creative drummer in general.
Perhaps, and it’s true to say that Bruford’s drumming was entirely his own. Indeed, White is often content to groove whilst Bruford in the same situation would be trying out all sorts of rhythmical filigree. In such a brilliant band, however, White’s restraint isn’t a negative thing in the slightest, really. Bruford, it’s true, was more creative, and CTTE (the song) features some of the best drumming ever laid to record.
Plus, White’s grooves are intrinsically more awesome than most. He’d give that Can dude a run for his money. Seriously!
the big minus I have w/White is that he’s a little heavy handed for me — I like drummers that have lighter touches. Bruford had one, and cerainly Leibezeit had one. That said, I also like Bonham, heaviest hands of all time.
Heavy-handed = not afraid to play lead SAUCEPAN. The toppling of the whole crockery rack is one of the great moments in Yes’ music!
haha, well actually playing a saucepan goes in the plus column for me!
So it should! Ooooh, d’ya reckon there’s a case for GOD being the most flat-out awesome song released before 1980? Not necessarily that it is, but that it has a fair shot?
I have to jump off the Yes boat there
Fair enough. I’m guessing your answer would be Hendrix? Dylan? Gentle Giant? :P
gosh, if the only criteria is pre-1980, I don’t know what my answer would be. Somewhere in the neighborhood of Magma’s “Hhai” / Capt & Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” / Beach Boys “Can’t Wait Too Long” / Peggy Lee “Is That All There Is?”
that’s the neighborhood I want to live in
Magma...now THERE’S a band I’ve been meaning to investigate. Hmm...
yeah, I bet if you like both Yes and Cardiacs, you’d like Magma (though they don’t actually sound that much alike)
I’d be disappointed if they DID sound alike! Originality is the holy grail etcetera etcetera...
I haven’t heard “Hhai” but I love the idea that there’s a Magma song in the same neighbourhood as Captain and Tennille and Peggy Lee.
well...
caption this photo
uhhh.. how bout “hi. we’re both really great drummers.” ??
ok. anyway, i listened to jon and vangeles tonight.
private collection? i had that lp, don’t think i still have it....
no. i was listening to friends of dr cairo. ive never heard private collection. :(
friends of MR cairo by jon and vangeLIS
“Short Stories” by J & V is where it’s at, Chaki. You have that?
nah ive only heard this one
They’ll never top “Khatru.”
Friends of Mr Cairo may be the worst LP I ever paid money for.
i didn’t mind the title song to friends of mr. cairo. the rest didn’t leave any impression at all.
caption this photo
I still love that story about the tour for A Trick Of The Tale where Bruford was so bored playing Collins’ drum parts that he starting messing around with the time signatures.
caption this photo
“Hey, our names rhyme!” “Yep. Initials, too.”
i’m loving “relayer” in no small part b/c it’s almost zappa-esque (musically, NOT lyrically). esp. “sound chaser,” which easily sounds like it could’ve been on läther.
The Musical Box’s next project is going to be a re-creation of the Trick of the Tail tour, when Bruford drummed. The existing “Phil Collins” is going to take over lead vocals, and they’ll be auditioning for a Bruford.
awww that sucks i was hopin they’d bring the lamb to the usa again. :(
a lot of people seem to end up liking Yes, or some of it, but I’ve asked a few people if there was maybe at least one good ELP song and they tend to look kind of queasy and implore you not to even put them on to find out for yourself. how bad? As bad as what? Worse than what?
One good ELP song, and there aren’t many, is “The Endless Enigma” from “Trilogy”. It has a nice stirring hymn-like tune, and the playing isn’t too wanky.
lucky man is good in a totally acousticy, in the court of the crimson-king way. otherwise, no.
I don’t think ELP was that wanky. There’s a lot of dynamism there.
I think I’ve found Yes to be more rambling, honestly.
but ELP sounds irritating
Well, so does Flipper!
“Knife Edge” from the first ELP album isn’t too bad (depending on your tolerance for the vocals of Greg Lake), largely because it’s totally ripped off Shostakovich or someone. I also have a secret hankering For Fanfare For The Common Man and Karn Evil 9 (1st and 3rd Impressions), but I wouldn’t exactly recommend them to anyone else.
Underrated.
I like lake’s vocals. emerson is where elp falls down for me. and since his name comes first, that’s pretty quickly.
what about the nice? was emerson any good — or at least tolerable — in that group?!?
I have their greatest hits on cassette. I don’t think it’s anything spectacular but they had some nice tunes. I haven’t listened in ages though.
My old pop prof at York loves Yes up through CttE but ranks TfTO amongst the worst albums ever. I don’t understand at all, now that I’ve finally got past my fears and checked out the album. It’s different but not that different and in some ways it sums up a lot of what was so great about Yes. I think it holds together really well as an ambient fusion masterpiece. It makes me feel what spiritual hippie psychedelia should feel like.
(I still put on the big 3 more often.)
spiritual hippie psychedelia
this is jon anderson’s world — you can hear that to some extent in all the other Yes records in the 70s, and a lot of his solo stuff. I actually like it in small doses too (see “Wonderous Stories” on GftO for the smallest dose)
moraz is a funny duck
you can hear that to some extent in all the other Yes records in the 70s, and a lot of his solo stuff
I’ve been singing the praises of Olias Of Sunhillow for a long fucking time in the face of equal parts ridicule, blankness and bewilderment. Anderson was always the heart of Yes, while Squire was the gonads, Howe the voice, Wakeman the dick and Bruford the soul.
I’ve always loved “Wondrous Stories.” What else sounds like that? It’s a relatively straightforward (at least by Yes standards) pop song but I can’t really think of what it would be comparable to. Maybe CSNY for the vocal sound? But they don’t have that guitar or keyboard sound and the melody is probably too British or something.
you want to hear “Soon” and “To Be Over”
that is secretly true of everyone, it’s just that they don’t know it yet.
i would also add ‘Eclipse’ from “And You And I” to that list.
“Wondrous Stories” is gorgeous, Squire’s bass on this is so full and pushes the song along in a way that nobody else did until Peter Hook (let’s say.). Plus the vocal harmonies are sweet and Wakeman’s lines are bee-yoo-tiful.
Still don’t get all the “Relayer”/Moraz love on these Yes threads. If anything, that’s the most “let’s fill every inch of space” constipated sounding Yes music (before the Rabin years).
I know those tracks, of course, and I like them. I meant what else that’s not by Yes sounds like “Wondrous Stories” (though there’s a quality to WS that even those tracks don’t have for me.)
xpost Yes, Jay Vee has put his finger on part of it.
I’m beginning to reconsider 90125.
I said “Rabin years” even though there are things on 90125 that compare to the loveliness of classic Yes (i.e. “Hearts”, “Changes”). Though I wish Howe had played/soloed on them rather than Rabin.
I reckon ‘Wondrous Stories’ could without too much change have fitted onto one of XTC’s later albums. Or maybe an SFA record.
What XTC and SFA albums would be good starting points for this kind of thing?
(SFA = Super Furry Animals, right? I’m not sure I’ve heard an entire song by them. I like Welsh accents, though.)
BTW, I’ve been listening to Relayer and Going for the One all day because of this thread.
XTC = get NONSUCH, it’s one of the most criminally-underrated albums OF ALL TIME and it’s easily XTC’s best IMO. SFA is tougher. The comparison was essentially with SFA’s gentler, more balladic material, but the two albums reputed to display this the most (Phantom Power and Mwng) are the two I don’t have. I’d say the slower stuff on Radiator and Rings Around The World (both fantastic records) bears a certain (albeit far more oblique than XTC’s) resemblance.
Early Roxy Music as well, obv.
i was reading this article in vanity fair last nite about this crazy dude that used to manage steven soderbergh and now is a right wing wacko who made some kind of gonzo jackass agitprop iraq documentary....anyway, in there it mentions that soderbergh made YES documentary before sex lies & videotape...anyone seen it?