RUSH vs. YES vs. THE GRATEFUL DEAD

sorry that should have said deerhunter and ruins

the middle is like gong ft dennis wilson

This poll is really hard for me! Also not that fair since I know Rush and Yes much better than the Dead. I could only really click with the Dead once I got over my young country music-hate. Anthem of the Sun is amazingly great.

Yes's large-scale compositions are much better than Rush's and go to places that no other rock bands really go to for me. Rush do some dazzling things with instrumental interplay within rock songs (and have to be the only band to play in Locrian mode on a radio hit). Rush still make some good music while Yes lose me after Going for the One.

xposts

Not saying that this automatically makes his lyrics better but that I don't find him odious, philosophically.

I'll go further: I find him most interesting philosophically of these lyricists. The stances he takes are part of the appeal of Rush for me.

this version does get pretty tedious around 8 min though compared to the studio version which also pushes it

Fragile version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDqG9agd5wc

So much better with Bruford.

He's been really clear that his youthful interest in Rand (assuming that's what you're referring to) came largely out of naivete and an attraction to the ideas pertaining to creative freedom and freedom of thought, that if he's a libertarian, he's a 'bleeding heart' or 'left-wing libertarian'. (While he rarely talks about it, the atheism is also a core lyrical theme.) Unlike Yes or anything I've heard by the Dead, he actually articulates a coherent philosophy and takes coherent, non-obvious political stances in his lyrics: against the Bush administration, against censorship, about the environment, about gay rights, even about homogenized corporate radio formatting. Not saying that this automatically makes his lyrics better but that I don't find him odious, philosophically.

well to be honest the whole of my deeper engagement with/close readings of Peart's lyrics is 1) "The Trees" and 2) "The Spirit of Radio," both of which are so terrible that I just feel a need to clown him when the opportunity arises

Hunter isn't as great as his partisans would have you believe, but there are many songs in the Dead's catalog that any lyricist would be happy to call his own. Jon Anderson's lyrics are some of the funniest bad poetry anywhere imo

Is the mountains come out of the sky part about rug munchin?

what about starship trooper

lonely guy just thinking baout thing

lone li NESSSSS
is a part that WEEEE
posSESSSS
to give or take away
FOREEVEEEEEEEEERR

then he does the consciousness poll thread for three verses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jhk5MEugJY

that's at around 3 mins in

Yes's large-scale compositions are much better than Rush's

I was thinking here of tracks that are over 15 min long. Rush does pretty well with 7-11 min tracks.

xposts

early beardo disco at 6 mins in

channelling the entirety of rock and roll at 8 mins

this is like arguing about who's better than wagner guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taB3U0b9zdA

well to be honest the whole of my deeper engagement with/close readings of Peart's lyrics is 1) "The Trees" and 2) "The Spirit of Radio," both of which are so terrible that I just feel a need to clown him when the opportunity arises

Hunter isn't as great as his partisans would have you believe, but there are many songs in the Dead's catalog that any lyricist would be happy to call his own. Jon Anderson's lyrics are some of the funniest bad poetry anywhere imo

I can see "The Trees" being odious but I like "The Spirit of Radio" well enough.

I never really think of Anderson's lyrics as poetry, and I'm not sure that was his intention. Most of the time, he just seems to be using English words as phonemes, as far as I can tell.

I don't know Dead lyrics much at all, really.

aw <3

that movie clip is the appeal of this music in a nutshell

Balls OTM
xpost

also rush vs yes

which would rufus pick

also who would be better in a potential supergroup with peter frampton

(Brahms over Wagner btw)

also who would be better in a potential supergroup with peter frampton

Oh, well, this is Rush, no contest.

listening to the yes album

at around 4:50 they invent Shellac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFOOQ8e5J3A

needs more grandeur sund4r less elegance

or at least grandiosity

Fair point.

referring to brahms btw

Yeah

I really wanted a ship so I could call it "The Rocinante"

― keeping things contextual (DJP), Thursday, July 26, 2012 8:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes's large-scale compositions are much better than Rush's

I was thinking here of tracks that are over 15 min long. Rush does pretty well with 7-11 min tracks.

btw this thread has resulted in me downloading "Close to the Edge"—STAY TUNED for some raw unfiltered first impressions -)

Rush only has what, 3 songs over 15 minutes? It's not their thing, but "2112" and the first side of Hemispheres are solid. "The Fountain Of Lamneth", not so much.

xpost yes album and the fragile are worth a listen too

yeah the first side of hemispheres is the big cygnus x-ii suite right?

i brought up frampton because if you add frampton and zeppelin to the list on this thread it's like everyone's older brothers "go down to the canyon by the beach" music

yes, Cygnus is the first side.

peak material

i brought up frampton because if you add frampton and zeppelin to the list on this thread it's like everyone's older brothers "go down to the canyon by the beach" music

brb making this movie

The day the Circus of Heaven came to town
Local folks lined the streets in a Midwestern town
Waiting anxiously for the parade to begin all round
On the very last day

A Unicorn headed the Mystical way
Surrounded by what seemed a thousand golden angels at play
Behind were Centaurs, elves, bright fairies all in colours of Jade
On the very final day

For what seemed only just a moment in time
Seven solemn flying silvered regal horses rode by
Seven golden chariots in tow, a wonder to behold
The Seven Lords of the Mountains of time
There then arose where nothing really stood there before
A giant tent rising one thousand feet high from the floor
Towns people flocked inside with their eyes all amazed
To greet the Seventh Lord of the Seventh age
A fanfare rang out in an incredible sound
Bringing out the strangest visions perfect harmony round
Any dreams he asked would they like to have seen
From historical or mythical scenes

Then there above their heads just as vivid as life
Each vision transported in multitudes inventing light
Grecian galleons, The Sack of Troy, to the Gardens of Babylon
A play of millions roared along
The gigantic dreams of Alexander the Great
Civil wars where brothers fought and killed their friendship in hate
All seen by Zeus performing scenes of the magical way
The day the circus came to town

Outside great animals as tame as the trees
Angels high in starlight dancing streets
Tuning their colours with indigo and gold
Dropping violet, red and emerald snow
As the circus finally changed its invisible course
A new world to be found

On the dreamy ground we walked upon
I turned to my son and said
"Was that something beautiful, amazing, wonderful, extraordinary beautiful?"
"Oh! it was OK!! But there were no clowns, no tigers, lions or bears,
candy-floss, toffee apples, no clowns."

VS

Like a shipwrecked mariner adrift on an unknown sea
Clinging to the wreckage of the lost ship Fantasy
I'm a castaway, stranded in a desolate land
I can see the footprints in the virtual sand

Net boy, net girl
Send your signal 'round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free

Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse 'round the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea

Astronauts in the weightlessness of pixellated space
Exchange graffiti with a disembodied race
I can save the universe in a grain of sand
I can hold the future in my virtual hand

Let's dance tonight
To a virtual song
Press this key
And you can play along

Let's fly tonight
On our virtual wings
Press this key
To see amazing things

Like a pair of vagabonds who wave between two passing trains
Or the glimpse of a woman's smile through a window in the rain
I can smell her perfume, I can taste her lips
I can feel the voltage from her fingertips

Net boy, net girl
Send your heartbeat round the world

VS

couldn't tell you the Dead's worst lyric, surely can't be worse than either of those

to seek the sacred river alph
and drink the milk of paradise?

contender for worst dead lyric:

Still got to work that eight hour day
Whether you like that job or not
You'd better keep it on ice while you're lining up your long shot

Which is to say, hey hey, keep your day job
Don't give it away, keep your day job, whatever they say
Keep your day job 'till your night job pays.

Steady boys starting that eight day hour
Never underrate that paycheck power
By now you know that the face on your dollar
Got a thumb on its nose and a hand on your collar
With a chance to say, hey hey, keep your day job....

Daddy may drive a V-8 'Vette
Mama may bathe in champagne yet
God bless the child that's got his own stash
Nine to five and a place to crash
which is to say...
Sunday comes forget about work, Ring that bell for whatever it's worth.
If you ask me like I know you won't
I'll tell you what to do what I know that you won't.

Rush only has what, 3 songs over 15 minutes? It's not their thing, but "2112" and the first side of Hemispheres are solid. "The Fountain Of Lamneth", not so much.

Yeah, I just don't think those are as good as "Close to the Edge" or "Awaken".

(esp "Close to the Edge", really)

I'd take "2112" over "Close To The Edge", but not by much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX9YhX8acvc

Yes has many great tracks from their classic years but have been very uneven since. Rush has continually made great songs for a very long time.

Here's a great lost classic from 1984:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVAKnGMc6WY&list=AL94UKMTqg-9CocLGbd6tpbuQRxyF4FGNr&index=10&feature=plcp

uh, that wasn't what I was expecting to show up...

Let's try that again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVAKnGMc6WY

finally finished downloading—good lord, that took a long time! (possible foreshadowing of listening experience???)

initially worried I had gotten a corrupted file. then realized that no, there are only 3 tracks.

better go 'head and use the restroom now, boys—you won't get another chance for a while

first 'AAAAAA!' in "Close to the Edge" got a lol from me—second made my heart flutter a little bit

I can see what would drive someone to write and play this kind of music, but find the lack of dynamic and textural range kind of monotonous

the groove they settle into is nice tho. tres smooth. reminds me of Steely Dan in a weird way (maybe just "lol the 70s"). but I think the Dan made better and lasting-er music by focusing on studio technology instead of chops.

the instrumental (synth strings + sitary guitar) ~halfway thru is pretty. now they're singing and I'm like, whatever, I'm over it. is he saying "I get up to get down"? lol

only 2 1/2 minutes left now—truly, I am 'close to the edge'. vocals are back and I am as happy about that as I'm ever gonna be. pretty much the only memorable snatch of melody&lyrics I can recall = "close to the edge, down by the river". now, on to side B!

this is pretty chill, I'm glad they're not playing annoying jazz-fusion anymore