RUSH vs. YES vs. THE GRATEFUL DEAD

(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

oh wow... you could call this a lil bit cheesy

caught something about 'sailing a sea of light', which sounds about right. the bass and jangly guitar sound good, the slide-whistle synth and meditation chime not so much. also like the title "And You and I".

he sings like Sting, or Sting sings like him, or something. I like the vocal on this one a lot more.

both Yes and Rush went new wave pretty well

lifeson weirdly turned himself into one of the best post-punk guitarists

Dan made better and lasting-er music by focusing on studio technology instead of chops.

This sounds odd to me: Steely Dan were big on chops and Yes were big on studio technology.

was Nietzsche the inspiration for Yes's name? I am going to pretend this is true even if y'all tell me it's not

yeah watch the Aja behind the music and hear all about steely dan torturing the world's best session musicans

I love 90% of Rush's discography, scattered eras of the Dead's career, but only about 20% of Yes' oeuvre.

Dead. but i LOVE Yes (esp Yes Album through Close to the Edge), and really like some Rush.

multi-xp sund4r ya that didn't totally make sense—I am having a hard time getting at what I mean... "studio technology" was me thinking about the environment of the state-of-the-art multitrack studio, outsourcing the chops to session musicians, obsessing over every layer of recording that goes into the overall ~sonic canvas~ etc etc

i should prob listen to more Rush

okay I didn't even notice the break between tracks 2 & 3 obviously I am a bad listener. now the record has ended and Yo La Tengo is playing at my house

the dead x1m not even gonna read what all horrible people have said itt

tbh bernard i'd more recommend The Yes Album as an intro to Yes than Close to the Edge

^^this is otm

YES is a joyce reference iirc

"studio technology" was me thinking about the environment of the state-of-the-art multitrack studio, obsessing over every layer of recording that goes into the overall ~sonic canvas~ etc etc

I think this was very important to Yes, though! They were infamous for the truckloads of gear they'd have to bring on tour to try to reproduce the recorded sound. I actually think of them as a precursor to IDM in a weird way. Their aesthetic just wasn't naturalistic like Steely Dan's.

Sting sings like him

Agree with this.

"box of rain" is probably the best song of any of the bands in question overall

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, July 26, 2012 7:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd vote either "South Side of the Sky" or "Awaken". Plus there are much better Dead songs you could have picked as a candidate. And Lesh's singing on that song is abominable.

I voted Yes, but it was close between them and Rush. Docked Rush for post-Moving Pictures discography, which I know is popular on ILM for some reason.

Lesh's singing on "Box of Rain" suits the lyric beautifully - Xgau's take on that era of the Dead is otm, "pretty" singing would do a disservice to the songs: "Of course they don't sing as pretty as CSNY--prettiness would trivialize these songs." Tho then that was his Workingman's review, by the time of Beauty he thinks they're singing sweeter

I love 90% of Rush's discography, scattered eras of the Dead's career, but only about 20% of Yes' oeuvre.

This sounds about right for me, too, except that my tolerance for even the Dead I enjoy is oddly low. I just can't listen to the band for more than 30 minutes, max, which is a bit of an impasse. Which maybe pushes me closer to the 90/20/20%. Though come to think of it, there is no Dead that I outright love. To me they're like ... fiber. Sometimes you just need it.

(Note: I don't do drugs, and never went through a drugs n Dead phase: anyone out there actively listen to the Dead from a more or less exclusively sober perspective?)

Drugs don't factor into it for me. There are so many bands that are better to listen to high.

I mean, I need to qualify that and say that I used to listen to the Dead high a lot back when I was doing that, and they were often great to listen to in altered states. On their best days at least, they made a real effort to being attuned to their audience.

Lesh's singing on "Box of Rain" suits the lyric beautifully

^we'll agree to disagree. Plus i am not a big fan of the song, it's pretty corny.

Drugs don't factor into it for me. There are so many bands that are better to listen to high.

― how's life, Friday, July 27, 2012 9:49 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think all these bands are pretty good to listen to high. Then again, what isnt.

hookers screaming

I often disliked media consumption of any sort (music, movies, tv, books) when on acid.

hookers screaming

― Mr. Que, Friday, July 27, 2012 9:57 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nahh, you're mother was pretty tuneful, actually.

I would totally watch a sitcom with you guys as stars

there would only be one hooker joke a week, but it would be a good one

the one time i tried to put the dead on while high i got shouted down. i have listened them for stretches of 2-3 days while sober, though.

this is sort of herman's hermits vs manfred mann vs the beatles

i'm sure scott seward or someone would go 'but that first earth band record just blows the beatles out of the water' but that still kind of works

'box of rain' is interesting - there's all kinds of cheap inversions, omissions to pad the meter ("thoughts unclear", "look into any eyes", seriously "look into any eyes") and on one level it seems kind of boilerplate hippy almost-philosophy, and on another somehow it manages to achieve actual beauty. it feels oddly vindicated by context, history, these worn-out singers who would spend much of the rest of their lives attempting to prolong the 60s. -- the folk couplet quoted at the end is a stroke of total genius, in this or whatever context.

Yes, because The Yes Album, Close To The Edge, and Fragile are 3 of my all-time favorites.

I have mad respect for RUSH, and love 2112, plus a bunch of their other songs.

I think I only know about 10 Dead tunes.

okay I am listening to "Box of Rain" right now and it's mostly inoffensive in its component parts, but for some reason all of them working together are making me want to claw my ears off

I think at this point I am just irrevocably prejudiced against The Grateful Dead

did Yes ever write a lyric as rad as "cool and remote like dancing girls"?

No.

But I mean, I kind of weirdly admire stuff like "Sharp! Distance! How can the wind with its arms all around me?" Stick it to semantics, man.

I like all 3 but the Dead by several million light years