RUSH vs. YES vs. THE GRATEFUL DEAD

Olsen produced Fleetwood Mac too; I imagine there was a huge difference in those two work environments.

He was also the bass player in the Music Machine!

bill magill, you should only post about things you notice when listening to music while high

― thomp, Friday, July 27, 2012 3:44 PM (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this should be its own thread

the bass drum pedal on Tony Williams' Emergency album is really squeaky.
i've noticed this too! i don't think i was high on anything. except life.

― tylerw, Friday, July 27, 2012 3:54 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ditto. I find it endearing, though. (the squeak, not the fact that you were high on life) (ok, that's endearing too)

Terrapin Station the album is 35 years old today fwiw.

Dead, no contest. Like Yes a lot. Rush kinda creeps me out for some reason, in the same way Marillion does.

It is interesting to me the three very different approaches these bands have to making music. Rush is hyper-arranged, then immutable. Yes changes and shifts a little based on who is in the band at any given time, but even the long songs are very thought out; Yes doesn't jam (afaik). The Dead, on the other hand, is the opposite of immutable and highly reflective of who is in the band at any given time.

The Dead, on the other hand, is the opposite of immutable and highly reflective of who is in the band at any given time

Think this applies to Yes just as much.

This isn't even a contest.

RUSH.

rush. tons of great songs & albums. yes a close second. their best moments arguably eclipse rush's, but i'm less often in the mood, and they're sometimes unforgivably schmaltzy. dead in third, but i don't hate them. like their more concise and folky stuff quite a bit.

their best moments arguably eclipse rush's

thats my basic criterria tho

yeah, yes's POX wipes the floor with rush

rush. tons of great songs & albums. yes a close second. their best moments arguably eclipse rush's

This is why it's hard for me to choose.

Have you heard "Terrapin Station," Sund4r? It has the Martyn Ford Orchestra and a choir.

I haven't.

Sounds pretty good.

Dead easy. But I am on the lookout for awesome Yes t-shirts always.

Dead for me too, no question, though I don't really care for them live. I've never cared at all for Yes or Rush.

I like Yes. They're a good band and I listen to them time to time. Never got into Rush. The Dead are seriously alltime greatest top 10 material for me. I will go through periods where all I want to listen to is the dead. I am a big fan of their studio work & their live work up thru the late seventies. I actually haven't heard much eighties dead. What is the best stuff?

dick's picks obv

yes, because the yes album is brushing top 10 all time for me.

I actually haven't heard much eighties dead. What is the best stuff?

Reckoning from 81 is great.

I have a real soft spot for Without a net from 1990 as well.

i do have and enjoy reckoning! don't think i know without a net. will keep my eyes peeled.

yes > rush > who even listens to the grateful dead?

Ian, one of my favorite official releases of 80s dead is Dozin' at the Knick. It comes from the spring 1990 run, which is seen by a lot of people as a high water mark of consistency and renewed passion for the band. I like this release best because it features 4 great renditions of Brent Mydland tunes. Brent died that summer, after which everything really went to shit, not counting the brief period with Bruce Hornsby.

There were a lot of good 80s shows though, even though it wasn't a consistent decade. 1983 Merriweather Post Pavillion is real hot and toasty.

was just thinking about Dozin' at the Knick earlier. yeah, it's a good place to start for late Brent

I still say the anal-retentive perfection (or at least precision) of Yes and Rush is the polar opposite of the devil may care Dead. The former two don't jam at all, even when they stretch out. Like, every second of "Heart of the Sunrise" is mapped out, you know? Even the spacey breakdown.

Anyway, Rush excels at distilling its sound and ideas down to four minutes. Yes excels at stretching its sound and ideas to, I dunno, eight (but frequently goes too far for said ideas to support, imo). The Dead excels at stretching slight ideas out to, like, a career. Which is sort of cool, I guess - languid country-rock/bluegrass tropes transmuted from taut genre exercises to shambling whatever it is the Dead does, exactly. I suppose I prefer to more concrete virtuosity of, say, Fairport Convention.

I still say the anal-retentive perfection (or at least precision) of Yes and Rush is the polar opposite of the devil may care Dead.

OTM. Why I thought Zappa was a better comparison.

Anyway, I'm voting for Yes in the end.

Side 1 of Moving Pictures made it really tough though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAvQSkK8Z8U

The former two don't jam at all, even when they stretch out.

Alex Lifeson has said that, when playing live, he tries to re-create his recorded solos as faithfully as possible. This stems from how disappointed he was when he saw Cream as a teenager and the solos were different from those on the records.

I've gone through phases with Rush and the Dead, but I've listened to Yes consistently since I was a classic rock loving teen and I still get disproportionately excited when the bass comes in in Roundabout.

― ms. cookie (carl agatha), Thursday, 26 July 2012 23:00 (2 days ago)
OK fair enough, I'd forgotten that I do kind of love this song. Me plus the rest of the worlds and its dog obvs, but hey I now have something nice to say about Yes.

Maybe I should give the Fragile album another try, but I remember the rest of it being a real let-down after Roundabout.

Long Distance Runaround! Heart of the Sunrise!

I only really wholeheartedly love two Yes albums, but if Squire was not in the mix even those I probably couldn't stand.

Had a listen via the wonders of youtube, and yeah parts of Heart of the Sunrise are kind of a jam. The rest in between Roundabout and Sunrise didn't do much for me though.
Prog is just one of my last big blindspots I guess, and god knows I've tried with it. But then again up until a few years ago I felt the same about 60s psych and now I love it, so you never know, it may click some time in the future.

"South Side of the Sun" (the loud parts, anyway) totally swings.

Sun Sky

These three bands have three of the most talented bassists ever

yeah nowadays i feel like its all about the drummer

a lot of bassists nowadays might as well be playing bongos

:(

Meltzer on "Terrapin Station" - "Whole thing may seem a little excruciatingly over-melodious at first but once again the Dead (famous as hell in the past for their official acts of musical courage) have done it, journeyed into a genre that was there to be stripmined all along only nobody had the balls to tackle the project: kiddie swashbuckler soundtrack music!"

lol

that's like my standard judo-dis of tom waits

"Over-melodious"!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Richard_Meltzer.jpg

dude looks like he knows from swashbucklers.

Looking forward to seeing Yes tomorrow night, i've never seen them in concert.

Rush and it's not even close, though I do like Yes.

Yes's new album had at least one dece song on it: Into the Storm

Looking forward to seeing Yes tomorrow night, i've never seen them in concert.

No Jon Anderson, no Rick Wakeman, no cred. You're going to see something awfully close to Yes, but Squire and Howe alone do not bridge the gap, especially, when there are a couple of key members sitting it out by choice.