RUSH vs. YES vs. THE GRATEFUL DEAD

I'm happy to say ive never had the pleasure of seeing any of those 43 guitars!

Howe may look funny, but he is so fucking good.

Oh yeah, I mean Relayer is a 2 and a half star record without Howe and like 4 and a half stars with him

Oh I like Howe. I like Tomorrow! My White Bicycle is a freakbeat fave.

new Rush album is 99 cents on Amazon MP3 today

I would say Yes > Rush > a lot of bands I don't listen to at all including the Grateful Dead

Yes imo just writes better melodies, has better singing. Yes could sound like the Beatles at points, and Henry Cow at others, and Rush never had that kind of range, even in their mid-70s, early 80s glory years. Rush probably does maintain a more consistent level of quality from album to album, but also can be a lot blander.

I suppose I can agree with that. Consistency vs. range. I guess one larger problem I have with Yes is that they can be both pretentious and dopey, whereas Rush is usually at worst just the former. I get some unintentional "silly" vibes from Yes that I don't get from Rush.

This is as good as a time to recall one of the best one-line put downs I've ever heard, when my friend described a band as "kind of like Yes, but no."

Yes at its best is better than Rush or Grateful Dead at their best. Go buy another copy of Fragile... (seeds tend to bust up the spine)

did you Deadheads see this?

Spring 1990

Yeah, got the email about that from dead.net. As usual with this stuff, looks awesome, but so expensive.

the only version of the full "Hey Jude" the band attempted in the modern era
heard this and it is a treat. a terrible treat.

agree that yes's range is/was extremely broad, but they're only occasionally using that range in service of music i genuinely love. their best material is gorgeous, but i find a lot of their not-quite-best stuff far too cheezy and florid for my tastes, and i wish they were a bit more oriented towards singles and tunes. plus, they rarely kick as much ass as rush do on tracks like the 2112 suite and "YYZ".

i know it's heresy, but for me, yes's peak boils down to two solid albums: the yes album and fragile. close to the edge is fascinating, but i'm only occasionally up for it.

rush, when they're not at the top of their game, fall back on being a reliably solid hard rock band. yes, faltering, get lost in 20 minute orgies of rainbow-spangled new age carnival glop. i'll take the former.

you should hear the version of "Rainbow-Spangled New Age Carnival Glop" from 6/4/72 though mannn

rush hasn't done anything as bad as terrapin station or tales from topographic oceans, which i listened to for the first time this week and they are horrifying.

Ha, I like both. The stretch from The Yes Album through Going for the One is classic for me. Tales is easily my least favourite of those but I still like it. I just think of it as nice ambient fusion.

Yes could sound like the Beatles at points, and Henry Cow at others, and Rush never had that kind of range, even in their mid-70s, early 80s glory years. Rush probably does maintain a more consistent level of quality from album to album, but also can be a lot blander.

OTM. I've been listening to Relayer a lot recently, which gets into Henry Cow or Zappa territory, sort of like the evil twin of Close to the Edge.

the sad truth is that every day spent not listening to henry cow and frank zappa is a day in which i get to LIVE

i've never really considered Rush a prog band.

Yeah, I mean, there's nothing at all wrong with being a solid arty hard rock band that goes on forever. In fact, it's probably more admirable, as far as an overall career path is concerned. I just had to choose between Yes and Rush on some grounds and those were the factors that swayed me.

never?

Rush actually has all of its crucial members intact and a killer new album. Dead are dead and Yes is indeed no.

Pretty sure all the members of Yes are still alive and occasionally tour together...

Has any other band had the same members for as long as Rush? ZZ Top maybe?

man the Scarlet Begonias streaming at dead.net from that '90 box is awesome

"Scarlet Begonias" is so funky

I kinda love Terrapin Station. I even like Donna's song a lot.

Where do I find streaming music on dead.net?

you go and click on that spring 90 box set they're promoting. it looks like a dead indian guy. that takes you to a page w a 40-some minute sample that presumably includes a song called "scarlet begonias". i tried but couldn't hang, so i listened to the sublime version instead. they also seem to think it's pretty funky.

Ah, thanks.

oh no sublime!!

I even like Donna's song a lot.

^lol

Has any other band had the same members for as long as Rush? ZZ Top maybe?

I think a lot of people claim Golden Earring? ZZ Top has been together a while with no break. U2, of course. Aerosmith, I guess, but they took some time off that alas did not turn out to be the permanent vacation as promised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-UcVt6or6I&feature=fvwrel

xp: I used to hate this song, but now it feels to me like a better Jeff Airplane tune. Or a hippie James Bond.

ooh I do not care for that'n

Yes at its best is better than Rush or Grateful Dead at their best.

Bingo. I mean there's only one Close to the Edge, y'know?

Pretty sure all the members of Yes are still alive and occasionally tour together...

Yes to the former, not really the second point. Buford, who was key to their two untouchable records, hasn't toured with them since "Union" eons ago, and of course there have been line-ups sans Howe, sans Wakeman, sans everyone until, most recently, Anderson, with Squire the only original member in every line-up. And god knows the classic line-up hasn't recorded together in ages.

"he hums/there are drums" is a pretty terrible line though.

U2, of course.

U2's first album was 1983 or so, right? Rush has been together with Peart since what, 1975?

Oh, sure. It's just that the number of bands even as relatively young as U2 with their membership intact is pretty low. Just wanted to throw them in the mix. I mean, Rush, U2, ZZ Top and Golden Earring is a pretty short list!

(Regardless, U2 was together in the late '70s, first album well before 83. First release 79?)

Boy was fall of '80, unless it came out in UK earlier?

Formed in 1976

!

Maybe I was confusing U2 with REM??

REM is almost that old, too! Formed 1980.

REM has broken up and also changed line-ups at one point.

did you Deadheads see this?

Spring 1990

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, August 1, 2012 5:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm listening to 3/24/90 this morning (some of which is on Dozin' at the Knick, but the "Help/Slip/Frank" and "Loser" are not, and they are excellent this night. Brent helps this band in myriad ways. Between this and the first JGB (also recorded spring of '90) I've come to think this might be my favorite Dead-related era, probably some kind of hippie heresy.

REM has broken up and also changed line-ups at one point.

Really? When did this happen? You sure?

Sarcasm aside, I was responding to this:

Maybe I was confusing U2 with REM??

That is, even confusing U2 (which was mistakenly cited as starting in 1983) with REM, both formed a surprisingly long time ago, regardless of subsequent break-ups or line-up changes.

Yeah, I just read back in the thread. I missed a couple posts of context.

berry left in 97, and wiki says they called it quits last year

xxp

Their first album was released in 1983, which is what I was thinking of.

berry left in 97, and wiki says they called it quits last year

No, pretty sure the band has not broken up. Wiki is wrong. REM has definitely not broken up.