TS: Yes Vs. Genesis

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Drama is amazing. The odd one out there is "Perpetual Change" for the silliness of the Vegas cabaret chorus. Excluding Drama I'll give you ten post-80 Yes songs

"Cinema/Leave It"
"Holding On"
"Homeworld"
"New Languages"
"Changes"
"Real Love"
"To Be Alive"
"Hearts"
"Without Hope You Cannot Start the Day"
"It Can Happen"

― art of the hunger, Saturday, 20 November 2004 03:39 (nineteen years ago) link

they are the same band
has anyone seen these two bands together ?

― phil banks, Saturday, 20 November 2004 03:43 (nineteen years ago) link

"Drama" was a great lost Yes album. Even without Jon Anderson nor Rick Wakeman in their lineup.

Oh hells yeah!

DRAMA by Yes: Lost Classic or Justified Dud?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 20 November 2004 04:05 (nineteen years ago) link

I would say ""Drama" was a great lost Yes album. BECAUSE it had neither Jon Anderson nor Rick Wakeman in their lineup"

― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 20 November 2004 04:10 (nineteen years ago) link

why late at night in the u.s. does ilm get all yessed out

― thread searcher, Saturday, 20 November 2004 04:44 (nineteen years ago) link

i have the bootleg live video of genesis in 1972 in Oxford and they were like the coolest thing ever. I don't think anyone could pull off that makeup and a bat-wing mask these days and make it look so fucking fun (tribute bands put aside).

― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 20 November 2004 04:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Genesis has never been covered by Robert Downey Jr. Advantage, Yes.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 20 November 2004 06:16 (nineteen years ago) link

In high school Yes was my #1 band, but Relayer was the last LP I liked. The year punk broke for me was '75, with Patti Smith, and I stopped listening to most of the prog I had liked. Now I'd have to say I like Genesis more (Selling England By The Pound and LLDOB are the only two I own). They just seem to have more content without having to beat you over the head with their ideas. I'm a little bit surprised at all the love Yes get here on ILM, and when I read the Yes love at work I always mean to crack out the LPs but by the time I get home I've lost the impetus.

― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 20 November 2004 06:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Funny. In high school The Velvet Underground was my #1 band, but Lou Reed solo is really kind of a drag sometimes. The year music broke for me was 91 or 92 whatever year Nevermind came out, and I realized how much I listened to bands I thought cool people listened to, or at least cool layworthy girls listened to, and how little I listened to bands I felt passionate about. So I went back and started listening to Fragile again. I still like The Velvet Underground by the way.

― another wagoneer, Saturday, 20 November 2004 06:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes released Yessongs, that's a triple vinyl album! Genesis Wins!

― Andrzej B. (Andrzej B.), Saturday, 20 November 2004 14:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes up to 1977 >>>> Genesis up to 1977 >>>>>>>> Yes 1977 onwards >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Genesis 1977 onwards

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Saturday, 20 November 2004 18:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Genesis, but just because Gabriel chose to write about something halfway interesting on their greatest song, "The Battle of Epping Forest." And "Selling England by the Pound" is the greatest of all prog-rock albums, I think. But you know, do I ever want to hear "Watcher of the Skies" or "Supper's Ready" ever again? No. Or any of their other early stuff. There are few things on "Lamb Lies Down" that are cool. I don't mind "Trick of the Tail" or "Wind and Wuthering" all that much, they're nice AOR prog and not terrible, listenable.

But Yes did more good stuff on balance, I'd say. "America," a couple-three things from those first two albums, "Starship Troopers," "Yours Is No Disgrace" and "Your Move"/"All Good People" from "Yes Album." "Roundabout" and Heart of the Sunrise" from "Fragile." "Sibertian Khatru" from "Close to the Edge." "Owner of a Lonely Heart." That'd make a decent one-disc best-of padded out with some stuff from that first 3-disc live album, which has its moments for sure. So, more good songs Yes, more actual "content" and "fairly coherent worldview" and "edge" Genesis.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 20 November 2004 18:22 (nineteen years ago) link

On the whole, I like Yes' '70's records better. I think they were a better-sounbding band, up till "the lamb.." anyway. I listen to old Yes records more than I listen to old Genesis records. But, I really really like "Nursery Cryme", I think it's one of the best of all records, so perhaps I'll pick Genesis.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 20 November 2004 18:34 (nineteen years ago) link

I never listened to Genesis; do Genesis like wizards as much as Yes does? I love Yes.

― Ian John50n (orion), Saturday, 20 November 2004 18:40 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't recall Yes ever going on about wizards! Jon Anderson's lyrics = inpenetrable gibberish - he picked words b/c they sounded good w/the music rather than b/c they meant anything IIRC. Check out "Nursery Cryme" and "Selling England by the Pound" and that'll give you an idea of what the peter gabriel fronted genesis lineup sounded like - "Nursery Cryme" = thin-sounding, band overreaching their abilities, "Selling England..." = what they sounded like when their abilities caught up w/their ideas.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 20 November 2004 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Rick Wakeman Vs. Phil Collins: Who's the bigger twat? (both are Tories, by the way)

― Wooden (Wooden), Saturday, 20 November 2004 18:50 (nineteen years ago) link

That thin sound on Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot is part of their charm tho. It's got a lot to do with the Mellotron, which always sounds to me like an old 78rpm recording of a violin section playing on a hand-cranked gramophone that's constantly winding down. Coupled with the Victoriana of songs like "Musical Box" and "Hogweed" it helps to create the sensation of a sunlit and dusty attic full of decaying toys - twee but somehow creepy or melancholy or scary.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 20 November 2004 19:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Collins was a better drummer, at his best than wakeman has ever been as a keyboard player. Twattishness or toryism (collins i know about, wakeman's i have seen no evidence of) is kind of irrelevant to me TBH. I want to listen to the records, not socialise w/the fux0rz.

(x-post, yeah, that's a big part of why I like them.)

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 20 November 2004 19:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Genesis didn't do much wizardwise after the second album; from there on out it was mostly abstract sub-Modernist poetry. The best non-Gabriel thing any of them ever did (besides Phil drumming for Eno, Mike + The Mechanics, Project X, and the first two Phil pop albums (there, I said it)) is the extremely wizardhappy first solo album by Steve Hackett--Voyage of the Acolyte. That's one worth hearing.

― Flash2Time, Saturday, 20 November 2004 19:11 (nineteen years ago) link

"A Trick Of The Tail", even without Peter Gabriel, is up there with the best of what they did with Gabriel singing. And "Wind And Wuthering" is not far behind.

It wasn't until Phil Collins was allowed to become the main songwriter that they lost it.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 20 November 2004 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link

noodle vague, I love your description of Nursery Cryme and its atmosphere/sound.

As for the question, I'd go with Yes, which surprises me, since in my mind Yes are the slightly colder/more rarefied band emotionally, and given a choice, I generally go for the warmer/more melancholy/twee.

But it's a tough call, given many of the songs already cited, and I really don't like either band much after approx. 1980.

― David A. (Davant), Sunday, 21 November 2004 01:30 (nineteen years ago) link

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