yes FRAGILE

What is the point of this funk?

smdh

am I Geir now

Yeah, I don't really agree with "no movement, no variation" when we're talking about example 11 here. (Whole article analysing scalar relationships in Yes songs here.) It begins with a beatless passage based on backwards piano and fingerpicked guitar, moves into a light funky groove for the verses, switches up to a choppy rock riff in the relative major for the choruses, passes through contrasting interludes and solos and gives you a polyphonic layered vocal coda before closing with more folky fingerpicking - and yet, it all flows so smoothly and never feels like it actually takes up 8 and a half minutes to me. xps

I love loads of funky Yes and Chris Squire is some kind of insane music hero but the notes, chords and modulations used in Roundabout don't excite me and it doesn't exude the party-jam hedonism of Parliament so my poor aspie brain doesn't know how to interpret it and here we all are

look closer, louis, hold the land

otoh I listened to loads of Yes today and now I like the GFTO title track about 10% more

have you tried playing roundabout louder

Yeah, "Roundabout" is more straightforward than other Yes epics in harmonic and melodic terms and it's more about putting a groove behind Beatlesque prettiness than about party-jam hedonism so, yeah, maybe not your thing. xp

have you tried playing roundabout louder

― j., Thursday, April 19, 2018 8:01 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i listened to 'roundabout' the other day and was surprised at how much it reminded me of jefferson airplane

i'd suggest looking up a live video, that way even if the song still doesn't appeal to you, you can still appreciate steve howe and his incredible facial expressions (also pretty good guitar playing)

I thought a bit of Yes when I first heard Red Octopus. xp

guys "Long Distance Runaround" and "The Fish" are the same track, this is canon

i listened to 'roundabout' the other day and was surprised at how much it reminded me of jefferson airplane

also i just had the funny thought that Yes and JA kind of have the same name, but i am a bit high on meds right now

the jon anderson airplane -- sherman "mr. jefferson" hemsley's favorite band

“Funky”...”straightforward”...this is not why I put on Yes

guys "Long Distance Runaround" and "The Fish" are the same track, this is canon

One of very few examples where I edited the two files together in my iTunes so that they always come up together, as was intended.

yeah it's disorienting on the radio when LDR ends and The Fish doesn't pop up next

classic rock radio blew it imho by never much playing the live "fish" on yessongs

"Roundabout" is only straightforward in comparison to other Yes epics!

And it wasn't a contender for my vote tbc; I just think of it as a classic. Part of it is probably just growing up with it as a classic rock staple (at least on my local station) and it being the first Yes song I ever heard.

I never heard Runaround/The Fish together on FM radio. Maybe the program directors were like, "Look, we already played one Yes song, all right?"

"Roundabout" is only straightforward in comparison to other Yes epics!

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Thursday, April 19, 2018 11:34 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously

it's an 8 and a half minute jam that managed to worm its way onto regular radio rotation cause of the sheer undeniability of its plentiful hooks

Hey everyone. So this is a thing I do with my life now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ospDSOyjuC4

perfect!

all clear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKI0d6TMlhM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Fb-9-JM8Q

I have been avoiding this poll because of the difficulty.
Like seriously... who here thinks it's an easy choice?

I went for the one that gets stuck in my head the most!

"crazy on you" live performances going from "clap" to the "roundabout" intro rule

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/hearts-ann-and-nancy-wilson-our-life-in-15-songs-20160712/crazy-on-you-1975-20160711

24 before my love and i'll be there

I have been avoiding this poll because of the difficulty.
Like seriously... who here thinks it's an easy choice?

― He said captain, I said wot (FlopsyDuck), Monday, April 23, 2018 6:41 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me, heart of the sunrise

"Like, this is the Heart Of The Sunrise EP as far as I'm concerned. Makes total sense that these were CTTE castoffs"

CTTE came after this album. what is this rubbish?

Yes was so ahead of its time, so progressive, it released outtakes from Close to the Edge before it released the album.

Heart of the Sunrise was my favorite around the time I last listened to this album. It's been a while.

I feel like I might have new ears for the next Fragile listen. Two of my favorites from when I first heard the album (20 years ago perhaps) were Mood For A Day and We Have Heaven. After recently hearing South Side Of The Sky and Long Distance Runaround on the radio I was amazed partially because of the context: they were radio songs to be compared to other radio songs. The mix of complexity and radio-friendliness seemed to elevate these tracks to new heights.

iirc they were working on both albums at the same time but they had some stuff that was easier and some stuff they realised was gonna take some work so they released the easy stuff first cos you know it had been MONTHS since the yes album and everyone was impatient

Okay, I've started my new listening sessions.

I'm going with the deluxe remastered version youtube playlist. Roundabout makes great use of separate channels - I was not expecting such a major improvement!

My next listen session will involve headphones when I'm not at work.

I'm skimming RYM reviews for the deluxe remastered version and I was presented with these tidbits:

"This album was an experiment to see what kind music each member would write on their own. They did this by writing four songs together as a group and five as individual members... Cans and Brahms was made by Wakeman as a cover of a Brahms symphony only because his contract said that he could not write original solo music. He said himself that the song was horrible. " har, har

One thing about Long Distance Runaround that has always confused me a bit: the opening riff doesn’t remotely sound like something Jon Anderson would’ve come up with on his own. There’s just way too much counterpoint and rhythmic tomfoolery. And yet, he’s credited as the sole composer.

Have Howe or Wakeman (or Squire I suppose) ever talked about this? While no one would doubt that Jon would’ve done something like We Have Heaven himself, I have to imagine LDR was something of an uncredited collaboration.

My guess is the bass is up so loud in the mix that it probably creates a false impression of a complicated chord progression, which I don’t think it is

Maybe Anderson was credited because he wrote the lyrics and top-line melody? I doubt that he wrote the bass or drum lines.

yeah, if anderson was responsible for the melody, chords, and lyrics, then he wrote the song, from a legal standpoint. the performance and rhythmic elements don't enter into the copyright of the composition.

Sometimes who gets credit for a song is just whatever a band agrees on. Sometimes it's even decided by coercion or dishonesty.

yea I remember Mike Doughty writing a lot about that in his book. even though the recordings were clearly a band effort with rhythms that Doughty couldn't have come up with, technically all you really need to do is write the melody and the lyrics to get the sole credit. it's weird.

melody and lyrics are the song :)

Cowbells also

Yes seem to usually have pretty accurate credits. Sometimes, sure, they credit one guy for a song that clearly has some work done by other guys (like on Going for the One, which has two songs by Anderson alone and one by Squire). And I’m sure they fought over that stuff like a lot of bands, since publishing is a huge source of how these guys make money.

But even still, LDR sticks out. In part because that riff isn’t just some insignificant little thing or even a secondary melody. It’s the hook in the song. I have no doubt Anderson wrote the melody and lyrics – probably on piano. But without that riff, it’s not the same song. And it’s not really a Yes classic.

Hope you guys aren't sleeping on Chris Squire's Fish Out Of Water. The first three tracks (essentially forming one piece) are fucking dynamite. Shame you cant find it as easily as the early Anderson and Wakeman albums.

Was actually praise from Mark Eitzel that got me to hurry up on that album. I think Eitzel might even have been a big reason for me to try out Yes when I was still scared of the unfashionableness of them over a decade ago.
Eitzel said that Squire was the only member who shook his hand and maybe the "HOOOOOLD OUT YOUR HAND!" from Fish Out Of Water seemed extra special when he was a young Yes fan.