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

to have been in the audience for that close to the edge tour on mushrooms must have been a peak aesthetic experience, Was not on shrooms just then alas but a security guard opened the side door and motioned Tall Paul and me in---down a little hallway to the wings, where we heard bass & drums up front, though no prob w guitar, keys, helium vocals. Pretty great, and not to be anywhere near-replicated at home unless somebody trusted me w the EQ, and it would have to be a really good EQ. Even then, still not an impact equiv to live of course: nobody had speakers that good at home.

so I think the middle section in "Sound Chaser" and the ending of "Gates of Delirium" (the part before "Soon") are probably the two greatest prog instrumental jams of all time

I tend to agree, even though some shorter Van der Graaf Generator passages might come close. (I'm not counting post '72 King Crimson, as their instrumental jams, which are the greatest, don't register to me as "proggy".

Gates of Delirium maybe, I find the middle of Sound Chaser a little too oblique. Don't know whether you would consider the ending of Starless a "jam".

Just saw this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLMoLoGfjyQ

That is very well done as these things go.

Yes on stage at the Crystal Palace Bowl, London, UK, 1971 pic.twitter.com/Am0fDvUGS5

— Barney Hurley (@barneyhurley1) January 30, 2021

What is that keyboard pedalboard Squire is playing? It's too early to be a Taurus, I think.

He looks like a dr Seuss character

Big fan of Squire's foofy boots here.

I suspect the pedalboard doesn't actually work, he's just miming so that people pay more attention to the footwear.

What is that keyboard pedalboard Squire is playing? It's too early to be a Taurus, I think.

My keyboard guru got back in touch to tell me they seem to be a set of Dewtron Mr.Bassman pedals: https://www.matrixsynth.com/2013/10/early-1970s-dewtron-mister-bassman-bass.html

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

Ah, thanks. Why did Squire need a bass synth pedalboard? I get that Geddy Lee used them when he played keyboards.

They had a deep, well-rounded tonality, so good for punctuation in parallel with his handful-of-gravel-hitting-a-tin-bath bass sound, I imagine he probably didn't really need it once Wakeman moved in.

End of Starship Trooper for a start!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2DQua8h82M why is howe in the video?

Silly human race

that '71 concert includes the Paul Simon tune 'america' - love hearing little Jon sing about the New Jersey turnpike

the studio version of "America" is fantastic

did i dream that they once did a live version where they mashed up simon & garfunkel's "america" with west side story's "america"?

Maybe you're thinking about The Nice?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLVEIGsG1Og

yeah i think i mashed those two up in my mind. but there's a free idea for any enterprising band that wants it.

finally listening to Yesshows, I don't think I've ever actually heard this before. you know how copies of Yessongs & ELP's Welcome Back My Friends are always beat to shit? with Yesshows and ELP's In Concert it's the opposite, every copy I see looks pristine, which to me is a signal that the people who bought these listened to it once or twice before filing it away forever.

still, it's pretty good! "Gates", much like "Close to the Edge" on Yessongs, seems like something it would be impossible to do live. and despite being 10 minutes longer than the studio version I think "Ritual" absolves itself quite well, though it's pretty fucking endless ain't it?

"Ritual" is my least favourite side of Tales, the first side is wonderful and each subsequent one a little less so. I don't really want to hear extended bass solos even from Squire, never mind percussion improvisations.
I do appreciate that they didn't include any of the pieces they had already done on Yessongs, I'm glad they took pride in their more recent material (and "Time and a Word").

the percussion bit is pretty cool I think, even if only because it's something they'd never really done before. I think the live take injects far more energy. But it's not exactly Close to Close to the Edge

imo sides 1 & 4 of Tales are the best, though my favorite section is the amazing funky riff on side 2. side 3 I never remember a thing about other than it has a lot of Steve Howe licking the strings

guess what album turned 50 today. i'll give you a hint it has 5 guys standing around a chair and the first song is Yours Is No Disgrace

Oh nice, getting Yessed out to "Starship Trooper" rn. I'll be putting the LP on when cleaning the apartment tomorrow.

I just got my new turntable today I guess this is the first record I'm playing

Oh Yes. The Yes Album: possibly the most uplifting album I know of. So full of unbridled positive energy. I don't have it on vinyl and this is something I need to remedy ASAP

caesars' palace, frogbs' phono

shining flying purple bullfrogbs

Steve Howe is so good. he plays the guitar the way i would imagine a spider playing a guitar

Yes!

Currently wearing my XXL black Relayer sweatshirt

Silly human race

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Tuesday, April 28, 2020 11:27 PM (nine months ago)

In some ways their most impressive album, in that it's still very much rock music, but a completely fresh and wild take on it

hey frogbs how's it sounding? i've been spinning Olias Of Sunhillow and it is great when i'm in the right mood. i keep waiting for it to start.

Speaking of which:
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/jon-anderson-olias-of-sunhillow-2-disc-remastered-expanded-edition/

Released March 26, 2021

• A NEWLY REMASTERED & EXPANDED 2 DISC EDITION OF THE LEGENDARY 1976 SOLO ALBUM BY YES VOCALIST JON ANDERSON
• NEWLY REMASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES
• FEATURES A DVD WITH A HIGH RESOLUTION 96 kHz / 24-BIT REMASTER OF THE ORIGINAL STEREO MIX ALONG WITH A 5.1 SURROUND SOUND UP-MIX DERIVED FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES
• WITH FULLY RESTORED ARTWORK AND AN ESSAY WITH AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JON ANDERSON
• INCLUDES ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET WITH NEW ESSAY

Was it necessary for Yes to replace Kaye with Wakeman in order to achieve the level of commercial and musical success they did with Fragile?

I think Tony Kaye didn't like playing anything other than the Hammond, but by that time synthesizers and Mellotrons etc were all the rage so just sticking to the organ would have seemed a little dated. Plus Wakeman was a much better and more versatile musician.

Sure, but I get the impression some comments above are hinting that something was lost between The Yes Album and Fragile, and it's hard to pin that on anything other than Kaye's departure.

I don’t think Kaye’s presence made much of a huge musical difference. He was a fine player but I dunno... maybe their minds were expanding, musically, as a unit and someone as —um — expansive as Wakeman fit where they were headed much better than Kaye?

Wakeman brought a neoclassical flair to the band that made Fragile and later works possible, but this also diluted the rock elements that made Yes Album so effective. So I think it was necessary, but meant losing a more focused rock energy.

I'm not sure why Fragile is so inferior (imo) but it is. The songs just aren't nearly as strong. They were transitioning away from being a rock group into something else, and they rushed out their transitional album

Or what Moodles said

One listen to Kaye's post-Yes band Badger tells you where he was at musically, kind of blues prog. I don't think they'd have made Close to the Edge with him still there. Topographic Oceans neither, but that's another story.

The Yes Album and Fragile would both be much better with the shorter songs excised, other than Long Distance Runaround/The Fish.

Another way to look at is that Kaye was willing to chug away and let Howe take the lead. With Wakeman, you end up having two lead instrumental voices battling it out for space.

Do you mean "Clap" and "A Venture " from the Yes Album? Really disagree there.

Xp