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

The Yessongs versions of the Fragile/Close to the Edge songs have giant clanging balls compared to the studio versions, and it's because of White. And he had three days to learn the set list before the tour started!

alan white does a pretty good job for a guy who had to learn all these crazy difficult songs with limited-to-zero rehearsals

― covidiot wind, blowin every time you lift your mask (voodoo chili), Friday, October 16, 2020 10:31 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

what a guy, rip

sound chaser and especially awaken are two of the great prog songs and he played on both

played the hell out of them too

yeah I mean I love Bruford too but I thought White's less subtle/more powerful approach worked great

The Yessongs versions of the Fragile/Close to the Edge songs have giant clanging balls compared to the studio versions, and it's because of White.

― but also fuck you (unperson)

wait is this good? i mean, i know having a flaming gong is good, but i'm not sure if giant clanging balls are good or not.

Perhaps unperson was thinking of those crashing Chinese cymbals at the beginning of "The Ancient"?

When Bruford departed the group, Yes management gave his royalties from Close to the Edge to White, since Bruford would not be promoting the record. In recent years, White returned Bruford's royalties, which was a generous gesture (since, as people mention above, White had a lot of work to do on the tour).

back when you could actually earn decent money playing progressive rock!

always heard nice things about this guy. even in their later incarnations he seemed to be the one dude who just wanted to play the music.

not even waiting until late night, getting Yessed out right now. Going For The One

Ramshackled is way way down on my listening list.

If not now, when would I ever listen to this? Can it be worse than Story of I?

you can blame it on the butthole surfers to parter And all the sailors who were junkies, all
They all went sailing out to sea
And the white man sold quaaludes to the monkeys
And they all died high up in the trees

And all the teachers who were flunkies, now
They all taught you and me
And the goddamned white men still selling quaaludes to the monkeys
And they're all, you and me, dying high up in the trees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y__6zG-equE

back when you could actually earn decent money playing progressive rock!

― frogbs

Yessongs and Relayer are amazing. RIP.

okay, Relayer it is. see y'all in space

Gates of Delirium just rips my head off every time I hear it. its like the Sistine Chapel of spacey, slightly homoerotic prog music. Alan White...you can hear the joy in the drums. I love this music so much.

his playing on Sound Chaser is really great too. so he doesn't do those polyrhythms or subtle jazz tapping that Bruford does. he still just rides on the cymbals and grounds the track from flying off into outer space

yeah he does an admirable job of tying that chaos together

I'm not a drum fill expert, but I think of Bruford as subdividing the individual measures into weird offbeats, and White going over the bar lines and doing longer and more flowing fills.

His brother Jack is now full of regret he didn't ask Alan to replace sister Meg.

l e a v e. I t

^

you took a break from smoking and suddenly the only Yes record you like is 90125

Uh no

I wish leave it was constructed a little better. Damn a capella

That’s the best part

When I bought Ultimate Yes (a 3xCD comp) I got a little guilty that “Leave It” was my favorite track

That’s the best part

Acapella bit on “Hold On” is my fave on that album

"Fly From Here : Return Trip" sounding so good on a Summer evening.

the greatest prog album of all time turned 50 today. who's getting yessed out with me

beauty begins at the foot review

GOAT

I LISTENED HARD BUT COULD NOT SEE

fragile better

ok not really

and you and i is the apex for me

Young me liked Fragile because it has the "hits", but I think I might prefer CTTE now.

Siberian Khatru is my MVP jam here

hell yeah

what I love so much about the title track is that it really does feel like one very long song, as opposed to other prog epics like Tarkus, Suppers Ready, Plague of Lighthouse Keepers, etc. which come across more as a bunch of sections stitched together. it goes through all the movements of a traditional 4-minute pop song, it's just....longer. and way more complex & intricate. you can't really separate any of it out.

That's why I feel just slightly off about hearing them out of sequence live, but that's a bit nitpicky

Siberian Kathharrtutruuu

what I love so much about the title track is that it really does feel like one very long song, as opposed to other prog epics like Tarkus, Suppers Ready, Plague of Lighthouse Keepers, etc. which come across more as a bunch of sections stitched together. it goes through all the movements of a traditional 4-minute pop song, it's just....longer. and way more complex & intricate. you can't really separate any of it out.

― frogbs

in terms of compositional chops CTTE really is next-level, it's like it's got fuckin' thematic development or something. that's one of my favorite prog-rock stories, somebody played _the polite force_ for aaron copland and he was like "this is just a bunch of wibbly bits repeated four times and then there's a solo or something, none of the themes are developed at all", so mont campbell spent the next 18 months figuring out how to develop a theme and then he wrote "enneagram". anyway CTTE to my ears does kinda the same thing, way more argument for "fusion of pop and classical" than taking a pink floyd tune and throwing an orchestra and choir on it (nb i actually like "atom heart mother" better than "close to the edge" so not throwing shade on floyd or ron geesin here)

John Covach's analysis of it ("Progressive Rock, ‘Close to the Edge,’ and the Boundaries of Style" in Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, edited by John Covach and Graeme M. Boone, Oxford University Press, 1997) was very good. He broke it down as a significantly expanded AABA form. I also did an analysis that I presented at a bunch of conferences in a previous life but it wasn't as good.

another one i bought because i was excited to be seeing them in a month and i wanted to know the album first. all these 50th anniveresaries are bombarding me with my ancientness.

oh dear, I do wonder how these yes shows are going to go

The CTTE 50th show was my first gig post-Covid. Fear not, they perform it superbly well. The earlier pre-CTTE set was fine, if a somewhat inevitably ersatz experience, but the album run through was where they stepped up, fully engaged and properly took off. It was technically immaculate, individually characterful, emotionally true, and performed with love and joy.

listening to Fragile now. this was my first Yes album and actually one of the first records I ever bought. that was 20 years ago! I still have the same copy! looks scratched up but it plays great. I haven't listened to it in a while but damned if it still ain't great. you can focus on any individual instrument here and have a blast. "South Side of the Sky" is such a cool epic for them. they're like trying to do heavy, evil-sounding rock but they can't cuz they're Yes. instead they hit on a really different sound that I don't think any other band quite captures. I dig the interludes too. I really disagree with anyone who thinks the album would be better without 'em (ok, maybe "Cans and Brahams"). and does "Long Distance Runaround" have the sickest bassline ever played on FM radio or what? such a classic record

South Side is my early morning cold as fuck walk to the bus stop jam

The long bridge section of "South Side" with the jazzy piano and wordless vocal harmonies is so gorgeous. For some reason I always forget it exists, so it always hits like the most pleasant surprise when I listen to that song

^^ that's what actually convinced me to put it on! I was thinking of getting yessed out and then that "laaaa laaaa la-la-la-la" bit popped in my head so I was like Fragile it is

https://i.imgur.com/uTwOjvy.jpg

Almost