Yes (the band) Reissues

[Guest Chaney]

Prog Archives: YES: Tales From Topographic Oceans

[Jim Alfredson]

From that site:

There are two additional reasons why Tales is not as good as it might have been. First, it was written for LP, not CD; i.e., each “section” had to “fit” on an LP side, which set up “false” parameters for the songwriting. As Rick Wakeman has pointed out, had the CD format been available at that time, Anderson might not have been as self-indulgent, and the band might have been able to make Tales a far better edited, more cohesive concept.

I don't know... if CDs were around, maybe Anderson would've made the damn thing 2 CDs worth of material!!!!

[Guest ariceffron]

I DONT WANNA HEAR ANY MORE OUT OF YOUR PIE-HOLE. TFTO RULES. ANYWHICH WAY YOU PUT IT, ***DESPITE ANYTHING***. I KNOW MORE ABOUT YES THAN YOU AND I HAVE SEEN THEM A DOZEN TIMES AND MET THEM ALL MULTIPLE TIMES SO I HERBY DECLARE YOU BANNED FROM YES-DISCUSSIONS IF YOU CRITICIZE TALES. YOU HAVE TO MAIL ME YOUR COPY OF TALES IMMIDIATELY, MEDIA RATE OF COURSE--

PS-- HAVE U EVER HEARD TALES LIVE. MAYBE THAT WILL MAKE U LIKE IT MORE

[A Lark Ascending]

From that site:

There are two additional reasons why Tales is not as good as it might have been. First, it was written for LP, not CD; i.e., each “section” had to “fit” on an LP side, which set up “false” parameters for the songwriting. As Rick Wakeman has pointed out, had the CD format been available at that time, Anderson might not have been as self-indulgent, and the band might have been able to make Tales a far better edited, more cohesive concept.

I don't know... if CDs were around, maybe Anderson would've made the damn thing 2 CDs worth of material!!!!

Reading the full review that snippet came from I thought that the critical style was way more pretentious than any music Yes have ever come up with.

[Herb]

Close to the Edge is their finest moment.

I agree with you wholeheartedly on that one, 7/4! Last time I saw Yes live was, uh, 1972. I loved everything up to "Tales", and didn't care for much after that. Perhaps I should do like B-3'er, and give it a re-listen......

[7/4]

Close to the Edge is their finest moment. 

I agree with you wholeheartedly on that one, 7/4! Last time I saw Yes live was, uh, 1972. I loved everything up to "Tales", and didn't care for much after that. Perhaps I should do like B-3'er, and give it a re-listen......

I pretty much like most of their music up through the '90s except for the Trevor Rabin material. TfTO and Relayer seem like efforts to make another "hit" like CttE.

[alankin]

I like early Yes, but I keep misreading reading the topic as "The Band (yes!)".

Time to change my meds, perhaps.

[7/4]

TfTO and Relayer seem like efforts to make another "hit" like CttE.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Guest ariceffron]

that is a completely false way of looking at it. realyer, tales, and ctte are all different pieces. thats like saying every miles album was an attempt to recrate kind of blue

[A Lark Ascending]

You mean 'On the Corner' was not an attempt to recreate 'Kind of Blue'?

[7/4]

that is a completely false way of looking at it. realyer, tales, and ctte are all different pieces. thats like saying every miles album was an attempt to recrate kind of blue

They are all long symphonic sized pieces.

[Guest ariceffron]

is that the extent of your argument or are you just stating they are all long symph. pieces, period. just wondering

[BFrank]

There was a Yes appearance on PBS' "Soundstage" tonight from their 35th anniversary tour. I watched it for the hell of it and actually found myself enjoying it. The guys are looking their age (except for Anderson), but still managed to pull off some of their hits.

The only thing that didn't work was when they explained why they changed the feel of Roundabout (with a 'barrelhouse blues feel - ??!!?!) - and proceeded to play it. Didn't make sense - just sounded messy.

Meanwhile, pulled out my "Fragile" LP and put it on for the first time in about 10 years. Still sounds pretty good.

[A Lark Ascending]

There was a documentary about Prog-Rock on the BBC a few months back. It featured Yes quite prominently.

There was a hilarious clip from a tour they did circa 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' where their wardrobe and 'big hair' had all been modelled on the young UK bands of the era - Duran Duran etc.

Oh dear!

[Aftab]

There was one video I saw back in the 80's where Jon Anderson had like a 1 inch blue strip across his eyes - interesting.

[Guy Berger]

I wonder if Welch's caution about these two albums might be quite personal. He went from being one of the frontline rock journalists to a ridiculed supporter of the 'dinosaurs' very quickly during the UK punk revolution. I wonder if standing up for those records still brings back tough memories.

There's a great interview with Bill Bruford in the March Jazz Review, full of his usually stand-offish perspective of his prog-rock associations. I found this interesting.

"I imagine that without jazz, art-rock or progrock or whatever you want to call it wouldn't have happened, would it? Wasn't it an extension of the pursuit of complexity in jazz?

Well, I think you're probably mistaken there. My understanding is that jazz was the one element that really wasn't there at all.

I don't buy Bruford's argument. Wakeman and Anderson were clearly pretty far removed from jazz (and African-American music in general), but you can clearly hear a jazz influence in Steve Howe's playing. What about that guitar solo in "Perpetual Change"?

Guy

Edited August 5, 2007 by Guy

[Guy Berger]

on relayer, the last part of that gates of delerium song is sickness.

after the fast buildup there is that sort of breakdown part....awesome.

i think patrick moraz on synths makes this album. it has a different flavor than the earlier wakeman albums.

well i guess the rest of the album isn't so great, but the long song is nice.

Mr. Dip,

It could be just a difference of opinion but "To Be Over" (the last tune on Relayer) is absolutely amazing, IMHO. One of the best tunes they ever recorded.

Guy

[Guy Berger]

TfTO and Relayer seem like efforts to make another "hit" like CttE.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I think I'm somewhere between you and Chewy on this. Obviously these albums came from the same band, and after Close to the Edge they realized that there was an audience for this kind of format. But on these albums they are CREATING, not RE-creating. TFtO is a natural extension/expansions of the ideas of CttE; Relayer strikes me as exploring a bunch of new avenues not on the earlier albums.

(I think that by the time of GFtO and "Awaken", you can argue that they were trying to re-create old glories.)

FWIW, as someone who enjoys Yes quite a bit (biased toward the early 70s period), I find the extreme hostility and contempt they still seem to arouse in some quarters to be mystifying. I guess the original reaction is "understandable" in the context of the times, if quite silly in retrospect. But that someone would listen to Close to the Edge or The Yes Album, or even Tales from Topographic Oceans, and call it venomous epithets seems very alien to me.

Guy

Edited August 5, 2007 by Guy

[7/4]

Venomous epithets? I love those albums. Got 'em when they came out and later bought them on CD.

[Joe G]

I wonder if Welch's caution about these two albums might be quite personal. He went from being one of the frontline rock journalists to a ridiculed supporter of the 'dinosaurs' very quickly during the UK punk revolution. I wonder if standing up for those records still brings back tough memories.

There's a great interview with Bill Bruford in the March Jazz Review, full of his usually stand-offish perspective of his prog-rock associations. I found this interesting.

"I imagine that without jazz, art-rock or progrock or whatever you want to call it wouldn't have happened, would it? Wasn't it an extension of the pursuit of complexity in jazz?

Well, I think you're probably mistaken there. My understanding is that jazz was the one element that really wasn't there at all.

I don't buy Bruford's argument. Wakeman and Anderson were clearly pretty far removed from jazz (and African-American music in general), but you can clearly hear a jazz influence in Steve Howe's playing. What about that guitar solo in "Perpetual Change"?

Guy

Do you not buy Bruford's argument, or Bev's argument?

[Guy Berger]

There's a great interview with Bill Bruford in the March Jazz Review, full of his usually stand-offish perspective of his prog-rock associations. I found this interesting.

"I imagine that without jazz, art-rock or progrock or whatever you want to call it wouldn't have happened, would it? Wasn't it an extension of the pursuit of complexity in jazz?

Well, I think you're probably mistaken there. My understanding is that jazz was the one element that really wasn't there at all.

I don't buy Bruford's argument. Wakeman and Anderson were clearly pretty far removed from jazz (and African-American music in general), but you can clearly hear a jazz influence in Steve Howe's playing. What about that guitar solo in "Perpetual Change"?

Do you not buy Bruford's argument, or Bev's argument?

Bruford's.

Guy

[Joe G]

Both you and Bruford say that jazz was a major influence on prog-rock (or in your case, Steve Howe at least). Bev says no. Yet you say you don't buy Bruford's argument. I must be mis-reading something.

[Guy Berger]

Both you and Bruford say that jazz was a major influence on prog-rock (or in your case, Steve Howe at least). Bev says no. Yet you say you don't buy Bruford's argument. I must be mis-reading something.

Joe, I screwed up the boldface marker on my response to Bev (now fixed). Bruford is the one denying jazz's influence on prog rock, a stance with which Bev disagreed later in the thread.

Guy

[Joe G]

I went back to the original post - it makes sense now.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

I dont know if you guys know this but earlier this summer Steve Howe did a small UK tour with his new Steve Howe B3 trio- among the songs are two covers from the Verve jazz lp BLUE BASH, the title track, and "kenny's sound"....