You know me, I almost always don't like live versions. Besides which, I heard Yes at the Gaumont back when they were in their early seventies lineup, and they weren't that great. That video reminds of that time. I like the precision and sound balance of albums. That's the music I buy when I buy the record.
Fabulous. I absolutely love that analysis, and he’s obviously a very talented musician himself. Great to hear all the individual tracks and how they blend together to create that unique Yes sound. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree about live music over studio, but I would qualify what I said earlier, especially about live recordings from that era. In general, in those days, PA equipment was rubbish, and compensated for poor sound quality with extra power, which was fine for guitar bands but not so good for prog rock bands with multiple instruments and vocals. The sheer brilliance of the studio version of Roundabout, I think, is complemented by the energy of the live recordings, especially the Yessongs version, however. And after all, as the Beato analysis demonstrates, they were playing most of the baseline tracks “live” in the studio!
I'm not U2's greatest fan, but I do have a couple of, maybe 3, albums from the time. The Joshua Tree is one of them. I remember my brother asking me why I liked it. And I would overhear him tell friends that I liked U2, like it was odd or something. You don't have to like a band completely, but you can like some of their music. U2 are one of those bands. And The Joshua Tree is undoubtedly a cracking album. Here Rick Beato dissects In God's Country from the album. This track has great drive and power, plus it does sound different to what else was going on in the 1980s. And here's the complete song:
I watched this Peter Frampton interview a couple of months back, and it is really informative and entertaining. Frampton is one of the few rock musicians who was so tight and accomplished [and his band] that he sounded magnificent live. Rory Gallagher was another. At least, in my opinion. See what you think here. It is 41 minutes long, but the time doesn't drag: And here's Rick Beato's video, The Art of Soloing, that they both referred to. That's only 11 minutes long. Anyone has 11 minutes. One of a series.
I’ve been a big fan of Yes, since the Yes album and Yessongs is still one of my favourites. I queued all night to see them in Cardiff in ‘73, only for them to play ‘Tales from the Topographic Oceans’ in its entirety, which, to be honest, was bloody awful (this was the period Rick Wakeman refers to as “when we were so much up our own arses that we lost sight of what we really wanted to do musically”). After that, I moved on to other bands, but I still love “Fragile”, “The Yes album”, “Close to the Edge” and “Yessongs”. Considering the limitations on live recordings around that time, there were some cracking albums - Colosseum Live, Rory Gallagher Live in Europe, The Who - Live at Leeds, Genesis Live, Jimi Hendrix - In the West, Live Taste .......
I’m with you on U2, TSS. They’ve done some cracking tracks and I love The Joshua Tree, but too much of their stuff (imo) is bland and samey, and I really don’t rate Edge as a particularly good guitarist. Personal opinion of course ......
Almost blasphemy to say it, but I agree about Edge. 1] Anyone who uses a 'The' before an assumed name, in order to obtain some sort of uniqueness, gets my 'pretentious' antenna fired up. There's nothing wrong with David Evans. 2] This is more positive. He's tight, rhythmic, and he has his sound because he's limited, not because of his virtuosity. But it's his strength too. That's my opinion. I believe I've thought, more than a few times in the past, that U2 might be a better band to my ears if they changed guitarist. But, then again, they make tons of money and people buy their records, so who am I to criticise?
I was having a general chat about music with some friends in the pub the other evening and one of them came up with the classic: “The problem with God is that he thinks he’s Bono.” Nutshell!
Yeah, I know Rick Wakeman's opinion of Tales From Topographic Oceans. But I love that album. I loathed it at first, but I came around. It might even be my favourite of theirs. Conversely, I've tried my very best to like Relayer, but it won't let me in. I'm sure it is fabulous, but I hate it. From TFTO, I get incredible nostalgic waves hitting me every time Jon Anderson starts singing 'Dawn of light lying between a silence and sold sources, Chased amid fusions of wonder, in moments hardly seen forgotten, Coloured in pastures of chance dancing leaves cast spells of challenge, Amused but real in thought, we fled from the sea whole....' During that time I dabbled with coarse fishing along riverbanks and big ponds/small lakes. We were 15/16 and me and a mate used to go night fishing. Often with quite a few bottles of beer and roll-ups, and often nothing much would happen, but you'd hear the night sounds and then the misty mornings would come and the fish would bite some time afterwards. But it was those hours of inactivity where we used to talk [very quietly] and sometimes I'd sit there looking at the stars, taking a sip and a puff, and play TFTO in my head. Good job it was a double album, those nights were long.
Nice story - it’s amazing how music brings back those memories. A year or so ago, I thought to myself “I should try again with Tales .....”, so I got the album out (yup - on vinyl), cranked up the steam powered turntable and lost another 2 or so hours of my life which I shall never get back again. Nope - still don’t like it. I’ve also tried Relayer and can’t even get close to it - I think I prefer Tales!
Yep, I've done that with Relayer a couple of times. I even passed up the chance of buying a LP copy in really good condition in Oxfam several years back. Even £2 was too much.
Talking about being under an illusion, and maintaining the YES chat, it was only a few years ago [probably a decade or more] before Jon Anderson finally came flat out and said that the lyrics to YES songs meant sod all. The lyrics were there as just another musical instrument sound. Which was quite a nice gentle landing from the lyrics meaning significant things to suddenly meaning f*** all. I was always a big reader and listener of lyrics and I got my BS antenna up on YES once they got into the Relayer era. Then I looked back... oh dear. All the lyrics were BS. Still, I've now forgiven them and enjoy the same songs now that I enjoyed then. To use the phrase that both me and a friend occasionally quote to this day. It's a case of getting over overhanging trees. Let them raid the forest... [TFTO - The Revealing Science of God]
Yes. I, also, have always been a lyrics man, but when I heard “A seasoned witch could call you from the depths of your disgrace and rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace ......” I thought “uh oh”
Oh I don’t know, I always liked: “Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are, Shining, flying, purple wolfhound, show me where you are, Lost in summer, morning, winter, travel very far, Lost in musing circumstances, that's just where you are” Has a battleship never confided in you Dave?
Not that I recall Think I might have had a conversation with a frigate once, though ...... I was very drunk at the time ....
My Yes 'loathed' LP was, for a long time, 90125. I felt it lacked depth and, well, wasn't really prog in all it's glory. I was also aware it only became a Yes album part way through development so lacked credibilty in my youthfull mind. Returningto it a year or so back I appreciated it for what it is, very finely crafted AOR. Eventually got the triple coloured vinyl version (my lack of taste knows no bounds) which I really enjoy, so it's always worth a re-visit to stuff now and then. Also, while we're talking about lyrics. This is my favorite poem, by Richard Lovelace who wrote it in 1642. It's set to music by the much missed Dave Swarbrick on the Fairport album 'Nine'. No video as such but a fine effort imho.
OK, I'm going to bite. Let's pop up the title track of Yes's most accessible album, Close to the Edge. For me there's only one problem I have with this album. I know it too well. There are no real surprises left. The only reason I post it here now is because I listened to the first few minutes on YT and then had that old familiar reaction of 'oh, that's nice' round about 2:35 when the tension in the music, that has been building from the start, gets that lovely release. Then Yes, being Yes, they let this carry on for a couple of minutes before putting in something dirty to mess it all up, so that they can change tack, and eventually come back. Actually, that's blues. Nice video of the various Roger Dean artworks.
