I totally agree with you Scot. I bought this album, without hearing it, when it first came out (I already had The Yes Album and Fragile). Probably the best Prog album of all time. Certainly the best of the 70s. Saw their Topographic Oceans tour in Edinburgh following this.
This was the first Yes song I ever heard. And it was on my older brother's stereo, so it sounded fabulous. I had NEVER heard anything like it. That was in the 70s. Now I'm 67, and this tune still brings me goosebumps. For me, it's like a prayer. Thank you for taking the time to listen to it. Yes is not everyone's cup of tea. ❤️
Saw them Live a while back. I think the only concert we didn't stand. Just sank back in the seat and was mesmerized as strangers passed joints to us. What an experience. You will love "Heart of the Sunrise", Yours is no Disgrace" , "I've seen all good People", "Wonderous Stories", "Close to the Edge"
YES, it was "mind-blowing sitting cross-leg, in front of the stereo, listening to this for the first time". Arguably the most progressive band during the 1968-1970 (when YES was developing their sound) was The Beatles. YES was "the pioneers" of "progressive rock" and remain (in my opinion) the greatest compilation of 5 musicians in history. 65 and still rockin'.
Between Yes and Rush I had no choice but to pick up the bass guitar and try to play. Fortunately at the ripe old age of 12 I got to see both bands because my extremely cool uncle took me to see them and Zep. Now my kids are hooked on them and hopefully their kids will be as well. Damn, was 1978 that long ago guys?
Happy for you; discovering this stuff must be awesome. I'm spoiled because I heard it since a child in the 70's but I still get excited to hear it. To see you with new ears makes me happy. Good on you for having an open mind.
When it comes to 'Prog-rock' you have to start with King Crimson and their first album from 1969 'In the Court of the Crimson King'. The leadsinger and bassist of the the band was Greg Lake, who later formed the supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) in 1970 and became very famous. Yes and ELP went different directions by the time, but they remained good friends. Greg Lake and Chris Squire (bassist of Yes) even shared an appartment in London in the beginning of their professionel life. I don't think there ever was a dull moment at that adress!
I have a theory that the Universe was created with the purpose of bringing great works of art like this into being. Imagine the serendipity of 5 great musicians coming together at a moment in eternal time, working together to produce something like this. Makes me believe.
Genuine reaction. Thank you. If (?) you have a friend who has not heard the sound, take them by the hand and play those songs that you have heard on your journey, listening, re-experience the joy through their eyes. Explore together those songs not yet heard. Sharing joy exceeds the joy of one.
AHHH the YES MAGIC SPELL into the deepest depths of Sonic BLISS! 70's YES reached levels unattained by most! WELCOME to getting lost in the brilliance of their LIGHT. The gift that keeps on giving. YES LIVE back then were transcendent!!!! Take your time, lyrically. They are often very metaphoric, poetically abstract but sonically synergized to the instrumentation. You'll find that they're often about giving reference to life & in reverence of nature, the soul & the divine (as if each are One in the same). YES were NEVER mainstream from the start even when this genre (later termed) Progressive Rock (PROGROCK) originated by fusing Rock, Classical, Folk, Psychedelia, Jazz, Soundscapes, Blues & Funk with bands, mostly from England/Euro, such as King Crimson, The Moody Blues, ELP, Genesis, Gentle Giant, PFM, Curved Air, Renaissance, Focus, Caravan, Camel and many many more. All of whom were incredibly UNIQUE & avoided commercial POP ideals for more complex & adventurous challenging music. YES quickly rose to the top of that Mount Everest. PROG did slightly influence many POP bands like Styx, Kansas, Supertramp, Rush etc. but none of them ever produced such groundbreaking 'out of the box' adventurous music as the originators, to say the least, YES.
I went to Yes-Tales from topographic oceans concert back in the early 70s'. Been hooked ever since. I don't think you'll ever get a definitive answer about who started prog rock. I do know it's my favorite genre. From Emerson, Lake and Palmer to King Crimson, Genesis to Rush and Pink Floyd to Yes. Some of the greatest musicians of all time.
The track “Close to the Edge” is my all-time favourite song since I first heard the album in 1972 when I was at school and I still listen to it today and am moved by it. And you and I and Siberian Khatru aren’t bad either!
As a kid in the 70's, I considered Styx to be a pop teeny bopper version of wanna be Yes. Yes was such a great and original band for their time that few have come close to them. Seventies Genesis and Yes have yet to be surpassed in my book.
you need to listen and react to The Gates of Delirium...a song inspired on Tolstoi's the war and the Peace...and please forgive my english, I´m from Uruguay. I listened to Yes since I was 15 years old...I am 63 y.o. right now and never stopped to hear them... the pinnacle of the music...
Hearing you describe how the music was changing your mood reminded me of The Gates Of Delirium, YES' 21-minute masterpiece they recorded a couple of years after this album which was their attempt to musically capture the moods/feelings of a country that gradually takes itself into a cataclysmic war, which exhilarates them at first, but which ultimately leads them to sadness & regrets. It's really quite amazingly good, one of their true masterpieces. But it is quite dense with musical contributions, so if you try to notice all of the detail on a first listen, you'll miss the emotional journey. As usual, if you follow the bass line & the lead singers vocals, all of the rest of the contributions are presented to your ears in their time. (You should probably save it for after you explore all the masterpieces that are on YES' 3rd, 4th, & 5th albums, making it a fitting culmination of their Uber-Classic Period...)
Pink Floyd is my favorite group but Yes is easily in the same galaxy!! And you and I has always been my favorite song of there's once I heard it. My first experience with Yes was buying the 8-track Fragile!! Of course I loved it but "Close to the Edge" is an album that is so ethereal you just close your eyes and float away with it as I do with the Floyd albums!! This is such a wonderful song by Yes along with Jon Anderson's very unique & beautiful voice!! I got to see them live in 1980 and it was just an awesome beautiful concert!!!
I saw that Drama show in 1980. I found Trevor Horn to be terrible singing all that Anderson made great. When they started AYAI, I had to go out for a smoke. I couldn't stand to hear Horn ruin that beautiful masterpiece.
Yes is one of the few bands who sound better live than in the studio. There are some incredible live versions on TH-cam, but my favorite is Montreaux, 2003.
This brilliant and inspiring music is timeless, now 50 years on. Tremendous musicianship and highly metaphorical lyrics wifely open to interpretation. My own take on this song is it is about communing with our higher selves through meditation. Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid As a movement regained and regarded both the same Emotion revealed as the ocean maid A clearer future, morning, evening, nights with you And you and I climb, crossing the shapes of the morning And you and I reach over the sun for the river And you and I climb, clearer towards the movement And you and I called over valleys of endless seas
No other band before and no other band since could compose and execute a song like this. What I mean by that, these guys were not composing like a rock band, it's more orchestral in its arrangement. You have to go back and listen to the song multiple times and focus on one instrument each time. Each instrument only plays what's needed for the greater good. From the very beginning, underneath the acoustic guitar, there's a hint of organ, just enough to give it depth and set the atmosphere. You can look for just the keyboard parts on one listen. He does enough just to fill whatever is needed at any given moment. Then when it's time for him to come out front, it's magnificent, not overplayed. Then put the song back on, listen to just the guitar work. This is not a rock and roll approach. Again, he only plays what's needed for the greater whole. Unless you're listening for it, sometimes you can miss what he's doing. But when it's his time to come out front, it's magnificent, and not overplayed. Then go back and listen to it again. This time only listen to the bass and the drums. Again, they only play what's needed for the whole. Listen to how bruford the drummer, keeps it sparse, but constantly changing where the hits on the snare are. Chris squire on bass is following along and it's brilliant how they did it. Then go back and listen to it again. This time listen to the vocal harmonies. Constructed the same way. Only there to enhance the whole. There's a Harmony section before the keyboards take over, where they ran the harmonies through a Leslie, which is used normally with a Hammond organ. Yes music, at its best, wasn't any one instrument centric. And yes, Jon Anderson's vocals aren't meant to be listen to literally. He liked words that sounded good together, by the end of the song, there was some meaning. But his vocal was just another instrument that contributed to the overall sound. Individually they were breaking All the rules. Steve Howe on guitar said why do I need to sound like every other guitar player. Chris squire on bass, approached the bass as an important instrument that could provide Melody other than sitting in the backgound just keeping everybody's foot stopping. Bill bruford was the most adamant about not sounding like every other Rock drummer. Bruford might have been the most curious of them all. You really have to drill down and focus on bruford during some of these yes songs. He could be completely unpredictable with Ghost notes an accent notes, but he had a way of moving the songs along. Then on the song like roundabout, he knew what the song needed was a solid pocket, not too slick, which him and Chris squire provided in spades. Every one of these guys knew exactly what they were doing. With each member having so much talent and creativity, it's amazing how they kept their egos in check (for a while anyway) to create these Masterful compositions. In just about all other bands, the guitar play was the guitar player, bass player was the bass player, and so on. Yes experimented with the sounds of their instruments. None of them was locked into their prototypical role.
Very Nice! Might be my favorite by YES!!? Or; HEART OF THE SUNRISE, STARSHIP TROOPER ROUNDABOUT!? One of these. RTM! Great Reaction! Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎄🎁☃️⛄❄️✨🎸☯️☮️
Reckon it was the Beatles who started prog with their Sgt. Pepper album and as for the Yes lyrics, in Jon Anderson's own words: they don't make any sense except for being a collection of vowels and consonants so assembled that along with his stunning high pitched voice to serve a sixth instrument of the band. Cheers for this great post and hope to see and listen to more prog on this channel.
Roots of prpg are some of these groups...Procol Harem- Moody Blues-Beach Boys-Later Beatles-, other prog groups of this peer. Emerson Lake & Palmer, Zeppelin has prog elements. King Crimson- Zappa- Early Genesis- When Peter Gabriel was lead singer...I Know What I Like, Musical Box
If you like the symphonic-classical side of prog rock also check out Renaissance --- anything from the albums Ashes Are Burning, Turn of the Card, Scheherazade and Other Stories and Novella. More Yes? Try Awaken, Turn of the Century, Wonderous Stories - all with spine tingling melodies, harmonies, vocals, and spiritual journeying.
Just subscribed. If you say Yes, I'll say Yes. The next song on the album has the same quality, although more upbeat. "Siberian Khatru" personally is my fav Yes tune, "And You And I" 2nd, depends on my mood.
Yes are a genre unto themselves. They didn't follow any trends, that's what makes them timeless. Next up I highly recommend in the same vein as And You And I and yet totally different > To Be Over. Keep to the "shorter" tracks before going to their 20min epics.
Because aficionados can't agree on a definition of prog rock, it is also a free-for-all to try and figure out who founded the genre. It arose at a time that is a little hard to imagine nowadays. Popular music was stuck in a narrow rut in the mid-1960's. There was no internet, so radio, and to some extent, TV shows, were the only place a kid could consume free music. Radio back than was just about all AM, and the only format AM stations followed was "Top 40" with tons of commercials between each song. Maybe there might have been some small college campus radio stations not dependent on ad revenue and existing mainly as a part of a college curriculum where DJ kids played whatever they wanted to an audience within two miles of the broadcast tower, but that was about it for variety. The FM radio band was a curiosity back then, with few stations, and very few of which had programming anybody listened to. Then in about 1967 or so, FM music stations popped up all over the USA. I guess the bandwith was cheap for start-ups to begin broadcasting without much in the way of advertisers to provide revenue in the absence of a proven audience. I vaguely recall that maybe the FCC may have changed its regulations as to FM broadcasting. They sprung up to play the "new music" that you couldn't hear on Top 40 stations. Musicians were experimenting with creating new music in great contrast to the stale Top 40 song trope, basically a 2:30 second long song in a verse-chorus-verse-instrumental-verse-chorus tried and true song-structure that readily allowed for the playing of lots of commercials in between the songs. All of society was changing, too, with the acceptance of The Pill and the feeling of personal freedom (irresponsibility?) championed by hippie culture and it popularization of recreational drugs. No kid really wants to adopt the music of his parents' generation as his own. He wants his own set of sounds and bands. The younger generation was attracted to the fledgling FM radio stations and the new music they played. It was new mainly because it fused together rock music with other musical genres - jazz, country, folk, classical, etc. The Beatles played a role in the musical revolution by becoming so popular worldwide that they could put out new records that did not follow Top 40 conventions, opening that door up to lots of other bands putting out fusion music. IMHO, the best of the new music fused rock with classical. The result was multi-layered longer compositions which weaved together distinct movements. Yes and Genesis fall into that category. Early King Crimson, not so much, but clearly complex and highly artistic work. At best, I'd say the Moody Blues are "prog lite" and get too much credit for the simple idea of incorporating a symphony orchestra into "Days of Future Past". Oddly enough, one of the first truly progressive songs was Procal Harum's "In Held Twas In I", released in 1967. There is no logical reason to think just one band "created progressive rock". There was for a time a sub-genre of rock music known as psychedelic rock. Those bands tended to jam and produce some great epics, like "The Fool", by Quicksilver Messenger Service", released in 1968. It is really difficult to honestly differentiate early prog rock from good psychedelic rock. Prog rock would never have taken off absent the advent of FM radio to introduce it to the listening public. Yes, for example, could fill a baseball stadium, or sell out large indoor arenas for multiple nights in the same metro area. Prog rock was big from about 1971-1976, until the next big thing came along to take its place. FM radio stations had become popular enough to attract lots of ad revenue and no longer played epic long tunes and became "album oriented rock" stations, sticking to airing "deep cuts" from the albums of very popular bands to create variety. They didn't readily play longer songs anymore. Too many commercials to run.
I wouldn't delve too deeply into the lyrics meaning in Yes during the 70s. I think they were more focused on the sound of the words and the rhythmic nature of the consonants than in any literal meaning. Still, like refrigerator magnet poetry, they ALMOST make sense. As to who first created this type of music, that's debatable. Most point to early King Crimson, or The Moody Blues, or even Yes themselves. Yes are often referred to as the archetype of symphonic prog, featuring all the complex layers of sound you noticed. Thank you for reacting!
OK! Now check out Jon Anderson and Band Geeks live version on YT just released about 11 days ago. 80 year old Jon sounds good as ever and the band is phenominal. Possibly the best live version ever. My alltime favorite song that I saw Yes do about 40 times. Anderson/Geeks are astounding!
The title track on that album "Close to the Edge" is considered by many to be the numbr one prog rock song. YES was one of the founders of prog rock. I suggest you do "Awaken" next. It takes you on an uplifting spiritual journey. Here's a great live version: th-cam.com/video/nDXccU0xgNo/w-d-xo.html or the studio version. But it's amazing how close the live version is to the studio version.
I like you. You know your stuff, but now I'm going to eplain the genesis of Prog, as I remember it at the time. After much discussion with colleagues (I'm a musician/vocalist), the consensus is that the Beatles started venturing into what would become prog, with the second side of Abby Road, which consisted of different songs, but the songs led directly into eachother without ending. I remember realizing this, when I listened to it, at 15. It was right at this point that the Moody Blues released Days of Future Past, which mixed rock with "classical" in a new and exciting way, and the genii was out of the bottle. At this point, Jon Anderson and Chris Squire were deciding to take it to a new level, and thus Yes was founded. At the same time, I have to add, Emerson, Lake and Palmer were getting very serious with a prog that was more modern jazz, and again, thrilling prog. And now there were several such bands. I'll add that Geddy Lee has said "Without Yes, there is no Rush."
Seen Yes and the numerous versions of the band and this sing is almost an ever present in the sent list. However, amongst the improvements they made are Steve Howe being more restrained laid back with the pedal steel playing and Chris Squire playing mouth organ. This was Bill Brufords last record until AWBH and he composed the eclipse sectuon that is the standout bit for me. Check out some Bruford especially his first three solo records. Incredible musician
This heavily orchestral side of progressive rock mostly traces back to The Moody Blues as well as King Crimson's debut album. The way this particular song mixes pastoral passages with folk and rock can also be heard in early Genesis and Renaissance.
Save Close to the Edge & Awaken...I would highly suggest "Turn of the Century" on the Going For The One album. "Modern Classical".... ...and they sounded as good Live.
This is a love song, believe it or not. Don't worry about the Lyrics - a form of poetry most of us struggle with. Needs to listen multiple times before it becomes super-addictive. I'm in my mid-70's and still addicted. They are a unique band. Sadly, now only two are still around - Steve How and Jon Anderson. .
Yes is, and always will be, my favorite band. Thank you for doing this!!!❤❤❤
I totally agree with you Scot. I bought this album, without hearing it, when it first came out (I already had The Yes Album and Fragile). Probably the best Prog album of all time. Certainly the best of the 70s. Saw their Topographic Oceans tour in Edinburgh following this.
This was the first Yes song I ever heard. And it was on my older brother's stereo, so it sounded fabulous. I had NEVER heard anything like it. That was in the 70s. Now I'm 67, and this tune still brings me goosebumps. For me, it's like a prayer. Thank you for taking the time to listen to it. Yes is not everyone's cup of tea. ❤️
Brilliant track from a brilliant band
Saw them Live a while back. I think the only concert we didn't stand. Just sank back in the seat and was mesmerized as strangers passed joints to us. What an experience. You will love "Heart of the Sunrise", Yours is no Disgrace" , "I've seen all good People", "Wonderous Stories", "Close to the Edge"
YES, it was "mind-blowing sitting cross-leg, in front of the stereo, listening to this for the first time". Arguably the most progressive band during the 1968-1970 (when YES was developing their sound) was The Beatles. YES was "the pioneers" of "progressive rock" and remain (in my opinion) the greatest compilation of 5 musicians in history. 65 and still rockin'.
Yes it was... but I couldn't stay cross-legged. Yes kept me on the tip of my toes all the time!! 😄😄
Yes it was... but I couldn't stay cross-legged. Yes kept me on the tip of my toes all the time!! 😄😄
Wow! Huge compliment...but I feel the same about their completely unique brand of "spatial, dreamy, positive vision " prog rock.
Between Yes and Rush I had no choice but to pick up the bass guitar and try to play. Fortunately at the ripe old age of 12 I got to see both bands because my extremely cool uncle took me to see them and Zep. Now my kids are hooked on them and hopefully their kids will be as well. Damn, was 1978 that long ago guys?
Been listening to them since 73.
72 for me.
YES. Best...band...ever. Thanks!!! for the reaction.
Back in the '70's, sitting cross legged in front of my stereo, listening to Yes, headphones on, was indeed mind-blowing.
Happy for you; discovering this stuff must be awesome. I'm spoiled because I heard it since a child in the 70's but I still get excited to hear it. To see you with new ears makes me happy. Good on you for having an open mind.
When it comes to 'Prog-rock' you have to start with King Crimson and their first album from 1969 'In the Court of the Crimson King'. The leadsinger and bassist of the the band was Greg Lake, who later formed the supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) in 1970 and became very famous. Yes and ELP went different directions by the time, but they remained good friends. Greg Lake and Chris Squire (bassist of Yes) even shared an appartment in London in the beginning of their professionel life. I don't think there ever was a dull moment at that adress!
I have a theory that the Universe was created with the purpose of bringing great works of art like this into being. Imagine the serendipity of 5 great musicians coming together at a moment in eternal time, working together to produce something like this. Makes me believe.
Just subscribed. Yes from 1970 - 1977 were the greatest band that has graced this planet.They had their peers but no equals.
Genuine reaction. Thank you.
If (?) you have a friend who has not heard the sound, take them by the hand and play those songs that you have heard on your journey, listening, re-experience the joy through their eyes. Explore together those songs not yet heard. Sharing joy exceeds the joy of one.
Best band, ever. Period. Best Prog album, ever.
AHHH the YES MAGIC SPELL into the deepest depths of Sonic BLISS! 70's YES reached levels unattained by most! WELCOME to getting lost in the brilliance of their LIGHT. The gift that keeps on giving. YES LIVE back then were transcendent!!!! Take your time, lyrically. They are often very metaphoric, poetically abstract but sonically synergized to the instrumentation. You'll find that they're often about giving reference to life & in reverence of nature, the soul & the divine (as if each are One in the same). YES were NEVER mainstream from the start even when this genre (later termed) Progressive Rock (PROGROCK) originated by fusing Rock, Classical, Folk, Psychedelia, Jazz, Soundscapes, Blues & Funk with bands, mostly from England/Euro, such as King Crimson, The Moody Blues, ELP, Genesis, Gentle Giant, PFM, Curved Air, Renaissance, Focus, Caravan, Camel and many many more. All of whom were incredibly UNIQUE & avoided commercial POP ideals for more complex & adventurous challenging music. YES quickly rose to the top of that Mount Everest. PROG did slightly influence many POP bands like Styx, Kansas, Supertramp, Rush etc. but none of them ever produced such groundbreaking 'out of the box' adventurous music as the originators, to say the least, YES.
Well said! Sadly, I only got to see Squire and White 36 times over forty years.
I went to Yes-Tales from topographic oceans concert back in the early 70s'. Been hooked ever since.
I don't think you'll ever get a definitive answer about who started prog rock.
I do know it's my favorite genre.
From Emerson, Lake and Palmer to King Crimson, Genesis to Rush and Pink Floyd to Yes.
Some of the greatest musicians of all time.
I'd say bands like Chicago were heavily influential on the sound of proto-prog, but King Crimson's In The Court was the first true Prog Rock album.
The first 2 minutes of CTTE is the beginning of the world. It progresses into greatness.
Legendary tune that envelops the soul and lifts us to a higher more peaceful and happier level of mind!
The track “Close to the Edge” is my all-time favourite song since I first heard the album in 1972 when I was at school and I still listen to it today and am moved by it.
And you and I and Siberian Khatru aren’t bad either!
and the band still continues to this day :) looking forward to their next release!
As a kid in the 70's, I considered Styx to be a pop teeny bopper version of wanna be Yes. Yes was such a great and original band for their time that few have come close to them. Seventies Genesis and Yes have yet to be surpassed in my book.
you need to listen and react to The Gates of Delirium...a song inspired on Tolstoi's the war and the Peace...and please forgive my english, I´m from Uruguay. I listened to Yes since I was 15 years old...I am 63 y.o. right now and never stopped to hear them... the pinnacle of the music...
Hearing you describe how the music was changing your mood reminded me of The Gates Of Delirium, YES' 21-minute masterpiece they recorded a couple of years after this album which was their attempt to musically capture the moods/feelings of a country that gradually takes itself into a cataclysmic war, which exhilarates them at first, but which ultimately leads them to sadness & regrets. It's really quite amazingly good, one of their true masterpieces. But it is quite dense with musical contributions, so if you try to notice all of the detail on a first listen, you'll miss the emotional journey. As usual, if you follow the bass line & the lead singers vocals, all of the rest of the contributions are presented to your ears in their time. (You should probably save it for after you explore all the masterpieces that are on YES' 3rd, 4th, & 5th albums, making it a fitting culmination of their Uber-Classic Period...)
A first and favorite love song.
YES, the greatest show on earth. You might enjoy a love song next called Turn Of The Century, 35th Anniversary Tour live version is a beauty
✨️🎶👑🎶✨️
Pink Floyd is my favorite group but Yes is easily in the same galaxy!! And you and I has always been my favorite song of there's once I heard it. My first experience with Yes was buying the 8-track Fragile!! Of course I loved it but "Close to the Edge" is an album that is so ethereal you just close your eyes and float away with it as I do with the Floyd albums!! This is such a wonderful song by Yes along with Jon Anderson's very unique & beautiful voice!! I got to see them live in 1980 and it was just an awesome beautiful concert!!!
I saw that Drama show in 1980. I found Trevor Horn to be terrible singing all that Anderson made great. When they started AYAI, I had to go out for a smoke. I couldn't stand to hear Horn ruin that beautiful masterpiece.
Saw them at Madison Square Garden in 1978, great concert. Great reaction
I like your glasses very much. Two thumbs up!!
Yes is one of the few bands who sound better live than in the studio. There are some incredible live versions on TH-cam, but my favorite is Montreaux, 2003.
This brilliant and inspiring music is timeless, now 50 years on. Tremendous musicianship and highly metaphorical lyrics wifely open to interpretation. My own take on this song is it is about communing with our higher selves through meditation.
Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid
As a movement regained and regarded both the same
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid
A clearer future, morning, evening, nights with you
And you and I climb, crossing the shapes of the morning
And you and I reach over the sun for the river
And you and I climb, clearer towards the movement
And you and I called over valleys of endless seas
No other band before and no other band since could compose and execute a song like this. What I mean by that, these guys were not composing like a rock band, it's more orchestral in its arrangement. You have to go back and listen to the song multiple times and focus on one instrument each time. Each instrument only plays what's needed for the greater good. From the very beginning, underneath the acoustic guitar, there's a hint of organ, just enough to give it depth and set the atmosphere. You can look for just the keyboard parts on one listen. He does enough just to fill whatever is needed at any given moment. Then when it's time for him to come out front, it's magnificent, not overplayed. Then put the song back on, listen to just the guitar work. This is not a rock and roll approach. Again, he only plays what's needed for the greater whole. Unless you're listening for it, sometimes you can miss what he's doing. But when it's his time to come out front, it's magnificent, and not overplayed. Then go back and listen to it again. This time only listen to the bass and the drums. Again, they only play what's needed for the whole. Listen to how bruford the drummer, keeps it sparse, but constantly changing where the hits on the snare are. Chris squire on bass is following along and it's brilliant how they did it. Then go back and listen to it again. This time listen to the vocal harmonies. Constructed the same way. Only there to enhance the whole. There's a Harmony section before the keyboards take over, where they ran the harmonies through a Leslie, which is used normally with a Hammond organ. Yes music, at its best, wasn't any one instrument centric. And yes, Jon Anderson's vocals aren't meant to be listen to literally. He liked words that sounded good together, by the end of the song, there was some meaning. But his vocal was just another instrument that contributed to the overall sound. Individually they were breaking All the rules. Steve Howe on guitar said why do I need to sound like every other guitar player. Chris squire on bass, approached the bass as an important instrument that could provide Melody other than sitting in the backgound just keeping everybody's foot stopping. Bill bruford was the most adamant about not sounding like every other Rock drummer. Bruford might have been the most curious of them all. You really have to drill down and focus on bruford during some of these yes songs. He could be completely unpredictable with Ghost notes an accent notes, but he had a way of moving the songs along. Then on the song like roundabout, he knew what the song needed was a solid pocket, not too slick, which him and Chris squire provided in spades. Every one of these guys knew exactly what they were doing. With each member having so much talent and creativity, it's amazing how they kept their egos in check (for a while anyway) to create these Masterful compositions. In just about all other bands, the guitar play was the guitar player, bass player was the bass player, and so on. Yes experimented with the sounds of their instruments. None of them was locked into their prototypical role.
Very beautifully explained. Thank you!
Sublime!
You listened to a masterpiece.
You picked a great one. Try Close to the Edge” and “Siberian Khatru”. They are all astounding.
Very Nice! Might be my favorite by YES!!? Or;
HEART OF THE SUNRISE,
STARSHIP TROOPER
ROUNDABOUT!? One of these. RTM! Great Reaction! Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎄🎁☃️⛄❄️✨🎸☯️☮️
Yes! 😊
How...because 5 guys play many instruments, so it sounds like10 musicians... 😂❤😊
Reckon it was the Beatles who started prog with their Sgt. Pepper album and as for the Yes lyrics, in Jon Anderson's own words: they don't make any sense except for being a collection of vowels and consonants so assembled that along with his stunning high pitched voice to serve a sixth instrument of the band. Cheers for this great post and hope to see and listen to more prog on this channel.
Roots of prpg are some of these groups...Procol Harem- Moody Blues-Beach Boys-Later Beatles-, other prog groups of this peer. Emerson Lake & Palmer, Zeppelin has prog elements. King Crimson- Zappa- Early Genesis- When Peter Gabriel was lead singer...I Know What I Like, Musical Box
Saw them Boston garden in the round. Amazing
If it was the ‘78 Tormato tour, I was there too !!!!
Three hours of absolute bliss !!!!
@Galahad-hk4bb yup, that's the one! I was center ice, first balcony. What a show!
If you like the symphonic-classical side of prog rock also check out Renaissance --- anything from the albums Ashes Are Burning, Turn of the Card, Scheherazade and Other Stories and Novella. More Yes? Try Awaken, Turn of the Century, Wonderous Stories - all with spine tingling melodies, harmonies, vocals, and spiritual journeying.
Yes Yes Yes 😊🎵🎶🔥🙏💪🐝🍀🇬🇧
They do this live too. x
Do they.
Just subscribed. If you say Yes, I'll say Yes. The next song on the album has the same quality, although more upbeat. "Siberian Khatru" personally is my fav Yes tune, "And You And I" 2nd, depends on my mood.
Yes are a genre unto themselves. They didn't follow any trends, that's what makes them timeless. Next up I highly recommend in the same vein as And You And I and yet totally different > To Be Over. Keep to the "shorter" tracks before going to their 20min epics.
Eddie Offord is that his name? Awesome engineer!
Because aficionados can't agree on a definition of prog rock, it is also a free-for-all to try and figure out who founded the genre. It arose at a time that is a little hard to imagine nowadays. Popular music was stuck in a narrow rut in the mid-1960's. There was no internet, so radio, and to some extent, TV shows, were the only place a kid could consume free music. Radio back than was just about all AM, and the only format AM stations followed was "Top 40" with tons of commercials between each song. Maybe there might have been some small college campus radio stations not dependent on ad revenue and existing mainly as a part of a college curriculum where DJ kids played whatever they wanted to an audience within two miles of the broadcast tower, but that was about it for variety.
The FM radio band was a curiosity back then, with few stations, and very few of which had programming anybody listened to. Then in about 1967 or so, FM music stations popped up all over the USA. I guess the bandwith was cheap for start-ups to begin broadcasting without much in the way of advertisers to provide revenue in the absence of a proven audience. I vaguely recall that maybe the FCC may have changed its regulations as to FM broadcasting.
They sprung up to play the "new music" that you couldn't hear on Top 40 stations. Musicians were experimenting with creating new music in great contrast to the stale Top 40 song trope, basically a 2:30 second long song in a verse-chorus-verse-instrumental-verse-chorus tried and true song-structure that readily allowed for the playing of lots of commercials in between the songs. All of society was changing, too, with the acceptance of The Pill and the feeling of personal freedom (irresponsibility?) championed by hippie culture and it popularization of recreational drugs. No kid really wants to adopt the music of his parents' generation as his own. He wants his own set of sounds and bands. The younger generation was attracted to the fledgling FM radio stations and the new music they played. It was new mainly because it fused together rock music with other musical genres - jazz, country, folk, classical, etc.
The Beatles played a role in the musical revolution by becoming so popular worldwide that they could put out new records that did not follow Top 40 conventions, opening that door up to lots of other bands putting out fusion music.
IMHO, the best of the new music fused rock with classical. The result was multi-layered longer compositions which weaved together distinct movements. Yes and Genesis fall into that category. Early King Crimson, not so much, but clearly complex and highly artistic work. At best, I'd say the Moody Blues are "prog lite" and get too much credit for the simple idea of incorporating a symphony orchestra into "Days of Future Past". Oddly enough, one of the first truly progressive songs was Procal Harum's "In Held Twas In I", released in 1967.
There is no logical reason to think just one band "created progressive rock". There was for a time a sub-genre of rock music known as psychedelic rock. Those bands tended to jam and produce some great epics, like "The Fool", by Quicksilver Messenger Service", released in 1968. It is really difficult to honestly differentiate early prog rock from good psychedelic rock.
Prog rock would never have taken off absent the advent of FM radio to introduce it to the listening public. Yes, for example, could fill a baseball stadium, or sell out large indoor arenas for multiple nights in the same metro area. Prog rock was big from about 1971-1976, until the next big thing came along to take its place. FM radio stations had become popular enough to attract lots of ad revenue and no longer played epic long tunes and became "album oriented rock" stations, sticking to airing "deep cuts" from the albums of very popular bands to create variety. They didn't readily play longer songs anymore. Too many commercials to run.
The next step is, Close to the Edge. Another sonic knockout.
I wouldn't delve too deeply into the lyrics meaning in Yes during the 70s. I think they were more focused on the sound of the words and the rhythmic nature of the consonants than in any literal meaning. Still, like refrigerator magnet poetry, they ALMOST make sense. As to who first created this type of music, that's debatable. Most point to early King Crimson, or The Moody Blues, or even Yes themselves. Yes are often referred to as the archetype of symphonic prog, featuring all the complex layers of sound you noticed. Thank you for reacting!
OK! Now check out Jon Anderson and Band Geeks live version on YT just released about 11 days ago. 80 year old Jon sounds good as ever and the band is phenominal. Possibly the best live version ever. My alltime favorite song that I saw Yes do about 40 times. Anderson/Geeks are astounding!
The title track on that album "Close to the Edge" is considered by many to be the numbr one prog rock song. YES was one of the founders of prog rock. I suggest you do "Awaken" next. It takes you on an uplifting spiritual journey. Here's a great live version: th-cam.com/video/nDXccU0xgNo/w-d-xo.html or the studio version. But it's amazing how close the live version is to the studio version.
Ditto!
As much as I love the live versions, I would recommend studio versions for first listens.
Check out Genesis too.
I like you. You know your stuff, but now I'm going to eplain the genesis of Prog, as I remember it at the time.
After much discussion with colleagues (I'm a musician/vocalist), the consensus is that the Beatles started venturing into what would become prog, with the second side of Abby Road, which consisted of different songs, but the songs led directly into eachother without ending. I remember realizing this, when I listened to it, at 15. It was right at this point that the Moody Blues released Days of Future Past, which mixed rock with "classical" in a new and exciting way, and the genii was out of the bottle. At this point, Jon Anderson and Chris Squire were deciding to take it to a new level, and thus Yes was founded.
At the same time, I have to add, Emerson, Lake and Palmer were getting very serious with a prog that was more modern jazz, and again, thrilling prog. And now there were several such bands. I'll add that Geddy Lee has said "Without Yes, there is no Rush."
Seen Yes and the numerous versions of the band and this sing is almost an ever present in the sent list. However, amongst the improvements they made are Steve Howe being more restrained laid back with the pedal steel playing and Chris Squire playing mouth organ. This was Bill Brufords last record until AWBH and he composed the eclipse sectuon that is the standout bit for me. Check out some Bruford especially his first three solo records. Incredible musician
This heavily orchestral side of progressive rock mostly traces back to The Moody Blues as well as King Crimson's debut album. The way this particular song mixes pastoral passages with folk and rock can also be heard in early Genesis and Renaissance.
The lyrics are important because 'And You And I' refer to the same individual being.
Save Close to the Edge & Awaken...I would highly suggest "Turn of the Century" on the Going For The One album. "Modern Classical".... ...and they sounded as good Live.
This is a love song, believe it or not. Don't worry about the Lyrics - a form of poetry most of us struggle with. Needs to listen multiple times before it becomes super-addictive. I'm in my mid-70's and still addicted. They are a unique band. Sadly, now only two are still around - Steve How and Jon Anderson.
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What?? Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford are both still around!
I think the Moody Blues started the idea of multilevel progression with a classical edge mixed in.
Listen to “Close to the Edge” Please, you deserve it.
Emotional journey, fish out of water , spilt milk jellyfish. Kings x enjoy , river man nick drake , I could go on & on a time before suits x
It could be said that King Crimson started it The Beatles White album is quite Prog
❤️🙏😃
Wait til you hear Heart of the Sunrise. Jon is the best vocalist.
The British came first. King Crimson, Yes, ELP, Genesis.
Styx was heavily influenced by them.
Styx was heavily influenced by Yes
Styx and Kansas was the good try to make prog music in the USA...but brits made it better...
Styx stole everything from Genesis, Yes , and Pink Floyd.