[Jackangel]

Just in case there are a few Yesmen out there, I'll start a thread for discussing the band Yes in particular, or progressive rock bands/music in general. Might as well keep it as general as possible, so that more people feel like participating.

So what are your favorite songs/albums? Again, that goes for other bands as well (Rush, Floyd, etc...). Come to think of it, y'all can say whatever's on your mind about anything you feel is related to this genre. Love it or hate it, whatever.

Personally, I don't know much about Yes or prog. rock. I've gotten into Yes in a big way, but only in the last 2-3 months, but by now I have nearly all their albums (have some parts here and there yet to listen to). Luckily, I don't have to know much, but I can get by on the illusion of knowledge/experience/intelligence...sometimes it's more interesting that way.

I suppose I do like the earlier Yes music a lot, perhaps even most. But I love all the different sounds they've gone through over the last 3 decades. Ok, enough of the BS, here's a short list to start off (much is left off here on purpose):

Time and a Word (Everydays, Time and a Word)
Close to the Edge (all 3 songs kick ass)
The Yes Album (I've seen all good people, Starship Trooper)
Fragile (South Side of the Sky, Roundabout, Heart of the Sunrise)

 

[tehpressman]

They're using Yes: Owner of a Lonely Heart on one of the radio stations in GTA3: Vice City

my favorite albums would have to be:

Pink Floyd - Animals
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

I haven't heard any of their full albums yet, but I bought Camel - Echoes (2 disc retrospective) and loved it (especially the first disc - early years). I'll probably buy their s/t (1st) and Mirage first, since those both of my favorite songs from Echoes. So I'm a little mad that I bought a compilation instead of their full albums.

I've also heard a few songs by Eloy and I'm thinking of buying some of their earlier albums (Inside, Floating, Power & The Passion).

 

[Braver]

Yes can be pretty cool. I got Close To The Edge and Fragile, like em both, but Fragile would be my favourtie.

some more prog favourites, mostly Floyd-ish stuff:

Camel - Moonmadness
King Crimson - In The Court..., Discipline is very very good as well, but totally different
Pendragon - The World
Porcupine Tree - Lightbulb Sun

more on the metal side of prog, Dream Theater - Scenes From a Memory is very good too.

there's a lot of prog coming out still, not just the big ones from the 70s, but I'm not sure if it's all that significant. lots of sound-alikes as well.

Yessers should check Spock's Beard. tho their main man has recently left, they've made a lot of good music already. sort of like a Yes-and-Beatles tribute band, but with their own music.

 

[Jackangel]

Aye, both Close to the Edge and Fragile may be my top picks as well. As for King Crimson, I believe Jon Anderson (lead vocals for Yes) has worked with them. I've not heard anything of theirs. My exploration of this genre is practically nil outside of Yes, a bit of Rush (Chronicles/2112), and Floyd (Dark Side/Lapse/Atom Heart Mother/Wish You Were Here/others which I have, but haven't really listened to yet). Someone sent me a 2-disc concept album of Spock's Beard, and I liked a number of songs, but got rid of it because of poor mp3 quality (and I'm not such a fan of the idea of concept albums for the most part). Porcupine Tree will be opening for Yes on some shows during the current leg of their 2002 Tour (just started up).

peace

 

[davidcotton]

Shock horror here, but I never really liked Jon Andersons voice that much to be honest. Too high pitched and whiney from what I've heard. I prefer male vocalists to be a "bit" lower pitched.

Cheers...

 

[Zanth]

I am not familiar with much of Yes' music but if Rush is considered Progressive Rock, I have been nuts over them for the past few months. I recently picked up Different Stages Live which was a great introduction to their music (a three disc set spanning their career). How about Joy Division and Interpol? Can they be considered Progressive Rock?

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jackangel As for King Crimson, I believe Jon Anderson (lead vocals for Yes) has worked with them.

I don't think so.

Zanth -- Rush, yes, very much so (with Yes, they are my two favourite prog bands ever); Joy Division, no (but you're welcome to like them, I do); Interpol, dunno.

I just wanted to put my hands up in the air and yell, "Yay Prog!" Dagnabit, where's Demetrio? I think we chased him away because we didn't have enough threads like this one...

My favourite current neo-prog band is Porcupine Tree.

Neo-Prog -- I'm a bit harsh with my definition of truly progressive music, there are a lot of bands that many consider progressive that I do not -- Pink Floyd, for example. I mean, they wrote one song with an obscure rhythm ("Money"), AFAIK, that just does not cut the mustard, IMHO. I love them, don't get me wrong, Animals and Wish You Were Here are my two favourite albums of all time, but...they just ain't prog.

EDIT: PS David Cotton -- don't think of him as human, think of him as an angel. I found Geddy Lee's voice difficult to get into the first time I heard Rush (All the World's a Stage), but was so blown away by the music that I got over it, but with Jon Anderson, I never had a problem with it for some reason.

 

[JohnActon]

Jon Anderson sang lead vocals for King Crimson on the song 'Prince Rupert Awakes' found on KC's third album, "Lizard".

I've got tickets to see Yes next week - should be very cool, as they have Rick Wakeman back and are reputed to be playing some stuff they don't ever play ('South Side of the Sky' and maybe something from "Drama").

My tickets don't say anything about Porcupine Tree opening for them. That's a bummer, as I'm starting to get into those guys and would like to see them live.

King Crimson is also getting ready to release a new album and will tour next spring.

It's a good time to be a prog-fan!

 

[ArChaos]

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnActon Jon Anderson sang lead vocals for King Crimson on the song 'Prince Rupert Awakes' found on KC's third album, "Lizard".

Yeah, great song, great vocals and great album

- hard to find a vocal replacement to Greg Lake... Anyway, every new King Crimson album is a different experience... Well worth checking are also *Starless and Bible Black* - that's where from Tool took some of their influences(?) and *Larks' Tongues in Aspic*; I also like *Islands*very much in spite of being an underated album by some critics. *In the Wake of Poseidon *- their second album is a masterpiece - 30 years old

.
Going back to YES, I also think Fragile and Close to the Edge are amongst their best albums and not a bit less - *Tales from Topographic Oceans*(yeah, yeah, I know oppinions are divided - (Quote from A.M.G - "Either the finest record or the most overblown album in Yes' output. When it was released, critics and fans raved over its 20-minute-long tracks, each taking up one side of a double album, and it sold very well. By the 1980s, it was being derided by critics as one of the worst examples of progressive rock's over-indulgent nature"... ) blah, blah, blah...listen to it a FEW TIMES - then we'll talk about "progressive rock's over-indulgent nature"

.
Jackangel - If you want to explore deeper into Progressive Rock music, the Golden Era was around the early seventies . There are so many groups... beside the ones already mentioned here I would recomend:
Genesis - Selling England by the pound, Nursery Crime, Foxtrot and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. After Peter Gabriel left they became pop
Jethro Tull - Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, The Passion Play
Emerson Lake and Palmer - Emerson Lake and Palmer , Trilogy ,Tarkus, Brain Salad Surgery, Works I & II
Rick Wakeman-The Six Wives of Henry 8th, Journey to the Center of the Earth
Gentle Giant-Gentle Giant, Aquiring the Taste, Three Friends, In a Glass House, Free Hand and Octopus
Groups like Soft Machine, Van der Graaf Generator, Tangerine Dream, Marillion, Vangelis, Curved Air, Roxy Music, The Strawbs, Frank Zappa!!! of course...There are so many others that don't just pop up to my mind right now...I f you're interested I'll just digg into my older disk collection... Anyway, all THE ALBUMS I've specifically mentioned here are cornerstones in the progg. rock music. From the more contemporary groups I think the most prominent is Dream Theater - they have a lot of good albums over a span of more than ten years.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Tales from Topographic Oceans isn't as overblown by today's standards, in which anything less than 70 minutes is considered "short". It's only 80 minutes. People who think it's overblown haven't listened to it lately. I find it particularly well-suited to being heard in one sitting. You repeat something enough times, and it becomes true, whether it was true before or not. This is one of the reasons I hate the press. (I don't really hate the press, but there are things about them that I hate -- their treatment of prog is one of them.)

 

[scottpaul_iu]

Great thread:

Fave King Crimson album is either Red or Three of a Perfect Pair
Fave Yes disc is either The Yes Album, Going for the One, Drama or Talk.
Jethro Tull - Broadsword and the Beast is my favorite.
Thanks for giving me some new names to check out as well.
Last year in Detroit I saw King Crimson with John Paul Jones as special guest open up for Tool. That was one intense show.

 

[Jackangel]

Has anyone heard the Yes song "To be alive (hep yadda)" ?
It's off The Ladder, one of their newer albums (1999).

When I first heard it, I loved it, and I still love it, because it moves me...the name of the song and the feel of the song go together so perfectly, because the music actually does make me feel alive and happy. Not many songs, even ones I really like, give me that feeling.

piece,
rp:AUM

 

[Braver]

Quote:

Originally posted by scottpaul_iu Great thread: Fave King Crimson album ...Three of a Perfect Pair

oh, seriously? I already had Beat and Discipline (both rule in their own way), and decide to get the third of the series as wel...two great songs on side one (tho the two-guitar trick was getting old), but not as good as the songs on Beat, and the rest ranging from tedious to annoying...

as usual for King Crimson I guess. loved and loathed by critics as well as fans (tho some seem to like everything they do...

)

 

[scottpaul_iu]

Yep, I really like Three Of A Perfect Pair. But I really like Adrian Belew. I took guitar lessons from him. I grew up in Cincy and he lived/lives in N. Kentucky. I just really like listening to the sounds he gets from his guitar.

Ok, I guess I really like Red a lot more. Do you like that one?

 

[scottpaul_iu]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jackangel Has anyone heard the Yes song "To be alive (hep yadda)" ? It's off The Ladder, one of their newer albums (1999). When I first heard it, I loved it, and I still love it, because it moves me...the name of the song and the feel of the song go together so perfectly, because the music actually does make me feel alive and happy. Not many songs, even ones I really like, give me that feeling. piece, rp:AUM

I liked the Ladder. I really liked Yes' last album, Magnification. Great stuff. They play with an orchestra on that album.