Latest 'Yes' live album

[visog]

He is a great player - just saw him with Barry Garlow... But at the end of the date he's a hired hand and tributing one of his idols.

Totally different to writing the parts.

Everest conquered during the jubilee was a huge milestone and celebrated internationally. Now, pretty much every decent climber does it at some point if they have the money.

Collective learning is a trait that keeps us humans leaping ahead but it tends to downplay the achievement of the pioneer. I can't get too excited when an 8-year old does a decent job of 'Roundabout' on YouTube as I've had a virtuoso definitive version since 1971.

 

[Bilbo]

I am a 40 year Yes fan and would have to give my vote to the CTTE line-up but, for me, THE defining characteristic of Yes was always Jon Anderson. Listening to JA's solo albums suggests to me that his role was central to the Yes aesthetic. I love it all, though, and think that bad Yes is better than most other Prog/Rock/Pop. Rabin was, for me, too conventional a player to interest me and his involvement in Yes could have been any session guy. But it's all good. I love Tormato, Drama, Relayer, Tales of Top: all of it. 

Edited September 26, 2018 by Bilbo

[sunfish]

Just bought Chris Squire’s Fish out of water remix cd. Had the vinyl in the 70’s, then the cd, now the remix. Still stands up as a stunning album. A true original innovator. Always loved what he played. I still listen to Fragile and CTTE. Great bass sound. But every time I’ve tried a Rickenbacker it felt like a plank. 

[spectoremg]

21 minutes ago, sunfish said:

Just bought Chris Squire’s Fish out of water remix cd. Had the vinyl in the 70’s, then the cd, now the remix. Still stands up as a stunning album. A true original innovator. Always loved what he played. I still listen to Fragile and CTTE. Great bass sound. But every time I’ve tried a Rickenbacker it felt like a plank. 

Is the remix worth it? I've always been disappointed with the woolly sound of the original. 

[sunfish]

After only one play through, The remix doesn’t sound that much different to the old cd version. However you also get a remastered cd which has much better clarity. But imho it loses some of the warmth. But it’s still worth the dosh.

You also get the Squire/White Run with the Fox tracks. (?!)

 

[wateroftyne]

Thread revival. I've just picked up the ARW Blu-Ray thingy and it's bloody great.  The performances, visuals and mix are marvellous.

That is all.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

23 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Thread revival. I've just picked up the ARW Blu-Ray thingy and it's bloody great.  The performances, visuals and mix are marvellous.

That is all.

The canned applause is distracting, and frankly bizarre, but the performances and the sheer joy is something to behold. Pomeroy is amazing.

[wateroftyne]

6 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

The canned applause is distracting, and frankly bizarre, but the performances and the sheer joy is something to behold. Pomeroy is amazing.

Yeah, the applause is odd but I can switch off to it.

What a band, man.. fantastic.

[spectoremg]

The scarf on the end of Lee's Rick. Crazy guy. Jon's voice is amazing.

Who's was the old fat guy wandering around the crowd in a cape? 😂

Edited September 25, 2018 by spectoremg

[Witters]

Big fan up to and including Topographic Oceans, still some of my favourite music..  Steve Howe was one of my major influences, in fact they all influenced my musical thinking. I also like “going for the one”, “talk”, “drama” for the bass work, “magnification” is ok,, my favourite is “Yessongs”, I love the energy!

I’ve seen them five times, one of which may have been the symphonic tour. However, I think Howe has lost the plot.  I can’t blame him for continuing but his version of the band has been getting steadily worse for years.  The music is dull, performances that I’ve seen on YouTube have been lacklustre; no energy any more, tempos are down.  I get it, they’re knocking on but really?  Since Howe went digital his tone sucks. I could say more but I’ll stop here.  At least I have the early stuff.

Now for ARW...Pomeroy (?) on bass is brilliant and the drummer has the energy to propel the band. If Yes are to be a covers band then have this rhythm section. As much as I liked Rabin on Talk he mangles the other Yes material, just as Howe would mangle the Rabin stuff, and I’d mangle both!

Ok, I’ve wanted to say that for years, lol!  I am very disappointed cos I used to love this band.  Another live (or studio) album? No thanks.

[Bilbo]

They lost me at 90125.I recently revisited Big Generator and it does nothing for me. I have not heard anything after that. I keep thinking I should be never get to it. 

 

Howe is a scrappy guitar player but somehow it works. Like Steve Hackett. 

[wateroftyne]

I didn't really know any of the tunes from the Rabin era apart from 'Owner', but the handful on the new live album are pretty good in an 80s stadium way.

I've never thought of Steve Howe as scrappy - I think pretty much everything he plays has a point melodically or texturally, and his folk / roots / country influences really shine through to give it warmth. The opposite to, say, Alex Lifeson (speaking as a big Rush fan, btw).

I think Rabin generally does a good spin on SH's parts - I thought he'd throttle them in a flurry of notes, but no.

Incidentally, I just realised last night that poor Rick doesn't get a single writing credit on the new live record / DVD. A bit of an eye-opener, that.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

4 hours ago, Bilbo said:

 

 

Howe is a scrappy guitar player but somehow it works. Like Steve Hackett. 

I wouldn't describe either of those as scrappy... of course they could be when the music demanded it, but it didn't seem to be their inherent style.

3 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

 

Incidentally, I just realised last night that poor Rick doesn't get a single writing credit on the new live record / DVD. A bit of an eye-opener, that.

 

He co-wrote the songs they play from Fragile, but he was never credited at the time as he was still contracted to A&M as a solo artist. It would seem that still stands!

Edited September 26, 2018 by Cosmo Valdemar
spelling

[spectoremg]

1 hour ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I wouldn't describe either of those as scrappy... of course they could be when the music demanded it, but it didn't seem to be their inherent style.

He co-wrote the songs they play form Fragile, but he was never credited at the time as he was still contracted to A&M as a solo artist. It would seem that still stands!

I read somewhere that Rick is given credits on recent issues of Fragile?

[spectoremg]

4 hours ago, Bilbo said:

They lost me at 90125.I recently revisited Big Generator and it does nothing for me. I have not heard anything after that. I keep thinking I should be never get to it. 

 

Howe is a scrappy guitar player but somehow it works. Like Steve Hackett. 

Steve Hackett is NOT a scrappy guitar player! 😤

[visog]

Hmmm I can rationalise Steve Howe as being 'scrappy' and well as very good. I've never seen a guitar player use such consistently active parts all over the neck across an entire song-book. Which brings me to the elephant in the room as regards us bass players which is that I contend that Trevor Rabin's song writing and guitar-led arrangements with a lot of 80s power-chording left little room for Squire's glorious tone and counterpoint that worked so well with SH's active parts... Just saying. 

Would have preferred it if the 80s line-up had gone forward as 'Cinema' as originally intended, leaving Yes be.

[HengistPod]

Not many mentions for "Going For The One" here. It's one of my Top 5 albums by anyone, ever.

Sure, it's a little bit more polished, but IMHO every tune on it is utterly perfect.

(Perhaps this is related to my fungi experimentation of some decades ago, to which it was the main soundtrack.  )

[visog]

1 minute ago, HengistPod said:

Not many mentions for "Going For The One" here. It's one of my Top 5 albums by anyone, ever.

Sure, it's a little bit more polished, but IMHO every tune on it is utterly perfect.

(Perhaps this is related to my fungi experimentation of some decades ago, to which it was the main soundtrack.  )

Polished!? Production isn't...  agree the song-batch is though... amazing record.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

20 minutes ago, HengistPod said:

Not many mentions for "Going For The One" here. It's one of my Top 5 albums by anyone, ever.

Sure, it's a little bit more polished, but IMHO every tune on it is utterly perfect.

(Perhaps this is related to my fungi experimentation of some decades ago, to which it was the main soundtrack.  )

I love GFTO, but not fungi.

[Bassforradio]

2 hours ago, visog said:

Which brings me to the elephant in the room as regards us bass players which is that I contend that Trevor Rabin's song writing and guitar-led arrangements with a lot of 80s power-chording left little room for Squire's glorious tone and counterpoint that worked so well with SH's active parts... Just saying. 

Would have preferred it if the 80s line-up had gone forward as 'Cinema' as originally intended, leaving Yes be.

I have to disagree with this for two reasons. One, because I disagree (lol); CS is all over the Rabin albums just playing in a different style. And two, Chris was very happy to have 'easier' parts to play or perhaps to write in a simpler fashion. And I guarantee, had Chris wanted more room in the songs, it would have been accomodated as it was still his band.