Yes had a ton of hits

[Beaker42]

Had forgotten half of them. My favorite is “It Can Happen”.

 

[CouchCoach]

Had forgotten half of them. My favorite is “It Can Happen”.

One of my favorite all time bands except we made a mistake one time. We saw them on the Close to the Edge tour, their 2nd LP after a terrific debut one. That was a great show and I really got a sense for their musicianship and Rick Wakeman has always been my favorite keyboardist.

The mistake we made was buying tickets in advance on the Tormato tour. My wife hated real jazz and anything discordant, you know, music to impress musicians. We went outside to take a break and waited for them to finish that album and were surprised to see so many people outside for the same reason. Live, that album was sheer torture. It was an experiment that just didn't work.

But the thing I liked about seeing Yes live was the same thing about Pink Floyd, more respect for the music and less catcalls and yelling in the moments that were intended to be quiet for a reason. The knowledge of the fans for those moments from those two bands was impressive and appreciated by the bands. If they wanted some awesome person whistling as loud as he could for attention, they would have put that on the LP's.

I consider the marrying of Jon Anderson's vocals to that music to be among the very best ever created. And live, he was very impressive as he had to record before the advent of Pro Tools and he re-created that and hit those high notes every time. I think I would vote him as "hardest sing-a-long artist in rock history".

 

[Jimbo69]

Close to the edge is IMHO the best "prog rock" album ever. The line up for that album was just incrediible. I saw a documentary where bill bruford said that the reason he left the band was that he could'nt envisage yes ever making an album that great again. Wakeman said more or less the same when he left for the first time.

 

[CouchCoach]

Close to the edge is IMHO the best "prog rock" album ever. The line up for that album was just incrediible. I saw a documentary where bill bruford said that the reason he left the band was that he could'nt envisage yes ever making an album that great again. Wakeman said more or less the same when he left for the first time.

There was only one way to really appreciate that album, in the dark. Our "mood' song to accompany love making was "And You and I". Unfortunately, that album became off limits with her passing but I can still hear Anderson's haunting vocals in my mind. What an incredible voice.

 

[CouchCoach]

If you are a Yes fan, give Starcastle a shot. They were the closest sound to them that I ever found. Not in the same league but still had that phrasing to their music.

 

[Jimbo69]

There was only one way to really appreciate that album, in the dark. Our "mood' song to accompany love making was "And You and I". Unfortunately, that album became off limits with her passing but I can still hear Anderson's haunting vocals in my mind. What an incredible voice.

Sorry for your loss. I must admit yes are not my go to romantic music, more a glass or two music for me.

 

[Runwildboys]

I kinda like Yes, but for the sake of accuracy, OP, did they have a lot of bona fide hits, or just more songs that you like than you'd remembered?

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

You mean there were other prog rock bands other than Rush?

Anyways don't care for most of their stuff post late70s/early/80s. The stuff with Howe in the 70s was brilliant though.

 

[CouchCoach]

I kinda like Yes, but for the sake of accuracy, OP, did they have a lot of bona fide hits, or just more songs that you like than you'd remembered?

They had Album Rock hits before they became more mainstream and produced shorter songs.

Hits is a little bit ambiguous as that usually refers to Billboard singles hits but when Album Rock came into being they began to count it a little differently because that was not "normal" radio and also not as record label controlled as Top 40 and the "normal" radio formats.

The arrival of the Beatles changed the record industry from a singles driven 45 format to a 33 LP format and really began to affect the "hit" mentality of labels and radio. That also allowed artists to desert the time element that radio forced on the artists. Radio PD's hated "American Pie" because of the length and there wasn't a feasible way to do a radio edit down to 3 minutes.

It was great because bands like Yes, Zepp, Allman's had their outlet and could make the song as long as they thought necessary. There are two songs that were radio edited and it pissed me off then as it does now because the radio stations were basically saying the music doesn't matter when no one is singing, "Free Bird" and "Hotel California". There were many more and some Yes songs were done that way as well.

When I listen to music, I want to hear it is as the artist and composer wants me to hear it, not some jerkwad record exec.

The radio edits served to prove that there were at least two kinds of listeners to radio. Music people who used radio for exposure, to own music and support their favorites and radio people who are just radio people and want to hear more songs and the same ones over and over. And radio has actually gotten worse over the last few years with consolidation of stations and the emergence of the PPM for monitoring radio ratings. Only the "hits" and best tested music makes it.....music for the masses.

 

[Runwildboys]

They had Album Rock hits before they became more mainstream and produced shorter songs.

Hits is a little bit ambiguous as that usually refers to Billboard singles hits but when Album Rock came into being they began to count it a little differently because that was not "normal" radio and also not as record label controlled as Top 40 and the "normal" radio formats.

The arrival of the Beatles changed the record industry from a singles driven 45 format to a 33 LP format and really began to affect the "hit" mentality of labels and radio. That also allowed artists to desert the time element that radio forced on the artists. Radio PD's hated "American Pie" because of the length and there wasn't a feasible way to do a radio edit down to 3 minutes.

It was great because bands like Yes, Zepp, Allman's had their outlet and could make the song as long as they thought necessary. There are two songs that were radio edited and it pissed me off then as it does now because the radio stations were basically saying the music doesn't matter when no one is singing, "Free Bird" and "Hotel California". There were many more and some Yes songs were done that way as well.

When I listen to music, I want to hear it is as the artist and composer wants me to hear it, not some jerkwad record exec.

The radio edits served to prove that there were at least two kinds of listeners to radio. Music people who used radio for exposure, to own music and support their favorites and radio people who are just radio people and want to hear more songs and the same ones over and over. And radio has actually gotten worse over the last few years with consolidation of stations and the emergence of the PPM for monitoring radio ratings. Only the "hits" and best tested music makes it.....music for the masses.

That's why I hate the idea of buying songs online. Probably 50% or more of my favorite music is stuff I only ever heard because I bought the albums. Bands like Pink Floyd would probably never have survived in today's market place. "A whole album, based on one concept??? How uninteresting!"

 

[YosemiteSam]

No

 

[CouchCoach]

No

What was the question?

 

[CouchCoach]

That's why I hate the idea of buying songs online. Probably 50% or more of my favorite music is stuff I only ever heard because I bought the albums. Bands like Pink Floyd would probably never have survived in today's market place. "A whole album, based on one concept??? How uninteresting!"

I dunno, if you subscribe to a music service like Apple, the one I started using, you can choose songs, playlists or entire albums but you are dead on about the effect streaming is having on the creative side but there can also be a benefit.

If a band can only come up with 6 good songs, they can go the EP route and not have to do any additional filler songs or wait until they hit the magic number 10.

 

[CouchCoach]

Sorry for your loss. I must admit yes are not my go to romantic music, more a glass or two music for me.

Thanks, it's been over 7 years but it just doesn't want to even scab over. The first thing I did was start going through the music and eliminating what I knew I could never listen to again and that was a job since both of our careers had been around music and we spent a lot more time with our music than we did TV.

I had the blessing of finding the one, the one for a one woman man but the curse of losing her. But that blessing far outweighs the curse because I have good friends that have never found that person. That's how I sell myself when I get to feeling sorry for myself. But I had to find a new soundtrack for my self pity.

 

[YosemiteSam]

What was the question?

Yes

 

[CouchCoach]

Yes

Are you certain this time? This indecisiveness is wearing me out.

 

[Ranched]

What was the question?

Watch it. That llama was about to show up.

 

[Ranched]

Not my type of music. But always liked this song.

 

[CouchCoach]

Correction, Close to the Edge was their 3rd album, forgot about Fragile.

 

[CouchCoach]

This one best captures their ability to make movement within songs, a trait they were known for. The last 3 minutes is magical music at it's best.