{"id":22638,"date":"2022-03-30T05:30:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T09:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22638"},"modified":"2022-02-28T14:23:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T19:23:29","slug":"march-through-time-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/30\/march-through-time-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"March Through Time: Yes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I love Yes. The progressive rock brand has a distinctive style that has served it well for more than a half-century. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to see the group live onstage a few times, and I\u2019ve interviewed no less than eight of its musicians (some more than once). Their career has had its ups and downs, though: some albums are desert island discs, while others are, well, less immediate. Here\u2019s my rundown. (Note: The Trevor Rabin era and later has some really good music, but \u2013 with one exception \u2013 I\u2019ll address it only briefly and in my concluding bit.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-19369\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/yes_drama.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/yes_drama.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/yes_drama-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i><b>Yes<\/b><\/i><b> (1969)<\/b> \u2013 Embryonic and with few hints of the direction they\u2019d soon chart, it\u2019s still worth a listen.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Time and a Word<\/b><\/i><b> (1970)<\/b> \u2013 The title track and a few other songs (including a Richie Havens cover) are great. The rest is merely okay.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>The Yes Album<\/b><\/i><b> (1971) <\/b>\u2013 A desert island disc. Thrilling, and not a speck of filler. If you\u2019re going for just the one album (as it were), this is it.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Fragile<\/b><\/i><b> (1971) <\/b>\u2013 As superb and expressive a keyboardist Rick Wakeman is, <i>Fragile<\/i> didn\u2019t mark an improvement over <i>The Yes Album<\/i>. But then it\u2019s hard to improve upon perfection. Still essential.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Close to the Edge<\/b><\/i><b> (1972)<\/b> \u2013 In which the long-form approach of <i>The Yes Album<\/i> is pursued again, and in superb fashion. Must-own.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Yessongs<\/b><\/i><b> (1973) <\/b>\u2013 The rare triple-live album that justifies its length. If live albums are your thing, it\u2019s a must-have; if not, not-so-much.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Tales from Topographic Oceans<\/b><\/i><b> (1973) <\/b>\u2013 Here the band does long-form again, but somehow with diminished results. It fails to thrill in the way the three before it did.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Relayer<\/b><\/i><b> (1974)<\/b> \u2013 Another great keyboardist, Patrick Moraz, but fewer memorable melodic bits.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Going for the One<\/b><\/i><b> (1977)<\/b> \u2013 Better and more sharply focused, but somehow failing to capture the Yes essence.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Tormato<\/b><\/i><b> (1978)<\/b> \u2013 Not truly memorable. Not bad, either \u2013 it\u2019s no ELP\u2019s <i>Love Beach<\/i> \u2013 but less than essential.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Drama<\/b><\/i><b> (1980)<\/b> \u2013 An unlikely return. The first truly great Yes LP since<i> Close to the Edge<\/i>, despite it being made with only two of the musicians who recorded that record (Steve Howe and Chris Squire). Dismissed at the time but now recognized as a classic. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/18\/yes-drama-at-40-a-critical-look-back-at-the-bands-most-controversial-lp\/\">More about <i>Drama<\/i> here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Fly From Here<\/b><\/i><b> (2011)<\/b> \u2013 After <i>Drama<\/i>, the band\u2019s history gets even more convoluted (and that\u2019s saying something). Unexpectedly, nearly the same <i>Drama<\/i> lineup got together to make an album in 2011. Even though it features some, er, recycled material, it feels very much a part of the band\u2019s early run of classic albums. Required.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I first saw Yes on the <i>90125 <\/i>tour, and it was quite impressive. That album holds up quite well, even though it has a very \u201cparachute pants \u201880s\u201d feel. <i>Big Generator<\/i> was less of the same. <i>Union<\/i> was more boring than <i>Tales<\/i>. <i>Talk<\/i> would have been fine if they\u2019d called themselves something different. <i>Magnification<\/i> sounded great but was still a bit short on hooks.<i> Heaven &amp; Earth<\/i> and <i>The Quest<\/i>, sadly, didn\u2019t do a thing for me. The others, I never heard \u2018em.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love Yes. The progressive rock brand has a distinctive style that has served it well for more than a half-century. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to see the group live [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-review","cat-27-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22640,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638\/revisions\/22640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}