Yes - Going For The One and Tormato. Yes experts what say you?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by stax o' wax, Jul 13, 2017.

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  1. DaveinMA

    DaveinMA Some guy

    For about a year now every time I see GFTO mentioned, this comes to mind.
    [​IMG]
    (From Prog Reviews Darren Lock on Youtube)
     
  2. petem1966

    petem1966 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy TX
    I like Turn of the Century and Wondrous Stories on GftO, but don't really care for the rest of the album. I do like Tormato a lot. Has just the right dose of Yes whimsy. :D
     
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  3. SurrealCereal

    SurrealCereal Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I like Going for the One. It's not quite as good as their classic work from 1970-1972, or even Relayer IMO, but it's still definitely worth listening to. I've only ever listened to Tormato once, and even then, it was on an extremely warped and scratched LP, but I remember not finding the music at all compelling.
     
  4. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    Two of the better songs...but still a long way away from the genius of those three albums. The melodies simply aren't as memorable IMO.
     
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  5. eeglug

    eeglug Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, USA
    GFTO - bad reverb, otherwise good material well played. My theory is they wanted the pipe organ, then decided the whole album needs to sound like we're in the furthest pew in the back of the church.

    Tormato - no reverb, which is better...well, maybe a bit too dry this time. But everything else...hmmm. Someone went up to the Yes vending machine and ordered all the right ingredients: yearning Jon vocals, catchy vocal harmonies, tweedly-tweedly Howe scales, diddly-diddly Wakeman flourishes, righteous Squire bass and propulsive White drumming. But then they asked for short songs. And then everything comes out in a strange jumbled order. So all the pieces are there, they just don't add up to a satisfying listen for me. I'm glad some of you like it though.

    Nonetheless these are decent albums and the last gasp for the classic 70s Yes lineup.
     
    Frankh likes this.
  6. tmwlng

    tmwlng Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denmark
    Enjoy and love Going for the One an awful lot, one of my first forays into progressive rock listening and probably my most listened to Yes album. To me Tormato suffers from tinny production, but in some songs it works quite well, Release Release being a good example. If they had made a whole album of songs sounding kind of like that, an insane tempo for the group, I would be pleased too. Two of my favorite Yes songs, however, are Onward and On the Silent Wings of Freedom. So all in all Tormato is all right.
     
  7. Brian Doherty

    Brian Doherty Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA
    I imagine some Yes fan after RELAYER thinking about the future, about how far and how much ground this band has covered in the past, what, 8 years? And wondering wow....what might YES be up to in like two more decades?? And then having a time traveler hand them a copy of TALK. I'd like to be fly on the wall for that impossible scenario.
     
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  8. Don't Kill The Whale: there is a good song under that crap production...
     
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  9. ledsox

    ledsox Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    True. That was to come on the next album with Circus of Heaven. :D
     
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  10. HippieDrill

    HippieDrill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento, Ca
    I like GFTO. "Wondrous Stories" is one of my favorite Yes songs. Tormato never really clicked with me. It's been a few years since i've heard either, though so both are due for a fresh listen.
     
  11. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    Tormato was the point where Anderson started to become a caricature of himself with the hippie-dippie new age mysticism growing increasingly trite. On the earlier albums, his lyrics often worked pretty well in a psychedelic word salad kind of way, abstruse and impenetrable, melding well with the music. Here, he's wearing it all out on his sleeve.

    Well now you've done it, making me play this album again! It's not without its moments, but even the best tracks don't quite seem to make it to full boil. As noted previously, the thinness of the production here does the material no favors. Where's the beef? Squire's ordinarily booming bass feels neutered and Wakeman's synth sounds are dire.
     
    Murph likes this.
  12. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    Going For The One is one of their best. Tormato is one of their worst. Though being at their concert in the round was cool.
     
  13. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    Yeah, was Yes trying to appeal to the punks or what!
     
  14. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    I wonder if he wrote the lyrics first.....or if he came up with words to fit after the music was done?
     
  15. Say It Right

    Say It Right Not for the Hearing Impaired

    Location:
    Niagara Falls
    They used the same design shop as Pink Floyd, Hipnosis. Probably their reputation got them the job. It's just that Roger Dean's work is part of the overall Yes image. Having said all that, GFTO is still a decent album
     
    California Couple likes this.
  16. izgoblin

    izgoblin Forum Resident

    The only thing I dismiss about GFTO is the cover. I don't need the psychoanalysis about it - I just don't want naked butt on my album cover. But more than anything, I don't want naked butt and a boring building on my Yes album right after a straight of album covers done by one of the masters, Roger Dean. As for the music within, it's not really a return to the earlier Wakeman era, but it does darn near reach that level of quality. It may even match it -- it's a close to perfect album overall.

    I personally REALLY like Tormato. Always have since I scored my copy in the budget bin back in the early '80s. And I actually like that cover too. Yes, we're starting to really hear a shift in quality of the material, but just because "Circus of Heaven" isn't "Close to the Edge" doesn't make it bad. "Onward" is such a beautiful song that my friends used it as their wedding song. "Arriving UFO" is dopey, but it has some cool sounds courtesy of Howe and Wakeman which, for a young izgoblin, epitomized what I loved the most about Yes. "On the Silent Wings of Freedom" is every bit as good as what's on GFTO for me.

    As far as I'm concerned, Yes could do no wrong for me in the 1970s. I even love Drama despite some lyrical awkwardness.
     
  17. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    I wish Darren and all those other youtube reviewers would show us something different than their ugly faces every time they did a review.
    I like hearing what they say, not having to look at them.
     
  18. DaveinMA

    DaveinMA Some guy

    Gee, he always has nice things to say about you.
     
  19. varispeed

    varispeed what if?

    Location:
    Los Angeles Ca
    I agree 4 out of 5 ain't bad. I can't stand Parallels and never could.
     
  20. varispeed

    varispeed what if?

    Location:
    Los Angeles Ca
    It may have been the greatest tour for lots of watchers. My interest in them was certainly winding down at that point after nine years of buying the albums and going to all the tour shows.
     
  21. Mike from NYC

    Mike from NYC Senior Member

    Location:
    Surprise, AZ
    Like you said the 'average' fan.

    I don't think GFTO is a masterpiece; I do think their first 3 albums were masterpieces especially 'The Yes Album' which radically changed their sound from Yes and Time and a Word and sounded quite different than anything else back in 1970. When I saw them as the opening act at the Academy of Music do 'The Yes Album' it blew me away as the album wasn't released yet - my friend Gary and I said this can't possibly be the same band.

    The Fragile and Close to the Edge tours were no different but by this time I came equipped with my 'Pink Floyd' concert pack - a hit of LSD and some Jack.

    By the time Close to the Edge was released Yes was facing some stiff prog rock competition by Genesis not to mention the Floyd.

    Oh, Yes opened for King Crimson when I first saw them in 1970.
     
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  22. HiredGoon

    HiredGoon Forum Resident

    You can GTFO if you don't like GFTO. Except for the title track; that GFTO and its annoying slide guitar can GTFO.

    Tormato can GTFO. Really, just GTFO, Tormato. Go home.

    --Geoff
     
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  23. HiredGoon

    HiredGoon Forum Resident

    (I had to sneak in a Beatles reference in my post above)

    --Geoff
     
  24. Dusty Chalk

    Dusty Chalk Grounded Space Cadet

    Yes discography
    Click on "average" -- Going for the One comes in a very close 5th. (If you graph the ratings, GftO is in the upper echelon, Tormato is clearly in the lower echelon.)
    YES
    From the powerful opening title track to the epic "Awaken", it's just a stupendous album.

    I think I personally like it more than Close to the Edge. (I really don't "get" And You & I in the same way that I "get" Turn of the Century.)
     
    stax o' wax likes this.
  25. SJB

    SJB Beloved Parasitic Nuisance

    Yes was the first group I really got into; I started paying attention to them when "Leave It" was on the charts.

    Going for the One is a terrific album, especially the 11/8 section of "Awaken" and one of my all-time favorite tracks, "Parallels." They were never going to recapture the early '70s glory days but the album stands tall on its own merits. I'd leap at the chance to buy a Steven Wilson expanded remix, but apparently the tapes are missing - which is odd because the 2003 remaster was maxed out with outtakes, so the tapes were known at the time. I loved the session/rehearsal home movies excerpted on the YesYears documentary and I'd love to see more - maybe on the hypothetical DVD/Blu-Ray if they ever find those tapes again.

    Tormato sounds more tired and you can tell the tank is running low - even moreso on the 1979 Paris tapes released on the expanded Drama. But there's some great stuff there, like On the Silent Wings of Freedom and Future Times/Rejoice. Not a bad album in its own right, but it's definitely overshadowed by its stronger siblings. It would probably have benefited from a better atmosphere at the sessions. You can tell from the 2003 bonus tracks that they were noodling rather aimlessly in the studio instead of coalescing around the best ideas.
     
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