If We Had Word Enough and Time: A Venture Through the World of "Yes" Music, For All Good Peoples.

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by juss100, Oct 2, 2019.

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  1. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    1968 and Before

    The journey starts with this psychedelic band called Mabel Greer’s Toyshop. Bassist Chris Squire joined the band in 1967 after The Syn broke up and fellow guitarist bandmate Peter Banks joined him.

    This is the type of music The Syn were creating. Grounded is the B-side to Created By Clive and has a bit more guts and originality to it for my money.

     
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  2. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
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    Ultimately the band were also to welcome into the fold singer Jon Anderson, drummer Bill Bruford, and keyboardist Tony Kaye and the name was to change to Yes in May 1968 at Peter Banks’ suggestion. Jon Anderson had previously recorded singles with The Warriors and Hans Christian Anderson, some fairly average pop tunes but worth hearing for Anderson’s unique falsetto in a different context (which I find surprisingly gravelly at times). Tony Kaye played with a band called The Federals which is outside the scope of this project (i.e. I don’t like early 60s R&R much).

     
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  3. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
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    You can hear what Mabel Greer’s Toyshop got up to in the early days if you like. Their earlier demo work was released after Chris Squire’s death. It’s not really too interesting but you can hear the germ of what Yes were to become, buried in there somewhere. You might also recognise the song below in its proto-form, though I don’t think without hindsight you’d be so convinced it would go on to become such a stellar album opener. The band reformed in 2015 with some of the original members and released some new and reworked music from Squire/Banks as a tribute. Amongst other things there are versions of Beyond and Before and Sweetness that won’t set your world on fire.

     
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  4. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    1969

    Yes first single, Sweetness, was released on July 4th 1969 but we'll skip ahead to July 24th and the release of their self-titled debut album Yes. We'll go with the british cover, although I don't like it much. Here it is

    [​IMG]

    It feels like they could use a better logo.

    I do however, passionately love the opening track Beyond and Before.
    Anyone who has doubts about Pete Banks as a guitarist need go no further than this dazzling track where he has such sympathy with a Chris Squire whose chops as a lead-bassist already seem quite developed and help push this song towards having that unique sound. In fact, I'm already at the point I can't tell if we're listening to bass or lead guitar a lot of the time. After that extraordinary intro in comes Jon with those great lyrics that could have been written by him "Sparkling trees of silver foam Cast shadows soft in winter home Swaying branches breaking sound Lonely forests trembling ground" but it doesn't matter because that voice, another thing which already sets Yes apart as a band that are something truly special.

    What I like least about this song is that there are some Beatles style harmonies in there. I don't think that Yes use them anywhere else and I don't need to be reminded of The Beatles. Still, Yes show that influence later on the album as well and maybe it's just a nod to the fact that we're headed into genuinely new territory.

     
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  5. Ignatius

    Ignatius Forum Resident

    I had this on a "Broken Dreams" freakbeat comp.
     
  6. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    I See You

    Next up is Yes' take on this song from The Byrds. I've always wondered why they covered the specific songs that they did. My latest theory is that they just happened to be songs that Jon Anderson dug, The Byrds original being kinda mellow folk-pop seems right up his straight. It may be that the dung parts fir his vocal range fairly well.

    I See You - The Byrds

    Regardless, what yes do with it is pretty astonishing for the time. In some ways, listening now it does feel like it's the song and then this overthetop instrumental break that's entirely unnecessary and then back to the song. When you compare that to their later work it seems utterly gratuitous and haphazard. But, on top of this astonishing break which is the first and perhaps best time the band really get to stretch their legs a bit, this version also swings a lot more than The Byrds do and Anderson really attacks the vocals like they mean something. What I love about Yes' cover versions is how little respect they show for the original without needing to undermine the integrity of the original song. two tracks in and Yes have certainly made a statement.

     
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  7. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    Bodast with Steve Howe also had some recordings that later the Steve Howe parts were added to the Yes mix.

    I'll have to check out what Mabel Greer's Toyshop recordings have surfaced since I last went on a quest for them a few years ago. I've always been fond of that daft name, dated though it would've become; could anyone have stopped themselves from buying anything with that name on it?

    There is a collection on DVD of early Yes on German tv (The Lost Broadcasts) with Peter Banks, and a matching one (in white) with Steve Howe miming the Peter Banks bits on danish tv. Hopefully not expensive OOP items now.
    [​IMG]
     
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  8. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA

    Only Yes-related track ever covered by the Lyres! (Who are not Canadian, whatever Youtube says...)

     
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  9. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    Thankfully youtube has come to the rescue on this. I discovered this for the first time the other day, so haven't had a chance to check it out in its entirety. always good to get more live performances from the band, especially with Banks as there aren't too many from that era. Survival is sounding really great there! Also some Tony Kaye in action which is cool because he's sortof the lost Yes keyboardist, really, isn't he? I don't think anyone really thinks of his contributions to the band ...



    I hadn't thought too hard on the Mabel Greer's Toyshop name. Thinking about it, they went from this bizarre OTT name to ... "Yes" which is a big leap which seems to have worked. I guess the former probably does sound more like a psychedelic band and maybe they wanted to move away from that a bit!

    The Bodast ... Also I only discovered the other day and hadn't realised! I will definitely come back to that influence when I get to Steve Howe joining the band and The Yes Album!
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2019
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  10. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    Yesterday and Today

    Here we have my least favourite track on the first album. Actually, probably one of my least favourite Yes tracks until we hit the 80s. There's little interesting in the way of instrumentation or arrangement here, it's just a shmushy lyric above some fairly average, twee music, although it does build a little towards the end. They repeat this style a couple of times to much better effect. Not even Anderson's vocals can particularly save it for me.

     
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  11. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
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    Looking Around

    You don't always expect "fun" songs from Yes or anything you could easily categorise as pop, but this almost fits the bill and it's a lovely little track to close out the first half of the album. Tony Kaye really comes to the fore on this one. perhaps his keyboard chops aren't mind-blowing but that's a lovely sound he makes to give this song its unique character. I'm still really loving Jon in this context, he seems to be really enjoying himself. It's probably a little bit basic, still from the other performers - well, we know that they can offer more but they've chosen to step back for a little filler. A nice groove here - not one I play a lot outside of an album listenthrough, but one I always enjoy.

     
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  12. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    It was worthy of a picture sleeve... and there they are, Yes, looking around...
    [​IMG]

    Peter Banks designed that first logo, it was on his guitar. The Close To the Edge Roger Dean one though is one for the ages.
     
  13. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    Harold Land

    First of a few with a great, great intro. I'd never realised how dominant Tony Kaye was on this record. Not that he shows Wakeman like wizardry with the keyboard or anything but there's such a pleasing vibe to it and we're definitely in the realm of prog rather than anything else. This has never been one of my favourite songs, possibly because I find it lyrically somewhat banal, but there's a lovely journey to it, starting slowly and then building to an Anderson led climax - indeed another song I can't imagine working as well without him. Again I'd criticise this a little for not really highlighting what the Banks/Squire combination can really do. Yet there's some lovely little nuanced drumming from Bruford and structurally this just feels different somehow. I dig it.

     
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  14. Rufus rag

    Rufus rag Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Love the first YES album
    I came in at Close to the Edge but whilst different , the first two albums didnt disappoint. Lucky to have some good quality live shows from this time period.
     
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  15. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    @juss100

    This discussion didn't get very far:laugh: Be nice to see it pick up, as contentious as Yes discussions can be...The three part Yes Album By Album discussion is a few years old already.
     
  16. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    My hope was for contentious discussions :D There's a lot of different, shall we say, feeling when it comes to the works of Yes... But yeah, this one never picked up the pace!!
     
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  17. My introduction to the first and second Yes albums was this thing of beauty:
    [​IMG]

    I think they did a good job selecting tracks considering they only had about 44 minutes to work with. The cover of Every Little Thing was sorely missed. Looking Around and Survival are my favorite two tracks from the debut album -great proto-prog!
     
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  18. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    I still feel sad for that baby bird in Survival. :cry:
     
  19. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    I dunno, been on a big Yes kick lately- only trouble with this discussion is I've yet to hear the first two albums (I'll get round to it sooner or later), so I'd be contributing starting with The Yes Album...

    Been contemplating an ELP Album by album thread as well...if this one doesn't take off in the next few days, I might fire up the ELP...
     
  20. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    Every Little Thing

    Well I'll press on then since Yes seem to be the hot topic on the forum again - with one of the more distinctive and memorable tracks from the album. Yes were never a covers band, or didn't want to be, but it was natural for bands of this era to start out with a lot of covers to build audiences and to supplement their own material. Yes being Yes very much wanted to make it their own and the song now has an extended opening section incorporating the riff from Day Tripper and a lot of beefy guitar courtesy of Banks and Squire. Anderson's vocal is as perfect as it could be. This is a perfect example of a proto prog piece, there's a real desire to extend beyond the original material but it's too literally extending the material through making it longer and heavier. All of the ideas come in the intro, the psychedelic noodling, the building of tension, the breaking out of chaos into melody - you can see where Yes are going but it's still in a straitjacket. Nevertheless this band have such great sympathy with one another and how hard does Bruford whack those drums?

    Also of note is that Yes tended to cover Eleanor Rigby Live in a similar way but only really poor audio exists of this now and presumably they didn't like this as much since it didn't make the album (To my ears it doesn't suit their style quite so well)

     
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  21. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    I wonder if a lot of people haven't heard these first two albums? Obviously The Yes story begins anew with The Yes Album and that's where their work becomes celebrated. As a Yes nut as a teen, though, these first two records were total treasures to me and as an adult they are still both fascinating to see how they get to that point, and also they're full of great tunes themselves and I listen to them a decent amount.

    But fire up ELP anyway - I'd definitely be on board :D
     
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  22. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    Sweetness

    Ahhh Sweetness, I love and I hate you. Yes aren't exactly known for their ballads, though they dabble with the format in some of their later 70s output. The first couple of albums give us some though, as if they were an obligatory part of the album format somehow. Perhaps because Anderson has such a great voice they wanted to show it off to maximum effect, and Sweetness certainly achieves does this, but perhaps at the expense of the band who don't quite know what to do with themselves on this one and don't seem to feel that this is what they want to be doing. At one point you can feel Banks wanting everything to be heavier and Bruford frequently trying to up the pace a bit, and we end up with one big clash of rock and ballad.

    It's not a bad song at all and has a beautiful sweet, if slight, melody and Anderson does seem in his element. But it's still an odd choice and weirdly placed on the record; it kills the momentum a bit and since the next track embraces the slow style to much better, much proggier effect we don't really need it.

     
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  23. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Like I say, I just haven't gotten round to hearing Yes or Time And A Word- but I will. Full disclosure, Keystudio aside (which I half listened to once) I generally get off the Yes train after Drama. Not unlike with 80's Chicago, I'm inclined to think my missus is more familiar with the 80's Yes than I am. As for ELP, I'd need to psyche myself up to hear the 90's 'reunion' stuff or Emerson, Lake and Powell etc...my one experience with Love Beach was almost enough to scar me for life!:laugh:

    Nuthin' wrong with Yes being a "hot topic" IMO- how many silly "Does Paul or Ringo play drums on..." Beatles threads do we need?
     
  24. juss100

    juss100 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    London
    I don't think there's time to listen to everything. Yes have released 21 studio albums ... there aren't many artists I'm that dedicated to that I'd obsess over that many records of theirs. But we all have the odd one or two we want to hear everything for one reason or another. Since I know them well, personally I think there are gems in their later catalogue although the high watermark and consistency isn't there (how do you top Close to the Edge, anyway?).

    I've actually not heard any ELP post Brain Salad Surgery. Except for the live one. Which is odd because I'm a fan of their earlier work. I'd like to, including Love Beach - perhaps I'm intrigued by that cover!
     
  25. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Just for the purposes of participating in this kind of discussion, I'd at least want to be familiar with the complete repertoire, even if you do have to separate the wheat from the chaff...
    By making Tales From Topographic Oceans!:p (Just kidding, objectively I know Close To The Edge is arguably their artistic high water mark)
    IMO Love Beach is worth hearing once, if for no other reason but to hear a truly "bad" album from a "great" band (even if said band was past their prime at that point). I know the album has its fans, but I'm not one of 'em. Yes fans who like to crap on Tormato...Tormato is 100 times the album Love Beach is IMO.
     
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