|
|
|
A fun little A-Z game I'm gonna play with Yes. This is all stuff pertaining to the band in some way.
Astral Traveller - An awesome song from their second album, Time and a Word. The video for it was also sort of the only "normal" video they made from the album. All the others are crazy!
Bill Bruford - Their first drummer and easily one of the best alive. He got into many fights with Chris Squire over the years. But, man, this guy has played with everyone! Genesis, King Crimson, UK...
Chris Squire - Bassist extraordinaire! He owns a three necked bass and only seems to play it during "Awaken" these days. Chris is also the only member of the band to play on all Yes albums. He has recently been spotted meeting with Trevor Rabin in secret. (Speculation about some kind of collaboration is already happening)
Dancing Though the Light - A song recorded in 1979 in Paris, with the lineup before Jon and Rick left. It seems to be the band's only "new wave" song. It's very danceable and extremely catchy.
Everydays - A song released on Time and a Word. This video is funny, as well. The gang gets chased around Bruges by a nun! And Steve makes a face at this chick, which was probably what set her over the edge.
Fragile - Their famous 1972 album, that includes "Roundabout", a huge hit for them. This was the first album to feature Rick Wakeman, and it includes my favorite song ever - "Heart of the Sunrise"
Going For the One - Their 1977. It's got a naked guy on the front cover. Anyway, the album is amazing. "Awaken" is one of their best epics ever! It was the last album with Rick Wakeman until his return in the 90s. This album is also Jon Davison's album. Really. He sings this album better than the others. His voice was made for this. You can close your eyes during any song on this album live when Davison is singing, and you can truly image it is Jon Anderson on stage.
Heart of the Sunrise - A song on Fragile that is too epic for words. It has one hell of a 3 minute intro that grabs you right from the get-go and doesn't let go. "I feel lost in the city..."
Igor Khorochev - Their keyboardist in the late 90s. He was fired from the band for legal reasons. It was uh... pretty bad.
Jon Davison - Literally the best replacement for Jon Anderson ever! If you close your eyes listening to his beautiful voice, you'd swear you were listening to Anderson sing.
King's Ransom - A song by Steve Howe on his best solo album, Time. Seriously, go check it out. It'll blow your mind.
Long Distance Runaround - A song from Fragile. It leads right into "The Fish". Jon Anderson seems to enjoy playing the song on his solo tours, which is fine by me.
Machine Messiah - The song from Drama that throws the notion out the window that Steve Howe can't rock. The opening riff is so heavy, according to Ultimate Class Rock, that it sounds like it could be a long lost Black Sabbath song. Now, that is the way you open an album!
Never Done Before - A song from the Paris sessions of 1979 that I really wish people would stop hating on! Way too many people over on Yesfans hate this song, but I think it's brilliant. It's a cute little song.
Oliver Wakeman - Rick Wakeman's son and he's just as talented as his father is. Oliver played with Yes during their 2010 tour with Benoit David. His brother Adam plays keyboards with Ozzy Osbourne.
Perpetual Change - Always a running joke amongst Yesfans, the band has gone through a Perpetual Change with their lineups over the years. The song "Perpetual Change" is on their third album The Yes Album and it showcases Tony Kaye's keyboard work flawlessly. This was among the first songs by Yes I truly fell in love with.
Questionable singing - On Steve Howe's part. To my ears, his voice is amazing. Just listen to "At the Gates of the New World" and you'll see my point clearly. But, everyone else - even Eddie Offord, their old record producer - has called Steve's singing "questionable". It's not bad! He sang lead vocals on 2011's "Hour of Need" and fricking Benoit had to sing over him and ruin it! Steve needs a Yes song of his that he can sing lead vocals on, so everyone else will just have to shut up.
Relayer - The band's 1974 album. It is the only album to feature Swedish musician Patrick Moraz on keyboards. I feel he did a wonderful job. The album only has three songs on it and one of them, "The Gates of Delirium" took up a whole side of the original record! That song is ******** epic, though, let me tell you. The ending part, "Soon" was so good, it got made into a single and was released.
Starship Trooper - Another song from The Yes Album, this one is a bit more known. This was yet another song that I fell in love with upon seeing Yes live last year. I think this was actually the song that did it for me. It's a song you truly cannot appreciate until you've seen it live and you feel Steve's guitar solo. You feel it. It will floor you. His solo at the end of the song is otherwise known as "Wurm". It came about as a riff from a song called "Nether Street", which came from one of Steve's earlier bands - Bodast. Listen to his "Wurm" solo on Yessongs. Truly brilliant! And he played it on a double necked guitar.
Talk - Yes's 1994 album. Essentially, this came out the year I was born. I am not a big fan of Trevor Rabin, Yes's guitarist in the 80s after Steve left, but this album is the exception. It might have something to do with it being released the year I was born (and pretty close to the date, too). But, it's actually just a really wonderful album. It's not like the pop rock trash that Trevor delivered in the 80s. Their 80s albums, 90125 and Big Generator are the only two albums of theirs I can't seem to listen to.
Universal Garden - A song from their 1997 album, Open Your Eyes. This is one hell of a beautiful song. "Looking up into the endless sky - Staring into the maze of time...." I mean, it's just amazing! I put this song on repeat for a long time upon first hearing it! I love it so much, here's the link so you can listen to it, too. Universal Garden (1997)
Videos - Something that Yes doesn't do that often - Music Video, that is. They did in the 80s when Rabin was with them, but other than that, not really. They do have a really cool video for "Don't Kill the Whale" from 1978 and "Madrigal", which is on the same album (Tormato).
Wonderous Stories - In my humble opinion, this is one of the most gorgeous sounding songs I have ever heard in my lifetime! Jon Davison breathes life into this song, the likes of which I haven't heard since Jon Anderson sang the song on the original recording. If you listen to this song and aren't slightly transfixed with it afterward, seek medical attention.
XYZ - A band made up of Alan White, Chris Squire, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant. The name comes from a cute little play on words meaning "ex Yes and Zeppelin". They weren't a huge hit, though. I'm not even sure if they got an album released. Their songs are up on Youtube, though. Some of them, anyway.
Yours is No Disgrace - The third song that really hit me from seeing Yes last year. It is also on the Yes Album. This song was Steve's opportunity to unleash his full epicness in concert. And boy, did he unleash it! Seriously! Yessongs is Exhibit A. He starts to solo in the middle of the song and the others just back off and let him rip that guitar up. He is the "God of the Gibson" for a reason.
Zany - Not really a word to describe Yes - oh, well, maybe Rick. Yeah, he's pretty crazy. Okay, and maybe Bill, too. And Chris at times. Okay, fine, their zaniness fully came out while they were filming those Time and A Word videos. Just watch "No Opportunity".
Tony and Chris took Bill's shirt off
Steve almost fell out of the moving car
no one tried to help him
Jon Anderson got onto the hood of the car while it was moving
they all threw their arms up into the air at once
even Jon, who was driving
they threw Bill's shoe out of the moving car
Steve stood up in the car
as did Jon and Tony
and Chris enjoyed stepping on Steve's back and driving him nuts.
So, alright - Zany is a word to describe Yes.
 SamWeiki · Fri Feb 21, 2014 @ 04:31am · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
