Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Yes - Close to the edge (Steven Wilson Stereo Remix 2013) ORIGINAL VIDEO: • Video Patreon: www.patreon.com/criticalreactions Twitter: critreactions
Ladies and gentlemen Chris Squire and Yes the greatest show on earth. This symphonic masterpiece will be listened to for centuries. Saw Chris Squire and Yes 36 times.
Over the past several months I have had quite a pleasant journey wandering around RU-vid, watching and listening to the multitude of reactions being offered by younger listeners. I can't tell you how much good it has done my heart to know that "Yes" and especially this particular masterpiece is being discovered, critiqued, and most importantly, being fully appreciated for the musically creative force it represents by a new, wide-eyed audience. I just felt the need to write a note of thanks. You, along with all of the other "reactors" have put such a huge smile on this old man's face. PS (a suggestion): Please look into the band "Gentle Giant" for more adventures in layered time signature and textured "sound-scaping." I am certain you will be pleased!
I find it interesting that you thought the organ solo was better because it didn't stick around for too long on one idea but moved on and you thought it had a sense of where it was going... Interesting in as much as Rick Wakeman out of all of the musicians you had listened to so far from Tull, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Kign Crimson, he was the one that went to the Royal College of Music and learned composition...He dropped out to become a session musician. He's a hard drinking rocker though but out of them all, he had the basics... The rest were manly self taught. Can't be bad really.. The other thing I think about and that you do refer to a lot is that I grew up with these bands and each album was a journey into the unknown.... Sadly by now all things are known and you will never get the feeling that us old gits felt at the time... Man we were lucky to be living in such times as the sixties and seventies.... Keep on Rocking.
To me, Yes is the greatest prog band because they 1) were very early in on the style, helping to define it, 2) were one of the most innovative and exploratory bands, and, up until a certain point did everything to service the music. They were never into things like notes per minute, key changes per minute, etc. They do do them, but not just for their own sake. They didn't pad songs just to make them long, but went as far as the inspiration took them (paraphrase from Rick Wakeman about CttE and Awaken). All songs sounded like Yes, but the songs didn't sound the same. And they understood moods, light, dark, up, down, tempos fast and slow. Plus loud and soft. Today's prog, especially metal, doesn't have that kind of variety and for many it is about speed and complexity for their own sake.
I was 18 when this LP came out. At that moment it became my favorite album in my collection, having traveled many of the lyric and musical journeys in these 48 years. It is still my favorite. Watching a younger person hearing and appreciating this, makes me choke up a bit.
The emotion this music evokes is what brought true love from fans. It’s derived from melody. Melody actually dictates the pulse. And everything else. Yes and Genesis fans from this era loved this music by how it moved them. That is the gold standard.
As I understand it the production of this album was actually spinal tap levels of insane. They set up like a live show in a soundstage and recorded the track in 30 sec.-1min long pieces. Then, they pieced it together in the studio later with their live sound guy and studio producer Eddie Offord. Sounds pretty trivial today with our modern DAWs, but remember this was all done on tape and analog equipment.
Back in the early 70's when this was new, I had friends working in stereo shops who used this album to test new systems and speakers for quality and sonic range!
