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Yes — I've Seen All Good People
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WonderLizard
(2,755.46 mi. due east of Paradise)
Posted: Mar 09, 2012 - 19:41
 
I don't think you have to drop to your knees and confess ("CONFESS, brothah!"—Fred, this applies to you) that you liked, lionized even, prog rock before punk brought you (indeed an entire culture) to your senses. It was what it was, at time excessive, and at times transcendent, like this extended bit of indulgence. But once you sort of poke past all the excesses that prog came to represent, you find amazing musicianship and a sense of cohesiveness to the composition. Overblown? Maybe. But I find this one eminently listenable today, and, folks, I was an avowed destroyer of all things prog back then. You learn; you grow.

iTuner
Posted: Jan 06, 2012 - 07:41
 
Recognize the history and importance of this song but I'd be fine if I never heard it again.

PA1749
(Room 106)
Posted: Dec 05, 2011 - 12:32
 
Yes is one of the groups that I really respect but have never been able to make a personal connection with. Owner of a Lonely Heart and Love Will Find a Way might be the exceptions. I've never spent a cent on Yes but they can groove.

steeler
(Perched on the precipice of the cauldron of truth)
Posted: Dec 05, 2011 - 12:30
 
 fredriley wrote:

"hobbit-rock" - nice one! {#Roflol}{#Clap} I wish I'd coined that phrase.

Back in the day (that'll be the decadent progrock early 70s, before punk exploded all pretentions with its rude and necessary vitality) I and my pretentious mates at college were into ELP, Yes, Gong, Amon Duul and similar. I used to dream of appearing on stage with Keith Emerson and playing synth riffs. I wrote ELP on school desks, quoted their lyrics, expounded on their musical virtuosity, and generally though that they were the dog's bollox. Which I suppose they were at the time, but virtually nothing of theirs is now listenable to by any other than the nostalgic. A couple of Greg Lake songs, and that's about it. Albums like Brain Salad Surgery are as distinctive markers of their time as fossils are in determining the age of rocks.

I could no more listen to ELP now than stick needles in my ears, and that applies tenfold to the execrable Yes (if Yes is the answer, you're asking the wrong question). I don't look back on my tastes in the 70s with disgust or shame - that was a different time, I was a different person, and progrock was a necessary antidote to the social turmoil of Britain at that time. I enjoyed ELP and Yes then, as did many others. Even though we knew in our hearts that the lyrics were gnomically meaningless, the 20-minute tracks hideously overblown, and the baroque synth solos from Wakeman and Emerson plain self-indulgent noodling, we revelled in it. However, that was then, this is now. Some artists' work (eg Hendrix, Floyd, Clapton, Kraftwerk) straddles the decades and will still be listened to for decades to come, some is specific to its time.

 

Hendrix, Floyd, Clapton . . . Kraftwerk?


Jelani
(Home of the freak, land of the vague)
Posted: Dec 05, 2011 - 12:26
 
YES!

(former member)
(hotel in Las Vegas)
Posted: Nov 03, 2011 - 21:27
 


brilliant..  love it...
 





kcar
Posted: Sep 01, 2011 - 23:08
 
 fredriley wrote:

"hobbit-rock" - nice one! {#Roflol}{#Clap} I wish I'd coined that phrase.

Back in the day (that'll be the decadent progrock early 70s, before punk exploded all pretentions with its rude and necessary vitality) I and my pretentious mates at college were into ELP, Yes, Gong, Amon Duul and similar. I used to dream of appearing on stage with Keith Emerson and playing synth riffs. I wrote ELP on school desks, quoted their lyrics, expounded on their musical virtuosity, and generally though that they were the dog's bollox. Which I suppose they were at the time, but virtually nothing of theirs is now listenable to by any other than the nostalgic. A couple of Greg Lake songs, and that's about it. Albums like Brain Salad Surgery are as distinctive markers of their time as fossils are in determining the age of rocks.

I could no more listen to ELP now than stick needles in my ears, and that applies tenfold to the execrable Yes (if Yes is the answer, you're asking the wrong question). I don't look back on my tastes in the 70s with disgust or shame - that was a different time, I was a different person, and progrock was a necessary antidote to the social turmoil of Britain at that time. I enjoyed ELP and Yes then, as did many others. Even though we knew in our hearts that the lyrics were gnomically meaningless, the 20-minute tracks hideously overblown, and the baroque synth solos from Wakeman and Emerson plain self-indulgent noodling, we revelled in it. However, that was then, this is now. Some artists' work (eg Hendrix, Floyd, Clapton, Kraftwerk) straddles the decades and will still be listened to for decades to come, some is specific to its time.
 
Fredriley, your post contains one or two common threads found in a lot of entries here, such as "when does a band or a genre become a nostalgia act?". 

Some music aims to be in the here and now and doesn't care about grand themes or musical traditions. It just wants to explode and tear away the mainstream bullshit that's built up. Once its time is past, it doesn't work as a nostalgia act. Rebellion has to take ever new forms if it wants stay fresh and current. Once punk's time was up, we eventually moved onto grunge in response to heavy metal metal hair bands and arena rock. 

Do you want your music to always be new, do you want it tied to some musical tradition? I'm pretty sure that we all want a mix but it's always interesting to hear how someone's musical tastes have changed over time. RPers are always going to be debating this matter. There's no right answer. 

Personally, I wonder from time to time whether there'll be classic punk or rap anthologies, and whether anyone will buy them. I can't listen to punk-only Webstations for very long—it's loud and angry and messy and then it gets really tiresome. I'd probably get quickly fed up with prog-rock stations as well.  

> I don't look back on my tastes in the 70s with disgust or shame - that was a different time, I was a different person, and progrock >was a necessary antidote to the social turmoil of Britain at that time. 

Would love to read more of what you have to say about that time in the UK and how it affected music. I've heard that the British version of the TV series "Life on Mars" really captured that period in the country. 


bachbeet
Posted: Sep 01, 2011 - 22:17
 
Never really liked this group.

On_The_Beach
(Vancouver BC, Bud)
Posted: Aug 01, 2011 - 12:51
 
 cohifi wrote:
Much better than Rush!
 
So is a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!
(But yes, I like Yes.)


sirdroseph
(Yes)
Posted: Aug 01, 2011 - 12:23
 
 lemmoth wrote:


More proof of your cluelessness.
 

Wow. Just wow. I didn't realize someone's opinion of a song had something do with their level of knowledge. This is music not physics equations.{#Rolleyes}


Businessgypsy
(Deepest, Darkest Florida)
Posted: May 30, 2011 - 11:40
 
 fredriley wrote:
Yes are perhaps the most egregious, stereotypical, and now seriously dated example of egocentric self-important 'pomp rock'... I and my mates used to think that they were pearls of ineffable wisdom back in the early 70s...
Does that mean you think they are eminently effable nowdays?


Jelani
(Home of the freak, land of the vague)
Posted: Mar 28, 2011 - 07:48
 


(former member)
(hotel in Las Vegas)
Posted: Feb 24, 2011 - 21:00
 
 Cynaera wrote:

{#Lol}  Your joy is contagious - I am SO loving hearing this song! We're about to get a foot of snow, I have three litterboxes to clean, all the critters are tucked in for the night, the bills are paid, we're going to get a dishwasher either repaired or replaced, the rototiller is in the shop, and it seems that life has finally cut us a break or two.  I wish peace and contentment to everyone at RP.

Thank you for this song, whoever uploaded it.  {#Daisy}
 


Oh, Yes... hearing this made the whole evening... love it... thank you...




Cynaera
(South of Neanderthal)
Posted: Feb 24, 2011 - 20:55
 
 romeotuma wrote:


I am so happy to hear this song!  Love it!!!!


 
{#Lol}  Your joy is contagious - I am SO loving hearing this song! We're about to get a foot of snow, I have three litterboxes to clean, all the critters are tucked in for the night, the bills are paid, we're going to get a dishwasher either repaired or replaced, the rototiller is in the shop, and it seems that life has finally cut us a break or two.  I wish peace and contentment to everyone at RP.

Thank you for this song, whoever uploaded it.  {#Daisy}

cohifi
(Denver)
Posted: Feb 24, 2011 - 20:54
 
Much better than Rush!

sportskid
(Earth)
Posted: Jan 24, 2011 - 14:35
 
Live YES in the round. 2 hits of ——.
I forget it like it was yesterday.........

michaelc
(Walnut Creek, CA)
Posted: Jan 24, 2011 - 14:31
 
But it makes every 7th grade chess club geek with glasses happy{#Smile}

this was more profound after a few joints


More_Cowbell
(Northern IL)
Posted: Jan 24, 2011 - 14:30
 
I love this!

kaybee
(Lost in the Wilds of Toronto)
Posted: Nov 22, 2010 - 16:17
 
 Proclivities wrote:
fredriley wrote:
Yes are perhaps the most egregious, stereotypical, and now seriously dated example of egocentric self-important 'pomp rock'. The lyrics in particular, with their cod Eastern philosophy and sheer impenetrability are astonishingly irritating these days, though I and my mates used to think that they were pearls of ineffable wisdom back in the early 70s. Yes were one of the main reasons that punk kicked off as it did in reaction to puffed-up bands touring the country in lorry convoys carried shedloads of kit and playing pretentious cobblers. In that sense Yes were a good thing, but in all other senses they should be left buried in the dustbin of history with ELP and the others of that generation. 1 from the Nottingham jury, and that's being generous.
  It's amazing how someone who speaks ill of this band and/or song is dismissed as a "moron" or a "fool". Since when is hindsight not a way to judge music, culture or anything else? There are countless examples throughout one's life of having something seem like "the coolest sh*t in the world" at one time and then coming to the realization that it really wasn't.  I'm not sure why "music supposed to be about feel in real time" either: that would seem to invalidate anything but live performances (maybe I'm just misinterpreting that sentence).
  I understand that this band is/was important to a lot of folks here, and that's great, but there's a lot of stuff I listened to in the 1970's that I can't listen to anymore - particularly this sort of "hobbit-rock".

 
I must agree with both of you that this type of music seems dated now, but I LOVE HOBBIT ROCK!  (and love that moniker!)

I personally believe prog rock will becomemore accepted with, much like opera or Butoh dance {ducks and runs for cover}


Relayer
(Gainesville, FL)
Posted: Nov 22, 2010 - 13:38
 
 Greyjoca wrote:
Hey Bill, I'm pretty disappointed you didn't play the Wurm part of this song. Bummin me out man.
 


You are thinking of the song Starship Trooper from the same album, that had the incredible instrumental climax "Wurm" at the end. Starship Trooper is one of my all time favorites.

Relayer
(Gainesville, FL)
Posted: Nov 22, 2010 - 13:36
 
 GINRUSH wrote:
After all these years, I am just finding the  hidden lyrics, " All we are saying .... is give peace a chance"  in this tune.....cool
 


There are 2 Lennon references in this song; in addition to what you hear, they also use the phrase "instant karma" in the verses.

(former member)
(hotel in Las Vegas)
Posted: Nov 22, 2010 - 13:00
 


I am so happy to hear this song!  Love it!!!!





lemmoth
(NYC)
Posted: Nov 22, 2010 - 12:58
 
 sirdroseph wrote:
This is one of those prerequisite sing along to songs and let me tell you to all of those around me, this is not good, but this song sure is......{#Cheers}
Edit: I was just listening to ShawBlades cover of this this morning, it is very good as well!
 

More proof of your cluelessness.

lemmoth
(NYC)
Posted: Nov 22, 2010 - 12:57
 
 fredriley wrote:

"hobbit-rock" - nice one! {#Roflol}{#Clap} I wish I'd coined that phrase.

Back in the day (that'll be the decadent progrock early 70s, before punk exploded all pretentions with its rude and necessary vitality) I and my pretentious mates at college were into ELP, Yes, Gong, Amon Duul and similar. I used to dream of appearing on stage with Keith Emerson and playing synth riffs. I wrote ELP on school desks, quoted their lyrics, expounded on their musical virtuosity, and generally though that they were the dog's bollox. Which I suppose they were at the time, but virtually nothing of theirs is now listenable to by any other than the nostalgic. A couple of Greg Lake songs, and that's about it. Albums like Brain Salad Surgery are as distinctive markers of their time as fossils are in determining the age of rocks.

I could no more listen to ELP now than stick needles in my ears, and that applies tenfold to the execrable Yes (if Yes is the answer, you're asking the wrong question). I don't look back on my tastes in the 70s with disgust or shame - that was a different time, I was a different person, and progrock was a necessary antidote to the social turmoil of Britain at that time. I enjoyed ELP and Yes then, as did many others. Even though we knew in our hearts that the lyrics were gnomically meaningless, the 20-minute tracks hideously overblown, and the baroque synth solos from Wakeman and Emerson plain self-indulgent noodling, we revelled in it. However, that was then, this is now. Some artists' work (eg Hendrix, Floyd, Clapton, Kraftwerk) straddles the decades and will still be listened to for decades to come, some is specific to its time.

 
OK Fred - I often disagree with your comments here on RP, and ELP is my wife's favorite band of all time and............I couldn't have said it better — You are 100% accurate


fredriley
(Nottingham, UK)
Posted: Aug 19, 2010 - 03:05
 
 Proclivities wrote:
  It's amazing how someone who speaks ill of this band and/or song is dismissed as a "moron" or a "fool". Since when is hindsight not a way to judge music, culture or anything else? There are countless examples throughout one's life of having something seem like "the coolest sh*t in the world" at one time and then coming to the realization that it really wasn't.  I'm not sure why "music supposed to be about feel in real time" either: that would seem to invalidate anything but live performances (maybe I'm just misinterpreting that sentence).
  I understand that this band is/was important to a lot of folks here, and that's great, but there's a lot of stuff I listened to in the 1970's that I can't listen to anymore - particularly this sort of "hobbit-rock".

 
"hobbit-rock" - nice one! {#Roflol}{#Clap} I wish I'd coined that phrase.

Back in the day (that'll be the decadent progrock early 70s, before punk exploded all pretentions with its rude and necessary vitality) I and my pretentious mates at college were into ELP, Yes, Gong, Amon Duul and similar. I used to dream of appearing on stage with Keith Emerson and playing synth riffs. I wrote ELP on school desks, quoted their lyrics, expounded on their musical virtuosity, and generally though that they were the dog's bollox. Which I suppose they were at the time, but virtually nothing of theirs is now listenable to by any other than the nostalgic. A couple of Greg Lake songs, and that's about it. Albums like Brain Salad Surgery are as distinctive markers of their time as fossils are in determining the age of rocks.

I could no more listen to ELP now than stick needles in my ears, and that applies tenfold to the execrable Yes (if Yes is the answer, you're asking the wrong question). I don't look back on my tastes in the 70s with disgust or shame - that was a different time, I was a different person, and progrock was a necessary antidote to the social turmoil of Britain at that time. I enjoyed ELP and Yes then, as did many others. Even though we knew in our hearts that the lyrics were gnomically meaningless, the 20-minute tracks hideously overblown, and the baroque synth solos from Wakeman and Emerson plain self-indulgent noodling, we revelled in it. However, that was then, this is now. Some artists' work (eg Hendrix, Floyd, Clapton, Kraftwerk) straddles the decades and will still be listened to for decades to come, some is specific to its time.


raga
(Italy - Como)
Posted: Aug 19, 2010 - 02:58
 
 westslope wrote:
Question:  I hear Wakeman on the keyboards, Squire on bass, Howe on lead guitar.  Who is playing the second guitar?  
 

Not Wakeman, is Tony Kaye on keyboard

Is the one with broken foot on the sleeve cover photo

 




(former member)
(hotel in Las Vegas)
Posted: Jul 08, 2010 - 11:50
 


I want to hear this song right now....

 

GINRUSH
(Rochester, MI)
Posted: Jul 02, 2010 - 12:55
 
 westslope wrote:
Question:  I hear Wakeman on the keyboards, Squire on bass, Howe on lead guitar.  Who is playing the second guitar?  
 
No, who is on first.


westslope
(BC coast)
Posted: Jun 16, 2010 - 07:56
 
Question:  I hear Wakeman on the keyboards, Squire on bass, Howe on lead guitar.  Who is playing the second guitar?  

DoctorHooey
(/etc)
Posted: Jun 16, 2010 - 07:54
 
I love that moment when the pipe organ comes in. I imagine myself sitting in a big cathedral playing this across five keyboards, flipping my long grey hair out of my eyes

Papernapkin
(Mountain View, CA)
Posted: Jun 16, 2010 - 07:53
 
Noooooooo.

bindi
(North Carolina)
Posted: May 15, 2010 - 13:19
 
These guys had such an impact on music back then - I just love early Yes.  {#Sunny}

sirdroseph
(Tokyo)
Posted: May 15, 2010 - 13:15
 
This is one of those prerequisite sing along to songs and let me tell you to all of those around me, this is not good, but this song sure is......{#Cheers}
Edit: I was just listening to ShawBlades cover of this this morning, it is very good as well!

(former member)
(hotel in Las Vegas)
Posted: May 15, 2010 - 13:14
 


Yessss...  just cranked the volume wayyyy up...  love it...

 

Greyjoca
(Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Posted: Apr 13, 2010 - 18:43
 
Hey Bill, I'm pretty disappointed you didn't play the Wurm part of this song. Bummin me out man.

GINRUSH
(Rochester, MI)
Posted: Mar 13, 2010 - 03:58
 
After all these years, I am just finding the  hidden lyrics, " All we are saying .... is give peace a chance"  in this tune.....cool

terryd
(England)
Posted: Mar 13, 2010 - 03:54
 
I love it when these gems suddenly appear. Makes me want to go and play the album.

KurtfromLaQuinta
(Yep. I'm still here in La Quinta.)
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 14:50
 
I still have this on a 45.

Black round plastic thing with a big hole in the center.
Played on a turntable (record player)

robco1
(Chicago, IL)
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 14:50
 
{#Dancingbanana_2} I'm back in high school . . . "Hey, don't Bogart that, man . . . pass it on down!"


Anax
(Seattle, WA)
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 14:49
 
Click.

(former member)
(hotel in Las Vegas)
Posted: Feb 09, 2010 - 14:49
 


absolutely fantastic...  love it...



Jack_Jefferson
(Columbus, OH)
Posted: Dec 08, 2009 - 19:28
 
I used to think this was two different songs.  The serious contemplative song with just Jon Anderson then the dancy song with the guitar riff.

{#Bananajam}{#Bananajam}{#Bananajam}{#Dancingbanana}



(former member)
(hotel in Las Vegas)
Posted: Dec 08, 2009 - 19:24
 


love it...



paulmack
(the hissing swamps)
Posted: Nov 07, 2009 - 10:05
 
 lostintokyo wrote:
this song did not stand the test of time
 
I think you accidentally left out the last two very necessary words in your post - "for me". Or perhaps you meant "except for those with no taste"? But, of course, how could anyone (aside from Bill, as programmer in chief) disagree with you? Absurd.


djengs
Posted: Oct 06, 2009 - 21:07
 
I really liked this band early on, even if they couldn't pen a coherent lyric. Just amazingly good musicians, really inventive. Trying to please the masses is what ruined them, I think.

camatcba
(Lumberjack Software Hack Node)
Posted: Oct 06, 2009 - 21:06
 
{#Motor}           {#Motor}          {#Motor}

lostintokyo
Posted: Oct 06, 2009 - 21:06
 
this song did not stand the test of time

(former member)
(hotel in Las Vegas)
Posted: Oct 06, 2009 - 21:04
 


This song is soooo good for the ears...



(former member)
(Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated)
Posted: Oct 06, 2009 - 21:01
 
 holborne wrote:
Bleh. Bombastic crap.
 

Yay! Bombastic crap!

Proclivities
(Carrboro, NC)
Posted: Sep 17, 2009 - 17:23
 
fredriley wrote:
Yes are perhaps the most egregious, stereotypical, and now seriously dated example of egocentric self-important 'pomp rock'. The lyrics in particular, with their cod Eastern philosophy and sheer impenetrability are astonishingly irritating these days, though I and my mates used to think that they were pearls of ineffable wisdom back in the early 70s. Yes were one of the main reasons that punk kicked off as it did in reaction to puffed-up bands touring the country in lorry convoys carried shedloads of kit and playing pretentious cobblers. In that sense Yes were a good thing, but in all other senses they should be left buried in the dustbin of history with ELP and the others of that generation. 1 from the Nottingham jury, and that's being generous.

 radiozep wrote:
Thanks for the negative moronic input... Made me load up my song list with Yes. You 'used' to think that they were the 'pearls of ineffable wisdom', yet know you dismiss them now??? Isn't music supposed to be about feel in real time? If it sounded fresh and beyond your years then, give it some credit. Thank God they and others stretched the bounderies of music. First impressions are raw, and usually truthful. Anything can get outdated after massive play, so I guess you were either a fool then or a fool now, but 20/20 hindsight is no way to judge music.
 
  It's amazing how someone who speaks ill of this band and/or song is dismissed as a "moron" or a "fool". Since when is hindsight not a way to judge music, culture, or anything else? There are countless examples throughout one's life of having something seem like "the coolest sh*t in the world" at one time and then coming to the realization that it really wasn't.  I'm not sure why "music is supposed to be about feel in real time" either: that would seem to invalidate anything but live performances (maybe I'm just misinterpreting that sentence).
  I understand that this band is/was important to a lot of folks here, and that's great, but there's a lot of stuff I listened to in the 1970's that I can't listen to anymore - particularly this sort of "hobbit-rock".