Yes vs Starcastle

Even (one of) the worst from Yes is still great.

I would choose a recording of Steve Howe gargling over his bathroom sink rather than Starcastle. Even the name "Starcastle" reeks of tackiness.

Boojieboy wrote: Cristi wrote: [plagiarism?  you may accuse them of imitation, lack of originality, but not plagiarism. No, I will accuse them of plagiarism because that's what they're guilty of. There are lots of bands that use familiar themes from other bands, but not to the extent they did. I'm a musician, and am very familiar with Yes' music. Analyzing Starcastle from a musician's and songwriting standpoint, I see them taking actual Yes melodies and inverting them and altering them slightly to where it's not obvious to most what they're doing. Then they add some new words to further cover their tracks. I've picked on their games and tactics. It's utterly shameful what they did. The vocal harmonizings and phrasings are also exact copies of patterns unique to Yes.

You'll be hard pressed to find a stronger or longer Yes fan than me but I have to go with Starcastle on this one. OK, so they copied the style and sound of Yes. I don't hate them for it, I just look at it as having even more material of a style I already like anyway. They were certainly highly skilled musicians and had a very good studio sound. Their overall feel does strike me as more "cheerful" than Yes, if that makes any sense. I don't think those guys could have done dark music no matter how hard they tried. I always thought of them as sort of a "Yes light". Not as good as Yes, for sure, but certainly not bad either. Their biggest flaw was that they came on the scene a few years too late to make a lasting impression. By the time they were beginning to hit their stride, Prog was in a death spiral.


Edited by SquonkHunter - October 05 2017 at 20:03

Boojieboy wrote: Cristi wrote: [plagiarism?  you may accuse them of imitation, lack of originality, but not plagiarism. No, I will accuse them of plagiarism because that's what they're guilty of. There are lots of bands that use familiar themes from other bands, but not to the extent they did. I'm a musician, and am very familiar with Yes' music. Analyzing Starcastle from a musician's and songwriting standpoint, I see them taking actual Yes melodies and inverting them and altering them slightly to where it's not obvious to most what they're doing. Then they add some new words to further cover their tracks. I've picked on their games and tactics. It's utterly shameful what they did. The vocal harmonizings and phrasings are also exact copies of patterns unique to Yes.

Boojieboy wrote: If there was no Yes, Starcastle would have had to copy some other band instead. I still laugh at their first album, and the rank plagiarism. There's a huge difference between innovators and clones. They shouldn't be mixed.

I've been a Yes fanboy since the latter half of the 80's. I bought Starcastle's debut in the mid-90's, competent, but cheezeball. Never went any further with Starcastle's catalogue. Dunno why I still hold onto their album - I spin it maybe once every few years ........

twosteves wrote: well  Starcastle is not music I would ever waste my time on---so mediocre Yes any day of the week.

Mediocre? Don't you think that's a little strong, fella'?

I would vote for either of the first two Starcastle albums over Tormato

but not Citadel

voted Yes

Little to choose between them IMO - both lousy.  If there was ever anyone who could make me want to murder every single whale in the seven seas it's Jon Anderson. And I'm generally quite well-disposed towards whales. But Starcastle match the embarrassment factor of non-prime Yes quite effectively.

Edited by Mascodagama - October 01 2017 at 07:08