Okay, that's it, which one's Yes?

I don't know which one is the real Yes... I guess strictly speaking if one has to decide it would be the one with Steve Howe... however, I'm much more interested in what AWR are doing. What little I have heard from the new live album sounds much better to me... I don't really expect to buy any of the live albums with Davison (he just sort of kills the songs), but I guess I have to get this one. And if I get the chance to see any of both versions of Yes live, I would much rather see AWR (even if I expect Howe's Yes might actually have a better set-list). And I'm really looking forward for AWR's studio album.

Both are Yes.

There are some bands, and artists, to whom the word irreplaceable applies.

When Gabriel left Genesis, the band eventually went with Collins as a replacement. To those who think this was unthinkable, it did actually make a lot of sense, in that Collins had contributed to the vocal sound of Genesis, so was not so much of a weird thought. As it happened, he brought a fresh dynamic to the band, and for someone who initially on Nusery Cryme and Selling England sounded uncannily like Gabriel, when he took over the lead duties, it was something different. It was not a tribute band (I really dislike tribute bands).

So, what I am saying here is that Gabriel was unique, and the band did not try to simply replace him with a soundalike. They did something different, whether you liked that something different, or not.

Similarly, Crimson. You really cannot compare Lake with Wetton, with Belew, with Jaksyck. Each time, they have tried something different. They have, ahem, progressed.

Yes, the "official" version, have not. They have now had two attempts at replacing the irreplaceable, with poor old Benoit, who did a good job on Fly From Here, but could not cope with classic tracks live, to young Anderson, who is quite simply a tribute singer designed to reproduce the classic vocal sound. He doesn't, I am afraid. It is not the same. Why? Because
Anderson Senior, Jon, is irreplaceable. Unique. Incredible.

It is like our youth. Fond memories, indeed. But never quite the same.

Having seen both bands on their last tour, and enjoyed them both equally - I don't feel the need to choose.

Steve Howe's guitar carries the 'official' band very well and makes up for a slight lack of omphh from Jon Davison on vocals and Geoff Downes' solid, if not necessarily exhilarating keyboard sound.

ARW with Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman outperform both of them, but Trevor Rabin won't be able to capture that Steve Howe sound (and frankly I don't expect him to) and he obviously covers the 90125-era material perfectly.

Both bands miss the towering presence of the great Chris Squire, despite having bass players of a high quality, or even a Bill Bruford or fully fit Alan White touring. So both can only be pale shadows of the class band at their peak. However, let's enjoy them both performing while we can. Hearing Tales or Awaken played very well from each of them respectively last time was joy enough. Just a shame the history between them means getting a second 'union' together is very unlikely.

I didn't know Tony Levin played drums for ARW!

Squonk19 wrote: Having seen both bands on their last tour, and enjoyed them both equally - I don't feel the need to choose. Steve Howe's guitar carries the 'official' band very well and makes up for a slight lack of omphh from Jon Davison on vocals and Geoff Downes' solid, if not necessarily exhilarating keyboard sound. ARW with Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman outperform both of them, but Trevor Rabin won't be able to capture that Steve Howe sound (and frankly I don't expect him to) and he obviously covers the 90125-era material perfectly. Both bands miss the towering presence of the great Chris Squire, despite having bass players of a high quality, or even a Bill Bruford or fully fit Alan White touring. So both can only be pale shadows of the class band at their peak. However, let's enjoy them both performing while we can. Hearing Tales or Awaken played very well from each of them respectively last time was joy enough. Just a shame the history between them means getting a second 'union' together is very unlikely.

I guess the closest they could get to showing us the true Yes would be if they could work out their differences and get together the Hall of Fame line-up for Roundabout, with Anderson, Howe, Rabin, Wakeman, White... and Jeddy Lee. Perhaps to really capture the greatness to the drums from their good old days they would need some younger drummer to help out White.

There's no YES without Chris Squire.

Frenetic Zetetic wrote: There's no YES without Chris Squire.

There is no Yes without Jon Anderson either.