All YES Appreciation Thread

or this:

I am glad to know that a new album is coming... (From Alan White interview)

Originally posted by Dellinger Anyone knows if the lineup for the new album is already decided? It seemed there was a good chance that the album lineup would be the current live linup.

Yes, the same!

I wonder just how far one can stretch the concept "band"?  I don't say this facetiously, I really wonder.  That distance really been tested yet; now is historically the point where it could happen.  I guess you could say there are the vocal groups - a different thing, of course - like The Four Seasons and The Four Tops and the like (into symphonic prog and love Yes?, of course you do!, you really ought to pick up the Four Seasons' Genuine Imitation Life Gazette, a great proto-prog record!!), and of course there have been The Who, Genesis (the first 'offender'), The Beach Boys.  God knows what's going on with a group like Aerosmith membership-wise; groups like that, for years, have struck me more like an office. 

Yes are an interesting case.  There have been points where these "Yeses" have asserted themselves, sometimes unfortunately, as breaking this/or/that way from the past and/or establishing this/or/that new tendency.  At what point would you begin to wonder how a Yes-instance could still call itself Yes?  Is it a membership requirement ultimately?  Is it a certain aesthetic?  What aesthetic?  Was there an older one that took it too far, and the next Yes took it back a bit, 'kept it real'?

Just found out that the DVD and CD of Wakeman's concerts at Hampton Court Palace are already available (The 6 wives of Henry the VIII, played with rock band, orchestra, and choir, extended versions and 3 new songs). The concerts were rather cool and I guess many Yes fans would be interested in this. Wakeman said that if this DVD did well enough he might get support for doing Journey to the Center of the Earth and Myths and Legends of King Arthur with orchestra and new music and releasing them on DVD. I would really love to see this come true.

I hope to get it soon. But I was there and liked the concert pretty much, and have the Recorded in the Moment CD and really enjoy listening to the music. Excellent sound quality, specially considering that they recorded the music and burned the CD's and were ready 10 min after the concert, with no tampering at all.

Originally posted by Dellinger Originally posted by progkidjoel ^I watched the Rick Wakeman DVD last night! Absolutely brilliant. Not enough camera angles of Rick's hands, but still, phenomenal DVD. Probably a 5 star for me! So, which did you like better, the original 6 wives or the new orchestrated version? I'm not sure the orchestrations always worked so well (some of them are a bit annoying), but the choirs are phenomenal. I guess I miss Squire's bass on Catherine of Aragon, and White's drumming on Anne of Cleves. But there's a really beautiful orchestral and piano addition almost at the beginning (at about 2 or 3 minutes) of Jane Seymour that I really love.

I thought the new versions (and the unreleased tracks) were all fantastic, although I think I prefer the smaller sound of the original album in all honesty.

This is probably very old news, but here's a very interesting Jonathan Elias interview concerning Union: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/iv/jeinterview.htm I'm not surprised anymore of how the album turned out.