Was Benoit David the best Yes could do?

When i saw this version of yes at Janus Landing in Florida, i was very pleased with his performance.

I like Benoit a lot more than that guy. Though I really don't care about a band that's nearly 40 years past their prime

Slaughternalia wrote: ... Though I really don't care about a band that's nearly 40 years past their prime

(A bit o/t...)  It is weird to me I have to say.  I remember thinking - when I was a kid in the seventies and into all this stuff (a little kid, so we're talking albums and not concerts) - I remember almost the day (I know it was summer recess) that the shocking thought occurred to me that these musicians whose music I loved, the people in the photos, were all going to age, like I surely would, and be old men one day.  Sure, I know, it's obvious, but it hit me like a ton of bricks that day.  I tried in mind mind to picture an agéd Robert Plant, an agéd Ian or Jon Anderson (okay, well, picturing IA old was never all that difficult ).  And I wondered what they would be doing with themselves, as I assumed, after music.

I don't say this judgmentally, but the one thing I didn't picture was that they would still be out there playing; much less did I picture that if some people dropped out, for reasons from differences to getting that "gig in the sky", they would be replaced by young musicians and the band play on.  I did not imagine this!  I confess that, to my younger mind, the idea would have presented itself only as a nightmare.

I can defend it as good just based on the fact that the music was and is indeed great.  Compositions used to sustain themselves one way in past eras (say the European aristocratic times with classical music patronage and virtuosi); maybe this is the way classic rock (whether of prog stripe or some other) sustains itself into the future.  Picture, for instance, 'Yes' without a single original member in 10 or so years.  The thing may become: how to determine how an act is "official."  If that's to work at all and continue, the musicians must be superlative, otherwise interest will wane.

Considering that The Flower Kings are on hiatus, Hasse Froberg would have been perfect.

Roger Hodgson was asked once

His name is Benoit. Discussion over.

Why are people still posting when the discussion is over?

I wish Yes would take Jon Davison. Might make Glass Hammer listenable again.

You were right to open a discussion, and you are right about Benoit David - yes, they could have done a lot better, or, more to the point, they could have retired the great group gracefully and left us with some remarkable memories.

Benoit does an excellent job for what he is supposed to do, which is mimic JA.