Yes - Jumping the shark

Am I being too sensitive? The term 'american' was used to imply something inauthentic and shallow and therefore less worthy, so I challenged it. I'd be willing to bet I'd get slammed if used the term 'scottish' to mean that something was humorless, intolerant, and rustic in the best Calvinist tradition.

I have no problem criticizing the negative impact of American culture around the world- I often do, and wrongly get branded unpatriotic. If you wanted to discuss U2's Americanization during the Joshua Tree period, or even make a claim about the loss of british folk influence over the course of Jethro Tull's work, you'd have a good point...but the commercialization of Yes and progressive music in general is just not a good example. Yes never really had any elements of national identity in their sound to lose- it's not like Jon Anderson lost his accent or they stopped playing british-sounding melodies (a la Caravan). They played shorter, less complicated songs with more commercial potential, and more trendy 80s production techniques.

It's simply mental laziness, possibly coupled with smug cultural snobbery, to call this trend 'american'. It's one of those labels that are widely used but never actually substantiated; if anyone wants to assert that it was an American musical influence that 'corrupted' Yes (or Genesis, etc.) in the late 70s/ early 80s, form a reasonable argument instead of just throwing the term around, and I'll stop being so sensitive.

I'm planning on seeing Yes live at Red Rocks in exactly a month, thanks for asking

and Russiandude it makes my eyes water as well the song just  obliterates your emotions.Somehow missed your sensitive point sorry about that!

Edited by Fragile

and stop being so sensitive about being American

James Lee wrote: ShrinkingViolet wrote: same here i cannot call the rabin era yes..its american yes not the real yes .  i agree with fragile . the classic line up has retuned yey!!! long live Yes ARGH  didn't we already do this? Yes has been many things but never American...it's totally unfair and shortsighted to use "American" as shorthand for 'trendy, over-produced pop influence'? Great Britain and Europe in general has always been in the forefront of re-packaging the authentic original US influences in slick, chart-friendly ways; the blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, punk, grunge (remeber Bush?), house music (okay, Chicago and Detroit House had a lot of German Kraftwerk influence, but they still did house well before Brit DJs caught up and pretended they invented it). Isn't it bad enough that so many people denounce and demean Americans for variously valid reasons, and now we have to go and rewrite history to make up new ones? OK, I've calmed down now

With greates respect and love to American culture--but since when Madrigal became American?

ShrinkingViolet wrote: same here i cannot call the rabin era yes..its american yes not the real yes .  i agree with fragile . the classic line up has retuned yey!!! long live Yes

 

Saw it, listened to it live--loved it (never stopped, though) but to call Rabin's (????) era not Yes--I would not go that far. Take it into retrospective--32 years now!!! And this is since their breakout--before they warmed both for Who and....Cream at Royal Albert Hall. One bound to begin to experiment and push the envelope one way or another!!! Not all went well but Trevor is still an excellent guitar master and Yes just toyed with hard riffs--and it wasn't that bad. In the end, at their 30th Anniversary tour they still played Rhythm Of Love and it was pandemoinum when Mr. Anderson stepped into arena while singing--I would know--I was there. I just simply LOVE them, although Turn Of The Century still makes my eyes wet

same here i cannot call the rabin era yes..its american yes not the real yes .  i agree with fragile . the classic line up has retuned yey!!! long live Yes

If the band had taken a little more care with the cover, Tormato may have had more chance of being  accepted. I love most of the album, but admit it's no CTTE. 90125 saw me off as a Yes fanatic.

Well, I know Relayer is very popular, but I don't think it is that good. I really like Patrick Moraz's solo album "The Story Of I" after he joined Yes, but, for me, Tales From Topographic Oceans was the last great Yes album.

Velvetclown wrote: Some people's hot     Some people's cold     Some people's not very     Swift to behold     Some people do it     Some see right through it     Some wear pyjamas     If only they knew it

Is that a Marillion lyric?

"Mum made me wear pyjamas."

 .  I remember Vance playing "Machine Massiah" and thinking "thank god". I was 13 yrs old and like you, had nearly choked on my tongue at the news. The piss-takers didn't let the high quality prog nature of Drama deter them from pursuing their calling, however. They neither liked nor understood it anyway.