Quote:
Originally Posted by Queen Boo
I think most prog bands make music for themselves, the self indulgence is a feature of the genre, not a bug.
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Well now, every band writes music for themselves first, and hope the fans enjoy it, but if we're going to compare the two: Genesis mostly wrote their songs as group efforts; there were few if any instrumentals and the only instance I can see that you could point to someone "showing off", as I said Yes do a lot, would be maybe Hackett on "Horizons", and even then it's a beautifully understated little piece. No member of Genesis, that song excepted, wrote a song or piece that was specifically for and about them, as Yes seem to do. And I can sing every single Genesis song (with the exception of much off FGTR) whereas I can sing only those four albums from Yes, as mentioned.
Yes do show off: it's not just me who thinks this. This is the sort of beginning of the, not quite pointless but often unnecessary wankery that led to blots on the soundscape like Dream Theater and even to some extent Spock's Beard and maybe Riverside. You have to take it all with the caveat that I don't like, and know I don't like, early Yes, so the argument/debate is probably pointless and one on which we'll each score points but never come to an agreement. Nevertheless, I stand by everything I've said here. If something impresses me that I had not heard before on one of these albums I will say it; I'm not going to be so pig-headed as to say no I still hate it if I don't, but I find it hard to see my mind being changed at this point.