Quote:
Originally Posted by Schizotypic
This thread inspired me to eventually download some Yes. What appeals to people about this band?
|
It's hard to say.
But for me it's a lot of things.
They're all great musicians with their own trademark styles and personalities that comes out through the music to create their distinctive sound. A sound that would best be described as "alien". Roger Dean really was the appropriate guy to do their album art, their music sounds like what his art looks like.
Their lyrics are pretty blah, but they're one of those bands that use words for how they sound rather than what they mean. People use this as an example of their pretentiousness. But it's hardly different from what mid 60s era Dylan or Cobain have done on a regular basis.
Ok I'm ranting. So anyway. Things I like most about Yes.
The classical structure of their very best work, they do more "Rock suites" than any other band, it's another reason people write them off, but those kind of songs tend to be my favorite. They have five 20 minute songs and I don't find a single one of them boring. The way they use recurring themes and motifs, segue between something that's completely chaotic to something that's absolutely beautiful (the Soon segment from The Gates of Delirium for example) and the way they can fuse so many musical styles into a single song and make it fit. I consider Yes the definitive band when it comes to epics. Weither you love em or hate em really depends on weither or not you like that kind of thing. They'll certainly test your attention span.
The funny thing is normally I consider my attention span to not be that great at all, yet Yes just has something that pulls me in and keeps me fascinated.
They're an ensemble band, rather than being a band where one member stands out, they all stand out.
Steve Howe as I have said is my favorite guitar player, he has a very country and jazz influenced style which adds some much needed spunk to the band. He usually plays a Gibson ES-175, and the sound he gets out of it is incredible.
Jon Anderson is not a technically amazing singer or anything, but I love his voice. I guess I have a thing for falsetto vocalists. The vocal harmonies though is probably my favorite thing about the band's sound overall.
Chris Squire is one of my favorite bassists, along with McCartney and Entwistle he also deserves a lot of the credit for popularizing the idea of bass guitar being more than just part of the rhythm section. He has a distinctively "fuzzy" sound.
Yes have had a lot of talented keyboardists come and go like Tony Kaye, Patrick Moraz and Geoff Downes who helped shaped the band into various musical directions. But it was Rick Wakeman who really
completed the band. What Hendrix is as a guitarist is what I like to think of Wakeman as a keyboardist, he's just the best. I can't really explain it, but the sound of moogs and mellotrons, it's like herion if you're a serious proggie.
And Bill Bruford > Neil Peart.
There's just a an emotional connection I have with their music, it's hard to explain (and it has nothing to do with their lyrics) but it's an almost spiritual kind of thing.
So there you go. My totally fanboyish response to a simple question.