May 15, 2001

5:15 PM

Sometimes you don't know how the hell you wound up at a site. You're out there, surfing, minding your own business, and then you enter the zone, and the next thing you know you're at a page that you would normally never go to, and you have no idea how you got there. This is the only explanation I can come up with as to why I ended up at the official homepage of prog-rock relics Yes.
posted by solistrato (17 comments total)

Somehow, whenever I end up at something by accident, it's usually something like goatse.cx.
posted by kindall at 5:30 PM on May 15, 2001

By that measure, I'd say solistrato got off lucky.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 5:43 PM on May 15, 2001

Ah, the days of twin-neck guitars. I'm currently reliving an old obsession with Julian Cope, who basically uses his twin-neck 12/6 string for everything. Sounds awful to me, but they sure looked cool when I first saw them back in '72 or thereabouts. (Goes mumbling off into old prog-rock coot land…)
posted by rodii at 6:44 PM on May 15, 2001

My most shameful secret: Yes was my favorite band in middle school. *sigh* (Now, however, I'm an indie rock god.
posted by tweebiscuit at 6:58 PM on May 15, 2001

Prog-rock superfrogs Magma are worth a mention here.
posted by dfowler at 7:18 PM on May 15, 2001

Well, full disclosure: I used to own some Yes albums, and I actually saw them in concert once - my roommate at the time was huge into them. Now, I have to wonder what I was thinking.
posted by solistrato at 7:36 PM on May 15, 2001

Funny enough, I know the guy who runs that website (yesworld). He and the band put a lot into it.
posted by kokogiak at 7:39 PM on May 15, 2001

I DON’T HAVE TO STAND FOR THIS. “Owner of a Lonely Heart” was the first surrealistic music video with high production values and is a landmark in the evolution of the genre. Every subsequent music video, up to and including “What It Feels Like for a Girl,” in which the visuals tell a self-contained story unrelated to the song traces back to that one.

I DON’T HAVE TO STAND FOR THIS.
posted by joeclark at 8:17 PM on May 15, 2001

I saw Yes in concert on their Union tour and quite liked the show. I like much of their music, although their recent output is rather lacking in my opinion. My favorite of theirs is probably Drama, which is not much known among non-fans. This was the album that they made with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes (aka the Buggles) as part of the band. It is, I believe, the only Yes album without Jon Anderson singing on it. Horn later, of course, would produce their mega-hit 90125, as well as bands ranging from Mike Oldfield to Frankie Goes to Hollywood to the Art of Noise.

If you like Yes-type music, by the way, check out Billy Sherwood's former band, World Trade, they have an album on Magna Carta. That record sounded so much like a Yes record, the real Yes asked him to join.
posted by kindall at 8:24 PM on May 15, 2001

Joe: piffle. I don't want to argue about what the *first* "surrealistic music video with high production values" was, but "Owner of a Lonely Heart" came out in 1983. Ultravox's "Vienna," which was a huge hit on MTV, had been long before that, and I'm sure other people can come up with more examples.
posted by rodii at 8:47 PM on May 15, 2001

I found the website a year ago ON PURPOSE! I was looking for a cool background picture for my desktop. Old Yes (1969 ~ 1974) is one of my all-time favorite bands. The stuff after that, I could do without. Nevermind the videos or the album covers or even the lyrics. Yes's music (their older stuff anyway) is good because it's complicated and interesting and beautiful.
posted by Loudmax at 11:51 PM on May 15, 2001

Yes rocks. I saw them last year and already have tickets for this summer's tour. I continue to listen to their music on a regular basis.

So there.
posted by y6y6y6 at 6:11 AM on May 16, 2001

Like tweebiscuit, I had a huge middle school prog rock phase which I would never have admitted to in my punk rock / college rock / grunge / indie years. But a couple years back, I saw the trailer for Buffalo 66 which was set to "Heart of the Sunrise," and said to myself: Damn that's good. Maybe I was imprinted at a tender age, but The Yes Album and Fragile hold up quite nicely.
posted by whuppy at 6:20 AM on May 16, 2001

Oh and by the way, all you indie rock gods, I'll take anything in Yes's repertoire up to and including Yessongs over Tortoise.
posted by whuppy at 6:25 AM on May 16, 2001

I'm currently reliving an old obsession with Julian Cope

rodii, you just made a friend for life. I thought I was the only person in the world who liked that addled drug-nutty genius.

Poet is priest, I'm beginning to move.
posted by Skot at 9:23 AM on May 16, 2001

Yeah, I was actually considering going back through some of my old Yes albums -- unfortunately, I didn't really like them because of their music's quality, but because they were the first band I ever really liked. I mean, hell, I used to listen to the Tormato album!! God! But yes, some of their stuff still holds up -- but that doesn't make it any less embarassing to have been a huge fan. heh.
posted by tweebiscuit at 2:19 PM on May 16, 2001

Well said, Loudmax. I've got their tapes in my car. Yes make excellent driving music, complicated and speedy.
And Jon Anderson has the most beautiful voice in the world.
I remember one of the band members saying they used to get hate mail 'cause no one could understand their lyrics!
posted by flowerdale at 4:15 AM on May 22, 2001