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Started to explore the band YES....

#4
Whenever I explore a new band, I listen to their singles and hits first (doesn't everyone? :D). If I like them enough, I'll branch out to their other songs.

I'm very interested and excited in seeing what Yes will sound like and study why they're just as influential, if not more or less, than Rush.

What are some singles or hits you can suggest for me?? Thanks!
 
#6
IMO Yes are so diverse that choosing "singles" will be doing both yourself and the music a disservice. I mean really, they cover almost everything from rootsy bluegrass through folk, rock, full-on grandiose prog through to overproduced 80' synth pop.

Good luck to the op however you want to do it, but I guarantee you'll be missing out on something magical with your approach.

Mike
 
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#10
Schlyder said:
Who's on first?

Do not start with their latest album. LOL Start at the beginning of their career and go thru the evolution.
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I'd agree with this. They were never much of a singles-oriented group, though they had a few - Roundabout, Long Distance Runaround, All Good People, then Owner of a Lonely Heart in the 80s. But I would go by albums. You could do it chronologically, like Schlyder suggests. Or, start with the 70s "main sequence," which would be the Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge. That's the "classic" period for the older fans, the "Troopers." Then listen to 90125 for their 80s sound, which attracted the second wave of fans, the "Generators." After that, fill in the gaps. There are a couple of albums before the Yes Album (one self-titled, then Time and a Word): the rest of the 70s (Tales of Topographic Oceans, Relayer, Going for the One, Drama, Tormato), the post-90125 Trevor Rabin albums (Big Generator and Talk, plus Union I suppose): and finally the post-Rabin albums (Keys to Ascension, The Ladder, Fly From Here and the new one, Heaven and Earth).
 
#12
hrodbert696 said:
There are a couple of albums before the Yes Album (one self-titled, then Time and a Word): the rest of the 70s (Tales of Topographic Oceans, Relayer, Going for the One, Drama, Tormato), the post-90125 Trevor Rabin albums (Big Generator and Talk, plus Union I suppose): and finally the post-Rabin albums (Keys to Ascension, The Ladder, Fly From Here and the new one, Heaven and Earth).
Click to expand...

I personally feel like Keys To Ascension -- at least the studio tracks, which you can sometimes find on a single CD called Keystudio -- is some sort of chronological aberration: Stylistically and personnel-wise it belongs more to the "rest of the 70s" lineage than the "post-Rabin" discography. It's a real sleeper, but frankly I think it's their best work from the past ~20 years.
 
#14
What Baba said. Close To The Edge and The Yes Album are very good examples of the band in their prime as well. And you must listen to their albums in their entirety to appreciate the band fully. When they were creating this music, 'singles' was not in their vocabulary.
 
#16
I was a major Yessie in the 70s and saw them many times. I lost interest with Tales of Topographic Oceans, but all the albums prior to that I can vouch for, including the lesser known first two, which contain some rather nice covers. The addition of Rick Wakeman on keyboards on Fragile added a neoclassical dimension. My personal favorites are Close to the Edge and the Yes Album (pre-Wakeman) followed by Fragile. Also, Yesterdays contains material from the first two albums, plus a cover of Paul Simon's America that kicks butt, progressively speaking.

They most definitely had a lot of airplay in the 70s, mainly from the Yes Album and Fragile.
 
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#20
hrodbert696 said:
I'd agree with this. They were never much of a singles-oriented group, though they had a few - Roundabout, Long Distance Runaround, All Good People, then Owner of a Lonely Heart in the 80s. But I would go by albums. You could do it chronologically, like Schlyder suggests. Or, start with the 70s "main sequence," which would be the Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge. That's the "classic" period for the older fans, the "Troopers." Then listen to 90125 for their 80s sound, which attracted the second wave of fans, the "Generators." After that, fill in the gaps. There are a couple of albums before the Yes Album (one self-titled, then Time and a Word): the rest of the 70s (Tales of Topographic Oceans, Relayer, Going for the One, Drama, Tormato), the post-90125 Trevor Rabin albums (Big Generator and Talk, plus Union I suppose): and finally the post-Rabin albums (Keys to Ascension, The Ladder, Fly From Here and the new one, Heaven and Earth).
Click to expand...
This pretty much covers their entire totally awesome Proggy history
 

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