When I was a teenager just getting into music I started enjoying all the typical music geek bands like Rush, Yes, King Crimson, and others, though mostly Rush. After a while I started losing interest as got interested in music for other reasons than the shear musicianship of the players.
But over the past couple years (since grad school about 6 years ago) I started listening to Yes and King Crimson again pretty frequently. Yes definitely can take some left turns into Hokey-land from time to time but they also have an amazingly rich musical vision. How many other bands have created an album that is almost symphonic in scope (Fragile) (its about 40 some minutes long and manages to keep reuse themes you hear at the beginning of the album throughout the music. very cool).
King Crimson is just cool, experimental, and edgy, like Bartok (and maybe a little Messaien) on electric instruments. When I was a teen I didn't quite get it. It really helps to have heard some of the 20th century music that so influenced them.
Rush, well, ok, them I can't listen to anymore. Rhythmically interesting but melodically and harmonically they're generally pretty dull. And the lyrics! Ok, Yes can definitely be a little _too_ much with the philosophical bits. But most of it doesn't make enough sense to quibble with. Rush, OTOH, has lyrics that only a 17 year old suburban white geek can appreciate. And I did then, but I just can't now.
-dave
Take equal parts 70's progressive rock and classical training, and it isn't surprising what you get as a result.Yes definitely can take some left turns into Hokey-land from time to time but they also have an amazingly rich musical vision.
I've caught myself listening to Close to the Edge now and again. Amazing how it ages so well, almost like good Hendrix or Clapton. What's really surprising now is the all-out media blitz promoting "Echos: The Best of Pink Floyd". Meddle through The Wall comprises much of what I listened to in high school, but somehow it seems quite fossilized and trivial now.
Re:Yes
autarch on 2002-01-07T23:39:20
I still enjoy Pink Floyd. Musically its certainly still interesting and lyrically I think its fairly good (I really like The Wall's extremely dark lyrics). And an album at least partially about fascism (The Wall again) seems awfully resonant these days here in the US.
My playlist runs the gamut of prog rock. Genesis, Pink Floyd, Marillion, King Crimson, I've got David Gilmour's solo albums in there, Peter Gabriel's solo work (Which isn't exactly prog). I also have some bands which I'd classify as neo-prog. Guys who grew up listening to 70's prog. Spock's Beard I highly recommend for the music, but if horrid lyrics make you ill, you may want to avoid. Echolyn was a post-prog band that really only had regional success in the northeast, but I like them alot. Flower Kings is great music with a lead singer who sounds like a goat with a chipmunk stuck in his throat.
One of my current favorites is a british band called "Porcupine Tree". I don't know quite how to classify them. If you drew a musical line from Pink Floyd to, say, Radiohead, PT would live somewhere in the middle, taking forays in each direction. And if you like dark lyrics, you've come to the right place, with songs like "Stop Swimming" and "Hatesong".
Now, as for Yes, there's things they have done that makes me want to just crank the volume up. But in large doses, Yes really begins to drain me.
As for Rush, well... Let me make an analogy for you. I live in Cincinnati, and am a Cincinnati Bengals fan. I will always be a Bengals fan. This team had the worst record in the NFL in the 90's and hasn't had a season over 500 since 1990. And yet I keep going back. That's the way I am with Rush. They could release a CD full of Geddy Lee's bowel sounds, and I'd probably buy it. There's no rational reason, it's just the way I'm wired. I still think that Albums like Moving Pictures stand as relevant pieces of music today. But I also think that they haven't had a complete, coherent album, since, well, Moving Pictures. Take Test For Echo. On the same CD you have fantastic songs like "Driven" and "Half the World", but they share the disc with dreck like "Virtuality". For me, it's more of a pick and choose.
Re:Vroom...
autarch on 2002-01-08T23:00:55
Yeah, some of the old Rush stuff isn't all that bad, at least musically. But lyrically I really don't feel like Peart has much to say. Its generally pretty cheesy. A lot of it is regurgitated Ayn Rand at best.
Of course, there's some songs that I'd probably still like if I bothered to listened to them, like Time Stand Still on Hold Your Fire. But I don't really bother. Too much trouble to sort out the wheat from the chaff, I'm afraid.
