"Madrigal" is great!

[Nellsalot]

The first couple times I heard it, it didn't really sink in. But as of late I've been listening to Tormato a lot and Madrigal has become one of my favorite Yes songs! Howe come people never seem to talk about? It's really beautiful. Perfectly short and perfectly beautiful. One of the few Yes songs which make me notice the lyrics a bit more. In my mind it kind of fits in with Wondrous Stories (which has grown on me a lot, as well) and Turn of the Century.

P.S. I'm so excited I got to use a "howe"!

[Earl Grey]

My favorite version was one that the band played live, during the '78 shows...
Wakey played his parts on piano, and it added a certain element of depth to the song that the harpsichord, as lovely as it was on the album, didn't quite reach...

Still, I love the track as-is, and you are ever SO right-on here Nell;
I don't think Madrigal has ever had it's own thread, and it's about time!

A song of sheer wonder. Celestial travelers have always been here with us indeed!

PS: Nell, I've REALLY been enjoying your posts! I'm so glad you found us! You're already family here, ya know?

May your world spin sweetly,
Earl:yesbird:

[Orbert]

Me too, me too!

Just a nice little piece, barely more than an idea, but perfectly arranged and executed. As much as I love the "epics", a song doesn't have to be bombastic to be great. Kinda like a short story versus a novel.

Orb

[Earl Grey]

Me too, me too!

Just a nice little piece, barely more than an idea, but perfectly arranged and executed. As much as I love the "epics", a song doesn't have to be bombastic to be great. Kinda like a short story versus a novel.

Orb

And writing short stories is an art! Not just ANY writer can land you on the surface of a far-flung world, give you a panoramic vision of that otherplace, weave a story where you feel you've been there, and bring you home safely in the scope of a few minutes...

And Madrigal accomplishes this!

Maybe it's more a novella, but no... actually your 'short story' description is spot-on. It just FEELS like a novella. Madrigal is a wonderworld, like a tiny multifaceted gemstone...


Editing... The devil is in the details, but the angels are in the editing: Madrigal is as concise as a golden-age Theodore Sturgeon story...
Quite the thing, and harder to do than most would imagine...
Jon was certainly in his element there!
And Wakey... He IS the world's greatest keyboardist you know... :)
~~~~

Orb! I don't think we've been properly introduced!
I'm enjoying your posts, and am glad you've found this magik site of ours (Speaking of wonderworlds!)!
Post often, and above all, have fun!

Amicably yours,
Earl Grey:yesbird:

[Nellsalot]

PS: Nell, I've REALLY been enjoying your posts! I'm so glad you found us! You're already family here, ya know?


Aww, gee! Thanks! This message board is so sweet. I'm glad you enjoy my posts - it weirds me out when I'm on message boards for months and post daily and people rarely address me personally.

[Orbert]

Orb! I don't think we've been properly introduced!
I'm enjoying your posts, and am glad you've found this magik site of ours (Speaking of wonderworlds!)!
Post often, and above all, have fun!

Amicably yours,
Earl Grey:yesbird:
I think I saw a section where people go to introduce themselves and such, but I haven't been there yet. I'm still working my way through the various areas and figuring out where I should spend what little time I have. It's tough. I'm usually at work when I access these boards, so I've got to keep it low-profile.

Thanks for the welcome, though! I'll try to make it over to the introduction area sometime soon.

Orbert

[Earl Grey]

Aww, gee! Thanks! This message board is so sweet. I'm glad you enjoy my posts - it weirds me out when I'm on message boards for months and post daily and people rarely address me personally.

Really, they don't?
I can barely believe that... Well, damn. I guess they didn't see your avatar, or they didn't really read what you had to say, or...

Huh. That weirds me out too Nell!

Your posts are COOL. And so are you.

And Madrigal is amazing. And Madrigal isn't often addressed, and should be.

It is the loveliest of Yessongs.

:yesbird:

[YYY]

Earl, I too remember that 78 show and the beauty of "Magrical" Live. We were all simply transported to another world for a brief moment. It's a short gem of a tale.

[Earl Grey]

Earl, I too remember that 78 show and the beauty of "Magrical" Live. We were all simply transported to another world for a brief moment. It's a short gem of a tale.

Hey Wendell! How's it going my friend?!

Melville wrote his TOME 'Moby Dick', which is a thing of wonderment...
And Highschool kids will continue to buy the Cliff's Notes on the thing, and scribble their essays on 'Moby Cliff' as long as there are such things as clocks and television sets.

MOBY DICK: Big novel. But worth the read.
~~~~~

Strangely enough, as much as I enjoyed THE TOME, there's this tiny novellette that Melville wrote entitled 'Billy Budd', which clocks-in at about 120 pages...
It IS the superior work, IMO.

Not that I would trade 'Close To The Edge' for 'Madrigal', OR 'Moby Dick' for 'Billy Budd'. There is room enough for all wonder, and time is a shared illusion.

But often times, the small gemstone is overshadowed by the castle keep...
And both expressions have their own individual charms.

'Madrigal' is the magic of YES distilled into the tiniest expression.
Like a quick bolt from the blue, Jon is just leaping to get all of is thoughts expressed within those given parameters: And Madrigal really IS a distilled Yessong of importance. It could have been a 'Moby'. It is what it is: perfection.

'Madrigal' works beautifully as a short story. All of the wunderstuff is present and accounted for.

Howe's lovely guitar embellishments, Jon's cosmic consciousness explored and expressed as poignantly as ever...
And Wakey at his personal best, playing an instrument that isn't his first instrument like some latter-day switched-on Bach.

A true gemstone of a yessong.

And Yes, YOU were there! And I as well... The end of an era. that tour.

Madrigal was SO brilliantly rendered 'live', and if I remember correctly, it was immediately followed by...

ON THE SILENT WINGS OF FREEDOM!

Life really doesn't get better than this.

And it seems like just yesterday.
Perhaps it was... Time being a shared illusion and all.

E.G.:yesbird:

Now look what I've done. It will take longer to read my commentary on MADRIGAL than to just flip the disc on and listen for yourself.
Ah well... The angels are in the editing...

[About The Round]

Montreux theme. There's where the musicans talk with their instruments over a cup of tea, -seemingly. I love that little song. Quite the opposite of Madrigal perhaps, but that's a side of Yes I could have heard mutch more of. And this keyboard is present far away in the background. LOL.
Madrigal is great and Tormato is great. That's all.

[Bo Locks]

Tormato was (I think) the 3rd Yes LP that I bought, and that early on in my relationship with Yes it struck some wonderful spiritual chords which (frankly) Top Oceans has yet to do.

Rejoice, Madrigal ond Onward: not quite Turn Of The Centurys in themselves, but still touch such deep feelings that other bands just cannot reach.

Why is Tormato so maligned?

Because it's got a crap cover? WHO CARES!
Because the songs are shorter? YOUR POINT IS...?
Because there's an experiment or 2? YOU FEAR THE NEW?

For the bookends of Future Times and Silent Wings ALONE this album is in Yes' Top 5.

Madrigal the Magnificent... more threads like this please.

[bender]

Nice post Bo Locks :)

IMO tormato is underated because fans were expecting another GFTO - and the fans weren't ready for the experimentation and sound of Tormato.

And Future Times-OTSWOF ARE great bookends - very few artists release albums where the track listings just work like that!

[Earl Grey]

Montreux theme. There's where the musicans talk with their instruments over a cup of tea, -seemingly. I love that little song. Quite the opposite of Madrigal perhaps, but that's a side of Yes I could have heard mutch more of. And this keyboard is present far away in the background. LOL.
Madrigal is great and Tormato is great. That's all.

'Montreux Theme' is YES playing at being Focus!

Or 'Camel'. Same thing.

'Madrigal', on the other hand (How many hands do I have? Not enough), if it has ANY failing (banish the thought) is VERY 'wordy'.

Words are worlds. It doesn't bother me in the slightest, in fact, it makes me feel ok about my own attempts to write novels in the short-story format that Jon shoehorns a novel into a bookend...
~~~~~~~~~~

But there ARE those expressions which evade words, which go straight to the seretonin, pass GO, Collect $200.00. And 'Montreux Theme' is one of those expressions.

I loved it when I first heard it on a scratchy bootleg LP back when...
I loved it more when it popped-up on YesYears...

And now...

Montreux Theme is finally on the album where it should have been on in the first place...

I LOVE it!

:yesbird:

[Nellsalot]

Is there a way I could hear a recording of that live piano version of Madrigal?

Tormato has definitely grown on me. I must say though, I really can't stand Circus Of Heaven and I only enjoy Release, Release and Arriving UFO when I'm in the mood. Just too much goofiness. Don't Kill The Whale and Onward are both pleasant enough. Future Times/Rejoice, Madrigal, On the Silent Wings are always great to me.

[Scooty]

Is there a way I could hear a recording of that live piano version of Madrigal?

Tormato has definitely grown on me. I must say though, I really can't stand Circus Of Heaven and I only enjoy Release, Release and Arriving UFO when I'm in the mood. Just too much goofiness. Don't Kill The Whale and Onward are both pleasant enough. Future Times/Rejoice, Madrigal, On the Silent Wings are always great to me.


I have an awesome copy of Madrigal w/piano (bootleg)..that segues right into Silent Wing Of Freedom from the '78 tour....D'OH....um no i don't i lied ;)...don't want to start a weed here without knowing it..LOL...

[Nellsalot]

You tease! :crybby:

[ANTIOCH]

I must be in the minority here . . . I like "Circus of Heaven", especially the 'live' bootleg version. I never looked at 'Tormato' as a bad album, just a different approach. More songwriting and less filler. "Madrigal" is brilliant !!

[YesForSure.]

Madrigal is definetely the best song on Tormato. But hey, I'm the guy that thinks 'We Have Heaven' Is the definete best song on Fragile. The Harpsichord and Jon's voice, both intertwine to create total ownage.

[umgekehrt]

I used to like Madrigal, until I saw the video LOL.

[Altres]

Yeah, the video is a bit dodgy, but the song itself is divine.

Madrigal

I will be there said my friend of a distant life
Covered in greens of a golden age, set in stone
Follow me "he sounded of dreams supreme" follow me
Drifting within the glow and the after-glow of the eve
And if that firelight, I could match the inner flame
Sacred ships do sail the seventh age

Cast off your garments of fear, replace them with love
Most of all play with the game of the age
Highest of places remain all as one with you
Giving us light and the freedom of the day

And if that firelight, I could match the inner flame
Sacred ships do sail the seventh age
And have always been here

Celestial travelers have always been here with us
Set in the homes of the Universe we have yet to go
Countless expansions will arrive and flow inside of us
My friend, he of fantasy, dancing with the spirit of the age

-------------------------------------------------------

Lyrically, this is highest level art.

Brian

[brotherofmine]

I love Madrigal a great song and the original has a very 'Elizabethan' feel about it. When Rick Wakeman plays his solo pieces on tour there is a song called 'Lost but not forgotten', that Rick plays and in my mind it is 'Madrigal' without the lyrics. I may be confusing songs here. But can anyone offer any light on this.

[neilius]

The piece is 'Gone but not forgotten', which is a totally different tune! I know the one your talking of though Tony, its on the ABWH An evening of Yesmusic plus Video/CD. (Is that on DVD?)

[brotherofmine]

The piece is 'Gone but not forgotten', which is a totally different tune! I know the one your talking of though Tony, its on the ABWH An evening of Yesmusic plus Video/CD. (Is that on DVD?)
Cheers Neil. You see I'm still a Yes novice ;). Yesmusic plus is also on DVD Neil, but it's very difficult to get hold of an original DVD. They were made in limited numbers and never re-pressed. So any copies that are available are over a $100 to buy, e Bay is also not reliable because they are either selling copies of the DVD or worse still, the video which has been recorded onto a DVD and hence only video quality.
This is one most sought after in YF DVD collection, I just hope that it gets re-released.

[mike178]

Tormato is good but like that guy said it gets a little goofy.