Head to Head Friday....

[yarstruly]

Hey YesFans...
I am going to try someting I used to do on a board for another band (but without the benefit of the poll option)...

Its Called Head to Head...

Very simply it's one YesSong (or related band/solo song) vs. another.... Generally I will try to put songs that are somewhat similar up against each other...Feel free to discuss your choices, but try to limit the discussion to the 2 songs presented...as much as possible, I will try to do a new match every day (as long as "real life" doesn't get in the way..lol)

For today's match-up I will put up (aguably) Yes' 2 biggest songs of the 70's

I've Seen All Good People

VS.

Roundabout

[yarstruly]

Keep in mind that this is strictly for fun...It is not part of a tournament or any such thing....

I will keep each vote open for 2 days, initially, I will probably shorten it to 1 day if this catches on...

[Robert Shupe]

I went with preference on this one. This was pretty difficult as these are the Two Yes songs that caused me to dig deeper and low and behold here I am 20 plus years later.

I voted for I've Seen All Good People. I could arguably go for Roundabout as a stronger piece for purely musical reasons but I let me heart decide this one. (With regards to the great Roundabout: You got to love Rick's magic fingers and the backward tape of Steve at the begining.)

I've Seen All Good People is a beautiful song. It begins with the great vocal entry, we are then taken into a journey that has great harmony with the vocals, simplistic but quite beautiful keys, fun strumming from Steve, Chris moving with a heartbeat like rhythm. I absolutely love the Chess analogy to life. Pause. Then we jam and it is a fun jam.

So there you go.

Thankfully all the good people are here at this site.


Salute,

Robert Shupe

[Earl Grey]

Though of course, I love both...

Roundabout is like nothing else: the vocal harmonies are SO strong, the lyrics are nothing short of poetry. And for such an artful work to have topped the charts was quite an amazing thing.

It was also the first record I ever bought of YES's: The flipside was just as amazing: 'Long Distance Runaround': they both received a huge amount of airplay, and introduced many of us to the wonders of YES for the very first time (Although, of course 'All Good People' came out first, it didn't receive much airplay until after 'Roundabout').

Sometimes the great Hammond B3 organ-solo will get in my head: can't shake it out, and I don't want to shake it out! Infectuous!

Howe's opening phrase was the first time many of us guitarists ever learned how to play 'harmonics': again, a first for a top 40 song: to have all that wonderful classical guitar work involved... And the 'crunch' of Steve's electric is just outragious!
And the simplicity of those three harmonic-octave chords throughout the verses... beautiful, simple, and yet a first!

'In and around the lake, mountains fall out of the sky and they stand... there' Such poetry! And though it's easy to listen to Roundabout without really 'hearing' it now, due to the many MANY times we've heard it, pretend for once that you've never heard this song before... Hear it for the first time again, and see what a wonderful thing it is.

Roundabout is the wonderstuff. There is SO much in there, and so much for any Yesfan to re-discover.

And so, my choice.
Eight minutes and twenty-nine seconds of sheer amazement. Roundabout: Ah YES!

:yesbird:

[Earl Grey]

I just put 'Fragile' on the stereo (I got myself all excited about the song, see?!). And I forgot to mention Squire's work on this song... Man oh MAN! How those wild bass notes rise up and down the Rickenbacker's neck... The bass truly carries Roundabout: those bright percussionary notes enhanced with Howe's acoustic harmonic flashes. The flashpoint of the sublime.

And Bruford! Bill Bill Bill... ! When the song hits the 3 minute 25 second point, things go into a minor key: Bill starts playing a tattoo on what sounds like... glass jars?
Glass jars. And they are in-tune with the melody, and it sounds as though they are about to break in his frenzied rhythemetistic antics!

At the 4:37 point, things quiet down again... Wakey's organ trills laying a background of quietude for the re-emergence of Steve on gut-string... Jon's pathos-laden "In and around the lake..." bringing us directly into one of the most unforgettable organ-solo's of all time, followed by one of the tastiest crunchiest guitar-solos of all time!
It goes on and on and only gets better and better with every moment.

"Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too..." Try thirty true summers, we'll be there and laughing too!

And then the grand finale, with Jon's gorgeous harmonized vocals leading us out the same way we came in... with those unforgettable classical guitar harmonics...
~~~~

I can't get enough of this song: it has every earmark that causes me to love this band above all others, and it's all contained in one relatively short song: Roundabout.

:yesbird:

[yarstruly]

Great posts Earl & Robert! That's what it's all about! Opinions...just go with your heart like Robert said...C'mon everybody...Stand up & VOTE!!

[Joedude]

It's Roundabout for me. Wakeman's solo is what tips the scales for me.

[Gato]

Hey, yarstruly, what a flashy -and big!- new avatar and... what a difficult choice!

All right, I've voted for All Good People since I love the Your Move part so much (Squire's backing vocals have a lot to do with this), but I could find so many reasons to vote for Roundabout... Anyway, what's done is done and I'm not giving this a second thought or it'll turn from a poll into a nightmare!

[Ascend_Create]

Agreed, Joedude...

Wakeman's solo in Roundabout (my vote!) is just perfection. They must have had a ball making this album. Only wish my stereo went up to 11 on the volume! =^)

[yarstruly]

Originally posted by Gato
Hey, yarstruly, what a flashy -and big!- new avatar and... what a difficult choice!



It's not TOO Big is it?

The tough choice is what makes this FUN!

[Vulpes Namekaw]

I voted for Roundabout

Sure, some people are tired of hearing it time after time, but I could hear it every day and be perfectly happy. Every second of it is rife with originality and mystique. And it's the first time that Yes has had a truly gut-busting keyboard solo (though I do notice a bit where Rick quits too soon and doesn't realize that he has another 4 bars to play, so he rushes back in to finish them up!). This song has got to be on every keyboardist's wish list just for that.
I also love it for its complexity. If you take note of the lyrics to the "tribal rhythm" section, you may feel that there's something much deeper there than you suspected. I'd like to hear some people's interpretation of these lyrics.

[upbgirl]

it would have to be all good people, because i love you ALL!!
and also, because my 13 year old is at his 'too cool to get excited about anything' phase, BUT, whenever we hear this tune live, he WILL go downstage and dance with his old mom!! i LOVE those moments-and we have danced to that song 8 times so far together downstage!! [jon winked and gave him the thumbs up last show-he bragged about it all the way home-'jon winked at ME, mom, and he didnt even notice YOU!!'] i will admit, i use him as a backstage magnet-[we all know how they feel about kids] but it hasnt worked so far..haha!!
all good people is like the chess game of life..yep-move me and my black aura onto the black square!!
[but i DID get my tattoo in honor of roundabout-mountains come out of the sky and stand there anytime i need them to!! they are IN my tattoo!]:cheers:

[upbgirl]

me & kid right after the 'all good people' dance..[hope ya dont mind, endless-excellent idea[r] there my man!!]

[yarstruly]

Nice Pic Kathi :)

[yarstruly]

I think there is still a little time left on this one if you want to participate...

[yarstruly]

Tim said my avatar was too big, and I couldn't figure out how to make it smaller so I changed it...still flashy but not as big :D

[yarstruly]

It appears that Roundabout will win this one easily :D