Books about Yes & Books about Yes Lyrics?

[Wordnat]

Hi all. New guy here. I think Music of Yes (Martin) is the best book about the band that I’ve read. Is it a tad pretentious? Sure, but it’s well-written and the author’s enthusiasm is refreshing.

[yairisan]

Hi all. New guy here. I think Music of Yes (Martin) is the best book about the band that I’ve read. Is it a tad pretentious? Sure, but it’s well-written and the author’s enthusiasm is refreshing.

It's a curious entry into the Yes library; I enjoyed some of it (most notably, the sheer level of enthusiasm he clearly has for the band, as you mention), but steeping the subject matter in such religious / philosophical / academic contexts feels awkwardly incongruous and plain silly a lot of the time - the citations alone are worthy of Monty Python; yet, he's actually serious! I found myself digging back into it on occasion just to revel in the author's ability to write about a bunch of blokes playing '70s pop rock with such gravity. I shelved it around the part where he starts equating Squire to Charlie Parker. That's not a good...parallel.

[Spiritual Architect]

My First Yesbook !.

‘Send the story to the lords of the city, prostrate and uncertain

Changing to open lore from depths of forgotten, childish memories

Many the lives change into duration and the road be hard trodden

Many demons have seen his face and sworn to the winds
In defiance the winds have come to blow away the pain
Apiece apart and unwholesome to the living life source
The dance ends, the flames dwindle, and gods and men awake”

Me thinks Ash should have been writing the lyrics to the non-Jon albums.

[BillGuitar]

From owning the original two YES COMPLETE: VOLUME ONE & TWO, I'm going to throw out a guess that none of these Yes "music books" actually have anything even remotely accurate as to how the songs were actually played. Garbage - and I could have bought some other vinyl albums instead of throwing the money away.

The very reason I can play Yes on my guitars is precisely because I trained my ear, by myself, to teach myself those songs.

I learned a great deal from Tim Morse's YESSTORIES book. So I certainly hold it in much higher regard than the consensus here.

STEVE HOWE GUITAR PIECES has some nice pictures of Steve. Had a friend transcribe a section of Clap into tablature so (I thought) I could then play it. Wrong.

[BillGuitar]

Is Bruford's biography worth picking up?

[tumnus]

Is Bruford's biography worth picking up?

Very much so, he writes lucidly and honestly. Instead of rock god pontifications you get an real account of a working musician and bandleader. I wish they'd do a kindle version though (personal reasons!)

[Soundchaser413]

There was a book back in the 90s called something like Yes but what does it mean which apparently tried to explain in detail the lyrics to several Yes songs. I had a friend who was a big Yes fan and he had it but I don't remember much about it. I mention it because the title of this thread mentioned lyrics and it's the only one I know of that dealt specifically with this topic. I believe it's been out of print for some time now and is very expensive.