[Video] Yes - Close To The Edge Organ Solos - Wakeman, Wakeman, Brlisin, Downes

[bondegezou]

I mentioned Themes (Post #108). That came out in '98. There are Rick's Retro discs (2006-7), loaded with throwback style compositions recorded with analog gear. Lots o' good stuff there if you're into that. I mean, if you enjoy Rick going nuts on a synth patch like on "Section Seven" from Themes, even if those are digital sounds, there's plenty to like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC7w3kal2RQ

2000 A.D. (1991) is a really uneven album, but it ends with an uptempo rouser called "The Seventh Dimension." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0UBpoyI-dE

Sorry I missed your earlier post.

2000AD isn't a terrible album. I wouldn't go much further than that...

Henry

[dpt3]

Tom Brislin? Seriously??? Downes could only wish he lived a second life to compose songs like Tom did on the two Spiraling albums (Transmitter & Time Travel Made Easy), do we even need to mention this stuff? Yet alone his solo album "Smell The Roses." Aside from those excellent albums, the guy can cover YES music, as well Camel, Renaissance, and others like a true champ.

Yeah, I'm not all that familiar with most of Spiraling, but Hurry Up and Smell the Roses is an excellent album.

[dropforge]

What has Downes done since then which has connected beyond die-hard fans either?? Nothing on your list, that's for sure...and being pedantic, your Fly From Here tracks also pre-date 1983. Using '2011' for that is very disingenuous...and I wouldn't call that an 'awesome' album either, really.

You're always very critical of Wakeman in particular and I'm not sure why, it's outright bias IMHO. I'm not the one making great claims for late-period work here so I don't have to back anything up.

FFH disappointed. Alpha isn't even as good as Asia. Vox Humana consists partly of rerecorded material. Only Downes aficionados keep that one around.

[dregsfan]

IMHO, The World Service is very good, sort of a later era companion to his NDO from 1986 or 87.

[dropforge]

IMHO, The World Service is very good, sort of a later era companion to his NDO from 1986 or 87.

It's not bad, but those are some really short comps/improvs.

[dregsfan]

^That's one of the things I like about it. Some of the pieces are a minute or a minute and half long, little sonic "vignettes."

[bondegezou]

Tom Brislin? Seriously??? Downes could only wish he lived a second life to compose songs like Tom did on the two Spiraling albums (Transmitter & Time Travel Made Easy), do we even need to mention this stuff? Yet alone his solo album "Smell The Roses."

Do you need to mention it? Well, no-one else had, so, yeah, guess so! ;-)

Would you suggest any camples? I listened to bits at the time and wasn't particularly bowled over.

What has Downes done since then which has connected beyond die-hard fans either?? Nothing on your list, that's for sure...and being pedantic, your Fly From Here tracks also pre-date 1983. Using '2011' for that is very disingenuous...and I wouldn't call that an 'awesome' album either, really.

Well, we all like different things and that's fine. I love the two recent DBA albums, for example, and they appear to have sold OK: whether they've "connected beyond die-hard fans", I'm not sure. Either way, I'm looking forward to album 3, with Lee Pomeroy and possibly Andy Partridge.

You're always very critical of Wakeman in particular and I'm not sure why, it's outright bias IMHO. I'm not the one making great claims for late-period work here so I don't have to back anything up.

I'm not certain how it can be bias... or maybe I mean it's obviously bias? I like what I like, JJ. I don't claim my tastes are any better or worse than anyone else's. I just like some stuff and don't like some other stuff, and am then kinda middling on some more stuff. I'm not certain what you expect from me? Was I meant to swear to like all Yes keyboardists equally or something?

I try to write on Yes's history from a neutral point of view with respect to what I think of the output, but I have my own likes and dislikes, and I think I'm allowed to mention them. To my ears, the worst bit of Fragile are Wakeman's arpeggios on "Heart of the Sunrise", while "Subway Walls" is a great song.

Henry

[JJ88]

^It's the implication that Downes makes more relevant music than their other keyboard players that I find a real stretch. What makes this material more 'memorable' than what the others are doing?

I like Downes on his own stuff, just not when playing Wakeman's. And I try not to judge him overall on the latter.

Wakeman was on 4 of the 6 studio albums made in their (IMHO, others will obviously disagree) 1971-7 creative peak. That right there buys him an awful lot of credibility, in my view, and also respect. I feel, rightly or wrongly, that you often play that down.

[Man In The Mountain]

Would you suggest any camples? I listened to bits at the time and wasn't particularly bowled over.

From Transmitter:


From Time Travel Made Easy:

[ThomasKDye]

This one's my favorite from the first album. I've actually convinced two different people to check the band out based on this one song.

[proggosaurus]

don't click on that

[arj]

Sorry, having issues embedding.

[Frumious B]

IMHO "Subway Walls" wouldn't even be the best track on the first Starcastle album. So if that's the best that H&E has to offer...

[ssully]

Since posing this question, a variety of opinions have been expressed. No-one has suggested any compositions by O Wakeman or Brislin, and nothing by R Wakeman since 1983 or Moraz since 1985. If you're speculating on a best keyboardist for Yes today, I suggest having written something memorable in the last 30 years would be one criterion worth using.

Henry

But I'm *not* speculating about who is the best keyboardist for the rump bands calling themselves 'Yes' these days, because I could hardly care less. I'm only addressing the (to me) extraordinary claim that Downes is on par with Wakeman as a musician. And I'm allowing for both of them at their best, not comparing Downes's best with Wakeman's worst or vice versa.

[Bruno Sampaio Barbosa]

More fun: https://vid.me/OJHtJ

[Farpoint Kevin]

Getting back to the original intent of the thread, I found one aspect of this little experiment particularly fascinating...Regardless of how much I preferred one performance or another, what I found most interesting is that, particularly with Wakeman, Moraz, and Downes...The part they played SOUNDED like them...I'm not sure how much was technique or style or sound choice or some combination, but they each had a kind of signature sound, and while I might prefer one more than another, I think that's kind of cool...I'm not familiar enough with Brislin's or Khoroshev's or Wakeman Jr.'s work apart from Yes to say if that holds true for them, but it seems to me that those three pretty much just sound a lot like Wakeman, which makes sense considering he played the original part.