Affirmative Kultur: Further Thoughts On YES

1. Errata. Bart Nagel kindly points out that in my recent YES post the prof transposed the first & last names of Benoit David.

2. Apologia. This was a mistake & was certainly not intended as a slight upon Mr. Benoit. [The error while requiring a correction/apology is perhaps explained -- in part -- by the fact that Benoit, the frontman & lead singer in the group that night, never introduced himself to the audience.]

3. Argument. Some folks believe that there are 2 senses (or maybe more) to the word argument. a) There is argument as in having a verbal diagreement/fight (with perhaps implications of irrationality). And b) there is argument as in proposing a hypothesis & then attempting to prove its veracity via a series of propositions presumably by means of logic & evidence. The Monty Python argument sketch is based upon this difference -- in fact, apparent contradiction -- between the 2 meanings.

This is surely too simple. Argument (as Roland Barthes once said, when 2 people argue with the intention of winning, they are already married) is really a word that describes a continuum, for the 2 apparently different meanings are really fundamentally the same.

Take some of the Comments posted to my YES review. (And my sincere thanks to everyone, anonymous or not, for taking part. POP's musings are intended to get people thinking -- & no one thinks more about these posts than does the author/narrator/cartoon character of POP himself.)

One Commenter suggests that if you truly do love a band's music as much as the prof loves (1970s) YES, then you should show the musicians in the band respect. (Note shifting of goalposts here, from the music to the musicians. The professor of pop is not interested in whether Beethoven was a nice man or not, he is simply hoping that he will live long enough to fully appreciate the man's music. Got it?) Now then. If you will grant me that not all YES shows are perfect (face facts: they are notorious for their trainwrecks -- the prof once saw them stop in the middle of CTTE and start again -- Bournemouth Winter Gardens, 1973, and some of their performances of The Gates of Derilium have found the odd meter in the middle section too much for them), then we might agree that someone who appreciates the music of YES (as opposed to whatever band members happen to be in YES on any given tour/album) would demonstrate that devotion TO THE MUSIC by noticing things like the fact that at the show we attended on Friday night, Roundabout (misplaced in the set) did not groove one iota; White's solo was musically aimless; and the mix so favoured Chris Squire's bass that large sections of some pieces were virtually inaudible. So, some YES performances are better than others. Last Friday's shows ranked only the third-worst ever, though, that the prof has attended. The Big Generator Money Spinner (AKA The Trevor Rapid Review) was a sickener. But the Open Your Eyes tour was the lowest of the low. (Best YES live shows: 1975 with Patrick Moraz, who brought their music -- kicking & screaming -- into the C20th. You can see that tour on the QPR 1975 2-disk DVD.)

As for Anon#2, who complains that the professor of pop provided an inadequate "review" of the show, let me say this. My advice, sir. First, look up the word 'blog' (that is -- Bee Ell Ooo Gee) at Wiki or Google. (If you cannot use a computer, ask someone at your local library.) Then, take out a subscription to a magazine called Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone -- the mag, not the band! They have bags of ""reviews"" there.

4. Disgresion. Oh & thanks Bernie, but you might also revisit The Yes Album and Relayer (even parts of Time and a Word) -- some of their finest work is there. Sunday in Saratoga the bartender (a muso) put YES on all afternoon and we danced our way through a few sissie g&ts. SO yes, you CAN move to it. All YES fans know that. But still, let's be grown-up about it, some shows groove more than others.

5. Fandom. The fan accuses the critic of having written the review/blog post before bum hit seat. (Otherwise how could s/he not see how brilliant it all was?) But this confuses 2 objects of study: the band, & the music they played that evening. It is the arrogance of the fan -- Simon Frith's term -- that has written the glowing review long before the first strains of the Firebird Suite have begun to drift into the ether.

6. Conclusion. POP is written with tongue firmly in cheek. Andrew Goodwin is not the prof. Although he sometimes does the same things the prof does. And vice versa. If you can't see the humour in that last fictional 'Meet & Greet' section, then why bother reading this blog at all?

Sod off, you ungrateful miserable swine!

But let us end on an affirmative note -- why not start your own blog? It is a great way to test out your ideas, explore your mind, question your assumptions, share thoughts & feelings, & learn from the feedback. Even if you disagree with it. No, especially if you disagree with it.

So here's to YES (1970-1975). And their fans.

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Insomnia

Brilliant oldie from MASSIVE ATTACK heard last Thursday in downtown Berkeley leaking from a homeless person's shopping cart (i.e. home). POP named that tune in less than 2 seconds. Further evidence for the centrality of timbre in popular music.

Fragile: YES @ the Saratoga Mountain Winery

Chris Squire has now almost completed the total ruination of the group he co-founded (with Jon Anderson) in 1968 -- YES.

This became apparent during last night's show at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA -- a venue chosen by the professor of pop because he assumed that the show might include one decent performance of one decent song (it did -- 'Astral Traveller') & therefore if you are dragging your sweetheart to said criminal act upon music you'd better hitch it to a nice weekend away.

ASIA played some semblance of a supporting set, most of which we were delighted to miss while sucking down super-perf creme brulee, & anyway there is no need to delve too deeply into such unpleasantries. Not unless one wishes to take a hammer to a band that seemed fit only for a very brief set in between the bingo at a working-men's club.

My mum Sally Goodwin always wished that she could hire YES to play at the working-men's club (The Unity Club, on Southampton Road) across the street from where we grew up. (Eventually our house was torn down & They built a new Unity Club on the foundations of the slum, sorry, home where the prof once played 'Close To The Edge ' 17 times a day.) Well guess what? In its current form you probably could hire YES to play your kid's birthday party. Chris Squire, if sufficiently renumerated, would no doubt call the bingo numbers for you and hand out pressies dressed as a clown.

The prof did actually yell BINGO related declamations at the stage during last night's performance, so appalled was he by this hubristic insult to progressive rock. We left during the beginning of the encore ('Starship Trooper') because -- like the closer ('Heart Of The Sunrise') -- it was yet another showcase for Chris Squire's shameless corruption of his considerable talents.

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The trouble begins long before Bill Bruford quit the band, in 1972. Arguments between Bruford the drummer & Squire the bassist centered on the crucial question of whether the kick/bass drum should always slaveishly mirror the bass guitar part, or whether in fact the drummer might actually be a musician. When Bruford left, the destruction of YES began. Squire recruited Alan White to replace him. That change, from a drummer who swings & surprises to a plodder who rocks out in all manner of time signatures but who rocks out nonetheless, guaranteed global mega-success for YES.

Chris Squire clearly does not understand that alongside rhythm, timbre is the other crucial aesthetic component in popular music. How else can we explain the attempt to replace Jon Anderson's voice first with Trevor Horn (who at least attempted to bring his own vocal inflections to the music) & now with a singer from a YES tribute band, David Benoit?

He hits the notes, does David. He in fact mimicks like a prog parrot. He even has gimmicks. Such as pretending to shoot the audience with a pretend gun, somewhat in the manner of Alan Partridge. But not only does he not originate -- that could be forgiven -- he also has a capacity that is often to be found in singers in tribute bands: his voice has no personality. The grain in the vox, 'tis lacking. And all this nonsense from YES fans saying Benoit can hit the high notes misses the point completely. Yes, he hits the high notes. But when he does so you have no idea why he is doing that.

It is rather like watching Squire, White & guitarist Steve Howe (alongside Rick Wakeman's son Oliver on keyboards) having an affair, in public. As if they don't know that we've noticed that it's not the wife, it's the mistress. And she's playing Rock Band! In fact, she's so busy doing karoake that there's no time to speak to the audience. Yes, the front man never fronted. Never said a word.

Squire & Howe did all the patter. Because if David had tried that, well then the audience would know that the Jon Anderson puppet vox he was deploying is not in fact his speaking voice. Of course this is the norm in acting, rock shows & so forth. What is unusual is going to such lengths to conceal this.

The thing about YES is that unlike, say, Genesis or Pink Floyd or Jethro Tull or King Crimson, they used to be hyper-funky. The first YES shows, back in the late 60's, featured an extended 20-min plus jam on 'In The Midnight Hour'. And so the nadir of last night's performance was not a song but a bit of patter. Squire, introducing Howe's pointless acoustic gtr solo bit, suggested that since Howe had just played a whole set with ASIA (highlight: 'Video Killed The Radio Star') he had now replaced James Brown as "the hardest working man in show business".

This brought the prof instantly to his feet: "Absolute rubbish!" he yelled. "Play 'Sex Machine'! IF YOU CAN!"

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So anyway. The VIP 'Meet & Greet'. It was awkward. Susan was cringing & begging me to leave.


POP: "So. Alan. How does it feel to have reduced one of the most rhythmically complex bands in the history of popular music to a factory-fed headless chick op?"

AW: "Nice to see you again! Would you like an autograph? Hey, thanks for coming!"


POP: "So. Steve. Were you being ironic, during the solo on 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart'"?

SH: [walks off]


POP: "So. Oliver. Don't you think that your dad's nineteenth-century approach to the keyboards needs a little updating, now that the younger generation are replacing their parents in rock groups?"

OW: "Chris told me to play it just like it was on the records."


POP: "So. Chris. This is the second time you've tried to replace Jon Anderson as the lead singer in YES. Trevor Horn was a disaster. Have you considered re-hiring him, since the new guy is even worse?"

CS: "Uh? Hey listen, sorry, um, I, er, well look Trevor's busy. And check this out -- I know who Linkin Park are, OK? So, you know, I think I'm a little hipper than, you know, some of these old proggers."


POP: "So. David. Is it in your contract that you are not allowed to speak directly to the audience?"

DB: [silence]

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The wine was good though.

Happy Interdependence Day.

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Image courtesy of Susan Hellein.

Til Txt Do Us Prt?

Just the other day someone proposed to the professor of pop, via the mechanism of email, using the sintax of twit. Now. To be fair, this proposal has now been downgraded via F2F conversation to a mere proposition. However, the prof is not unfamiliar with the English language & he knows perfectly well there is practically no difference (in terms of language games) between a proposition & a proposal. Clearly a proposal (or so-called proposition) communicated in such a fashion is rather like a hypothesis. It suggests that this dual notion, this shared idea, this future project of a collective nature, is being tested -- experimentally -- to see what results emerge, after further empirical evidence has been accumulated & further trials have (we certainly hope) re-confirmed the congruence of said hypothesis/proposal/proposition between the human imagination and the true nature of the actually-existing world.

You may say Y or N via whatever is the latest cell phone WiFi txtng vid microwave landline gps leash tech rip. Or you may wait for any of the following IRL locales, so that you may answer F2F, on bended knee, red rose barbing the old teeth, as if all thorned up in a Jane Austen novel:

a) Paris (dive bar, Left Bank)
b) Winchester (Cathedral)
c) Chelsea (Shed Bar)
d) Berkeley Zen Center

Otha suggestions welcome in 140 chars or less.

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