Yes

Pardon me while I talk about a band that I'm sure *no one* really cares much about anymore. I imagine that most of you out there know Yes for "Owner of a Lonely Heart" alone. Alas, at that time the band at that time had arguably its weakest musical lineup of its entire career (in fact, even the album's cover art was at an all-time low - it was done on an Apple IIe). The band's lineup actually seems to have more turnover than the government of Italy, but most of the time they had some truly impressive talent on their roster.

I'll be the first to admit that unfortunately their brilliance led them down the path of pretentiousness more than once, like their album "Tales from Topographic Oceans" - a 2-record concept gone horribly wrong - a total of 4 songs, about 22 minutes apiece. After recording it, keyboardist Rick Wakeman quit because he couldn't understand it. But maybe it was just the drugs. I'm such a fan, I actually like it, even without drugs. I could go on for hours, but I'll spare you.

Anyhow, there was a time that they were incredibly good and crisp as a fresh piece of celery. Unfortunately, I fear that time is past, and they may now be sort of old and limp - kind of like a piece of celery you discover in the back of your veggie bin, a sort of Jurassic Celery. (p.s. Mr. Spielberg - *not* a good movie idea.)

If you'd like, you can email me here: richard@hearingmusic.com.

Oh, and all content on these pages is copyright Richard Lewis.