Tuesday, April 03, 2007

progging out like a mofo

Alex, I'll take "Used Prog CD's" for under $10.00:

36. Yes -- Yessongs
37. Yes -- Yesshows
38. Yes -- The Word Is Live

The first two are double-discs, and the third is a triple set. Damn, that's a lot of squiggly Moog solos. I discovered Yes in seventh grade when a friend played me his older brother's copy of Fragile, and another friend let me borrow Close to the Edge. At the time these albums were only about ten years old: to a teenager, though, they were ancient but in a cool, Frodoesque way (nerd alert!). And so began my fascination/obsession with side-long songs, concept albums, meandering solos, and all things prog.

Side note: I last saw Yes live in 2002. During the first half of the concert, the assholes seated behind my brother and I would not stop talking. They had obviously won tickets from the local classic-rock station ($60 seats) and were not interested in the music at all, choosing instead to yammer brainlessly. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer--without turning around, I just bellowed "Man, shut the fuck up!" They remained quiet for the rest of the show. Zack was right: sometimes anger is a gift.

2 comments:

Mo said...

Now, see. I feel so much better now. LouLou made merciless fun of me for running giddily up to the counter at Plan 9 a couple of weeks ago flailing around a copy of the Encore Collection Extended Versions babbling about 18:14 of Awaken.

matt said...

LOL! Never feel bad about running giddily due to Awaken, probably my favorite Yes song of all time.