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Close to the Edge is 50

Kills any groove stone dead.

"Groove"? I must have a different mastering. One thing "Close to the Edge" does not do is groove.

If the Drake Equation is correct and there is life on other planets, and some of that life is intelligent, I’m prepared to bet my house there is no other planet anyone has ever tried sticking a bloody church organ into a rock track.

It just needs the right setting.

 
I never really liked Wakeman that much because he didn't / couldn't play jazz. So when Moraz turns up I think they sounded great. Shame Eddie Jobson didn't stay. The lack jazz is I think why I have never loved Genesis.

For me of the mainstream UK prog (Yes, ELP, Genesis) I’d put Genesis a very strong 1st place as the keyboards aren’t riddled with classical cliche. I think ELP take 1st place in the king of anti-jazz. They even hammered Brubeck’s Take Five into the most leaden and dead 4/4 beat! Yes are at their best without Wakeman IMO, though the first side of TFTO with its washes of Mellotron and Minimoog shuffles along rather nicely. I do like that track.

"Groove"? I must have a different mastering. One thing "Close to the Edge" does not do is groove.

Yes, you are probably right. In that case it slams into reverse when it hits the wall of church organ. I actually played it as a result of this thread (I have an early CD) and I still feel exactly the same, the first 7 minutes or so of the title track is decent, and side two (I still think in terms of the record) is fairly good. Very far from Yes’s best album though. A lot I’d take over it.
 
Tony, I think Tony Banks made more than his fair share of classical affectations.

Anyway onto Keith Emerson as "anti-jazz"......The Nice might have played Rondo in 4/4, but Keith spent a lifetime lifting jazz quotes, playing odd time signatures and playing with some of the jazz greats from time-to-time.
 

Agree completely, though for some reason UK prog is seen as the holy trinity of Yes, Genesis & ELP. I did qualify it as ‘mainstream’ to effectively limit it to this strain. Obviously some of it, e.g. the wonderful Nucleus, is funky as hell and has way more to do with Bitches Brew than the other stuff occurring in the UK. Then we have the whole Canterbury scene, which I guess is a little more ‘jazz’, especially Soft Machine and bits of Caravan, The Egg etc. It is odd that Yes, Genesis and ELP rose to the top, but they did and many of the others are barely known these days.

PS Anyone unaware just how good Nucleus were needs to buy this CD box immediately. It is superb stuff, especially the earlier albums, the mastering is great and a mint set of original Vertigo vinyl will run you £thousands. Seriously, buy it now, as once this is out of print the CD price will rocket too.
 
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It is odd that Yes, Genesis and ELP rose to the top, but they did and many of the others are barely known these days.

Yes, ELP (and Floyd) made it because they broke big in the States.

VdGG were as big as Genesis up to '72 but then Hammill killed it in '73 as he saw no way to 'progress' after "Pawn Hearts" (and getting tangled up with Italian communists and gangsters didn't help either); it took a few years before they regrouped and gave us "Godblff" which is as far removed from the widddly-diddly, Bach and Mingus inspired dross that was more typical of the releases of '75. Gabriel and Fripp also saw the limitations and jumped the good ship "Prog" by leaving Genesis and killing off Crimson in 74 to try other things.

Genesis took a while to make it big - it took a hit single from "And Then There Were Three" to become genuine stars.

PS Anyone unaware just how good Nucleus were needs to buy this CD box immediately. It is superb stuff, especially the earlier albums, the mastering is great and a mint set of original Vertigo vinyl will run you £thousands. Seriously, buy it now, as once this is out of print the CD price will rocket too.

Agreed - even a BGO pressing of "Elastic Rock" goes for a few bob now...
 
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Just stuck the Nucleus on the upstairs (Leaks/LS3/5A) system and it sounds stunning, this box really is nicely mastered! I had no idea this stuff even existed when I was listening to Yes, Genesis, Floyd etc as a young teenager. No idea what I’d have made of it. I found some Krautrock at that point too, certainly had Autobahn and Rubycon, plus some early Hawkwind. I guess even then Vertigo was a collectable label and out of my second-hand price bracket.
 
With the Wakeman, I guess it's a case of either you love him... or else you have at least a modicum of taste in music.


He's pretty unique, though. I will give him that.
 
The thing that is so annoying is he seems such a nice bloke! Very funny, self-deprecating, really down to earth. There are so many rock stars that appear to be pompous arses and Wakeman really isn’t one of them.
 
ELP certainly had some jazz credentials....
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I saw Rick Wakeman at a church hall concert in a village near me a few years back (Boston Spa). It was a story telling type of show about his career. He played the piano on Life on Mars, also on Cat Stevens' Morning has Broken. With the latter Cat complained that the original hymn wasn't long enough for a pop song, Rick replied 'well that's all there is'. In the end Rick relented and wrote an extra section to pad it out a bit. He also wrote the 'White Rock' soundtrack for the 1976 winter Olympics. He did play a lovely piano instrumental of 'Wonderous Stories'.

He told an amusing story from the Yes days. On one tour Jon Anderson had visited an Indian reservation and somehow managed to beg a totem pole from them. He took great delight in having this pole in his dressing room. Rick responded to this strange excess by installing a small potting shed in his changing room!

FWIW my vinyl copy of CTTE is an Italian pressing. Sides 1 & 2 are labelled as Lato 1 and Lato 2, the rest is all in English.
 
"Interestingly", The Edge from U2 is 11 years older than Close to the Edge.
 
I am only 4 years older than Close to the Edge, but it is one of my favourite albums.

The beginning of the first track is magnificent.. the dawn chorus that swells into an incredible instrumental section, the rhythms and structure puts me in mind of main section of 1st movement of Brahms 1st symphony.
 
The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge are a fine sequence of albums. In my opinion, their finest period.
 


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