Monday, February 20, 2006

Yes -- I'm one of those people who remembers music from the Sixties and Seventies. I was there! And who do I find myself listening to today? Why, Yes, of course. Yes.

Perhaps the definitive art-rock band of the Seventies, Yes still makes for refreshing listening, even if their lyrics are so far out there that most of us will never catch up with them. (Michael Stipe says that he doesn't understand many of R.E.M.'s lyrics, either, and it's his own band.) Abandoning the traditional 4/4 hammer of so many rock songs of that era, Yes took off in a totally different direction, composing and performing stylistic mood pieces, many of which caused the needle to traverse entire LP sides. But even with the length of the songs, they were the perfect accompaniment to long nights of studying, whether it was organic chemistry, Soviet Literature of the Twentieth Century, or second-quarter neurobiology.

Being an iTunes addict, I ventured into Steve Jobs' eminent digital domain this past weekend and was wowed by the depth of the Yes collection. Albums such as "Tormato", which I never saw sold for the original price, were duly represented and reviewed on iTunes, as were the releases of Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman. Do you remember "The Six Wives of Henry VIII"? How about "Journey to the Centre of the Earth"? They're out there.

It's outstanding that in this era, we can dive into the depths, promulgate the strains of Yes and make it available to iPods anywhere on the planet. Far out. Hey...I never said that in the Seventies, man. =:)