The Ides of July: YESSONGS

As this posts, I'll be on my way to see YES perform out on Long Island. I think I've seen them every time they came to NY in the last decade, but something is different for this tour. The singer Jon Anderson is sitting this tour out because he suffered a lung malady last year. As a result they did the Journey thing and hired an "understudy" to sing. This guy can hit all the notes that Jon Anderson and Trevor Horn were able to hit when they were at the helm of the YES machine. With that, the band has been performing songs that Jon refused to, specifically tracks from DRAMA, the only YES album that Jon wasn't the lead singer on. So, since the Ides of July end tonight I thought I would double up my list discussing what I hope I will and will NOT hear tonight at the show.

TOP FIVE SONGS I HOPE YES DOES NOT PERFORM TONIGHT

5. Anything recorded after Talk. Talk was the last great Yes album. It took the musical leadership and direction of Trevor Rabin to create the last real Yes album. Everything afterward were nice tries, but completely unrefined and, in my opinion, unfinished. They needed something to make them complete but instead they turned out sounding like a lot of Jon Anderson's solo work.
4. America. Yes covered the Simon & Garfunkel song during the 70s and have been playing it almost ever since. I don't like the original and don't like the cover much better.
3. Close to the Edge. The first epic YESsong. It's a cool song but too chaotic for a live performance and they've plated it enough times. They can skip this one.
2. Owner of a Lonely Heart. I love Steve Howe, but he doesn't get that fat sound that Trevor Rabin was able to get out of his strats. The song just sounds empty.
1. Roundabout Edited. Steve Howe has maintained for years that one of the greatest YESsongs ever is way too long. In recent years they've cut the song in half when they perform it, taking the punch out of this prog-rock classic.

TOP FIVE SONGS I HOPE YES PERFORMS TONIGHT

5. Parallels from Going for the One. Somehow, the most rockin' song on that album never sees the acclaim it's due. It kicks. It rocks. It NEEDS to get played on stage again!
4. Gates of Delirium or Sound Chaser from Relayer. Both are wild songs. I always had the feeling that Rick Wakeman refused to play anything from that album that YES made when he quit during the mid-1970s. A couple years ago when YES had some other guest keyboardist they DID play the Gates of Delirium. Rick's son is standing in this time around, so I wonder what other surprises we might see?

3. The Ritual from the album Tales from Topographic Oceans. One of four epic songs, but clearly the most rocking one. It's complete with a feeling fire and brimstone and a monster drum solo that the entire band participates in. It'll soak up 20 minutes of stage time, but will kick ass every second of it.

2. Machine Messiah from Drama. The first time I popped the record (yes, the vinyl record!) into the player I was SHOCKED with what I heard. The phased guitars were very uncharacteristic for Steve Howe and the hard opening to the song tricked my heavy metal friends into liking YES. Jon refused to perform any songs from Drama, so this will be the first chance since Trevor Horn was singing to hear this!

1. Southside of the Sky from Fragile. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest YESsongs EVER. Between the heavy metal picking through most of the song, the profound piano solo, driving drums and layers of vocals this is perfection in rock music. When people say that songs are timeless, this it what they really mean. It doesn't matter that this song came out about 35 years ago. It'll fit just as well in rotation with everything and anything on current rock radio stations.