From: reaume@bmerh962.bnr.ca (Andy Reaume)
Subject: Re: UAP #22 - Results for Yes
Summary: YES The Next Generation
Keywords: Usenet Artists Polls
Organization: Bell Northern Research, Ottawa, Ontario Canada
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 92 16:25:25 GMT

In article <1992Oct5.220148.13113@enea.se>, sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:
> 
>      TITLE                         POINTS   LISTED   FIRST   LAST
>      =====                         ======   ======   =====   ====
>   1. Close To The Edge                851       73   23.16      1
>   2. Fragile                          772       72    8.47      1
>   3. The Yes Album                    762       71    9.33      1
>   4. Going For The One                698       63    5.50      2
>   5. Relayer                          663       63    3.47      0
>   6. Tales From Topographic Oceans    619       59    9.14      3
>   7. Yessongs                         582       54       4      0
>   8. Drama                            508       60    1.33   5.25
>   9. ABWH                             487       68    5.14   2.66
>  10. 90125                            467       72    1.14      3
>  11. YesYears                         466       35       1      0
>  12. Classic Yes                      429       32       1   1.25
>  13. Tormato                          417       59    1.14   6.83
>  14. Yesshows                         410       44    1.14      3
>  15. Time And A Word                  403       53       1   1.58
>  16. Yesterdays                       372       36       0   1.58
>  17. Yes                              336       47       0   2.58
>  18. Union                            335       67       1  10.16
>  19. Big Generator                    224       64       0  14.58
>  20. 9012Live The Solos               124       35       0   9.25
>  21. Yesstory                          40       13       0   7.25
> 
> Yes was one of the groups which Alan McNeely covered in his series
> of polls three years ago. (It was his series which inspired me to
> start my polls.) The basic idea in these polls was the same, but
> there were no fillers, ties or ballot-weighing, but since they both 
> are complete and not top-5 style, they are quite comparable. Here are
> the results from that poll to which 23 persons responded:
> 
>                                                 # times   # times
> Rank  Album                            Score    ranked    ranked first
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 1.    Close to the Edge                83.8     22        11
> 2.    Fragile                          80.1     23         4
> 3.    The Yes Album                    78.0     22         1
> 4.    Tales from Topographic Oceans    71.6     18         4
> 5.    Relayer                          61.5     16         1
> 6.    Going For The One                55.8     15         1
> 7.    Yessongs                         45.0     17         1
> 8.    Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe    42.2     15
> 9.    Time and a Word                  38.3     13
> 10.   Drama                            37.0     17
> 11.   90125                            36.9     21
> 12.   Yes                              36.0      9
> 13.   Yesterdays                       31.8      9
> 14.   Classic Yes                      28.2      5
> 15.   Yesshows                         28.0      8
> 16.   Tormato                          22.6     18
> 17.   Big Generator                    19.3     17
> 18.   9012Live - The Solos              4.3      6
> 

This is very interesting. As I explained in my reply to the question
about Asia, that debut album and _90125_ were released when I was in 
high school and were my favourite albums at that time. As a result I
started listening to the older Yes/Genesis/King Crimson/ELP albums
and so on. Only a few of my friends cared about them or even knew 
about them. Yet, everyone then and even today recalls ``Owner of a
Lonely Heart'' and can even remember how to hum the tune. If you 
play guitar as I do, you know how simplistic that song is. This 
survey now re-enforces my thoughts about just how ``progressive''
90125/Big Generator really is. Yes, you can put those albums under
the title of ``progressive rock'' because they added something to 
rock music and both incorporate a lot of ingenuity in the writing
and recording. But really they are just as much commercial releases.
The real progressive rock fans like the ``original sound''. I 
prefer _The Yes Album_, _Fragile_ and _Close to the Edge_ over 
_90125_ even though _90125_ has probably out-sold those three 
combined. I still like the ``Next Generation'' Yes sound but the 
commercial format is mixed into it and that Rabin guitar sound (I
do like it though) just dulls what Yes was attempting to do in 
their heydays of the early '70s. 

Andy