Music of Yes: Structure and Vision in Progressive Rock (Feedback: The Series in Contemporary Music, Vol. 1) - Softcover

Bill Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812693337 ISBN 13: 9780812693331

Publisher: Open Court Pub Co, 1998

Synopsis

Music of Yes examines the work of one of the most creative groups from the progressive rock period, Yes.

Unlike most books on rock music, Music of Yes does not focus on personalities, but instead on musical structures, lyrical vision, and cultural and historical context. The author situates Yes within the utopian ideals of the sixties and the experimental trend in rock music initiated by the Beatles and also taken up by groups such as King Crimson. Martin demonstrates the power of Yes's romantic, utopian, "Blakean", ecological, multicultural, and feminist perspective, showing how this vision is developed through

About this title

From the Back Cover

Yes is one of the most creative groups from the progressive rock period. In the early 1970s, Yes evolved into a visionary, virtuoso band, producing a series of adventurous, controversial, and difficult works. In this pathbreaking book, wholly devoted to the serious discussion of a rock group's oeuvre, Bill Martin follows the trajectory of Yes from the group's formation in 1968 to the present, with a special focus on what Martin calls Yes's "main sequence" - from The Yes Album (1971) to Going for the One (1977). Professor Martin situates Yes within the utopian ideals of the 1960s and the experimental trend initiated by The Beatles, then developed by such groups as King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Although sometimes critical of Yes's work, Martin defends Yes against their supposed blissed-out over-optimism and their departures from blues orthodoxy. Drawing upon the thinking of Adorno and Marcuse, Martin demonstrates the power of Yes's Romantic, utopian, Blakean, ecological, multicultural, and feminist perspectives, showing how the vision which unifies these is developed though extended and sophisticated musical creations.

From Library Journal

"Long-winded" and "pompous" are derisions routinely leveled against Yes, the kings of "avant-rock," and they often apply to this examination of the band's music by social theorist Martin (philosophy, DePaul Univ.). The author fulfills the dream of any Yes-fanatic by waxing philosophic about the group's entire recorded output, focusing on their "main sequence" of albums from The Yes Album (1971) through Going for the One (1977). Martin goes to great pains to explain the importance of Yes's "vision" and argues his own interpretations of their music and lyrics in excruciating detail. Unfortunately, he offers little external evidence to support his musings; nor is the coverage broad enough to be a useful work on the progressive rock movement as a whole. Having little appeal to those not Yes-obsessed, this book is unnecessary for all but the largest popular music collections. General readers may be more tempted by Yesstories: Yes in Their Own Words (St. Martin's, 1996).?Lloyd Jansen, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Open Court Pub Co
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0812693337
• ISBN 13: 9780812693331
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 300