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From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Yessound chaser
Message-ID: <1219@peora.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Jul-85 15:44:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: peora.1219
Posted: Tue Jul  2 15:44:08 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Jul-85 00:29:41 EDT
References: <8500005@uicsl>
Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl.
Lines: 102

Ah! At last a coherent criticism, as opposed to just "I don't like yes,
they don't have any style."  But inasmuch as you attacked one of my comments,
althewhile attributing it to Rich Rosen (so much the worse), let me respond.

> "Sound Chaser" is an unequivocally mystic hymn in the tradition
> of "Close to the Edge" and "Tales from Topographic Oceans" and the
> subsequent "Awaken". It is *not* an articulation of the
> conflicts/motivations/influences that compose Yes's music.

This statement bothers me because it seems almost an agnostic view of the
song.  If you had said "sound chaser is about dancing in the 40s" I would
not have minded, but "unequivocally mystic hymn?" No.

Well, then, let's just attack this song, because it's so short.

	Faster moment spent, spread tales of change within the sound.

You discussed that yourself in your own article: the ever-changing nature
of Yes's music; I think this sentence expresses a movement from Yes's
attempts to create "great epics", as Howe described some of their earlier
works, to the more contemplative pieces that came later.  It might have
even been a reference to Wakeman's flamboyant style being gone, but I
don't know about that...

	Counting form through rhythm,
	electric freedom moves to counterbalance.
	Stars expound our conscience,
	All to know and see the look in your eyes.

One of the characteristics of Yes's music has almost always been that its
rhythmic and timbral properties are at least as important as the more
traditional musical forms.  But this is partly made possible by the great
expressiveness avaliable in electronic music (which Anderson occasionally
praised as a distinct form in some of his interviews); thus the "electric
freedom" "counterbalance"s the purely rhythmic, timbral emphasis, so that
it doesn't become mere banging drums or clanging cymbals (to make a biblical
allusion).  "Stars expound our conscience"... well, I guess that is rather
self-referential, don't you?  Sometimes there is this definite self-con-
sciousness in a lot of Yes's later songs, a definite recognition that they
have achieved some sort of "stardom".  And Anderson was forever expounding
on his sometimes rather strangely force-fitted into mystical religions,
but basically acutely perceptive, views of the world.  And I think they
always felt that they were doing it for the audience; as Anderson says on
his latest fan-relations pamphlet, (to paraphrase since I don't have it
with me), "as is written in the koan, `what is the sound of one hand
clapping,' so we have always felt that the audience was an essential part
of our music."

	Passing time will reach as nature relays to set the scene.
	New encounters spark a true fruition.

I don't entirely understand these lines; I think they again refer to Yes's
ever-changing style, and the feeling that new musical forms expand one's
consciousness in some sense.

	Guiding lines, we touch them;
	Our bodies balance out the waves,
	As we accelerate our days
	To the look in your eyes.

Here is an essence of what makes Yes succeed where groups like King
Crimson don't (in my opinion).  Yes always kept in touch with the "guiding
lines" of traditional musical forms.  The solos in Sound Chaser exemplify
this; as Rich pointed out, each solo draws heavily on some traditional
(or contemporary but still founded in tradition) forms: the "Spanish"
guitar of Howe's heavily synthesized guitar solo; the alleged Chick Corea
influence; the "Cha-Cha".  They expand and distort these, but never let
them get way out of hand; an exhilirating experience for both the performer
and listener (as Anderson explains in the Topographic album notes).

	From the moment I reached out to hold,
	I felt a sound;
	And what touches our soul slowly moves,
	As touch rebounds...
	And to know that tempo
	Will
	     Continue
	Lost  in trance of dances...
	As rhythm takes another turn...
	As is my wont, I only reach
	To look in your eyes.
	(Cha, cha, cha, cha-cha.)

I think this is more or less a recapitulation of what came before; the
first lines refer to the same music-from-birth notion that is expressed in
Topographic Oceans:

	Cast out a spell, rendered for the light of day.
	Lost in light's array, I ventured to see,
	as the Sound began to play...

(You note I assume that the "crowded through curtains" is a reference to
being born, after which the newborn infant is "lost in light's array";
perhaps the "Talk to the sunlight" notion also refers to this, though
I don't know much about newborn children...)

Oh well... "and there you have it," as a great philosopher once put it...
-- 
Shyy-Anzr:  J. Eric Roskos
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