Rating:  Summary: Close to ho-hum... Review: ...and certainly sophomoric, I must admit that this book is still a better read than the usual supercilious pedantry of the Earnest Aspiring ProgBoy Writer. The best part: Broof decks Squire. God knows Fishy had it coming; don't you agree?
Rating:  Summary: Dissapointing Review: 30 years ago Chris Welch was, through my formative musical years, one of the rock journalists I looked up to! But now, 30 years on and looking back, I found this biography more consistent with my adolescent literary needs of 30 years ago! While containing many facts, it also has much irrelevant nonsense and somewhat twee statements most annoyingly followed by exclamation marks (about one per page)! So much so that I got tired of the 6th form style of writing very quickly! E.g. P41 on the longevity of the band "...but here we are, still going thirty years later!". P42 on meeting other members "Within a week I had met Chris!". On P43, on early photos, "They would now be of great historical value - if Chris hadn't lost the lot!" On P43 again, on Jon Anderson's autocracy "Everyone was entitled to HIS opinion. That's the best way of putting it!". Note the tiresome and repetetive exclamation marks! Are these supposed convey Wow!? Amazing!? Oh Dear!? Oh Christ!? Or what!? Whatever the intention it becomes annoying very quickly and the text ends up reading like a fan club member's essay full of some kind of mock astonishment, conveyed by endless exclamation marks! There are better Yes books around! (Annoying exclamation marks there to illustrate a point).
Rating:  Summary: Dissapointing Review: 30 years ago Chris Welch was, through my formative musical years, one of the rock journalists I looked up to! But now, 30 years on and looking back, I found this biography more consistent with my adolescent literary needs of 30 years ago! While containing many facts, it also has much irrelevant nonsense and somewhat twee statements most annoyingly followed by exclamation marks (about one per page)! So much so that I got tired of the 6th form style of writing very quickly! E.g. P41 on the longevity of the band "...but here we are, still going thirty years later!". P42 on meeting other members "Within a week I had met Chris!". On P43, on early photos, "They would now be of great historical value - if Chris hadn't lost the lot!" On P43 again, on Jon Anderson's autocracy "Everyone was entitled to HIS opinion. That's the best way of putting it!". Note the tiresome and repetetive exclamation marks! Are these supposed convey Wow!? Amazing!? Oh Dear!? Oh Christ!? Or what!? Whatever the intention it becomes annoying very quickly and the text ends up reading like a fan club member's essay full of some kind of mock astonishment, conveyed by endless exclamation marks! There are better Yes books around! (Annoying exclamation marks there to illustrate a point).
Rating:  Summary: You'll definitely learn something... Review: All Yes fans should buy this book. Even if you're like the rest of us fanatics who've followed our musical idols for the last 30 or so years, there will be parts of the book that will make you say "Wow, I never knew that." The majority of the book is an assembly of quotes from pretty much everyone who has ever been a member of the band. It's especially interesting to see how a band member can answer the same question very differently 20 years later. (Proof that everyone changes/matures) If I were to complain about anything, I would have liked more insight into the actual music-making/songwriting process. Much of the interviews seem too focused on the various rifts that have caused the ever-changing Yes line-up.
Rating:  Summary: Close to the Middle - A Fragile Account of the Story of Yes Review: As a big fan of Yes and their music, I was hoping to get a lot of insight into the band especially considering that Chris Welsh has been a personal friend of the band since its inception. However, while Welsh does provide ample information about the inner happenings of the band over the years, he shines the band in a rather negative light. He continuously talks about how the bands members did not get along and all of the problems they encountered even afer they "made it." It would have been nice to read a more balanced account. The book goes from one woe to another. Additionally, Welsh would delve into a story only to repeat part of it a few pages later. So much for chronology. On a related note, Welsh explains two ways in which the band was supposedly named. Which one is correct?! He also glossed over the creative process of making the albums. One minute the band is on tour for "The Yes Album," the next "Fragile" is in the stores. Sometimes that would happen in mid-chapter! A chapter per album would have worked quite well. Finally... Hey Chris, what about "Yessongs" and "Classic Yes" and the politics behind them? You talked enough about "Yesterdays." I give this book a rating of "3" only because of the stories involved and the discussions of the music and how each band member entered and exited the band. I know a lot about Yes and it was disappointing to get parts of the story and not the whole thing from one source.
Rating:  Summary: Close to the Middle - A Fragile Account of the Story of Yes Review: As a big fan of Yes and their music, I was hoping to get a lot of insight into the band especially considering that Chris Welsh has been a personal friend of the band since its inception. However, while Welsh does provide ample information about the inner happenings of the band over the years, he shines the band in a rather negative light. He continuously talks about how the bands members did not get along and all of the problems they encountered even afer they "made it." It would have been nice to read a more balanced account. The book goes from one woe to another. Additionally, Welsh would delve into a story only to repeat part of it a few pages later. So much for chronology. On a related note, Welsh explains two ways in which the band was supposedly named. Which one is correct?! He also glossed over the creative process of making the albums. One minute the band is on tour for "The Yes Album," the next "Fragile" is in the stores. Sometimes that would happen in mid-chapter! A chapter per album would have worked quite well. Finally... Hey Chris, what about "Yessongs" and "Classic Yes" and the politics behind them? You talked enough about "Yesterdays." I give this book a rating of "3" only because of the stories involved and the discussions of the music and how each band member entered and exited the band. I know a lot about Yes and it was disappointing to get parts of the story and not the whole thing from one source.
Rating:  Summary: Want to know about Yes? Buy this book! Review: As a major Yes fan for over 25 years, I've often thought I knew everything there was to know about the band. Well, Chris Welch taught me a few things. His linear approach and comfortable style of writing made the book very hard to put down. I was enthralled by his descriptions of recording sessions; tours; member resignations; firings; and even how much they got paid for each gig in the early days. He delves into each member's personality and you get a feeling for how the members made the band more than a product of the sum of their individual efforts. If there's even just a single biographical book you buy this year, make it this one.
Rating:  Summary: Want to know about Yes? Buy this book! Review: As a major Yes fan for over 25 years, I've often thought I knew everything there was to know about the band. Well, Chris Welch taught me a few things. His linear approach and comfortable style of writing made the book very hard to put down. I was enthralled by his descriptions of recording sessions; tours; member resignations; firings; and even how much they got paid for each gig in the early days. He delves into each member's personality and you get a feeling for how the members made the band more than a product of the sum of their individual efforts. If there's even just a single biographical book you buy this year, make it this one.
Rating:  Summary: Affirmative Convictions Review: Chris Welch--veteran rock biographer and Melody Maker columnist--does a great job of chronicling the history of prog rock's most enduring musical vehicle, YES. Welch joined the guys on several tours and has the inside scoop on even some of the most minute details of the band's infancy (YES, TIME AND A WORD), adolescence (YES ALBUM), and maturation (FRAGILE, CLOSE TO THE EDGE, etc).The prose is very easy to read--I breezed through the 280 pages in less than two days. Like Tim Morse's YESSTORIES, Welch relies heavily on quotes taken from interviews he did with the guys over the course of three tumultuous decades. This is both a good and bad thing; while it's great to hear the story straight from the mouth of the YESMEN, one wonders if Welch is able to piece anything together himself. To be fair, the author remains pretty objective throughout, offering a mild opinion here and there about the music and the personalities that created it. While he offers clips from his YES album reviews of long ago, the author doesn't delve too deeply into the structure and form of the music, nor does he examine the metaphysical quasi-religious themes which pervade Jon Anderson's lyrics. If you're looking for an in-depth analysis of the complex music of YES, you're better off reading Bill Martin's MUSIC OF YES (also a great book). If it's YES personalities and drama and musical tension you crave, Welch's book will satisfy. If you want the dirt on all the legal, financial and personal difficulties the various members (14, all told) had to endure to make the music succeed, then Welch's book is for you. It was great to go behind-the-scenes and learn, for example, how Squire earned the nickname "Fish," why Bruford defected to join King Crimson, and what Howe really thinks of Rabin, and vice versa. Therein lies the strength of this book. Welch recaptures the events leading up to how Anderson met Squire, and how everyone else came on board, left--and sometimes returned to the fold once again. He also touches briefly on the circumstances surrounding the writing and recording of each album, which is nice--very good. The chronology spans 1966, sketching the socioeconomic backgrounds of all Yes-men,all the way to 1998, touching lastly on the KEYS TO ASCENSION and OPEN YOUR EYES albums and tours. High vibrations go on...
Rating:  Summary: As Good As "Close To The Edge" Review: Don't let the book's (obviously) limited availability put you off, becuase this is the Yes biography to end them all. Bill Martin, Tim Morse and even Dan Hedges's efforts simply pale in comparison to Welch's triumphantly successful book. There are no disjointed oral snippets by band-members (Morse) or sprawling, Marxist political views (Martin) here, just a thorough, detailed analysis of a band's history by one of Rock's most respected writers and critics. Certainly, nobody except the bandmembers themselves are better qualified to write the story of Yes. Welch has known the band intimately since the its first days in 1968, and his numerous personal anecdotes offer fascinating insights into the day-to-day workings of a classic band. Welch lays it bare, all the successes and the mistakes, and the pace of the book seldom drags. Do not consider yourself a Yes fan until you have purchased a copy of this book - seriously!
|