I have heard many pissy comments about Yes’s performance of “Tales from Topographic Oceans” in it’s entirity when it was released a half-century ago. I really can’t hear what is so wrong with it, bar that it is Yessish stuff played perfectly, and loads of it. It might appeal more to fans or the refreshed, but isn’t that the point?. A live performance of “Heaven and Earth”, now THAT would be painful, even if it is marginally shorter.

This leads to a broader point; there has been a lot in the music world that I couldn’t see what the fuss was about, and even if I liked it, it just seemed modestly novel; the Sex Pistols and Nirvana both struck me as rock bands being jolly cross. Rap? Well, as I liked Gil Scott-Heron from the 70s, so spoken world and African-American poetry was not that much of a shock. Acid House was a reminder of me speeding up my brother’s Tangerine Dream albums to 45 rpm to make them more sonically exciting. More of a challenge has been Beefheart, Napalm Death, and getting my head around music by The Slits, which I now see as far more radical » Continue Reading.