Recommend me some: Genesis / Yes / Caravan

Spoonboy,
since you already own Close to the edge, try Fragile and The Yes Album

As for Genesis, Foxtrot, Selling England by the pound and he lamb lies down on Broadway

I have quite a few caravan albums, imho they are all excellent in their own way and worth collecting...

You already have In the land of grey and pink so i would strongly suggest the album below.
The reproduction is fantastic on my cd, and it's only £3.48 on amazon so well worth buying!
It contains songs in both stereo and mono, but don't let that put you off! : )

Debs


playlist
1. Place of My Own (mono)
2. Ride (mono)
3. Policeman (mono)
4. Love Song With Flute (mono)
5. Cecil Rons (mono)
6. Magic Man (mono)
7. Grandma's Lawn (mono)
8. Where But For Caravan Would I? (mono)
9. Place of My Own (Stereo)
10. Ride (Stereo)
11. Policeman (Stereo)
12. Love Song With Flute (Stereo)
13. Cecil Rons (Stereo)
14. Magic Man (Stereo)
15. Grandma's Lawn (Stereo)
16. Where But For Caravan Would I? (stereo)
17. Hello Hello (single version) (bonus track)

Get this album as well if you like Caravan and Camel. One of the early Canterbury scene albums featuring a young Steve Hillage. A great prog album.

Hi,

You have the best Caravan (funnily enough, turned nmy 18-year old daughter on to it this Christmas), but If I Could Do It All over Again I'd Do It All Over You (its precedessor) is very close in style and quality. A No-brainer.

The first album (the one that naim_nymph recommeded) is very good, but it is different - no long tracks, rather darker sound - however it does have some very good moments.

After Grey And Pink the line-up started to rotate rather bewilderingly. Waterloo Lily saw Dave Sinclair (keyboards) leave and a jazzier pianist come in. Richard Sinclair played a lesser part too but it's very good all the same.

By For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night Dave Sinclair was back but cousin Richard had left and they'd drafted in a violist. Nearly all a Pye Hastings job it's nevertheless just below If I Could and Grey And Pink in terms of quality.

Caravan & The New Symphonia is a live album with (guess what) an orchestra, and is pretty good but after this the band starts to slip as band rotation (both Sinclairs in and out again several times!) took its toll. The original band did get back together in the 80s for Back To Front and it's pretty good....just not up to the immense standard of the early days.

They have continued recording (and sometimes re-recording) into the 00's and none of the albums are bad (The latest The Unauthorised Breakfast Item is very good).

The original album (initially released on Verve) and all of the Decca/Deram albums (i.e. everything up to and including Cunning Stunts) have been superbly remastered under the eye of Mark Powell and feature extra stuff.

For Yes, Iron Cobra has it pretty spot on.

Close To The Edge is my favourite, Fragile had come before and introduced the lusher keyboards of Rick Wakeman but it was a hurried album - a mixture of band and solo efforts. Very good for all that.

After Close To The Edge, the band went on experimenting with longer and more complex stuff, and for many they sacrificed the perfect balance between length, experimentation and good old-fashioned tune with their next effort Tales From Topographic Oceans - a double album with a song a side. Once you get in to it it's fine, though most of the sides of 20 minutes or more could have done with a bit more tune and a bit less twiddle. One I've come to like more as I've got older.

Relayer was a Wakeman-less twiddler too, GOod, a bit of an acquired taste but a grower too.

AFter that, for me at least, the returns diminish, though Going For The One is pretty good, and even the bizarre Drama (the one where Wakeman and Anderson were replaced Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of Buggles) has its moments. Horn later said that they'd hoped to drag Yes into the 80s but found themselves being dragged back into the 70s.

Prior to Fragile, The Yes Album is a classic - much less prog than the later ones and with a great selection of tunes including the magnificent Startship Trooper! If you like that, then going backwards to Time And A Word and their first Yes might be worth it, especially their first. Just don't expect the cinematic sounds of Close To The Edge.

For Genesis,

There are roughly three main eras of Genesis. The Gabriel Years, The Collins Era which led into the Pop Era.

I would not bother with the Pop Era unless you feel the need but would look closely at the other two.

Gabriel Era

Foxtrot, Selling England are the best two closely followed by Nursery Cryme, Trespass and The Lamb. I leave The Lamb until last as it is a bit of a mouthful and is easier to digest when you appreciate the others. The Lamb happens to be a favourite of mine so I do recommend but do some of the others first maybe.

Collins Era

After Gabriel left, Genesis came up with one of their best albums - Trick of the Tail. Highly recommended. Wind and Wuthering followed which again is very good and after that they released their definitive live album, Seconds Out. This is a fabulous album taking the best of the Gabriel and Collins Eras and playing it masterfully. One of the best live albums ever.

After that And then there were three was OK but lots of pop songs. To me the next album, Duke is well worth checking out. Still one of my faves.

Then came Abacab, Genesis, Invisible Touch and We Can Dance of the pop era. Go there later if you want - some good songs, some mishits.

When you have exhaused Genesis, look at Peter Gabriel - 1, 3, 4, So, Us and Up and Steve Hackett - Voyage of the Acolyte, Defector, and Spectral Mornings for starters.

Have fun.

As for Yes, most has already been said my choices would be

Going for the One, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Relayer, Yes Album. And 90125 was a huge hit - very pop but probably worth a listen. I loved it at the time.

Good analysis from Lontano!

I didn't really get the Gabriel era Genesis, but did switch on to the next phase and totally agree with the recommendations for Wind & Wuthering; And Then There Were Three; and Duke. These are my top three Genesis albums.

Peter

A great one-off for a good sample of the best of Yes is their triple live album "Yessongs".

Good call Tony! Yessongs is a great live album, and I'd also recommend Keys to Ascension, which has a brilliant version of 'Awaken'.
I never got into Caravan, but I know many who talk of them in the same breath as Camel, who are leagues ahead IMHO - good starters here include Moonmadness, and "I can see your house from here" (I can't really, it's raining too much)
As for Genesis, it's got to be Selling England and Foxtrot....
Cheers
John

Gary & Lontano have this prety much sewn up as far as I can see - with excellent pointers.
I had CTTE on so many discs - trying to get rid of that horrible 'over recording' of Rick Wakemans organ on the 'In her white lace' solo that I had all but given up on ever hearing a recording without it. One thing the digital age did was to allow this.
My first ever concert was Close To The Edge -some start eh.
I would say that if you do like the more 'wordy' tunes from Yes and some of the stuff from 'Going For The One' then 'The Ladder' is also worth a punt. I do like it -and the production is well up there.
Folk have mentioned Camel here, and for the first time in years I started to replace my long since gone vinyl with CD this Christmas - and Nude was given an airing today. One or two rubbish tracks - but rather to the point in todays world. Having been listening to Floyd earlier, some of the tracks are strikingly similar in consrtuction - with overtones of Mr Banks on the mellotron as well - great fun. It also shows how production technique has moved on somewhat.
Enjoy the journey through the 70's & 80's some good stuff still to be found.

To echo much of what has been said about Yes, you have started with the best with 'Close to the Edge'.

'Going for the One' and 'Fragile' would be my next choices, the latter is a little disjointed as an album, but the individual tracks are excellent. 'Going for the One' has 'Awaken' which is one of their extended and lavish tracks, right up there with the track 'Close to the Edge', the other tracks are very good too.

'Relayer' is one of my favourites, and has the same three track format as 'Close to the Edge', but the sound is much harder, certainly worth a try. Patrick Moraz has a very different feel from Rick Wakeman, but is a great keyboard player, who brings his own style to the band.

'The Yes Album' is good, and 'Tales from Topographic Ocean' is worth listening to, but I would say only once you have tried the other albums mentioned. 'Topographic' is good, but suffers from a lot of padding, it does have the that gentle sound that 'Close to the Edge' has, but lacks the clarity and detail.

'Drama' is a real surprise, Wakeman and Andeson replaced by The Buggles, but the songs are great, and the band try so hard since I think they knew it would not be easily accepted. It has a much heavier feel than the 70's Yes albums, but is a gem.

'Tormato' is the remaining album from the 70's albums, with Steve Howe and Wakeman on them, it is very patchy, but has dated well. Not a classic, but worth getting for completions sake.

Yes are not the same without Steve Howe on guitar for me, the first two albums are interesting, but do not sound like the same band to me, and the 1980's stuff with Trevor Rabin, is just pop music to me. Avoid the latter albums, and the Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe albums, they had lost their creative peak after the 1970's finished.

There is an album sometimes called 'the missing Yes album', from 1975 when each member made a solo album. Chris Squire 'Fish out of Water' is an album that will fit right alongside the other Yes albums from the 1970's.

The two live albums from the 1970's are also well worth getting 'Yessongs' and 'Yesshows', especially if you enjoy live albums.

Yes are also worth catching live, and the current line up without Jon Anderson, replaced by Benoit David dur to Anderson's illness and Oliver Wakeman, son of Rick, on keyboards, have played the best concert I have seen them do. I never saw them in the 70's though.

Genesis have not dated well for me, I like Steve Hackett's playing most about them, so 'Wind and Wutherting', 'Selling England by the Pound, and 'Foxtrot' are my favourites. 'Duke' from 1980, post Hackett, is one album that is worth trying, after that they went very poppy. As mentioned above Steve Hackett's 'Spectral Mornings' and 'Defector' are also worth trying out.

I can't offer any advice on Caravan, or Camel, not my sort of thing, but one related band worth a listen were Bill Bruford's jazz rock band's album 'One of a Kind' by Bruford which has Dave Stewart from the Canterbury scene on keyboards. Bill Bruford (drums) was the only musician to play with Yes, King Crimson and Genesis, as well as Gong in the 1970's.

Hope that helps.

Saw the Yes/Buggles hybrid. They were very good when playing the stuff from Drama, but of course Trevor Horn had to sing some of the old stuff, when they became unitentionally hilarious.

In order to attempt to reach the Anderson-style high notes poor old Trev stood on tiptoes and even then often failed to make it. Quite a few walked out in disgust.

Poor sod.

I hope this doesn't come across with any degree of bias, but best half-a-dozen or so albums by Genesis / Yes / Caravan are

The only Genesis elpee that has really stood the test of time for me is



It contains The Knife, which was surely the finest moment for this particular band.

Yes made some nice records; the first three albums, especially The Yes Album are my favourites, but I do have a liking for Close to the Edge as well.

However, neither of these bands comes close to the magnificence of Caravan - especially when Richard Sinclair takes the lead vocal - what a truly amazing vocalist he is. I'd also recommend checking out Hatfield and the North.

And yes, it is all opinion.

(I like Caravan just as much as I like the Moody Blues - which is a lot)

Good luck with search.

I forgot



For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night, which is great record even if it was made after Richard Sinclair and Steve Miller were replaced by Dave Sinclair and Geoff Richardson as indeed was Cunning Stunts.

While on the subject of Yes, and others, I am not sure if it can be mentioned on this forum, but am am looking for original CD editions of some of the Yes albums (1988), especially Barry Diament masters.

I already have 'Close to the Edge', 'Drama' and Chris Squire 'Fish Out of Water', but I am also interested in:
'Fragile'
'Relayer'
'Going for the One'
'Tales from Topographic Oceans'
'Yessongs'
'Yesshows'
'The Yes Album'

Catalogue numbers of the original releases would also be useful, so I can look on Ebay.

Also are the MOFI, or other pressings worth tracking down?

I should also add that the reissue of Chris Squire 'Fish out of Water' is not worth buying for the extra material, worth borrowing and watching the DVD once, but that is it.

Unfortunately I do not have enough posts to ask on a certain other forum. Sorry if this should not be mentioned here.

This might help....

Jamie, there is some info in here that might help. I have just picked up the Japanese made for US version of Trick of the Tail mastered by Barry - looking forward to hearing how it sounds.

Good luck working through this but it might help.
http://www.relayer35.com/Yescography/Yescat.pdf

Thanks Adrian, I will look tomorrow. Just having some quite time with my better half.

I did get a unremastered Genesis 'Seconds Out' and 'Wind and Wuthering' a couple of weeks ago, inspired by hearing the different sources over at your place. That was a treat.

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:
The only Genesis elpee that has really stood the test of time for me is



It contains The Knife, which was surely the finest moment for this particular band.

ROTF, you took the words right out of my, er... keyboard!

just to add my vote for the caravan cds .only just got into there music but after purchasing a couple on shm format i must say they are superb, and sound quality is also very good , have added more to my collection very addictive .

Quote from ROTF:-


"It contains The Knife, which was surely the finest moment for this particular band."

Then they replaced underperforming players and then their subsequent albums had more than one good track on them.

Steer past Genesis and Yes, pick up the trail at Caravan's and then go to Soft Machine.