Strangely, I'm listening to a lot of Yes again lately. My own capacity for musical eclecticism is kind of nuts: I can listen to and enjoy a truly wide array of musical styles. And I'm not just saying that! Anyway, these days I seem to have fallen back into the prog rock pocket. What a blurring of the line between the sublime and the ridiculous... Also, important note: you can waste a lot of time on YouTube if you put your mind to it:
"Sound Chaser" is not an easy tune. Also, is it just me, or are those some of the worst clothes you've ever seen on any rock band, ever?
Apparently the band was freezing their butts off for this shoot. If you pay close attention I think you can see Steve Howe shivering as he huddles close to his guitar for warmth (although, with Steve Howe, you kinda never know if it's just his natural grimace)... Apparently Chris Squire and Tony Kaye swapped instruments in a "Fuck it, let's just get this thing filmed so we can get off this damned spit and out of the cold" kind of gesture. Also: is it just me, or does Bill Bruford always look like he's way too young to be in a band having this much fun? Like, he's goofily enjoying himself, but at the back of his mind he's wondering when he'll get carded and ejected form the venue?
Finally, to riff on my friend Rich's recent post, no prog rock fan can miss original TV footage of King Crimson! Yeah, like Rich says, Tony Levin's a god of the bass and all—although, it must be admitted, this video makes painfully clear that he is certainly not a god of the backing vocals. In any case, I've always loved King Crimson's music on a visceral level. But gosh, I think I didn't really appreciate Robert Fripp's insane level of technical skill/talent/whatever until I actually saw this closeup footage of his hands doing the 16th-note ostinati in "Frame By Frame":