Most underrated songs of all time

[KevinLoveFan]

I'm a HUGE Yes fan, and my mom and elder half brother were into them as well. I posted on the alt.music.yes Usenet group regularly as a teenage girl in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I was definitely the only teenage girl on that group then, lol.

My favorite album of theirs is actually  Fragile. It was "Heart of the Sunrise" that got me into prog. My other favorite prog bands are King Crimson (especially the Red album) and Porcupine Tree.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

I'm a HUGE Yes fan, and my mom and elder half brother were into them as well. I posted on the alt.music.yes Usenet group regularly as a teenage girl in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I was definitely the only teenage girl on that group then, lol.

My favorite album of theirs is actually  Fragile. It was "Heart of the Sunrise" that got me into prog. My other favorite prog bands are King Crimson (especially the Red album) and Porcupine Tree.

Crimson is my favorite band. Got front row seats for the 2017 tour and it was mind-blowing. Gavin Harrison - of Porcupine Tree - was one of the drummers on that tour. Off Red, they played Red, and finished off the second set with Starless.

 

[bigking777]

Saw King Crimson (with The Zappa Band opening) two years ago at Jacobs Pavilion. Gavin Harrison was one of the three drummers. Awesome show on a beautiful night.

Just saw Animals as Leaders, Devin Townsend and Dream Theater there two months ago on another beautiful Cleveland summer evening.

 

[The Oi]

Yes isn't my favorite band, but that's my favorite single album. I personally think the first song on that album - Close to the Edge - is the best piece of music made in the last half-century plus. So it is always "underrated" in my view. It's gotten a lot of traction with reactors who'd never heard of it but were just floored by it, like this guy:


Prog does really well with reactors because they sit and actually focus just on the music for the entire song, which is really the only way to listen to that stuff. If you hear it casually, it can sound like just noise.

That was…an experience. Wow.

The “I get up, I get down” part after that build-up that felt like walking through a cave (no better way to describe it) was incredible.

Fool in the Rain and The Rain Song are both still my two favorites, but I respect the hell out of that one.

I really love the Mellotron and have very vivid memories of discovering Houses of the Holy and listening to it for the first time (on a walkman!).

As it turns out, Yes were big Mellotron users. I’m gonna have to take a look at their stuff. Never did.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Saw King Crimson (with The Zappa Band opening) two years ago at Jacobs Pavilion. Gavin Harrison was one of the three drummers. Awesome show on a beautiful night.

Just saw Animals as Leaders, Devin Townsend and Dream Theater there two months ago on another beautiful Cleveland summer evening.

Heh - I was at that show too! Zappa band was good. I did like that 2017 show better because Crimson had no opening act so they played 23 songs.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

That was…an experience. Wow.

The “I get up, I get down” part after that build-up that felt like walking through a cave (no better way to describe it) was incredible.

Fool in the Rain and The Rain Song are both still my two favorites, but I respect the hell out of that one.

I really love the Mellotron and have very vivid memories of discovering Houses of the Holy and listening to it for the first time (on a walkman!).

As it turns out, Yes were big Mellotron users. I’m gonna have to take a look at their stuff. Never did.

Been listening to that song for 40+ years and it never gets old. Just incredibly uplifting. Worth googling to read what the song is about because Anderson's lyrics are always kind of...vague.

The orchestral organ part during "I get up, I get down" wasn't actually a Mellotron (they did use it elsewhere in that song), but was a church organ recorded in the actual church - London’s St.Giles-without-Cripplegate. Yes fans still visit that church on occasion because of it.

If you're going to try Yes, the three classic Yes albums are generally considered The Yes Album (not "Yes"), Fragile, and Close to the Edge.

The only personnel change between the first album and the other two was the keyboard player, who interestingly enough quit/was booted in large part because he didn't want to use the Mellotron, or really anything besides the Hammond.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Been listening to that song for 40+ years and it never gets old. Just incredibly uplifting. Worth googling to read what the song is about because Anderson's lyrics are always kind of...vague.

If you're going to try Yes, the three classic Yes albums are generally considered The Yes Album (not "Yes"), Fragile, and Close to the Edge.

The only personnel change between the first album and the other two was the keyboard player, who interestingly enough quit/was booted in large part because he didn't want to use the Mellotron, or really anything besides the Hammond.

Roundabout is still my go-to for speaker/headphone testing for mids and highs. The guitar strumming and the sharp "ping" at the top note? I'll be hearing it in my head until I'm in the ground.

 

[bigking777]

Heh - I was at that show too! Zappa band was good. I did like that 2017 show better because Crimson had no opening act so they played 23 songs.

Was that when they were touring as the Crimson Projekct?
If so, I was at that one too.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Was that when they were touring as the Crimson Projekct?
If so, I was at that one too.

No - that was the full band, same as in 2021. I think the Projects stopped around 2010 or so. Full Crimson reformed in 2014.

The Meltdown CD that covers four shows in Mexico City from the 2017 tour is outstanding. Actually 3 CD''s and the DVD.

 

[KevinLoveFan]

Gonna post "Starless," which I think is their masterpiece. Perhaps the most intense crescendo I've ever heard.

 

[Benway]

Gonna post "Starless," which I think is their masterpiece. Perhaps the most intense crescendo I've ever heard.

Agreed. Love that song.

 

[Biw]

Just bought Trick of the Tail on vinyl because of this conversation. It also happens to be one of my favorite covers. I LOVE the art. Tells a whole story.

While I was at it, I got Uptown Saturday Night bc the price was reasonable and Cheat Codes (which I’ve pimping to everyone on Earth).

Speaking of Uptown Saturday Night and great cover art, here’s some great underrated songs:



Dudes were already cool af, but those beats were just so catchy and they invented a whole damn language. It’s impossible to understand it unless you actually check the lyrics.

Whole story behind why they didn’t mainstream, and they prob could have, but they’re still great to revisit. I like putting them on my earbuds while I shoot.

@RchfldCavRaised knows.

Damn, their flow is so nice you can't help but nod your head.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Agreed. Love that song.

Wetton's bass on that song is just fantastic. Then Ian McDonald went on to Foreigner, and Wetton eventually went on to...Asia.

Ugh.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

I was definitely the only teenage girl on that group then, lol. My favorite album of theirs is actually  Fragile. It was "Heart of the Sunrise" that got me into prog. My other favorite prog bands are King Crimson (especially the Red album) and Porcupine Tree.

You may get a kick out of this....

Fripp's famously most difficult song to play is Fracture, off Starless and Bible Black. Said he had to practice a couple hours every day just for that song. There's a guy out there who made a series of videos of how it took him 20 years to learn to play it at what he considered a "B- level". But there's this Italian girl who loves that same music who actually did a really good job covering it, and Fripp even linked her as someone he recommended watching.

You can see her give a bit of a grin when she gets through the cross-picking moto perpetuo in 16th's at about the 6 minute mark.

 

[KevinLoveFan]

I wish I could play music. When my older brother and I were growing up, there was a ton of music constantly in the house. He won a state piano competition for children in Minnesota back in the 80s, and my parents wrote country music in the 80s and 90s. My parents thought I might be inclined to play music as well because I could recall pieces from memory at a young age, but I had no dexterity with the piano. I had a good ear and nothing else, lol.

Speaking of piano, I'm highly biased toward Maurice Ravel, Bill Evans, and Herbie Hancock. Absolutely love their chords and harmonies. A piece I went back to constantly during the pandemic is Ravel's concerto for the left hand: