Music Yes, the original Spinal Tap

Second Summer

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Just came across this article, which is several years old already. Great times, it sounds like :)
I'm going to have a curry,' I replied. 'What would you order?' It seemed a strangely specific question but I didn't have much else to do so I told him. 'Chicken vindaloo, pilau rice, half a dozen poppadums, bhindi bhaji, Bombay aloo and a stuffed paratha.'

About 30 minutes later, I started to get this distinct waft of curry. I looked down and my roadie was lying there holding up an Indian takeaway. 'What's that?' I asked.

'You said you wanted a curry.' 'No. I said I wanted a curry after the show...' However, it smelled really good so he passed up the little foil trays and I laid this lovely spread out on top of the keyboard and ate it.

The rest of the band weren't best pleased - after all, there was a certain mystique surrounding Yes.
Well yeah, they were all supposedly vegetarians! (Except not quite, as the story reveals ....!)

Also a great story about a MiniMoog that broke during a concert, but fortunately Dr Robert Moog himself was at the gig(!) and offered to repair it before the next part of the show! Well, there is more to the story:

Article: Yes, we were the original Spinal Tap, says Rick Wakeman of Seventies prog-rock supergroup (The Daily Mail, 16 August 2008 )
 
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I saw Yes in 1978. Wakeman was back with them and they were still doing the "in the round" stage setup. So his bluster about "leaving for good" in 1975 is revisionist history.

What a putz about the vegetarian story. I'd like to hear the others' side of the story, but I guess we'll have to take his word for it.

He is one heck of a talented musician, nevertheless. His music has been a big influence on me.
 
I think Yes played a role in my conversion to vegetarianism, perhaps especially the Tales From Topographic Oceans album.

From the song The Ancient: Giants Under the Sun
Where does reason stop and killing just take over
Does a lamb cry out before we shoot it dead
Are there many more in comfort understanding
Is the movement in the head

And Tales was also one of my first records.

Anyway, I was disappointed when I read most of the members had reverted to their bad old ways of eating. But the music is still amazing, of course.
 
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For me it was Meat is Murder by The Smiths that dramatically altered my viewpoint. I only wish I'd aligned my behavior accordingly sooner.

The flesh you so fancifully fry
Is not succulent, tasty or nice
It is death for no reason
And death for no reason is murder
 
Link to Vegetarian Times article about Yes guitarist, Steve Howe:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Og...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
I still have that issue!

Really, though, Rick Wakeman should have understood something. He writes: "I have no objection to vegetarians (though I don't understand why, if you don't eat meat, you make tofu look like sausages or burgers) but some of the band were extreme with their vegetarianism."... but shortly afterwards says most of the band once gave in to temptation and severe hunger pangs when he had a large meat dinner prepared for himself. Not everyone stops eating meat because they no longer like it. Sometimes they just don't accept the cost in animal life that comes with eating meat... although I remember Steve Howe, in that VT article, mentioned that he stopped eating meat because he felt it was not healthy for him to eat it. And even that should not be hard to understand. People know tobacco is bad for you, and some have trouble with alcohol, but it's not always a matter of just quitting full stop.
 
I saw Yes in 1978. Wakeman was back with them and they were still doing the "in the round" stage setup. So his bluster about "leaving for good" in 1975 is revisionist history.

What a putz about the vegetarian story. I'd like to hear the others' side of the story, but I guess we'll have to take his word for it.

He is one heck of a talented musician, nevertheless. His music has been a big influence on me.
I still love Yes. I saw them in 1978 as well. That was my first official rock concert (I had been to a John Denver concert when I was 11, but I don't count that as rock. :D ).
 
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