Thursday 8 August 2013

Poll: best Yes-related albums up to 1970

I've run a series of biannual polls on the best, recent, Yes-related releases (i.e. anything featuring a member of Yes on it). Many of you have voted in these polls and I hope they're brought a little bit of interest and elucidation.

But, I was thinking, what about before I started these polls? What about looking back in time? So, I decided to run some polls covering earlier years. The only problem, however, was when to start because there weren't very many eligible releases in the first few years! In the end, I decided the first poll would cover the 1960s. 21 of you voted. Tomorrow's eponymous album, with Steve Howe on guitar, romped home with 20 votes (95%). Which wasn't much of a surprise given the competition was three little known albums with Alan White appearing: two by the Alan Price SetA Price on His Head (1 vote, 5%) and The Price is Rightplus Johnny Almond's Music Machine with Patent Pending.

[Edit (April 2014): It's been pointed out that I made a terrible mistake, omitting David Bowie's David Bowie (a.k.a. Space Oddity), a 1969 release on which Rick Wakeman plays. Doh!]

The next poll, for 1970, offered a bit more of a contest. 57 of you voted:

1. King Crimson: Lizard (w/ Anderson): 38 votes (67%)
2. The Strawbs: Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios (w/ Wakeman): 15 (26%)
3. Billy Preston: Encouraging Words (w/ White): 3 (5%)
4. Gary Wright: Extraction (w/ White): 1 (2%)
5= Doris Troy: Doris Troy (w/ White): 0 (0%)
5= Sky: Don't Hold Back (w/ White): 0 (0%)
5= Chris Harwood: Nice to Meet Miss Christine (w/ Banks): 0 (0%)

It will be interesting to see how many more of these polls King Crimson wins.

Henry