Ah yes the memories flood back, a sweaty changing room, semi-naked teenage boys and the conversation turned to that most important of subjects. Is Supper’s Ready better than Close to the Edge?
This question has haunted the pimply semi-naked teenager since well about 1972 when both songs burst onto the scene in glorious be-flared and pompous fanfare to change the conversation in locker rooms forever, well for brief time anyway.
To this day I still do not have an answer to this question that truly satisfies anyone.
What I do know is that Yes managed to be brave enough to release a live version of their side long track on their triple live album, while Genesis fell at the hurdle and did not put out the center piece of their live show when they came to release their Live album. Maybe this is the difference between both bands, one seemed quite self effacing and lacked the necessary confidence while the other managed to swagger and sway their be-caped way into the hearts and minds of the rock and roll audience. Of course they were also incredibly pretentious and precious which seems to be a prerequisite for prog rock in general.
1972 was a good year for the good ship yes which was immortalized on the Yessongs triple album. On the road with the combined might of three of the greatest Yes albums behind them. Many however complained of the sound quality. It’s a great collection however. The Progeny Highlights from 72 was released in 2015 which was some may say an improvement in sound quality but lacking in that essential Yes bassiness.
The ultimate question however is Supper’s Ready or Close to the Edge and I have to say I don’t really know the answer to that. Are you feeling like ethereal vocals that makes no sense, or whimsical vocals that make no sense? If you know the 
answer to any one of those things at any one time then you have the answer you need. Until then it’s good enough to know that I managed to wallow in six albums of Yes at the heights of their powers this evening and thats a lot of capes and flares and nonsense lyrics.
If I am going to be nit picky, why wouldn’t I be is the real question I wish that Progeny had a version of Starship Trooper on it because then it would be just about perfect in many ways. However Yessongs does have Starship Trooper so there you go. This however proves nothing and adds nothing to the Supper’s Ready, Close to the Edge question.
The wonder of Tales From Topographic Oceans was ahead of us but in 1972 they were still rocking with long flowing locks of glory and capes, can there ever be too may capes?
timeweleftthisworldtoday 