Yes Top 40 countdown!! (please do not list spoilers/predictions)

Alright, as I promised it would be next, it is time to get the Yes countdown cranking!

Anyone who wants to enter a list, send it to me via private conversation (do not post it in this thread, please). Any list posted in thread/not sent to me via private conversation will not be used.

IFour weeks still seems about right for the submissions period, so the cutoff date to send one is the end of the day Saturday, April 6th. Once I have received every list and entered them into a spreadsheet, I will add up the total and come up with the top 40 and then count them down from 40 to 1, likely spread out over three weeks.

As always, my request, once we get the countdown going, is that we do not make guesses, predictions or list spoilers as to what songs might still be to come in the countdown (as noted in the parenthesis in the thread title). Please be courteous and let the countdown play out.

Prior countdowns I have run (please note that I have amended the links to show the top reveals/total final lists):

Styx: Styx Top 40 countdown thread!!
Blue Oyster Cult: Blue Oyster Cult Top 40 countdown thread!!
Rush: Rush Top 40 countdown thread!!
R.E.M.: R.E.M. Top 40 countdown thread!
Genesis: Genesis Top 40 countdown!! (please do not list spoilers/predictions)
U2: U2 Top 40 countdown!! (please do not list spoilers/predictions)
Queen: Queen Top 40 countdown!! (please do not list spoilers/predictions) (still ongoing)

The rules:

-Songs must be listed from 40 to 1 in order and NUMBERED, with no ties. No having two songs tied for number 1 or anything like that. Please do not list your songs with the points total. List them in your order (I will figure out the points on my end). Any list submitted with the songs not numbered or with discrepancies in the list will be considered invalid and not used.

-Your list must have 40 songs. No more, no less. Even if you don't know all their songs, if you are enough of a fan to rank 40 songs, that is good enough!

-The list will be tallied numerically in a simple way. On each list, whatever song is at number 1 gets 40 points, number 2 gets 39 points, number 3 gets 38 points, etc.

-A song cannot be listed twice, like listing a studio version of a song and then a live version or remix as a separate song. If you want to rank a song, and there are multiple versions, just pick your favorite version and use that to rank the song (you don't have to tell me which version it is, as the songs are all ranked by title, not by versions).

-Please proofread your list before sending it. Any list with the same song listed twice, too many songs, not enough songs, etc. will not be used.

-Please do not send the list until you are 100% with it, as I will be entering these on the fly, and if you send a list and then want to change it three days later for example, that creates double work for me since I'd have to remove your entire original list and enter the new one. Let's try to keep it easy for me.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to post in this thread as well that you have PM'd me, if for no other reason than to bump this back up for others who may want to participate who may not have seen the thread yet. I will @ many who have done the previous countdowns as well as those who seemed interested in this one, but feel free to @ any Yes fans you think might be interested, that way they see the thread. (apologies if I forgot anyone, as I am sure I did).

This ranking engine link below works great. You can input all of the songs, and then you pick your favorite of every 1 on 1 matchup and then it spits out your list. The songs must be listed in your top 40 as listed below.

Ranking Engine

When you get to the ranking engine site, click on "music" (on the left in big letters), copy and paste all the songs (or just the ones you want to rank to get to a top 40) in the text on the left where it says "Enter Items Here" and hit "add." Then click "rank" near the top and you can then begin. You do not have to sign up at the site or enter any email address or phone number to use it. It is free to use.

Songs are listed below. You can always enter just the songs that you think might make your top 40 into the ranking engine, as that will shorten the process. It really only takes 15-30 minutes to do, depending on how many songs you enter.

Please note that I have altered my thinking a bit on this one regarding "suites," thus Endless Dream (which is broken up into three tracks on the original CD) and Fly From Here (which is broken up into six tracks) are listed as single tracks and can only be listed that way. Judgment call on my part.

A Living Island
A Venture
Abilene
All Connected
Almost Like Love
America
And You and I
Angkor Wat
Arriving UFO
Astral Traveller
Awaken
Be the One
Believe Again
Beyond and Before
Big Generator
Bring Me to the Power
Can I?
Can You Imagine
Cans and Brahms
Changes
Children of Light
Cinema
Circles of Time
Circus of Heaven
City of Love
Clap
Clear Days
Close to the Edge
Countryside
Cut from the Stars
Damaged World
Dangerous (Look in the Light of What You're Searching For)
Dare to Know
Days
Dear Father
Does It Really Happen?
Don't Go
Don't Kill the Whale
Dreamtime
Endless Dream
Evensong
Every Little Thing
Everybody's Song
Everydays
Face to Face
Final Eyes
Finally
Five per Cent for Nothing
Fly From Here (suite)
Foot Prints
Fortune Seller
Friend of a Friend
From the Balcony
Future Memories
Future Times/Rejoice
Give & Take
Give Love Each Day
Going for the One
Golden Age
Harold Land
Have We Really Got to Go Through This
Heart of the Sunrise
Hearts
High
Hold On
Holding On
Holy Lamb (Song for Harmonic Convergence)
Homeworld (The Ladder)
Hour of Need
I Am Waiting
I See You
I Would Have Waited Forever
If Only You Knew
I'm Running
In a World of Our Own
In the Presence Of
In the Tower
Into the Lens
Into the Storm
It Can Happen
It Was All We Knew
It Will Be a Good Day (The River)
It's Over
I've Seen All Good People
Leave It
Leave Well Alone
Life on a Film Set
Lift Me Up
Light of the Ages
Lightning Strikes
Living Out Their Dream
Long Distance Runaround
Looking Around
Love Shine
Love Will Find a Way
Luminosity
Machine Messiah
Madrigal
Magic Potion
Magnification
Make It Easy
Man in the Moon
Masquerade
Mind Drive
Minus the Man
Miracle of Life
Mirror to the Sky
Money
Montreux's Theme
Mood for a Day
Music to My Ears
Mystery Tour
New Language
New State of Mind
Nine Voices (Longwalker)
No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed
No Way We Can Lose
On the Silent Wings of Freedom
One Second Is Enough
Onward
Open Your Eyes
Our Song
Owner of a Lonely Heart
Parallels
Perpetual Change
Picasso
Real Love
Release, Release
Rhythm of Love
Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil)
Roundabout
Run Through the Light
Saving My Heart
Shock to the System
Shoot High Aim Low
Siberian Khatru
Sign Language
Silent Talking
Sister Sleeping Soul
Soft as a Dove
Solitaire
Some Are Born
Somehow, Someday
Song No. 4
Sound Chaser
South Side of the Sky
Spirit of Survival
Starship Trooper
State of Play
Step Beyond
Subway Walls
Survival
Sweet Dreams
Sweetness
Take the Water to the Mountain
Tempus Fugit
That, That Is
The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun)
The Calling
The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
The Game
The Gates of Delirium
The Ice Bridge
The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be
The Messenger
The More We Live -- Let Go
The Prophet
The Remembering (High the Memory)
The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)
The Solution
The Western Edge
Then
Time and a Word
Time is Time
To Ascend
To Be Alive (Hep Yadda)
To Be Over
Turn of the Century
Univeral Garden
Unknown Place
Vevey (Revisited)
Walls
We Agree
We Have Heaven
Where Will You Be
White Car
Without Hope You Cannot Start the Day
Wonderlove
Wonderous Stories
Yesterday and Today
You Can Be Saved
Yours Is No Disgrace


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Hurray! It will be a feast!

 

Yay!

 

YES!! (pun may have been intended)

This one will not be easy. I'll get back to you!

 

Done! Thanks for organising tnis, George.

 

I can't think of more than about 20 songs so I won't participate. I will watch intently, though. This will be a good opportunity to dig deeper.

 

Have submitted my list. I managed to narrow the lot down to 41 tracks, and the one which finally didn't make it is one which I'm sure will appear in the collective Top 10.

Looking forward to it. I don't know if I rank Yes over Genesis overall, but my most beloved tracks by Yes are slightly above my most beloved track by Genesis, which was Dancing WIth the Moonlit Knight.

Can't wait for the countdown to start!

 

I'm not sure if I will be able to contribute to this one or not. Up to couple months ago the only Yes albums I ever heard in their entirety were 90125, Big Generator and Union. I have since gotten all of their albums from Time and a Word through Drama, Talk and Magnification. So I'll have to see if I can put together a legitimate list by the deadline. Either way I will be following with interest.

 

Oh, awesome!!! Yes is one of my all time favorite bands, so I'm looking forward to this one.

 

Another cracking list-take it away George. Top Man.

 

I know what I'm doing with my down time next week.

 

Adding some peeps from the Yes thread that was active this week...

@DigitalDave74
@alanhed
@afx
@rootless
@Levi's Tubs
@TurnerTrunk444
@wildstar
@coolsound
@Oatsy
@webbcity
@Woolverstone Hall
@blackdograilroad
@The Bishop
@Unknown Delight
@fairaintfair
@Steve Lawrence

Remember as well to @ anyone you think might be interested that I have not yet.

 

This is gonna take me a bit longer than normal to turn in. I love stuff from pretty much every album, so I am gonna have to go back thru and play some stuff I haven't listed to in a while. This one is gonna be fun.

 

Since ABWH isn't included, I will go ahead and say that a couple from that album would likely have made my top-40. I think I like it better than most.

 

It's gonna take time but you have my word.

 

The word is —

 

I'll have to skip this one, because although I have and love what I see to be the core albums - The Yes Album to Big Generator - a) pulling 40 from there is too narrow b) not being familiar with the later albums isn't really fair to the catalogue as a whole.

I look forward to seeing the results

 

Thank Geddy, it's spring break for the kids next week, so I can put them to work tabulating rankings, various live versions, use that pre-calc math, to come up with my definitive (and in Canada, legally enforceable) ranking. Now, like @cdollaz , would I like to include ABWH? Sure. There's probably a tune or two that would have a good chance there, maybe even edge out the couple of tunes from Union on my first-pass shortlist (yes, four songs from Union, and none from Topographic Oceans. Some of you may well question whether I even qualify as a fan, of Yes or of music in general…).

 

Yes is my favorite band, so this is gonna be damn hard. Will try my best though!

 

Ditto: I would have had " Themes" "Brother of Mine" "Birthright" in the top 40, maybe even "The Meeting" and "The Order of the Universe"

 

I did consider including the ABWH songs, but ultimately it was not a Yes album, so I thought it best to leave them off.

 

I can’t say you’re wrong…! Although the official camp has looked on ABWH more and more fondly as time goes on, appearing on an anthology or two, now in the “official” discography on the website, and I’ve always filed it with the Yes albums, it’s still an attempt to try something different, certainly according to the B in ABWH, even if that didn’t pan out.

 

Not only is it fair, it's admirable!

 

All in. We should pay you for running these things!

 

I had never really looked at the official website, but you can always tell who does these write-ups (or who guides them).

Big Generator and Talk both got one line summations, while Howe's GTR project got more words than either. lol

And apparently the discography ends with Heaven and Earth in 2014. hahaha