Paperback: 232 pagesNote:
In Solid Mental Grace: Listening to the Music of Yes, Simon Barrow looks at how the progressive rock band Yes helped define a musical genre, combining sounds and textures to produce lengthy, elliptical compositions. Journeying through many highs and lows towards its remarkable 50th anniversary, the band still seems in search of some lost song or symphony. This book highlights an artistic imagination in Yes’s finest moments that defies ready-made labels. It illustrates the capacity of honest musical appreciation to remake us, rather than simply to confirm our prejudices. The author asks why Yes music has elicited such intense devotion and opprobrium. He reconsiders the band’s musical creativity, variety and value – plotting a course through the commercial fads and critical fashions that have sometimes trapped it.
Publisher: Cultured Llama (26 Feb. 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0995738181
ISBN-13: 978-0995738188
Product Dimensions: 14.8 x 1.3 x 21 cm
Review
The beguiling skill of Solid Mental Grace lies in Simon’s ability to balance his love for Yes – tested by decades of exposure to their best and worst work – with the incisive and honest skills of a writer with a considerable CV.
This book brings out how the band, ever questing, often fissile, never less than fascinating, have always been more than the sum of their parts.
– Rachel Mann, writing in the Foreword
About the Author
Simon Barrow is director of the think-tank Ekklesia, and a widely-published writer on politics, beliefs and culture. Music (especially contemporary classical and jazz) has been a major part of his life. He has followed the ebb and flow of Yes music for nearly 45 years.
