Thanks for the book recommendation.

“Listen to the damn album”… that’s a quote from me, actually, and the point of this entire essay.

To wit, you might find something to appreciate in punk rock outside of just those three albums if you were to listen to some, really listen to them.

“Depth” is hard to pin down, but as I said in response to a comment above, “You Really Got Me” or “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and the like tend to have more impact on me than most of the fancy-pants alternatives. They are songs that hit you in the gut and feel true, and I have a hard time characterizing that as lack of “depth.” It is not to disparage Yes to point out that if you’re looking for rock and roll, you’re going to find more of it in any given third-rate Ramones clone band than in the “prog” equivalent. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

But of course, rock and roll isn’t everything. I think it’s important to listen outside your “tribe”, especially when you find you already have an opinion on something you haven’t actually listened to. That’s what I was getting at in this piece. (Well, also the fact that being unaware that one’s opinions are often based on nothing more than unexamined propaganda is far more prevalent than I thought, and is potentially quite a problem.)

But again, thanks very much for the book recommendation. I’m gonna listen to more Yes albums and see what happens. Cheers.