The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is about as popular with Yes fans as Ebenezer Scrooge is with Santa’s elves. By any objective measure – album sales, influence on other artists, cultural impact, longevity, and body of work – Yes meets or exceeds the RHOF’s supposedly objective standards.
Unfortunately, the institution’s bias against progressive rock seems pretty undeniable at this stage. The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull and King Crimson are routinely ignored. Yet, the Moody’s The Days of Future Passed and Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King are unquestionable milestones in the history of rock, rivaling Sgt. Pepper’s in terms of influence. Tull’s back catalogue contains multiple seminal works too.
Yes’ instrumental excellence – the classic line-up sported four virtuoso musicians – enduring career (the band continues to tour, albeit without the incomparable Jon Anderson), and sentimental appeal (the band received waves of support from fellow musicians and the music press following bassist Chris Squire’s passing) apparently counted for little. Neither did the fact that Close to the Edge routinely polls at or near the top of any list of the greatest progressive albums of all time. Put simply, CttE is to prog music what Citizen Kane is to cinema.
Speaking of which, Orson Welles’s cinematic classic failed to score with critics or audiences when it was first released. I don’t doubt that Yes’s music will be vindicated by posterity too. Unfortunately, the judges representing the RHOF are about as qualified to pass judgment on Yes’s as the celebrity panelists on American Idol would be to evaluate the music of Vivaldi. There’s a reason Yes isn’t in the RHOF. It has little to do with the band’s musical merits, and everything to do with the fact that mediocrity never acknowledges anything higher than itself.
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