More than with any other band, I am a Yes fan. This is not the same as saying as I think Yes is the best band I'm familiar with; they never made an album that I'd give a perfect score, and while they made many that I'd rate highly, the fact that I can name so many albums that I like more than my favorite Yes albums has to mean something. If "fan" is taken in its meaning of the term "fanatic," though, there'd really be no contest. It's one thing to own all of a band's studio albums; it's another to seek out all of its live albums, and bootlegs from as many tours as possible (and often multiple bootlegs from the same tour), and multiple concert DVD's, and a good chunk of solo material from the various members, even when I expect it to stink. Yup, I've been an obsessive fan since 1998, and even as my music collection has continued to expand and diversify, the band's hold on my mind has remained, and I find it hard to see a scenario in which that would change.

For many readers, this will ring familiar: the title has often been given to "quirky" groups such as They Might be Giants or even fellow prog-rockers like Rush, but I would argue that Yes is the #1 cult group of the rock era. Those who love them worship at their feet, almost regardless of who is actually in the band, while those who dislike them (i.e. The Rolling Stone Album Guide) dislike them with a passion. I think they're amazing, not only for the quality of their best work (the albums from their "golden period" of 1971 to 1977 are all essentials in the collection of any true fan of progressive rock), but for their Rasputin-like ability to survive changes (internal and external alike) that should have killed them several times over. I love the amount of thought they put into what they wrote while still remaining, at heart, a pop group. I love how they managed to pile on new layers of complexity and invention from album to album without sacrificing entertainment value, and yet almost never engaged in complexity for its own sake. I love how they challenged notions of what pop music was "allowed" to do and showed that the violation of various dogmatic "truths" of rock could still in fact allow for good music. I love how their members tended to be superb instrumentalists, not just in raw technical ability but in terms of style and flair. They were one of the most accessible "weird" bands ever and one of the least accessible "normal" bands ever, and that is a state of being I can really dig.

My opinion (as well as the opinions of the group's often ravenous fans) aside, though, Yes really gets a lot of hateful press. Much of this, of course, stems from a bad attitude towards the progressive genre in general. More than any other group around, Yes was the symbol of prog taken to its ultimate height, and they pretty much defined all of the 'wretched excesses' that so many critics love to beat to death. With songs that regularly eclipse 7 minutes in length, often taking up entire sides of albums (especially on Tales, with four side-longs, of all things), it certainly takes a bizarre and hearty soul to give them a shot in the first place, much less enjoy them. But even their stellar chops, a definite asset, often gained them intense criticism for creating a type of 'musical elitism' that prevented an average garage band from being able to emulate themselves after Yes (or other prog bands, for that matter). After all, not every bassist can successfully pull off "Roundabout," not every guitarist can do the lightning solos in "Awaken," not every drummer can pull off "Close to the Edge" or "Siberian Khatru" ... you get the idea. Not only had the band constructed music that was far beyond the tolerance of the average listener, but their playing talents had created an almost untouchable fraternity that only a very select few could ever hope to enter.

The main problem that most have with Yes, though, starts and ends with vocalist/lyricist Jon Anderson. To put it mildly, his lyrics are usually, um, intimidating. Almost all of the time, it honestly seems like he's spouting complete and total jibberish. Now, to be fair, in several cases, that statement is probably correct (particularly on TYA), but I do feel it would be unfair to categorize Jon Anderson as a complete lunatic throwing out the first lines that come into his head. In particular, his epics on CTTE, Tales, and Relayer, believe it or not, really do have meaning and tell actual stories. It takes a few readings to realize it, but after a while, something clicks in your mind and you actually begin to get it, whatever "it" is. Also, one must keep in mind that much of, if not most of the time, regardless of how strange the lyrics seems to us, they almost always mean a lot to Anderson. He honestly cared about his seasoned witches and dreamers easy in the chair that really fits you. And he treasured and still treasures Tales. Remember that.

Lyrics aside though, there is also the issue of Jon's voice. Best as I can tell, there are those who love his voice, and those who categorically cannot stand it, with few in between. See, while he's technically a contra-tenor, he seemingly often strays dangerously close to soprano in his range. Even more frightening than that is that he is not using a falsetto; you have to hear him speak to believe it, but that's his actual voice. And that in itself often turns people away; maybe it's a form of homophobia or something, but there are many who want their male singers to sound like, well, real men, and hearing anything else makes them cringe. Of course, the same argument is often used against Led Zeppelin and Rush, so I don't worry too much about it.

More and more, though, the main complaint about Anderson is turning to a different aspect of his singing style. The main problem is that more often than not, he will take a 'zero-tone' approach to his singing, i.e. that he will seemingly not vary the expression of his voice one iota throughout the song. Because of this, in my travels of the internet, I have seen Anderson referred to as a computer, a robot, and generally as a soulless singing machine. The thing is, though ... I dunno, I guess technically I will agree that he makes no attempt at making a song come alive using only his vocal chords, a la Greg Lake or Peter Gabriel. On the other hand, though, I honestly believe that it is a mistake to demand Anderson to sing like vocalists of other bands, simply because Yes was not like other bands. Anderson's job, let's face it, was to provide a counterpoint to the exquisite keyboard, guitar, and bass arrangements, and to contribute a pretty, 'flowery' covering with the vocal harmonies that only he and the guitarists could provide. And from that viewpoint, he succeeded marvelously. Whatever you may say, I insist that the man was a terrific writer of vocal melodies. They were by no means designed to be the 'hook' of the song (though one would have to be totally deaf to deny that quite often the vocal melodies were hooky as hell, intended or not), but as a counter to the instrumental melodies, they could not be topped. And besides, it's not as if the man's singing couldn't hypnotize a man with its beauty; listen to his reverbed voice soaring over the mellotron in "Revealing Science" in the "getting over overhanging trees" part, or his moving lament in "Turn of the Century," and tell me you aren't moved to tears.

Whatever the case may be, I honestly believe this is one of the greatest bands of all time. They may not have been the most 'complex' or intimidating band out there (like King Crimson or The Mahavishnu Orchestra, both of which used to terrify me but don't anymore), and there have probably been bands with greater collective chops. But no band has ever taken lengthy and self-indulgent epic jamming and made it sound more like beautiful music than Yes. Granted, you have to be prepared for the journey it wants to take you on, but if you are willing, their music can take you places you never thought could exist.

PS: This page, in addition to reviewing basically every major and minor Yes studio/live/whatever album, also touches upon a great deal of solo material by various members of the band. These reviews have been broken out into a separate page and can be accessed through the links above.

What do you think about Yes?

Ben Greenstein (bgreenstein@nctimes.net)

Yes, a cult group? Let alone the cult group of the century? I don't think so. See, pretty much EVERY "classic rock" fan (roughly 1/4 of the population, I guess) is either a Yes nut or at least has some of their albums. Rush aren't a cult group either, and TMBG are almost popular enough to be mainstream (I still consider them sorta cultish, though, because they've never taken their place on classic rock radio like, say, YES or RUSH!!!) A real cult group is one that most people not in the band's following haven't heard of - like Mike Keneally or Gentle Giant or so on. EVERYONE has head Yes - god knows, I've heard much more than I'm able to stomach.

Oh, yeah. I hate Yes. I don't even mind the guy's voice, and it's not them being "overblown" (because I like ELP and Genesis). No, they just bore me. I haven't heard one Yes song which has really blown me away as a composition. And "All Good People" is really dreadful - I still insist that it sounds like Hall and Oates or something. They suck! That is all...

(author's note): About the cult group thing - I know a ton, a ton of classic rock buffs who don't know a thing about Yes. Also, my defintion of a cult group is not necessarily an 'underground' or 'hidden' band. Rather, I consider it a group with (a) a relatively small, as well as viciously loyal fandom and (b) an overall style that, in general, appeals to pretty much only this small group of people. In this way, Yes is certainly a cult group. Rush is a cult group (yeah, stuff like Free Will and Closer to the Heart get played ad nauseum, but how many people do you know that enjoy the title track of Hemispheres?). TMBG .. ehn, it's close. I do admit that I don't know much about the band beyond stuff like Particle Man and that annoying Istanbul/Constantinople song, so they are probably a better band than I'm giving them credit for. But as long as I keep hearing them side-by-side with Dr. Demento, there is no way I can think of them otherwise. Same goes for Weird Al (whom I actually somewhat still enjoy, but only on occasion - of course, One More Minute will be one of my all-time favorite songs until the day my soul ignites).

Also, how many songs by Yes actually get played on the radio (not counting 90125 cuts)? I count three - Roundabout, Long Distance Runaround, and I've Seen All Good People. Not exactly a playlist flooder, if you ask me.

In any case, the 'of the century' part comes from the fact that I feel they are the best group to fall under said category.

PS - I'm sorry that this response was so hostile. Again, I'm sure that TMBG is a better band than what I've heard, and if I offended their fans, I'm sorry. Just know that at the time of this commentary, I was in a really pissy mood, due to various circumstances of my life. I apologize. PPS: This response re: TMBG was written back in 1999, so cut me some slack.

Rich Bunnell (richbunnell@home.com)

I know you wrote that TMBG commentary thingie in a pissy mood, but for the record, "Istanbul" is a cover, and "Particle Man" is on my personal list of the top five worst songs ever written. And they're my second-favorite band!

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

Very strange how people can complain about Jon's voice. He probably is the highest pop singer ever (hitting Eb in "Going For The One" as far as I know), so what? If anybody is looking for a raucous blues singer, better go elsewhere! I suppose anybody not being a native english speaking doesn't care about what the lyrics say or not, so OK with me. And for him singing like a robot, I'm a little bit confused. Well, listen to those Drama vocals! Apart from "Into the Lens", obviously designed for Horn's voice, now isn't that robot singing all along? Honestly, Jon would have put some life in there, whereas the other sing absolutely fine, but completely soulless. Well, I suppose tastes are tastes. The part I cannot stand in YES music myself is Chris's bass. I'm a bass player since almost 20 years, and sorry folks, but I don't see the point in all of these fast-as-lightning/aggressive/demonstrative fireworks. If you try to play these (and I insist they're not that difficult at all with a little chops), you'll realise they're by no means original, just impressively played but very basic geometrics on the fretboard, usually ascending or descending scales. Where's the music, where's the emotion in there? There's so much more this man could do with his Rick instead of always trying to assault, to impress. I personnaly rate a musician according to his ability to (1) make a single chosen, purposeful note vibrate and (2) serve a song by underplaying whenever necessary. No need to say Chris is very low on both scales. Face it folks, whenever he stops his trebly aggressive pyrotechnics, he sounds like a very mean, unoriginal bass player as there are loads around. But honestly, I recognize Chris is an integral part of Yes Music, so I deal with him (hey, I don't like mussels but I like paella!)

Jeff Blehar (jblehar@Maxinter.Net)

If you (and by "you" I mean "me") had told me a year ago today that Yes was a great rock group, I would have laughed snottily and probably done my darndest treat you like musical idiot. Yes? That stupid-arsed, pretentious PROG group? Screw that bilious crap, and pass me some Beatles, buddy! Of course, all I'd ever heard by them was "I've Seen All Good People" (which I liked) and "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" (which - wait a second - I ALSO liked...). But no, Yes HAD to be dismissed. It was a matter of principle, you understand? They were one of those atrocious prog-rock groups which puked out triple-live albums and 20 minute songs without thinking, and they committed the cardinal sin of infusing elements of classical music into rock 'n' f--kin' roll, which of course should ALWAYS remain as simplistic as possible to avoid losing its impact. Or so goes the Rolling Stone magzine party line. You see, I admit (sheepishly) that I bought into the BS spewed by the hip congnoscenti about Prog, downing it without even giving it a chance. But then I borrowed my friend's yes boxed set on a lark, just to SEE, you know...could it REALLY be THAT bad? I mean, heck that "All Good People" song, that was a keeper, wasn't it? Thus began my first exposure to Yes.

I'm enjoying the taste of this humble pie quite a bit, thank you very much.

I guess this is my lesson learned: NEVER dismiss anything out of hand. It turns out that the hip consensus was full of it, and that despite some SERIOUS flaws (e.g. Jon Anderson's apparent inability to correct for what sounds like the effects of Wernicke's aphasia - an affliction whereby the victim babbles fluently and endlessly in nonsense words) this band can kick my ass and anyone else's six ways from Sunday. Oh, they went over the top more times than I'd care to mention, and they pretty much stopped making worthwhile music after 1977, but I'll go to bat for a LOT of their albums, something that I never would have considered doing a year ago. Funny how things change, eh?

(author's note): Ha ha, success!!

Semiramis2@aol.com

Damn it you got me riled up about Yes, my favorite band at this current moment. Keeping with what I said about "writing about music", I'll write something about Relayer.

The title track rocks! The bass is totally awesome! The compositions are excellent! The bass is so heavy and it goes with the heavy drums! Alan White is God! It's a great song but I like it the best because it's great! It deserves a 12 because it's great but not perfect. It gets such a high score because Howe's solo is terrific and Anderson's epic about the necessity of war is great! The lyrics are wonderful. That section after the drums at the end is great! It should be made into its own song.

That review gives no insight to the imagery or feeling or subjectiveness of songs. Possibly if reviews were given as intense image-ridden poetry or as an analytical painting, then maybe they could do justice to the songs they're describing. (I've bought albums solely based on the album cover painting. If the cover art was created in the same vein as the music, then isn't it a much better "review" of the song? Capable of capturing the emotion that is impossible with words.) But what does "Steve Howe's solo is terrific" tell you anything about the song? Even a very deep analysis of a song really is useless.

(author's note): On the other hand, there are plenty of people in this world who would take the exact opposite standpoint. Many people couldn't possibly care less about any emotional or spiritual impact that music could have - they only care about the notes. I know people like this, and I fully expect to get comments in that exact vein (I've seen them on other sites as well). Do I agree with that line of thinking? Of course not. Does that mean it's wrong? Absolutely not. Within their line of thinking, they are 100% correct.

Look at this next statement.

"The song "Going for the One" is a strikeback by Jon Anderson against the attacks of music critics who claim his music is too fantastic, the lyrics too nebulous and spacey. Steve Howe showcases his flair for different kinds of guitar styles and once again bleeds with virtuosity."

What the hell does that tell you about anything? You know those reviews on the amazon.com pages? Can you believe people buy music based on word recommendations? I say you should put paintings/poetry/music samples as accurate "reviews" of the music.

(author's note): Ah, so you're one of those "mankind regressed when they went from using pictures to communicate to words" freaks. I never agreed with that philosophy in high school, and I definitely don't agree with it now.

You should post this pic

as my review for Tales From Topographic Oceans. How else would you describe the cascading synth part in the beginning of "The Revealing Science of God" that comes in just after the initial vocals? Or that little tiny sharp whistle that plays during the interludes of that song? With words? Only this pictoral depiction of the world that the song creates can even start to attempt to describe the song. (Yeah, I know the original TFTO has a very relevant and fitting album cover but everyone's seen that one already). Pictures are better than words for describing music but still useless. So describing music in any form is still useless!! hahahaH!H!H!HHR!

Haha I can't believe you posted my last comment. Let's see if you post this pic.

Philip Maddox (slurmsmckenzie@hotmail.com)

You know, my experience of getting into Yes was much like your experience getting into the Beatles - for the absolute longest time, I thought that I LOATHED the band. This was based primarily on my parents, my dad in particular - he never missed an opportunity to describe Yes as the biggest problem that rock music ever faced and, due to saturation to this since I was about 5 years old, I believed it for a long time. I didn't have any reason not to, considering that I'd never even heard anything by the band except for Owner Of A Lonely Heart, which I didn't really have an opinion on.

Finally, though, one day about a year and a half ago, I was cruising down the road with my sister and I heard "I've Seen All Good People" on the classic rock station (I never listened to the classic rock station, so I'd never heard the song before) and I was absolutely floored. I asked my sister who it was, and was surprised to hear her say "Yes". Fighting my inborn instinct to hate the band, I went out and forked over 12 bucks for The Yes Album. It blew me away. Fantastic music. Every last song was a winner. It was one of the best album's I'd heard in years. So, after that, I got Fragile, and recognized Roundabout and Long Distance Runaround (though I never knew they were Yes). Both of those songs, of course, ruled, as did everything else there. I ended up picking up just about every Yes album in sight, though I still have some gaps (the biggest being their first 2 albums, Tales, Tormato, and Drama), I pretty much love all of their music (except Union, but that goes without saying, and I even like a few tunes off of that one). Yes is one of my favorite bands now, even some of their later stuff like Talk.

But yeah, Yes is a great band, and I'm glad you like them more than George Starostin does. My favorite is probably The Yes Album, but they're all at least pretty good (at least out of the 11 or so I've heard). They're songs are big, long, and pretentious, but they're also usually quite exciting and often beautiful. I even like the Rabin stuff - some people hate him, but it's hard to deny that he has an ear for a good hard rock song. And, the biggest poijnt of controversy for many, is that I unabashedly love Jon Anderson's voice - it's tone never changes much, and he never adds any asides, but it's oh-so-beautiful and adds a perfect counterbalance to the band's racket. A quick listen to Soon at the end of The Gates Of Delirium proves his vocal talent once and for all. His lyrics aren't bad, either - some of it is dumb, of course (Yours Is No Disgace, anyone?), but the lyrics to tunes like Close To The Edge, The Gates Of Delirium, and especially And You And I fit perfectly. I don't even know what it is about the lyrics to And You And I, but they bring a tear to my eye, combined with that gorgeous melody.

You're right about them being such a huge cult group - I don't know if they're THE biggest cult group (Jethro Tull's got just as much of a devoted fan following while selling next to no records, despite some early success), they're certainly at least tied for that top position. Everybody with little exception either loves them or hates them. And I absolutely love them.

Rich Bunnell (richbunnell@home.com)

To Semiramis2@aol.com: Just because YOU don't get anything out of descriptions of songs doesn't mean that other people don't. But if all you're going to do is bash people who run personal review sites that aren't written for the sake of profit, I'd advise you simply not to read the sites at all and to go back and bask in the glory of Roger Dean's artwork. And I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually follows the "user recommendations" on amazon.com, because the average score is always 4.5 to 5 stars, and the reviews all consist of 90% fanboys giving the album 5 stars, and 10% naysayers who either don't like the band or think the album is overrated.

Kccwashu@aol.com

Anyone who doesn't like Yes can obviously suck it.  Yes owns you and they are your God.  

joaquim dos santos (jdossantos3@home.com)

The Spanish Inquisition, after much debate and research, has concluded that everything related to the group known as Yes produced after 1981 should be destroyed and removed from the collective memory of humanity.

Everything before 1981 however, should automaticaly be issued to every man, woman and child at birth. (except of course, those dreadful Paris session demos, which may be the best evidence of Napster being a tool capable of doing more harm than good!)

Trying one's hardest to like the output of Yes from the last twenty years is a waste of time. The drive is gone. Modern production techniques can not bring back to life something which began to die in 1978.

Let us however revel in their time,..that time when regardless of words, notes or sound quality, a listener could automaticaly FEEL what Yes were trying their hardest to do.........create and show you anather world. We the fans may not always agree on the level of sucsses they acheived creatively at different times, but things like Open Your Eyes are an insult.

The works from the first twelve years make Yes one of the most interesting, stimulating, important and beautiful bands of all time,.....everything after is a very dark stain on that legacy. I know you fans hate hearing this kind of stuff but I failed a math class because I would stay home with headphones and listen to the brilliance of jon anderson's wit on tracks like "Going For The One" . Is there any greater joy than driving through the Cantabrian mountains of northern Spain and listening to "Tales From Topographic Oceans" durring a sunset? Believe me , that album makes perfect sense then.

much more sense than "The Ladder" will ever make.

By the way, great site! It is fun learning what other peaple think about this great band.

Robert Grazer (xeernoflax@juno.com)

Here's a listing of all of the major Yes studio albums with my personal 15-point scale score next to them.

Yes - 12
Time and a Word - 12
The Yes Album - 15
Fragile - 14
Close to the Edge - 15
Tales From Topographic Oceans - 13
Relayer - 15
Going for the One - 14
Tormato - 8
Drama - 13
90125 - 9
Big Generator - 7
Union - 8
The Symphonic Music of Yes - 10
Talk - 13
Open Your Eyes - 11
The Ladder - 12

Brian Sittinger (7/17/01)

Getting into Yes was my introduction to progressive rock. I must the biggest barricade is Jon Anderson's HIGH voice. Scared me out of my wits at first. (My first encounter with Jon's voice: Kitaro's Dream. [NOTE: Don't ask me where my parents found that record!] "He sounded like a wuss," I thought at the time.) Yet, in retrospect, it's hard to imagine Yes without Jon's voice (face it: even on Drama, Trevor Horn often tried to sound like Jon. God pity his soul...) I have grown to tolerate, and at times actually enjoy his voice, as it sounds angleic now!

It's the music that really does it for me (until 1980 or so). Very well thought-out compositions. Creative. And from album to album, it could be hard to guess where Yes would go next. Hence, they demanded your attention. (of course King Crimson, too!) Ther's always something to keep your attention during the songs (stretches of Tales from Topographic Oceans tests this last assertion admittedly). It is a shame that material between Fragile and 90210 (err, 90125; okay what an old joke!) does not garner more attention from the masses. On the most part, Yes had the talent to back up their bombast, though they can be accused of going over the edge. But, that's part of their charm; they had the guts to do so and did it remarkably well.

One of these, perhaps through bargain bins, I will pick up bits and pieces of their post-80 output, but not anytime soon. Never quite the same after 1980! Still, Yes and Genesis are my favorite Prog groups as we speak. I'm glad I overlooked the popular consensus of progressive rock in general!

Stephen B Marseille (sbm82@columbia.edu) (7/21/01)

I am SURE you've heard many, many defenses of They Might Be Giants since you wrote your initial rant and rebuttal on the "cult" thing with Yes. If all you knew when you wrote it was indeed Particle Man and Istanbul, I can't blame you. I'm sure many people have since pushed TMBG on you. While I intend to do the same, I would like, in some way (if possible), to separate myself from the others. How?

Well, it seems I am not a typical TMBG fan, if polls and such are the judge of such things. While I, like many others, own all their output, I find much of their material of variable quality - from stupendous highs to embarrassing lows. And IMO, many of what I consider embarrassing lows are fan favorites.

Here's what I would recommend (as a Beatles, Yes, Genesis, Zep, and ELP fan): get the first three albums, decide... then venture further. That is, pick up "They Might Be Giants," "Lincoln," and "Misc. T" - these are three of my favorite albums. Surely VERY different from other favs like Foxtrot, Close To The Edge, etc, but classics all the same.

See, TMBG was once a group of two guys. To play live and to make "full sounding" albums, they had to be creative to fill out their sounds. With greater success, however, they added "band" members. The result is while they still write pop-riddled music, they sound much more ... TYPICAL (a damning criticism).

I promise you that their first two albums in particular are fantastic - from the sweet, sublime "She's an Angel" to the quirky "put your hand inside the puppet head." These Brooklyn-ites are more than a novelty group. After the first albums, see Misc. T for "Hey Mr. DJ I Thought You Said We Had A Deal" (a far more interesting industry song than Have a Cigar!) and Flood for "Whistling in the Dark". And if you want and epic, check out the 17 part "Fingertips" from Apollo 18.

Fair warning however - I do not recommend "John Henry," "Factory Showroom," or other recent releases... while they have their share of gems (Nyquil Driver springs to mind), they don't hold a candle to the past... where their desperation fuelled some truly creative brilliance. Hear the harmonies on their eponymous release and deny its brilliance.

Since I don't expect you to start a TMBG section on your site, I am simply writing this for your personal benefit - I promise you that you will not be disappointed. Let me know what you think, or come to me for files, or anything.

dazsmith (dazsmith@ntlworld.com) (8/15/01)

I remember large sections of the audience booing (including me) when the Buggles line-up attempted And You And I........Tormato is the last Yes LP, everything after is guilty of the criticisms levelled at the band generally. Drama is fucking hopeless.  I saw Anderson's New Life Band within a fortnight of Yes/Buggles, and they quite simply pissed all over that particular Yes perfomance.  How crap does the Fairlight sound with the passing of time???  Its hard to think of many 80s records that can still last more than 5 seconds on my turntable to be honest - it is the decade which conned its way into the twentieth century.  The nineties probably rescued the late 20th C from complete embarrassment!  Even then only just....Nirvana!  Asia were shit aswell.

  I've been into 'rock' for years and years and the great Yes LPs sit quite happily in my collection alongside some very extreme punk and hardcore, soul, jazz, etc - I personally see no great difference between musics of supposedly different styles, if its good its good.

  If anything pisses me off about Yes its the twee middle class English redbrick universityesque pomposity..........but then again Rush's extreme pomposity has nothing to do with that.  Rush, by the way, really are utter shyte.

  Tales From Topographic Oceans is way more 'radical' than the punk rock which followed so closely after, and possibly the best progrock (at least British) LP made, Relayer is more anarchic than any punk record (and I've made a few!!).  And Going For The One is surprisingly fresh for the time it came out.

  People who diss bands like Yes are really telling us about themselves, their machismo, their stubborness, their inability to accept what they perceive as 'soft' or feminine.

Matti Alakulju (matti.alakulju@peterstar.ru) (10/27/01)

I'm not a big expert of Yes, but I'd like to add one point concerning Jon Anderson lyrics. I vaguely remember reading his interview sometime in the nineties. I can't remember his actual statement, but roughly he confessed that his lyrics weren't even designed to make sense as words or story or meaning. His lyrics were merely sounds out of his throat and designed to work as the fifth instrument in the group. In this respect, I think, he has succeeded great. But what a nerve he had: For decades millions of Yesheads were trying to figure out what he wants to say with his cryptics, and this was the answer. Does anybody else remember this interview?

"Poschmann, Steve" (Steve.Poschmann@fmr.com) (11/25/01)

Other random questions/concerns (I apologize if you addressed these in your prolific reviews): - I read that Steve Howe is a part-owner of the new boxed-in Yes logo and that it only appears on albums he plays on. Can you confirm that? Or did you know that?

- I picked up on a dig of yours against the group Asia. While I would never attempt to put Asia up against Yes in a battle of artistic merit, Asia's debut album is a finely-crafted, melodic, well-produced piece of work. It contained a nice balance between the prevailing FM radio rock of its time and it tips a hat to the art-rock roots of the members. My musical tastes are wide enough to include much "corporate" rock, and some "art" rock (among many others) and can accommodate for in between. Now, I am not all that familiar with Asia's second album, but some of the stuff they put out post-Steve Howe sounds very generic. I don't know if it is the lack of Howe or the lackluster production or both, but it really pales. You may know that Howe came back to Asia in the 90s lay down a few tracks here and there (I have read...but have never heard the tracks) but it looks like all business and no pleasure for these guys at this point. FYI: By all appearances Downes seems to own the Asia name.

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (6/23/03)

I got into Yes about 12 years ago (1991) when my friend played me his copy of Classic Yes. The music immediately hit me as very unique and melodious (particularly Wonderous Stories, Starship Trooper, and And You and I). After learning of the notorious history of members coming and going and the upcoming Union album, I was really intrigued, and after purchasing and enjoying Union (you heard correct I enjoyed Union) I bought their entire back catalogue (except for the debut, which I could not locate). I was amazed and how good almost every album was, and how they managed maintain this quality regardless of who was in the band.

Fast forward to last summer (2002) when a co-worker was selling off some CDs for a dollar, one of which was Union. I bought it from him (my previous copy was on cassette) and after listening to it realized I hadn't been listening to Yes much lately, and should see if they were still around. After finding out that they were indeed still going, and changing members faster than ever, I bought their entire studio catalogue on CD. After hearing Talk for the first time I was moved to tears by several songs and have been really hooked on Yes for the second time in my life. I was really intrigued after reading many reviews how different my list of favourites is from everyone else. Even though they have not been mainstream for a long time now, I think they continue to produce high quality music into their 50s (almost in their 60s now!). Talk and The Ladder are as good, and in many cases better, albums as many of their earliest successes. Here's hoping they can keep it up indefinitely.

For the record here is how I would rate each of the albums I have, using the John McFerrin scale:

Best Album: Talk

Worst Album: Open Your Eyes

Underrated: Tormato and Union

Overrated: Fragile

Yes: 9(13)

Time and a Word: 7(10)

The Yes Album: 9(15)

Fragile: 7(10)

Close to the Edge: 9(13)

Tales from the Topographic Oceans: 5(8)

Relayer: 7(10)

Going for the One: 9(14)

Tormato: 8(12)

Drama: 9(12)

90125: 8(11)

Big Generator: 6(9)

ABWH: 6(9)

Union: 8(11)

Talk: 10(15)

Keystudio: 5(8)

Open Your Eyes: 4(7)

The Ladder: 8(11)

Magnification: 5(8)

Raghavan RANGANATHAN (S3046624@student.rmit.edu.au) (8/10/03)

Hello John

Its me again. Man, your Yes reviews are fantastic!. I figure that is mainly beacuse of the incorporation of historical titbits ( regarding lineup changes and all that) in the reviews that help me appreciate the circumstances surrounding the recordings... As of now, i only posses the 3 highly regarderd classics ( Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge) and The Ladder but i must say that you have impressed upon me to acquire more of their albums. Aside: I looked at your tentative list for the new pages. Cmon John, push The Kinks and Bowie higher in the list. I am eager to read your reviews of these artists!. Do it, boy

Meldrain@aol.com (9/30/03)

Writing off TMBG in response to a cover and a novelty song (though to be honest I actually like both) wouldn't be a very prudent idea. They're actually an excellent group, featuring consistently incredible melodies and often hilarious lyrics. I strongly urge you to give them a chance; I was skeptical at first, but as soon as I picked up Apollo 18 I instantly had to get all their other albums (except Severe Tire Damage cause it's live) and they all rule (to varying degrees, of course). Give them a chance, you won't regret it.

Meldrain@aol.com (12/23/03)

OK, with that out of the way let's get to Yes. For me Yes embody all that is prog; that's not to say they're my favorite prog group. They don't even make my top three (Genesis, King Crimson and Jethro Tull, three of the best groups period). But somehow Yes seem like the quintessential prog group, as if they represent prog in its most concentrated, undiluted form; every note they play screams 'this is what prog is.'

But that has nothing to do with quality. So are they good? No, they're great. I own 8 albums by them and would give them all at least a 12 (except The Ladder, which rules but is too flawed to get higher than an 11), usually higher. The Yes Album, Fragile and Close To The Edge are amongst the best the genre has to offer; I was actually just listening to the Yes Album and it's just as wonderful a listen as it was when I first bought it several years ago.

The amazing thing is that after all these years they still rule. Magnification blew me away; how could they still be so good at this stage in their career? Like Tull, Yes have made a marvelous comeback, and I can't wait to hear what they do next (though avoid the new Steve Howe's Remedy album; it ain't that hot. As far as prog guitarist solo albums in 2003 you'd be better off with the new Barre or Hackett, which are both pretty damn good).

Hope you give H To He Who Am The Only One its due, it's an incredible album, and Killer is one of the greatest songs ever, and one of the most fun to sing aloud to freak people out. After that you'll have reviewed pretty much all my favorite prog groups, except the awesome Caravan, Curved Air and a few others. I hate that prog is looked upon with disdain and contempt; it contains some of the greatest music ever. Sure, when it's taken to excess (sacrificing melody for complexity) it gets out of hand, but the best prog groups find a balance between the two. And for me loving prog doesn't prohibit me from liking punk; I do, quite a bit. For me every genre of rock has something to offer (I just haven't gotten into rap or hip hop or conventional country). Dismissing prog is utterly absured, and I doubt anyone who came in with an open mind could do so.

fabian (afl1@free.fr) (4/07/04)

I know Squire is NOT at all Jeff Berlin,but he's 100% YES SOUND

  I love Yes and I love stravinsky or Darius Milhaud,but as a bass player,I like Squire style and sound! ( I own 2 rickenbackers here..1 Chris squire limited Edition + a 4002 stereo) a very special instrument.
 See the album Close to the edge,as an example,is not just a matter of "speed" I'm 50 times faster than squire,but the "way" he plays and his Rick's sound is unique. a very special picking.with a maestro fuzz and stereo wiring..2 or 3 diff amps... Jon Anderson is great,always amazing. my favourite group  ...YES forever!   Sorry but I'm sick of "4x4" rock and roll,I like those 10 or 15 minutes yes songs..

Fabien
france

Jerry Gourley (jerrygourley@msn.com) (4/29/04)

Simply put: they are the greatest.

  I just saw their April 20, 2004 concert at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, Ca., and was amazed at how really good some of their new stuff is. In fact that concert left me feeling that they haven't hit their peak yet. They played a medley-like number that Jon Anderson said they hadn't ever played live before. It blew me away.

  Yes is still getting better. Yes is very alive. Most groups level off very early on but Yes' 35th Anniversary tour evidenced very much that they are still ascending their already very-large mountain. A mountain that is still coming out of the sky.

  All Yes Fans MUST see them.

  Michael

Jay Williams (res6u0mq@verizon.net) (5/12/04)

I like some of their music, but much of it is overlaps in terms of their sound. JAs voice starts to wear away on my rock ears about after any 3rd or 4th song on any given record. I found much of the great could be guitar parts are missing from most all their records. The best route to go is purchase the 35th collection and be done with it.   Jay

rscott@sco.ca.gov (6/16/04)

i want to first congradulate you for your excellent yes web page. i have been a yes fan since 1971 when i first purchased fragile many many years ago. i have seen yes for almost every tour since tales and to really experience yes you have to see them live. my favorite two albums, close to the edge and relayer, i found unlistenable when i first purchased them because i was overwhelmed by the intensity of the playing. gradually, after many months i started to warm up to these albums and find it remarkable that you also consider these albums among their best as well! for me, my favorite tour was the second relayer tour during the hiatas. they opened the show with sound chaser into siberia khatru into heart of the sunrise and i was completely blown away. gates was incredible and ritual was the show closer...amazing! anderson did something from sunhillow with green lazer lights as well. the worst tour i saw was the union tour. they opened with yours is no disgrace and in the middle of howe's intense guitar solo they stopped and started playing some rabin crap and i literally flipped them off and it ruined the show for me! the last time i saw yes was about five years ago and they performed revealing science of god with some russian guy on keyboards and it was a thrill to actually get to see them do it again after all these years. i like that you gave tales a good review. it you really like yes, it is a must have. yes was/is a really great live band and their live albums really demonstrate that these guys can improvise on stage and bring new life to their songs. i notice that you also think turn of the century is one of their best songs. they did not perform it on the going tour and i never got to hear them play it live until the keys2 came out. i get the same feelings you describe, an absolute classic. i tend to agree with your review of tormato except that silent wings performed live, when squire did his bass solo, was a highlight of that tour. even without anderson, drama still sounded like yes, and horn/downes added to the group. after that, i find of faded on yes with all the pop stuff when rabin joined the band and although i went to the shows, my enthusiasm for yes dropped considerably. i have not looked at your page on their current stuff, but i would guess you like mind drive and maybe not care for that, that is? i actually like a lot of the new stuff on keys and when i get a chance, i will check out what you think. got to go...thanks for taking the time to write thoughtful reviews of my favorite music.

Brian White (brian_white@4tni.com) (12/09/04)

Yes was an instrumental band of the time.  I am listening to old Yes, 25+ years later from the time of my teenage years of the 70s , and yes they still sound good.

  Would todays crowd like them.  Probably not. But YES with Wakeman, Anderson , and Squire had a sound that was original in its time.

  Will todays youth understand it.  Probably not.  I did like 90125, but until this reading, I was not aware of the staff changes.

  thanks for the info

Pedro Andino (pedroandino@msn.com) (2/23/05)

since I am a prog nut like myself I still yes to be the best out of all the bands george watchamacalit has that we never heard of! yes has got more member changes than anything! man! do not be confused! the debut is like the music of abbey road to me, the follow up time in a word is like the first taste in art rock. album 3 the yes album is the first time the people saw a prog band come alive. fragile is more commercial but commercial is not a bad word! I got so sick of runaround I go into one of the best yes epics I owned! CLOSE TO THEEDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PROG EPIC! YESONGS IS LONG! 3 LPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL ALBUM IS............    TALES FORM THE TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS! GOD THE FUCKER IS LONG!!!!!!!! BUT I DO NOT HAVE IT! STOP! I DID NOT OWN IT! SORRY! DO NOT FLAME ME! RELAYER IS AWSOME! CLOSE TO THE EDGE 2: NOISE PROG EPIC! GOING FOR THE ONE IS THE BEST! FUCK MACAA AND MULL OF KRYPTONITE! WONDEROUS STORIES IS PRETTY BUT HEY I FORGOT ABOUT WAKEMAN! THANKS FOR THE WAKEMAN REVIEWS! SIX WIVES AND CENTER OF THE EARTH ARE THE PINNACLE OF PROG BUT THE MOST DARING PROG EPIC YET KING ARTHUR! BUT SADLY A&M WITH THAT BITCH WORE CUNT SHYERYL CROW DROPPED HIM AND HIS MATERIAL IS OUT OF PRINT! FUCK SAY MR.CANTO, YOU SEEM LIKE A PROG FAN TOO GET THE WAKEMAN ALBUMS CUZ LITZOMANIA IS OUT OF PRINT! DAMN! 1978 IS NOT A GOOD YEAR FOR PROG! PUNK WON! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGRR! OOO JONNY ROTTEN SPITS ANDERSON IN DA FACE OOOOO MAN FUCK PUNK UP IT'S GAY ASS! TORMATO IS BAD BUT I LOVE IT! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! DRAMA IS COOL BUT HEY IT IS THE LAST GREAT CUZ 90125 SUCKED! YES FUCKERS! I FUCKING HATE MAINSTREAM SHIT! I CANNOT STAND OWNER OR LEAVE IT! UNIONON! UGH! SUCKED LATER YES SUCKED BUT HEY TO RND THIS I STILL LIKED YES FORM THE GOLDEN ERA!

Anthony Hansen (lumpy_monkey@hotmail.com) (05/25/05)

Your Yes page is the best on the web. Seriously, it works as:

A) a concise band biography.

B) a thoughtful, in-depth analysis of their work.

C) A generally good read.

Nice work!

"Peterson, Joel - GCP" (joel.peterson@gracobaby.com) (07/21/05)

I just wanted to tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed your reviews on the Saga Continues website. In fact, I've read scores of reviews about the various Yes albums both in publications and on NFTE, and yours are by far the best that I have read. I enjoyed the objective view you took when writing the reviews, and it was obvious to me that you took great pleasure in crafting your reviews. I also enjoyed the humor that you injected at timely spots. That was a very nice touch. Your reviews have caused me to go back and listen to these songs with new interest, and a new perspective. I've found that I agree with you on some points, and disagree with you on some points. I'm currently listening to Hearts on mp3 player, and I have always thought that this was one of their very best. I love the Rabin crunchy guitar, the Kaye grinding organ and Anderson's angelic voice. What an incredible song.

Nikus 80 (nikus80@hotmail.com) (11/15/05)

I've been really into Yes lately. My fav of their records is The Yes Album, the songs are even better than the songs in fragile (which kicks ass)! Except for Perpetual Change, which is good but not great, and Würm, and this will will offend many people, doesn't works for me. Starless, I Want You, I love those crescendos, but not Würm, although the solos that Howe play at the end are friggin amazin'!!

Side A of Close To The Edge is one of the best sides of music I've ever heard, Side B sucks. Ok, Eclipse and Apocalypse rule, but the intonations of Jon Anderson on the verses of AYAI really irritate me. And Siberian Khatru loses me after the opening riff.

But the point of this mail (if any) is: I disagree on your thesis of Anderson voice being a counterpoint. I really think that most of the time he carries the main melody and the main hook. The prime example I can think is Yours Is No Disgrace (which fucking owns), he really carries the melody on that one when he's singing, only on the bassy jazzy groovy part Squire gets the spot at the same time Jon sings. That's just an example, but the same applies to Roundabout, Heart Of The Sunrise, many parts of Tales (all but The Ancient), etc... This does not happen on Close To The Edge (the song), except maybe on I get Up I get down.

And he has a beautiful voice. I don't get the accusations of his singing being souless or intonation-less. I get the emocion he belts, he can be passionate like on Heart Of The Sunrise (or I get up I get down or Your Move... you get my point), he can sound pissed like on Long Distance Rounaround, he can rock with his voice, even when he's at his highest (Going For The One). He rules, basically.

Felipe Maldonado (maldonado14@cox.net) (02/11/06)

The best underground group ever!!!!!!!!!!!
My favorite group since the begining (1968)
I live in San Diego Ca, and I attend  their concerts every time they're in town
Felipe.

Charles Daigle (charles@outlookdesign.com) (01/19/08)

I just visited your website, in particular, your writings about Yes.  I do not believe I've ever read reviews that were so accurate and described my opinion of Yes as well as you have. One thing in particular was the meaning of Yes lyrics. Since I began listening to them in 1972 I have fought with myself to understand the meanings. Being a bass player, the meanings of the words never much mattered, as I always found myself buried in the melodies and rhythms, not attempting to put the words together into coherent subject matter.

It wasn't till after I turned 50 that I began to realize the stories that Jon tells, and how it is sort of a continuing story, so esoteric, that it is now apparent that it is meant to only make sense when one is ready to hear it. After hearing of Jon's continuing obsession (for lack of a better word) with the 4th dimension, that I started revisiting the lyrics and have begun to better hear the meanings of these epic pieces.

Even with Keys to Ascension, which I first thought was a throw together, does Jon's enlightenment become apparent.

As a younger man, I would listen to his interviews with Jim Ladd and others and found how strange it was when Jon were asked about the meanings of the songs, would he say it was just "sound painting", and not wanting to admit to the deeper meanings of these works.

So, thank you for spending the time to put together such eloquent thoughts concerning the wonderous world of Yes.

Mark Nieuweboer (ismaninb@teacher.com) (02/13/10)

The opinion of the average Yesgeek on his favourite band can be summarized like this: highly complex music for musical intellectuals. Boy, is he wrong. It never is a she, women are too prudent for nonsense like this. The Yesgeek does not know the difference between virtuosity and complexity and thus disqualifies himself as a musical intellectual. Yes at its best made straightforward hardrock, performed by four extraordinarily skilled musicians. It never took me more than one listen to get a Yes-composition, with two exceptions.

Neither was Yes influenced by Classical Music. In the entire catalogue there is no trace of Sonata, Rondo, Fugue or Variations on a Theme, the latter like Lady in Black or the vocal part of Child in Time. Neither did Yes ever turn a theme from a classical composer into rock, like Knife Edge.

All this does not disqualify Yes, not at all. The neutral unbiased music enthusiast just needs to strip off Yes of all the myths before appreciating what the band stood for. Note that most of these myths stem from the fans, not from the band itself. Not that the members contradicted them too often. Why wake up your fans? It takes the attitude of Ritchie Blackmore to do that. Yes was way to friendly to do such a nasty thing.

Yes has two obvious flaws. The first one is Jon Anderson. When McFerrin writes that somehow his expressionless voice fits to the music I cannot help chuckling. As if Yes shares the musical values of Stravinsky! Wait, do I hear someone whispering Firebird? Gotcha, Firebird is a fine example of late romanticism, which has expression as its highest value. Stravinsky composed it when still under the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov. When he wrote "notes express nothing but themselves" he was thinking of stuff like The Soldier's Story, which has nothing to do with the entire output of Yes.

The ultimate proof though can be found in the chorus of Heart of the Sunrise, version Yessongs. While Anderson does his impersonation of the musical equivalent of a zombie Howe answers with a passionate lick. The contrast is too big to be ignored, even by the worst Yesfanatic.

The second weak point is form. Quite a few epics, especially after Yessongs, don't have head nor tail, begin randomly somewhere and don't go anywhere. The compositions lack inner necessity. It's laudible when band abandons the stereotypal verse-chorus scheme. What Yes all too often forgets is that that scheme needs to be replaced by something else. It's exactly in this department that Uriah Heep beats Yes. From Wake Up (1970) until Beautiful Dream (1975) Uriah Heep always kept firm control of form, hardly ever allowing the excesses so typical for Yes.

Yes also has two strong trumps. The band showed up with a whole string of brilliant riffs, as hard hitting as everything Page, Iommi and Blackmore created. The other trump is virtuosity. That's not a virtue in itself - I refer to the compositions of Paganini, which are very dull - but allows the artist to explore territories that remain closed for others. It's here that Yes beats Uriah Heep.

In my opinion Yes at its best - mainly the early 70's - stays as close to the values of Deep Purple and Uriah Heep as possible, making full use of the masterly technique of the bandmembers. It took me a while to learn to endure Anderson's limited (both in volume and range) and shrill vocals, but it was worth the effort.

awaller@camden.rutgers.edu (03/13/10)

I've given you my thoughts about Close To The Edge and Relayer, so I might as well give you my thoughts about the band as a whole.

Anyway, if I'm going by your system then I have to consider Yes to be a five star band. The string of six albums they released in the early to mid 70s was, IMO, the single greatest streak of albums ever put out. I think it was even better than The Beatles (who are also in my Top 5 bands along with Queen, Yes, Pink Floyd, and Coheed And Cambria). Need proof?

Rubber Soul vs. The Yes Album - this is a wash, I can't pick one

Revolver vs. Fragile - slight edge to the Fabs here

Sgt. Pepper's vs. Close To The Edge - well, CTTE is the greatest album ever made... so there

Magical Mystery Tour vs. Relayer - The Gates Of Delirium contains the best 13 minutes of music put to tape! 18 if you want to include the first half of Sound Chaser. Advantage: Yes.

Abbey Road vs. Going For The One - okay, this one isn't even close. Beatles.

The double albums; The White Album vs. Tales From Topographic Oceans - umm.... yea... I'm gonna go with Tales, it's less tedious. (I'm NOT kidding, crucify me if you like).

So; Yes gets 3, Beatles get 2, one's a wash. Yea, at their peaks, Yes were just as good as the Beatles (in my mind, better actually,because the Beatles get my foot tapping but don't blow me away as many times as Yes does). Of course, the early/late Beatles beats the crap out of garbage like Tormato and Union, and Yes never put out anything like A Hard Day's Night; but whatever.

Yes are *****, and I think you should reconsider your grade for them and move them up a notch as well. Yes got 13,14,14,13,14, and 13 for those six albums from you (what other band has dont that on your site?), and it certainly seems you like them more than other 4 star prog bands Genesis, Floyd, and Crimson.

"Kevin Brown" (kev.tulsa@yahoo.com) (06/13/11)

My intoduction to Yes came with an AM program called "Beaker Street" broadcast from KAAY in, of all places, Little Rock AR. I still have fond memories of nights under the stars, listening to what was called "underground rock" for whatever reason, and the monotonous yet entrancing voice of Clyde Clifford.

That was 1972...and Starship Trooper was more or less what we waited up all night to hear.

Forty years later, seasons have passed me by. But now, even as a professional, I get up and get down....

It's etched into my mind and I love every note of it.

Kevin

---

Send me your thoughts

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

One point I would like to add is that, in the beginning, there was an emphasis on actual songwriting, in the traditional sense, that would soon disappear after "Time And A Word", only to return with Rabin in the 80's. And on this album, it shows that Anderson really knows how to pen a song, i.e. come up with memorable melodies (not too artificial) on simple (or not so simple) chord sequences. The high points here are "Yesterday And Today" and "Sweetness", even if they sound naive and dated by today's standards. I mean, a song is a song when you can figure the chord sequence and play it with just an acoustic guitar or a piano and your voice, and it doesn't get boring. And these two in particular work very well. Moreover, I think the song selection was carefully thought out on that one, with the two covers "I See You" and "Every Little Thing" where they get to showcase their musical versatility, the two straightforward pop-rockers "Looking Around" and "Beyond And Before" to draw attention onto them, and the two more complex "Harold Land" and "Survival" showing where they were headed, although I'm sure without clearly knowing themselves.

Jeff Blehar (jblehar@Maxinter.Net)

So this is Yes as they began. And goddammit, it's Yes as I wish they would have stayed! If this album isn't as catchy and fun as a swimmin' frig, then I don't know what criterion everyone is using. The songs are almost all good-to-great (only the two slightly dippy ballads - "Yesterday And Today" and "Sweetness" - and the ridiculously overrated warning sign of things to come "Survival" slow the album), and Peter Banks sure can play guitar. In fact, one of the reasons I like this disc so much is probably out of sympathy to Mr. B; there's nothing so pitiful as listening to Yessnobs pour buckets of slime all over his head in retrospect just because he couldn't write "The Clap." Kaye's organ is weaker (my keyboardist's ears hear a surprising amount of audible flubs from him - surprising inasmuch as you think they would've corrected them before putting them on vinyl) but I really do like his crunchy 60's vibe. Aside from the obvious standouts like "Looking Around" and "Beyond And Before," I find "Harold Land" to be a real shocker coming from Yes: lyrics that not only make perfect sense, but manage to move me a bit. As far as preachy anti-war songs go, this one has a very nicely observed lyric, something which you'll unfortunately never hear in a Yessong again.

And what was once heresy has now become blasphemy: "Every Little Thing" is not only the best song on the album, but an self-mockingly good-natured improvement on The Beatles' version, and my favorite Beatles cover of all time, period.

Steven St.Thomas (sst@scrump9.freeserve.co.uk)

Sorry I have to disagree with you on your points about Tony Kaye. I think his playing is very underrated, though it is hard during his return to YES years later what his actual contributions are. Especially on TALK where he is regulated to Hammond Organ, but I do think his short solo on The Calling is one of the best things he has done and is very reminiscent of things he did on Time and A Word. Sure, Tony is primarily an organ and piano player, but he does some nice inflections of jazz and rockin his playing. He may not have the flourish of Wakeman, Downes or Moraz, but he does have strength in his playing. Keyboards he has provided have always been very strong and sometimes moody. There are some great things he does on Time And A Word, which I personally rate higher than YES, the 1st album. He is no Cans and Brahms. He is more a Jimmy Smith type player, concise, jazzy type lead organ, that embellishes rather than dominates the music. I like Tony, he's alright.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/29/02)

A nice debut, although it certainly gives little indication of what was to come! My favourite track - "Every Little Thing" - I normally HATE Beatles covers as I am an extreme Beatles fan, but this one is cool. Least favourite - "Sweetness" - the sweetness is laid on a little too thick methinks! Peter Banks guitar is underrated - jazzy and reminds me of Robert Fripp's very early playing (listen to "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles and Fripp" - a lost classic if ever there was one!!!) and Fripp is my all-time fave guitarist (just pips Steve).

bsitting@mail.math.ucsb.edu (8/27/02)

What a debut! While not sounding anywhere close to what they'd become later, this album wallops quite a punch. And, yes, the jazz vibe is way up! Peter Banks is quite the competent player (in a good way), and even Bruford gets a chance to bash the drums very hard (quite different from his trademark sound)! "Looking Around" is my favorite off this album, as well as the acidified Beatles cover. Yes sure knew how to rearrange songs! Finally, "Survival" has a great intro. Too bad it didn't develop any further... A high 8 out of 10.

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (6/23/03)

I'm mostly in agreement with you here. An incredible debut! When I heard this for the first time about 8 months ago I was underwhelmed, but every time I listen to it I like it more. All 8 songs are really good and some are just fantastic. The closing Survival is the best-I'd consider it one of my top 10 Yes songs. The verses and chorus get stuck in my head all the time. Yesterday and Today has a beautiful simple melody sung wonderfully by Anderson and played with great beauty by all, especially Kaye. Beyond and Before, Looking Around, and Harold Land are all quite catchy with great energy (I'm still trying to figure out who sings lead on BaB-is it a 3 part harmony of Anderson, Squire, and Banks?). The other original, Sweetness, is probably the worst song on the album, but it's still good-it's grown on me more with repeated listens. Finally the two covers I See You and Every Little Thing are both done with such energy and are good showcases for the talents of Bruford and Banks. I give this one a 9(13).

I suppose for the direction the band was going, it's understandable that they replaced Banks and Kaye, but for the type of music they started out with, everyone was perfect. Squire's trebly bass, Kaye's crunchy organ, Banks' and Bruford's jazzy sounds, and Anderson's quiet vocal delivery are the defining sounds of early Yes as far as I'm concerned. As much I love most of the later albums, it's too bad they didn't try a few more albums like this one (or for that matter even play some of the songs from this album in their live sets).

---

Send me your thoughts

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

I'm sure the purpose of this album was primarily to consolidate their sound, so they hadn't made the leap yet. Instead, they decided to rely on basic repertoire they had not released on the first. That's the typical second album syndrome: usually, the best bits make it onto the first, so the second may eventually sound as a collection of outtakes. This is not actually the case here, as there are really strong cuts. The emphasis is clearly on traditional songwriting with two towering achievements in the wonderfully catchy "Sweet Dreams" and the hippie-sounding yet incredibly efficient "Time And A Word" (the test of acoustic guitar once again - there are much more chord changes and melodic twists in this one than on any of the following albums!), along with more versatility on the two covers "Everydays" and "No Opportunity Necessary". But the rest is really lacking something, as in "The Prophet" or "Clear Days", clearly sounding as filler. The overall direction is unclear, as shown by the complex yet apparently random arrangements of the otherwise pleasant "Then" and "Astral Traveller", whose function still escapes me, while the mini-epics of the first have temporarily disappeared. The orchestra may or may not work, depending on your mood, the real problem being it's an artificial trick tackled onto the group tracks and not properly integrated. I mean, the orchestra looks from the outside, adding not always needed colour, instead of really providing the backbone of the songs. The only notable exception is "Clear Days", but this track lacks true melodic hooks to work in this context.

Jeff Blehar (jdb3@jhu.edu)

Hey, who spilled orchestra all over my early Yes?

So apparently somebody in the Yes camp decided that the band just wasn't substantive enough as a self-contained unit, and that what it needed to take off with the folks at home was a generous slathering of strings, to...geez, I dunno, certainly not to bring out the rockin' side of the band. After all, everybody knows that what rock 'n' roll really needs to become an artistically valid musical form is classical music, right? (And then Emerson, Lake & Palmer came up with the even MORE brilliant postulate that what classical music really needed to make it respectable was rock 'n' roll. Boobs.)

And well...the result is weepy twaddle like the all-orchestral "Clear Days" or fruity arrangements of decent songs like "Then" which have all the subtlety of a nail-studded plank to the forehead. (Even worse, the orchestral call-and-response figure on the verses of "Then" is out of synch with the band by a few milliseconds, something which is ^×trust me^× quite noticeable and extremely grating). On the other hand, I will grant that the orchestrations, for all of their utter garishness (in fact, because of them) work on "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed." Although I;m not familiar with the original, I'll eat my watch if it's 1/10 as exciting as this version, which in the grand tradition of Yes's "Every Little Thing" is splendidly overwrought, and one awesome way to open the album up. Tony Kaye fires up that great crusty late-Sixties' organ sound, and then, like nothing you^Òre expecting...the STRINGS! My GOD, they're EVERYWHERE! And just when "How The West Was Won" threatens to break out at any second, it does. No, seriously, it does. All of a sudden it's Western Movie night at the prog cinema in another one of those early Yes moments that they just plain ol' forgot how to do later in their career.

As for "Everydays," does anyone else notice that so far Yes has done songs by 2/3 of Crosby, Stills & Nash? I guess now they ought to do "King Midas In Reverse" to complete the cycle.

I also dig the puppy-eyed and charming "Sweet Dreams" and the Peter Banks how-do-ya-do of "Astral Traveller," but quite frankly, Time And A Word suffers noticeably in comparison to either its predecessor or what would follow. There's simply too much tripe like "Clear Days" and "The Prophet," to say nothing of the thoroughly childish title track, which ruins a decent melody (and a winner of a bass line) with moron-simple lyrics and orchestration that fails to do anything except accentuate their emptiness. After this album was recorded, the band got tetchy and dropped ol' Pete. To quote a man who went very crazy around this time in 1970 while fronting Fleetwood Mac, "oh well."

Richard Savill (dreklind@btinternet.com)

When CDs came out, my collection of records and tapes began to gather dust. This YES album was one of the ones that got very dusty. Not that I didn't like the album, but I bought the record at a flea market ages ago, and my enjoyment of it suffered a 'tick-tick-tick' during parts of the 'The Prophet' and 'pops' in other various places. Ah well, no big deal, no one listened to this album in the whole wide world except me it seemed. Around that time my brother was really into 'Diamond Dogs' by Bowie, and I got sucked into that album's strange morphs and left that YES album to create the wear ring around the cover.

  Not until well into the 90s (again at a flea market) did I finally get it on CD. I thought I knew the album, but a fresh listen after such a long time made me appreciate it a bit more. I like the syrupy sweet lullaby which is the title track - as much as I do the opener.

  Orchestralphobia? Not me. As long as it stays appropriate and not too dominant. Here the orchestra sounds are not always tamed, but 'Days of Future Passed'  by the Moodies is quite safely ahead - or behind. Depending on your point of view.

Still though, I have to agree with you. The album seems less energetic and scattery past after 'No Opportunity'. Thus Time and a Word remains a stepping stone to the true YES idiom. In a way it reminds me of the Pink Floyd step (ala 'Interstellar Overdrive') towards their maturity.

  The material is dated by the keyboard sounds of its day, but there are hints of YES's future here and there. Oddly though, The Yes Album seems like night and day in a straight up comparison. You can certainly tell what a difference production makes to a band. A good producer can find a group's sound and mould the genius of an artist to great height (Who was Tony Colton anyway?). Kit Lambert of The Who lore is testament to this. And Alan Parsons, well he made a folksy Al Stewart proggyish - and the result? - a million seller album! YES did it their way from this point (more or less), and it paid off.

  So you give it a 7 huh? Hmmm... you are very kind. A 6 by me, but a 6 or a 7 seems in the ballpark. Depends on your mood at the time with this one doesn't it?

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/29/02)

The strings do kinda get in the way, cos they are obviously tacked on as a afterthought, and are frankly unneccesary. "No Opportunity" and "Time And A Word" tie for best for mine. Instrumentally Tony Kaye seems to dominate strangely enough. I can see why Peter left - he hated the strings and is overshadowed on this album.

bsitting@mail.math.ucsb.edu (8/27/02)

This time out, the songs aren't as solid overall. Then, there's that unnecessary orchestration! "Time and a Word" is still decent despite that (to be redone later in concert- thanks Rick!). "Sweet Dreams" is my favorite off this collection. I like how it gradually builds up through the songs (through the harmonies). 7 out of 10.

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (6/29/03)

A step down from the debut, but still a decent listen. Unlike the debut, this one has some throwaways on it. Clear Days is ok while it's on but I never think about it much afterwards. I've never heard the original Everydays, but I can't seem to get into this version. Too slow and plodding, although some of the instrumentation towards the end is kind of neat. Then and Astral Traveller are both good, but kind of samey. I don't know much about musical theory, but Anderson must have used some kind of similar base melody in writing these two tunes, because I often get them mixed up. I used to not care much for Sweet Dreams, but I've started to like it more with repeated listens. It has got that distinctive Kaye organ sound that's so omnipresent on these first three albums. I also really like The Prophet. The intro is really cool and the main melody-well maybe it is similar to Sesame Street like you say, but I get a kick out of it (maybe I watched too much Sesame Street as a kid).

Finally the best two songs are the opener and closer. No Opportunity Necessary No Experience Needed has a killer intro, and a very rocking main melody I can't get enough of. I've made a promise to myself to hear the original someday, just to hear exactly what Yes did to this song. And of course we have the closing title song, which I feel is the best on the album. It has one of those infectiously catchy Jon Anderson melodies and vocal lines, that you can't help but sing along. Overall I would give this album a 7(10).

As for the orchestration, I don't really notice it except on NONNEN, but I will reserve judgement on it until after I get the BBC sessions album without the orchestration (which I hope to do soon).

---

Beyond And Before - The BBC Recordings - 1997
C

Best song: No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Required

Send me your thoughts

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

Sure it's a bootleg. The fact several complete or edited versions have surfaced under various labels (mine is called "Something's Coming", and I know of a single CD version titled "Astral Traveller") shows it's not protected at all, almost public domain. It's nevertheless funny, especially for the five live tracks on disc 2. The pity is that Peter Banks apparently just wanted to make himself remembered and did not actually care to search the archives and improve the sound. Just to get an idea of how it could have sounded like with a little love and care, throw an ear on King Crimson's '69 BBC takes on "Epitaph" and "The Court Of The Crimson King" on 1997's "Epitaph". Now these were remastered from available original tapes, and the difference is huge. They actually sound better than the album versions, even if they are in mono!

Jeff Blehar (jdb3@jhu.edu)

What's that I read? You're talking to ME? Well John McFerrin, I'm talkin' to YOU! You're even more dead on than you think: believe it or not, THIS was the first Yes album I ever bought. It's true! Before I ever heard a single Yes studio album I went and got Beyond And Before. I had listened to the boxed set, and like the man says above, the early stuff really appealed to me, so I figured that a BBC sessions disc from this era should be great, right? I mean, ALL BBC sessions discs are great, right?

Wrong.

This is REAL disappointment, and I'm glad I didn't stop right here with my Yes purchases. It's not so much the playing or performances that are bad - they're actually really tight and well-done - it's the ABYSMAL sound quality. I mean, just flat-out forkin' terrible. Now perhaps I'm over-sensitive to such things (I'm progressively losing my hearing, and as a result I'm a REAL audiophile stickler for things like production and fidelity), but the sound of most of these tracks is bad as to totally ruin the listening experience for me. I just don't understand why these weren't remastered or at least produced from the original sources tapes - almost all of this sounds as if was taped off the radio from a jittery reel-to-reel. I won't buy that the masters are gone, either, since at least one of these cuts, a great performance of "Then" without the silly strings, is on the Yesyears boxed set. And it sounds perfectly fine there. But here the same performance sounds much, much muddier. Are these public domain performances? Is this only a semi-legal release? Because this material, on its own merits, is good enough that this should have been done right. As it is, I really can't recommend this to anyone but the hardest of hardcore fans, even to people like me who really like the early Pete Banks years of Yes. It could have been done so much better...

---

Still, a great album. Fortunately, although The Yes Album was by almost all accounts a success, what with its great playing and phenomenal songwriting, the band still wanted to get better. And so, alas, they cut what they perceived to be a weak link; Tony Kaye. Which does make some sense; although he had played really well on the album, he knew and the band knew that he could not play any better, and this did not gel with Anderson's wish to continually improve in every way. So in his place, they brought in somebody who would allow them to continue to improve ...

Send me your thoughts

Rich Bunnell (taosterman@yahoo.com)

I like this album a lot more than Yes's other recordings because for once, the songs are FOCUSED. Don't get me wrong-- I love a lot of their albums, but this one's my favorite (though I give their other albums higher ratings on other review pages-- I've changed my mind since then) chiefly because the bandmembers don't see fit to include loads of dull, meandering prog jams. "Yours Is No Disgrace," "Perpetual Change," "Starship Trooper," and "I've Seen All Good People" are all nice, complex-yet-poppy slabs of prog rock and some of the best of the genre. I still can't bring myself to like "The Clap" no matter how many other people like it, though-- Wow, Steve Howe's playing an acoustic guitar. He does it well, of course, but my question is who cares? Still, I give this album a very high 9/10.

Eduardo Zelada (zelada_eduardo@hotmail.com)

Im writting you from LIMA PERU SOUTH AMERICA,,,,,im a fan of YES since 1979,,(18 years old) the first time i heared YES music happened in 1979 whe my old brother brought THE YES ALBUM USA version,,,look,,,in my place (PERU),,no one LP of YES were NOT edited in peruvian version these eyes because is not a commercial music to sell it,,,,but when i heared THE YES ALBUM for the first time,,,wowhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!i was shocked with music,,,,(i am a devoted music lover) it waS SOMETHING DIFFERENT TO ME,,their magic accords,,,the fresh guitar from STEVE HOWE,,,but since i heared the first theme Yours is no Disgrace (TA,TA, TA,TA,,,,,TA TA TA TA,,,TA TA TA,TATATA,,PAWNNNNNNNNNNNNNN),,it was a delirium to me,,,musically speaking,,the hammond organ of Tony Kaye,,,,was perfect in achords an d tones,,,,,the magical sharp voice of Jon Anderson looks like a female singer,,,,when one hear him for the first time,,,,,look ,, i love to play guitar,,,a had a rock band,,an iam singer,,,but when i heared THE CLAP,,,woww,,i never heared to play a guitar man so rapid and talentous,,,he plays without get crazy,,,without nerve and he has a security in his fingers just to put the right achords in guitar,,,,,,,so incredible,,,,and not to mention STARSHIP TROOPER,,,when i heared it for the first time,,,,I imagined to be in space (i don´t smoke,,by the way,,) to travel through the stars,,,,for me THIS IS THE BEST SONG OF THE ALBUM,,,although i like ALL SONGS,,,but this one is the favourite to me WHY???? simply because the differents melodies and relative tones form the instruments pefectly done and the magical voice of Anderson,,,,,,.

Even now here in Peru that LP never edited here,,,i could get it in CD,,but the LP WAS LEND to my brother for a couple days but those days were enough to m e,,to be in love of YEs Music,,,since 1979 i love Yes Music,, i have almost all LPS but little by little i can get th elps,,, most of YES ALBUMS never were edited in peruvian edition as I said you,,,but here in Peru they edited 90125,,,and BIG GENERATOR ( for me the worst albums from them,,,) th ebeest albums for me are from the golden era (FRAGILE,,,YES ALBUM CLOSE TO THE EDGE,,,RELAYER AND GOING FOR THE ONE),,,BUT the best ALBUM FOR ME IS THE YES ALBUM,,,,,

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

The big leap! The whole picture comes together, especially soundwise. Crisp, clear, transparent, a lot of presence. I actually think it's their best sounding album to date. The overall mood is light, uplifting, easy to get into. As for the music, things are still a bit unclear. As good as "(The) Clap"is, I always felt it was a distracting inclusion, and I don't think there is anything original in "Your Move/All Good People". I like the first part, hate the second, but I insist it's not original, neither in the form nor in the musical content. The other cuts still rely on traditional songwriting, not disguised at all in "A Venture", with interlude and an instrumental coda added in "Starship Trooper", or with vneverending and mostly pointless instrumental tricks in "Perpetual Change", which definitely should have been kept shorter given it is not a particularly catchy song in the first place. To me, this one is just R&D for what was to come. But these three songs wouldn't have sounded out of place stripped to the bone on the first two. Where the real novelty lies is in "Yours Is No Disgrace". The track can be described as variations on two or three simple instrumental and vocal themes. There is no obvious overall structure to the piece, it meanders for quite long yet is highly pleasant. But the vocal theme is particularly interesting as it is a harmonized phrase over a single chord, shifting up and down. Nothing in common with a traditional song (impossible to reproduce acoustically without being boring). Moreover, isolating one part of the harmony removes a lot of its charm: the harmony itself is the hook. This kind of harmonized melody concept, which to me is Yes' major contribution to pop writing (much more than extended pieces and instrumental prowess!), would be developed to the full extent of its possibilities with "Roundabout", "Close To The Edge" and "Siberian Khatru", before disappearing seemingly forever. It would only come back as a prominent cliche with unconvincing results at two low points, when they strongly needed everybody to believe they still were YES ("Drama") or to make up for short inspiration ("Open Your Eyes").

Jeff Blehar (jdb3@jhu.edu)

I give up, okay? I can't deny it. It's a freakin' great album, what else do you want from me? MY SOUL? ISN'T THAT ENOUGH FOR YOU??

I used to pretend that this album was overrated junk, with painful lyrics and pointlessly long arrangements, but that was just me talkin' out my ass, as usual. I still find "Yours Is No Disgrace" to a real grind to sit through, one of the few cases where the lyrics really detract from the music, which wouldn't be so much of a problem if not for the fact that the music just keeps on repeating...and repeating...and repeating. Just variations on one musical idea, which isn't good enough to beat on for 9 minutes.

But aw hell, who cares next to everything else? "The Clap?" Awesome! It's NOT just some dorky showcase for chops (although man, that's my goal with acoustic guitar. Once I can play THAT, look out Moscow!), it's an actual song, with its own development and a real sense of rising and falling action, all with a cool climax. And all in three minutes. Score! And I for one love jump-cut segues like the way "The Clap" goes into "Starship Trooper." As for THAT piece, well I ALWAYs liked it, even when I had convinced myself that I hated Yes, so it's only gotten better. Actually, the one part of the three I don't really love all THAT much is the "Wurm" section. Eh. Just a really well-done climax. It the OPENING part that's so amazing. How anyone could call that boring is completely beyond me - the chord progression is so - for lack of a better word - "noble," twisting and jumping up to a suspended plateau from which Anderson can babble. The instant I heard the open crash-boom-bang of this song, I knew this band had something I'd underestimated before. To say one last thing about it, what I like so much about "Starship Trooper" is the way it's underlined by Kaye's background organ: here's where he proved that his non-showy style could be central to a Yessong; he MAKES this piece for me, and it's because you never notice how important he is to the sound until you imagine what it would be like without him there. Good show.)

As for the other tracks, well "I've Seen All Good People" is "I've Seen All Good People": some might be sick of it, but I always liked it and I shamelessly enjoy Jon Anderson's singing voice. "A Venture" is weak, though - just seems to go nowhere. And "Perpetual Change" is a whole lot of the former and too little of the latter, essentially the same concept as "Yours Is No Disgrace." This time they pull it off, though, because the arrangement is excellent (what a neat opening: WHANG! WHANG! WHANG! WHANG! WA-WA-WA-WA-WHANG!) and because I find the basic jazzy idea much more fun than "Disgrace." So it's not a 10 for me, maybe a high 8 or a low 9, but either way, it's impossible to deny the pure energy and fun of this album. You win.

Paul Walker (seraphim7s@yahoo.com)

Man, I feel a bit of an outsider criticising Yes on a page which is choc full of Yes lovers. Don't get me wrong, I freakin' love these fellas, but since there's so much love for them on this site, I feel I've got to redress the balance. If this was George's site, it would be a different picture.

Whereas Steve Howe shines on this album, Kaye flat out sucks. Yup, he goes up and down on the veiny shaft of Satan himself. He freakin' makes Tony Banks look good, no, he makes him look like Emerson! He mainly sticks to organ and he always makes it sound like it's in some boring ol' church, like some funereal dirge. My personal favourite keyboard players are Manzarek and Wakeman because they combine technical excellence with an actual ear for the main melody. Something Kaye couldn't dream of doing.

Also, Bruford's contribution is not as good as you make out. Take, for instance, that Wurm part. Great chords, but Bruford just doesn't mirror Howe's playing in it's urgency. It's meant to be a crescendo for Christ's sake! Why doesn't someone wake Bruford up? Very dissappointing. He definitely did his finest work with King Crimson.

Apart from that I freakin' like this album! Especially the middle part of 'Starship Trooper', superlative acoustic work, and the bounciness of that part is the peak of the album! My rating: 11/15 or 12/15 on a good day.

"Hamden Eye Associates, PC" (hea@call.net)

There's a fading instrumental jam at the end of Venture.  Boy would I like to hear that continue on for another...let's say...hour.

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com)

This is the first record I bought of Yes, and of progressive rock. (A first step in getting over Jon's high voice, which I must say is an acquired taste, unless we're talking about Geddy Lee!) This album is superb!! Sure the lyrics are convoluted, but other than that slight annoyance, hear the music! Steve Howe is amazing ("The Clap", "Yours is No Disgrace" (I believe the "synth" type solo in the middle of his clearly more electric parts is guitar - as he definitely plays that part in Yessongs.), and Wurm.) Chris Squire plays his part as a second lead instrument. Bill Bruford, even at this stage, keeps the rhthm nontrivially. Finally, Tony Kaye does not offend me one bit. One great, imaginative song after another (my first taste at long songs, outside of the Doors). "Venture" works for me; too bad it's underrated.

It's a shame that only "All Good People" is played on classic rock stations from this record (If I'm right, "All Good People" is quite long too! Who knows...). ( An exception: The classic rock station played the entire Yes Album at midnight one time, as well as Fragile! What about Going for the One? This record is supposed to be more "radio-friendly"...)

10 out of 10

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/29/02)

This is where it all takes off for the band. Steve Howe joins and immediately takes over musically. Tony Kaye couldn't hope to compete! Best song? Hard one - if pressed I would say "Perpetual Change" cos I think it is a window to where the band were about to go with the next couple of albums. The vocal interplay on "Yours Is No Disgrace" puts it a very close second.

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (6/29/03)

This is just a friggin' great album. I have nothing against Peter Banks, but the addition of Steve Howe seems to have vaulted the band on to even greater heights, musically speaking (but not as much as some people say-the first two albums were still very good). When I first heard Yours Is No Disgrace about twelve years ago on Classic Yes, I considered it a bit overlong and boring, but now I can't believe I once thought that. It now seems too short at 9 minutes, and I sometimes feel like listening to it again when it's over. Some are bothered by the silly lyrics, but I've never concerned myself with lyrics when the music is this good. We follow this up with The Clap which I just love. Someone told me that it was Steve Howe's audition performance to get into the band, and it seems plausible, but I've never read anything that confirms that. Starship Trooper is another one of my favourites. I used to get a bit bored with the Wurm jam at the end, but now I just love the whole thing. The best song on the album comes next with I've Seen All Good People. No matter how much this gets played on the radio, I never tire of hearing it. The Your Move section is just one of the most beautiful passages I've ever heard, and I often find myself starting the track over at the 3 minute mark just to hear it again. These first four tracks would probably all get on my top 25 Yes songs. The closing two tracks can't help but be a little weaker in comparison, but they're still good. A Venture is a nice little piano driven tune that is quite catchy. Perpetual Change is also good, but maybe slightly overlong marking the only weak point on the whole album as far as I'm concerned. I'll give it a 9 (15)-for the longest time, I rated this as my favourite but I now consider Talk to be just slightly better.

It's interesting that Tony Kaye gets a large front and center picture in the CD booklet (compared to the other four who get just smaller side shots-does anyone know if it was the same on the original vinyl album?) considering he would be sacked shortly thereafter. Personally, I find his playing on here to be just perfect for the album. His simple organ sound is a big highlight for me on YIND and ST. I can't imagine what these songs would sound like with Wakeman's bag of tricks (although maybe I'll find out once I start buying some of the live albums). I find the sound change from TYA to Fragile bigger than that from TaaW to TYA due to the loss of Kaye. Yes would never sound like this again-not even with Kaye's return in the 80s and 90s where he obviously had less influence on the sound.

trfesok@aol.com (04/13/10)

I once got into a discussion with a friend of mine over why he didn't like this album as much as CttE - "it's too rocky." But that's why this is my favorite (even if it isn't technically the "best") by them. The songs are well-written, catchy, and played exuberantly; the vocal harmonies are superb (listen to the layers of voices on "Your Move" through headphones -- mind-blowing!); and the production is as clear as day, even when there are are sorts of things going on (like in the middle of "Perpetual Change"). As more as I hate to agree with the egotistical Howe (he considers anything Rabin did with the band to be "not Yes"), his arrival defines the band sound, even more so than Squire. He actually provides an anchor for the rhythm section to go off on tangents when they want, when it's usually vice versa (Drama is another album when this relationship is especially prominent). As for Kaye, his limited ability is finally put to good use. On the first two albums, he spent too much time trying to solo, which he just wasn't all that great at. Here, he just plays tight, repetitive rhythm parts, which suits the songs much better, and his occasional Moog parts are sort of neat. Of course, this means that Howe and Squire had to do all the heavy lifting. As much as I like his work here, I guess he had to go. It's hard to imagine him playing "Roundabout" or "Close to the Edge" like this.

Anyway, I don't think this album was ever bettered in terms of songwriting and sheer rocking fun, even if the playing got better subsequently. The four epics are fantastic (even if "Starship Trooper" consists of three obviously unfinished songs, and the "All Good People" section is just a Squire fragment), and "Clap" is a fun little diversion, played really well. The universally agreed-upon clunker is the somewhat clumsy "A Venture", which you didn't even bother to mention. Probably the most obscure song from the "classic" period. Despite this, I actually remember that, sometime in the 80's, an Albany radio station did one of those "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" polls (yeah, right, whatever). "A Venture" actually came in around number 500! Which only proves that there must have been a LOT of Yesheads in Albany at the time..

The remastered version contains three bonus tracks, two of which are pretty useless (single mixes of "Your Move" and "Life Seeker"). However, the real find is the studio version of "Clap". What's interesting about this version is that there is piece in middle section that Howe removed and expanded into "Mood for A Day". Maybe the live version was substituted for this reason?

---

Send me your thoughts

Nick Karn (glassmoondt@yahoo.com)

Yup... I totally agree with your review for this album enthusastically. Along with Dream Theater's Images And Words and Rush's Moving Pictures, this is one of my favorite prog albums ever. My favorites are actually the last four tracks, starting with "Long Distance Runaround", which I always loved since I first heard it on the radio. And the solo contributions from Chris Squire (AKA Bass God) and Steve Howe (the master of acoustic guitar) just completely blow me away. "Heart Of The Sunrise", unbelievably, does so even more... I cannot put into words how much I love the mood on that one, and I think here is where I throw any minor criticisms concerning Jon Anderson's voice out the window. There is NO other singer who could have pulled off that song better. None. And boy, does the album start off with a total bang beginning with "Roundabout" - I can see why people might get bugged being burnt out on it from the radio, but to me it's the way a great progressive song should be constructed.

The rest of the album (well except for Bruford's barely noticeable drum thing) is great too - "We Have Heaven" took a bit of getting used to for me because I thought Anderson's harmonies were a little annoying at first, but I find it amusing, charming and even beautiful now, "South Side Of The Sky" is fascinatingly dark, and Rick Wakeman's "Cans And Brahms" piece is nice. An easy 10 for this one.

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

Never more than on this album (and Tormato) do I get to hate Squire's playing, to the point that this is the only YES album I cannot listen to in its entirety (well, "Open Your Eyes" as well). I almost fell laughing on the floor the first time I heard the opening riff of "Heart Of The Sunrise": how can a supposedly talented bass player come up with such a generic, non musical, speedy, ever ascending and descending octave (pure geometrics/acrobatics on the fretboard!). Designed to impress, but what else? At least, in this version, the riff is saved by Bruford's incredibly intelligent punctuation. The rest of the "song" is not helped at all by the fact that there are a zillion themes interwoven during ten minutes, and I cannot get neither to see the point of any of them individually, nor to get a sense of the overall picture. And the vocal melodies? All sound too contorted to really hook me. You probably know by now that this is my most hated Yessong ever (still hesitant with "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom" though). For the rest, I find the solo spots lame and uninventive, except for "Mood For A Day" (BRILLIANCE) and "Five Percent For Nothing" (HUMOUR). But "Cans And Brahms" and "We Have Heaven" are really ridiculous. And "The Fish"? Well, I never understood how people can find this astounding. There is a theme developing. OK. And after that? The piece is over 1 mn too long. Give a home studio, a wah-wah pedal and a pick to any bass player and he'll come up with something like this. But not all is negative. In fact, the other three songs are ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. Definitely one of their high points. "Roundabout" is an incredible improvement on "Yours Is No Disgrace". A real song, punchy, catchy, with that harmonized vocal approach making the melody line slippery and oblique yet memorable, and an overall structure actually making sense. The piece goes somewhere without ever losing sight of where it started, which is a rare occurrence among Yes' extended pieces. "South Side of the Sky" is a brilliant, modern-sounding rock song, although the instrumental middle is distracting as it destroys the heavy, dark atmosphere of the piece. And "Long Distance Runaround"? A catchy little pop song deconstructed all along by extremely vicious and oblique instrumental surgery. The micro-scale approach they didn't dig any further. Needless to say I have reduced Fragile to a killer 15 mn EP. This way I can appreciate how groundbreaking it is.

Jeff Blehar (jdb3@jhu.edu)

Well I always thought this album was good, but I'd like to add that my favorite section is easily the whole "We Have Heaven"/"South Side Of The Sky" sequence. I don't understand why everyone loves to hate "We Have Heaven." Maybe it comes down to Anderson's voice, which I just really like for whatever reason. Anyway, it's a spectacular arrangement of voices, with all those different parts eventually subsumed by a great, skyward-rising "weeeee....haaaaave....HEAAAAAAAVEEEN!" As a singer, I guess I really admire stuff like that, and damned if I don't sing right along. And then the way the door slams shut on it (SOMEbody's a critic, eh?) as footsteps run away to the "South Side Of The Sky"...great musique concrete. And I think that "South Side" is the best track on the album, tell ya the truth. I hear it and I think of a big craggy castle on a dark and stormy night (and it's not as cliche-ridden as that description would make you think). Pure mood, but mood that ROCKS and has a great melody. No real need to comment on the rest of the album, except to say that "Heart Of The Sunrise," still continues to elude me, although I like it more than before. Too repetitive! Couldn't they just have cut out a couple minutes of it?

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com)

The second Yes album (or rather album by Yes for less ambiguity) that I listened to. This album already shows a contrast from the previous one. You nailed it, in that you mentioned the gloomy atmosphere among many of the (collaborated) songs.

No matter how many times the radio play "Roundabout" and "Long Distance Runaround/Fish into the ground, one can not deny their construction: catchy yet complex! However, "South Side of the Sky" and "Heart of the Sunrise" just might be better (due to no airplay? Who knows!). The former is so dark (menacing guitars, the quiet piano section in the middle, and even the la la la's), it is almost scary.

"Heart of the Sunrise" is undeniably complex song structure. Certainly the intro riff is simple sounding (albeit fast), but it is done so convincingly well I tend to overlook this detail. As for the rest of the song, the atmospheric section after playing the speedy riff for the first time (Rick Wakeman's Mellotrons(?), Chris Squire's steady base rhythm, Bill Bruford's gradual addition in the drums in his clever way, and finally Steve Howe's gradual guitar buildup before booming into the group speedfest again is gorgeous beyond words. I feel like I'm traveling accross some long isolated territory when I hear that section. The "calmer" part of the song is great, too, with great (!) vocals from Jon Anderson. (Not being the biggest Jon fan, this is saying something- this section truly would not be the same sung by anyone else!)

Regarding the solo spots, well, for me, it's a mixed bag! Wakeman's "Can and Brahms" is okay (filler?). I never heard from where it was lifted. Then, I may have a different opinion. "We Have Heaven" has a bit too much Jon for my taste; nevertheless an interesting idea. Bruford's "Five Percent for Nothing" is okay, but clearly a "throwaway". I must say that there is no denying the wonder in "The Fish"; the parts he put together gel very well - awesome. Finally, Howe plays a pretty flamenco- influenced piece "Mood for a Day"- very relaxing.

This record is a bit overrated (duh! I'm not saying anything new!), but still excellent. A VERY solid 9 out of 10.(some solo spots drag it down a bit!)

john sieber (oneofakind151@hotmail.com) (7/17/01)

John, First off, let me say, nice name! Us John's gotta stick together. And a fellow Midwesterner too... but why don't you like Kansas?

Anyway, I want to put in my 2 cents worth about Fragile. Well, I've been listening to it alot lately and I have some splurges of thought to share with you, and incidentally, the rest of the viewing community. First: Fragile is Yes' most SUCCESSFUL work, because of it's accessibility. Period. It's still puffed-up good old prog, but like you said, it's "prog rock that rocks". There ya go. Second: There was friggin' EMOTION in these guys' playing (and singing). Shit, listen to Jon on "Heart of the Sunrise". Wow. Oh, I also figured out the whole heyboard thing. I'm willing to bet Kaye wrote the keyboard parts to the songs, which is why you can't hear 'em very much. I mean, hey, even the most impressive bit of key work (the piano solo in "South Side of the Sky") ain't all that... it's a repeated figure in the middle while it is diminished rhythmically above and below (basically, played faster and slower). I mean, I could play it! But it's still pretty. Anyway. That's about it. I do agree, though, Fragile is one of their best (along with the several that fall just short of the glory of Close to the Edge). Now we just gotta get you to like Kansas...

Richard C Dickison (dickison@sbcglobal.net) (4/15/02)

Your comment about 'Fragile' being Essential is correct especially for this Yes album.

'Fragile' and 'The Yes Album' are truly Yes at it's solid best, buy them now, it does not get better!

The songs are classic and even, well hey! they are exactly the length they should be and not overly embellished or pompous.

The problems you do find on these albums, namely Anderson's voice and various filler and fluff will only get much worse in the following albums. I do not recommend acquainting yourself with the group or buying the next few albums except maybe 'Going For The One'.

This is because I really hated buying 'Close To The Edge' or 'Tales' and having at most maybe less than an albums worth of enjoyable material on either recording.

That's really the essential problem I have with this group, the bloat we see growing like a big ole tumor on the records coming up.

Symphonic rock music, hippy dippy junk, with Jon (The Robot) Anderson, high pitched wailing, for all his might trying to sell nirvana in the most obscure pile o crap way possible.

Then we hit TortureMato and wham that's it, it's all over.

Sorry for venting, I mean, it's just that they influenced Rush, and Super Tramp, I mean ICK!

You will notice allot of people defending those groups while talking about Yes.

I really started exploring Genesis around 'The Lamb' and like most Prog fans coming from Peter Gabriel or King Crimson with healthy doses of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, Camel, and then listening to Jon Anderson, well it makes you cringe.

I can only try to excuse myself by saying that Yes was not the only ones because I have a better examples of bloat in regards to Jethro Tull when it comes to 'Passion Play' or 'Thick As A Brick'.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/29/02)

Then along came Rick!! Wakeman was a keyboardist who could match it (and occasionally one-up!) with Steve, possibly the only Rock keys man ever who could (well, there is Keith Emerson the all-time greatest, but I fear he may even have swamped the mighty Steve Howe!!). "South Side Of The Sky" is killer, and, yes, darker than usual (although "Gates Of Delirium" has its dark passages), "Roundabout is musically great and lyrically silly (mountains come out of the sky and they stand there?!!?), the solo bits give breathing space, a nice balance all around.

"Fernando H. Canto" (sirmustapha@ig.com.br) (2/26/03)

Ooooh... Dear God, I love this one. This would be my easy pick if I had to choose only *one* Yes album to live forever with. Roundabout... Everybody raves about that song, and I'm no exception. And I really, really, really love it. Probably one of my favourite songs ever. It's so exciting and so fun, yet so complex, it really makes me want to shove it down those "I hate Prog Rock" punks' throats and say, "This is how you make a good song". Heh heh, I'm mean. Now, South Side Of The Sky is also a favourite of mine. For me, it's a hard pick between it and Roundabout. But South Side really creates a very heavy and dark mood, very cold and uninviting, and the mid section break is beautiful beyond words. Rick Wakeman + piano, what else do I need? Oh, and that Steve solo by the end is a highlight, too.

I also dig the shorter songs. Long Distance Runaround is catchy and fun as hell, and that guitar line? Nothing short of genius, in my mind. Mood For A Day is wonderful, wonderful. And 5% For Nothing is funny! I almost agree with Prindle when he says it should have been 35 *minutes* instead, but hey... I wouldn't go THAT far! We Have Heaven is an interesting concept, and I dig those vocal overdubs. Possible inspiration for Queen? Who knows!! And... I do feel some weird humour on Cans And Brahms. It's a fact that Rick *would* write a piece as his solo spot, and would incorporate elements from his Six Wives Of Henry VIII project, but the management guys said "no" for Copyright restrictions or some shit. Maybe Rick did this piece to mock the guys? Who knows, I feel that for some reason.

Not, I don't want to be picky, but I can't help but cringe when I read Laurent Masse's comment. I mean... The Fish? He says "Give a home studio, a wah-wah pedal and a pick to any bass player and he'll come up with something like this." Really? I doubt it. Like John said, the big catch is that he makes the track sound like a real song, not only experimentation. And I do believe it's an innovative move to make all this song with just the bass guitar. Quite impressive. And fun, too. And... Heart Of The Sunrise? The hell? I don't care if that riff is simple or easy to play, designed to impress. But to call it "generic" and "non musical" is a bit too much. I mean, it sounds *awesome*, for fuck's sake! The entire passage is energetic and inspirational, no matter how easy it might be to play - remember Wish You Were Here: that guitar line is ridiculously easy to play (*I* can play it on a guitar, that says a lot), and yet, it sounds beautiful! Okay, back to Yes, let's not forget that slower part in the intro, when Squire goes with that bass line and the band builds the tension around it like hell. And the rest of the "song" is equally great. I agree it can get too "rushed" sometimes, but the mellow part is beautiful, and the instrumental breaks are cool. All in all, I just wanted to say that I don't want comments from a music critic that analyzes music with electronic devices. For me, Fragile is a brilliant piece of work. Still, I do agree Squire is a bit too "designed to impress". Beyond those ultra-quick bass riffs, he doesn't do much. Just *doooom* *boooom* *doooom* *boooom* *doooom*. He's not spontaneous enough to make a subtle, yet interesting bass line. That's why I prefer Geddy Lee, because, unlike Squire, he's very spontaneous, very creative, genuinely talented, showing absolute bass mastery even when he's not in the spotlight. But I do like the bass "pyrotechnics" here, no matter what. 10 (15).

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (6/29/03)

Almost all Yes fans rate this as the best or at least in the top 3 or 4, but I've never considered as good as many of their other albums. Five Percent For Nothing is an obvious throwaway. Cans and Brahms and We Have Heaven are ok, but I never really get the urge to hear either one of them. The other two solo pieces are much better. The Fish is a cool little riff, which I considered even more impressive when I discovered it was all bass guitar. Mood For A Day is a pleasant follow up for Howe to The Clap which is even richer in musical hooks.

As for the four regular songs, I find them a definite step down from those on TYA. Long Distance Runaround is probably the best-I seem to be addicted to these short Jon Anderson ditties. Roundabout is a great song, but I've never found it as exceptional as most people. Maybe the overplay on the radio has marred it somewhat in my view. After many listens, I have started to enjoy South Side of the Sky. Finding out what the song is about, made it a lot a better. It does a good job of giving off a cold ominous feeling. I normally don't care spit about the lyrics but a select few Yes songs do have great lyrics that enhance the song somewhat (I would put The Gates of Delirium and Turn of the Century in this category as well). Finally we have Heart of the Sunrise, which has some good hooks near the beginning and end, but I can never fully enjoy the whole thing. The intro drags on too long, and the instrumental breaks are just not that catchy.

Overall I can only give Fragile a 7 (10). I read that it was thrown together quickly because the band needed an album to pay for Wakeman's expensive equipment, and I think it shows in the quality.

Raghavan RANGANATHAN (S3046624@student.rmit.edu.au) (8/10/03)

Yeah, this album is awesome, but I don't think that this is neccesarily stronger than "The Yes Album" or "Close to the Edge". I would place them all on an equal footing. Still, gotta agree with you that this is much more in the self-deflating vein that the others. That doesn't matter with me though! Actually this was my first Yes purchase a couple years ago after hearing and being blown away by "Heart of the sunrise". It's still my favorite track in their catalog and the only complaint I will throw against it is that they shouldn't have ended the "straight line moving..." section so soon. It's beautiful

Junior (jvsjr2@ig.com.br) (11/17/03)

South Side of Sky is pretty good, but... Best Song in the Fragile Album? Hey, Your Turntable or Cd Player doesn´t work anymore, that´s it. Swap it to a better one. Have you listened to "Long Distance..." or even "Roundabout" or "Heart of Sunrise"? Beautifully ones to the top-of-the-best-and-bigger-sounds-of-that-year. No comments.

Meldrain@aol.com (12/23/03)

I've been relistening to my Yes collection since I just go two new ones (Tales and Going For The One) and I just got to Fragile, my first and still favorite Yes purchase. But the more I listen to it the more I see a major flaw; there's no filler, every track is at least pretty good, but everything on the album is overshadowed by the three epics; nothing can compare with them. I lack classic rock radio stations' infatuation with Long Distance Runaround (though I like it), so for me nearly all of the album's quality is derived from the excellence of Roundabout, South Side of the Sky and Heart of the Sunrise. This problem doesn't deter me from rating the album extremely highly, and the lesser tracks help one not be overwhelmed by the epics, but it would be nice if the album were a tad more even.

"Pete Anderson" (pete@distantearlywarning.info) (02/13/10)

Count me in as one of those for whom the solo pieces are actually a negative factor here. Well, not all of them: Steve Howe's "Mood for a Day" is a gorgeous calm before the storm of "Heart of the Sunrise", while Chris Squire's "The Fish" is cool. But the others...."Five Percent for Nothing" is exactly what it says on the tin, although it's actually (mercifully) only about 1.5% of the album's running time. "We Have Heaven" is annoying, and "Cans and Brahms" is laughable. The good news is that the three weaker solo pieces only last 3:52 between them, and only lower my rating to a 9(13). The group stuff is all fantastic, as usual.

trfesok@aol.com (04/13/10)

The preponderance of solo spots indicates that this version of the group hadn't quite gelled yet, despite the excellence of the group songs. (I bet if they had had a chance to tour before writing and recording, the album would have been more of a group effort). Bruford's and Anderson's pieces are really just fragments. Wakeman's arrangement of Brahms is very clever, with a different keyboard taking the various instrumental parts of the orchestra. Still, it doesn't even hint at the amazing work that would be coming up on his solo album. On the other hand, both "Mood for a Day" and "The Fish" became important parts of the live set, and are the best solo ideas. Particularly "The Fish" -- there's no way, of course, that Squire could simulate everything that's going on with all those basses live. My latest listen to this was through headphones -- very cool.

If the rest of this album was a good as the solo pieces, I might also give this the top slot over the albums that bookend it. My first exposure, of course, was over AM radio -- the single edit of "Roundabout", which is a bit of a hack job (much like the single edit of "Won't Get Fooled Again"). Even so, it was cool at the time. It's clear that Wakeman's carnivalesque organ part pushed it into hit territory. The B-side was "Long Distance Runaround", which also got some airplay -- very bouncy and catchy. "Heart of the Sunrise" has gotten a bit worn out for me (but is still amazing), and "South Side of the Sky" is just as good. Still, the album lacks the cohesion of the next one and isn't quite as fun as the previous one. Nonetheless, it's, of course, essential for prog fans.

The remaster has two bonus tracks. One is the long version of "America" (Incidentally, the single edit on Yesyears now shows up as a bonus on the remaster of the next album). The other is an early version of "Roundabout". It pretty much has all the pieces that went into the final version, plus some things that were changed. However, there are also small flubs in the singing, playing and mixing that had to be fixed, so this could never have been the final version. Still, it's very fun for the Yesfan to hear.

"matt faris" (7headedchicken@gmail.com) (02/13/11)

I just read the comments on your site regarding the opening riff to "Heart of the Sunrise", and I think it's ridiculous that some would hold such a high standard to one small part of an album that is altogether so musically impressive. Sure there have been more complicated riffs recorded in music, but just because this falls under the progressive category, it seems to garner tougher scrutiny - if this riff were to make an appearance on a "regular" rock album, it would stand out like an grizzly bear dressed as an anteater in a field of everyday cows and chickens. The ascending part of the riff isn't just a chromatic scale, but an alternation between half-steps and thirds, and I'm sure not just anyone could play the opening sixteenth-triplets. The best aspect of the riff, though, isn't the riff it self, but its role in the song, as the ominous organ chords crescendo and increase in tremelo and envelope to the next riff. My favorite part of the song is actually the following quiet part, with those soft bass notes and Anderson's melody during this part - one of the best examples of how soothing his voice could be. I like "South Side of the Sky" quite a bit, too, and not much can compete with that first drum fill that follows the thunder at the beginning, and the guitar solo shows how Yes was good at incorporating psychedelia into their prog sound. "35 Per Cent For Nothing" is nothing I would complain about either - bravo for uniqueness in art.

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Send me your thoughts

Eric J. Reber (ericr@mailbag.com)

John:

Very nice reviews of Yes. They have been my favorite music since my alternative awareness days (read cannabis) of the early 70's. I am now 41 with two young children and don't get in much private music listening time at all, but I can always recapture that heart-wrenching emotion by listening to, say, Close to the Edge. Maybe I'll dust off the 19-pound Koss headphones tonight...

Nick Karn (awake600@aol.com)

I agree with your assessment of this album almost 100%. "Close To The Edge" is indeed the best here, and one of the most significant prog epics ever. The entire thing is wonderful, especially the breathtaking 'I Get Up, I Get Down' section with the great soloing afterwards, moving back to the main verse theme, and then closing out with the birds chirping. "And You And I" is a simply gorgeous love song with an amazing, though kinda out of place, climax, and "Siberian Khatru" is just so incredibly catchy and intriguing. The entire album matches that majestic picture in the liner notes almost perfectly. Only a few slightly unfocused moments keep this from being at Fragile level, but I give it a high 9 (which amounts to a 13 on this scale).

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

As a relatively new converted (I discovered them with KEYS1 in 1996), I absorbed all of their back catalogue in merely three months in early 1997. Of course I had big reservations for an album with only three songs on in the first place. But "Close To The Edge" was a standout from the beginning, because it flowed effortlessly from beginning to end, was totally coherent apart from minor meanderings in "And You And I", in one word the only one of the 70's albums in which every note, every development seemed justified within the whole picture. There were no obvious melodies, but it was nonetheless extremely catchy on first listen. None of the tracks would qualify as my favourite Yessong, but the whole made much more sense than any other album, and I felt compelled to listen and listen again. I suppose "Yours Is No Disgrace" and "Roundabout" are an excellent preparation before getting one's teeth into this, as this album, and especially "Siberian Khatru", is the pinnacle of the "harmonized vocal lines" approach, and thus arguably their most essential contribution. I later tried to figure why "Close To The Edge" is such a coherent piece on first listen and I realised that it's the only 15 min + piece which has an actual song structure. Apart from the main theme repeated several times under various disguises, roughly, "The Solid Time Of Change" is Intro/Verse-Chorus1, "Total Mass Retain" is Verse-Chorus2, "I Get Up, I Get Down" is nothing but a middle eight, and "Seasons Of Man" is Solo/Verse-Chorus3/Outro. The classic pop song structure. Each part is incredibly long, but the whole piece actually has internal dynamics, tension/release, and makes some sense. Much more than the two shorter ones. Plus, contrary to almost all of their other epics, the keyboard solo is on the verse background instead of a new distracting theme. I bet they fell on this one by pure hazard. This is not something you plan to do, and is the likely reason why they never achieved it twice. By far my favourite Yes album, even if such a choice is not original at all. And regarding Bruford's drumming, he is outstanding for sure, but had not yet made his big leap: just listen to the astounding intense rhythm he was developing on the live improv "Starless And Bible Black" by King Crimson one year later and you'll get an idea of why he had to leave Yes to progress (and how quick he did it!).

Jeff Blehar (jdb3@jhu.edu)

Alright, here's where I throw down my cap and say that "Close To The Edge" (the song, that is) is just about the greatest piece of "bloated" prog music ever made. That's it. No one's done it better. And even then it's not perfect. It does take some time to sink in, though not THAT much - after about three or four listens I was getting the point. And I don't care a whit about the lyrics. I don't even hear 'em, really; except for the refrain "Close to the edge, just by the river/down at the edge, 'round by the corner" and maybe the "now that's all over and done" parts, which seem to add to the effect of the piece, the rest of the words are just so much vocal counterpoint to the music. And that's FINE. Get over the lyrics. Who cares? (Yeah, I know, I did with "Yours Is No Disgrace," but that was different! The song was so repetitive that all you could do was fixate on them!) I think it's important that you either REALLY DIG what Jon Anderson is saying or discard them and just hear the sounds, because the vocal melody and harmonies on "Close To The Edge" are just spectacular, they really make the song for me.

What also makes it so great is that it's really the ONLY successful synthesis of classical music and rock music I've ever heard. The thing is, there are no "bits" of classical music in here, no irksome ELP-style excerpts from 17th-century composers. It's the FORM that's classical. It's a real symphony, a compact one, with recurring themes, endless (and most importantly, JUSTIFIED) musical complexity, an intelligent progression, and a recapitulation. God, it's good. It's so successful as to boggle the mind, or at least mine, 'cause I NEVER thought I'd be able to praise a "pretentious" piece of prog-rock to the heavens like this. What's more, the main musical ideas are grrrreat; everyone talks about the whole "I Get Up, I Get Down" part, which is really good yes, but it's the main verse/chorus sequence and structure which I think is so impressive, with the two melodies (the whole "a seasoned witch" part is one, and then there's the "total mass retain" part which is even better) flowing right out of each other naturally, and then right into the chorus with its various interjections ("not right away!" "now that you're fine!"). And the way they return to it after the interlude, with tension building up and up and up until "SEASONS will PASS you by!" is a masterpiece of dynamics.

So yeah, it's an okay piece. I'd still cut out a minute or two of the "sensitive" noodling ambience after the first main "movement" ends, and perhaps part of Wakeman's solo, but those are minor complaints. Especially coming from a guy who's idea of musical transcendence is "White Riot." I don't even care too much for the other two songs (the shortest of which is a blink-and-you-missed-it 9:27) - "And You And I" is so much puffery to me, and I think the synths are really cheesy, while "Siberian Khatru" is awesome for 30 seconds and then falls apart - but the title track is enough to justify loving this album. Even though half of Close To The Edge does nothing for me, I'd still give it an 8/10. As much as I like early Yes, this was pretty much their peak.

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com)

An album with only 3 songs on it? Was I ever reluctant to buy Close to the Edge! Certainly! This album was a mind-boggling experience. It took me at least three listens to finally figure out what the heck Yes was trying to pull. And they sure pulled it off well! I don't have anything to add to what you said in the review; you described the album's effect very well. Definitely (one you get used to it!) a great album to relax to (at a wedding? I don't know about that!), or to get lost either in the entire music or any one instrument. Quite a feat!

This album also earns a 10 out of 10. This has to be the peak of everything Yes (though their "descent" would not be highly noticeable until Tormato!).

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/29/02)

What can one say about this album? Classy all round, best track the title track, their first and one of their best 15+min epics (for mine it's a fight between "Close To The Edge", "The Revealing Science Of God" and "Awaken" for that coveted title) but the other two songs are no slouches either. Adventurous but still tuneful throughout. Hard to beat this album for consistency.

Whaddaya mean "Lizard" annoys you?!!? It's great, it even has Jon Anderson singing on it - and let's face it he's a much better singer than poor ol' Gordon Haskell isn't he?!!?

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (6/29/03)

A masterful album that must have taken a lot of guts to make at the time. When I first heard it many years ago I thought of it as the fantastic song And You And I with a couple of long filler tracks. After many repeated listens I now consider the whole album quite enjoyable from start to finish. Everyone seems to heap tons of praise on the title track and I'm finally starting to see why. It is incredible how they managed an eighteen minute track with the traditional song structure-and made it not get boring. Everyone's playing seems to be at a peak here with everyone contributing great musical ideas to the piece. I've read essays on what the lyrics are supposed to mean-and I'm still very nonplussed. I sing along anyway as Anderson's voice (as you've already mentioned) should be treated like a fifth instrument. Who needs meaningful lyrics when the music's this good.

I'll still have to call And You And I my favourite track from the album. The opening guitar riff from Howe accompanied by Wakeman's synths will always be one of my personal Yes highlights. The return of the theme slightly altered in the third part is also breathtaking. Howe was certainly at the top of his game here (as they all were). Finally Siberian Khatru has so many lovely changes in melody with lots of hooks, that I can't help but enjoy it. It may be slightly overlong but that's a minor quibble. All in all I give the album a 9 (13).

Raghavan RANGANATHAN (S3046624@student.rmit.edu.au) (8/10/03)

Hmm, I don't think that the band deliberately tried to compose a sidelong track. I always felt that the title track was just like any other song they did earlier, only difference being that when they finally put it together with all the instrumental breaks it surprisingly occupied a whole side. I could be wrong but I always get this notion. Also, I don't think that the second side pales in comparison to the first. In my opinion it is just as awesome!

Trfesok@aol.com (12/09/04)

I personally enjoy The Yes Album more, because it's more concise (relatively speaking, of course -- this is Yes we're talking about!) and rocks a bit more. But this is the band's best album in terms of musicianship, as you said -- this was indeed the best Yes lineup in a technical sense.  But despite the complexity, the band hasn't forgotten about catchy melodies, or how to rock out. Anderson doesn't quite leave the stratosphere just yet -- the lyrics are intriguing.  "And You and I" is my favorite here - -sweeping and gorgeous. The title track is one of the milestones of prog. "Siberian Khatru" is a bit of a "Roundabout" replay, but it's still very cool.  Essential for any prog library.

Sergei (swamprock@mail.ru) (02/28/07)

I consider this disk as one of largest fucks of rock. And it is valid so - "Close To The Edge" to be in a heap silly and cuntish of albums similar "We Can't Dance" of Genesis or Floydish "Final Cunt... er, Final Cut ". Only header thing ("Close") is good the first 5-6 minutes, I can not listen this boredom further. Other songs even more creepy. I could give to this disk 4 (or below). Someone can disagree?

daniel penner (dzpenner@hotmail.com) (05/27/07)

just a minor nitpick, but ctte wasn't the first non-suite epic; Pink Floyd's 'Echoes' off the '71 album Meddle was a 23 minute song, and definitely not a suite ala Supper's Ready, Lighthouse Keepers or Tarkus.

awaller@camden.rutgers.edu (06/13/09)

No, John. You are all wrong on this one. This is album is no 14. Not at all. Not even close. This album is deep, deep into 15 territory. This really might be the best rock album ever created. I don't know, maybe not, it's certainly the most immaculate album I've ever listened to.

Close To The Edge, the song, is nothing short of brilliant. This is the first instance of a side-long piece that is ACTUALLY a single song and truly doesn't drag. As much as I love pieces like Echoes by the Floyd and Supper's Ready by Genesis, they have their moments that just don't live up to the song as a whole; and, as much as you wouldn't want to admit it, they really are a few to several songs strung together. Yes threw this out the window with Close To The Edge. Absolutely revolutionary. Let's just start with that intro. That's five of the greatest ever, at their greatest all at once. Those keyboard "loops" (cause they weren't actually loops) from Wakeman, Bruford and Squire ripping out another incredible rhythm section, Howe just all over the place, and those well-timed screams from Anderson that just scare the life out of you. This part alone would make a nice instrumental song. The main verse and chorus continue this greatness, with fantastic instrumental passages and vocal hooks all over the place. I can see why this was stripped out and released as a single. Yes really showing off their pop sensibilities, even in this epic context. And, what more is there to say about "I Get Up, I Get Down"? Had rock music ever been this gorgeous and haunting, and has it been ever since? No. It has not. Then that organ swell, that incredible drum section coupled with the darker, more disturbing guitar tone for the fourth movement of the song.... ah! I could go on about this song forever, and I won't. It's just as good as music gets.

As furious and brilliant Close To The Edge was, these guys just keep it going with And You And I. Another perfect song. All you prog haters, tell me you you want this piece cut short. Along with The Revealing Science Of God, this is one of the two most beautiful songs Yes has ever done. Does anything top the Mellotron/slide guitar in "Eclipse"? I'd love to hear it; I haven't yet. Some people hold this as Yes' crowning achievement, and I can see why. When Anderson comes in with....

Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid,
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid,
As a movement regained and regarded both the same,
All complete in the side of seeds of life with you.

...I get chills. Every time. Brilliant.

The we finish with THE song that got me into Yes, the awesome Siberian Khatru. After all that beauty, they can still rock out. Hey, it even sounds a bit funky. Nice change of pace. Love the way Howe shines in this one. That solo at the end; just awesome.

Anyhoo.... this is a 15 if I've ever heard one. Can't believe you gave it a 14, you're nuts :P

---

Yessongs - 1973 Atlantic
C

Best song: Starship Trooper

Send me your thoughts

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

Technical prowess is OK when it serves ambitious pieces of music, but when it comes to sterile demonstration within a live set, extended solos really bother me. The only thing it says is: "Forget the music for 15 minutes, look how crafted I am, and worship me for that". "Crowd-pleasing", the dumbest thing in all rock'n'roll to me. So what do we have here? All songs are very close to their album versions, maybe with more verve, but the sound is much worse than on the careful studio constructions, even if it's not that bad. And the solos do not interest me at all. Bruford's solo in "Perpetual Change" maybe the longest and less interesting of all his recorded career, extending an already boring piece to death. Add to this 13 mn of "The Fish" (how I would wish a cat to appear on stage!) and you have it: an album I would've thrown years ago if it was not for the funny intro to "Yours Is No Disgrace". This may have been groundbreaking at the time, but I suspect this one needs serious remixing and even some editing to sound interesting by today's standards.

Jeff Blehar (jdb3@jhu.edu)

I refuse to believe there's something de rigeur about live prog triple-LPs. All the music here is good (even "Yours Is No Disgrace" is good! Nice toe-tapping introduction!), and the sound quality isn't nearly as bad as everyone complains it is, but these performances are more or less the same as the album versions. If you've got the albums, I can't see why you'd want to sit down for two hours and listen to this - the live performances would be great to witness in person, but on record they're just slightly different versions of the regular tracks, the sole exception being an unnecessarily long jam on "The Fish." And Wakeman's "Six Wives Of Henry VIII" is pretty silly, so there goes the only non-album cut. Still, it's a hell of lot better than ELP's Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends, which, as it's been said before, mind-numbingly lives up to the title.

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com)

So Yes is much more than a studio creature. they mor eor less pull off the songs very similarly to the studio albums (esp. the "Close to the Edge" cuts)except for "The Fish" (low blow- can't expect Chris Squire to play six parts simultaneously -do you?). However, Yes does pack more punch on some songs ("All Good People", "Yours is No Disgrace" in particular. "Roundabout" is electrified! The harmonies suffer a bit. However, the bands rough edges live is what makes this album engaging. (Just don't listen to the entire thing all in a row, unless you have a lot of copious time!) Verdict: 9 out of 10.

Steven Knowlton (knowstev@med.umich.edu) (10/11/01)

Hi there: I was noticing your comments on the sound quality of "Yessongs." I've never heard the album, but your comments got me to look up the times of the songs.

If you're listening on vinyl, I understand why the sound quality is poor. Yes puts nearly 25 minutes of time on each side of the LPs, forcing the grooves to be crammed together. The optimum time per side for sound quality is 18 minutes.

(author's note): Actually, I'm listening on CD. However, I suspect that when the album was transfered to CD, the studio wizards decided to preserve the "quaint" feel of the original, and that's why the sound didn't improve.

Craig Thomas (Craig.W.Thomas@btinternet.com) (10/21/03)

I've recently become a complete convert to this album after falling completely out of love with not long after buying it in 1973 when it came on to the scene. It was too rough for my tastes, despite a magisterial Khatru. Age and the listening to a much wider variety of music than I did back then seems to have changed my perspective. This album is as rough as a bear's rear end, but is a ferocious motherfizzer which captures what I thought I was hearing when I was at The Rainbow, Finsbury Park in December 1972. Live albums which merely replicate the studio albums are almost complete wastes of time (i.e., when it's your favourite band, you'll take anything and shake some pleasure out of it). So this'll do me. It makes the Keys stuff sound merely 'sweet' by comparison and makes it sound limp and only worth having to appreciate how wonderful modern technology is. And as for Yesshows, well, let's not go there.

  This is the shit, man, right here, Yessongs, and I'm totally shocked to be saying it, having written it off not years but decades ago. True, we have the remastering process to thank, but that only serves to have highlighted a punk Yes, when the guys, amazing it seems now, were only in their twenties. No wonder it sounds loud and ready to jump out of the speakers and eat your face.

  Best track: Khatru, of course, followed by Perpetual Change (who is the guy who dissed it? when are you going to get serious about your music, dude?). Dud? Heart Of The Sunrise. Wrecked by the Yes-inexperience of Alan White, but I'll let him off as he was new. He did a great job elsewhere, so.

Kolby Kramer (gkkramer@gmail.com) (06/07/07)

Just to add my 2 cents to a comment made by Laurent "MASSE":

To label you "stupid" would be a bit too harsh on my part, so I will interpret you as being unaware.

"'Crowd-pleasing', the dumbest thing in all rock'n'roll to me."

  You're entitled to your opinion, but you make such an accusation about crowd pleasing on a live album???  Are you mad?  A concert's goal first and foremost is to please a crowd, no matter WHAT genre of music it is, sir.  What you said doesn't even make any sense!  This isn't a studio album, and if they stuck to the same format of their studio material to a tee, what would be the incentive to purchase it over their studio work?

Trfesok@aol.com (02/16/08)

Pretty much in agreement. It's a rough listen on the original vinyl, with the rough sound quality, but the amazing musicianship comes through anyway.  It's at least interesting to hear in their early prime, live, when they would do more than try and exactly replicate the studio versions.  I'm not sure I like the more electric textures on "And You and I" and "Roundabout" (probably due to limitations at the time in the amplification of acoustic instruments), but the versions are good anyway. "The Fish" goes a bit overboard, but the new arrangement does involves the whole group, so that's cool.  The most interesting things are Rick's elaborations on material from The Yes Album, especially "Starship Trooper". I can see why you picked it as best track. All in all, a good primer on classic Yes.

Tauwat@aol.com (10/05/08)

A friend of mine had Yessongs, and now Yes is one of my favorite bands. This, along with Relayer, is really almost all the Yes you need. I've never really noticed the horrid sound quality that everyone talks about, and most of the songs here are, IMO, definitive versions. I don't just say that because of extended solos or anything though, I say that because of the energy. Siberian Khatru, Roundabout, and especially Yours Is no Disgrace were all fine songs on their respective albums, but here they really seem to come alive. After hearing these electric renditions, the originals seemed a little bit feeble in comparison. The extended solos, such as on Starship Trooper, are phenomenal as well. My only complaint is the awful Fish rendition, inexplicably regarded as a highlight. I don't care how good Chris Squire is (he's phenomenal), no bassist is worth listening to noodling, barely audibly, for eight minutes.

The tracklist is excellent, needless to say, but the problem is that if you own the albums from Yes's peak, The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge, this album becomes somewhat obselete. Inversely, if you own this, it is pointless to get any of the aforementioned three albums, bar maybe Fragile. So newcomers to Yes, you would do well to make this your first purchase. Listening to it all the way through is a daunting task, but once you get used to the songs and let them grow on you, it seems like much less than two and a half hours.

Mark Nieuweboer (ismaninb@teacher.com) (02/13/10)

It's typical for Yes that the band tries to reproduce the originals on stage as close as possible. That's a huge difference with Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. It's not criticism in itself, but there is a serious consequence.

On my shelve there are two recordings of Tsjaikovsky's 6th, one conducted by Mravinsky and the other by Ashkenazy. The latter has remained untouched for more than a decade. For the same reason I only need one version of any good Yes composition. That simply rules out all the bootlegs and all the late live recordings McFerrin is so fond of. The question boils down to: Yessongs or the three classic studio albums? That's a matter of taste in the end.

For me it always has been Yessongs. Yes was as keen on perfection in the studio as Led Zeppelin and way too often sterility was the result. On stage the band does not interact with the public (which is a plus), but still has to interplay. So what's lost on sound quality is more than compensated by expression. I always prefer the latter. I own live recordings by Prokofjev and Shostakovitch playing their own music. The first one is from the 30's, the latter from a living room recording. If I can enjoy that I certainly don't have any problem with Yessongs, especially as the performances are flawless.

Moreover the band is really kind: all the early classics are there. My absolute bandfavourites are Heart of the Sunrise, Perpetual Chance and Roundabout. The first one pushes riffing to its very limit: the first riff is repeated for more than three minutes without getting tedious. Sometimes Howe goes an octave up only to return quickly. Its as jawdropping as Blackmore's solo's on Made in Japan. The second theme, during the vocal part, is less virtuoso but even more beautiful. Perpetual Change is similar - hard hitting introducing riff and a mellow one for the verses - but works equally well. The form of Roundabout is a bit messy, but the three variations of the main riff hold everything together.

There is nothing wrong with CD-2. I've seen all good People is very corny. Just at the moment - it works every time I listen to it - that I get irritated the song turns into a straightforward boogie-stomper, the kind that would bring Status Quo success (Roll over lay Down). According to Starostin Uriah Heep has taken the idea for the coda of July Morning from Starship Trooper. That is probably correct. What Starostin forgets is that this idea in a rudimentary form already can be found on UH's song High Priestess. This is just another proof that Yes in 1973 was pretty close to hardrock. Someone calls Close to the Edge (the song) a symphony. It is not, see my introduction. It has nothing to do with the sonata form. CttE expands the traditional verse-chorus scheme to its very extreme. The vocal melodies are very simple. There is an introduction, a solo part and a coda. It's just long and it can be hard to keep attention, but form is simple. I don't mean its bad though. But I must say that CD-2 somehow does not grab me like the three favourites. That's my fault, the performances are excellent.

Still Yessongs is far from perfect. I have three major objections and I mean major. Who in the world needs a rerecorded tape version of Firebird? As I have the suite on CD Yes offers me a complete waste of almost four minutes! It's fun - and nothing more - if Rainbow uses The Wizard of Oz (We must be over the rainbow), but that lasts a few seconds. Four frigging minutes! And they don't even play it themselves. Only rabid fans can enjoy that, which means that they have no clue about Stravinsky's work. The next let-down is Mood for a Day. It fails for exactly the same reasons (two themes repeated way too often) as Page's Black Mountain Side and lasts longer. Finally there is Wakeman's navel-gazing. Why do we need this if Händel's Messiah is available? What's more, the gap between Henry VIII and Händel is more than 200 years. Who in his right mind would use Schubert for a Gulf War movie? Wakeman does something like that. If it weren't for these serious failures I would have given Yessongs 10/10, even if CD-2 is not always my cup of tea. Now it's only 8/10.

---

Tales From Topographic Oceans - 1973 Atlantic
D

Best song: The Revealing Science Of God

This album, as you've probably heard, is a double album. No, wait, that doesn't properly explain things: it's a double album with 4 tracks on it (coming out to one track per side). No, wait, that's still not the worst of it, if you listen to the naysayers. Nah, the worst of it comes from the subject matter of the album. You see, (by the way, this info is all taken from the liner notes of the album) Anderson had been looking for a theme for a grand scale rock symphony, if you will, for quite some time, and one night during the CTTE tour, when the band was in Tokyo, he was flipping through Paramhansa Yoganada's "Autobiography of a Yogi," when he came across a lengthy footnote on page 83. This footnote described the four part Shastric scriptures, texts which not only take care of religion and social life, but also of medicine, music, art, architecture. Well, a normal man would have put down the book, forgotten about it, and just done his show, but this is Jon Anderson we're talking about here. No, he decided that the proper thing to do here was to base an 80 minute album around a set of writings with which virtually nobody in the Western world had familiarity. Putting it mildly, this is kinda risky.

How do I feel about it? I'm giving it a D. Call me a pretentious jerk, but I love this album. No matter how many times I listen to it, I never fail to be struck by how beautiful and how powerful this piece is (by the way, although TFTO is listed as having 4 tracks, the reality is that these are merely movements in an epic "symphony." And yes, I'm aware that it doesn't follow the symphonic form - I'm pretty familiar with classical music, thank you - but the fact that I'm forced to explicitly state something so obvious yet so inconsequential to the overall effect of the album makes me fear that my eyes will never get unstuck from the back of my head). Even if it is nonsense, and don't get me wrong, it seems it a lot of the time, it has made more and more sense to me with every listen over the years. Plus, I can't help but love it when a band shows ambition (which this album has in spades) as well as a desire to do something that nobody has ever done before, and then actually lives up to that ambition (I know a lot of people would disagree with me on that notion for this album). Within in the context of pop and rock, this completely blew away a lot of traditional "boundaries," certainly exceeding most albums that had been recorded to that point. It's not every day, after all, that you come across a rock album with four extended pieces containing interlocking musical and conceptual themes (apparently the double-album/four-song routine had actually been done in a couple of previous instances, but in those cases each piece was a completely separate piece and not a fundamental part of a whole). Yes thumbed their noses at the notion that song ideas have to be placed into concise, immediately recognizable structures (and that was an interesting step for Yes, given that they *were* at heart a trumped-up pop group), and showed (at least in my mind) that fading in and out of song ideas over a lengthy period of time, as if in a strange hallucination, is not something that should necessarily be a failure. But I ramble, and a return to the topic at hand, Tales From Topographic Oceans, is necessary. To assist in my elementary exposition of what you are exposed to in each of the "movements," I will be using the final four paragraphs of Anderson's liner notes. They can better explain what is going on than I possibly could on my own.

1st Movement: Shrutis. "The Revealing Science of God" can be seen as an ever-opening flower in which simple truths emerge examining the complexities and magic of the past and how we should not forget the song that has been left to us to hear. The knowledge of God is a search, constant and clear. This track, my favorite on the album and my second favorite in their catalogue, begins with a chanted invocation by Anderson and eventually with the others, summoning the listener to the dawn of light, thought, our power, and of love. In other words, to the creation and beginning all of the good things which bring happiness to our lives. He seems to lament that these wonderful forces seem to have been lost by the human race through their own negligence, resulting in all sorts of unwanted calamaties, and that only through love can the others (light etc.) be returned to their proper station. Or something like that. Fortunately, even if the lyrics lose you, the music is simply gorgeous, filled to the brim with ecstatically beautiful melodies. Although Alan White is seemingly able to provide little more than a steady background beat and a plodding drum sound (the jazzy lines left with Bruford), the others more than cover for him. Squire keeps things going with soothing bass lines, and Howe's guitar work, when he's mixed high, is terrific, but the real star of the show is Wakeman. You see, although there are a ton of great ideas being contributed by the others, there are admittedly a lot of places where not a lot is happening with the guitars. And so, Rick has no choice but to take over, and he does so admirably. Whether holding down the fort with heavenly mellotron parts or going nuts with synthesizer solos, he continually keeps the listener's interest, and he's arguably more crucial to the sound than ever. But back to the concept.

2nd Movement: Suritis. "The Remembering." All our thoughts, impressions, knowledge, fears have been developing for millions of years. What we can relate to is our own past, our own life, our own history. Here, it is especially Rick's keyboards which bring alive the ebb and flow and depth of our mind's eye: The Topographic Ocean. Hopefully we should appreciate that given points in time are not so significant as the nature of what is impressed on the mind, and how it is retained and used. Ok, your guess is as good as mine here, I must admit. Best as I can tell, the piece alternates between Anderson touching on various memories that we have all had in some form, and Wakeman carrying us away from these images and thoughts of our past to others on a trip through the peaceful recesses of our mind via his keyboards. Sure, whatever. And although the tune itself can seem a little dull at times (I think the faster parts are really crisp and quite interesting), if you listen to it in the right frame of mind, calm and at peace, it is absolutely, positively gorgeous. Rick's keys set the majestic, beautiful mood of the piece perfectly, and while most would disagree, I wish it were longer. There are no words to express my fullness of joy after having absorbed such a wonderfully stunning, meditiative and beautiful song.

3rd Movement: Puranas. "The Ancient" probes still further into the past beyond the point of remembering. Here Steve's guitar is pivotal in sharpening reflection on the beauties and treasures of lost civilizations. Indian, Chinese, Central American, Atlantean. These and other peoples left an immense treasure of knowledge. I used to dislike this section, but after further listens, I've come to realize that this is actually a pretty cool track. The subtitle is "Giants Under the Sun" (in reference to other civilizations long past), and so near the beginning, Anderson, quite cleverly I must add, chants the word for sun in several different languages. After this, there's a long, dissonant, somewhat avant-garde solo by Howe (though, I have to be honest with you, it really begins to bore me after a while, and is why I lowered the rating of the album just a nudge - then again, I think the album is E-worthy otherwise, so it's not really a big deal), before the piece settles back into a simple ballad with Anderson spouting some more jibberish. I think he's trying to say that all of these past peoples have all of the answers to the important (and sometimes not so important, but hey...) questions that trouble society today, but I could be wrong. Maybe it is just jibberish, but I'm sorta doubting that at this point in time. Whatever may be, the melody in this acoustic section is very lovely.

4th Movement: Tantras. The "Ritual." Seven notes of freedom to learn and to know the ritual of life. Life is a fight between sources of evil and pure love. Alan and Chris present and relay the struggle out of which comes a positive source. Nous sommes du soleil. We are of the sun. We can see. Basically, when we love, we can return to the state of goodness which we were in at the dawn of creation. This is conveyed excellently near the beginning and end of the track with the reprisal of some of the musical themes which had come up in the first movement. Steve's guitar solo near the end, in particular, is breathtakingly beautiful. Oh, and did I mention that the main vocal melody is one of the catchiest and lovliest little ditties Anderson ever came up with? Or that the passage at 14:10-14:20 or so makes it sound like the world's about to come to an end (one of my favorite Yes moments, by the way)? And there's a giant drum solo near the end, and it's interesting and even entertaining - especially live, since the group would become a percussion ensemble for about five minutes and you would get to see Squire on tympanis and Anderson on some weird chime things and ... oh, stop me before I gush some more.

This album is definitely not for people who get bored easily. Admittedly, it's very slow in some places (like in the beginning and middle of "The Remembering"), and it's a bit looser with structure than other Yes albums tend to be. And yet, I don't think the album's poor reputation is even remotely deserved; for one thing, I find the whole "padding" argument against it (pushed by Wakeman among others) to be overblown; out of the whole album, the only parts I'd really consider slicing out would be a minute or so from The Remembering, and half of the mid-section of "The Ancient" (where the long discordant instrumental passage gets played virtually note-for-note twice). I also think that the album's poor reputation among so many, even fans of other prog fans, ends up poisoning potential listeners fairly frequently; I had no idea going into the album that I was supposed to hate it, and I was quite surprised to learn this after the fact. And most importantly, to me, it works incredibly as a catalyst for imagination, ten times as well as even Close to the Edge did. I don't consider this their best album (it does meander a little too much, and besides, Fragile and a couple of others are better), but it's one of the most treasured albums in my collection regardless.

Of course, Wakeman hated it, and the stories surrounding this are legendary. Even worse, after his masterful performance, he sealed his disgust with Anderson and his wacky lyrics by tendering his resignation from the band. Fans-of-simple-pop-music everywhere cheered; it seemed the band was about to collapse under the enormous weight of its own ambitions.

PS: Hey, do you want to hear something else I figured out with regard to this album and its imagery? Each track, in addition to addressing whatever topic in the Shastric scriptures, contains strong musical allusions to one of the four basic elements according to Aristotle. For me, and apparently some others, it can be viewed as

"The Revealing Science of God" - Air (don't you feel like you're flying from place to place during the instrumental breaks?)

"The Remembering" - Water (don't you picture yourself sailing on a calm, blue majestic sea, with sea ditties coming in from time to time?)

"The Ancient" - Earth (Hey, the track's theme is 'Giants Under the Sun', which in turn talks about ancient cultures walking the face of the Earth).

"Ritual" - Fire (Doesn't the synth-heavy drum solo remind you of ritual purification, a burning of all that is bad in order to restore true love to the world?)

PPS: The 2003 remastered version is absolutely outstanding. "The Revealing Science of God" is restored to its originally intended form with a beautiful atmospheric introduction, the drums have WAY more kick and power to them than before, and all the little intricacies of the album stand out that much better.

Send me your thoughts

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

I'm not a hater, I'm not a lover. All the fuss about this album escapes me a little, as I don't really see where the genius lies, especially compared with "Close To The Edge". What struck me on first listen is that the melodies are very simple, even simplistic in some places, and easily memorable and forgettable compared to the achievements of the three preceding albums. It's a comeback to the songwriting formula of the early days, and, as such, is far less original than the three previous albums. The "harmonized melody line" group approach was clearly abandoned there, and indeed, Steve and Jon came up with the meat, the others only helped to arrange it. In other terms, this is "Yes through the eyes of Anderson and Howe". "The Revealing Science Of God" and "Ritual" are pleasant because the "song content" is very fine, "The Remembering" and "The Ancient" mostly boring because the "song content" is very thin apart from "Leaves Of Green". I listen to Tales far more often than other Yes albums because this stuff is not offending at all, in fact my problem is that the whole thing sounds lethargic, immature, underproduced and clearly underrehearsed, like a bunch of preliminary demos. Whenever I hear Jon hitting the line "What happened..." I cannot help but laugh. Totally unassured, like he discovers the words and melody for the first time. They had ambition for sure, but probably did it the wrong way: this time around, they should have rounded the pieces on stage before recording them. The "live test" if you prefer. The most symptomatic of this is Wakeman's keys: apart from the solos, which I don't care for, as they clearly are included just for the sake of having a solo and adding one or two more minutes, where is the verve, where is the humour? It shows he was not having fun at all. I still think they had a single album of concise and lovely lullabies had they dared to actually finish one of the zillion song ideas thrown in there. The basic problem lies there for me: an extended piece is OK, as long as it's not planned. What looks OK on paper will not automatically be an achievement. And, anyway, take two fine songs, intertwine them and add a long drum solo with strange sampled sounds in the middle, plus an intro recycling old themes, and you have it: a 22 mn epic impressing a lot of listeners. A little cooking analogy: an impressive and long recipe with exotic ingredients will not automatically make a tasty meal; it may as well become a huge multicoloured salad. Well at least they didn't do a McDonald's album.

Jeff Blehar (jdb3@jhu.edu)

So it's not the worst thing ever released. I can admit that now, after realizing that liking Yes doesn't necessarily damn my mortal soul to eternal squareness. And the idea of four side-long tracks didn't necessarily have to be a disaster, either, since "Close To The Edge" was such a triumph. But it's so...boring. I mean, where's the energy? No excitement. It almost seems that when they had something to prove, with "CTTE," they did every damn thing they could to make it as varied and exciting as possible. But now that they have 4 sides to stretch out over, everything seems soggy and limp and padded. And the complete flakiness of the lyrics and concept certainly doesn't help things a bit. As I said above, the general ridiculousness of Yes lyrics can (and should) be overlooked if the music is good enough, but when the music becomes flaccid, all you have to hang onto are the words, which let you down big time. It really IS a case of overblown egotism defeating a good band, and although it's not all tripe - "Ritual" is pretty and even memorable after a few listens, and I like the way Howe quotes from "Close To The Edge" in his opening guitar solo - most of it is just impossible to absorb. Even "Ritual" is about, what, TEN MINUTES too long? I guess this separates the hard-core fans from the rest of us, and that's fine, since I already know where I stand on the issue. A real shame after the promise of "CTTE."

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com)

A double album with FOUR TWENTY MINUTE SONGS!!! Plus, its mixed reputation? I did not even try to listen to this record until after I had bought all the albums from "The Yes Album" through "Going for the One." I even borrowed someone's copy of this before I even dared to buy it. And that was with a gift certificate!!

>From that, you may infer that I think this album is bad. Wrong! But, it's not really great either (like the three previous albums). The best part of this album is its album cover (sorry, that is why my friend bought this album...). In truth, "The Revealing Science of God" is the best track for me on this album. It simply has more emotional resonance than the other three songs. The third and fourth song although quite listenable, are too long for their content.

The complaints with this record are: (1) the "padded" nature of this album: if it were edited, even to "Close of the Edge" style lengths, we'd have another superb album, and (2) when I said "Close to the Edge" is a great album to relax to, "Tales..." is at least ten times more so. If you are traveling long distances, beware!!

So, this record (if you have the patience!) earns a low 8 out of 10. (Who else would have had the audacity to pull this job off? Yes almost did!)

One Year Later

Perhaps, it has to do with watching Howe do "Leaves of Green" live this summer, but I'm growing to like "The Ancient" much more, though the first half does get to be tedious after a few minutes. Plus, "Ritual" now seems quite compelling to me. What a nice way to wrap up the album! So, I am finally comfortable enough to award this album a low 9(12).

Matti Alakulju (matti.alakulju@peterstar.ru) (12/24/01)

I have a comment to make, that has nothing to do with this album, at least not directly. You wrote about Anderson's mysticism and about "what you know to be necessary in the eternal scheme of things". There you have one word which is very fundamentally wrong, and it is "know". The right word should be "believe".

  I don't care about your religious inclinations, and I actually enjoy your review site very much. But let's face it: Some people "knowing", rather than "believing", the eternal scheme of things has caused enormous bloodshed through the history of mankind. Especially today, since it's Christmas, I want to say that everybody with religious inclinations doesn't really "know". They all just "believe". But when they believe to know better than some others, there we have a problem.

  Merry Christmas to everybody, even if Christmas is maybe not included in your eternal scheme of things.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/15/02)

I did hesitate buying this album 'cos of all the bad reviews. But when I did I was glad I did - it is brilliant! Close to their best album (I don't have a single best Yes album, depends on my mood), and yes "The Revealing Science Of God" is the best, although "The Remembering" comes close. Most prog bands did one or two 15 min plus epics (Genesis only did one, so did King Crimson, ELP actually managed three, Pink Floyd did two etc) so to have a double album with FOUR of them - wow! Still, it does have it's down moments - parts of "The Ancient" drag.

"Thomas, Gary" (ThomasG@HorryCounty.org) (10/23/02)

Hello, I liked your review of Tales from Topographic Oceans very much! Sometimes, as I listen to the CD, I think it might be the best album they've ever done. I enjoyed your opinions and insights on the music and appreciate your viewpoints on the band. Thanks, ( a Yes fan from coastal South Carolina) Gary

Ben Kramer - Miller (bkramer2000@hotmail.com) (11/27/02)

"How do I feel about it? I'm giving it a nine. Call me a pretentious jerk, but I love this album."

John, you are a pretentious jerk.

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (6/29/03)

This seems to be an album you either "get" or you don't. I don't get it. Being an atheist, I don't listen toYes to get any kind of spiritual fulfillment, I just love their music. And here I think the music took a bit of a backseat to Anderson and Howe's desire to create this conceptual behemoth. Not one song justifies its length.

Now having said that, there is some great melodies on here. The Revealing Science of God has some very nice passages, even if they are repeated too often. The Remembering drags on way too long between its catchy hooks. The Ancient really drags at the beginning before getting to the nice Leaves are Green section. Finally, I consider Ritual the best song here, with the tribal drumming sounding really cool, and the closing section (Hold me my love..) being one of the most beautiful passages in the Yes cannon which I find myself singing all the time when the album is over. This alone is enough to make me tell people to get the album. But overall, I can only give the album a 5 (8). They just didn't have enough fresh ideas (or didn't have enough time to come up with fresh ideas) to justify making it a double album.

Craig Thomas (Craig.W.Thomas@btinternet.com) (10/21/03)

re Tales From The Top, i think you've been brainwashed along with a lot of other people. The lyrics of The Ancient aren't jibberish. Read them. There's an apologetic tone to your praise of the record which i think is a shame. indeed shame is something a lot of Yes fans seem to feel about talking about the record in a positive way. perhaps you're younger than me and not being around in the early 70s, don't find yourself comfortable with the styles and the ethic of the times.

  what truly is shameful is welch's treatment of the ancient, where he reveals his ineptitude as a critic and his lack of professionalism as a writer. but then, he never could write.

  not only is The Ancient one of the best pieces of work the band ever wrote and recorded, it's a landmark in rock music history. slight trouble is, i might be in a minority of less than ten here. however, i'm on a one-man mission to change that.

"Eden, Scott C Mr (Contractor) MONROE" (scott.eden1@us.army.mil) (4/14/03)

I must be one of the very select few, as I have always considered Tales to be Yes' best album and the apex of their most creative period (CTTE -> Relayer).  There is something so calming and peaceful about this album, though it definitely has its truly rocking moments.  It is completely unlike any of their other albums, though can clearly be seen as a relative of CTTE and sound-wise (as well as feel) has much more in common with that album than with Relayer.  Tales is very colourful album and is in many ways a very "earthy" album.  The subtle aspects of this album are best served by the studio performance.  The live performances lack the nuance of the album.

Will Hare (element@sprint.ca) (10/11/04)

I believe ambition is enough - One need not neccesarily succeed.  Yes did not hit the bullseye with this album - Indeed, Jon himself has talked on more than one occasion of an edited version: "One of the dreams that I've had is to really look into Topographic Oceans and reissue it on CD as hour of music, with remixes and overdubs" - I'm sure you're familiar with that quote from Yesstories.

    Still, the sheer ambition will always yield results far more fulfilling and fascinating than the usual pop pap we're subjected to.  Along these same lines is Deep Purple's Concerto for Group and Orchestra.  C'mon! The title itself is enough to bring a smile to your face! The attempt is the success!!! Sure it's not great but you've got to love Jon Lord (It must be a Jon thing) for trying!! Same deal with this album and with Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or even Tommy  - Any attempt to push the boundaries.

    Even if I never listen to the first 13 minutes of The Ancient again, I am grateful that it is there for me to listen to.

Trfesok@aol.com (12/09/04)

This is the one that divides the Yes hard-core fans from ordinary mortals, and I can't cross the line. Since the band was still able to sell oodles of records, despite the complexity of the music, Atlantic Records let them get away with anything.  Even a band with such a depth of talent as Yes has a limit to that talent. Like most major Prog groups (Jethro Tull with A Passion Play; ELP with Pictures.. or Works I, depending on your point of view; Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother; Genesis and The Lamb..), Yes made an album where ego and ambition overran that talent. Oddly enough, I think the format of a double album actually constrained Yes as opposed to liberating them. "We just HAVE to have a four song double album." The problem is that they didn't have enough musical ideas to actually FILL a double album.

As a result, I have to agree with Rick's initial assessment as "padded"(although I guess he's changed his tune in recent years). It sounds like they were so desperate to fill the time that they threw anything into the mix. This results in a lot of music lacking cohesion, conventional melodies or the excitement that Close to the Edge generated. "The Ancient" is by far the worst offender in this regard, although I guess the "Leaves of Green" section is kind of nice. "The Remembering" is a rather ironic title for a piece that is so unmemorable. "The Revealing Science of God" is better, with a very cool descending keyboard line and some good playing from the band, but this does set the annoying precedent of Anderson trying to crowd too many lyrics into a bar of music ("Awaken," "Turn of the Century," "Madrigal" and "For You, For Me" are examples of later abuses).  "Ritual" is the one piece that works just about all the way through, although that percussion jam is unnecessarily long. By far, my favorite here.

I have no problems with the lyrics -- abstraction is usually Anderson's stock in trade. If Yes had constrained themselves to  a musical 45 minutes, or even an hour, this could have been a classic as highly regarded as CTTE.  Instead, they created a bit of a monster. Amazingly, the reputation Yes established with the previous albums allowed them to cruise along on for a number of years yet. I doubt seriously, though, that anyone was converted to Yes by listening to this album first. 

Mark Taylor (Mark_Taylor@cingular.suth.com) (1/17/05)

I saw this concert at cornell university in 1974 front roll....i went with a good friend who loved chris squire so much that he had a collection of 3 rickenbacker bass's the same model chris used.the band was at the top of their game full of youthful energy and fire.After the rites of spring opening music the band opened with Siberian k. after which there played the 4 sides of tales.it was wonderful and draining and emotional and I will never forget it . mark

Vincent Deporter (vdeporter@mac.com) (08/28/08)

Thank you so much for your wonderful insight on the albums of YES. I admit it -- I'm one of the few to truly LOVE "Tales From Topographic Oceans". The Ancient was the most difficult one to grasp at first, then quickly became my favorite movement of the album. Like an opera, it takes some concentration to really appreciate the depths of the work.

So, once again, thank you for your hard work on the albums of my favorite band!

David Sheehan (dawningistheday@yahoo.com) (02/13/09)

You are right about the 2003 remaster--this is definitely the way to do a reissue! Thanks, Rhino records for the incredible sound and impeccable packaging! I wish all of my CDs looked this nice. As for the record itself, it's probably a 12 for me, though if all four tracks were as good as "The Revealing Science of God," this would be a 15 all the way. Seriously, that may be my very favorite Yes recording.

Pete Anderson (pete@distantearlywarning.info) (12/13/09)

This seems to be an album that most people either love (you) or hate (George Starostin).  Therefore, I guess my rating - a big fat 7(10) - will satisfy nobody.  However, it's not that I neither like nor dislike this album: I do my share of both.

I agree that "The Revealing Science of God" is hands-down the best song.  However, I cannot imagine the song's magnficent intro being anywhere near as powerful as it is without the first two minutes that I understand only appear on the 2003 remaster - so the original album might well get a meagre 6(9) from me if I were to hear it.

  However, the 2003 remaster seems to be the most widely available version today, so a 7(10) it is.

Mark Nieuweboer (ismaninb@teacher.com) (02/13/10)

For the second time McFerrin makes me chuckle. This time he raves about all the musical cross references on this album. Typically he does not give any example but continues with offering the program of this "rocksymphony". That tells us exactly zero about the music. Topographic Oceans is not a symphony - no sonata in the first movement, no three-parted scherzo, no rondo. At best and with a lot of good will it is a collection of four symphonic poems.

Let's do a thought experiment. We cut Topographic Oceans in 12 to 16 pieces and paste them in some random order. It will make hardly any difference. The conclusion is that the form of Topographic Oceans is a complete mess. What's more - mid-tempo dominates. Still some Yesgeek tries to tell me that this music is so complicated and demands a high musical IQ. Try Alban Berg's Violin Concerto, will you? If you understand what that one is about you may come back and try again telling me that Topographic Oceans is too difficult for me. It's not. It's just one not too interesting melody (mostly vocal, sometimes instrumental) placed after another. There are three remarkable bits. The vocal introduction works nicely, even though the harmonies are not special. It pales compared to Good Vibration. Then The Ancient is Yes' attempt at atonal music. Now that is special and the first time I heard it I enjoyed it. Must have been because it's a relief after 40 minutes of boredom. When I listened to it seperately twice I noticed how trivial and repetitive it is. Gimme Shostakovich' Violin Sonata, please. The last interesting point is at the end of ritual - a real crescendo! Oh, it's not a big one, don't think of Lady in Black or Child in Time, but it's there.

Jon Anderson himself once commented that Topographic Oceans has too many pretentions and lacks energy. I could not agree more. Yes recorded it while in their microbiotic phase. A microbiotic diet lacks vitamins and minerals. So does Topographic Oceans.

---

Tour of the Oceans - Bootleg
D

Best song: Close to the Edge

Send me your thoughts

bsitting@mail.math.ucsb.edu (9/10/02)

This bootleg feels like the logical prodecessor to "Yessongs" performance-wise (raw energy, yet precise playing), though the sound quality on here is significantly better! The "Close to the Edge" songs come off even stronger than when performed on "Yessongs", and in some ways the "Tales" material comes off even better than in the studio! In particular, the dissonant intro to "The Ancient" comes off less ear-gratingly than before, and doesn't wear out the listener as much. Very good concert, indeed: 9(13), at least.

"Eden, Scott C Mr (Contractor) MONROE" (scott.eden1@us.army.mil) (4/14/03)

I currently have 16 recordings from their Topographic Oceans tour and this is still my favorite.  I think it has the best combination of good SQ, great performance, and good mix.  Too many of the 1972-1974 shows have Wakeman way too high in the mix and tends to drown out the guitar.  This recording has a relatively even mix, with possibly Howe coming through slightly better.  This is a good thing (not only because he is my favorite member) as he is the main driving force of the Tales material, and the whole show in general.  He is all over the place on this one, adding fills everywhere and moving the music along.  I think Howe (and Yes in general) peaked in the 1971-1974 period, and the 1974 shows (Relayer shows included) show Howe at his most aggressive and virtuosic.  As I wrote in my comments about the Topographic Oceans album, I personally think that the Tales material was better translated in the studio than on stage.  The live performances lack the subtle feel that is integral to this piece of music.  However, this performance has that special warm "feel" of the LP Tales, which is often missing from the live performances.  If you are not overly thrilled with the album, then the live performance may be more to your liking.  That said, this whole show is hot.  From start to finish, the band is on fire, especially Howe.  The band blazes through each song with an all-out approach that was sadly to end with the 1974 shows in December.  As a big fan of both CTTE and Tales, I always thought that the Tales tour had the best setlist, playing those two albums in their entirety.  The only weak song here, though not in terms of performance, is Roundabout.  This song should have been put out to pasture long ago and is a song I regularly skip over.  Be sure to check out And You And I JUST before Howe kicks in with the peddle steel.  You can hear someone in the band say a very brief "waahh" just before the peddle steel.  I have always thought that this is Steve Howe.  If you have ever seen live footage of the band from the 1970's (the Yessongs film is probably the best example), you will notice that Howe regularly mouthed along with his playing, particularly the peddle steel.  I think this is him doing that here and it was picked up by the mic before his peddle steel kicks in.  I would like to hear other peoples thoughts on this.

  So, in short, if you are to only get one recording from their Tales tour, I would recommend that you get this show (there are a couple of titles out there, just be sure to get the complete recording).  by the way, it appears that this was the last show of the tour to include the complete Topographic Oceans performance.  The Remembering was dropped after this show.  Though Forgotten Yesterdays lists this song being played at Cincinnati on March-3, I suspect this is incorrect.  Absolutely no support or reason is given for why this song is listed.  Enjoy.

---

Relayer - 1974 Atlantic
E

Best song: Gates Of Delirium

Send me your thoughts

Nick Karn (Awake600@aol.com)

I agree with the 12 rating (a high 8, but a lower one than The Yes Album) - this is one underrated, loud, and strange album. The sidelong on this one "The Gates Of Delirium" definitely does stand out, although personally I prefer "Close To The Edge" more because that one seems to flow better and seems so much shorter than its' length, and some of the melodies before the long jam beginning at the 8 minute mark seem kinda weak and clumsy to me, although the lyrics definitely work. Nevertheless, it's still a classic epic track - that jam just rules! When I first heard it, the only way I could describe that part was 'an aural rollercoaster of sound' - it even ends like a coaster stopping - and I still hold that opinion. Just wild and crazy, and the ending ballad section is simply beautiful.

The other two tracks IMO deserve more mention than other review sites have given them, though... well at least "Sound Chaser" does. That song is just SICK, and it further convinces me that Chris Squire is not human. Steve Howe's soloing on that one is also terrific, Alan White's drumming speaks to me a lot more than Bruford's does, and the 'cha cha cha' part near the end is hysterical... I love it!! I don't really care for "To Be Over" that much, though - it is pretty, especially near the end, but it doesn't earn its length like the others do, and it drags. I can't really share Geddy Lee's opinion that this is the album he would pick if he had to save one from his burning house, but it's still a pretty darn good gem.

Rich Bunnell (richbunnell@home.com)

Wait.... discount my above comment on "Yes Album." My "favorite" Yes album keeps switching from month to month, but I'm pretty sure that this one's going to stick, because I absolutely LOVE this album. "Gates Of Delirium," is, in my mind, the only longform prog song ever to merit its length COMPLETELY (even "Supper's Ready" has some dull spots)-- from that opening intense vocal melody to the extended apocalyptic jam to the closing ballad "Soon," it is one perfect song. "Sound Chaser" is a real treat too, but I can imagine people listening to it and thinking "What is this crap?? Can these guys even play their instruments?" Believe it or not, it takes a lot of focus and precision to make a song as wonderfully random as that. And "To Be Over" is softer and less noticeable than the other two knockouts, but an effective closer. I give it a ten and state that Yes never rose to this height before or since (though I haven't heard Tales yet, and thus am not sure what camp I'd fall into for that one).

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

As an epic, "The Gates Of Delirium" is much more effective than anything on TFTO, because the piece is actually constructed around a narrative story, not just a fluffy philosophical concept. I should be offended by the bass in this album, but strangely not. In the battle section, Chris is actually saying something in the whole picture instead of merely demonstrating, and in "Sound Chaser", all this epileptic non-rhythmic playing is meant to be funny - and succeeds (am I wrong here?). In fact the whole album made me laugh on first listen. Not that I find it ridiculous in any way, I actually like it a lot, but I still see it as an exercise in style much more than music. Apart from the standout "Soon", the "song parts" are not developed on their on but integrated in very complex structures. And, while the first sung part of Gates is very uninteresting on its own, the vocal melodies of "Sound Chaser" and "To Be Over" are among their cutest ever, showing they were not at all short on ideas, but decided to rather concentrate on the form. Very thought out and intense indeed, but what the hell were they trying to do? I thought they were trying to step on King Crimson's toes, who had just "ceased to exist" at the time. The incessant stop-and-go and epileptic playing of "Sound Chaser" strongly reminds me of King Crimson's "The Great Deceiver". I may be wrong, still I do believe there must be some kind of parody in there, but what?

Stephane Ouimet (seo@sympatico.ca)

First of all, you did a great job in reviewing these Yes albums. You seem to appreciate and undrestand what the band was about in its numerous changes. It looks as many other reviewers don't seem to get Jon Anderson's lyrical approach: I for one, think that Jon was always in to surrealism, and the focus is on evocation rather than litteral meaning, mental images rather than ideas or narratives.

Anyhow, I must point out that the Relayer album was Yes' excursion into the domain of Jazz-Rock. Soundchaser, in its savage splendour, is very much reminiscent of Mahavishnu Orchestra and Chick Corea's Return to Forever. The playing on this song is the closest Yes came towards Fusion. Many parts of Gates Of Delirium show the same frame of mind, and I suspect that shift was influenced by Patrick Moraz.

I have to say that you're a bit harsh about Moraz. Sure, Wakeman was classically trained, was influenced by Bach, Baroque music and even the Romantics such as Chopin. Moraz is NOT that type of player: he is a Jazz-rock keyboardist, he fits much more among people like Jan Hammer, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul and other Fusion luminaries. Furthermore, Moraz, both with Yes and in his solo career (forget the Moodies, of course), shows a flair for contemporary classical music (Stravinsky, Bartok, Messian and so forth). So, it's not really a very good idea to judge Moraz with Wakeman's standards, since both are in two opposite schools of music. Moraz's style, I think, worked very well with Yes, it gave them a Jazz-Rock Edge to them.... Even Bruford took notice and made a couple of great experimental jazz albums with him.

The Gates of delirium is probably my favourite Yes piece. The "battle" part of the song should not be dismissed as a "jam", though. Too strange and complex for a mere "jam". It is Alan White's shining moment, although he's no slouch in the other records as well... He is seemingly a rock drummer, but he added very complex rythms to the songs (see The Ancient, in TFTO), and he is a very talented, creative and OVERLOOKED drummer, in my opinion. It's a strange thing to say, but he added swing to the band, he made it breathe a lot freely, and should not be dismissed as "the less talented,plodding rock-guy who replaced Bruford". I know you didn't exactly said that, but a lot of people have....

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com)

I hated this record at first!! It had to be the noisy vibe! Well, time has cured me of that; the cacaphony actually makes sense in "The Gates of Delirium." Even its lyrics are more comprehensible!! The one virtue(?) of Yes; one never knows what to expect from them (King Crimson, from the little I have heard from them, are even more unpredictable...).

Steve Howe rules throughout this record, very well demonstrated in the first track. The "Soon" edit of the first track is so moving I can almost see why it was extracted from the rest of "Gates of Delirium" (as not to scare any Yes initiate or the 90125 lovers...). "Sound Chaser" actually works for me now too, although the cha cha cha's still grate on my nerves (like cheese? Never mind...). "To be Over" is a nice way to close out a rowdy album. Although Moraz's keyboards get a bit poisonous, they on the most part, work quite well on this record.

As time has shown me, this album is worthy of a 9 out of 10.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/15/02)

I think this is their most ambitious album, musically it is even more ambitious than "Tales" and sometimes, it has to be said, they overreach and end up just creating noise.Never the less a very good album

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (6/29/03)

Ten years ago I would have easily rated this as my least favourite Yes album. The first time I heard it, I dismissed as an experimental noise fest, and I don't think I played it again for months afterwards.

Well time has certainly improved my opinion. I now consider The Gates of Delirium to be the best side-long piece Yes has done. I think you really need to know the subject matter of the song and listen to the lyrics to fully appreciate this masterpiece. Once I discovered the middle jam was depicting a battle, my enjoyment of it rose a hundredfold. This is not a song you can have on in the background-you really need to make a commitment to listen to it. The musicianship is just incredible-I think Moraz's playing is just perfect for this song, and this is probably Howe's best performance on a Yes album. I've never been able to get into the other two songs as much. Sound Chaser rocks good at some points, but I still think it drags a bit, not quite justifying its length. Same with To Be Over-some nice passages to be sure, but slightly overlong.

I only give the album a 7(10) because (1) GoD takes a while to get into, and (2) the second side tracks are not nearly as strong (like they were on CttE). I would advise someone to get this album only after they were sure they were a big Yes fan (i.e. get almost every other album first).

(By the way, I had Relayer on the other day and my 2-year old daughter started grooving to the cha-cha-cha's in Sound Chaser! Maybe there's hope for the future generation to stay away from Britney Spears and listen to real music.)

Neil Daniels (neild@cox.net) (6/16/04)

I agree that Relayer really stands the test of time, and year by year has moved up my list ahead of CTTE, and is edging closer to my favorite, The Yes Album.  Face it, Allan White is nowhere near the drummer Bill Bruford is, and yet he is a fine rock drummer whose style fits for the first time on this album with it's much harder edge.  Moraz complements White's playing in the way Bruford complements Wakeman.  This is the right compositions with the right personnel, and this recording is like no other in progressive rock.  I love the tempo changes in Sound Chaser and Gates of Delirium.  I can't believe I've come to this conclusion, but really think The Gates of Delirium, as intense and loud as it is in passages, compares very favorably to Close to the Edge.  Whereas I see Topographic Oceans as self indulgent excess, this album has balls and a purpose.  Move aside, this might be the best of the Yes catalogue, though no one would have thought so at the time of its release.  Great web site.  Thanks Neil Daniels

Alex Mortland (alexmortland@hotmail.com) (09/05/05)

"The greatest song in the Yes catalogue, the band's crowning jewel. The pinnacle and culmination of all things progressive. The track that ALL progressive rock was leading up to, which has never once been topped and will stand, many years from now, as the shining moment of the prog-rock movement when I am gone and this page lies abandoned. Yes, it is indeed the epic Gates of Delirium of which I speak."

Right on the money.

If you're reading this, DO NOT underestimate or talk shit about Yes until you hear this song, all 20+ minutes of it. Jumpin' Jesus, what a track! Were these guys telepathic, or what?

james devero (j.devero@sbcglobal.net) (10/19/05)

Steve Howe didn't ever really play the slide guitar. He played the pedal steel guitar and he also used a volume pedal to swell his notes and a pedal they dont make anymore called a "slow pedal".

I'm not hear to correct anyone...but I wold point out that its a similar effect as a "slide" guitar....but a pedal steel ...is far easier to control the  long. long sweeping sounds...with the delay and reverb...it took it to "outerspace"...and it was interesting because it really wasn't being used for "rock style" music... The pedal steel was a country guitar players favorite.

Trfesok@aol.com (11/02/05)

Unlike the last album, this one rewards with a fair amount of relistening. I wouldn't rate it as high as CTTE, though, since it really doesn't quite make it in terms of melodicism and accessibility balanced against the musicianship. However, they really take the experimentation to a new level, and I really enjoy the playing here. Moraz, I think, was really on a par with Wakeman. It's too bad that Bruford had left the band, since he would have been right at home with all this jazz influence. Although White does a superb job here. In fact, I would rate his work here the best here ever did with the group. "Sound Chaser" is pretty freaky, I agree, but very cool. I find it interesting that Squire's voice seems more prominent in the vocal harmonies on that song than Anderson's. "To Be Over" is more interesting for Howe's various stringed instruments (notice that sitar?) than for its melody, and the vocals are mixed way too low, but it's a nice enough song. And while I don't agree that "Gates" is the peak track in all prog-rock ("Close to the Edge" might be a better candidate), it's still amazing. "Soon" is very gorgeous and moving, pretty straightforward for an Anderson composition. Still, I would not make this a first choice for a Yes newbie -- the album is just too weird! However, definitely the next stop after getting into the albums from the 70-72 period.

Dan and Liz Finegan (finegans@dca.net) (06/07/07)

"Relayer" is easily my favorite Yes record, though as you mention, it's not something that you want to listen to all the time.

On point I do want to make, and which I've never heard in regard to this record, is that there is a very heavy Mahavishnu Orchestra influence going on here. Mahavishnu has at its peak during this period, and they raised the rock/prog bar quite high. Yes met the challenge very well on "Relayer".

awaller@camden.rutgers.edu (05/13/09)

Loved your review of Relayer. True, 'The Gates Of Delirium' truly feels like the culmination of all things progressive rock. Yes never got even close to being this aggressive and of course it?s technically brilliant. The only flaw? The chaotic instrumental section HAS TO END. Why? Couldn't they just keep going? The 'Soon' section is very nice though.

'Sound Chaser' is awesome as well. The first three minutes of that song might be the best 3 minutes of Yes music ever put to tape. That song just rips your fucking head off. The bass/guitar bit around 2 and a half minutes is just insane, and Howe is a frickin God the rest of the way. Incredible.

?To Be Over? is a nice calm after the storm. It?s no where near the other two songs, it?s still good though. I don't listen to it much, but I'm not gonna bash it or anything.

I can understand why you gave Relayer an 8(11) at a point. I had a hard time getting into this one as well. It?s chaotic, initially 'noisy' (I guess that would be the word), and tough to grasp. Repeated listens?. And this is one of the most thrilling, powerful, and exciting albums I've ever listened to. You're on the dot, 9(14) it is. I want to give this album a 10 but I feel Close To The Edge is clearly better (Siberian Khatru is much better than To Be Over), and since I consider Yes to be a FIVE STAR band, I can?t give this album a perfect rating, it?s damn close though.

Mark Nieuweboer (ismaninb@teacher.com) (02/13/10)

Quite a few Yesgeeks dislike Relayer - Wakeman is gone, Moraz is in and the latter is supposed to spoil the whole thing. As if he is solely responsible for every single note. Oh well. The two short songs are not for me. Sound Chaser is the one and only composition by Yes I don't get, not even after repeated listenings. Only when I realized that it's jazzfusion I understood why - jazz is just not for me. The other short song I can't remember, not even it's title. That means it has not made any impression on me at all. Gates of Delirium is a vast improvement on Topographic Oceans. Sure it still lacks form, but at least it suggests progression. Tempi are varied, there are some strong and recognizable themes. It's main assett is the glorious last part, when Anderson begins to sing Soon oh soon. This catharsis justifies entirely everything that happened before. Typically and predictably I prefer the live version from Yesshows. Moraz is more modest, so there is a better balance between the four instruments. Anderson's voice has gained power. It also lasts a bit longer and of course the composition benefits from the interplay.

---

Electric Freedom - Bootleg
A

Best song: Ritual

A bootleg of a performance in London while on the Relayer tour that features a number of interesting surprises, rearrangments - Moraz was the keyboardist on this tour, remember? - and occasionally abominable sound quality. So while the Relayer material is mostly done by the book, the elder material almost always has a few twists. Not the least of which is Anderson's singing - he sounds much less alien than at anytime before, and now just sounds like guy with a high range, which he was. And honestly, it sounds really good - there's actual emotion in his voice!

Not that the changes are always necessarily for the better - for instance, "Close to the Edge" has the intro slowed down considerably (though it speeds up a bit as time goes on). And elsewhere in the song, the lengthy keyboard solo is completely rewritten, as Moraz provides a weird jazz-fusion burst that may be interesting, but I'll be damned if it's better than before.

But most of the other changes and surprises are quite nice. "Your Move" segues into "Mood for a Day" instead of the expected "ISAGP" chanting, while an acoustic runthrough of "Long Distance Runaround" is immediately followed by a lengthy keyboard solo. But those minor surprises pale into the shocker of the setlist - they revive "Sweet Dreams", and it sounds great! It receives a terrific hard-rock arrangment during the intro and the breaks between verses, and quite frankly, the original version didn't even come close to this version. And then it's immediately followed by a terrific runthrough of "Yours is No Disgrace," which has yet another entertaining intro, this time driven by a mild dose of funk on the part of Howe, and the rest is no slouch either.

All of these, though, are merely table-setters for the two main attractions - "The Gates of Delirium" and "Ritual." On the Prindle page, one of the commentators for Yesshows stated that much better live material had existed of Tales and Relayer, and by gum he was right, because the versions on here are definitely better than the officially released ones. "The Gates of Delirium" isn't done quite as fast as on Yesshows, but that's all for the better, as the intensity of the original is preserved more closely. And "Ritual" ... wow. The cool bass solo isn't mixed quite as high, but two things really jump out. First, during the intro, Anderson teases the crowd with some lines from "The Remembering," and second, the synth-and-sequencer-onslaught-meets-tribal-drum-circle part here absolutely blows away its counterpart on Yesshows. As of this writing, I've heard five versions of "Ritual," and at this point, this is probably my favorite, which says a lot.

So yeah, this is a good bootleg. The only major problem I have with it, actually, is the aural murder that "Sound Chaser" inflicts upon my ears. I don't know what was wrong exactly, whether it was a problem with the recording equipment or with the amplifiers, but the instrumental parts are way too quiet, so you have to turn up your stereo, but then the CHA CHA CHA's are loud as hell and you go deaf. Nyarrgh. Oh, and "To Be Over" doesn't quite work as well on its own - for one thing, the gruff rhythm part is mixed far above the pretty pedal steel guitar parts (and another thing - who's playing that rhythm part anyways? I'll assume that it's not Howe, as he's ostensibly playing with his slide, unless Moraz was somehow replicating them ... hmmph, anybody want to help me here?). I dunno - I think this bootleg does a good job of showing that a large part of the reason that "SC" and "TBO" worked as well as they did on Relayer was their locations on the album.

Whatever. It's still as worthy a bootleg as I've heard in a while.

PS: In the years after this review, I obtained another bootleg from this tour, the Long Beach 1975 show. The sound quality is mostly as good as on any official live album, and this improved sound quality leaves me feeling far less exhausted from listening to that than to this. That show would get a high C, maybe bordering on a D if I'm in a good mood.

Send me your thoughts

"Riley, Matt" (matt_riley@saleslink.com) (8/20/02)

The 2nd guitar in "To Be Over" is supplied by none other than Jon Anderson.

"Eden, Scott C Mr (Contractor) MONROE" (scott.eden1@us.army.mil) (4/21/04)

John McFerrin is spot on with his comments on the odd SQ on this recording.  The mix for the early songs are pretty screwed up.  Whenever Howe has a guitar part, the sound of his guitar is barely audible.  The rhythm guitar pretty much drowns it out.  [ Note to John, that is Jon Anderson on the rhythm guitar ].  This is light years beyond annoying.  After a few songs the mix balances out pretty much.  Still, the damage was done.   by the way, there is a video of this show circulating that is worth seeking out.

Going For The One -1977 Atlantic
D

Best song: Turn Of The Century

The music world changed substantially from 1974 to 1977, to say the least. As prog-rock groups lost their favor with critics for whatever reasons (running out of truly creative ideas, becoming more absurdly pompous all the time), groups like Yes suddenly found themselves needing to change to survive. With the Relayer tour, Yes had probably reached their "seriousness" peak - not only did lengthy epics dominate the setlist (interspersed with complex "shorter" numbers like "Sound Chaser"), but the band reached a point where its relationship to "rock" music had basically become tangential at best. Indeed, some of the earlier songs remained in their setlists, but even they were tightened up drastically with fusion interplay a la The Mahavishnu Orchestra so as to impress the hell out of the listener but not really get any blood pumping. The band had progressed light-years in a very short time, but at the cost of basically removing the spark of youthful enthusiam that had made Yessongs so contagious.

So the band adapted. After the Relayer tour, the members of the band went on to each cut solo albums, the most successful and renowned of which are Jon's and Chris'. In turn, they toured these albums as a group, not forgetting to include such (by-now) standbys as "Gates" and "Ritual." By this time, however, for whatever reason, Moraz had worn out his welcome and parted ways with the band. Fortunately, the band was able to pick up somebody who had been off busily making incredibly pompous albums of his own - good ole Rick Wakeman. And so the band got back to work.

One gets the feeling, though, that in patching up various hurt feelings, the band had sat down and had a long serious discussion about its musical direction. Oh, don't get me wrong - nobody wanted the band to give up prog rock all together. But that was just the thing - if the band wished to keep getting seriouser and seriouser, it would soon have to abandon rock all together and turn to fusion or something like that. And nobody wanted that (well, I guess some fans today lament that they didn't keep getting more complex, but sheez people, just because some seriousness and complexity is fine doesn't necessarily mean that MORE complexity and seriousness is always better. There's a fine line between something like, I dunno, Gentle Giant's Octopus, and GG's The Power and the Glory.). And so, the band gave up trying to prove how progressive they could be and did the most important thing they could possibly do - they brought the FUN back.

Indeed, the band finally remembered that at its heart it was essentially a "trumped-up pop group," taking solid riffs and strong hooks and embellishing them with exciting and moving arrangements. As a result, the band produced an album of incredible quality that they might not have been able to do otherwise. It's a slight step down from the glory of Relayer, and I suppose it's regrettable in the long run that the band gave up on endless progression in favor of just making a good album for then and there, but man what an album! All five tracks (ok, that doesn't seem like a lot of songs for most groups, but go back and count how many tracks were on the previous three albums and it'll all be placed in perspective) are absolute winners, and only a very slight feeling of "retreading" mars the album at all.

You want rock songs? Turn to the title track and the wonderful "Parallels." Of course, neither of these songs are in the least bit "normal" - this is still Yes we're talking about, after all. The title track, whose main feature is incredibly entertaining pedal steel work from Steve, also benefits from one of the weirdest chord progressions known to man - in other words, the initial "ack! This could be from Hee-Haw!" reaction will quickly be supressed by the proggy bits. And the lyrics, man, these are actually down-to-earth and even funny. Anderson sings (by the way, he blows through all sane limits of male upper vocal range in this song) self-mocking lines about the inpentetrability of his lyrics ("Now the verses I've sung don't add much weight to the story in my head, so I'm thinking I should go and write a punchline. But it's so hard to find in my cosmic mind, I think I'll take a look out of the window. When I think about you, I don't feel low!"), and it quickly becomes obvious that the band is no longer taking itself 100% seriously.

And "Parallels," oy, "Parallels." Apparently a reject from Squire's solo album, I think it finds a nice home with the band here. For one thing, it's driven forward by a friggin' CHURCH ORGAN (with a great main riff for it, by the way), and it has so much oomph in the sound that suddenly you find yourself in the Swiss church where Rick recorded the parts, groovin' away. And the guitar on this song, man. Man. I doubt there's any real invention from Howe on this part, but all I know is that the lightning-fast solos on here find a way to be jaw-dropping and entertaining simultaneously, not to mention that I REALLY like the tone he has here. VERY rich, with a healthy amount of reverb put on it to hook in your ears.

Want pop ballads? Go to "Turn of the Century" and "Wonderous Stories." The former has actually established itself as my favorite of the album (not a trivial statement, as it took me a long time to decide), and with good cause. The melody is very pretty, the lyrics are quite moving (based around the story of Pygmalion and Galatea, if my memory serves me correctly), and the middle portion ... oy. Rick's piano is beautifully rich in a way that words cannot do justice to, and its interaction with the guitars is nothing short of phenomenal. I struggle to find ways to describe the effect this mid-section (and the way it builds into the ending) holds on me; I can say, however, that if such a thing as newfound joy can be properly expressed in a musical medium, THIS is that medium. It's very difficult to not want to relive the reunion Roan has with his once-deceased beloved again and again.

As for "Wonderous Stories," brace yourself, but this is a 4-minute pop song. Yeah, it's slightly derivative of earlier efforts (ie "Your Move"), but how can I help it if the melody is so enjoyable? Plus, Anderson gives a cheery vocal performance of a type we haven't heard since, yup, "Time and a Word" - the lightweight hippie has re-entered his element, and seems perfectly happy to be back. Don't think the rest of the band just sulks around, though - Wakeman, you can tell, is having lots of fun on the track, even if he's not technically really doing anything THAT complex.

All this said, however, it would be unreasonable to expect a 70's Yes album at this point to lack a bonafide epic. "Awaken" apparently splits fans right down the middle - many fans adore it fanatically (and in fact, Anderson himself considers it the quintessential representation of what Yes is all about), while other fans deride it as a horridly derivative mess with no true sense or purpose. Guess which camp I belong to. No, I would never rate this above "Gates" or "CTTE" or "The Revealing Science of God." But it's a great epic piece nonetheless, one which I always look forward to at album's end and always listen to from start to finish.

Indeed, quite a few things jump out at me here every time. The piano introduction and first section, all very pretty. The main instrumental themes, not based in traditional tonal ideology, but insanely captivating nonetheless. The way it seems the instrumental themes are running every possible course while Anderson every so often pops up with lyrics that apparently reference back to Siddartha again (in fact, last I checked, Siddartha means "awakened one.") THE GUITAR SOLOS here - yeah, I know that they're based in basic chromatics and scales yadda-yadda, I don't friggin' care, it's the most spirit awakening guitar tone and playing I've probably ever heard. Seriously.

And then we have the quiet harp/organ probe, where everything suddenly stops and we have a slight cymbal call before it begins. This bores many to death, but every single person who dislikes this is WRONG, I TELL YOU, WRONG. I'm always a fan of slow builds of tension into release, especially when executed properly, and this is done incredibly well. It builds and builds and builds until it just EXPLODES after Anderson's "shall we now bid farewell! Farewell!" leads us into the triumphant organ climax. Oh, and you'd never know that simple high-pitched pedal steel pluckings here would move me so, but hey, we learn something new every day. And then, as following any good explosion, there is a brief denoument so as to allow us to catch our breath at album's end.

And that's your album. And to an extent, that's the end of 70's Yes as we know and love them. Indeed, from the first time I heard Anderson's "bid farewell" line, I felt it was more than just a capstone to the song or even to the album. I've always suspected that somehow, if only subconsciously, he knew that the magic and creative flame of 70's Yes was about to be lost forever. This is Yes as we knew them, going away in a whisp of ethereal smoke, saying goodbye in their own way. It brings a measure of sadness to me, sure, but it could only go on so long, I suppose.

Damn good run, though. Damn good album too. Hit #1 for two weeks, and deserved it for sure.

Send me your thoughts

Geoff (bala5@ihug.co.nz)

Going for the One was the second 'Yes' album I bought after 'Classic Yes'. I bought the album from a second hand records store and since I bought just a few weeks ago it was very cheap. (no-on wants records anymore) In fact I am the only person in my year to have a record player (I am 16). I found Yes through mp3s so I downloaded some of there songs and became and instant fan. The title song 'Going for the One' is outstanding, full of energy and has Jon Anderson brilliant singing throughout the song. Parallels is my favorite as well. It strikes me as being one of the best songs of all time. I was only disapointed by the song Wonderous Stories it was the one song I disliked from the album and my "classic yes" album. My friends did not want to listen to any yes but I assured them they don't know what they are missing. It seems I am the only person in my school to like 'Yes'.

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

This is the only Yes album I still don't know if I like or not. Part of my trouble may be due to the blurred reverb-heavy sound with nothing cutting through the speakers, since I'm a confirmed echo-phobic. As a result, I find the overall soudscape cold and rigid. As for the songs, sure they concentrated on them but with no particular overall approach that I can figure out. On one hand, we have carefully constructed ("Wonderous Stories") or deconstructed ("Going For The One", "Parallels") pieces, and honestly the second category fails to do anything for me, probably due to the mellow production not being suited at all. I always imagine how these could have sounded like with the TYA/Fragile production approach. Too bad. On the other hand, "Turn Of The Century" and "Awaken" I can only describe as "sound paintings". And I like them to death. It's very difficult to put it into words, but both seem, contrary to everything they had done up to that point, not thought out or planned at all, just very powerful emotional streams born out of nowhere. When first listening to "Awaken" (on KEYS but no matter), I thought this was the strangest thing I had ever heard. A totally esoteric mix of chantings, atmospherics, odd-metered guitar epileptics, pompous stop-and-go everywhere, ALL possible chords thrown in randomly with no measure at all. What was that? Sure it's the worse of prog rock condensed in 18 mn? But, but, that creeping feeling of ascension until everything explodes high above in the stratosphere really made all this mess somewhat intriguing. Sure something was happening there. I kept listening to it again and again trying to understand, and, inevitably, I was hooked. That's probably what draws me to a particular group: something which shouldn't work on paper, but it does and I can't even explain why.

Nick Karn (glassmoondt@yahoo.com)

As much as I'd love to agree with you here, I really can't. The biggest problem I have with this album is the production - it's kinda noisy and messy like Relayer, but unlike that album Jon Anderson's vocals get buried often (maybe that's why George likes it - ha!), and the rest of the instruments sometimes seem to blend into each other a little too much. And the second half of the album really doesn't do much for me at all - "Wonderous Stories" just seems like a much less interesting version of the first half of "Good People", and the epic "Awaken" has some good dramatic moments, and is pretty good overall, but a 15 minute epic oughta be more than that as far as I'm concerned, and it's nowhere near as captivating as the Yes epics of the past - as such, I always wish it was over by the 9th or 10th minute.

I still think it's a really good album, though, because the first half is awesome. The title track has an interesting song structure and intro (plus a truly terrific ending), and "Turn Of The Century" is quite possibly my favorite Yes song thus far - absolutely one of the most moving songs I've probably ever heard by anyone, and it's more complex than it seems. "Parallels" certainly has Rick Wakeman's church organ playing going for it, and it's kinda catchy, although just a little too noisy. Because of the second half and the weak production, though, I'm gonna have to rate this a high 7 (11 on the overall scale), a little lower than the classic Yes albums.

(author's note): Yep, strangely enough, there are a very large number of Yes fans who consider this a step down from the group's previous work. Personally, though, I have never even come close to getting tired of Awaken. There's just something about that quiet organ/harp probe (I love the idea of harps being used in any kind of rock music) that runs chills up and down my spine, and the guitar solos in conjunction with the weird chord progressions rock my puny little world.

As for the general 'messiness' of the album, well, I'll never really understand that. To my ears, Relayer is much more 'messy'. Here, the 'wall-of-sound' effect is much more clearly produced, at least to my ears.

Steve Giali (sgiali@mieleusa.com)

I have been a fan of yes for some 24 years been to many shows, have most of the records, even had alan white's solo record for a time.  By far there is no record in my collection that equals GFTO.  The CD it is even better because in seems to flow as one.  Having read one of the yes books, the writer spoke of most people close to Yes, saw the eras just after this as down hill, I see this as the peak of creativity and beauty that no other recording or band  can match.  The band since this time has done very little material that I wouldn't care if you stole from my collection, however, this one I have loved and will love till I die.  Because of this record, these guys, no matter how dim their creative bulb gets, I still will try to see them and support them because of this work.  I was so overwhelmed with side one with GFTO, Turn of the Century and Parallels, that I did not turn the album over for side 2 for about 10 days.  When I did oh my! I had a chance to meet with R. Wakeman and ask him why it seems the band is overwhelmed after playing Awaken, his response was it is truly a magical experience for them, like no other.  It is for me as well.  This was the end of the golden age of creativity, and based on over 20 years of odd live outings, mixed up members and what not, will never reoccur, oh well!   If this is not one of your favorites, then I can say only one thing, you missed the one!

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com)

Excellent record! This is one of my favorite Yes records. Although this record is "commercial", this is Yes we're talking about. They sure keep things interesting on this! Each song has its own identity on this record.

The title track is simply awesome with great steel guitar throughout (I must be honest; the "awkward hoedown" caught me off guard the first time I heard it too!) "Turn of the Century", for lack of better words, is just beautiful. I get my kicks out of "Parallels" due to Wakeman's driving church organ riff, as well as Howe's guitar. "Wondrous Stories" does not offend me at all, while "Awaken" is a bit bizarre (do I sense effects of "Relayer" when Howe plays?), but brilliantly played.

Very thoughtful record. 10 out of 10.

TheRubberCow@aol.com (1/08/02)

It sure is hard to pick a best Yes album, and although I want to say this is it, it's hard to deny the classic Fragile and Close To the Edge.  But I think I have at least decided that this album sounds the best.  "Turn of the Century" and "Wonderous Stories" are so beautiful!  A lot of this is due to Steve Howe, with his very creative lead work at the end of the latter, always one of my favorite guitar things is the octave jumps he does here.  And the way his lush classical lays against Wakeman's soft backdrop in "Turn" is, well ..better heard than decribed.  And there is some very creative and intriguing stuff going on in "Awaken", especially during the AWAKENGENTLEMASSTOUCH part.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/29/02)

Almost a reversion to "Fragile", with the epic songs leavened with shorter, less demanding peices - and not necessarily the worse for it (although I am a big fan of the more adventurous Yes pieces, and music in general - hence my love of ELP, Genesis, King Crimson, Chicago circa 1969 - 1972 [some great stuff there, don't just think of them as ballad rubbish, go and check this period of their career out!] etc) "Awaken" is the best, see my review of "Close To The Edge". All of these songs are great though.

"Fernando H. Canto" (sirmustapha@ig.com.br) (2/26/03)

I just wanted to make a little remark on Awaken, because it seems there are *lots* of people that "hated the song at first, but then it slowly grew on them", and I'm one of them. I don't know if this was Yes's intention or not, but this IS a song to GROW on you. At first, it will be a complete mess, but slowly, it will make sense, and you'll grow addicted to it. It's probably the most unusual Yes epic, because its structure is different from anything else Yes has ever tried. The structure is... weird, I can't even explain it. And that final section with that seemingly random chord sequence is really challenging and engaging. The song can be very tiring at first, but it grows. What's weird is that many people feel this way about it, too. That's quite remarkable.

Oh, yeah, all other songs are great. PARALLELS!! It rules! I agree with the 9 (13).

Adrian Rush (arush@nd.edu) (3/12/03)

Nothing to do with the _Going for the One_ album per se, but a clarification. You say that Siddhartha means "awakened one." Actually, that's what the word "Buddha" means. It's easy to confuse the two, since Siddhartha was the given name of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama of the Sakya clan) in addition to the character in Hesse's book who himself meets the Buddha and becomes enlightened.

Great point about Jon singing "Farewell, farewell." Maybe he really did sense the end of the glory days was near at hand. That'll make me listen differently from now on.

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (7/06/03)

Let me start out by saying that I've never been a big fan of Awaken. It's pretty good for the first five minutes or so, but then starts to drag in the middle, and I often lost interest before its grand conclusion. Not a bad track, but not great either.

Now having said that, I consider Going for the One to be one of Yes' best albums. The fact that I don't particularly care for a song that takes up 40% of the album should tell you something about what I think of the other four songs. Turn of the Century is probably my favourite Yes song. Howe's beautiful acoustic guitar, Anderson's angelic vocal delivery capped off by Wakeman's organ during the reunion of Roan with his wife should drive any man to tears. I loved this song before I knew what it was about, and the subject matter just added to the beauty, making it an incredible sound painting. Wondrous Stories isn't much worse, with Anderson coming up with yet another short perfect melody and vocal delivery. Some say it's a rip-off of Your Move-maybe so but I love that one too, so count me happy. Not quite as good, but still fabulous is the title track with its more down to earth lyrics, rockabilly guitar and unearthly high singing making it another of my favourites. Finally Parallels is a rocking unspectacular tune that is just fine as far as I'm concerned. Overall, I give GFTO a 9 (14). Well done boys!

Trfesok@aol.com (11/15/05)

It's enjoyable, but I don't quite worship it like a lot of Yes-fans. It took me a long time to get into "Turn of the Century" and "Awaken". The very unstructured melody of the former didn't really turn me at first. It actually took hearing  the gorgeous versions performed by Renaissance singer Annie Haslam (a studio one performed with Howe and an incredible live version where she's accompanied only by a solo piano) for me appreciate it. And I do think the middle section of "Awaken" doesn't have quite enough musical ideas to justify its length. Filler this time, I'm afraid. But the three shorter tracks are great. Anderson's mysticism is better in short bursts like "Wonderous Stories". The chord sequence in "Parallels" is actually very simple, but the track moves along wonderfully, sort of a throwback to TYA.  The title track is a riot, too, thanks to Steve's steel guitar.

  The main problem for me is that the album is, by previous standards, recorded poorly. Particularly the keyboards. The church organ sounds were transmitted via telephone to the studio, and sound like it. The piano and especially the Polymoog are way too far back in the mix. I suspect this is because this was their first self-produced album.  The power and warmth that Eddie Offord provided (even to the disaster of TFTO) is missing. For this reason, I prefer the live versions of these, the only album besides CTTE where you can get legit liver versions of every track. However, they didn't necessarily learn from their production experience, judging by what was to come next.

Pedro Andino (pedroandino@msn.com) (08/02/07)

what a sweet and beautiful album. sadly I say this and drama and 90125 are the last good yes albums that I will buy let me get the run down. going for the one is a crazy tune with the pedal steel guitar and high vocals. turn of the century is a beautiful tune. the way the acoustic guitar sighs and swoons is just heartbreaking. I must use this song for an animated musical but without talking. song 3 is a loud, brash rocker worthy of an electric guitar solo. song 4 is a gentle song about a dreamer he of fantasy drifts into space. I play this song to my son who is just been born. awaken is a long song and again I will use this song for an animated musical and also there are multiple sections and everything blends into one emotion and style from slow and quiet to fast and loud to theatrical to cosmic and ethereal and back again. man, what a song. it's too bad they had to destroy themselves with tomato!!. from a beautiful woman to an immature child, eh what can you do. 13/15.

Mark Nieuweboer (ismaninb@teacher.com) (02/13/10)

Back to basics! So the Yesgeeks dislike it, especially the title song and Wonderous Stories. They belong to the very best in Yes' catalogue. Form is simple and effective in both cases. Yes finally has learned - from Uriah Heep? compare Traveller in Time - to unite several melodies in one song. So verse and chorus are not separated anymore. GftO (the song) is a hilarious interpretation of Southern Boogie; eg Lynyrd Skynyrd. Wonderous Stories essentially is a cheesy pianobased ballad. The arrangement is gorgeous and inventive. This is how Candle in the Wind should have been composed. I am less impressed by Parallels and Turn of the Century - they haven't made it to my post-Yessongs compilation - but I agree that every true Yesfan should own them.

The big problem is Awaken, probably because it's the most pretentious one. It took me twice to get it, once again not because it's complicated, but because form is such a mess. A coda is meant to end a song. So what does Yes do? They place it in the middle. Probably Awaken is meant as a three-parted symphony, but then the three parts should have been separated more clearly. Or maybe Yes tried to compose Awaken through, in which case the coda is completely misplaced.

The second and third part of Awaken are complete failures. We get some more Wakeman navel-gazing. The last part tries to end several times, but then the band realizes that it has to fill another minute and decides to plod on. It has all the problems of Topographic Oceans condensed in a few minutes. But the first part rules - well, almost. Wakeman needs to prove that he can paraphraze Mozart. Sure he can, his piano introduction is beautiful. But what is it doing there? What sense does it make? You see, after this introduction we get another introduction, this time by Anderson. Essentially it's rework from Topographic Oceans' intro, but an improved one. For one thing it is shorter but has not less musical ideas. It fluently transfers in the main part, based on Howe's excellent riff. Sure, we have heard the trick octave up, octave down before, but it works. After it we get the 3/4 bar coda and there the band should have stopped. It is were I have cut the song. Call me a barbarian, I don't care. What I have is a good hardrock song lasting almost 7 minutes. I have left in Wakeman's piano introduction for two reasons: its beauty and to remind me of Yes' serious problems with form.

All in all Going for the One is a good album, despite its flaws. It should be mentioned that Anderson's voice has improved considerably in those three years since Relayer. It has become more clear since Yessongs and lost its shrillness. Most important though is that Anderson finally incorporates expression in his singing. That makes Wonderous Stories loveable and the title song great fun. It should also be mentioned that the album shows Howe at his very best. He has taken over Blackmore's esthetical values, ie he makes his guitar sing. The styles have hardly anything in common though and that is a big plus as well as it shows Howe's independency.

---

Listen In Time - Bootleg
8

Best song: I'm not sure, I can't hear anything

Sweet merciful crap, this bootleg's sound quality SUCKS. I mean, I know that when you're going for Recordings Of Indeterminate Origin, you have to be willing to accept a few blemishes in the sound, but this is utterly ridiculous. The instruments are distinguishable from each other, and there aren't any major problems in volume shifts, but everything is marred by an utterly maddening level of hiss and fuzziness covering everything.

The blow is made all the more fierce by the fact that, by many accounts, the GFTO tour was the best that Yes ever did, and in the few moments where the band becomes perfectly audible, this assertation is backed up severely. The band is utterly on fire throughout, combining unbelievable energy and enthusiasm levels with total crispness and technical flawlessness. The setlist is fairly by-the-numbers (all five GFTO tracks, old standards like "CTTE," "ISAGP," "AYAI" and the ever-present "Starship Trooper" and "Roundabout"), but they still find a way to make the numbers seem exceedingly fresh.

And besides, it's not as if the setlist is completely devoid of unpredictability. Between "AYAI" and "Turn of the Century," Jon serenades the audience with a short ditty called "The Colours of the Rainbow." It's hardly complex or anything like that, but that's not the point - it lightens the mood and freshens up the show, keeping the momentum of the set rolling along. And later, we get a short acoustic piece from Steve's recent solo album called "Ram," after which the band breaks into a prelude to "Awaken" that consists of some excerpts from the middle, "floating" portion of the piece (I actually seem to recall that on some shows of the tour, this was referred to as "Flight Jam").

Other than that, well, everything is what you'd expect a great Yes performance to be. It's a shame, then, that it takes maddening effort to be able to distinguish it as such, and it only fuels my desire to find a GFTO show that at least makes an EFFORT at alright sound quality.

Send me your thoughts

---

Classic Yes - 1981 Atlantic
C

Best song: It's a compilation

Send me your thoughts

Paul Alexander Bartlett (4pab@qsilver.queensu.ca)

While I don't like compilations... I really like the live versions of Roundabout and All Good People included with this album. Not the tightest playing, but full of energy. I keep wishing they'd do the solo section of All Good People the way they do it on this version.

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

Alas, it's got "The Fish". As for the live versions, they are OK, very tight, but hardly the best available. "All Good People" is interesting for the members presentation at the end (cliche but it's OK), but I still do not understand why "Roundabout" misses the harmonics intro.

Trfesok@aol.com (02/16/08)

It's a bit odd that their two biggest singles up to that point were presented live here by Chris, but there you go. They're from two separate European shows on the Tormato tour, and I agree, they've done better. "Your Move/All Good People", as usual, was the last show of the set proper. On "All Good People", Jon does a Las Vegas sort of introduction of each member of the band, followed by a "mini solo" from each of them. Rather corny, but fun. However, no live version of "Your Move" could replicate the gorgeous multitracked harmonies of the studio version, so this is hardly the definitive version of the song. As for the encore, "Roundabout", they sound like they're doing it just because they have to. Steve's intro is cut out, and the arrangement is uninspired. I actually saw the band earlier in the tour, and I remember that performance to be much better. Anyway, these versions aren't available elsewhere, but unless you can get a cheap copy, this compilation is nowadays only for completists.  There are much better now on the market.

---

Tormato - 1978 Atlantic
6

Best song: Onward

Send me your thoughts

Confus1997@aol.com

what are you talking about? on the silent wings of freedom is one of my favorite yes songs!! the keyboard work, the drumming, the bass work! are you deaf? it is definatly the best yes song under 10 minutes by far. when you hear jon sing "on the silent wings of freedom" you get goosebumps all over.. wake up!!

(author's note): Unfortunately, the song has three big problems. First of all, Anderson's lyrics, rather than hitting the mystical etheriality that always made them work, come dangerously close to hitting Tony Banks-ish levels of bombastic juvenilia. 'Silent Wings of Freedom'? Please. Sounds more like Kansas to me.

Second of all, just like on the rest of the album, there are too many notes being played. I know that sounds like a strange thing to say about a group like Yes, but on previous albums, everybody in the group knew and mostly embraced their roles. In other words, they recognized that while they could still be technically impressive, somebody would still have to 'hold down the fort' in some way. However, on this song in particular, it sounds like EVERYBODY'S TRYING TO SOLO AT ONCE. And that just doesn't work. Really, there's virtually no cohesion in this song.

Oh, and the third problem with the song is that by the end, it has completely run out of the steam it had in the beginning.

Nick Zales (zales@execpc.com)

'Of course, there are people who actually like this album. Whatever. There's a name for these people, and the name is "fruitcakes." '

Yawn! The word for the day is the reviewer is BORING with his head up his Chris Squire doll's ......

Cleophus63@aol.com

Clearly as reviewer you take yourself far too seriously.

(author's note): That's why I'm here. Hee. If you don't like it, make your own site.

Your mind is closed and rigid.

(author's note): Perhaps, but at the same time, if one's mind is too open, his brains can fall out.

If you read the lyrics of say "Release,Release" a great, high energy R + R song,you would understand in the context of the time the song was written, the doors were being closed and the song is a wakeup for people enlightened in the '60's to not let the doors shut.

(author's note): You listen to Yes songs for lyrics??? Wow ... In any case, as interesting as the lyrics may be, it doesn't hide the fact that I just don't like the actual music of the thing, right down to the idiotic drum solo near the end.

Release,Release, Silent Wings of Freedom and Onward are wonderful songs that show the variety of depth that Yes has. Too bad your elitist views can't allow you to let the artists have the freedom to roam and explore, than conform to your almighty standard.

(author's note): Don't you people actually read my reviews? For one thing, I praised Onward - it's the best song on the album, after all. It's beautiful.

And elitist my ass. Have you ever met a true Yes elitist? The kind that won't listen to anything the band did after Relayer (if that late)? If I were an 'elitist' there is no way I would enjoy Going For the One as much as I do, nor 90125, nor Open Your Eyes (Yes, I like that album! Ha!)

Next caller please ....

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

OK, here Chris totally sucks for me. The material is not that bad, but generally he fucks it up totally with his "cat-gone-through-a-mixer" lines all over the place. There was a good idea at least in the ascending triplets of "Circus Of Heaven", but what does he do with it? Oh my God, he'd been so busy concentrating on fast riffing for all these years that he never actually cared to make the notes speak for themselves, and the result is a total disaster. Flat, ridiculous, any beginner would do better with this. Ok, I'll stop with him. In fact, I must confess I listen to this album more often than other ones. I suppose it has something to do with the overall relaxed and humorous atmosphere making for an interesting diversion in their discography. As for the actual songs, apart from the unbearable (IMO) random cacophonous "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom" (gone through a mixer, really!), none is really good, but none is really bad either. Just plain mean. I don't have any problem with Rick's keyboards, at least he's having more fun than on TFTO. And even if it may sound out of place on a Yes album, "Don't Kill The Whale" is nevertheless an interesting pop song. On the up side, I like "Release, Release", "Future Times/Rejoice" and the first part of "Circus", on the down side, "Madrigal" is too short to really develop its potential and "Onward" sounds a little lifeless. And "Arriving UFO", what is this? I really feel Jon is serious about the aliens, but Rick mocks him with his weird arrangements. Anyone agrees?

"Anzalone, Philip" (Philip.Anzalone@viacom.com)

How can you say you are a Yes fan and not like this album,I love every song here and would rank it right near the top of all Yes albums. Onward was my wedding song and I feel this is the kind of album you definitely put on and leave on for the duration.

Terry Shea (sheaterry@earthlink.net)

I think you need to give this album another listen and don't listen to it on an old scratched vinyl copy with cheap headphones! This is one of my favorite Yes albums. The only thing that really makes it suffer is 2 very weak tracks that should have been left off:Circus of Heaven and Onward(the live version on KTA is far superior). The rest of the album is phenomenal, and the songs all complement each other and yet provide a nice contrast too. I love Wakeman's playing on this album. On The Silent Wings Of Freedom may be the best track Yes has ever done! I have never heard a bass guitar sound like this before-esepecially in the intro. I love how the lead parts keep changing between the bass, guitar and keyboards while still maintaining the flow of the song. The only negative on this song is White's drumming. I'm not real crazy about it. Can you imagine if Bruford had played on this track? The other trac! ! ks may not be quite as good, but how could they be? What have you been listening to this on anyway? A Close'n'Play?

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com)

I really waited for a while before I bought "Tormato". I now know why.

Let's start with the positive points. Some songs do work on this record. "Future Times" actually is decent (despite poisonous synth tones...). "Madrigal" although short, is still pretty (the harpsichord works!). Finally, "Onward" has to be the best song on this album, although simple in form. But, that's its charm. It has a creepy quality among it, too. Also, most of "Release, Release" is engaging (even given a dopey drum solo with cheers!!). "Arriving UFO" especially before the UFO takes off, and the beginning portion of "On the Silent Wings of Freedom" contain great passages.

Now, for the negatives. Corny synth tones (more consistently and worse than those in "Wind and Wuthering"?). Out of place base guitar effects! Too much soloing; they're out of place!! And some of the song arrangements are downright bad/cheesy:"Arriving UFO" (first 2/3), latter half of "On the Silent Wings of Freedom". Finally, some of the lyrics, although unintelligible in the past, become downright silly "Don't Kill the Whale" (most of the music in this I acutually don't mind)!

Very inconsistent. A high 6 out of 10. The end of the classic Yes period. (But, I count "Drama" era as distinct from Yes-West!)

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/29/02)

Wha'happen??? So soon after the triumph of "GFTO" came this thoroughly unadverturous, often downright silly, album. Not their worst (only "Union" could EVER get that dishonour!) but pretty bad. Best of a bad bunch? "Madrigal" is nice, despite what some have said, I don't mind "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom", at least instrumentally they are stretching the wings a little. "Circus Of Heaven" is just irritating.

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (7/06/03)

Wow, I really disagree with you on this album. I love Tormato. I applaud the boys for trying something different. Both the sound and lyrics are more down to earth than any album since probably the debut. But that doesn't make it bad!

The album gets off to a tremendous start with Future Times/Rejoice, a wonderful tune that always gets me moving my feet. White's drumming really moves this track along nicely leading up to the beautiful Rejoice finale. I consider it the best on the album, and one of their best of all time-why isn't this song considered a Yes classic? Madigral is also wonderfully pretty with Wakeman's perfect choice to use a harpsichord that add's to the beauty. Cirucs of Heaven is some of Anderson's best singing ever, and I'll never tire of the first part of the song (I admit the second part is weaker-although the spoken part of Anderson's son doesn't offend me. I'm all for a bit of humour). Release Release rocks nicely and I always enjoy hearing it. Arriving UFO has a nice vocal melody with slightly over the top instrumentation, but I like it nonetheless. Don't Kill the Whale is a nice short dance song and Onward is a pretty if unmemorable ballad. Finally the one song I do agree with you is weak is the closing On the Silent Wings of Freedom. To me, it's the only weak song on the album for the reasons you mentioned.

Overall I give Tormato an 8 (12). It's just a great feel-good album that shows Yes lightening up and experimenting a bit. I always look forward to putting it on. As for your complaints, I just don't agree. Anderson came up with beautiful melodies on almost every track here (except for maybe OTSWOF). The arrangements are just fine, maybe going over the top a bit on Release Release and Arriving UFO. But even there, I don't think it ruins the songs. Finally, Anderson's voice sounds just fine, and is a highlight on FT/R, Madigral, and COH. I think this album clearly shows the classic Yes line-up can be just as good without side-long tracks, pretension, or mystical lyrics.

"Eden, Scott C Mr (Contractor) MONROE" (scott.eden1@us.army.mil) (4/21/04)

I have always really liked this album.  Clearly it is not in the same vein as some of their earlier works.  However, when I listen to it, I'm not comparing it to other albums.  I'm listening to it as is and as such I really like it.  I would hands down take this over Yes' first two albums.  Indeed, it would feature higher in my than personal rankings than TYA and Fragile, though each of those have some incredible songs on them (A Venture, Perpetual Change, and South Side...).  I find Tormato to be fresher sounding than their first four albums.  There is something about the sound and feel of this album that I really like and feel at home with.  Maybe that is the important part with music.  The feeling an album gives us plays as much of a role in our appreciation of it as the songs themselves, if that makes sense.  Maybe it has to do with the time in our lives when we first heard a piece of music and the feelings we have about our life at that point.  For me, and many others, this album closes the book on the true Yes period.  That may play a role in my liking this album as much as I do.  It was their swan song and it brought a sense of closure that I may not have felt if they called it quits after GFTO.  Having heard the music from the Paris sessions that followed the 1979 tour, the band made the right decision to break up.  If you do not like Tormato, your opinion may change if you heard the Paris stuff. 

Though I really like Tormato, I think Yes was on a downhill slide as a live group from 1975 onward.  I would take any live recording from 71-Sept through 1974 over any post 1974 period.  The Tormato tour was pretty weak, though I would say the same thing for 1975 onward - increasingly so as the years went by.

[ Note however that I am not the typical fan.  I think Starship Trooper, I've Seen All Good People, and Roundabout are pretty lame.  As such, my opinion may differ drastically from yours. ]

Trfesok@aol.com (11/15/05)

I like about half of it. I saw the band for the first time about three weeks before the album was released, so I have a slightly more favorable impression. "Release, Release" was an excellent live number and went down well with the crowd, although I do think the studio version is somewhat contrived, with that corny crowd overdub particularly. I do disagree about "On the Silent Wings of Freedom." This song songs closest, to my ears, to older Yes. I actually enjoy Chris's bass jam at the beginning. "Don't Kill the Whale" is a catchy pop/rock song. I don't really think it sounds like disco, and Rick's Polymoog sounds (indeed an attempt to simulate the cry of a humpback whale) are at least appropriate in this case. "Madrigal" is lovely musically, if quite overwordy for a 2 minute song.  And "Onward" is great, I agree, if you don't find Steve's scratchy guitar lines annoying.

  On the other hand, the other half of the album represents a new low in Yes songwriting. "Future Times/Rejoice" is pretty monotonous, actually. "Circus of Heaven" is incredibly childish, stupid and embarrassing. "Arriving UFO" is equally childish, but has the added "bonus" of being a total musical mess. These latter two are worse than anything on Union, as far as I'm concerned.

  I also agree that none of this is helped by the production. I also find is very cold and stark, with Alan's drums in particular sounding very flat. I don't mind Chris's bass so much, but Rick's over-reliance on his squeaky Polymoog instead of his Hammond organ is really annoying. You mention that all of the musicians seem out of control.  I would also add that Anderson's lyrics are also pretty over the top, with him trying to crowd in as many lyrics into songs like "Madrigal" and "Release, Release" as there are in "Close to the Edge" or "The Gates of Delirium"!  Howe's "Abilene," from the same sessions, is just as unfocused as the rest of the album. I blame a lot of this of, again, the decision to self-produce this thing. Eddie Offord would have (maybe) gotten them to not overdo it so much and provided a much better sound to the album. I do find it hard to believe that the remaster solves the problem, and it certainly doesn't repair some of the hideous songwriting.

Eric Benac (sonicdeath10@hotmail.com) (04/25/06)

Don't forget the ridiculous album art and title. This is Yes's worst album of the 70's, and it's really hard to see why when you consider the albums just before and after: Going for The One, their best "normal" album and Drama their hardest, darkest, sometimes strangest album. Drama shows them adapting to new wave quite well. Why is Tormato so weak? Lack of direction; I've read most of the Close To The Edge book and basically nobody was really telling anybody what to do in the band. The problem mostly lied with the fact that Jon wasn't telling people what to do; he was called "Napoleon" by the band in the studio for being such a task master. He decided to step back and give the band more room to breath. Which was problematic, because without a controlling force (and Anderson was the controling force of the band for it's career) the band simply weren't sure what to do. Jon was the person who not only cooked up the vocal melodies, themes, and lyrics, he also pointed to the general direction of each album. Which is why (like you so astutley point out) it sounds like free jazz playing over pop tunes.

Another problem was antagonism betweens Steve and Rick. Rick was always a bit of the outcast in the group; a meat eating drinking christian in a group of vegetarian pot head pagans. While they could usually meet musically, Steve and Rick suddenly could make no decisions on arrangments. Rick had recently picked up some polymoogs and they're responsible for the ridiculous tones of the synths on this album. Rick has ALWAYS had a problem with making his digital synths sound decent. He's better when sticking to analogue style synths. Digital synths just drown his creativity when it comes to tones.

Steve also seemed to have lost his ability to solo; sure, he plays really fast on this album constantly, but to what purpose? None of it is memorable. This is the problem Steve has had for the rest of his career after this album. So basically, Rick had his ridiculous tones and Steve was losing his soloing ability. And for whatever reason they just could not figure out the way to arrange these songs. Whatever Rick suggested, Steve hated and vice versa. So it basically sounds like Alan and Chris pounded out the rhytmn tracks (I'm not even touching the awful tone of Chris's bass; it speaks for itself). And then Steve and Rick came in (seperately, most likely) and just soloed over top. Then Jon came in, smiling, letting his little newly free band do what they like, and began singing his mediocre vocal melodies over top. During this period he lost his song writing ability for some reason. I think he gets it back at 90125 and onwards with a few exceptions (UNION) but here he's spotty at best. I enjoy Future Times; it has some energy that is quite entertaining. I love Don't Kill The Whale simply because it is so cheesy and silly. I find it catchy, but in a dumb way, but I simply don't hate it at all. Madrigal and Onward are the best songs; they're so simple, and so simply arranged it would be hard to mess them up. The simple melodies shine quite well. Release, Release is Yes trying to write a rock song, failing, but making a lumpy sporadically entertaining mess out of it. Arriving UFO makes me laugh; I love the band playing on that one. I know the arrangments and tones are cheesy as hell, but the band kicks up a real true storm on the song, so I don't mind. Sure, it's probably the dumbest song the band recorded (before Circus of Heaven) but it's fun.

Circus Of Heaven is, to me, the flat out worst song Yes did in their career. Worse than most of the crap on Union (which is mostly just alarmingly mediocre; so many mediocre songs in a row is hard on the skull). Nothing redeeming about the song at all; horrible arrangments with no melodies, ridiculous lyrics about nothing, and a flat out stupid monologue by Anderson's son. Yes's low point.

On The Silent Wings of Freedom has some decent energy at times, horrible lyrics and tones, some decent melodies, but is easily the worst Yes-epic ever recorded (does it even count as a Yes-epic?)

The remaster fixes the horrible sound of the original to the point where the entire album is at least listenable in it's occasional dumbness. I would have given the original 6 points and the remaster 7 simply because while I see the horrible flaws of songs like On The Silent Wings of Freedom and Circus of Heaven, most of it is at least listenable, and occasionally gets my energy up. However, the fact that every Yes album before this was mind expanding and completley brilliant almost from start to finish makes this album a huge let down. While, at their best, Yes is transcendental, at their best on Tormato they're "fun" which is, of course, a tragedy. Fixed by Drama, though. Love that album.

Bret Williams (tigerguy@gmail.com) (12/02/07)

Hey there...I trolled the 'net today looking for some guitar TAB for Release Release off of the Tormato album and found your aswesome review page. I must admit to be in disagreement with your review of Tormato. The opening track is fairly classic Yes as well as the fantastic unsung gem Release, Release. But putting our differences aside, I was wondering if you could help me locate some TAB to Release, Release. I absolutely love that song and wondered if anybody had transcribed it anywhere. I'll have to muddle through on my own but I won't be able to get any of the difficult stuff figured out on my own. Thanks again!

Mark Nieuweboer (ismaninb@teacher.com) (02/13/10)

I don't know this album entirely. Based on the comments of even the ardent fans I think I don't need to. Most appreciated song is Onward. I think it's an overlong remake of Wonderous Stories, ie superfluous. I quite like Don't kill the Whale though. Sure, it's a weaker rewrite of Going for the One. Still it's good enough. The secret is the shift of accent every first beat of the bar. Black Sabbath has done the same with the song Never say Die and it has the same effect. Not great, just nice.

---

Circus Of Heaven - Bootleg
A

Best song: Medley

Yes may have just put out the weakest album of its career (to that point, anyway), but the ensuing tour showed that the band still had it where it counted. This bootleg (though you'd hardly think so - the sound quality is GREAT, so much so you'd think it was an official release), taken from the group's '79 Quebec City show, shows the band with unbridled energy and reckless abandon to a degree never again found on subsequent tours (certainly NOT at the SLO shows several years later). The energy and intensity level is so high, in fact, that I can almost forgive the fact that the loss of taste in arrangements shown by Squire and Wakeman on Tormato finds its way here; the stupid bass tone remains, as do the plastic-sounding synths, and they certainly have an adverse effect. On the other hand, Howe shows an insane amount of spastic energy while keeping some level of focus, and that's enough to help things as a whole.

Anyhoo, the setlist (with one major exception) is fairly standard, with the band liberally providing a good mix of new and old for their audience. The Tormato material, unfortunately, does not particularly improve in concert - "Future Times" and "Circus of Heaven" simmer at a decent level, and "Don't Kill the Whale" almost works as a diversion, but "Silent Wings" shows the band running out of creative ideas by the end at an even more alarming level than on the studio version. This is NOTHING but mindless, empty jamming, only with nothing innovative or truly creative to jump out and suck in the listener. What a drag.

The older material, on the other hand, makes good use of the band's energy and vigor, and as a result some of the versions are as good as anything in the Yes live canon. "Starship Trooper," in fact, may well be the very best rendition of this track found in any release, official or unofficial, as Howe improvises a wildass solo while even Wakeman's cheezy synths manage to come to life here. "Siberian Khatru" and "Heart of the Sunrise," which open the show, also indicate an exceptionally high level of intensity, as if the band members were getting pissed off at each other (which they probably were) and wanted to take it out on each other by whupping the others into the ground. On the one hand, this doesn't give quite as much cohesion as one might like, which causes the "SK" version to fall slightly short of the version from the Tales tour, but on the other, Howe is just THE MAN on these, so I'm not gonna complain too harshly. Add in solid renditions of "Awaken" (albeit slightly marred by the less organic-sounding keyboards) and the expected "ISAGP" and "Roundabout," and the show fills out nicely.

However, I do not recommend seeking out this or another Tormato-era bootleg because of the expected aspects. No, the reason I recommend this is the utterly brilliant 26-minute medley smack dab in the middle. See, in addition to being the Tormato tour, the band also hyped this as their 10-year anniversary tour, and the band took the opportunity to smoosh some of its more esoteric material together. So after the band runs through Time and a Word, they immediately break into "Long Distance Runaround," which in turn segues into "The Fish." But it's NOT just a showcase for Squire - instead, we essentially get a group version of "The Fish," with Howe and Wakeman chiming in some of the necessary harmonics, and the jamming commences. Amidst the jamming, however, Jon sings some lines from "Survival" (!!!!), the band throws in some bits from "Ritual," and then they break into "Perpetual Change!" Even then, though, things aren't straight-forward - Jon messes with the verses, sticking lyrics into iterations of the verse melody where they don't belong, and even though you know the song is basically being done the same as usual, you immediately sense that things aren't quite right. Finally, then, the band manages to gradually turn the PC jamming into the triumphant instrumental passage leading into "Soon" from "Gates," and we close things out with Jon serenading us like only he can.

As you can tell, then, while it does have its problems, you'll want to find a bootleg from this tour, if only for the best parts. At the very least, this is the last time you'll hear Yes showing this much invention in rebuilding its songs for live performance, and that's enough.

Send me your thoughts

bsitting@mail.math.ucsb.edu (9/10/02)

It is very interesting to hear this band still emit this much energy in the verge of their breakup, and yet the songs still come off so well. In particular, Steve Howe is on fire throughout this concert, like on "Siberian Khatru", "Perpetual Change" (part of the Medley), and "Starship Trooper". Despite those synths, I can't decide if this version or the "Keys" version represents the best "Wurm" between Howe and Wakeman I have heard up to this point. Oh, and the Medley was a blast! Overall, the "Tormato" material didn't change that much though Howe is much more intense on "Don't Kill the Whale". "On the Silent Wings of Freedom" has a sightly better intro, though the ending does sag a bit. Overall: 9(12), as a sign that "Tormato" didn't translate into the band's 'fall' in concert!!

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Drama - 1980 Atlantic
A

Best song: Tempus Fugit or Does It Really Happen?

Send me your thoughts

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

My main problem with this album is that, had they tried to find their own vocal style instead of trying very hard to stick on the Yes formula, it would have been a killer. But Steve confessed Chris and himself wanted to put all that made Yes on one album, and as a result, the very identifiable vocal harmonies of TYA/Fragile/CTTE make a prominent comeback, at the risk of sounding cliche. And this is where the album sucks. Not being offended at all by the "I Am A Camera" line, I really think "Into The Lens" is the only cut where Trevor sings in his own range and style (not overly impressive though), whereas the rigid, lifeless, robotic vocal harmonies of "Does It Really Happen?" and "Tempus Fugit" are really not convincing at all. Given this and the fact that Chris is all over the place once again, I would probably hate this album if I didn't find "Machine Messiah" so good. I cannot explain why, but I find this track incredibly catchy, driving, full of life and verve from beginning to end. The production is clear and crisp once again, and all the pieces of the puzzle seem to fit perfectly together. "White Car" is really too short to be offending, "Into The Lens" and "Run Through The Light" are totally acceptable if not completely convincing, "Does It Really Happen?" works despite the annoying vocals because of very interesting bassline and musical content. But strangely, and we seem to disagree on a lot of songs, "Tempus Fugit" is really not acceptable to me. While impressive on the first two or three listens, this one has cliche vocal harmonies with no song content (can someone tell me where the hook lies?) and is entirely built around another very prominent acrobatic/geometric bass riff (and this one even has a wrong note in it, oh my God!) repeated as often as possible in four minutes. And trading the usual Fish/Tormato "cat-through-a-mixer-wah-wah" treatment against a regular overdrive really doesn't help making it interesting. I always figured this one was only designed to impress punk groups, as a way of saying: "Look guys, I am the one who invented this style of playing, you thought we were dead but we can do punk better than you". Well, yours is the judgement, but I know of a zillion punk bass riffs more interesting than this one.

Jerry Gnoza (Gerald.Gnoza@asu.edu)

Ohh, the famous "I am a camera" line... everybody's got an opinion. I just recently got this album, along with Tormato, and it is a close race between which one is more laughable. Of course, each has its moments, but if you are talking about the ability to bear listening to Yes lyrics, you have to have a high tolerance for "Into The Lens." At least it's good for the amusement value. I often say to my friends now with a crazed look in my eye and a robotic voice: "I-am-a-camera... camera-camera." They look at me funny and I get enjoyment out of it. So then I go back to the album and song thinking, "Hey, this isn't so bad after all!" and laughing all the while. My point? Yes is funny sometimes too, inspite of themselves, God love 'em.

Richard Savill (dreklind@btinternet.com)

If you upped the rating from a 4 to a 7, does this mean to you the album has aged well?

  I remember there being a long gap between YES albums, and Tormato I didn't care for (in fact I never owned it and taped it off a friend), so for me it seemed like a long time between YES albums after Going For The One. News of YES wasn't just a click away like today and we thought YES broke up.

    Finally Drama arrived. I think we were so happy at the time that YES was still going (touring too!) that we enjoyed the album from the beginning to end. I wasn't as knowledgeable about the music scene in my youth as today, and I didn't know that Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes were Buggles members. Didn't care about all that. I wasn't influenced by any stigma this may have carried to YES. I did notice that Anderson and Wakeman were gone, but it still had the YES sound in it albeit changed or modernized.

Today, I look on it as a curiosity. Somewhere between a YES album, a Buggles album and an ASIA album. Still sounds good and I still play it from time to time for nostalgia and my workouts.

  I should note that I was pleased to see Wakeman replaced. I was always frustrated with his meaningless meanderings on the keyboards when he came to the spotlight in YES tracks. This doesn't mean he came off badly all the time, but his work seems self-indulgent quite often. I think he was better off doing his own projects of which some of them I enjoy (and own).

  As for the songs, the best one is probably Does It Really Happen? This is a safe favorite.

  In this and other YES sites with reviews, Into The Lens is the most hotly debated. I find it similar to the Tales From Topographic Oceans argument, scaled down to the song. This makes me interested in the song. I played it to see what I thought - trying to get a fresh impression.

I don't know what the fuss is, it might be too long I guess. Overdone with the 'I am a camera' bit I suppose. All in all, I like the song. Again though, this is YES's album of oddity. The separator from old YES to new YES.

  I am glad this album was the bridge to the new instead of Tormato, which I haven't listened to in years.

  Could you expand on why you increased the rating for Drama? Why the DRAMAtic increase?

(author's note): Sure. Basically, I was initially bored to death by Machine Messiah and Run Through the Light, and thought Into The Lens had no redeeming qualities. But all of these tracks got much better over time, so I figured an increase was in order.

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com)

This is the latest Yes record I have bought (at this point, I have no interest in 80's+ Yes, although I have heard the entire "90125" one time on radio (stylistically, how could anyone call this Yes?), bought "ABWH", and "The Ladder." Someone just gave me "Union", but I am not ready to sacrifice my free time listening to it yet!).

Eunough rambling, this record is, well, okay. The Yes sound is further simplified. "Machine Messiah" (gasp!) and "Tempus Fugit" ar really the only memorable tracks for me. The others, while nonoffesive to the ears, are nonmemorable to me (blandness?). And, the "I am a camera" line is even more silly than those on "Tormato."

An improvement over "Tormato" nevertheless. 7 out of 10.

john sieber (oneofakind151@hotmail.com) (1/08/02)

John, Another successful review my man! Not that I've quite heard Drama yet, though, but I think it'll be my next purchase. It is about time to pick another Yes album. Anyway, the reason I'm taking up your web space with this comment is the debate over the keyboards of Yes. I've seen it on a lot of review sites, and now it's come to yours. Here's my two cents.

Wakeman was the best keyboard player Yes would ever have. He had the instrumental skill and (before Tormato) musical taste to keep up with the rest of the band, and at times set the bar even higher for the rest of the band. His instrumental breaks, IMHO, were never wanking; on the contrary, they almost always enhanced the mood of the piece ("South Side of the Sky", "Close to the Edge", "Awaken").

(author's note): For the record, I entirely agree. In those cases, his playing was very elaborate, but it always was to the BENEFIT of the piece. The wanking I'm referring to is virtually all contained on Tormato.

True, Kaye and Downes were more subdued and let the rest of the band shine through more, and I will not deny the Wakeman-less "Tempus Fugit" the honor of possibly being THE Yessong, but what made Yes Yes (I think) was the presence of FIVE separate entities who fused not only their good taste, but their blazing chops. With the keys serving almost solely as "backup", the true essence of Yes could never float all the way to the top. They almost had it with The Yes Album, but with Fragile and Close to the Edge, the Yes cocktail was perfected. [Insert favorite drink recipe here, substituting the ingredients with your favorite Yesmen.]

Anyway, for everyone's information, the biggest wanker in prog-rock was, as much as I love the guy, Keith Emerson. Let's go over the possible examples: "Take a Pebble", "The Three Fates", half of "Tarkus", "Infinite Space", most of "Pictures at an Exhibition", the "Endless Enigma" suite, "Trilogy".... and I havent even gotten to Brain Salad Surgery or Works yet! I rest my case. To quote somebody on one of these review sites, "let the flames begin!!"

(author's note): The main difference between Keith and Rick, though, was that Keith was THE central feature of the band. Lake's playing was quite good, but never really on a flashy Squire or Howe level. Keith could afford to wank until he spooged because nobody else was really in competition with him in the process.

Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch@optusnet.com.au) (5/15/02)

Underrated, this one. It must have been hard to even try to make a Yes record without Jon, but, marvel of marvels, the boys come the goods. Trevor Horn does a good job (I agree with others though that he tries too hard to sound like Jon) and Geoff Downes shows that, while he may not bee as flashy as Rick he is still a truly great keyboard player. "Machine Messiah" is best, and "Tempus Fugit" rocks. The album's overall sound, with the benefit of hindsight, ends up being transitional between the complexities of traditional Yes and the more straight-forward 80s Yes.

Vandermeer (bkvander@telus.net) (7/06/03)

A change in band members and in style from Tormato, but another great album. This album rocks harder than any other Yes album in my opinion, and I'm not sure if that's more to do with the presence of Horn and/or Downes or the absence of Anderson and/or Wakeman. Regardless the guys achieved another winner here.

The opening Machine Messiah has a bit of an overlong heavy-metal type intro for my taste, but once that stops and we get Howe's acoustic guitar followed by Downes synth bursts, I'm in heaven. The vocal interplay between Horn and Squire is also top notch on this track. Cut out the opening minute and I call MM a perfect nine-minute track. (By the way, whenever I hear the opening line of MM it always makes me think of the opening line of Pink Floyd's Sheep-they're eerily similar (the way they're sung, not the actual words)). Next up is White Car, which is an amusing minute and a half throwaway. Does It Really Happen is good, but I don't like it quite as much as the other three longer tracks. I know some people hate Into the Lens, but not me. It's got some great vocal lines, and interesting changes in tempo. Run Through the Light is also good if not spectacular. Finally the closing Tempus Fugit is probably the best with its hyperactive baseline and great vocal interplay.

I'll give Drama a 9 (12). A good legacy for this one time only Yes lineup. One gripe I do have is why didn't they include at least one of the songs you mentioned they did on the tour (Go Through This and We Can Fly From Here) on the album? Considering Drama is less than 37 minutes, they could have squeezed another song on there.

Craig Thomas (Craig.W.Thomas@btinternet.com) (9/02/03)

Man, you r one brave dude.

i just read your review of Drama.

i just bought this on cd actually, so i was intrigued by what you had to say. what i love about your writing is that it's so utterly provocative. so just a couple of things for now:

trevor horn's singing is so awful, so utterly lacking in character and personality, not to say the minimum level of technical prowess required of a professional singer (it's no wonder he quickly removed himself to the production booth after this), that it renders the whole record virtually unlistenable.

secondly, lyrically, the record is a total embarrassment. the only possible way i can see that anyone can view Drama as an improvement on Anderson lyrics is if they're so short on imagination and appreciation of the abstract (which you're patently not) they can't abide his muse into the ethereal, unknown and unreachable (actually, i can't abide anyone who doesn't like Anderson's lyrics).   Man you really like putting your neck out to be stomped on.

respect for that,

  regards,

  Craig

(one week later)

Can I add to my comments about Drama thus. After a one-listen review - never a good idea - I'm forced to accept that despite Horn's inability to sing, the album does have some really fine passages. Someone made the point about White-Howe-Squire making some intense noise here, and I guess this would be their fierce determination to make a good Yes album despite the odds: there can be no Yes without Jon Anderson. I now admire them for trying. There are indeed some great passages of typical and typically adept and uplifting melody-harmony writing. Shades of Topographic Oceans, something I didn't expect after all these years. (I bought it in 1980, played it once, was disgusted, and threw the record into the English Channel where I was unfortunate enough to be living at the time.

  Trevor Horn is, sadly, because one obviously doesn't mean the cat any ill will, the ruination of the album. Downes does a highly creditable job. His singing is unbearable, as already stated. The high pitched mewling with Chris at the latter part of Machine Messiah is so embarrassing I find myself crawling on my hands and knees under my office desk and into a foetal ball every time I hear it. What they were thinking when they decided to run with the frantic upward key change is beyond anyone's guess, I think.

  The album could have even better had they had the balls to forget the punk revolution and make most of the tracks a few minutes longer. However, the hang ups in progressive circles about all the tired dinosaur criticism were overwhelming for bands at the time, tragedy to say rendered this a virtual impossibility.

  Lastly, I find the support here for Does It Really Happen? the most bizarre phenomenon of website criticism. This atrocious abortion in terms of composition is an offence against musical history, never mind Yes history. The verse rhythm and excuse for melody jars so much on the mind that it puts me in mind of having my teeth drilled without anesthetic. Worse, it's inept. It doesn't work. It's horrible. Period. Was it the drugs? The drink? Someone out there who is as offended as me by this dumbass nonsense (listen to the chords behind the thing and their descent into flat bad cliché that even the guys in Abba would have thrown out) tell me what it was.

If you must score albums, give this 6/10. Good try. Note. First 7 albums all score minimum of 10/10. Numbers 3-7 12/10 at worse, 20/10 Close To The Edge.

  Craig

Peter Ross (prog_man2@yahoo.com) (6/27/04)

The Rhino remaster of this album has four tracks from the Paris sessions, and let me tell you--they're HIDEOUS. Wakeman has completely chucked his sense of good taste out the window--the tones he used on these tracks are sickening. And the lyrics! Mother of God, what happened here? They're silly, childish nonsense that make the worst songs on "Tormato" sound like "TGOD." In case you're wondering, they're called:

"Dancing Through The Light" (AWFUL keyboard sound on this one)
"Golden Age" (forgettable pap)
"In The Tower" (failed mysticism with crap lyrics)
"Friend Of A Friend" (WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! YUCK!)

But anyway--I like the album itself--"Machine Messiah" has a terrific atmosphere, "White Car" is stupid fun, "DIRH?" has a great chorus and rhythm, "ITL" is overblown nonsense, "RTTL" is great nonsense, and "Tempus Fugit" is awesome Awesome AWESOME--love those bass runs! 9 (13) on your scale, B+/A- on mine.

Trfesok@aol.com (12/31/05)

The Yes-Buggles merger wasn't quite as happenstance as the spin doctors would have fans believe. No, the bands didn't share a record company, but they did share a manager, one Brian Lane. When Anderson split (over matters financial as well as musical), it was Lane that suggested that the Buggles write material for Yes. This was appalling to Wakeman (who referred to this period as "Video Killed the Heart of the Sunrise"), so he left.

  But he and everyone else was wrong. Personally, I think this is the most enjoyable, consistent album since CTTE. Although we had a higher of musical proficiency on the albums preceding this one, they were, to a smaller degree (Relayer) or a larger degree (Tales..) all suffering from a lack of focus. This album is more melodic (thanks to the Buggles, no doubt), with a still high degree of musicianship. It's interesting that while Steve is certainly still a big contributor, he seems to take more of a back seat to Squire and Downes here (maybe that's because he put out an excellent solo album after Tormato, depleting his material).  Downes concentrates more on textures than solos, which is fine. Chris is the big star here, I have to agree. White sounds better, too. I'd bet he came up with the very percussive intro/outro to "Into the Lens". The lyrics are certainly interesting, devoid of Anderson's increasing eccentricities. (What's wrong with "I am a camera", anyway? It's no worse than rearranging your liver to a solid mental place, or whatever).  Horn does a good vocal job, too, even if he is trying too hard to pull an Anderson on "Run Through the Light". Squire's voice is far more prominent in the vocal mix, though, which gives off a big clue, in retrospect.

  I played this over and over when it was released. This lineup, I thought, had a great deal of potential -- until I heard Horn sing "Yours is No Disgrace" a few months later...

Matti.Alakulju@upm-kymmene.com (07/07/07)

I suppose that the author of this site (and the readers too) don't much care about Dream Theater, maybe the biggest name in prog metal for the past decade or so. But they happen to be one of my favorite bands, in fact they are my favorite among bands still alive. They have a strange tradition of doing lots of cover songs, including Yes, Rush, Floyd etc.

Some years ago, I think it was in 2003, they toured with Yes. During their opening set they wanted to play a Yes cover, of course. For reasons unknown, they chose to play Machine Messiah. A strange choice, I'd like them to play Heart Of The Sunrise, because they could pull it off for sure. I haven't heard any bootlegs of that tour, so I don't know what it was like, but maybe some day...

Mark Nieuweboer (ismaninb@teacher.com) (02/13/10)

My problem with Drama is that I don't like New Wave too much. So I can't really judge this album. I will restrict myself to Machine Messiah. It is obvious that the two Buggles (or whatever) have teached Howe and Squire a few things about form. Machine Messiah is the very first tight composition since Yes decided to abandon the verse-chorus scheme. Machine Messiah consists of several themes, I haven't counted how many exactly. They come back in a slightly altered form in the second half of the song. Essentially Yes does what Rush tried to accomplish, usually failing. When it comes to form Machine Messiah can be compared with Xanadu and Camera Eye. MM is certainly not second or third to these two. So predictably many Yesgeeks dislike it. I think it's great.

---

Complete Dramatized Tour - Bootleg
8

Best song: Nah, it's very even

Send me your thoughts

---

Yesshows - 1980 Atlantic
A

Best song: Gates Of Delirium

Send me your thoughts

Laurent MASSE (masse@geocean.u-bordeaux.fr)

Although it was just a contractual obligation in the first place, I find this one far more satifying than "Yessongs". High points are it does not repeat it at all, and the sound picture is a vast improvement. Apart from that, the song selection could have been much better. "Don't Kill The Whale", the three "Going For The One" songs and "Gates" are exact copies of the studio cuts, making a double album a little pointless. However, the stripped down and relaxed "Time And A Word" and the incredibly improved "Ritual" alone make this a very interesting buy. Although the middle section of the latter is probably a little bit stretched in places, it grabs you much more than the TFTO version. I can even do with Chris's bass solo, which says a lot.

"Sittinger, Brian D" (brian.d.sittinger@lmco.com) (8/15/01)

Interesting double CD. First of all, there are NO repeats from the Bruford-era songs found on Yessongs (concise, no?). As for the songs themselves, the band tries to stay as faithful as possible to the complicated song stuctures they had recorded in studio (as in Yessongs, too). Due to this, if you don't like "Don't Kill the Whale", this version will have no chance to convert you to liking it (I'm personally indifferent to this song overall). "Ritual", although long already, is extended yet another 6-8 minutes, and yet has more energy than its studio counterpart. "Time and a Word" is the one song that is significantly reworked (no orchestra, and Howe and Wakeman redo the background), and comes off very well. Finally, all Tormato bass haters out there, beware of its existence in "Wonderous Stories"(which is still quite decent, whether or not you like these effects)! Overall, 8 out of 10 seems reasonable.

Trfesok@aol.com (11/15/05)

This was actually released out of sequence, in a way. I actually heard the whole thing broadcast on a Philadelphia station (with Atlantic's permission) a year before it came out! It was withdrawn because, the band said, the release of their new album (out of the Paris sessions which came to nothing) was immanent. Squire remixed it after the Drama band broke up, but the LP still sounded comparatively muddy (haven't heard the remaster, though). Even so, some of the performances compare quite favorably with the studio version -- "Time and a Word" gets a more intimate feel; "Soon" is very moving, yes, indeed; the first half of "Ritual" (prior to that still annoying percussion jam) really rocks. And "Parallels" just blows away the studio version totally -- this is what the song should have sounded like in the first place. I guess this wouldn't be too bad an introduction to mid-to-late 70's Yes for newcomers, atlhough Yessongs should probably be thoroughly digested before moving on to stuff like "..Gates.." and "Ritual"

Onto the post-1980 albums

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