Just one of the best albums ever.....difficult to select a single track - the whole album is a masterpiece ...YES at their best ...go on RP....play the whole album  non stop...double dare

I moved to Dover, De. in 74. Graduated in 76.  My new friends I made were all music freaks. Especially with YES. Philadelphia's Spectrum used to be YES's favorite venue to play in back then and they loved the devoted fans. I saw them live there 3 times and then next door at the huge JFK Stadium for a show with 130,000 to see them with Frampton and Gary Wright.  and then in D.C. a few years later. But this lineup with Anderson, Squire and Howe were the best. They lost Buford and Wakeman early but their replacements were both great.  Their was so much trained talent in that group. Going to their shows, especially in the round, were like going to church. What a band. RIP Chris. 

Awesome Yes song. Thanks! 

YES, more Yes please :-)  I have heard only two of their songs so far, but there are soooooo many.  I have every confidence in you, Bill.  You have done awesome so far.

Heart of the Sunrise is deep meaning for me.

Saw Yes at Maple Leaf Gardens  in 1979!
Rick Wakeman on keyboards was hypnotizing!!

 tg3k wrote:

yes! i love that. it used to bug me when radiostations would cut the end off prematurely. 

 Isabeau wrote:


Me too!   PS: your car keys are in the fridge, where they belong!  

A mind blowing musical awakening at 16 seeing these guy debut Close to the Edge. I was addicted. I can still remember the lyrics to this song long after '72 ... but can't tell you where I just put my car keys.

Bill you did it again to me! My instinct is to get high when I hear this, excuse me Volcano time. 

The ending crescendo is pretty damned good.

PLEASE PLAY MORE TUNES FROM THIS ALBUM!!!   THANK YOU!!

 eileenomurphy wrote:


I also saw Rick Wakeman with a symphony orchestra at Madison Square Garden. He did  the entire Journey to the Center of the Earth & Six Wives of Henry the 8th albums! When he came out at the end for encore he announced: "We don't have any more material, so we will do both albums over again"! So, they played both albums again, in their entirety, really fast (100mph)!!!  ...AN AMAZING SHOW!!!

Please play this more often, & other songs from this album!!!  Thank You!!

Forever reminds me of my school&Scouts buddy John. He showed me how cool it was; taught me how to play it, that Open C. Shine on, jam eternal!

 VV wrote:


Very well stated!!!

Iconic! I've seen them 4 times! ...three with Rick Wakeman & once with Patrick Moraz!

Saw Yes at Massey Hall in 2002.  Chris was still wearing his cape and jumping about.  Wakeman still a master of the keys and Howe just looked so old barely moving and bending those guitars to his will.  Jon Andersons voice wasn't the powerhouse it used to be but still on a whole a wonder to watch it all unfold from the front row.

i saw Yes a few years back when Chris was still with us, in a small theatre in chicago.  this was the encore.  when the first notes came in, all us geriatrics left our seats and bum rushed the stage for this epic jam.  the band was SO appreciative of our appreciation.  truly an awesome concert moment.

From The Highwayman to Starship Trooper.   I can almost see Bill & Rebecca smiling from here.  Actually chuckling would be more like it.

Wurm. YES. The Howe composition. The glorious fadeout......LONG LIVE PROG

even in those years it is beautiful

I have a soft spot for prog rock having grown up on it. This "to me" represents the Holy Grail. It really gets no better than this. I don't dole out many "10's" here but this one earns it. 

You don't have the complexity of song structure like this nowadays. I guess everyone has a shorter attention span. I'm not afraid of 8 + minute songs as long as they are good!

While everyone in the band was outstanding Chris Squire (RIP) was just a monster bass player.

One of the best riffs in all of rock 'n roll - wait for it...ah yes...

From "The Highwaymen" to "Starship Trooper"!!
What a freakin' riot!   Thanks RP once again!

Heard this hundreds of thousands of times, and never noticed that the upbeat break is for the "Disillusion" movement. 

Huh.

I could listen to this song every day and never grow tired of it.

 RedTopFireBelow wrote:
 
We were allowed to bring in records too in grade 8.  One day I brought in an older siblings Beatles White album.  They would not play it.  DOWN WITH THE ESTABLISHMENT!  
Well they never would have understood In the Court of the Crimson King.

 SpinyNorma wrote:
 
Lol.

 bam23 wrote:
 
This one manages to slag a completely unrelated artist in the comments for this song.  Going the extra distance for h8, I suppose.

Did Yes just sing "touch my knowledge"? Well, they would. 

Damn RP. Getting me all psyched up and ready for college dorm living. And here I am, almost 50. This. song. makes. me. HIGH. 

Yes?  No.

Instrumentally, I really appreciate Yes. Honestly, the falsetto-like singing has never been at the same level. Also, I saw Yes in New Haven in 1979 and couldn't help noticing that the vocal range was nowhere as broad as on this recording. It was not really pleasant.  Not as bad as watching Brian Wilson try to perform on Colbert's show recently, though. That was rough.

EXTREMELY EXCELLENT! ...at the time of release (when I was in high school) ...and still is NOW!  I have seen them 3 times at Madison Square Garden! ...Close to the Edge tour, Tales From Topograpic Oceans tour, & Relayer tout! ...I also saw Wakeman solo at the garden! ...Journey to the center of the Earth tour, with a symphony orchestra! ...at the end of the show, Wakeman announced: "We do not have any more material for an encore! ...so we will do the entire show over again, without narration!"! Wakeman & orchestra did the entire show over again, a LOT FASTER (100mph ?) It was ASTOUNDING!

I love this track to teeny, tiny pieces.  The only thing that spoils it for me is when part of my mind wanders off at a tangent and I remember that someone cast Denise bloody Richards in the role of Carmen Ibanez... 

Interminable

 diannemck56 wrote:
 
You kinda summed it up.  "It just goes on and on". And on and on and on and on........  

 treatment_bound wrote:
 
Not sure but it's spinning in the video too... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmSsAkPz_s0

And man, this record is Godlike.

Sublime.

absolutely part of the plan!

How can anyone not LOVE LOVE LOVE this group?  So many different pieces going on, vocals, harmony, bass guitar ...  it just goes on and on.  Going from an 8 to a 9 .

 DocStrangelove wrote:
 

 Breakerofchains wrote:
 
A band called "Yes, And"?

A lot of potential but very little good music.

What could be more life affirming than music by a band called "Yes?"

Still one of my favorite song crescendos and endings of all time. Just when you think it can't build any more, it does. Then the emotional release when Steve Howe begins the dueling guitar solos is like a cool drink after a long run.

LONG LIVE PROG! and oh, the glorious fadeout

 LowPhreak wrote: 
Thanks for clearing that up.

Because that's Tony. 

Jon is the short guy, upper right. 


kcar wrote: 

Love Howe's fazed guitar on Wurm.

Transcendent.

And congrats on getting into the Hall of Fame. 

I'm thinking of how this song reminds me of the spring melt while growing up in Ottawa in the early 1970s.

And then seeing the big banner on the webpage:

 
Now, where is the wallet again.....?

———————————————————————

Anybody listen to the Steven Wilson remix of this album?  Worth buying?  
 

 kcar wrote: 
Being the "dirty hippie" that he was, rumor is that he hadn't showered for a few days...maybe even a whole week. So they had to get the plastic head to put next to him since of course it had no sense of smell.

Or the head was some kind of oracle from the astral plane that only proggers like Yes were attuned to. That's where they glommed so many of their song ideas from.

Or it could have been to add to the mystique of the band at the time to make people think, "WTF is that floating head for? What does it mean?" Or that the head represented the mind, that Yes' music was a "thinking person's" rock music.

And of course, it could creep you out if you fixated on it (and the empty chair) after a hit of the dreaded lysergic...

I'd be glad to answer any other silly questions that may come up on this.

The brain is a funny place. Listening to Starship Trooper after so many years reminds me of being a college disc jockey in '72 and playing a group of three songs that were a bit more rocking than typical for their groups at the time: Homberg (Procol Harem), Starship Trooper and Yours is No Disgrace (both Yes). Thanks for that weird memory jog of sitting in the basement of Carnegie Hall at Bucknell University, spinning vinyl when it felt like so much fun. Now, back to the present. As always, thanks for playing lots of different music. Years of listening to RP and I'm still enjoying it!

This is great.  After 45 years or so, I finally get it.

 DocStrangelove wrote: 
this does seem to go on and on...
.
.
(later that same day)
.
....and on and on 

just say no to Yes.

A fantastic song from an album that would never be equalled.

Fabulous thingie!!!
Especially the final tune

Thanks for playing this song.  

 treatment_bound wrote: 
Isn't everything?

Why wouldn't anyone sit next to Jon? That's what I'd like to know.  

 Lazarus wrote: 
Cool.  Can you please explain WTF that "floating head" is on the album cover?  
Is it from your elevator?

 kingart wrote: 
Roundabout as a whole is inscrutable and indulgent. This is better. Still don't like it much.

Two songs from this album played the same day.  Blimey.

My favorite Yes song. 
Roundabout is good, too, but its lyrics are too inscrutable and maybe a bit indulgent. This is epic and poetic with a progression to a fab crescendo. 

 LowPhreak wrote: 
It only recently "hit me" concerning their lyrics. They don't necessarily make sense. But, oh they do. I think that they are another musical component of the whole. Poetic - yes. Metaphoric - perhaps. But, I think primarily, they are used for their sonic "fit" into the music...Just my musings...

 monicap69 wrote: 



We heard you the first time :-)

OMG, did a station ID just intrude on the guitar fade out? On Radio Paradise? Sinful!

Holy Mind Numbing

Gods of PROG. Could anyone pull this off nowadays? and the final WURM movement...bliss

takes me back to my first boyfriend in the 70s....

 westslope wrote: 
Sigh.  So sad.  He was amazing.  I have front row tickets for Anderson/Rabin/Wakeman later this year.  It would have been so much more magical if Chris was still with us and he joined the mini-reunion.

 Kenbob wrote: 
Hopefully the tracks didn't switch during any cool guitar solos! (I hate when that happens.)

I had at least 4 different 8 track tapes of this album because they wore out so fast from constant playing while we drove around the countryside outside my small Texas town smoking dope. Ah, the 70's.

 westslope wrote: 
Endorsed.

Chris Squire's bass playing is sooooo freaking good.

 

 LowPhreak wrote: 
Well said.

 Boy_Wonder wrote: 
I think they stand up just fine. Song lyrics are a form of poetry, and metaphor and allegory are well-known literary devices.

45 years ago! Where has the time gone?

Love this.... many happy memories of the early 70's - but the lyrics don't stand up to examination these days!! "Sister Bluebird"!!

 
I. Life Seeker

Sister bluebird flying high above
Shine your wings forward to the sun
Hide the myst'ries of life on your way
Though you've seen them, please don't say a word
What you don't know, I have never heard

Starship trooper, go sailing on by
Catch my soul, catch the very light
Hide the moment from my eager eye
Though you've seen them, please don't tell a soul
What you can't see, can't be very whole

Speak to me of summer
Long winters longer than time can remember
The setting up of other roads
To travel on in old accustomed ways
I still remember the talks by the water
The proud sons and daughter 
That knew the knowledge of the land
Spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways

Mother life, hold firmly on to me
Catch my knowledge higher than the day
Lose as much as only you can show
Though you've seen me, please don't say a word
What I don't know, I have never shared

II. Disillusion

Loneliness is a power that we possess to give or take away forever
All I know can be shown by your acceptance of the facts there shown before you
Take what I say in a different way and it's easy to say that this is all confusion
As I see a new day in me, I can also show it you and you may follow

Speak to me of summer
Long winters longer than time can remember
The setting up of other roads
To travel on in old accustomed ways
I still remember the talks by the water
The proud sons and daughter 
That knew the knowledge of the land
Spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways

Love the guitar work.  Both Steve Howe on lead and Chris Squire on bass were phenomenal.

RIP Chris Squire.   

f-ing spaceships left me behind.

Ah, YES, that final movement, PROG BLISS

Yes promised much, but actually delivered very few great songs. This song is typical - 3.

  YESSS!! PSD'd the decemberists and got THIS..

Just bought this on vinyl the other day.

 old_shep wrote: 
Yes, they have.  More countries have nuclear weapons.  And the world's population has not really dialled into the risks of the next regional nuclear war.  What the hell are we doing protecting Israel's nuclear weapons monopoly in the Mid-East?  Especially as the ethnic cleansing/nation building campaign continues.

On the bright side, a regional nuclear war would once and for all take care of the global climate change issue. 

 Relayer wrote: 
Hilarious.  I agree; I thought Topographic Oceans sucked.  And during the period, Relayer was the very best.

I am amazed at how fresh and invigorating this still sounds. 

For me back then, Yes sang clearly of wonder and hope in a world up to its ears in social and geo-political conflict.  Things haven't changed. 

Probably one of my top 5 songs of all time.  Amazing 3-part song that finishes with a masterful guitar segment. Yes was untouchable from 1971 - 1975 (well, maybe not Topographic Oceans).

BRILLIANT ...... just brilliant!

 Stich wrote: 
Yup. Pass the bong please. 

Still makes my heart soar and the memories return in a flood taking me on a hundred paths connected by this jewel of a song... One of the first things a good friend showed me how to play on the Strat I used to have was the open C in here... Still seems like YESterday...

 Lindo525 wrote: 
Amen Lindo!

 jagdriver wrote: 
Me too, mainly because I could do a fairly good "McCartney" but a "Jon Anderson" would have required surgery.
On second thoughts, that would have avoided a butterfly effect or two.

 aspicer wrote: 
Hear! Hear!

This is clearly one of my favourite early Yes songs.   Frankly, I believe that it holds up rather well.

Weird to hear something I used to listen to and loved as a teenager but until this moment had completely forgotten about for the last 40 years.

 fatcatjb wrote: 
I'm with you. Musically, their stuff is interesting. But I always found Jon Anderson's vocals to be so.foching.ANNOYING.

Never gets old - simply brilliant!

 dragon1952 wrote: 
All the "virtuosity and complexity" in the world does not automatically make good music. In the realm of rock music it can often come across as little more than smug adornment.  But go ahead and teach us all about music appreciation and higher culture.

 Lindo525 wrote: 

in the 70's I was an Allman Brothers loving budding slide guitarist, so it is no surprise that Yes did not catch my ear. I always admired what they did...and liked them on stage once, but just never my cup of tea. Too complicated for my simplistic sensibilities, I suspect
 

".... In sweet accustomed ways....."

thank you  .. such a delightful surprise to hear this today on Radio Paradise
A choice, very choice favorite ... 

 Ericocean wrote: 
Yep...if your tastes run towards pop and top 40 you certainly wouldn't hear anything like this let alone be able to appreciate the virtuosity and complexity of it.

 
LowPhreak wrote: 

 Ericocean wrote: 

OK, so a song is "painful" now? I suggest you see a doctor...or grow up and stop using these stupid, trendy euphemisms.

Starship Trooper, classic blast from the past! Thank you, i needed that!

Excellent live shows need emoticons for smoke and lasers...

Radio Paradise is the only place I ever hear Yes, and it never fails to remind me what an annoying, terrible sound they had.  This song is painful.

Perfect for a Friday afternoon !

Some of the best times I will never remember happened while this album played!!

SOOOOOOO GOOD! 

 Hannio wrote: 
I know what you mean, yet the final section of this song IS three-chord rock and roll. It's just not the standard I IV V changes. 

 Lazarus wrote: 

What a great fn album!!! ...esp. wirh headphones

Everybody in my homeless camp loves this song, and The Yes Album...

 

This is one of those bands that I just never felt any kind of connection with.

Wore this album out, still love this music.