“The YES Album—Classic YES Arrives”.

1970 was a very big year for progressive rock music, with groups like Jethro Tull, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and YES all cranking out classic rock music. YES especially had a big year in 1970, releasing two recordings, “Time and a Word”, and this one, “The YES Album”. Peter Banks, their original guitarist departed, and Steve Howe arrived. This change in personnel seems to have come at a critical juncture for YES, and “classic YES”, in its most recognizable form, had arrived and come to stay a while starting in 1970, with some ups and downs, into the 1980s, 1990s, and into the present millennium.
YES have endured the years with the same unique sound, starting with The YES Album.
What follows is a table of information on “The YES Album”, followed by a review of each and every song on it.

Information on “The YES Album”.

Original release date: Autumn 1970
Remaster release: 2003
Produced by: YES and Eddie Offord
Record Label: Atlantic
Personnel:
Jon Anderson—lead vocals
Chris Squire—bass guitars, vocals
Steve Howe—acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, vachalia, vocals
Tony Kaye—piano, keyboards
Bill Bruford—drums and percussion

Track List:

1. Yours Is No Disgrace
2. The Clap
3. Starship Trooper
a. Life Seeker
b. Disillusion
c. Wurm
4. I’ve Seen All Good People
a. Your Move
b. All Good People
5. A Venture
6. Perpetual Change

Running Time: 40 minutes +

Cost: $8-16

Review of “The YES Album”.

“Yours Is No Disgrace”. Running time: 9 minutes, 41 seconds.
Composed by: YES (all five members)

“Yours is no disgrace” is a timeless YES song, to be sure! It starts out with the guitar, bass and drums playing in unison in 4/4 time, with the organ acting as counter. After the intro, the main theme begins, which is quite musical and melodic. Chris Squire, the bassist, adds some meat to the melody and rhythm. Steve Howe plays guitar with a nice lead theme over the bass lines that Squire plays so heavily. After about a minute, we get the first vocals:

“Yesterday, a morning came
A smile upon your face,
Caesar’s Palace, morning glory
City human race,
On a sailing ship to nowhere
Leading anyplace,
If the summer change to winter,
Yours is no disgrace

Battleships come fighting me,
Tell me where you are,
Shining, flying purple bullfrogs,
Show me where you are,
Lost in musing circumstances,
That’s just where you are…”

The lyrics are sung by Jon in the lead, with Chris and Steve adding harmony to every word sung. The vocal harmonies work really well. The track then breaks down to nice repeat of the first chorus, with Squire playing “walking bass”. After this, a heavier section, repeating the musical introduction happens, and is expanded upon. This is done with Squire majestically leading the way with his Rickenbacker bass, and then Steve Howe breaks in with a lead guitar solo with a sound never before heard. As counterpoint to Howe’s interesting lead, Squire’s bass comes in, until both play in unison whizzing up and down the guitar/bass guitar necks. The next solo is all Steve Howe’s, starting with an overdubbed acoustic guitar, and then leading into a beautiful electric guitar solo that makes logical musical sense, flowing from one guitar to another. All the while, Bill Bruford’s drumming is flawless and immaculate.

The last part of the song breaks down again, this time with Jon singing solo, with no backing vocals. His voice is so clear, so pure, and so good in this section! I love how Chris Squire’s heavy bass counters and balances Jon’s high falsetto voice. There is a cool repeat after the chorus of “yours is no disgrace”, with Steve’s cool lead solo repeated in short, then a repeat of the first two lyrical chorus lines. The song ends with the whole band buzzing off into infinity (musically). “Yours is no disgrace” is certainly one of my favorite songs on this recording, as well as one of my all-time favorite YES songs! “Yours is no disgrace” was the original “encore song” that YES used, before they wrote “Roundabout”. It has taken on a life of its own, and is usually played during YES concerts, and is a fine example of “classic YES”.

“The Clap”. Running time: 3 minutes and 17 seconds.
Composed by: Steve Howe

“The Clap” is an acoustic guitar solo by Steve Howe. He plays it live, and is introduced by Jon Anderson. He really gets to showcase his style here, which involves using a pick strumming the guitar strings, while also simultaneously doing some finger picking with his pinky finger, fourth finger, and middle finger, whilst holding the pick with index finger and thumb. “The Clap” is a happy, fun guitar solo, with lots of ragtime, django-style, classical, and sheer madcap theatrical fun guitar showmanship! It is no wonder that Steve Howe was voted best all around guitarist five years running in the 1970s by Guitar Magazine. He is one of my personal all-time favorites, to be sure! I’ve seen Steve play “The Clap” in concert twice.

“Starship Trooper”. Running time: 9 minutes and 26 seconds.
Composed by: Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, and Steve Howe

“Starship Trooper” is another YES classic! It is actually divided up into three “sub-songs”. “Life Seeker” is Jon’s, and is full of sweet melodies, sweet lyrics sung sweetly by Jon, and full of nice harmonies and rhythms. The beginning is wonderful, and unforgettable. The musical themes that pervade the song by Squire and Howe’s are simply perfect, and beautiful, with Jon coming in on the vocals:

“Sister Bluebird, flying high above,
Shine your wings, forward to the sun,
Hide the mysteries, of life on your way,
Though you’ve seen them,
Please don’t say a word,
What we don’t know,
I’ve 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 there,
Please don’t tell a soul,
What you can’t see,
Can’t be very whole

Speak to me of summer,
Long winter’s longer,
Then time can remember,
The setting up of other roads,
To travel on in old accustomed ways
I still remember,
The toads by the water,
And proud sons and daughter,
That knew the knowledge of the land,
And spoke to me,
In sweet accustomed ways….”

The middle part, the second sub-song, is “Disillusion”, by Squire. It starts with an acoustic guitar solo, and again has some nice lyrics, sung by the group in harmony and unison to the guitar.

The last part of the song is called “Wurm”, written by Steve Howe. The Wurm was one of the last interglacial periods during the final ice age, and is a geologic term. For years, YES fans seemed to wonder what it referred to! Of course any student of geology should know what it is, and Steve Howe was obviously an educated fellow. Regardless, this is an interesting electric guitar solo by Steve, with lots of repetition, with him starting out all alone, but then slowly joined firstly by himself on overdub acoustic guitar, then the drums and keyboards come in, and finally Squire joins the fray, hitting majestic notes on his Rickenbacker. At last, Steve changes the solo to a sheerly proper solo with lots of counterpoint, and the band goes along with them into a great fade.
”Starship Trooper” is one that is also a great concert crowd pleaser, and I’ve seen it performed in each of the five YES concerts I have seen. It is another fine example of “classic YES”.

“I’ve Seen All Good People”. Running time: 6 minutes and 56 seconds.
Composed by Anderson and Squire.

“I’ve seen all good people” is a two-part song. The lyrics “I’ve seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I’m on my way”, are how the song starts. The first song is “Your Move”, and is by Jon. It is a song that is metaphorical, using chess as the metaphor for a person’s life. It is a song that is beautifully sung, full of rich harmonies and melodies, featuring Steve on mandolin. There is also a recorder used in the song as well, played by a guest musician, Colin Goldring. There is hearkening back to the Beatles, when they sing “ditta ditta, ditta, dih dah dah...” you get the lyrics “All we are saying, is give peace a chance”.

The second part is a purely rock’n roll song in the true style of original rock. The only lyrics are “I’ve seen all good people, turn their heads each day, so satisfied, I’m on my way”. Steve plays a Les Paul special electric guitar on this one, and he really jams at it.
This song is another concert staple, and has been embellished to include solos from each member of the band in the middle in concert. It’s a simple, but fun song, and is “classic YES” in a fun way.

“A Venture” Running time: 3 minutes and 16 seconds.
Composed by: Anderson.

“A Venture” is another nice song, not musically spectacular, but is a kind of unique song in that it is the only song with vocals that is under 6 minutes on the recording!

“Perpetual Change”. Running time: 8 minutes and 50 seconds.
Composed by: Anderson and Squire.

“Perpetual Change” is another monster of a YES song, and another worthy of the term “classic YES”. It starts majestically, with the organ, jamming out a nice anthem, and then Squire comes in on bass with Bruford’s impeccable drumming, on the snare. Howe then joins in, wailing on his guitar, then it all breaks down to a mellow theme, and Jon sings, in his own sweet way. “Perpetual Change” is a fantastic song, and the name partially describes how the song moves along in progression, changing from one theme to another. I particularly love the climax of the song, when Squire, Howe and Bruford really shine, towards the end. “Perpetual Change” is yet another example of “classic YES”, but I have not seen them perform it in concert. I know that on “YESSONGS”, there is a nice version with a drum solo by Bruford. I love it when Jon sings, “You’ll see perpetual change, you’ll see perpetual change!”

“The YES Album” reminds me quite a lot of my childhood, as I listened to it quite a lot due to the numerous older siblings I have. This is the third review I have written in chronological order of YES (I plan to review all of their releases chronologically). The other two reviews can be found here:

“Yes” : http://www.epinions.com/content_90147229316
“Time and a Word”: http://www.epinions.com/content_94210002564

All in all, “The YES Album” is one of my favorite YES recordings of all time. The “classic YES” sound has been established. The stage was set for them to mature a little and experiment more, and come up with, incredibly, even better songs and musical arrangements and compositions in the coming releases, “Fragile”, and “Close to the Edge”.

--by James P. Zaworski


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