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This week we return to our (relatively) new series for 6 reasons why ‘Yes’ is a great Yes album. Mark and I came up with 3 reasons each so listen out and see if we’ve chosen one or more of your own. Then, why not add yours to the comments on the show notes for this week’s episode over at yesmusicpodcast.com?
- Is the first Yes album any good?
- What can we tell about the past and future of the band?
- Does the record stand up well today?
Let us know if you agree with us!
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Yes – The Tormato Story
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Theme music
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert
10 replies on “6 reasons why ‘Yes’ is a great Yes album – 652”
Good one gentlemen
I have to agree I think this album offers a very good look into what Yes was and was going to be.
I’m not sure what Vibes are even to this day but Bill had it…lol
Peter will always be the founding member of Yes even if he was never given the proper credit.
This album started it all for yes and again for true yes fans its everything. Just remembering the time of this release Led Zeppelin had radio air time in the US and of course Yes never was played until later on but this band showed it belonged and is still relevant today.
I always play this record to hear what was so new at the time it was like nothing ever made before.
It’s undeniably a YES album, but not a great one.
Excellent show.
Sadly it looks like my Yes wish-list for a tour centred around the 74-76 era and the Relayer and Yesterdays material will never happen now.
The early material in particular would suit the capabilities of this current iteration of Yes down to the ground. I think Downes and Shellen would absolutely shine and Howe’s organ trio already lean firmly into 60s beat club territory. So the musical framework is right there even if it wouldn’t get casual ticket buyers all that excited.
This first album in particular is an absolute peach of a record. It combines the Who’s controlled power on their early singles and albums like Sell Out with the propulsion of a Max Roach (rather than a close to out of control Keith Moon) but with this Moody Blues / Zombies style purity of vocal and melodic writing on top.
This was a pretty unusual combination of elements for that time and they do a lot more with the covers than the Vanilla Fudge thing of rearranging great songs into stoner anthems with the kind of “heaviosity” that probably sounded great at the Fillmore but sounds a bit overwrought on record 50+ years later.
I especially love how there’s a kind of on-off tug of war between the musicians who are at any given point looking to really push the dynamics and those wanting to lay back into a more bucolic reflective and folky thing. When they hit the perfect blend of those two approaches at the same time it’s really something.
This is of course a very different band from the one that recorded say Perpetual Change or South Side Of The Sky or Siberian Khatru but you still can hear the beat club thing lurking in those tunes and in a lot of the other music they made all the way through the Bill era. Jazz is in essence music for dancers as much as for the concert hall and Bill brought that sensibility in the same way that Nick Mason ensured that the Floyd kept a bit of that sticky-floored 60s night club rhythm and blues thing in *their* sound. Or at least did until Animals. That feel (and those roots) only really disappear completely for Yes with the change of drummers.
Speaking of beat clubs and cover versions there is a new Lewis Taylor covers album just out that includes a great one man version of Heart Of The Sunrise. Lewis Taylor is one of those rare musical mavericks whose influences run all the way from Philadelphia Soul to Prog (like an English Todd Rundgren maybe?). He got close to breaking through
in the late 90s when signed to Island as a progressive Soul artist (think in terms of a cross between a Maxwell or a D’Angelo and Jakko Jakszyk). He was much loved by Mojo magazine and broadsheet critics and is still widely admired by other musicians (most notably Elton John). Island didn’t really know how to market him and he definitely wasn’t going to trouble a market still steeped in the Brit Pop thing. In any event he does a great job of locating the Funk at the core of Squire’s part. Just out on Spotify etc.
I love this album. There was know one else who sounded liked the original Yes band. And I agree with what IanNB said.
Love Peter Banks, his solo work Two Sides is one of my all time favorites as well as those three great Flash albums. I like that jazzy thing he does on I See You …
For me, Yes started with The Yes Album, and then on from there. Yesterdays introduced me to the introduction years of Yes music, excluding America. You could hear the prog trying to come through in the early works, and the musical struggles in finding their future sound. Sweet Dreams brings to the surface the future of this band, and the sound they would dominate prog with. The rythum section of Yes was always strong, and between Squire and Brufford, you can her something was brewing and ready to overflow. Now 50 years later as a Yes fan, their first record is a musical treasure for me, listening now with a mature musical ear I can appreciate even more the genius of this band called Yes. Their cover songs were filler only, but they shined with their original early compositions and you could hear the rhythmic genius of Yes and what was to come.
I wish Peter Banks had stayed with Yes for a lot longer. I love the sound of their early music.
Kevin and Mark
Another great episode. I’m afraid I’m
less convinced than you that the debut was a ‘great’ record. I think it was a ‘necessary’ one. In it I hear a psychedelic garage band sound, not untypical of some other bands in 1969. Deep Purple of the same year, Vanilla Fudge, Uriah Heep, etc…
While I don’t think Peter Bank’s wailing distorted guitar or Tony’s organ are unique for the era, I agree Chris’s signature bass playing does elevate the instrumentation above most of their peers. However, I believe what also differentiates their sound on the first album is the vocal harmonies. Not many bands were arranging harmonies like that in 1969. The other element that you both picked up on was the musical arrangement, both of cover songs, but also innthe introduction of episodic pieces such as ‘Survival’. This was to become a later trademark for the band.
In fact the song Survival is structurally similar to the songs Changes (1983) and The Miracle of Life (1991), on both of which Tony Kaye also plays, is a good example of how the album looks forward to the bands future evolution.
Is ‘Yes’ a great record in the Yes Catalogue? In my view no, but I think it made great contribution to the evolution of contemporary music as a whole.
Thanks for another good episode
Alan
I have both the first albums on vinyl that yes album and time and a word! Both fabulous! Was the first concert I ever saw and they did relayer must have been 76 at Hawthorne race course! Both my older brothers were in attendance and I snuck in! Was like seeing God for a 12-year-old kid! Gates of delirium left a life lasting impression!
Thank you everybody for your excellent comments. I look forward each week to reading them, as there are many interesting thoughts and opinions. This week’s episode is no exception.
Take care and thank you for your support of the YMP.
Mark Anthony K