Yes, Close to the Edge 50th

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

I see that Yes is touring the UK and Japan starting tomorrow.

Arguments can be made that the lineup isn’t really Yes anymore.

But, Steve Howe is still playing.
When he’s done, it’s really over.
If they were coming to a town near me, I’d go in a heartbeat. Sadly, Red Rocks is not on the itinerary.

I saw them in the 90s and I was very busy goofing off on the lawn, and don’t remember it as well as I would like to. At least you could see the stage without looking though a sea of phone screens.

If you’re thinking, “who are Yes and why should I care?”, my recommendation would be to cue up Fragile, the album, and give it a Listen. That’s a good lead in.

If anyone goes, I’d be interested to see the set list. It’s billed at the close to the edge 50th anniversary… so we can expect some of that.

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#2

Close to the Edge is an undisputed masterpiece. Eddy Offord’s work on that record was decades ahead of its time. Much to my regret, I never caught Yes live in any of its incarnations.

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#3

Close To The Edge still is my favorite from Yes. I have to find the LP, now that I think about it (while listening to Echoes in family).

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#4

One of my favorite records of all time. Most of their output from the 70s is just mind blowing.

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#5

Seasons will pass you by.

I get up, I get down.

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#6

This album single-handedly sent me down the road of finding weirder music than what the radio was providing.

My piano teacher burned me the album on CD-R in probably 2001 and I’ll never forget that first listen on my parents’ couch as the sun was shining in. I was just freaking out, like THIS IS SO COOL.

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#7

I can’t read this aloud without following with a “bah-dah-dah-dah dum-dum-dum dum-dah-de-dum….”

#8

Yessongs, the double live album, is my favorite Yes compilation.
I would have loved to be 20 in the 70’s.

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#9

Fact.
Funny how it took the vibe of the eighties for them to produce a breakthrough hit with Owner of a Lonely Heart. Which a still a damn good pop song.

so it’s not just me.

I now have to go crate diving, too.
I know I have fragile and at least one or 2 other record sets. I wanna say tales from topographic oceans and either yes songs or yes shows…
I had Roger Dean sign them when he did an exhibit near by…

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#10

These lyrics are such a fundamental insight and wisdom condensed into just a few words. Jon Anderson wrote lots of stream of consciousness stuff (which I also enjoy), but the quoted line is just so simple and beautiful, I love it.
Also, the line “I feel lost in the city” from heart of the sunrise hits right in the feels. So good.

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#11

loved me some early Yes back in the day, though many of those epic long tracks always felt like two songs – the choruses and climaxes were the bangers you had to sit through the noodly bits in the middle to enjoy. but still influential

#12

Close To The Edge is one of my favourite albums (though I have many). I first heard Yessongs because the local branch of my public library had it on vinyl (I was already a Rick Wakeman fan, though that didn’t last). I saw them play on a rotating stage in the centre of a hockey arena in 1979. It was six years later than optimum, probably, but it was still a good concert (plagued neither by Topographic/Relayer nor by 90125).

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#13

Fragile did it for me.

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#14

Going for the One is The One for me, personally. Thanks for sharing this!

#15

I played Roundabout on Rockband 2 so many times with the plastic guitar. It was one of the hardest to learn. Along with Aqualung by Jethro Tull.