Joe Kenney,
I second Fatalist's recommendation of FRAGILE (1972) as it's as much the gateway to Yes as HOT RATS (1969) is to Frank Zappa. It has elements that were later to become hallmarks of their respective works, yet stands alone on its own as -- in retrospect -- a consistent album that displayed multi-faceted talents.
FRAGILE was the first Yes album I bought, and it consequently brought me a lot of joy as a fifteen year old. It's kind of a perfect record: all the players get to step out on separate tracks, then they come together on the two side closers ("South Side Of The Sky" and "Heart Of The Sunrise") that prove the whole of a group is generally greater than the sum of their solo album parts.
When you mentioned ABBEY ROAD (1970), I immediately thought of the second Yes album, TIME AND A WORD (1970). Like pretty much everybody at that time, Yes were obviously influenced by The Beatles and TIME AND A WORD has some strong original material, especially side 2. It's *just* on the verge of cohesiveness; something that would only happen with the entry of Steve Howe on the following album, THE YES ALBUM (1971) up through CLOSE TO THE EDGE (1972).
But nothing could prepare me (or anyone else) for RELAYER (1974), which I bought a month after FRAGILE and a week after a friend cranked it at top volume in his family den through his Dad's high end stereo.
The song was "Sound Chaser" and my molecular structure was altered forever: the severity of pace, the clusters of notes and over-amplified bass caused all the huge, metal Moroccan plates mounted to walls on the first floor to rattle and reverberate like crazy. I distinctly remember sweating and laughing when it was over.
I can see where this was probably the part of RELAYER that gave you fusion vibes, especially with its opening Zawinul-type keyboard runs. But it's only 1/4 of the entire album and the other side, "Gates Of Delirium," will banish all memory of Scientology keyboardisms and Son of BITCHES BREW devotion to the four winds. It's the most muscular piece Yes ever committed to LP, and possibly the most insane. Patrick Moraz has a lot to answer for, as I believe it was his influence that brought a far greater sense of both attack and delicacy to Yes. I think Steve Howe responded in kind, as it features some of some of his most aggressive and hectic playing, ever...(and that's not even the closing pedal steel I'm referring to...!)
YESTERDAYS (1975) was the final Yes album I ever bought, bringing me up to speed with their entire back catalogue just prior to DRAMA (1980). I may respectfully suggest you save it for a rainy day when you're feeling adventurous.
I always felt there was something wrong with YESTERDAYS. It didn't list the song titles on the back cover (which was suspect) but I had read years before that it was a compilation that also featured two previous unreleased songs ("Dear Father" and "America.") Maybe because there were only these two songs unique to album release with the rest of the album filling up the cracks with material off their first 2 albums. Also, the child pissing on the back cover seemed a little, er, outre. Maybe the band were pissed off they had to release it? Roger Dean didn't mention it anywhere in VIEWS (1975), but chose to mention nostalgia and deja vu as its main themes.
After all these years, it's only now (well, an hour ago) I discovered that the B-side to their first single AND A-side to their recorded-in-1969-but-not-released-until-1972 single, "America" were both a 7-minute cover of..."Something's Coming" from WEST SIDE STORY (1961)(!!!) WHAT?!!
I can see why they left "Something's Coming" off YESTERDAYS. It wasn't only too long, but was super heavy handed and sounds like The Vanilla Fudge shagging The Nice on a sound stage. Come to think of it, that latter-named band is probably why Yes covered "Something's Coming" in the first place -- seeing as Emerson & Co recorded Leonard Bernstein's (and not Simon's) "America" from the same production as their second single.
The Paul Simon song "America" on YESTERDAYS was recorded by the band in all certainty because it was covered live by the nearly unrecorded Ur-Prog group, 1-2-3, who performed it live because they'd heard a demo recorded by Simon circulating in London at the time.
Now, if Yes had only covered "Somewhere (There Is A Place For Us)" that would've probably been a bit more fitting to Jon Anderson's cosmic muse. (Oh, but what I'd pay to hear Anderson sing "Gee, Officer Krupke.")
With that all said...best of luck. You're lucky to hear these records for the first time, just as I once was.
|
