Yes- Close to the Edge

Tomorrow, I’m going to my first ever prog concert, Yes. To commemorate, I’m reviewing the album that generally is considered their best, Close to the Edge. At this time in their carrer, Yes consisted of Jon Anderson (lead vocals), Steve Howe (guitar/vocals), Chris Squire (bass/vocals), Bill Bruford (drums), and Rick Wakeman (keyboards). The band had broken through with The Yes Album (1971), and became one of Prog’s superstars with Fragile (1972). With these strong albums under their belt, Yes made Close to the Edge with little reservation.

This album is the first of a few more by Yes that are centered around one massive track, with shorter ones taking up what’s left of the record. In the case of Close to the Edge, this is the title track. “Close to the Edge” contains four distinct parts making up an 18 minute suite: The Solid Time of Change, Total Mass Retain, I Get Up I Get Down, and Seasons of Man. For the first movement, nature sounds lead into the album. After about a minute, Howe takes over with a truly amazing guitar solo. His style here is very Prog at heart, with lots of fast and technical chord changes and time changes. This, after a semi- stop, leads into the vocal harmonies, with Anderson’s distinct high pitch voice caring the piece (due to a vocal cord defect, he sings in a permanent falsetto.) The song goes through its chorus several times, with little changes between each repetition. The Total Mass Retain phase is brief (less than two minutes), and is very similar in style to what came before. I Get Up I Get Down starts, and suddenly everything mellows. Wakeman adds some keyboard sounds to carry over for a while. This section has little music for its beginning, with just vocal parts over the electronic sounds. Wakeman adds a pipe organ solo at the end. Seasons of Man returns to the structure of Solid Time of Change, with the same guitar, bass, and drum parts. The Keyboards, however, are different. After a vocal only reprise of the other parts, “Close to the Edge” fades out.

That song takes up a whole side of vinyl, but the songs on side B are no slouches either. The first of two songs here is “And You and I”, a love song. Once again, it is a suite, lasting 10 minutes. It also has 4 sections: Chord of Life, Eclipse, The Preacher and the Teacher, and Apocalypse. The sections are less distinct here. Howe’s Acoustic guitar leads in, and he puts in a fantastic performance. Anderson solos for much for much of this song, and his frail voice perfectly fits the lyric content. “And You and I” talks about how when in love, a person is incomplete without the other, and how lovers ought to try to spread this message of Love. This is all done in extremely spiritual way. The keyboards help to create an ethereal mood during the second half of this song. Perhaps Prog’s greatest Love song, it ends by stripping down to the basic guitar part and vocal. Lastly, there’s the nine minute “Siberian Khatru”, the first Yes song I ever heard. After an opening riff, the song has a four measure structure, with three 4/4 ones followed by a 3/4. Vocals come in after about a minute. This song is not a multi part suite, but features many solos by Wakeman and Howe. Squire’s distinctive bass style is very evident on this song, with many slap-bass like notes. Bruford also shine on the drums. “Siberian Khatru” has an energetic feel as parts, but at other parts feels as icy as Siberia.

Close to the Edge was heavily influenced by the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring also factored into the feel of the album. Roger Dean, the famed Prog Artist, contributed the gatefold illustration, which featured the signature sci-fi landscapes of his work for Yes (above, image from Wikipedia). After this album, Bruford left to join King Crimson, and Yes released Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973), which was received with mixed attitudes.

Close to the Edge is one of the best known Progressive rock albums, and deservadely so. It has great art, lyrics, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals, and is inventive. What more can we ask from a Prog Album? Not much. Grade: A