The Yes Album (Yes) | Extended Play Lounge Ep. 53
Added 2023-10-03 23:03:53 +0000 UTCHi y'all! It has been since Episode 5 since we've featured Yes in the Extended Play Lounge. The Yes Album won our 5-way poll with a majority of the vote! I was very eager to finally listen to this classic album in its entirety. I hope you enjoy!
Comments
As a new member, I’m bouncing through a few of my fav LPs and wondering if anyone turned Doug onto the Bodast origins of Starship Trooper? https://youtu.be/6g6Y8d0FycM?si=5GY8SbBMwmRvw-d4
James Geckle
2025-12-07 22:50:11 +0000 UTCWow Jeff, figuring that symmetry out is impressive as Yes layering that section out...just one of many mini masterpieces on this album...Thanks Doug and all...."yours is no disgrace" from Yessong sealed Yes' s place for me New Years Eve 1973 -74...Great to see your apprecation now...
kjdarch1 .
2024-06-07 08:13:41 +0000 UTCThis is my second favorite Yes album and there's just so many good songs on it!
Wolverale12
2024-02-23 01:02:57 +0000 UTCWhen I was a senior in high school in 1987, I learned and performed the solo bit from The Ancient for my school's spring music festival. That was my first public playing experience, laying that piece in front of a full auditorium of people. Later, I learned Mood Far A Day. Clap has proven to be too elusive for me, as I have not yet mastered the alternating bass with independent melody, a la Chet Atkins and Kentucky thumb picking in general.
Chris Freeman
2023-12-09 12:36:37 +0000 UTCThe way Steve Howe plays the chords in Wurm, the guitar's open G string rings throughout because of the chord shape he's using. He also plays the chords with the root notes on the A string the first time through. But while he's on the C chord at the end of the first cycle, he shifts the bass note to the fifth on the low E string. He is also playing the fifth on the high E string as well. He describes it as widening the sound by having the fifth on the bottom and the top. The reason the solo pans between right and left is that he recorded two solos, and they discovered that if they played both, but just raised and lowered the faders when they did, that was the best sounding solo. You can still hear a bit of what's going on in each ear because Eddy Offord didn't pull the faders all the way down.
Chris Freeman
2023-12-09 12:31:41 +0000 UTCI didn't catch the Instant Karma reference. :)
R. Douglas Helvering
2023-10-13 15:42:32 +0000 UTCWhile side 2 of Going For The One (Wonderous Stories/Awaken, *always* played one after the other together) is my favorite album side ever, The Yes Album has become my favorite complete album by Yes. For many years it was YesSongs, then Fragile. But I appreciate studio work in repetitive listening, despite the stellar inspired live performances on YesSongs, and I eventually got tired of the solo pieces on Fragile, other than “Mood For A Day” and “The Fish.” The all band tracks on The Yes Album, the quality of the composition, and the overall flow of the album works for me better than any of their others. The one stylistic change to me, other than Howe’s introductory solo, is “A Venture.” To me that’s very much a throw back to the sound of the first two albums with Peter Banks. If you enjoyed the style of “A Venture,” I think you’ll very much appreciate their debut and sophomore albums.
Illume Eltanin
2023-10-13 03:33:32 +0000 UTCYes! I’m so excited that you caught the “Give Peace A Chance” reference on “I’ve Seen All Good People.” It’s very hard to catch when you hear it on the radio, especially if you’re listening on typical car stereo or even a single speaker radio. Did you notice the other John Lennon reference to “Instant Karma” within the lyrics?
Illume Eltanin
2023-10-13 03:00:02 +0000 UTCI haven't forgot about Magnification. We'll get to it!
R. Douglas Helvering
2023-10-07 21:27:08 +0000 UTCThanks for this Doug. Was fun re-listen with you. I have been waiting patiently for the ELP of Magnification... But as I have suggested with you before... Going in historical order... beginning to end I truly think is best as a student of life. Magnification is later but one you will truly love and appreciate along with the rest. I first heard of Yes at 14 years old... I'm 57 now... Crazy how I grew up with Rush, Yes, Floyd, Zep as my favorites with so many genres of music out there.
Bryan Tursk
2023-10-06 23:16:28 +0000 UTCIt would be a mistake to discount the first two albums. There's a lot of good stuff on them.
Clay Walnum
2023-10-05 14:40:47 +0000 UTCDoug- funny you should mention Chet Atkins during (The) Clap! Howe always mentions Atkins as one his main influences. Well, duh, Steve!
Tom (the soggy one)
2023-10-05 01:55:43 +0000 UTCHi Doug, please let me thank you for reminding me of my first Yes album, an album I had for almost two years before I herd
John Baird
2023-10-04 15:15:17 +0000 UTCNow you've listened to The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge and know the songs, it is really, really time to give Yessongs (the audio album, not the movie!), the attention it deserves. It's recorded short after CTTE. The audio quality doesn't get 5 stars, but it surely is listenable. On vinyl, it's 3 records. On CD, it is 2. Too much to enjoy in a single EPL, but definitively worth 2 (or 3) EPL's. It is my #1 desert island record. It took me some time back then to save enough money to buy the album, but boy it was worth it. The first listen was at the record shop, where you had to hold 2 old school telephone-like 'speakers' to your ear. (something like this: https://www.deorkaan.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ed-idema-v-en-d-platen-300x166.jpg). Side 1 started with some Stravinsky and then moved into Siberian Kathru. It blew me away and I thought that it completed side 1. I was wrong: Heart of the Sunrise was yet to come. It's a vivid memory.
Frits van Voorst
2023-10-04 13:03:57 +0000 UTCWhat fun! I haven't sat and listened to this album start-to-finish in decades, and seeing you hear it through for the first time was a joy. They really did save their strongest song for the album's finale. "Perpetual Change" is where they kind of say "Look what we can do!" From the changing time signatures to their modal approach to the beautiful play of dynamics, this is a real showcase of the capabilities this band had in their (peaceful) arsenal. Pretty sure this was the first time I'd ever heard polyrhythms in music, to my knowledge, and I remember learning to play it on the drums eagerly. One small note. At least on the original album cover, Track 2 was called "The Clap", and I think that the use of the definite article is a fun little play on words for a piece of music that just makes you want to clap along. Also, if you listen carefully, you can hear that there's an edit after the ascending chord sequence at the end of the middle section. That's because back on those days, after those chords, Steve would break into Mason Williams' "Classical Gas". So, to keep from having to pay Mason a fee, it was just edited out for the album. Thanks, Doug! Watching your face light up again and again during this made my day!
Bill Brinkmoeller
2023-10-04 05:55:34 +0000 UTCIt's a great album. Steve brings a unique guitar sound; and, shares an eclectic ethos that Peter Banks brought to the first 2 Yes albums (often forgotten by many Yes fans). A little more Jerry Reed-Roger McGinnis, Chet Atkins-Roy Buchanan.
Guitar Channel
2023-10-04 04:31:42 +0000 UTCI'm so glad that you decided not to use some other versions/performances of any of these songs! Besides the importance of experiencing the album as it was created, I prefer these songs performed by these YES members. As much as I love Rick Wakeman and what he brought to YES, I much prefer Tony Kaye's rock Hammond organ sound (slightly distorted a la Jon Lord) versus Wakeman's interpretations on these particular songs.
Howaard Hughes
2023-10-04 03:52:04 +0000 UTCYeah , the cut version misses Howe's cool fuzz solo.
Hetfield Ninno Davide
2023-10-04 02:43:21 +0000 UTCThis has always been one of my favorite Yes recordings. I've had copies of this in one format or another in my collection for well over 50 years. It's one of the rare albums that doesn't sound dated.
BrianTheJeepGuy
2023-10-04 02:28:19 +0000 UTCThere's a longer version of A Venture out there in the interwebs - it doesn't fade out at the end, just keeps going for a minute more than the album version. It's just the guys jamming out on the riff, but it makes the song so much better!!
MikeCarr
2023-10-04 02:18:05 +0000 UTCYes is one of my top 3 favorite bands, and I LOVE their epic albums with long majestic pieces...but I find myself listening to The Yes Album more than any other Yes album. Cheers!
MikeCarr
2023-10-04 01:51:32 +0000 UTCYES YES YES......This was my first Yes Album and I was hooked sooo many years ago and still very much love .....thankx...a great reaction Doug.....dk
Don K Mal 1
2023-10-04 01:20:04 +0000 UTCAfter hearing and attempted learning to play “Clap”, then “Mood for a day” from Fragile and “The Ancient” from Topographic Oceans my father had me watch the Harvard Bernstein lectures at 14, I slowly moved from rock guitar to classical guitar…until I happened upon Mr Doug I had not thought about how these pieces influenced my life. it only took 65 years to come full circle! I’m thoroughly enjoying the memories and discoveries with this group. Thanks “y’all”!😊
Steven Ravitz
2023-10-04 00:52:53 +0000 UTCThe quick little bit in "Perpetual Change" is, of course, in 7/8—4 bars. The verse part that eventually comes in over it is a bar of 6/4 plus two bars of 4/4...so 14 beats. So the two cycle back on top of one another after each phrase (7/8*4 = 28/8, 6+4+4/4 = 14/4 = 28/8). Cool!
Jeff Norman
2023-10-04 00:42:32 +0000 UTCGreat album (an old favorite of mine from CD listening in the 90s), and a fun video. Thanks!
BRIAN MILLER
2023-10-04 00:18:11 +0000 UTCIt's interesting to hear the difference between Bill Bruford and Tony Kaye's approach to these songs versus Wakeman, Moraz, Alan White, and others who have performed with Yes. "The Yes Album" still ranks highly in my view, after all these years. Well Done, Doug!
Bill Coonley
2023-10-04 00:14:51 +0000 UTC
