The Yes Album

Occupation

The Yes Album is the third album by the progressive rock band Yes. It was published in 1971 and is considered the first "real" progressive rock album from Yes, because the first two albums were heavily influenced by the beat and psychedelic 1960s.

Formation

After the successes of the previous two albums Yes and Time and a Word to Ahmet Ertegun had, head of Atlantic Records, decided to terminate the contract of the band. However, Phil Carson, then also at Atlantic, it could be persuaded to give a last chance of the band. However Ertegun saw no reason to invest in the third album, the money brought Yes manager Roy Flynn. At this time, the band still deserved despite numerous appearances too little to afford more than an apartment together and daily living can.

After the departure of Peter Banks Yes were looking for a new guitarist. They found him in Steve Howe, was a young musician, bassist Chris Squire already noticed earlier - after all, he had had a psychedelic hit in the band Tomorrow with My White Bicycle. In 1970, he had left his band BoDaSt and was looking for a new commitment. Deals of The Nice and Jethro Tull he struck out to join Yes.

Yes then retreated to a rented farm in Devon to make a musical and organizational reorientation and to work on new songs. During this time the financial position of the band was so critical that they even had to borrow money from their landlords. The relationship with their manager Roy Flynn became so tense that Yes in March 1970 ended their business relationship with him.

Flynn then tried to teach the band to other managers, including Syd Bernstein, Peter Grant (the manager Led Zeppelin ) and Yes ' own road manager, Michael Tait, ultimately, it was Chris Squire, the contact with Harvey Freed from over his hairdresser the company Hemdale produced. Freed had been given at this time based on Pink Floyd song Arnold Layne, on whose marketing he had been involved, the name " Brian Lane " and launched the company in conjunction with the film producer John Daly and the actor David Hemmings. Yes hemdale took under contract.

Flynn remained at 5% of Yes' publishing company " Yessongs " involved (the band commented on their album Fragile with the song Five Per Cent for Nothing ), which in 1973 ended in a lawsuit which settled out of court and at the end of Flynn sum of $ 150,000 was awarded.

Your new manager Brian Lane supported the band initially at 5000 pounds, of which they bought new instruments, and provided better concerts in large halls. At these concerts, the band has already presented material from her new album. At the same time he began to prepare for a U.S. tour with Iron Butterfly.

The Yes album was released on 19 March 1971. As Atlantic again did not want to invest in advertising, Michael Tait up posters to publish dozens of shops in London with Yes - posters. But the coincidence helped the album to his unexpected success: Due to a postal strike, the English record stores could not report their sales to London, where the national charts were created. So we took a short hand, sales of Richard Branson's Virgin London store as a basis. Since Yes in London had a large fan base, The Yes Album reached in this way from the beginning a high chart position, what the statewide sales increased noticeably in the coming weeks.

Steve Howe liked the farmhouse in Devon, in the The Yes Album was created, so much that he bought it a few years later. He lives there to this day.

Track list

  • Recorded live at the Lyceum, London, July 17, 1970

The album was re-released in 2004 by Rhino Records re-mixed; Also included were the bonus tracks:

Comments

  • Steve Howe's solo piece Clap was recorded live in the present on the original album version. It was titled incorrectly as The Clap long time, which Howe displeased because of the ambiguity of the expression ( see cover). In fact, the title referring to the slap, which his son Dylan had been given at birth.
  • In the piece I've Seen All Good People is quoted as backing vocals John Lennon's song Give Peace a Chance.

Cover

The front Faltcover shows a group photo on the back of the song title and the band occupation, inside five photos of it in the middle of large Tony Kaye, who was to leave the band soon. Instead of The Yes Album is available on some versions of the cover only The Yes.

Review

The album reached # 6 in the UK charts and climbed into the U.S. at number 40.

It marked a departure from previous attempts the band, with simple equipment or the support of an orchestra to expand the group sound, instead you put on longer pieces, stylistic variation and complex structure with recourse to classical forms such as the suite ( cf. I've Seen All Good People, Starship Troopers ). Yours Is No Disgrace With, Starship Trooper and I've Seen All Good People, three early classics of the band from the album; Clap came with a piece of this, which would be almost continuously heard in the next 35 years in the concert halls.

Sources and links

  • Welch, Chris: Close to the Edge. The story of Yes. London / NY / Sydney 1999. ISBN 0-7119-6930-2
  • Reviews of The Yes Album on Baby Blue Pages
  • The Yes Album at Allmusic (English)

Yes (1969 ) | Time and a Word (1970 ) | The Yes Album ( 1971) | Fragile (1972 ) | Close to the Edge (1972 ) | Tales from Topographic Oceans (1974 ) | Relayer (1974 ) | Going for the One (1977 ) | Tormato (1978 ) | Drama (1980 ) | 90125 (1983 ) | Big generator (1987 ) | Union (1991 ) | Talk ( 1994) | Keys to Ascension (1996 ) | Keys to Ascension 2 (1997 ) | Open Your Eyes (1997 ) | The Ladder (1999 ) | Magnification (2001 ) | Fly from Here (2011)

  • Album ( Progressive Rock )
  • Album 1971
  • Yes album
Yes (Band) Record label Genre Steve Howe (musician) Tony Kaye (musician) Fragile (Yes album) Yes (Yes album) Tomorrow (Band) Virgin Group Rhino Entertainment Cottaging Drama (Yes album) Union (Yes album) Talk (Yes album) Open Your Eyes (Yes album) Magnification (album)
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