First actual Yes album...decisions, decisions...

[Roscoe East]

Indeed. "We Have Heaven" and "Schindleria Praematurus" (sp?!) are also fun. Only Wakeman's and Bruford's solo tracks get skipped routinely on my CD player (though Bruford's is short, at least ... ).

Bruford's "5% For Nothing" is one of my favorite tracks on the whole Fragile album! It's an elucidating foreshadowing of Bill's approach to orchestration via rhythm that would inform everything he wrote/recorded from the late 1970s onward.

 

[bluesblaster]

# 1 would be yessongs (live) just because the opening cut "siberian katru" is such a balls to the wall tune and the jam they do on "yours is no disgrace" is pretty mean as well.

Saw the reunion tour w/ wakeman some years back, and they absolutly killed, close to the edge sounded just as good as the version from YESSONGS recorded over 30 years earlier.

Relayer and Tales of Topographic Oceans are also hardcore YES material, provided your not so impatient as to enjoy 20 minute compositions.

 

[maxschrek]

Indeed, start with Fragile, then The Yes Album and then work your way up from the 1rst album to Drama...at least that's the way I did it when I discovered YES at age 14 in 1980! Just as a post it note, I love them all for different reasons but I have to say my favorite of them all is Going For The One. Something's really magical about that album to me.

 

[Kink Rimson]

Well, in my opinion, "Mood For A Day" is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written for solo classical guitar.

I agree, it's an outstanding piece, but by the time it appears on the album you've got used to the short solo tracks and it's becoming a bit predictable and jarring - at least to my ears.

In all honesty, it's only really Cans and Brahms that is really bad (and it is terrible). The Fish works perfectly after Long Distance Runaround.

I do love the album, I just feel it's slightly disjointed nature stops it from being the masterpiece many feel it is.

 

[emdsd]

This tread has got me on a Yes kick again:
Just ran across 'The Complete Yes' Vol 1 & 2 copyright 1977 at a local music store for $6 each. I had these "back in the day" but don't remember what happened to them. They cover quite a bit of their early work from The Yes Album, Fragile, Close To The Edge, etc. Most of the music is fairly complete and accurate including the bass lines. Seems like alot of the older sheet music was way more complete unlike most I've seen today that is just basic chord patterns and lyrics. My best friend in highschool was a keyboard player and we used to love jamming this stuff...even had some complete music for ELP stuff like Take A Pebble....ah, the memories. Yes, of course I bought them....I'll be trying to remember Starship Trooper tonight...well, you know....trying to!!!