The Yes album

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The Yes album
Studio album by Yes

Publication
(s)

March 19, 1971

Label (s) Atlantic Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Progressive rock

Title (number)

6th

running time

41:36

occupation

production

Yes and Eddie Offord

Studio (s)

Advision Studios, London

chronology
Time and a Word
(1970) 		The Yes album Fragile
(1971)

The Yes Album is the third album by the progressive rock band Yes . It was released in 1971, is the first to contain exclusively original compositions by the band and is considered the first "real" progressive rock album by Yes, as the first two albums were still heavily influenced by the beat and psychedelic of the 1960s .

Emergence

After the failures of the two previous albums Yes and Time and a Word , Ahmet Ertegün , head of Atlantic Records , decided to terminate the band's contract. Phil Carson, then also with Atlantic, was able to persuade him to give the band one last chance. However, Ertegün saw no reason to invest in the third album, Yes manager Roy Flynn raised the necessary money. At that time, the band still earned too little despite numerous appearances to be able to afford more than a common apartment and a daily livelihood.

After Peter Banks left , Yes were looking for a new guitarist. They found him in Steve Howe , a young musician whom bassist Chris Squire had noticed earlier - after all, he had a psychedelic hit in the band Tomorrow with My White Bicycle . In 1970 he left his band BoDaSt and was looking for a new engagement. He turned down offers from The Nice and Jethro Tull to join Yes.

Yes then retired to a rented farm in Devon to undertake a musical and organizational reorientation and to work on new songs. During this time the band's financial situation became so critical that they even had to borrow money from their landlords. The relationship with her manager Roy Flynn became so strained that Yes ended their business relationship with him in March 1970.

Flynn then tried to refer the band to other managers, including Syd Bernstein, Peter Grant ( Led Zeppelins ' manager ) and Yes' own road manager Michael Tait, but ultimately it was Chris Squire who got in touch with Harvey Freed von through his hairdresser manufactured by the company Shirtale. Freed had given himself the name "Brian Lane" at the time, based on Pink Floyd's song Arnold Layne , in whose marketing he had been involved, and ran the company together with film producer John Daly and actor David Hemmings . Shirtale signed Yes.

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

Their new manager Brian Lane initially supported the band with 5000 pounds, from which they bought new instruments, and ensured better concerts in larger halls. At these concerts the band already presented material from their new album. At the same time he began to prepare a US tour with Iron Butterfly .

The Yes album was released on March 19, 1971. When Atlantic again refused to invest in advertising, Michael Tait put Yes posters in dozens of shops in London for release. But coincidence also helped the album to its 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, without further ado, the sales of Richard Branson's London Virgin store were taken as the basis. Since Yes had a large fan base in London, The Yes Album achieved a high chart position from the start, which noticeably increased national sales in the next few weeks.

Steve Howe was so fond of the Devon farmhouse that produced The Yes album that he bought it a few years later. He lives there to this day.

Track list

  1. Yours Is No Disgrace ( Jon Anderson / Chris Squire / Steve Howe / Tony Kaye / Bill Bruford ) - 9:41
  2. Clap (Steve Howe) - 3:17
  3. Starship Trooper - 9:28
    1. Life Seeker (Jon Anderson)
    2. Disillusion (Chris Squire)
    3. Würm (Steve Howe)
  4. I've Seen All Good People - 6:55
    1. Your Move (Jon Anderson)
    2. All Good People (Chris Squire)
  5. A Venture (Jon Anderson) - 3:18
  6. Perpetual Change (Jon Anderson / Chris Squire) - 8:52

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

  1. Your Move [Single Version] (Jon Anderson) - 2:59
  2. Starship Trooper: Life Seeker [Single Version] (Jon Anderson) - 3:27
  3. Clap [Studio Version] (Steve Howe) - 4:02

Remarks

  • Steve Howe's solo piece Clap was recorded live in the version on the original album. For a long time it was wrongly called The Clap , which Howe disliked due to the ambiguity of the expression (see flap ). In fact, the title referred to the slap his son Dylan received when he was born.
  • In the piece I've Seen All Good People , John Lennon's song Give Peace a Chance is quoted as backing vocals .

Cover

The fold-out cover shows a group photo on the front, the song titles and the band members on the back, five photos on the inside, with Tony Kaye in the middle , who was about to leave the band. Instead of The Yes Album , some versions of the cover only say The Yes .

Review

The album reached number 6 in the UK charts and debuted at number 40 in the US.

It marked a departure from previous attempts by the band to expand the group sound with simple equipment or the support of an orchestra. Instead, they relied on longer pieces, stylistic variation and more complex structures with recourse to classic forms such as B. that of the suite (see I've Seen All Good People , Starship Trooper ). With Yours Is No Disgrace , Starship Trooper and I've Seen All Good People , three of the band's early classics can be found on the album; with Clap a piece was added that would be heard almost continuously in the concert halls for the next 35 years.

Sources and web links