All language subtitles for YES - Close to the Edge _ Documentary

What's the greatest progressive rock

album of all time? They'll think of In

the Court of the Crimson King. They'll

think of Land Lives Down and Broadway.

And they'll think of Close to the Edge.

[Music]

You go from like Yes to Time and a word.

from time to word to the yes album from

the yes album the fragile and then bang

you hear it close to the edge three

pieces of music um you know and a lot of

people probably say the best yes album

ever

>> for me uh the the uh yes album fragile

um Close to the Edge kind of trilogy

was establishing uh the styles and the

direction of Yes. when yes made close to

the edge, they were

kind of in some way, I suppose,

confirming

the end of the 60s and the move into a

kind of music that uh was going to be

developed through the first half of the

' 70s until punk drew a line under it.

[Music]

And you reach out for reasons

to

always trying different sounds,

different things. Um, and I think that

that is

partly why it's it's the album it is,

you know, because they they they did

have this it felt like they had endless

amounts of time to do this album, to

make this album. I think this album uh

Close to the Edge put Yes. on the

international map and allowed them even

with the breakups and the reforming, the

breakups and the reforming and etc.,

etc., to be a band that is still

functioning and working today, a long

time after this album was made.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

You listen something close to the edge

and and you can listen to it as

enjoyably today as you could back in

1972 and it really doesn't sound it. You

put it on today and you don't think,

blime me, this is a old record, isn't

it? It's like, wow, what a great piece

of music. And that's the difference.

>> And so it is rock and roll in a strange

way.

[Music]

[Music]

Heat. Heat.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

Heat.

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Heat.

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[Music]

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[Music]

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[Music]

If you go back to the very beginning of

Yes Records and then trace their their

musical ideas through to Close to the

Edge, you can see you can start to see

that the basic song structure was

beginning to change, especially on

Fragile where you were getting more

musical interludes

and uh they took that to its nth degree

and Close to the Edge.

>> If you really want to define where Yes.

really truly began as a band we all know

and love today, you have to go to the

Fragile album which was their fourth

release because this was a release that

brought together Bill Bruford on drums,

Rick Wakeman on keyboard, Steve How

guitar, Chris bass, and of course John

Anderson on vocals. It was the first

album they worked on together and you

can hear in Fragile work in progress.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

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[Applause]

[Music]

If you take Roundabout as as the prime

example of what they were doing on

Fragile, then um I mean it's interesting

to note that that was also pulled off

the album as a single in America. Um and

that it's very often that particular

track that's cited as opening up the

band to a massive audience. Um because

it is kind of accessible. this kind of

sort of funky and catchy roundabout and

and yes weren't really considered a sort

of catchy kind of band. A lot of the

Prague rock bands in the early '7s like

Eston Palmer and Genesis and Yes. Um

although I mean they were melodic the

sort of

commercially viable harmonies weren't

the sort of things you were finding on

their records. Um so roundabout for

roundabout to work outside of the

context of fragile was the perfect

stepping stone. Yes. needed to sort of

like make themselves uh very quickly the

most popular progressive rock band of

that era.

>> It's starting to explore the areas that

were to become known and loved on Close

to the Edge. That ability to mesh and

meld heavy rock almost industrial music

with jazz inflections, classical

aspirations, and of course those soaring

vocals over pseudo intellectual hippie

dippy airy fairy lyrics. however you

want to describe them, maybe mystical.

And Roundabout, of course, is the track

that everyone knows and loves on that

record. And because it's got so much

light and shade and seems to flow so

naturally and freely, that really was

the birth of Yes, as we know it. And

although of course it ended up in

Fragile, not close to the edge, it would

not have been out of place on the

latter. I will remember you. Your

silhouette will change the view of this

atmosphere.

[Music]

[Applause]

On the previous album, Fragile, uh it's

interesting how different the writing

pattern is. You've got about three

tracks that are cooperative ventures and

five tracks which are individual.

They're basically solo tracks on a Yes

album and

they're not so good because of that.

They're kind of entertainment divis

even. Uh but they're not full-on band

tracks. Come to Close to the Edge and

you have a real band album.

>> They made Fragile in mid71, released

early 72. In early 72 they went in and

made Close to the Edge. So they got to

know each other as individuals and as

musicians. They'd had a dry run as it

were with fragile and said, "Okay, now

we know where we can go. Now we know our

strengths and weaknesses. We can take it

one step further and really open up

everything. Really just go for it."

Because I think in fragile there's a

certain diffidence and occasion as if

they're feeling their way, looking at

each other to see, okay, is what I'm

doing fitting with what you're doing. I

think by the time they got to close to

the edge, you were much more confident.

They spent months and months and months

there and I I wasn't there for months

and months, you know, I was there on and

off occasionally. So I rarely saw any

actual music being played. I I saw one

night I spent hours watching uh Bill

Bruofford

hitting this fabulous this massive

symbol.

It's like what you just call them dust

bins, you know, massive thing. And that

that was about it. and they just

couldn't quite get the timing of this

this this symbol. Um,

but what I heard most of the time was a

lot of the the the early playback stuff,

you know, when they were mixing and it

was you could tell it was it was

unbelievable. It was the there was this

power to it which I I don't think I'd

ever heard before.

>> I think Close to the Edge as a as an

album was probably the best overall

picture. Um, Fragile was just before it

was which was a good stepping stone to

what I thought was

>> basically what Yes, as a group was all

about. It was a very good picture of a

band uh being able to expand musically.

>> We're talking, you know, 1971, 1972,

Prague Rock, we really only just got

going and yet, yes, we're sort of

streaking ahead. You know, Genesis was

still catching them up. Floyd hadn't

even created their masterpiece. King

Crimson had sort of done some good work

and then were kind of wallowing around,

didn't really, you know, trying to work

out what it is they wanted to do. Yes,

we're up and away going, "See you guys."

And sort of streaking ahead. You

couldn't hold them back. I mean, you

know, in the space of 2 years, Yes. had

done the Yes album, Fragile, and Close

the Edge. Um, you know, the three of the

greatest progressive rock albums of all

time.

[Music]

Heat. Heat. Heat.

[Music]

Heat. Heat.

[Music]

[Applause]

I'll be there with you

>> for Yes. to do an album with three

tracks as they did with Close to the

Edge. It was a very brave move at the

time. Even though it was in an era where

artistic integrity was so important to

most musicians, still they did an album

which side one was just one track, 18

minutes plus called Close to the Edge,

albeit divided into four chapters, four

parts. And I'm convinced there were two

reasons why they divided it up. One was

pretentious because, oh, all the great

symphonies have different movements, so

we'll have different movements. The

other was probably pragmatic. You can

imagine it going into the record label

and saying, "We've got this 18 track

title song for the album, which is going

to take up the whole of side one of what

was in vinyl and the record label

Atlantic going, "Oh my god, what are you

doing? This is crazy. You're just

building a following. You you're mad."

So, what they did was say, "We actually

got four songs. It's parts one to four."

So, we got four different parts of what

is ultimately overall track.

>> When we first recorded, Course The Edge,

it took us a long time. until it was 2

months as a track.

>> And then we played it. I remember

playing it at um Crystal Palace in

London and it seemed like we were there

for 4 days playing this piece of music.

It seemed ages long.

>> Close to the edge was a song that I

began writing literally about living

next to the rivers, you know. So, but

John converted that into a song about

the world if you like. And that's that's

I suppose that's an indication of

artists working together is that you by

the time you've pulled a couple of

ideas, you haven't got something that's

twice as good as the first idea. You got

something that's multiples, you know,

the square root of two. You know, it's

multiples better than two good ideas

because, you know, it's got that kind of

inner explosion.

>> The track itself, Close to the Edge, um,

I mean, it's a masterpiece in in that

it's epic. I mean, it's sort of 18

minutes long, but they cra seem to cram

so much in to those 18 minutes, and yet

it doesn't feel cluttered,

and I think that's a very um very

important thing to take into account

when you're you're talking about bands

who are prepared to make lengthy pieces

of music. Um, it's also catchy. Um, and

which again is something a lot of Prague

rock bands failed to get in. I mean the

actual the close to the edge refrain is

actually a very memorable and you know

it's it's it's almost sort of a pop

single type refrain. Um you know and I

mean it opens it moves into this one the

wonderful sort of the first segment and

then it sort of like it sort of mellows

out a bit and then builds up again to

sort of its climax.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

The start I think is probably in some

ways its boldest move because the

opening is really quite ugly.

I like it. It's jelly lead. I think you

know it's it's pretty ugly. uh and it's

very powerful, but it is saying to

anybody who's listening, you're going to

really have to get into this because

we're not giving you the chorus first

up. And so it starts with the bird

sounds and then it goes into what is

called a dharmonic minor mode.

Um also it's there there's a couple of

other interesting things that I need to

to point out. You have what's called

poly rhythms and you also have poly

chords. Now poly rhythms means that

there's two different rhythms going on

at the same time. And poly chords means

there's two different chords being

played at the same time from different

instruments or spread between several

instruments. In this case, guitar,

keyboard, and bass. And so I can

illustrate only sections of that, but it

gives a fairly good idea of what they

were up to. So the first thing is that

after the the uh the the sound of

atmosphere and birds, it opens with the

use of a Dharmonic minor scale which

sounds like this

[Music]

played against a D minor chord. So the

bass Chris Squire is is playing a moving

line that actually goes over three

octaves. Um whereas uh Steve How the

guitar player is playing something

similar to

[Music]

lines like that against a slowm moving.

And there's that three feel. 1 2 3 1 2

3. So there immediately you have two

juxtaposed rhythms and um and Bill

Bruford is playing what I would term as

nearly jazz in a sense. He's very busy.

He's doing all sorts of stuff. He's

playing sort of quite free within the

rhythmic structure. Um and that goes on

for a little while and then it goes into

what I would term as as a shuffle field.

So the whole thing gets much faster and

it gets much more frenetic. Um, and

during the middle of this frenetic

section, suddenly everything stops for

literally one beat or two beats and

there's a whole vast array of John

Anderson's voices and then it all starts

again and then it happens again and you

know so it's actually

that production idea is really quite

unusual. Um, not unusual today but

unusual then. So that's the whole first

section.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Now there is no particular concept to

close Close to the Edge, but if you

listen to the beginning of it, it's a

very old piece. It starts off with birds

twittering, river flowing or water

flowing certainly. And apparently those

sounds came from John Anderson's own

personal collection and then suddenly

you've got the heavy weights coming in,

the musicianship, which starts off

almost like an industrial noise. It's a

chaos. It's a very well constructed

chaos, but it is seriously chaotic. And

if you took that section which is about

3 and 1/2 minutes long, 3 minutes long

and played it to anybody into ministry

or anybody into nish nails, I don't

think they'd actually go. I think they

might go, "Hey, we can appreciate what

they were doing." It was almost

protoindustrial, which leads into jazz,

not into classical music, certainly not

into rock. It's a very jazzy type of

feel to the whole thing before John

Anderson comes in with the vocals which

are almost a shock when you listen to

them for the first time because you

don't expect his ethereal highpitched

tone to come in. You expect something

far more gruff, far more energetic, far

more in your face than what you get. So

you got this dichotomy and divergence.

You got the music which is quite heavy

and earthy and the lyrics and the vocals

which are very mystical and ethereal.

They're a fivepiece band. I mean, and

they had a very unique guitar sound.

Steve How's guitar sound very unique.

Um,

you have a very rhythmic bass playing.

Um, almost funky bass playing without

being funk. Um, you know, um,

and then there's expansive keyboard

sound that goes with it. All underpinned

by a very sort of tight tor jazz sort of

drummer. Um, and then John Enson's voice

really has always been the most obvious

aspect of of the S sound because it's so

unique. I mean, I really can't think of

many people that that sort of sing like

John Anderson. Um, you know, appealing

and appalling in equal measure, I guess,

for people. Um, you know, it's because

it's so unique, you either love it or

you hate it. John Anderson's voice, I

think, is very particular and regardless

of the opacity of his lyrics, he really

carries it through beautifully. I think

certainly throughout this album, the

thing is, to coin a phrase, he has a

very fragile singing voice. And then

you've got that set against

and within the immense power of all

these instruments

right away. Look right away.

Close to the edge down by a river.

Not right away. Not right away.

[Music]

[Music]

For me, John Anderson

always tended to combine a sense of

spirituality or the search for

spirituality with a sense of just going

with a stream of consciousness on his on

his lyrics. The words worked at it at at

their very best, not just in terms of

telling a story because they really did

in reality, but in terms of the way they

complemented the music, they juxtaposed

with what was being done.

>> The guy wrote the lyrics and he's he's

obviously has these amazing ideas in his

head, which he needs the other guys. He

needs their input. He can't do it on his

own. No way. But I think he's got an

idea once he's written something. He can

he can like he's almost humming it,

singing it.

>> When people ask me, "How do you write

music?" You know, when you get together

with John, how do you do it? Every time

John and I get together, it's different.

There's a different feeling. There's a

different technique being used.

Sometimes John and I will just, you

know, rush in here and give us a couple

of hours and put a mini disc on and but

other times, you know, I'll give him a

tape and he'll go away and every time

it's different. Obviously John John

Enson sings in a very high range anyway

but Chris Squire was very able to to

back him up um vocally albeit in a lower

register. Then I mean if you go back to

when the Yes. got together I mean

Anderson and and and Squire met um and

found that they both shared um similar

view of of where they'd like to take

rock music but they were also very fond

of things like the the vocal harmonies

of Simon Garuncle. And that's why um

perhaps of all the progressive rock

bands, yes, were utilized their vocal

prowess a lot more.

>> Over the years, I've I've been trying to

develop a certain style. I still don't

know what it is. I still can't grasp

what it is, but um clarity,

um presentation obviously, and control.

I think these are important things.

Admittedly, in the early day, I used to

hide it. I used to kind of say not too

loud, you know.

I used to worry about uh the volume of

the voice. Uh maybe because I wasn't

sure of it on stage. I I I always seem

to have a lot more

>> presence from my own point of view. I I

always felt very comfortable on stage.

So you've got a band who are as

interested in taking it as far as they

can musically as they are

taking the vocal appro their vocal

approach and and and taking that as far

as they can and making it mix with you

know the the rock music that they're

making.

Now that it's all over and done now that

you're now.

>> So the next section is where the songs

really start or the song starts. So this

is the verse section. And what they're

doing in the verse section is they're

now using an a dorian mode. And an

aorian mode if you're talking about

modes is the second mode of a G major

scale. So you got a G major scale and

then they have the Ionian which is the

first scale which is your major scale

and your second scale your Dorian

starting on an A note and they're using

that as the basis for this chord

structure which is the verse which

essentially is a bunch of chords

[Music]

over an A root Or so if you were

improvising over it, you could be

doesn't that sound like Yes. You know,

so that's the a dorian mode that's going

on there. So it's all over an an A root.

So it goes something like this.

[Music]

And then he goes to a G minor chord. So

there's a little interlude. And then he

goes back again to the same thing.

[Music]

I find my hand

[Music]

to find out.

[Music]

And what you've got, I think, is

throughout

a really strong drive to it. each track

with a strong thematic development,

recurring themes, variations, movements,

opportunities for uh each player to

stake their claim, so to speak, for a

little while, but in a a way that's

constructive in that it's like a new

voice coming in. Like there's an

outstanding moment in Close to the Edge

itself when uh the big church organ

sound comes in, you know, when Rick

Wakeakeman starts to dominate for

couple of minutes anyway and does his

own really welldeveloped crescendo which

swings out of church organ into a

synthesizer sound which is so that's a

very different change of tone and that

bridges the gap into the next track, you

know, And it's just that's just one part

of it that has its own very powerful

movement.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Rick was a very great character. Flowing

capes, flowing blonde hair, loved a good

time, very earthy, very sort of

unconnected with the spiritual world in

the way that John Anderson was. But he

had a bank of keyboards all over the

place or banks of keyboards that he

would play constantly and his sound was

inimitable. His sound was very important

to where Yes went because it merged

together the fairground with the concert

hall and with the pub. He somehow had

that ability to be Chaz and Dave on the

one hand and yet Artur Rubenstein on the

other hand. Remember this is the man who

played with David Bowie. This is the man

who played with Black Sabbath. This is a

man who was constantly in demand because

he was such a good keyboard player

because he could adapt his style to

whatever the main artist wanted him to

do and do it better than anybody else.

So he'd learned a lot along the way of

how to adapt and adopt and that came in

really well with Yes. because he had

people who were strong personalities

musically like Steve how like Bill

Bruofford like Chris Squire. What Wake

Weightman did, he became the glue.

Wakeman actually literally became the

glue that held together the music. And

whilst yes yet other people could have

done it, nobody could have done it in

the way that he did. I suppose it's a

measure of the the the talent of Rick

Wakeakeman that that he managed to bring

all that and still fit it into what Yes

were doing. It wasn't like Yes joining

him and adding their music to his sound.

He had to adapt his sound to to what

they were doing. Um, so I mean if you

listen to to Fragile, um, it's not

vastly overdone on the keyboard front.

Um, but there certainly certainly a lot

more elements have crept into Close to

the Edge. Um,

but it the album doesn't suffer for it.

What it does is have recurring themes

that uh, come back in different forms on

different instruments. Uh, and it has an

immense amount of light and shade, any

kind of uh all sorts of moods to it and

all sorts of tempos.

So, the sheer variety is part of why it

keeps your interest, but then the

variety has a purpose and it does move

along and constantly surprise you. So

you've got 1 2 3 4, you've got five

different musical sections all in quite

a short space.

So although there is a song going on

there, it's a song with the same

attitude as the piece of music.

Nothing hangs around too long and it's

constantly changing.

[Music]

The mark of a track like that that means

it's good is that you've listened to it

and it's over. And when it's over before

you think it's going to be over and in

fact 18 minutes have gone by, you know,

and it's like, oh, is it over? Blime me,

you know, you kind of get lost in it and

it and and it takes you out of you

sitting there thinking, oh, when's this

going to be over? Um to sort of like

just you it it draws you in very nicely

um sort of slowly and surely draws you

in and the next thing you know it's all

over and you're like, well, where did

that go? Um, and you flip it over and

you've got two more pieces of music of

of sort of almost equal intensity and

and and priority. That first track has

this huge physical power. It's range is

far and wide in its dynamics, but

essentially the whole drive of it has a

lot of this physical power. It's very

rocking uh in uh perhaps not in an

orthodox way, but it does grab you grabs

you by the body, I'd say. Uh the next

track is uh uh far more the uh pastoral

side of John Anderson and of Steve How

with his acoustic guitar. Uh it's much

more of that track and you and I is uh

quite uh light and sweet and I suppose

you might say peaceful uh as we uh would

have said back then.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

for me and you and I, which is the

second of the three tracks on the Close

to the Edge album is very much about

personal relationships. John Anderson

keeps going back to and you and I and

the way that people interact with each

other or maybe also people interact with

the spiritual world. So it's very much

about a personal relationship with

another human being with nature or with

the u spiritual world not the

supernatural but spiritualism. I think

of the three tracks on the album

probably is closer to nature than

anything else. when he's talking about

and you and I, most of the you and I

stuff would appear to be a woman, a

lover, but I'm not entirely sure about

that. I mean, he might be talking to

God. Who knows? But there's some things

in there which are quite basic. 20 in 24

hours we'll be together. You know that

there's kind of the odd pop song line

does pop out of it which suddenly to a

degree sort of grounds it but not to any

substantial degree. Grounded is not a

word you'd basically uh uh think of in

relation to close to the edge.

[Music]

So you come out of the harmonics into

this really lovely little piece of music

which is the song and you and I and and

what's great is the um the bass has this

just before the guitar start has this

really warm rich fat doom like a sort of

Paul McCartney Beatles thing and then it

goes into this pattern and basically

what's going on here is you've got a D

major chord then you've got a G major

chord over a D note

then You've got an A major chord over a

D.

[Music]

Back down to the G major chord over D.

Back to your D. So,

[Music]

it's and that sort of thing is used um

the who used similar things to that.

[Music]

And it's it's very much a British or

English rock thing and it really comes

from I suppose um the the English folk

rock

of me

is fresh.

He wants to reveal the ocean to me.

[Music]

There are moments when Chris Squire

comes to the four and his bass playing

is quite important on a particular track

I feel. There are other moments when

Steve how play some wonderfully fluid

and flowing guitar. He's very underrated

Steve how. And I think sometimes you

actually listen to what he did on Close

to the Edge on the album as a whole and

you realize that in the great scheme of

Prague rock he's up there with the very

best guitarists around. Absolutely. He

clearly is the sort of player who

listens and learns all sorts of

different styles of playing. I mean

within Yes albums he plays classical, he

plays acoustic, he plays country, he

plays rock and he plays jazz which is

pretty extraordinary and technically

very very good uh and very individual

player. So in in rock he was you know

you very recognizable instantly no

matter what he was playing

[Music]

The other important thing I think on you

and I is they know when to leave space.

So often on Roundabout and Fragile and

on the title track Close to the Edge on

this record, what they don't do is leave

enough space on and you and I there

seems to be an acknowledgement from all

of them that sometimes not saying

something is more important than saying

anything. So you actually in the end

have a chance to breathe and it doesn't

just overwhelm you. And I think that's

why some people regard it as the

laidback track of the album.

>> For Close to the Edge, they got Advision

working with Eddie Alford. You know,

there was all of a sudden there was mind

space and musical space and physical

space and

they they expanded. They kind of opened

out. I think yes are very aware of

space. At their best, of course, at

their worst, they'd probably want to

fill every corner. Um, but that came

later, I think, their worst. Uh, but for

sure they're very aware of space.

However, and you and I being on the

whole a quiet piece of music to me

actually doesn't so much illustrate that

point. I see more of the space awareness

in uh sub close to the edge itself in

Siberian Kru where you do have an

enormous amount of racket at various

points. Well controlled racket but

nonetheless it's very noisy, very

aggressive. Uh, and then at other

moments it falls right out. And I think

the falling out of um big noise into a

quiet patch, whilst you could say that's

a completely crude uh uh device kind of

always has its effects, you know, it's

not a device that's ever going to be uh

uh obsolescent. And so I do actually

think, strangely enough, the very noisy

full tracks uh give show more how they

use space when they're really playing

well.

[Music]

Yeah.

Heat.

Another

[Music]

point of of the the way that Close the

Edge works so well is that the three

musical pieces don't sound like each

other. Um, you know, they're all they

are all different. the mood to an you

and I is a lot more mellow um than sort

of sandwiched in between the lengthy

sometimes up sometimes sort of laidback

close to the edge and the very sort of

bombastic um almost heavy rock of

Siberian cartr um and you and I is a bit

more sort of reflective

>> the middle track and you and I is fairly

distinct it's considerably quieter

there's the big feature of uh acoustic

guitar on that uh more of John Anderson

singing in his very mild uh vein. So it

is a there's that distinct feeling

there. Obviously planned. You have the

heavy complicated tracks first up. You

have the slightly quieter more uh sweet

and soft track in the middle and you

finish off with another uh real

challenging stomper in Siberian Kru. Um

but still they are of a piece. They do.

It is exactly a statement of uh yes at

their best at that moment which they uh

I think they never equaled again

[Applause]

[Music]

on an album like Close to the Edge where

you got they're basically showing you

every you know they're they're

displaying their full hand and it runs

from this point to this point. You know,

obviously where at the their most

reflective,

and that's the best thing about Close to

the Edge is at their most reflective,

they don't sound too fay or twe. Um, but

at the other end of the spectrum, when

they rock, I mean, they rock very, you

know, I mean, a lot of people reckon

that Siberian Carter is probably the

best piece of heavy rock music, yes,

ever came up with. It goes back to the

beginning of the Close to the Edge track

itself in the fact that it really goes

for it. There's a rumbling feeling to

it. And here's a heavy rock band. And

that's the great thing about Yes. over

the years is that whilst they've been

known for being a little bit airy fairy,

they could rock with the best of them.

And they were as heavy as an awful lot

of bands, sometimes heavier than those

who were called heavy at the time. They

really could do that. And Siberian

Catcher captures that part of what they

could do extremely well.

[Music]

Heat.

Heat.

Siberian Catu certainly is uh a stomping

number. Uh it gives you in many ways all

the best of Yes. I think uh it does.

You've got those guys really going for

it, really rocking

in the yes way, you know, it's not like

a 44

uh kind of on the money kind of rocking

in that sense, but once you let yourself

go into it, uh I think most people

actually can latch on to the the sheer

oomph of it.

[Music]

[Music]

Siberian Catcher is probably their

funkiest track on the record and it's

the rockiest and it adheres to rock

riffs. Ala sort of Hendris and and dare

I say it they get quite funky at times

on it. So in many ways when I first

heard it it being the last track on the

album I really I thought this is great

because you know it it it was exciting.

It was as if you've heard all that and

but this is what we also do. So I rather

like Siberian Catra from that point of

view. It's slightly complex in in you

know there's different bits but

essentially I would say you could put it

down to being the riffiest and the

funkiest the grooviest track on the

album for me. Um yes there's so much a

different a disparit sense of music in

that they could be so many different

things and what people sometimes forget

is that being a rock and roll band they

understood the nature of a rhythm and a

groove and they never really forgot

that. Now bands sometimes such as even

Genesis and King Crimson ELP the other

giants of Prague rock could move away

from that because they felt it actually

lumped them in with rock and roll and

pop which they didn't want to be

associated with because it was low art.

Yes. Didn't care. They went out and did

it and they always had that sense of a

groove inherent in what they did. I

think part of it is Chris Squire as a

basist and it was subconscious to him.

He couldn't actually do anything else

but be groovy.

>> He reflects his personality in a way

with the with what he does with the

bass. It's actually he makes me smile

when I listen to what he's doing on bass

because I'm thinking, well, that's it

could only be Chris or as I call him

Christopher, you know. It couldn't be

any couldn't be anything else. Couldn't

be anybody else. It's just him, you

know. Um he's he's talking he's talking

with it. He's talking along with it.

It's and there's times when it's not

particularly

it's not technical. It it's he has

amazing timing. I mean, he just has an

incredible understanding of of of timing

and that's that's instinctive.

Um it it's it's one time he'll listen to

something just one time, some complex

time signature and it's in there. It's

just in there and he'll do it. It's

done.

>> They weren't afraid to utilize very odd

time signatures. Um, and of course, um,

up until Close to the Edge, they have

Bill Bruford on drums, who most people

widely recognize as being, um, the

finest drummer that they ever had. Uh,

and it's certainly a case that, um,

Bruofford Bruford was one of those

drummers who who knew when enough was

enough,

which perhaps I mean, although I think

Alan White's a good drummer, perhaps the

not the same could be said for him. the

group had this weird quirky um sort of

approach. Certainly, you know, this was

what Bill Bruofford helped to establish

in the first five albums of Yes. I think

subtly but to me very commandingly. He

because he was one of the five, he he

was contributing um some highly original

um uh not only music but actually what

he thought and what he said was was as

original. So he was a very uh

opinionated musician and um that was the

I think for yes one of the the strongest

collaborations we've had.

>> Alan is and this is not demeaning at all

but he's he's more straightforward and I

don't mean that in a demeaning sense at

all. Uh Bill was like um

his snare Bill's snare work was just

unbelievable what he was doing. he's

just, you know, driving it on, doing

these extraordinary things on the snare.

Um,

and I think, um, Alan brought part of

himself, part of his own personality in

into the band, but I think early on he

was definitely, well, he had to be

influenced by Bill because they went on

tour to do the Close to the Edge tour

and Alan was the drummer. Wasn't Bill

Bruofford anymore. So Alan had to

obviously follow what Bill was to a

degree what Bill was up to. the live

tour when they actually tour it. Um the

performance is fantastic. They really do

a great job. It's very cohesive. It

feels natural. Um which is quite

extraordinary because

some of it is is what I would call at

times it's a mixture of of English folk

music, um a bit of jazz, classical music

and rock, but yet they make it work, you

know, and John's vocals on top of it,

you know. It it it's an extraordinary

piece of music and it's extraordinary

experimental piece of music for the

time.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Yes, were a strong live band from the

outset, which is uh a crucial factor

about I think about them arriving out

close to the edge and how good it was uh

was that they had constantly played in

front in front of a live audience. So

they never separated themselves from

that notion of the music has to hit the

people. It's not just happening in our

heads. The music has to hit the people.

>> Yes, we as a group

had a very very good percentage of

playing well on stage. You could you

could carry it for maybe 70 80% of the

time. playing good and I was a singer

alone

enjoying the fact that they could hold

it and they were very dedicated.

>> It was a real treat. Um

because they did do it, you know, and it

it sounded like the album but but live

and it was the dynamics of it. It was

just incredible

the sheer the sheer space that they

created with the sound they got. Um and

that was I think down to Eddie as well.

you know, he had this massive, massive

mixing desk that was brought into the

auditorium, you know, massive thing. And

you didn't see that kind of thing very

often then. I mean, now it's sort of

dur's

got a little mixing desk, even if

they're doing a pub gig, you know, got

something somewhere. But no, but this

was this is big stuff. It really was.

And it sounded big. It sounded huge,

which was why I think it um it took off

the way that, you know, it wasn't a

disappointment after people got stuck

into the album, you know. It was it was

amazing to hear this thing live and it

it Yeah. No, it's it's something I won't

forget.

>> The time was both ripe and ripe for

bands to play this sort of music, for

bands to play a song that lasted for a

whole side of an album. Um, you know,

the the the the window of opportunity to

do it, to do it well, and to do it right

and to do it and have everyone accept it

only lasted a couple of years. And yes,

got their their bits of work out within

that time frame.

[Music]

[Music]

One of the um key things about an album,

a CD, is the title and where, yes, we're

heading with titles like Close to the

Edge and and Fragile were uh quite

descriptive in themselves and and and

Roger took advantage of this and saw

this as a I think as a as a good

directive if you like to um sometimes

the marriages were coincidental. But

quite often the idea of the slightly

fragile world or you know close to the

edge of the kind of almost impossible

waterfalls and all the things that are

inside close to the edge. You know Roger

did a great um service for us to try and

take that title and and make it a

visual. Close to the Edge, of course, is

one of the great album sleeves because

it was done by Roger Dean and Roger Dean

worked with them on Fragile, I do

believe, and then worked with them on

Close to the Edge. And it's abstract

art. You actually look at it. And what

Roger Dean did in the same way Storm

Thus did was he developed cover art that

didn't connect to what the music was or

the band were. he just had his own style

and presentation so that the actual

Close to the Edge album artwork stands

up in its own right. It doesn't need to

be with the album, but it also

immediately makes you think of the

album. I think that's the beauty of the

Roger Dean work at the time and

certainly is among his best work is that

a it's standalone, but b immediately

makes you think, oh yes, the record

Close to the Edge. It's a great

dichotomy. I saw Phil Carson who classic

line to me was I I I've only got two

bands um Led Zeppelin and Yes. But soon

as one needs a cover I'll call you which

he did bless him.

>> Suddenly Roger offered us a kind of

fresh you know positive direction and

and that logo was starting to get in

shape and that was going to become the

centerpiece for for Close to the Edge.

>> Is the Close to the Edge album sleeve

boring? Never judge a book by its cover

cuz it might be green on the outside but

when you open it up you've got that

brilliant gatefold

sleeve the artwork with the floating

islands of land you know and everywhere

you can see the edge of the mall

um and that's a fantastic piece of

artwork but no no I mean you can't call

close to edge boring just because the

outside cover is green it's what's

inside that counts and I think maybe

that's the point that the band were

trying to make and that Dean himself you

know was making with them

>> it's landscape paint painting I I mean

what I'm doing is I'm I'm painting

places where I want to take people where

they can't go any other way and I think

one's exploration of landscape whether

it's a pathway around a garden or

forging a an unexplored

route through a virgin landscape it's

about the path it's about the process

and the process to me is a spiritual one

>> I love what Roger was doing because

because it was So

off the wall it was just Roger Dean.

Hello Roger. Here's an album cover, you

know. Thank you. Sort of good. Good. Um

it was just him. He was totally into his

own thing. And um and he's still still

painting, still doing stuff. Very

similar very similar style. Um no, I

liked it. I mean, it wasn't once again

it was in a way it's like the music. It

wasn't my all-time favorite bit of

music. It wasn't my all-time favorite

bit of artwork at all. It wasn't my bag,

but uh it fitted. It fitted with the

whole feeling of what they were doing,

you know, with that space. Well, it's

once again that spacey thing, you know,

where I don't know where he was going

with it, but it went somewhere. I think

sometimes you can put an image and then

put music and it works. But if you

change the music or you change the

image, it may still work, but it'll work

in a different way. And um I think the

the relationship between yes, the

imagery and the music was fortuitous for

both of us.

close to the edge, I suppose, was one of

the crescendos, you could say, of the

Prague rock movement where people were

still convinced that this was the right

way to go. And I think in a sense, you

could now say, well, it was they

explored

uh and they got to well, they got to

close to the edge and then after that

they got lost. And I think much the same

applies to a lot of the Prague bands

around that time. And a lot of them were

making their best albums and then

getting lost in the complication. It got

beyond them. Their egos got too big.

Their ambitions went beyond them.

Whatever. And so in a sense, I guess

that remained close to the edge remained

their monument to the best of Prague,

the best they could do.

[Music]

It's one of those rare moments where cuz

remember obviously that that both Rick

Weightman and Steve How were not

original members of Yes. Uh but this

lineup in particular although it was

going to change but immediately after

the release was Alan White was going to

join but this particular lineup uh is a

meeting of spirits shall we say both in

experiment and musical and technical

ability. So you've got everything there

and you know it it was one of those what

I like to call chemical romance moments.

It was a good working relationship and

it it all happened at the right moment

and I think that's why it works so well

and therefore as I said it has become a

template for progressive rock bands. If

you look at Close to the Edge as being

sort of like the culmination of what Yes

wanted to achieve um musically then yeah

I mean everything that they were doing

um on those three albums from the Yes

album onwards was all sort of building

slowly to to what they would finally

manage to achieve um on Close to the

Edge. Of course the only problem Yes had

was having done it so well with Close to

the Edge. Where the hell did they go

after that? So unfortunately what yes

did was focus on what close to the edge

as a track did which is this is very

long and allows us to experiment a lot

let's experiment a lot and there seemed

to be no force holding them back saying

o what about your sense of melody and

groove and rock and roll and heaviness

those things that made you so

interesting in the first place and they

ended up doing albums like tales from

topographic oceans then relay with

Patrick Morz replacing Rick Wakeakeman

where they became so pretentious is so

selfobsessed, so wrapped up in their own

virtuoso talents that they forgot about

the audience.

[Music]

>> Tennessee

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between the sh

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Heat. Heat.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

It definitely was unique and and close

to the edge is the summary of the the

very best of them. And that because it

pulled all those uh elements together

that those five people which was

definitely their key lineup uh that they

that they could put together but only

lasted for a couple of albums. And of

course that lineup then kept on changing

and changing and changing.

Occasionally, once in a while, it might

come back to very close to those five,

but uh um in a sense, you know, that was

that was just the perfect moment. And

for all the experimentation and

exploration they did after that, they

never recaptured that thing that

happened with Close to the Edge.

[Applause]

[Music]

Heat. Heat.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]