yes FRAGILE

"Like, this is the Heart Of The Sunrise EP as far as I'm concerned. Makes total sense that these were CTTE castoffs"

CTTE came after this album. what is this rubbish?

Yes was so ahead of its time, so progressive, it released outtakes from Close to the Edge before it released the album.

Heart of the Sunrise was my favorite around the time I last listened to this album. It's been a while.

I feel like I might have new ears for the next Fragile listen. Two of my favorites from when I first heard the album (20 years ago perhaps) were Mood For A Day and We Have Heaven. After recently hearing South Side Of The Sky and Long Distance Runaround on the radio I was amazed partially because of the context: they were radio songs to be compared to other radio songs. The mix of complexity and radio-friendliness seemed to elevate these tracks to new heights.

iirc they were working on both albums at the same time but they had some stuff that was easier and some stuff they realised was gonna take some work so they released the easy stuff first cos you know it had been MONTHS since the yes album and everyone was impatient

Okay, I've started my new listening sessions.

I'm going with the deluxe remastered version youtube playlist. Roundabout makes great use of separate channels - I was not expecting such a major improvement!

My next listen session will involve headphones when I'm not at work.

I'm skimming RYM reviews for the deluxe remastered version and I was presented with these tidbits:

"This album was an experiment to see what kind music each member would write on their own. They did this by writing four songs together as a group and five as individual members... Cans and Brahms was made by Wakeman as a cover of a Brahms symphony only because his contract said that he could not write original solo music. He said himself that the song was horrible. " har, har

One thing about Long Distance Runaround that has always confused me a bit: the opening riff doesn’t remotely sound like something Jon Anderson would’ve come up with on his own. There’s just way too much counterpoint and rhythmic tomfoolery. And yet, he’s credited as the sole composer.

Have Howe or Wakeman (or Squire I suppose) ever talked about this? While no one would doubt that Jon would’ve done something like We Have Heaven himself, I have to imagine LDR was something of an uncredited collaboration.

My guess is the bass is up so loud in the mix that it probably creates a false impression of a complicated chord progression, which I don’t think it is

Maybe Anderson was credited because he wrote the lyrics and top-line melody? I doubt that he wrote the bass or drum lines.

yeah, if anderson was responsible for the melody, chords, and lyrics, then he wrote the song, from a legal standpoint. the performance and rhythmic elements don't enter into the copyright of the composition.

Sometimes who gets credit for a song is just whatever a band agrees on. Sometimes it's even decided by coercion or dishonesty.

yea I remember Mike Doughty writing a lot about that in his book. even though the recordings were clearly a band effort with rhythms that Doughty couldn't have come up with, technically all you really need to do is write the melody and the lyrics to get the sole credit. it's weird.

melody and lyrics are the song :)

Cowbells also

Yes seem to usually have pretty accurate credits. Sometimes, sure, they credit one guy for a song that clearly has some work done by other guys (like on Going for the One, which has two songs by Anderson alone and one by Squire). And I’m sure they fought over that stuff like a lot of bands, since publishing is a huge source of how these guys make money.

But even still, LDR sticks out. In part because that riff isn’t just some insignificant little thing or even a secondary melody. It’s the hook in the song. I have no doubt Anderson wrote the melody and lyrics – probably on piano. But without that riff, it’s not the same song. And it’s not really a Yes classic.

Hope you guys aren't sleeping on Chris Squire's Fish Out Of Water. The first three tracks (essentially forming one piece) are fucking dynamite. Shame you cant find it as easily as the early Anderson and Wakeman albums.

Was actually praise from Mark Eitzel that got me to hurry up on that album. I think Eitzel might even have been a big reason for me to try out Yes when I was still scared of the unfashionableness of them over a decade ago.
Eitzel said that Squire was the only member who shook his hand and maybe the "HOOOOOLD OUT YOUR HAND!" from Fish Out Of Water seemed extra special when he was a young Yes fan.

I definitely need to get fish out of water and olias of sunhillow sometime soon

They're both amazing.

Essential.

olias rules. people were shocked he was that good at so many instruments, and to this day there are rumors vangelis played on it both totally deny. JA's 'secret musicianship' was showing up way earlier than fragile; writing credits of "long distance runaround" are his cuz he sang the riff to howe iirc

Hope you guys aren't sleeping on Chris Squire's Fish Out Of Water. The first three tracks (essentially forming one piece) are fucking dynamite. Shame you cant find it as easily as the early Anderson and Wakeman albums.

It's just been reissued as a 2CD set (the second disc is an alternate mix; the only bonus tracks are a single edit and a B-side, I think).

Fish out of Water is excellent.

Great news about the reissue.

here's tracklisting, hope posting it doesn't screw with the formatting

Disc: 1
1. Hold Out Your Hand
2. You By My Side
3. Silently Falling
4. Lucky Seven
5. Safe (Canon Song)

Disc: 2
1. Fish Out of Water
2. Hold Out Your Hand
3. You By My Side
4. Silently Falling
5. Lucky Seven
6. Safe (Canon Song)
7. Bonus Tracks
8. Lucky Seven (Single Version)
9. Silently Falling (Single Version)
10. Run with the Fox
11. Return of the Fox

Oh God, I love Olias so much, it's the best shit ever. Solid Space has that ecstatic building thing that the end of Awaken does so well that really gets to me.

Olias and Fish in particular get me thinking that these guys had a lot of untapped potential. Of course Jon Anderson is still alive and I've only heard 4 of his albums outside Yes but Squire didn't do as much as the other main Yes members.

Invention of Knowledge, the album Jon Anderson did with Roine Stolt (nope, me either) in 2016, is great.

I think Anderson once said there was lots of ideas he held back because he wanted to do them with Yes.

Now that Yes isn't an option for him now, maybe he's using those ideas now.

Have listened to the "Fish..." reissue and it's worth it for the new remastering. The 2018 remix is weird and too "off" for me.

Would have been cool if Jon dictated the riff to “Sunrise.”

Have we done a Yes vs Crimson poll? Sheet

I’m sure Y would crush...

What are the chances Jon dictated all of Squire’s lines

South Side of the Sky is my jam.

WERE WE EVER COLDER ON THAT DAY
A MILLION MILES AWAY

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

South side is great but gotta go Heart

on any given day it'd be roundabout or south side. today it's roundabout

SHARP
DISTANCE
HOW
CAN
THE WIND
WITH SO MANY
AROUND
ME

I FEEL LOST IN THE CITY-AY-AY!

(rush's homage to this song -- "the camera eye" -- is almost as good!)

Hmm, that's an interesting angle, never really considered the connection between those two tracks.

What’s the connection? Rush baffles me

Songs about cities, being a tourist in a city, the soul of a city

I find the lyrics to Heart of the Sunrise far more perplexing than The Camera Eye. You could probably say that about any Yes song vs any Rush song though.

In and around the lake . . .

SHORP!!!! DISTANCE!!

I was just about to say that I thought this one had been polled already, but then I realised it's the same poll!

Did Peart (or anyone) actually say "The Camera Eye" was an homage or was that a joke?

I don't know how long the Steven Wilson remixes have been on Spotify, but there they are.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Nice