Yes (Yes album)

Not to be confused with The Yes Album, the band's 1971 album.
Yes
Studio album by Yes
Released 25 July 1969
Recorded 1969
Studio Advision and Trident Studios, London
Genre Psychedelic rock,[1] art rock,[1] progressive rock[1]
Length 41:30
Label Atlantic
Producer Paul Clay, Yes
Yes chronology
Yes
(1969)
Time and a Word
(1970)
Singles from Yes
  1. "Sweetness"
    Released: 4 July 1969
  2. "Looking Around"
    Released: 3 November 1969
US cover
US cover
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Rolling Stone(positive)[3]

Yes is the eponymous debut studio album by the English progressive rock band Yes released on 25 July 1969 by Atlantic Records. Recorded during their first year of their formation, the album displays the band's early musical direction of performing rearranged cover versions of songs by pop, jazz, and funk artists. Yes includes covers of "Every Little Thing" by The Beatles and "I See You" by The Byrds and original material, much of which was written by singer Jon Anderson.

Yes was not a commercial success upon release and failed to enter the UK chart, but it received a considerable amount of positive reviews from the UK and American press. "Sweetness" and "Looking Around" were released as singles which also failed to chart. Yes was remastered in 1994 and 2003; the latter contains several previously unreleased tracks including a rendition of "Something's Coming" from West Side Story.

Background

The original line-up of vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and drummer Bill Bruford remained intact for the album's recording.

Lester Bangs favourably reviewed the album in Rolling Stone, writing that it was "the kind of album that sometimes insinuates itself into your routine with a totally unexpected thrust of musical power."[3]

Anderson is credited on the original LP as "John Anderson" as he hadn't adopted the "Jon" spelling at this time.

Track listing

Side one
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Beyond & Before"  Chris Squire, Clive Bailey 4:58
2. "I See You"  Jim McGuinn, David Crosby 6:54
3. "Yesterday and Today"  Jon Anderson 2:53
4. "Looking Around"  Anderson, Squire 4:18
Side two
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
5. "Harold Land"  Anderson, Bill Bruford, Squire 5:45
6. "Every Little Thing"  Lennon–McCartney 5:46
7. "Sweetness"  Anderson, Bailey, Squire 4:35
8. "Survival"  Anderson 6:23
2003 remaster bonus tracks
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
9. "Everydays" (single version)Stephen Stills 6:23
10. "Dear Father" (early version #2)Anderson, Squire 5:51
11. "Something's Coming"  Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim 7:09
12. "Everydays" (early version)Stills 5:18
13. "Dear Father" (early version #1)Anderson, Squire 5:31
14. "Something's Coming" (early version)Bernstein, Sondheim 8:02

Personnel

Notes

In a news/blog post on 20 September 2010, Bill Bruford commented about the track "Harold Land" - "Harold Land was a hard-bop tenor saxophone player, dead now, but quite why we named a song after him I can't remember".[4] The song is about the effects of war on the named character, and bears no relation to the life of the sax player Harold Land.

"Every Little Thing" (starting at 1:55) contains the main guitar riff from The Beatles song "Day Tripper".

"Sweetness" is featured in Vincent Gallo's first movie as a director, Buffalo '66.

Reissues

References

  1. 1 2 3 http://www.allmusic.com/album/yes-mw0000654289
  2. Eder, Bruce (2011). "Yes - Yes | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  3. 1 2 Bangs, Lester (2011). "Yes: Yes : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on February 20, 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  4. "Bill Bruford news archive". www.billbruford.com. Retrieved 11 August 2011.

External links

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