My introduction to Progressive Rock..

Sometime around the summer of 1981 I blew my entire holiday pocket money on a triple live album by a band I had never heard of before but as a bit of a Sci-Fi nerd I was taken with the cover art and decided to take a massive gamble which, two weeks later when I got the chance to play it, paid off.

The band was Yes, the artwork courtesy of Roger Dean and my journey into the strange world of Prog Rock began. Over the course of the next few years I collected all of their albums before venturing into early Pink Floyd, Genesis and Jethro Tull. My best friend liked Rush so liking them was out of the question!

Yessongs was released in 1973, it featured tracks from their last three very successful albums: The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge featuring the classic lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford, the latter replaced by Alan White who featured on most of the tracks on the live album.

I had never heard music like it before and in later years I would come to appreciate more how complex the music was and more so that they managed to perform it live to that degree. Nothing showcased that better than the side-long Close to the Edge.

Most of the album was recorded in North America and much has been said about the sound quality which is disappointing given the quality of producer Eddie Offord’s studio work with the band.

This is a ‘greatest hits’ album up to the date of recording and so to pick any standout’s is difficult but collectively it stands up as one of the great live albums from the period and put to rest claims up to that point that Yes were purely a studio band.

This album holds so many memories for me, it was the catalyst for exploring other genres and made me realise my tastes were eclectic and that I wasn’t afraid to step outside of the ‘group think’ of my school friends and form my own, more avant garde tastes. in 1984 I would see the band perform many of these tracks live at the Birmingham NEC albeit with a varied lineup on the 90125 tour which, ironically gave them their biggest commercial success in Owner of a Lonely Heart