Originally Posted by tore

Yes - Close to the Edge (1972)



This is a famous album by english prog band Yes which, at the time of it's creation, was made up by singer Jon Anderson, keyboardist Rick Wakeman, guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire and drummer Bill Bruford , all legendary prog rock musicians. The album was a creative effort where the whole band added creatively to the compositions and each of it's three songs is a puzzle with pieces added by the different members.

Close to the Edge is a concept album and the title drack draws inspiration from Hermann Hesse's book Siddartha. According to this interpretation, the song tracks Hesse's character who is close to the edge of a river which is symbolic of life and being close to the past lifetimes of one's soul. Close to the edge of this river, the character has a spiritual awakening. This theme of spiritual awakening, spring, rebirth, rivers, valleys seeps through the album. For example, the title track is birthed out of sounds of birds and running water and fades out much the same way.

Drummer Bill Bruford figured this was as good as Yes would ever get, so he left the band after it's completion to join up with King Crimson. It is indeed largely regarded as Yes' Magnum Opus and as a rock masterpiece. In short, it is one of the most famous and widely appreciated prog rock albums in the world.

It requires a few spins before it sticks, but it's not particularly hard (title track may be the hardest). So get to it!

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Bear in mind that many versions of this album now contain bonus tracks! There are only three songs on the original album.