Close To The Edge is Yes’ fifth studio album.
Close To The Edge features the so-called ”Classical line-up” of Yes that was formed on the previous album Fragile (1971), Jon Anderson (vocals), Chris Squire (bass), Bill Bruford (drums), Steve Howe (guitar) and Rick Wakeman (keyboards).
Fragile was a big leap from its predecessor, The Yes Album (1971), but Close To The Edge represents an even bigger step forward musically. After a successful Fragile tour, Yes was feeling energised and, finding that the band’s long songs (by then 8-11 minutes long) were being well received at gigs, the quintet decided to try something even more ambitious. Close To The Edge contains only three long songs. The A-side of the vinyl is filled with a 19-minute title epic and the B-side has two tracks of around ten minutes. Jon Anderson has compared making long songs to conquering mountains, and with Close To The Edge Yes has indeed conquered the biggest of them all.
Close To The Edge, especially its title track, was something never heard before in all its symphonic bravado and internal logic. Whereas the long songs released by other prog bands around this time, such as Jethro Tull’s ”Thick As A Brick”, Genesis’ ”Supper’s Ready” and even ELP’s staggeringly advanced ”Tarkus” had felt like the sum of more or less separate parts, Yes’ ”Close To The Edge” was a totally coherent symphonic whole. It could almost be the composition of some early 20th century symphonic master who just happened to have written for five virtuosos on electric instruments instead of a 100-piece symphony orchestra.
To continue Anderson’s mountaineering metaphor, I have to admit that writing about such a legendary and beloved album about which entire books have been written in the past also seems almost mountaineering-like and even somewhat doomed to failure, but I’ll try anyway.
”Close to the Edge”
Yes’s first album-length epic ”Close To The Edge” is a miracle. A miracle that even the band members didn’t seem to believe when they recorded the song. The song was driven by the vision of Steve Howe and especially Jon Anderson. Chris Squire made his own perfectionist contribution on the arrangement side. Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman played superbly on the album, but were more or less just along for the ride, guided by Anderson and Howe. Although Wakeman’s classical training probably came in handy afterwards when the different parts of the songs were being arranged. What makes the end result so remarkable is how amazingly coherent a work the five managed to assemble from seemingly disconnected fragments after painful and frustrating months of recording sessions.
Those with a better understanding of music theory have often pointed out that ”Close To The Edge” largely follows the sonata form of art music, a popular structure in symphonies and concertos of the 1700s and 1800s. The sonata form includes an introductory section, a development section and a recapitulation section, and so it’s relatively easy for the layman to see how the four movements of Close To The Edge more or less fit into that pattern.
I mentioned the Yes quintet earlier, but actually I should talk about the sextet because producer Eddie Offord played a huge role in how the endless takes and experiments were put together to create the final piece. This is evidenced by the fact that Offord even got to be in on the inside cover shots with the actual band members.
I. ”The Solid Time of Change”
”The Solid Time Of Change”, which begins with peaceful nature sounds, can be thought of as describing the harmony between man and nature. However, from the ancient jungle covered in mist, reminiscent of artist Roger Dean’s green cover (featuring the classic Yes logo for the first time), music slowly emerges, at first gently jangling, but soon growing chaotic. The human ego is unleashed, the connection with nature and a balanced life is lost. Suffering begins. Of course, the music itself is not a torment, but this seemingly chaotic, but in fact well thought out and virtuosically played, very complex instrumental section is one of Yes’ most stunning moments. Steve Howe’s angular and lightning-fast guitar runs and Bill Bruford’s surprisingly accentuated drum beats create an absolutely mind-blowing tension. The nervous tension of the intro is further heightened by the numerous changes of pace. Jon Anderson’s ”aaaa-aaaa” vocalizations effectively interrupt the music in between. ”The Solid Time of Change” also cleverly, and in keeping with the old sonata form, presents the themes of the entire epic ensemble, but rhythmically the piece is solidly 20th century in its complex rhythmicity, referencing Stravinsky more than Mozart. Interestingly, Jon Anderson himself has said that Sibelius’s Symphonies 6 and 7 inspired him, particularly with regard to ’Close To The Edge’, but I myself have a little difficulty in pinpointing those influences.
The vocals with actual lyrics first appear at the four-minute mark and soon introduce a chorus that will be varied and developed in many ways throughout the 19-minute epic.
Down at the edge, round by the corner
Close to the edge, down by a river
The lyrics of ”Close To The Edge” are easy to write off as mere empty phrases, but in fact they are not as abstract as Anderson’s lyrics often are (Howe also contributed to the song), but I think the basic idea is quite clear. The lyrics are about man’s aspiration towards some next spiritual level. Enlightenment. Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddharta (1922), which tells of the protagonist Siddharta’s quest for enlightenment, was an important source of inspiration for Anderson. ”The river, which features prominently in the lyrics of Close To The Edge, also plays a central role in Hesse’s book. The river leads to the sea and all roads lead to holiness or enlightenment. At the heart of ”Close To The Edge” is the idea that people are always right on the edge of enlightenment. Close to the edge. The final leap over the edge is unfortunately the most difficult part of the journey. 99% of the journey is still unfinished. You are in danger of getting off the path constantly (I get down, I get up…).
II. ”Total Mass Retain”
Starting at the six-minute mark, ”Total Mass Retain” revisits some of the themes of the first movement with variations on them, and introduces vocals sung with intensity by Jon Anderson at first, which then become more relaxed. At the beginning of the section, Bruford and Squire create a polymetric tension by playing in different time signatures. Squire’s bass sounds like a tuba. ”Total Mass Retain”, the shortest section of ”Close To The Edge” at a couple of minutes, ends with an interlude in which Anderson sings ”I get up, I get down” for the first time, from which, accompanied by Wakeman’s organ, we move on to the next section.
III. ”I Get Up, I Get Down”
”I Get Up, I Get Down” is the calm ”feminine” section of ”Close To The Edge” that successfully contrasts with all the storm and frenzy that preceded it. The floating and arrhythmic section surrounds the listener like a vast dripstone cave full of secrets. The impression is completed by the sound of falling water droplets. The polyphonic singing of Anderson, Squire and Howe, which begins at around the ten-minute mark, is incredibly beautiful. The atmosphere is downright devotional. Finally, Anderson takes the vocal part to its climax and the devotional part culminates in a majestic church organ solo by Rick Wakeman. The vocals return once more and then the church organs roar with even greater intensity. Perhaps enlightenment is to be found in the church and in organised religion?
IV. ”Seasons of Man”
But no. Bruford’s drums return, the tempo increases and the whole band plays more aggressively than ever since the intro. Wakeman’s Mini-Moog solo strikes the stage with a fury as if wiping away the remnants of the old church. It’s time for man to create a new church for himself. To find a new path. Or the stream from which the journey continues to the river and from there eventually to the sea. The song culminates in a finale where the three main themes of the song are repeated and then the music fades out and closes again into the sounds of the jungle, but this time the sounds of the sea seem to ripple along with it. The circle has closed. Man is back in touch with nature and all living things.
18 minutes never feels so short as when listening to ”Close To The Edge”.
After the epic ”Close To The Edge”, the two shorter songs on the b-side could be thought to be something of an anticlimax, but fortunately even those songs are among Yes’ best.
And You And I
The B-side opens with the 10 minute long ”And You And I”. ”And You And I” is the emotional centrepiece of Close To The Edge and a much more sophisticated and complex song than it appears on the surface. Like ”Close To The Edge”, ”And You And I” is a fairly seamless whole even though it is divided into four parts.
The first part ”Cord Of Life” begins in folky simplicity with Steve Howe’s casually strummed 12-string acoustic guitar, gradually growing into a kind of cosmic anthem accompanied by Rick Wakeman’s Moog licks. There’s a great moment in the chorus when the voices processed through the doppler effect created by Howe and Squire’s Leslie speaker cabinet sing a countermelody against Jon Anderson’s backdrop.
In the second part, ”Eclipse”, Rick Wakeman’s synthesizers play a central role and the song becomes a little slower and heavier. The instrumental section features some absolutely stunning harmonic development as Howe and Wakeman’s instruments blend together like shimmering streams of mercury. Anderson’s vocals return with greater emphasis before the music fades out and the 12-string guitar leads the listener into the next section.
The third part, ”The Preacher, The Teacher”, is more playful than the previous parts, with variations on the themes of the first part. At the end, however, the mood becomes more serious again in the form of an orchestral build-up.
Then the last part, ”Apocalypse”, just 40 seconds long, repeats the lyrics heard in the first part, but in a more hopeful tone.
And you and I climb, crossing the shapes of the morning.
And you and I reach over the sun for the river.
And you and I climb, clearer, towards the movement.
And you and I called over valleys of endless seas.
There is something very touching about Anderson’s delicately sung semi-abstract lines. And comforting. ”And You And I” is one of Yes’ finest ”slow” songs. A clever combination of beauty, sensitivity and technical skill.
Siberian Khatru
The album closes with the most rocking track on the album, just under 9 minutes long, ”Siberian Khatru”. ”Siberian Khatru” is a groovy and even slightly funky mini-epic disguised as a rock song. Stylistically, ”Siberian Khatru” seems to be somewhat related to the Fragile hit ”Roundabout”.
”Siberian Khatru” starts with a short ”chicken scratch” guitar intro and then the music quickly grows into a full-bodied Yes orchestration. Squire’s melodic bass lines carry the song as well as the other instruments. If you want to say something bad about Close To The Edge, Squire’s bass is generally not so much on the surface as on previous albums but more part of the overall orchestration (very effectively!), but in ”Siberian Khatru” Squire gets to rumble along satisfactorily almost as the main character in many places.
At the four minute mark, we start with Steve Howe’s electric sitar and immediately afterwards a great ringing harpsichord solo from Wakeman, which in turn turns into Howe’s ubiquitous slide guitar and from there into a snappy electric guitar solo. It’s a potentially incomprehensible mishmash of different cultures and eras from which Yes fuse together a perfectly natural-sounding piece of music. Magical!
At five and a half minutes the interesting part begins where Anderson emphatically recites individual words to form an abstract network of words:
June cast, moon fast as one changes
Heart gold leaver, soul mark mover
Christian changer, called out savior
Moon gate climber, turn round glider
The passage is a good example of how Anderson often uses words more for what they sounded like when sung than what they directly mean. Often, however, these passages provide interesting sparks for the listener’s imagination and the listener can construct tantalising meanings for the word combinations themselves. Or simply listen to the song as an instrument among others. Even more explicitly, Anderson uses vowels as an instrument in the excellent wordless da-da-duudaa-da-da-dudaadudaa-duda section-where Anderson channels with his voice a kind of combination of Balinese monkey chant and Indian rhythmic vocalization.
There is something really inspiringly effortless about the ”Siberian Khatru” and its structure. Like the earlier tracks on the album, it moves along with a real sense of seamlessness and is unfailingly driven by some kind of internal logic. None of its many twists and turns feel in any way forced. ”Siberian Khatru” is progressive ROCK at its most masterful.
Read also: Yes – Tales From Topographic Oceans (1973)
As great as the end result of Close To The Edge was, the process of creating it was quite painful. Bruford, in particular, has spoken a lot about what a numbing experience recording the album was. Every detail was discussed, argued and fought over endlessly. Nothing was left to chance. The story that best describes the whole situation is probably the one where Bruford says he fell asleep in the middle of everything after watching Squire’s seemingly endless musings on how to adjust his bass sound for a particular part of the song. After a couple of hours, when Bruford woke up, Squire was still going on with his tweaking without seeming to have made any progress at all.
Bruford had had enough of Yes’s slow pace and rigid symphonic style and was looking for more free-form music. Bruford had been flirting with King Crimson for some time and when the invitation from Robert Fripp finally came Bruford jumped at the chance. Yes had only ever had members leave through dismissal and Bruford’s own departure came as a shock to the band members. Some members took it almost as a direct insult. But the show had to go on. Alan White, who had played with John Lennon, was quickly recruited to join the band for the Close To The Edge tour. White came to stay. Bill Bruford had an extensive career not only with King Crimson but also with a wide variety of projects in progressive rock and jazz. Bruford briefly returned to Yes in 1991 with the ill-fated Union project.
Close To The Edge was Yes’ biggest success to date, reaching the top ten in both the UK and US album charts. The album also received a largely positive reception from critics, although some were critical, and the album’s critical acclaim has only deservedly grown over the decades as its significance has become better understood. Today, Close To The Edge almost always wins the ”best prog album of all time” polls (Genesis’ Selling England By The Pound is usually the main contender). For me, Close To The Edge has been my favourite album for over 20 years and by far the most listened to album of all time.
Parhaat biisit: ”Close To The Edge”, ”And You And I”, ”Siberian Khatru”
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Read also: Emerson Lake & Palmer –Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
Tracks
Side A
”Close to the Edge” (18:42)
I. ”The Solid Time of Change”
II. ”Total Mass Retain”
III. ”I Get Up, I Get Down”
IV. ”Seasons of Man”
Side B
2. ”And You and I” (10:06)
I. ”Cord of Life”
II. ”Eclipse”
III. ”The Preacher, the Teacher”
IV. ”The Apocalypse”
2. ”Siberian Khatru” (8:55)
Band:
Jon Anderson: vocals Steve Howe: electric guitars, acoustic guitars, backing vocals Chris Squire: bass, backing vocals Rick Wakeman: keyboards Bill Bruford: drums, percussion
Producer: Yes & Eddie Offord
Label: Atlantic
More album reviews can be found here.
Pienemmät Purot 
Jätä kommentti