The first time I heard Starship Trooper on the radio as a senior in high school, I wasn't sure what I had just heard. I knew there were parts of it I really liked, but _what was that?_ After the second & third times I heard it, I was beginning to wonder if it wasn't the most amazing musical creation I had ever heard. Bought the album, was blown away, and went to see them in concert where I heard *Close To The Edge* for the 1st time, picked up that album on the way home & have been a dazzled YES fan ever since. The thing about YES, especially during their Classic Period, is the amount of *_complexity_* they packed into their masterpieces. Repeated listenings are an absolute must. The next several times you listen to them you hear things you missed the first time. You notice what each musician is contributing to the overall composition and then become amazed at how they blended it all together in a way that didn't sound like a bunch of noise. They spend an enormous amount of time in the studio perfecting the mix & the result was amazing. While many who hear them for the first time want to see them performing live, I always encourage people to listen the the perfection they created in the studio first and then take in their live performances to satisfy their curiosity. Their 3rd, 4th, & 5th albums ( *The Yes Album, Fragile, & Close To The Edge* ) are The Ultimate of their creative output, IMO. They contain 6 of YES' true masterpieces ( *Yours Is No Disgrace, Starship Trooper, Roundabout, South Side Of The Sky, Siberian Khatru, & Close To The Edge* ) Another Must Listen from this period was a cover of *America* they did which was basically a concert jam that they finally got around to recording (it wasn't on any of their regular studio albums). It was during this classic period that I think the band could have justifiably marketed themselves as "YES, featuring Chris Squire on bass." Clearly, the rest of the band members realized how important it was for them to build their 'sound' around Chris' Industrial-Melodic inspirations. He absolutely dominated their output during this period. His vocal contributions were also a key component of The YES Sound. His upper range harmonies blended together with the lead singer Jon Anderson's voice to produce that special vocal element of their sound. Enjoy your journey through the YES catalog, friend!

My favorite band!!! 👍👍👍

Yes are an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968. The band has undergone numerous line-up changes throughout its history, up to nineteen musicians have been full-time members. They have had a lot of great songs such as "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", "Going For The One", "Masquerade", "Yours Is No Disgrace", "Heart Of The Sunrise", "The Gates Of Delirium", "And You & I", "Close To The Edge" etc. Sadly drummer Alan White just passed away.

The thing about this tune that grabbed me years ago is Steve Howe's beautiful fingerstyle work. If you take Yes chronologically, there are several masterpieces on the horizon.

My favorite outro ever! I'm in my 60s, I would NEVER trade my age, experiences, and the journey and knowledge of MUSIC attained over decades for youth!!! Of music the musical journey you are on, enjoy!!! You will never catch up, but rather, you face a LIFETIME of discovery!!!

Don't know what else you've heard but everything from this album ('71) to Going For the One ('77) is killer. The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Takes From Topographic Oceans, Relayer and the aforementioned GFTO. All top albums. Can't wait to accompany you on this journey. Subbed for Yes.

I always wait for the 3rd part of Starship Trooper which is called Wurm. That build up and the Steve Howe guitar solo always makes it worth it. The transitions in Prog rock if done well is what fans love. You can see the influence on Rush and Tool that Yes had. Could not agree more with your comments. The best is yet to come. 🔥✌️

YES 80s is great ..Owner Of A Lonely Heart went all over the place with that ..

4 Yes songs you ABSOLUTELY need to hear: Close to the Edge Yours is no Disgrace Southern side of the sky Heart of the Sunrise

"Yours Is No Disgrace" Masterpiece.

This was the breakthrough album for them. First album for guitarist Steve Howe. As I said before, I grew up with this era of Yes but I like the other eras too. I loved a lot of music from the 70s but also the 80s.

. AWESOME!! I am 63, saw them do this LIVE..DETROIT...1976!! .

... Takes me right back to my parent's attic laying on an old plaid couch and listening to this with big curly-corded headphones. Almost 50 years. ••• Thanks! PEACE!!!

that's what good songs do, they take you somewhere

I'm glad I stuck with you through this reaction. I wasn't a fan of the first 1/3 of the song, but once they hit the middle section where it felt like 1 instrument and voices (basic) and then through the end, it held my interest and kept building and adding more depth... and that instrumental ending was something else all together! A Journey is the perfect description of this one!

The holy trinity: The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, Fragile. Some of the best prog rock in the history of the world. I don't know how many times I've listened to these albums over and over again. Each musician is a master of his instrument and together as songwriters, the whole is certainly greater than the sum of its parts. These guys were not just great but masterful from another planet, another time. No one could touch them at this time in their career.

You’re right. Yes are a kind of ever evolving band, but keeping their core intact, and that’s part of their magic . Yes are the best. Thx 💪🤙👍

First time I heard this as a kid in 1971 I thought, “Cool! Joni Mitchell is in a rock band with The Beach Boys singing background harmony!”

. "Mother Life, Hold Firmly On To Me .. !" .

way ahead of their time...... and still 💥💥🎶

Smart guy talking here! Listen to this man, who knows his stuff!!!

music at it's finest

That ending part done live was a really great show topper. I saw them encore and close the show with this song a few times. Every player in this band is a master musician. More often than not for me, bass player Chris Squire was the highlight of each arrangement. He was a monster player!

I love all eras of Yes!

I got to see Yes in Villa France on liberty from my US Navy ship in 1983! Amazing show! So was the aroma of hashish that filled the stadium lol!

Go ahead turn this one up !

This album came out in the early 70's.

You said it, ‘The Greatest’. 🎶❤️🎶

Ladies and gentlemen Chris Squire and Yes the greatest show on earth. The first of two albums released in 71 the other being Fragile laying the ground for the symphonic masterpiece Close To The Edge, greatest prog piece ever! Great reaction, well said. Awaken should be on your Yes journey of course after you listen to Close To The Edge 🙏🍁

You have found musical diamonds in Yes. The 1970's lineups were the best ever and remain at number one for me. Take your time to explore this wonderland of soundscapes. Yes, will change your perception of music.

For me....greatest prog rock band ever.

Thank you for this, sir.

the steve howe acoustic is killer....One of my favorites

This third Yes album is where the band discovered their musical identity and the result speaks for itself. Many would say Yes was the greatest progressive band and I for one would agree. What's especially amazing about the music is it's so distinctively unique. People and in particular musicians wondered, where did this music come?! The Yes band was like an island that suddenly popped up in the ocean and was a musical world utterly their own. What they did have in common with other bands at the time was a musical piece frequently was a journey to be savored. Also favored was the long ending, which is obviously heard closing out Trooper. And yes too you may notice the classical music-like movements which took people's heads to different places. Genesis was another great example of the mutating evolutionary spiral of distinctly special passages that captivated and brought great joy to the lucky audience......

IMHO, this piece is best enjoyed on the live album Keys to Ascention and at copious amounts of volume.

Phenomenal group, one of the best musician lineups ever. The very pinnacle of progressive rock.

Outstanding reaction, Sir. You are so in tune with the greatness of Yes and the awesome transitions. Prog rock at it’s finest.

They are a great band, my wife and I both loved them. One of the few band we both liked. We saw them live in 1979 and they played this song to perfection. They also had a unbelievable laser light show throughout the concert.

This album is almost the epitome of the perfect album!!

This is Band Geeks' video'd performance which is their tribute to Chris Squire. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gs5ze7SB18_HmqM.html The original recording required different guitars but in this video, the guitarist avails himself to pedals that let him switch sounds and tones that Steve Howe would have LOVED had these been available to him. But these bands are the ones that pushed technology forward, and hard, to delivery live performances of intricate productions.

Never an easy first time listen. Many commenters will be revisiting countless times they have listened to Yes and this quite elitist style of music and what a revelation it was to them back in the day. And I'm one of them.

Looking forward to you continuing your Yes journey! Hopefully you continuing with the rest of this album and going on to Fragile and the greatest progressive album of all time which is Close to the Edge! Once you do that album the rest of the 70's Yes is just a fantastic ride!

Saw yes earlier this week in concert and they played this, I could have listened to that ending all night long 👍

Close to the Edge

for a vocal treat try Leave It

Check out the live version from Yessongs. The energy is off the charts.

I grew up on Long Island back in the 1970s. That era wound up producing tons of great musicians on Long Island... When you first heard the Yes album back then no matter what instrument you played you realized you have a lot more practicing to do. This album inspired and influenced any musician who was cutting their teeth at the time.

There was nothing else like this song at the time and this kind of blew a lot of people's minds.

I enjoyed your commentary at the end. I discovered progressive rock in the early 80s and it inspired me to become a professional musician. My intro to YES was actually their 1980 release 'Drama'. I loved them right away, it was a heavy, tight sound with vocal harmonies stacked up. From there I got 'Close to the Edge' and then 'Fragile' from 71 and72 It was clearly the same band, and so it wasn't too shocking, I was hooked. It was in 83 when they released 90125 that the shock came. At first it seemed too pop/metal and I was hesitant. But over time, that album stands as a strong incarnatiom, and I have come to accept it as 'YES' and many subsequent albums. But just to give you an example of when the pendulum swings too far into an opposite, I give you the example of Genesis. In the early seventies with Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett in the group, they released some of the greatest prog-rock albums of all time, ten years later, they had literally 'shrunk' and became the mainstream pop darlings of that decade. This was a money grab, plain and simple. Phil already had great success with his solo work, there was no need to turn Genesis into a pop machine. As much as we all love Elton John, We wouldnt want him fronting King Crimson in the 80s, singing "Sad songs say so much" Sometimes artists do fuck up, sell out and make unfortunate choices. It is important for people to hear the real treasures that have been buried.

YES is The Mt. Rushmore of progressive rock . DramaSyd please react to And You And I. It is one of my all time favorite tunes!

Well said.

Good to see you back on the tube. I hope you appreciate Yes the way you did Steely Dan. They have so much to offer. By the way can you do a reaction to Miss Marlene by Donald Fagan.

Great reaction. Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer are two of the great progressive rock bands of the early years. Many great songs between the two of them.

😎

YES IS THE PINNACLE OF THE GENRE. The truth is that the 70s Prog and YES were very NEW and incredibly UNIQUE. As well as most music in general then.. PROG imagination and experimentation was at it peak. 80s are cool but the genre was not new anymore. YES and many bands EXCELLED during that 70s era And this song is one of the best. YES probably has no less the 5 of the best of 10 then. Of course all eras are created equal but some produced geniusness during those wonderful experiemental times before the business became mechanized & commercial. YES exploded in the hearts of many before the Biz took over.

Do one for October Ends - Play Time. Most reacted and also underatted song on KZfaq 😝

Always loved this song. The whole album really. Would love to see you react to "Yours Is No Disgrace".

Yes, in the same league as Beathoven

Great gateway song to lead you into Close to the Edge or And You and I (from the same record). If you like journeys you'll find them here. And welcome back.

When I write a comment, I always say in my opinion, not your opinion. Lol.

First stereo LP I ever owned and my Dad had made a stereo player to play it on. Magic days! :) To add I still absolutely love how the Guitar starts to speak followed by the guitar conversation on Würm.

After the new keyboardist (Rick Wakeman) joined, the best live ending of this song (Wurm) I've heard is on YT at "Yes - Starship Trooper (Live at SLO) Part 2 - Wurm"

WHY NOT one of the great live versions? ☺

Endless Dream by YES from the 1994 Talk album.

The studio original of "Starship Trooper" is great. That said, I would like to put in a special recommendation for the live version from the "yessongs" concert album. If I understand correctly, you were not impressed with the live version of "CTTE" and I will agree that it is disappointingly the weakest link of the album. But this live version of "ST" is soooo much better. Especially the interplay between Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman on pt. III "Wurm" as the starship breaks planetary orbit, the super-luminal drive spools up and then kicks in is nonpareil. The terms epic guitar hero and keyboard wizard were practically invented for these cats. And of course, Chris Squire and Alan White laying down the firmament with Jon Anderson's other-worldly vocals. For a live recording, the sound quality is remarkably good. I had the great good fortune to hear/see this incarnation of Yes twice in the early and mid 1970s and both were memorable events, even about half a century later.

early seventies.

Try early Genesis with Peter Gabriel. On a par with any progressive rock.

You talk about "prog-rock of 70s" .. "selling-out" for "80s Pop-Schlock" .. CHICAGO, YES, STEVE WINWOOD ((etc)).. did that..but, I agree with you..although I am a 63-year-old " purist" .. ( it was still "pretty".".PRRETAHH - PRRETAHHH - GOOD" music)

Neat song. It seems a lot like Rush to me, but more experimental to see what they could create. Thank you for presenting this.

Try Kansas ,They don,t have bad song!

Wait till you get to Roundabout and some other songs from Fragile, then Close To The Edge - that one will be like a Vulcan mind meld. My fave album by them is Going For The One, everything on that one is mind blowing and perfect.

Yours is No Disgrace from this album would be great and maybe more cuts from the Fragile album before moving to Close to the Edge (all 3 songs on the album are excellent)

I prefer the Yessongs version of this song only because I bought that album before this one. Both are great though. :)

Please please please DramaFry AUSTIN BROWN “LETS STAY TOGETHER” (al Greene cover) Your honest opinion, as always please sir ✌️💕

Their music is timeless, doesn't really fit an era so much even though written 50 years ago!