Mott the Dog
Stars fell off the edge
In 1968, five like minded souls put the band Yes
together, and in 1969 they released their first self titled album.
Listening to that album today still sends out a positive vibe of a
genuine group trying to establish their mark, a joy to behold.
The following year a follow up album was released,
Time and a Word (1970), by which time fractions were beginning to open
up within the ranks of the band as the battle for leadership started. By
the time the album was released the lead guitarist, and star of the live
shows, Peter Banks had not only been unceremoniously dumped from the
band and replaced by the far more manageable Steve Howe, but also
Banks’ guitar parts had been remixed so low in the mix as to be almost
inaudible.
One more album was released in the shape of the
pompously titled, The Yes Album (1971), after which another band member,
keyboard player Tony Kaye, was thrown out as the others were laying a
beady eye over new keyboard sensation Rick Wakeman, who was hastily
lured away from his job with the Strawbs.
At this stage is the band still Yes? They have
already lost the two leading musical instruments in the band. Another
album was released Fragile, 1971) - the tile perhaps referring to the
band’s individual egos, whilst the album amounted to two band
compositions (both of which are Progressive/Rock paint by numbers
affairs) and a selection of solo efforts by each individual member of
the band which in itself when listened to shows the different directions
that each member wanted to go in, and they are quite definitely not the
same. Bill Bruford obviously wanted to go on and become recognized as
one of the world’s leading drummers, a feat he was to achieve when he
headed out on his own after jumping from the Yes Airship (that’s hot
air) after the next album, the one under review, which we will soon get
to. Chris Squire clearly wanted to play bass for The Who as a lead
instrument as his hero John Entwistle did. Rick Wakeman was blatantly
using the band to turn himself into a keyboard superstar and launch his
solo career, to sponsor his hobby: drinking copious amounts of alcohol
and wearing capes that even Batman would be embarrassed by. Steve Howe
had set off on a course where he wanted to be able to play the guitar
half as well as his predecessor, an achievement he wouldn’t even come
close too, whilst lead singer Jon Anderson was moving himself closer and
closer to the edge of La-La land.
Then this incantation of Yes entered the studio to
record another album, one of the few times this lot went into the studio
for consecutive albums with the same line-up.
The results are laughable. Close To The Edge (1972),
was, at the time, either proclaimed as a masterpiece or pretentious
rubbish. Listening to it today, even calling it pretentious slop is one
of the nicest things you can say about it. Upon arrival in the studio it
was quite clearly decided that if they wanted to stake their claim in
the progressive rock field they had better come up with a song of epic
proportions. Well, it’s long, the first track on this collection
(mercifully there are only three although they are all excruciatingly
long) took up the whole first side of the vinyl edition, and sounds like
a mixed bag of ideas, bits of this and bits of that, all thrown in, and
held together by Steve Howe’s feeble twiddling on the six string. This
had actually been done to good effect by a more talented musician (try
Peter Banks’ solo album “Instinct’’ where he twiddles away for
sixty minutes without losing his audience’s attention, once, and there
are no vocals on the album at all to distract you). Chris Squire plays
as many bass notes as he can squeeze in no matter what the rest of the
band is doing; Bill Bruford is quite clearly baffled by what is going
on, probably the reason he left halfway through the tour to promote his
album that followed; Rick Wakeman plays the odd keyboard flourish which
almost yells at you to wait for his upcoming solo album; whilst singer
Jon Anderson has stumbled one step closer to the edge, when he sings the
opening verse:
“A seasoned witch could call you from the depths of
your disgrace,
And rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace,
And achieve it all with music that came quickly from afar,
Then taste the fruit of man recording losing all against the hour”
I mean, I ask you, what does any of that mean? Try
and come out with that gobbledygook as your opening gambit whilst
sitting round Nova Table, you would be carried out in a very straight
jacket.
Somewhere out there, there is still a bunch of
musicians going around playing under the Yes banner (every so often Rick
Wakeman rejoins the band when he needs to top up his beer token rations)
for whoever will listen to them. I could tell you who is still in the
band, who has left, who has left and re-joined, the name of their 35th
album etc, but who really cares? Music that was made in the Seventies
that quite honestly should have stayed there. Close to the edge it is,
before they went into the studio I wish someone had pushed them over it.
Listening to the album today the production is so weak you wonder
whether there was any in the first place. The early seventies is
responsible for some fine music, this is not it.
Nice inside Roger Dean cover though, at least you get
something to put on the wall.
Culprits on this album
Jon Anderson: Unnecessarily twee and high vocals
Steve Howe: Covering Peter Banks guitar work, badly
Rick Wakeman: Keyboards and solo promotion
Chris Squire: Bass guitar
Bill Bruford: Desperately drumming from the back and looking forward to
being in
King Crimson
Lengthy long songs
Close to the Edge: 18 mins 50 secs long
And You and I: 10 mins 9 secs long
Siberian Khatru: 8 mins 57 secs long
I
make no apologies for this week’s book review. “Poetic Gems, selected
from the works of William McGonagall” was first printed in 1890, long
before the advent of the ISBN numbering system. My personal copy is from the
seventh impression struck in 1954 and was handed down by my father, so has
sentimental value as well as literary merit.
Mott’s CD review: Yes