INTO THE LENS

The 8:32 album track is cut down to a 3:48 single edit with about four splices. It eliminates the first three minutes of the album version by fading in right before the first bridge ("there by the waterside / here where the lens is wide"). The modified "I am a camera" chorus and the "taken, taken so easily" section follow as on the album version. Two quick edits later, we're at the finale; the last two minutes of the single edit are almost identical to the last to minutes of the album version (five seconds are cut during the "I am, I am a camera part").

It's a pretty chopped-up single, but it does accomplish the task of cutting "Into the Lens" down by more than half without entirely losing the feel of the original. The weirdest part is definitely the fade-in, which drops the listener into the middle of the song.

Yes had a total of 11 singles make the Billboard pop charts from "Your Move" In 1970 to "Lift Me Up" In 1991. Released as "Into the Lens (I Am a Camera)," this was the only one of these not to make the top 100. It debuted on September 25, 1980 and spent two weeks on the "Bubbling Under the Hot 100" chart, peaking at #104.

An interesting curio for fans, and, on its own merits, a good early-1980s art-pop song.

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