CLOSE TO THE EDGE

It took 38 minutes and only 3 songs to establish itself as the definitive album to establish Yes as one of the greatest exponents of progressive rock, and to delineate the path that many groups of the genre and subgeneros would follow.

The incorporation of Rick Wakeman from the previous Fragile, with all his arsenal of pianos, melotrones, harpsichord, among other instruments, gave the group a nuance that was perfectly complemented by the compositions and the spatial and mystical atmospheres that Anderson and all the band, and they were perfectly captured in Close To The Edge. It was, on the other hand, the last participation of Bill Brufford as drummer of the group until his return 18 years later for the Union, where he shared the percussions with Alan White.

The album begins with the song that gives the title of the album, occupying the entire A side, an epic suite divided into 4 parts in which we did not find any low points, from the introduction with a stream of water flowing through the river and the sounds of birds in The Solid Time Of Change and that give way to a solid instrumental development in Total Mass Retain, and then to the spiritual and delicate I Get Up I Get Down, to finally give way to a great development of the entire group in Seasons Of Man, featuring the Wakeman church keyboards and a similar closure at the start of this 19-minute journey with the sounds of flowing water and birds. Taking Hermann Hesse's novel Siddartha (1922) as the main source of inspiration, Close To The Edge became one of the group's most representative songs.

Side B presents the excellent And You And I, also separated into 4 parts, maintains the mystical and spiritual concept of the album, but in a less intense development than the predecessor Close To The Edge. Steve Howe's acoustic guitars were very well achieved in the introduction and the end of the song. The version of And You and I in the Yessongs takes another dimension, gaining a lot of power and dimanism when performed live, one of its best live performances in my opinion. Siberian Khatru concludes the work, becoming a must-have as an introduction to the promotional tours that followed the album.

Close To The Edge is one of the quintessential capital works of the genre.