
The album was the first by the group comprised solely of original material. The band spent mid-1970 writing and rehearsing new material at a farmhouse in South Molton, Devon, and the new songs were recorded at Advision Studios in the autumn. While the album retained close harmony singing, Kaye’s Hammond organ and Chris Squire’s melodic bass, as heard on earlier releases, the new material also covered further styles including jazz piano, funk and acoustic music, with all band members contributing ideas, and tracks were extended in length to allow music to develop. Howe contributed a variety of guitar styles, including a Portuguese guitar, and recorded a solo acoustic guitar piece, “Clap“, live at the Lyceum Theatre, London.
The album was a critical success and was a major commercial breakthrough for YES, who had been at risk of being dropped by the record label. It reached number 4 in the UK and number 40 in the US, and is certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over one million copies.
Personnel

Vocals

Percussion

Guitars, Vocals

Keyboards

Bass, Vocals
Recommended Versions
Steven Wilson 2013 Stereo & 5.1 Remixes for Panegyric
This is the only version of The Yes Album to have been completely remixed from the original multitrack tapes since 1971. In keeping with all the other releases in this series, Steven Wilson’s approach for new stereo & 5.1 mixes is to faithfully retain the spirit & sounds of the original album mix, while applying modern mix techniques to bring further clarity to the individual instrument, vocal & overdubs for each track. The songs, instantly familiar to a multitude of Yes fans, remain so, with the new mixes – especially in 5.1 form – providing a greater sense of space for each voice to be heard. Anderson’s voice seems to join the listener in the room, Howe & Wakeman’s solos glisten with clarity and Bruford & Squire remind all that they were unmatched as a rhythm section during that period.
☟See Contents & Extras
Contains:
Brand new ‘Definitive’ Steven Wilson Remixes in 24-96 HD Audio in 5.1 Surround and Stereo.
The original 1972 Eddy Offord mix recorded directly from the original master tape with no additional EQ.
Extras:
Clap (Studio Version), A Venture (Extended)
Alternate version of The Yes Album drawn from live tracks, singles edits & an extended mix
Extras for BluRay Edition only:
5.1 PCM Surround Sound and High Resolution Stereo mixes (24bit/96khz). The original album mix in a hi-res flat transfer from the original stereo master tape source (24bit/192khz).
a complete alternate album running order drawn from live tracks, singles edits & an extended mix. Exclusive instrumental versions of all new mixes in DTS-HD Master Audio stereo (24bit/96khz). Exclusive needle-drop of an original UK vinyl A1/B1 pressing transferred in 24bit/96khz audio.
☝ Hide Contents & Extras
Dan Hersch & Bill Inglot 2003 Stereo Remasters for Warner Music UK/USA
Available as:
HD 24-192 or 24-96 Downloads at HD Tracks, HiRes Audio
Gatefold CD at Amazon
Vinyl LP as per original release at Amazon
MP3 Downloads at iTunes (Standard Edition, Mastered for iTunes), iTunes (Deluxe Edition), Google Play, 7 Digital, Microsoft Store
Streaming at Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Rdio, Tidal
The Box Set contains the following remastered albums with bonus tracks: Yes, Time and a Word, The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans, Relayer, Going for the One , Tormato, Drama, 90125, Big Generator. Each individual album comes in a gatefold sleeve that replicates the original LP packaging.
Isao Kikuchi 2013 Stereo Remasters for Warner Music Japan
High Vibration is a 16 x Hybrid SACD Box Set made for the Japanese fans, containing their first 13 albums on 15 discs plus a bonus disc of extra tracks. All Remastered by Isao Kikuchi at 24-96 & 16-44.1 with a 220 page book in Japanese.
Albums: Yes, Time and a Word, The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Yessongs, Tales from Topographic Oceans, Relayer, Going for the One , Tormato, Drama, 90125, Big Generator and a Bonus Disc.
Bonus Disc: Something’s Coming, Dear Father, Roundabout (Single Edit), America, Total Mass Retain (Single Version), Soon (Single Edit), Abilene, Run Through The Light (Single Version), Run With The Fox, Owner Of A Lonely Heart (Move Yourself Mix), Leave It (Single Remix), Big Generator (Remix).
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Dan Hersch & Bill Inglot 2003 Stereo RemastersThe Yes Album - by Sid Smith
“Commitment is an act, not a word.” – Jean-Paul Sartre
“You can’t do anything unless you’re committed to it,” remarks Jon Anderson. “The first band I was in, I drove them crazy trying to get them to rehearse. I did because I felt that as musicians we were lucky to be doing what we were doing and we owed it to get on with it. We needed to rehearse more and more, and then some more. They told me to eff off and eventually I did. But if you want to know why YES became the band it did, it’s because we were all committed.”
Commitment was one of the engines powering YES infamous “revolving door policy” that was said to be in operation in those early days. With original and co-founder Peter Banks dissatisfied at the musical direction taken during the recording of Time and a Word, there was an inevitability about his enforced departure in April 1970. “Everything was in a state of change. It was so fast and nobody was settled,” explains Bill Bruford. “You gave it your best but it was a fast-moving world and you had to give more than your best; What we were looking for was for people to bring more to the table. So Peter was a guitarist, which is fine, but Steve Howe was Chet Atkins, Jim Hall, Scotty Moore, a folk player, a country picker – he could bring more to the party.”
After being spotted on stage at The Speakeasy by Anderson, Howe was approached to become a member of the group. “I wasn’t looking for any old band to play with. I was turning down offers with various people,” recalls Steve Howe. “I’d just been playing with PP Arnold on the Delaney And Bonnie tour which really upped my game. There was Eric Clapton and George Harrison, Dave Mason, Bramlett – everyone was great. So I wanted a band that was equal to my ability and potential. That’s what I saw when I met Bill, Chris, Jon and Tony. I thought this is the band to join.”
The relative isolation of a Devon farmhouse saw the band devote all its available time to writing and rehearsing, although they still found time for a few turns of the Ouija board late into the night. “We had a spirit in the house – a lady – who liked what we were doing. So we thought that was a good sign,” laughs the singer.
Upon its release, in February 1971, the album rapidly ascended the charts. While there’s no doubting the musical merit of the record there was another factor working in YES‘ favour. The acquisition of a new manager in the formidable shape of Brian Lane provided another shot of commitment and a significant amount of strategic savvy. An ex-record plugger, he knew how to take the band to the next level. Between January and March 1971 there was a national postal strike in the UK which meant the music charts had to be suspended as they were unable to get sales information back from the shops in order to compile a chart. “Who should step into the breach but a young Richard Branson who had a chart and so the newspapers of the day started printing Richard Branson’s Virgin chart,” explains Bruford. “The guy who owns the charts puts in what he wants. People talk, a couple of hundred quid changes hands and before you know it, you’re in the charts. That’s what got YES going.”
Howe agrees: “Eddie found a way of allowing us all to play intricate parts, all at the same time, and then blow me down when you play the thing back you could hear them all. Not every engineer could conceive of how to do that.Eddie contoured the sound in such a luxurious way he allowed everyone to be heard equally.”
Sid Smith
February 2014, Whitley Bay
Sid Smith is a freelance music writer and author of numerous sleeve notes. A regular contributor to Prog magazine, BBC Music and other publications, he is also the author of In The Court of King Crimson and Northstars. You can find out more at sidsmith.blogspot.co.uk
Lyrics
YOURS IS NO DISGRACE
Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face
Caesar’s palace, morning glory, silly human race
On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place
If the summer changed to winter, yours is no disgrace
Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are
Shining, flying, purple wolfhound, show me where you are
Lost in summer, born in winter, travel very far
Lost in losing circumstances, that’s just where you are
Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face
Caesar’s palace, morning glory, silly human race
On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place
If the summer changed to winter, yours is no
Yours is no disgrace
Yours is no disgrace
Yours is no disgrace
Death defying, mutilated armies scatter the earth
Crawling out of dirty holes, their morals, their morals disappear
Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face
Caesar’s palace, morning glory, silly human, silly human race
On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place
If the summer changed to winter, yours is no
Yours is no disgrace
Yours is no disgrace
Yours is no disgrace
WRITTEN BY
Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Tony Kaye & Bill Bruford
PERFORMED BY
Jon Anderson – vocals, percussion
Chris Squire – bass guitars, vocals
Steve Howe – guitars, vocals
Tony Kaye – piano, organ, moog
Bill Bruford – drums, percussion
CLAP
(Instrumental)
WRITTEN BY
Steve Howe
PERFORMED BY
Steve Howe – guitar
FURTHER INFO
Recorded live at The Lyceum Theatre, London, 17 July 1970.
STARSHIP TROOPER
I – LIFE SEEKER
Sister Bluebird flying high above
Shine your wings forward to the sun
Hide the myst’ries of life on your way
Though you’ve seen them, please don’t say a word
What you don’t know, I have never heard
Starship Trooper, go sailing on by
Catch my soul, catch the very light
Hide the moment from my eager eye
Though you’ve seen them, please don’t tell a soul
What you can’t see, can’t be very whole
Speak to me of summer, long winters longer than time can remember
The setting up of other roads, to travel on in old accustomed ways
I still remember the talks by the water, the proud sons and daughter that
Knew the knowledge of the land, that spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways
Mother life, hold firmly on to me
Catch my knowledge higher than the day
Lose as much as only you can show
Though you’ve seen them, please don’t say a word
What I don’t know, I have never shared
II – DISILLUSION
Loneliness is a power that we posses to give or take away forever
All I know can be shown by your acceptance of the facts there shown before you
Take what I say in a diff’rent way and it’s easy to say that this is all confusion
As I see a new day in me, I can also show it you and you may follow
Speak to me of summer, long winters longer than time can remember
The setting up of other roads, to travel on in old accustomed ways
I still remember the talks by the water, the proud sons and daughter that
Knew the knowledge of the Land, spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways
III – WÜRM
(Instrumental)
WRITTEN BY
Jon Anderson, Steve Howe & Chris Squire
PERFORMED BY
Jon Anderson – vocals, percussion
Chris Squire – bass guitars, vocals
Steve Howe – guitars, vocals
Tony Kaye – piano, organ, moog
Bill Bruford – drums, percussion
I’VE SEEN ALL GOOD PEOPLE
I – YOUR MOVE
I’ve seen all good people
Turn their heads each day
So satisfied
I’m on my way.
Take a straight and stronger course
To the corner of your life
Make the white queen run so fast
She hasn’t got time to make you a wife.
‘Cause it’s time
It’s time in time with your time
And its news is captured
For the queen to use.
Move me on to any black square
Use me any time you want
Just remember that the goal
Is for us all to capture all we want
Don’t surround yourself with yourself
Move on back two squares
Send an Instant Karma to me
Initial it with loving care
Don’t surround yourself.
‘Cause it’s time
It’s time in time with your time
And its news is captured.
II – ALL GOOD PEOPLE
I’ve seen all good people
Turn their heads each day
So satisfied
I’m on my way.
WRITTEN BY
Jon Anderson & Chris Squire
PERFORMED BY
Jon Anderson – vocals, percussion
Chris Squire – bass guitars, vocals
Steve Howe – guitars, laúd, vocals
Tony Kaye – piano, organ, moog
Bill Bruford – drums, percussion
Colin Goldring – recorders
A VENTURE
Once a peaceful man laid his old head down by a river
Thought about his childhood life, his father and forgiver
Who couldn’t hide away, hide away.
He controlled the horses with a handclap or a whisper
Drink he couldn’t combat but in all he was no sinner
Couldn’t hide away, hide away.
He told all his sons of all the antics of a venture
Then he told another one who drove himself to drink
Not to hide away, hide away.
Better men have realized alone is not a venture
A peaceful man would realize alone is no adventure
Just to hide away, hide away.
He told all his sons of all the antics of adventure
Then he told another one who drove himself to drink
Not to hide away, hide away.
WRITTEN BY
Jon Anderson
PERFORMED BY
Jon Anderson – vocals, percussion
Chris Squire – bass guitars, vocals
Steve Howe – guitars, vocals
Tony Kaye – piano, organ, moog
Bill Bruford – drums, percussion
PERPETUAL CHANGE
I see the cold mist in the night
And watch the hills roll out of sight
I watch in ev’ry single way
Inside out, outside in, ev’ry day
The sun can warm the coldest dawn
And move the movement on the lawn
I learn in ev’ry single day
Inside out, outside in, ev’ry way
And there you are
Making it out but you’re sure that it is a star
And all you see
Is an illusion shining out in front of me
And then you’ll say
Even in time we shall control the day
When what you’ll see
Deep inside base controlling you and me
And one peculiar point I see
As one of many ones of me.
As truth is gathered, I rearrange
Inside out, outside in, inside out, outside in
Perpetual change
And there you are
Saying we have the moon, so now the stars
When all you see
ls near disaster gazing down on you and me
And there you’re standing
Saying we have the whole world in our hands
When all you’ll see
Deep inside the world’s controlling you and me.
You’ll see perpetual change
You’ll see perpetual change
And there you are
Making it out but you’re sure that it is a star
And all you see
It’s an illusion shining out in front of me
And then you’ll say
Even in time we shall control the day
When all you see
Deep inside base controlling you and me
As mist and sun are both the same
We look on as pawns of their game
They move to testify the day
Inside out, outside in, inside out, outside in
All of the way
Ah, Ah.
WRITTEN BY
Jon Anderson & Chris Squire
PERFORMED BY
Jon Anderson – vocals, percussion
Chris Squire – bass guitars, vocals
Steve Howe – guitars, vocals
Tony Kaye – piano, organ, moog
Bill Bruford – drums, percussion
A note from Steven Wilson about his 'Definitive Edition' YES Album Remixes

Since the advent of CD in the early 80’s, all the 60’s and 70’s YES albums have been remastered for the different editions by various mastering engineers. Each time this remastering process broadly involved taking the mix from the same original Eddy Offord stereo master tape and applying different amounts of EQ and compression to it. This means that if the mastering engineer decided that the bass guitar needed more bottom end then he/she had to add bass across the whole track, therefore affecting other elements in the mixes too. Additionally many of these reissues have been subjected to mastering compression to make them sound louder and in theory more “exciting”, but at the expense of the natural dynamics of the recording. For a band like YES where there is so much subtlety and dynamics in the music this “ear-fatiguing” approach would seem to be wrong to me.
Remixing, on the other hand, entails a more sophisticated and time consuming process – going back to the original 16 or 24 track multitrack session tapes, and then recreating the mix from the drums up. Applying EQ to each individual instrument (rather than across a whole mix), rebalancing, recreating echo, reverberation, phasing and other effects, making volume moves, positioning elements in the stereo spectrum, and more. In doing this, since we now have the ability to work with the latest high resolution audio tools, it allows for greater clarity between instruments to be achieved. No additional compression has been added at all. The remixes may seem quieter, and you may have to turn up your stereo, but that is because all of the natural dynamics have been retained.
That’s not to say that this means these new mixes are “better”, because particularly the original mixes of albums such as The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge are brilliant. So if you are intimately familiar with them the new versions may sit uncomfortably with you, no matter how faithfully I tried to stay close to the originals. But if you treat the new mixes as an alternate perspective, you may notice additional details you hadn’t before, and more importantly the new stereo mixes are a step along the way to creating the 5.1 surround sound mixes. (Note that if you just can’t get on with the remixes, then the original mixes are also included in these reissues for the first time as high resolution flat transfers, so none of that added mastering EQ or compression, exactly as they left the studio after Eddy had mixed them).
Additionally returning to the archives gave me a chance to mix unreleased material from the multitrack session tapes for the very first time – either things that the band had originally recorded but abandoned prior to mixing, alternate takes, or different perspectives of the album takes (such as the instrumental mixes, or the a cappella mix of We Have Heaven from Fragile).
I hope you enjoy the definition and clarity of these new mixes in high resolution 96/24 audio, and of course especially in 5.1 surround sound where these classic albums really open out and shine!
Steven Wilson
YES albums available in Steven Wilson Definitive Editions
Get the Definitive versions of 5 Classic YES Albums on Amazon: The Yes Album, Fragile, Close To The Edge, Relayer and Tales From Topographic Oceans.
Remixed & Remastered by Steven Wilson in HD24-96 5.1 & Stereo, and also including the original YES/Eddy Offord mix, with a host of extra tracks.