Side-long songs (the 18 min+ title track), lengthy soloing throughout and indecipherable lyrics are the ingredients for what must be the ultimate in Prog Rock albums. Yes had been at the forefront of the Prog movement for a couple of years. Their nearest rivals were Genesis and King Crimson.
Prog Rock was a music that sang about supernatural beings and fantasy rather than boy meets girl and matters of the heart. Yes combined their musical virtuosity (they teach Steve Howe guitar solos at the Barnsley College of Music) with tales of other-worldly happenings and fantastic dream-scapes. The cover art of 'Close To The Edge' is as near a depiction of what you will find inside the record sleeve as to render a listen to the record redundant, but it is a magnificent record. Chris Squire underpins proceedings with massive slabs of earth shattering bass, while Rick Wakeman plays multiple keyboards at once, adding Bach like toccata and fugue and Rachmaninoff inspired piano. All this is topped with the choirboy vocal of Jon Anderson, the unlikeliest front man in rock.
Don't ask what it all means. It means nothing and everything.
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