Published on Jan 5, 2004
Proto-prog?
It’s not a term that I coined; “proto-prog” has been used and
re-used to describe many of the late 60’s and early 70’s era albums
of many a diverse group. Genesis, King Crimson and the like. Even
the Beatles have had this label slapped on some of their later
works. But to the Yes purist this album is the birth of the Yes
sound, and therefore by definition the original proto-prog
album.
Surprise! No Steve Howe and no Rick Wakeman. Oh, ya, we all love
to point at the “classic” Yes lineup of Anderson, Howe, Squire,
Wakeman and Bruford/White as the defining cast of “real prog.” But
lookie here my boy — gaze a little further back and you will find
the cauldron that classic Yes and progressive rock was forged in.
Anderson, Squire and Bruford are present and accounted for but on
keys we have Tony Kaye and lead guitar is handled by Peter
Banks.
Anderson had met Squire just the year before this in 1968 and
being still in their musical infancy, the freshness of this album
is absolutely stunning. Comprised of covers and collaborations,
this album is a welded seam between Beatles and West Coast
harmonies mixed with a strong jazz influence. Although it lacks the
symphonic layerings that characterize later Yes albums, it isn’t
“missing” anything at all.
The covers of “Every Little Thing” by the Beatles and “I See
You” by Jim McGuinn and David Crosby of the Byrds point nicely to
the influences that the newly born Yes were using to help light the
way on their quest for musical distinction. Listening to “Every
Little Thing” is a real treat. However, if you are looking for a
standard Beatles “cover” you can forget it. The arrangement is
completely different from the original, pointing to a facet of the
Yes musical cache that would come into play years later on albums
like
Close To the Edge; the talent to arrange a musical piece is
as important as the talent to create the melody and lyrics. Yes, as
a group, already had the arranging capabilities in spades even at
this early stage.
Nothing comes from nothing; before Yes there was a group called
Mabel Greer’s Toyshop. Anderson, Squire and Banks were all members
and two of the songs on
Yes, “Beyond and Before” and “Sweetness,” were originally
created by this earlier incarnation. Apparently there is an actual
recording of “Beyond and Before” as done by Mabel Greer’s Toyshop
out there somewhere… might be fun to hear it. There were, in
fact, a least two “proto-Yes” bands that Anderson, Squire and Banks
were members of, either as singles or in combination with each
other, The Syn and The Warriors. This was London of mid to late
60’s after all, musical styles and bands formed and re-formed with
the elastic fluidity of amoebas in nutrient goo. It must have been
wonderful, and one wonders if the Yes members of today occasionally
long for the freedom of those moments in time at the edge of
“progness,” before they were locked into their own expectation of
what prog was supposed to be. Or perhaps the very definition of
progressive rock still allows them to feel the same freedom. Heaven
knows that the bands membership remained very fluid over the course
of their still active career.
Ok, so what about the ‘real’ Yes songs on this album. Well, if
you are looking for a hint of things to come my money is on
“Survival.” Time changes, meticulous acoustic guitar,
jazz-influenced percussion, chunky Squire bass, lush vocal
harmonies and lyrics that speak of life, death and renewal…
Ya, that’s Yes.
I want to use clichés like “diamond in the rough” when
describing this album. However, that assumes knowledge of things to
come in the Yes catalog. That’s fair enough, but an album as good
as this should be judged on its own merits and not be elevated
beyond itself or held back based on expectations from the next
decade.
Yes is an album that holds most of the keys to progressive
rock as it came to be known, but beyond that this is an album that
also holds tight to the original influences that pushed Yes to
almost single handedly define the entire genre of prog rock. If you
listen to it without preconceived ideas about what it should be,
then I think that you will find that it is a ‘whole’ unto itself.
It exists as a singular eddy in the musical timeline, pulling
heavily on the past but pushing just as hard into the future. No
matter what you bring with you when you listen to it,
Yes is by any measure an A.