YES! Fragile is my favorite album, so this is my favorite area!!!

[The Fish]

FRAGILE! It's my favorite Yes-album.

I will talk about every track here and how I think about it.

1. Roundabout (Yes)

The intro is stunning! The beautiful dynamic guitar from Steve, that really sounds like ELP's "From The Beginning". A major part on this song is when the beat comes in. And then that bass-part! Damn, it's brilliant! That's what I miss at further Yes-releases. The brilliant rhythm-section of Bruford and Squire. That way of drumming with that 'taut' bass-sound. At CTTE, it was gone! That's why I love FRAGILE more than CTTE. And because it's the 1st one with Rick! All the Rick-albums are great. Except UNION. But the middle part of ROUNDABOUT, with the organ and Anderson's calm down. It's fantastic. The final part never sounded well when they played the song live, though, but studio, it ROCKS!!!

2. Cans and Brahms (Wakeman)

Great!!! Based on a classic piece, this piece is very nice and short. All sorts of sounds that he uses, I love them all. The melody is really beautiful and peaceful. However, for a "Wakeman-first-meeting" I think this is kinda weak.

3. We have Heaven (Anderson)

Anderson, Anderson, Anderson. Different words, the same voice. When you listen to it very closely, you discover the great variety of the song. Nice, it returns later on the album!! Like "now I run away, but I will return!!" (if you know what I mean)

4. South Side Of The Sky (Yes)

My favorite of this record. The exiting start and then Bill's outstanding drumming-interlude. Howe's guitar fills in the track on an amazing way with his rough guitar-playing!! Without doubts, the highlight of the song is the middle part with Rick's piano and the goosebumps/tears-giving voice-part. Man, this is sooooo beautiful. nuff said, time to enter side 2 of the record!

5. Five Per Cent For Nothing (Bruford)

35 sec. ? Boring ? NOT!!! To mention the drums only! Of couse, a little theme is written by good old Bill to fill up the tiny adventure and played by Mr. Squire and Mr. Wakeman (the short organ). Repeated one time. Short but powerful!!! Stunning track.

6. Long Distance Runaround (Yes)

And here I go again: Bruford vs Squire and again on an excellent way! Of course, let's not forget Steve's intro!! (nice for a phone-ringtone. Try it, it's impossible!!!) Then the unexpected-Jon Anderson-melody (to write something like this, damn the man is a genius!!) comes up and before you notice you are listening to a real prog-pop song!! To be continued...

7. The Fish (shindleria praematurus) - (Squire)

...Long Distance Runaround turns into this brilliant bass-only piece. (OK not to mention Bill's beat and Jon's singing) All different kinds of bass. A great demonstration by our friend Mr. Chris Squire! This 7/4 track is everything but boring. Jon accompanies with his fairytale-que singing: 'shindleria praematurus' (the biological name for a fish). Chris Squire's finest solo piece ???

8. Mood For A Day (Howe)

Only guitar. Just acoustic guitar. And how(e)!!! This melody really impresses me and the way it is played typically is Steve Howe. Well, I love THE CLAP, but this is much better!!! When you wake up on a nice, hot spring/summer morning, go sit for your window with the sun shining in and then play this song. You will absolutely get in the mood for the day!! Thanks Steve!

9. Heart Of The Sunrise (Yes)

The final part of Yes' 4th record. More than 10 minutes. Exciting, mysterious, rough, virtuous (did I spell it well ?). The hard theme which returns a lot in the track really is an impression for everyone who listened to this piece of music. At least, I hope so...
My favorite part of this track is the slow part at the beginning. Bass, drums, and then the mellotron. Bill plays outstanding here!!! SHARP - DISTANCE. You'll here it lots of times but I can't get enough of it. The instumental AND vocal work on HEART OF THE SUNRISE is almost perfect. One of Yes' finest epics, also live.


Damn, I think I just made the longest topic of all time, or am I wrong ? At least, I'd love to know how you think about my story.

Lots of greetings from this 17 years old boy (people think I'm crazy!!)

The Fish

[Original_Shifty]

.....but a pretty good post nonetheless.

I'm glad you enjoy this album so much. I too think SSOTS is the strongest cut. This song and HOTS sure gave us a glimpse of what was to come, didn't they.

I never owned the vinyl or tape of this album only cd. I always thought Five Percent was at the end of side one. If it is at the start of side two, then that would indeed be a strange place to stick it and I can imagine what people must have thought when they first heard it.

LDR and The Fish are so perfect together, that when I hear LDR in concert, and they don't follow it up with the latter, I always feel it's incomplete.

[Kevin Still]

1. 17 years old? You are lightyears ahead of your friends and peers who think your crazy. Consider yourself enlightend!

2. Roundabout was the first song I ever heard by this blessing known as YES. So Fragile is special in my sight.

3. My best Highshool Rock band was named Fragile. Now the tribute band in the UK has the moniker so... there ya' go.

On to the heart of the sunrise my friend!

[weebl]

Lots of greetings from this 17 years old boy (people think I'm crazy!!)
I'm in the same boat as you, Fish!

I think "Fragile" must be my favourite YES album, but I don't believe it's the best album.
"Fragile" seems to be made up of 'songs' (which are still mind-buggeringly excellent) whereas other albums (such as "CTTE") seem to me to be more like 'pieces of music', and therefore I believe less 'commercial' and 'mainstream'. It is not due to these reasons that "Fragile" is my favourite YESalbum, but I feel that both "Fragile" and "The Yes Album" capture the real, authentic YES sound (in songs like Roundabout, Starship Trooper and I've Seen All Good People).
Having said that "Fragile" is made of 'YESsongs', I do believe there are two 'phases' that come under 'YESsongs'.
The first of these is "Fragile", the second of which is anything made after "Going for the One". After such 'epics' as "Gates of Delirium' (sp?), 'Close to the Edge' and 'Awaken', I feel that nothing made after "GFTO" matches the earlier YES. "Tormato" is just the prep-work of YESsongs before the HORN/DOWNES/RABIN 80s and the chart-topping era that YES, as a non-commercial band, is simply not made for.
I think YES have made it back on track with such records as "Magnification", but not reaching the full, authentic sound that "Fragile" gives.
Even the band themselves know how much we, the real YESfans love "Fragile", as reflected in their setlists for the Full Circle Tour.

PS I think it's got the best cover too...

[Tonydess]

Fragile is a very good rock as well as progressive rock album.Classic and timeless.I have been noticing in other threads that ask what their favorite setlist would be, that SSOTS is a very popular choice.I like the song very much.I consider it the best song on the album.At first I was skeptical that they wouldn't be able to pull it off live.When I seen them on this last tour they added a "hardness" to the song that made it complete for me.Love the guitar solo at the end of that song.

[jimtim45]

I agree that Fragile is a brilliant Yes album and everytime I hear a track from it reminds me of the first time I saw the band live in Glasgow in 1971 when they were promoting it.Fragile stands up for itself as a great album but I always consider it to be a look into the future of great things to come from Yes such as CTTE,TFRO,Relayer & GFTO.HOTS is one of my favourite Yes songs of all time.
Fish your review of Fragile was excellent and for a 17 year old you are showing great maturity on the music front

[Charles Matejic]

Fragile is not my FAVORITE Yes album but it sure is great and I never get tired of it.As the band dveloped in its later years it is very interesting to go back and see how they started to mesh in the beginning on Fragile.Now don't get me wrong because I absolutely adore Wakeman and his GENIUs but ther is something about Tony Kaye's style that was lost when they changed from The Yes Album to Fragile. It is difficult for me to express in words but on The Yes Album ther is a certain night club/studio flavor and I love Kayes banging on the piano and one of his overlooked pieces is A Venture which has GREAT keyboard /drums/bass co-ordination and a jazzy/sophisto type sound that reflects the appeal of the band at that time period in England and then as they spread their sound around the world.Again on Perpetual Change you hear the great type of keyboards Kaye brought to the band and they just blended so well. As much as I love Howe in the spotlight I really enjoy him taking a back seat now and again because he is such a master of his instument he adds just the right flavor and texture to other parts of the album when keyboards and voices take the lead. at the very end of A Venture Howe does some AMAZINGLY fast riffs as the song fades off and it never fails to move me and want for more.The change of sound on Fragile of course is inevitable because of the change of personel and I love Wakemans own style and contributions but ther was something lost in the process and I think if you really are objective you can agree with me that as a SOUND The Yes Album is superior to Fragile.Please don't misunderstand my point as I truly do love Fragile too!














the Yes Album you

[gus]

It’s my favorite yes album also The Fish, whoo hoo!

I think the reason why is every Yes member gets a piece on this album. It’s like a live concert, where they get to showcase their skills at some point in the concert. Yes is made up of extremely talented members and they all have something to say, and they get to say it on Fragile (and very well if I might add). If one was to say what Yes was really about I think this album is the descriptive form of Yes music. Just play someone this album and they will know exactly what Yes is about.

[ndselwood]

Fragile is the most wonderful Yes album as it contains several of my fave ever tracks including SSOTS, perhaps Jon's greatest moment as a songwriter.

Thew sentiments expressed so far are wholly welcomed by me, and long may Fragile spin on our turntables, cd players and our minds.

[Ronboy]

My best Highshool Rock band was named Fragile. Now the tribute band in the UK has the moniker so... there ya' go.

Hi Kevin,

I saw Fragile (UK tribute band) last week and thought they were quite good musically.

The singer had a great voice but sounded nothing like Jon Anderson. As you can imagine he had some difficulty with certain pitched notes and it made me realise that Jon is truly a "ONE OFF" and cannot be matched.
A guy mentioned just before the gig that Fragile were just like YES, hmmmmmmmmmm!

Ronboy

[jaynote1]

One of my very favorite things on this album is in Heart of the Sunrise, towards the end, when Ricks synth takes over the stepping bass line and peaks with it........f***ing awesome.....sort of fugue-ish, but totally YES.............

[Tabulon]

I could go on about this one all day, but you did it for me. Thank you!

[proggtr1]

Although Relayer is my favorite YES album....FRAGILE is a very very close second..........I have very found memories of the first time I heard Fragile...I was 14..and was visiting some friends of parents..in Kitchener, Ontario i believe...they had just immigrated from Slovakia,(then Czechoslovakia), and the father had just bought a very nice hi-fi stereo system.....i remember him telling me to check it out..he had done some reseach and design the room to be acoustically complementary to his system. So i looked through his album collection...and found YES FRAGILE..needless to say...listening to this on a great stereo and very loud i may add....it left a lasting impression on me. Great record...Production was wayyy ahead of its time.

[mike178]

South Side lets you know that Yes from the begining could kick arse.
Its heavy dirty in your face rock and roll.
Lets not forget, this is a rock and roll band.Listen to GFTO.
If you ask them I'm sure they would without hesitation or long winded analysis classify thier music as Rock and Roll.

But it's so much more ,is'nt it?
Thats the problem with Yes , you can get mad at them for 901 or whatever but they are a r and r band and thats what they do.
there will never be anotherr Fragile.

Rambling, too much beer ,, to muchbeer

[YYY]

So yesterday I legally downloaded (for FREE!) a bunch of songs from Windows Media Player's Media Guide. Many of them were from various TONY LEVIN's albums. Another one has Tony playing with some Frippy guitarist called the CALIFORNIA GUITAR TRIO and a drummer. CGT3 + 2

There is an instrumental rendition of HEART OF THE SUNRISE that is quite good. It's really just interested and exciting to hear another band do justice to YES Music. It also reminds me that this song IS truly an amazing piece of art

[javier]

I ´m totally with your subscription up to FRAGILE I contacted when i was 11 aged and i get impressed i think is the most brilliant together TALES that marked a sign of MADE BY YES .Definetely they are the great,the best and the original FROM home ...YES