10 Heavy Yes Songs That Are Surprisingly Great
Ja has not many clearly heavy songs, but there are few contributions that do not disappoint
Even with the line-up changes, this band knows how to mix prog-rock, jazz-fusion and orchestral sound, resulting in heavy tunes
We listed down ten of Ja’s hardest hits below
Although this song has never been played live, Jon Anderson’s vocal here is the strongest on their 2001 album Magnification
Steve Howe opens with acoustic guitar while Larry Groupe plays his electric rhythm accompanied by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra as Alan White and Chris Squire join in what led to Howe’s aggressive solo
Without album filler, this song is one of their most powerful tracks
After Anderson and Wakeman left, the three members Squire, White and Howe decided to add Buggles singer Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes to their line-up in 1980
Many fans thought the band wouldn’t get any heavier, but this song proved otherwise
The title of the song is Latin for “time flies” Downes explained:
“Because the tempo of the song is so fast, that was all about the title
It is an extremely fast pace
The Vietnam War was the inspiration for this song and the whole band was credited for writing it
Howe has said that his guitar part is one of his favorite contributions to the band
With modern equipment, they were able to do overdubs, which was new for Howe
“It was a ‘studioized’ solo because it was made up in different sections
It is the closing track on the Close To The Edge album, which talks about unity between different cultures
Anderson, wrote the lyrics and the rest of the band composed the music
Howe told Guitar World that this song was one of their most collaborative efforts,
“That song came together with the band’s arranging skills
Jon had the rough idea of the song, and Chris [Squire], Bill [Bruford], Rick and I would work together to get the riffs together
Anderson co-wrote this song with Squire and once again Howe went wild with his guitar riffs
When the band performed this at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2003, Anderson said:
“This is a song about climbing mountains
It’s dangerous, but we all have to climb mountains every day “
This song rocks as hard as almost anything else on the band’s 1970 sophomore release
Peter Banks opened with distorted guitar riffs followed by Bruford’s kicks on the drums, and when Squire’s bass kicked in, the song had a distinctive growl that will make every listener rock through to the end
This song is from 1974’s Relayer and the sound where they mixed prog-rock with jazz-fusion as the short-lived keyboardist Patrick Moraz plays on this song
Written by the whole band, Squire’s bass and Howe’s pedal guitar here once again added flavor
“It’s kind of going bananas over there,” Howe said
This is the last track on the Fragile album and one of the longest intros in rock history, as the vocals don’t come until about 3:40 into this song
Written by Anderson, Bruford and Squire, the song has several time signatures and a classical influence
Anderson said it is one of his favorite Yes compositions, especially during their live performance
Squire wrote the main riff of this song influenced by the King Crimson track “21st Century Schizoid Man” Squire has said that it is also among his favorite Yes tracks
Anderson told Songfacts about this Relayer’s 22-minute track:
It was at the end of the Vietnam War We learned about the immense destruction that was done to the Vietnamese, and for what?
This one is sung by Trevor Horn and Squire, but still sounds totally like Ja Geoff Downes provides a synthesizer and Squire’s bass solo is one of his greatest works here added with Alan White’s drums among his best
It is indeed the heaviest sound in Yes history
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