 |
| YES onstage in 1977. From Left to Right: Alan White, Steve Howe, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, and Chris Squire. Getty Images/BBC |
YES: Going for the One - Released on this day in 1977. A timeless, flawless album that nonetheless sounded out of place for its time and in its environment. The United Kingdom was in a very dark mood in 1977, exemplified musically by the burgeoning Punk Rock movement, and also brilliantly reflected by Pink Floyd on their masterpiece of that year, ‘Animals.’ YES is still operating very much in the spirit of the Summer of Love here, so in the context of 1977 ‘Going for the One’ was viewed as an anachronism and out-of-touch. In spite of that, the album managed to sell fairly well (and in spite of a truly awful choice for cover art, featuring a naked man’s buttocks, that undoubtedly turned off Middle American male teenagers who otherwise were lapping this stuff up in the ‘70s. Remember, we’re talking about 1977, and even now we are not as enlightened in matters of sexuality as we pretend to believe. However, let’s also be clear that one does not have to be a raging homophobe to not want to look at another person’s bare ass, but I digress.) YES even managed to notch their highest-charting single ever in the UK, ‘Wonderous Stories’ (peaked at No. 7. By contrast, their biggest American single - the No. 1 ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ from 1983, only peaked at No. 28 in the UK.) Rick Wakeman’s return to the band after being away for close to three years no doubt helped sales, even in the midst of a pretty vicious backlash against Progressive Rock in the UK. The unfortunate choice of cover art, however, was made worse by the fact that the imagery had absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the album. With its depiction of a naked man standing in front of the Century Towers in Los Angeles, the cover suggests something futuristic, but pretty much all of ‘Going for the One’ is nostalgic and/or pastoral in nature. The Chris Squire standout ‘Parallels’ - arguably the most modern-sounding track - opens with a glorious Rick Wakeman organ line straight out of the Baroque Era. The emotional and sweeping Steve Howe showcase ‘Turn of the Century’ is not looking forward to the coming Millennium, but is rather wistful for the Victorian Age. The two tracks that make up side two - the UK radio hit ‘Wonderous Stories’ and the supremely majestic epic ‘Awaken’ - speak to matters that transcend time and space. Even the raucous opening title track - one of the hardest-rocking songs in the entire YES catalog - looks back a couple decades with its Rockabilly flourishes via Steve Howe’s steel guitar. ‘Going for the One’ is an album that is accessible enough for more mainstream and casual listeners, and still pleasing to the devoted fans who demand complexity and unconventionality. By my count, YES has exactly eight albums that are basically perfect from beginning-to-end - all of them recorded between 1971 and 1983, with only one record in that entire period not being up to par, 1978’s ‘Tormato.’ ‘Going for the One’ is a vibrant, life-affirming record, and the sound of the most masterful musicians of their age at the height of their magical powers. With the recent passing of drummer Alan White and the passing of Chris Squire in 2015, this record has only taken on more poignancy for me. As essential a record as there is.
GRADE: A+
Copyright 2022, FloydEtcetera. Twitter - @FloydEtcetera. DONATIONS - click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment