JUST INCREDIBLE | Yes - Beyond and Before | REACTION

[@steveoglesby4120]

I heard this in 1969 when 19. My friend and I played the album "YES" over and over that night. No drugs.Nothing like this had ever been heard before and we were major music geeks. Needless to say, "some 55 years later YES continued to break sonic boundaries".

[@robertjantzen6545]

Jon still sounds just like that....amazing gift to us all.

[@markwitherspoon1416]

Their 3rd album, the yes album, was released in 1971 and is when they started to find commercial success. That album is loaded with hits including Yours is No Disgrace, Starship Trooper, I've Seen All Good People, Perpetual Change. I think this is a good starting point for Yes. Of course jumping right into Close to the Edge would also be recommended.

[@wendellwiggins3776]

GREAT Somehow actually REACTED to Early YES. Good to see and hear!

[@JJ8KK]

Since you were willing to go right to YES' earliest roots, I think you should continue on with this album & go right on to the next song. Only if you are pressed for time & don't want to go through their whole catalog, then you might want to skip ahead to the first of their 3 Mega-Inspiration Albums: *The Yes Album, Fragile, & Close To The Edge,* their 3rd, 4th, & 5th albums. Anyone who isn't sure that they want to go through the catalog or isn't all that impressed by their early work, they absolutely should listen to those 3 classics. But honestly, YES is such a special band in the musical universe, they deserve to be listened to from beginning to end! I can tell already that you're going to love most everything they have to offer...

[@spawn4582]

At the beginning of the 60s, psychedelic rock was very popular, listening to this song shows the influence of progressive rock, YES managed to combine three styles here, psychedelic rock, progressive rock and rock, great!

[@anthonyblakely399]

Your next Yes reaction should be" Close To The Edge " which was considered by music critics worldwide their first Masterpiece!!!

[@yeshayahuhomberger2079]

Yes - beyond and before, and afterwards. Nice reaction. Keep reacting as you want, but hearing in order would be amazing. Thx 🤙

[@jodij6280]

The vocals are reminiscent of the Beatles, imo. I love Jon Anderson's voice.

[@flomalheur7467]

Oh yes, Yes in the original line-up. I listen to them far too rarely. The cover versions they did at that time are also "special", by the way, because there was often not much left of the original song. They weren't so much covers as songs based on... My absolute favourite song from this category is "America" (already with Steve Howe on guitar, original by Simon & Garfunkel). But "Something's Coming" (West Side Story) is also great. I don't know why most of the interesting bands at that time came from the UK. Maybe someone has done some research on this?

[@JJ8KK]

Absolutely agree re: *America.* Lot of people don't really know that it was just one of those cover songs they liked to jam on during concerts to fill up the play list. Only after it developed enough after a while did they decide to record it as something 'special' on the side they had played with. Most YES fans who love the way Squire & Bruford played together then love it!

[@allybandy3047]

I think one of the most famous members to come out of Yes is Rick Wakeman (keyboard wizard). He split off on his own to make rock operas like 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' and 'King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table'.

[@lesblatnyak5947]

Wakeman was well established before joining Yes. Google how Rick ended up in Yes.

[@lesblatnyak5947]

@Matt Leppard Tony was rather simple, on the Union tour they had a second keyboard player off or under the stage.

[@lesblatnyak5947]

@Matt Leppard your correct, senior moment on my part. It was the 90125 tour Tony had help. 😁

[@lesblatnyak5947]

@Matt Leppard excellent!

[@reneelyons6836]

It's very very interesting.

[@w.geoffreyspaulding6588]

Sal….Helene here. this is going to be long. Forgive me, but you asked a good question and I want to give it the attention it deserves. There are several reasons why they all seem to be from England. First, put it in context: Around 1962/3, the two huge sounds on pop radio in America, as I recall (I was 15/16 at that time) were Southern California “surfin’ music mainly by the Beachboys, and the GREAT black singing groups out of Detroit of the Motown Sound (Detroit was known as Motor City…Motown). There was also folk music…which had a devoted following, including by myself, but that was sort of underground in coffee houses, but Motown and The Beachboys were dominant on Top 40 pop radio. The great American black blues singers were not commercially successful in the US….they just didn’t get any exposure on commercial radio….BUT, the Brits ate it up because their own pop music at that time was just so BLAND….so these great blues greats toured England…and the young guys there heard it and were mesmerized by it and wanted to do it. You had local touring circuits in England where these young guys would play at pubs and dance halls and hone their sound. And allot of them got to know each other. Then The Beatles hit in the US and that was SEISMIC. Young people in the US (including me) went NUTS for this new sound. Then came The Rolling Stones hot on their heels with more “bad boy” image and more blues-infused music. So young Americans began to look to Britain for new bands…and if you were an up and coming group of guys in England at that time, your goal was to “crack America” because if you could make it in the US you were golden…..We had the millions of young baby boomers who would buy the records and support the tours. So…..young Americans looked to Britain for talent after The Beatles opened the door. That’s from the American side. From the British side…I’ve already mentioned how so many were drawn to black American blues and rockabilly because of the blandness of their homegrown pop music. And England, being geographically smaller, these guys ran into each other. They were highly motivated because Britain was still recovering from the effects of WWII…rationing continued into the early 60’s..and life, especially for working class kids was pretty bleak. They wanted to escape. In addition, British kids were raised in a culture that supported classical music much more so than in the US. Many of the singers had also grown up singing in boys choirs at church. In addition, at that time, Britain had a different educational system than the US…..many kids who were not interested in going to University for academic studies, went instead to Art Colleges to study graphic design, drama, art, music. As an example, the members of Queen met at an Art College. Robert Plant, although he did not attend such a school, talks of the exciting, bohemian vibe that these schools created in towns far removed from cosmopolitan London. And he was in such a town. So you had these kids, utterly fascinated with American music, dying to get away from the drab, grey atmosphere that was post-war Britain, who had a ready-made laboratory to hone their music in the pub circuit, or to mix with like- minded souls at these Art Colleges…..and then the stars aligned and The Beatles cracked open the American market…..and the result was The British Invasion…..which really continued into the 80’s. If you want to take an hour or so, watch the excellent interview of Robert Plant from 2018 with Dan Rather from Rather’s great series The Big Interview.. Robert lays this all out…..and that’s where I learned most of this history.

[@mrb7094]

I think you also have to take into account the British Grade music system. It became a thing for kids after the war, from every class, to have access to a more or less excellent musical education, both in school for free and from the many, many classically trained teachers, who used the opportunity to earn extra income. That's why there were a large number of super talented keyboardists and guitarists who were British and why, for instance, Prog is such a quintessentially British genre. For the first time musical talent, irrespective of background, was nurtured, educated and discovered. A golden age indeed, and one I rate as culturally important and significant to Britain as the Elizabethan age was for play writing.

[@Bob.L.Shirley]

Reactors tend to miss Yes' first two albums, so I'd find it a treat for you to explore them both in track order. Peter Banks was replaced on guitar by Steve Hoee on the third album. Tony Kaye continued on keys on that album until Rick Wakeman took over on album number four. Banks had a later band, Flash, that you might find interesting and Kaye's post-Yes work on the album One Live Badger is fun, too. Hope to hear you stick with this early stuff and then move thru the entire Yes catalog in release order so you can appreciate the growth from album to album. Enjoy - you've got a lot of fun ahead!

[@donrichards271]

"...90% of them are from the UK. Why is that?" I would guess it was following the path The Beatles had beaten down. It wasn't called the British Invasion for nothing.

[@bobcorbin3294]

The keyboardist Tony Kaye and the guitarist Peter Banks left Yes and later formed a band called Flash. A couple of good songs by them are Small Beginnings and Lifetime

[@sns2112]

Wait until you hear Close to the Edge....you'll really understand how ahead of their time they were. I would suggest that you just skip around rather than listen to whole albums.....maybe save the more obscure songs for later, although pretty much everything on their more classic albums is excellent. If I had to pick one song, I would love to see you react to Siberian Khatru.

[@randydee024]

Bruford was 19 when they recorded this.

[@barrybreen8745]

yes where ahead of there time just like the moody blues

[@psbarrow]

Re your question at 4:48, the most widely accepted theory as to why Britain had so many great prog. and rock bands (compared to the USA) back then is mostly geographical. Britain had a lot of people (hence musicians) in a relatively small area so it was easy for musicians to find fellow musicians and form bands, and for the bands to meet each other when touring (which was constant as that was their main source of income, not records). Imagine, say, a musician pool of 55 million people in (and constantly touring) an area the size of Oregon. That's a hell of a lot of musicians in such a small area. The other aspect for prog. is the proximity to European classical music, so a lot of the prog. bands grew up hearing Beethoven, Mozart, etc. which was less prominent than in the USA with its blues/jazz history.

[@roca7108]

Yes - Endless Dream, from the 1994 'Talk' album. Amazing!

[@yes_head]

1969 -- Yes playing "Beyond and Before" live on French TV: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWHJlnp5i8aGapI, and miming it (plus "Looking Around") on Swiss TV: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIuwZZSarrmqhtU Why are most of these bands English? Whole books have been written on the subject, but most agree that it boils down to 1) there was already a strong legacy of rock music experimentation in England via The Beatles, The Who, etc. (Jimi Hendrix even went to the UK in '66 to get his start because the US wasn't ready for him.) 2) British musicians were well acquainted with jazz music, as well as the classical music of composers like Vaughan Williams and Holst, and many had experienced some kind of training (Chris Squire's mastery of harmony came from his time singing in a church boy's choir.), and 3) England is a small country so musicians could tour the club and college circuit relatively quickly and cheaply. Plus, London acted as a single focal point, and the density of musicians per square mile there was obscene. So everyone knew everyone, everyone hung out at the same clubs and bars, and when some band pulled out of a big gig at the Royal Albert Hall a young group like Yes could be grabbed quickly and thrown in as a replacement. The rest is history.

[@glenndespres5317]

Loving watching you discover all things YES! If you hit the ‘covers’, make sure you listen to the originals first. Like Every Little Thing by the Beatles. That is one awesome cover my friend.

[@sunnyd4734]

Peter Banks, lead guitarist 🎸 for "Yes" was asked to leave the band after the release of their 2nd album. Jon Anderson and Chris Squire wanted the band to transition to a more progressive sound which Peter Banks did not conform. Peter was replaced by lead guitarist Steve Howe immediately after the 2nd album's release. Peter Banks, although a very good guitarist, did not share the same vision as the other band members.

[@bobcorbin3294]

I've not yet seen anyone react to the a band that Peter and Tony Kaye went off to form later called Flash. They had some really good songs that sounded a lot like Yes.

[@lesblatnyak5947]

Nice reaction. As I've only seen Chris Squire and Yes the greatest show on earth 36 times my suggestion would be do the tunes Yes wrote,on this album, then move on chronological to the next "Time And A Word" etc. There is constant member change in Yes thru the years, 21 I believe. Chris Squire was the one thread that held it together until his passing. With each member change came added genius and flavor that blended into Yes or as Jon Anderson would say "the thing we do".

[@jeffschielka7845]

What's up 36⁉️😎

[@jefaerts4207]

Sweetness was their first song

[@israel-0073]

Hey Sal, YES!! Yes indeed way ahead of there time period as it has been said in the past by so many people. Great reaction I'm so glad you are enjoying the music by Yes. My suggestion "close to edge" by the way Sal this time on your background every time you reacted to the music a star would light up as though you had though to the music. When are you going to have special guests on. From Lombard Illinois Israel-007

[@anthonyblakely399]

Believe you me...you are not the first or the last person to get emotional and cry on a YES song....people throughout the ages have been crying to the beautiful hypnotic sounds and lyrics of YES!!!! Hahahaha....lol.....hahahaha.....tears ran down my face when I heard this song and many on this album for the first time when I played it in 1969........just out of pure Joy and Hope.......so many things bad was happening in the world....Wars.......Hatred.....Civil Rights protest....Environmental protest.....Gay rights....protest on the war......women's right.....this song like many of the songs on this album took me out of all of that and into a space of Hope!!! I want you to react to the whole album like you did with Led Zeppelin's first album......just to get a feel of the greatness to come in later albums that follow....so yes.....continue with the short song, "Yesterday and Today" and a little long song, "Harold Land." Enjoy!!!! I will watching!!! 😁😁😁😁

[@davep8221]

Re the thumbnail's title: it sounds like this *because* it was 1969.

[@louisb5563]

Good reply!👍🏻

[@sunnyd4734]

Peter Banks, the first "Yes" guitarist.

[@nonrepublicrat]

Dude, have you listened to "Awaken", "Wonderous Stories", and "Starship Trooper"? If not, you haven't heard the very best of YES.

[@JJ8KK]

I'm pretty sure that *Beyond And Before* was originally performed by Chris Squire's former band (prior to YES) "Mable Greer's Toyshop." I'm pretty sure I listened to it on KZbin. It really is one of YES' 1st great power tunes. Enjoy your YES journey!

[@yes_head]

It was, and you did: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kH24eXWNm9iWhaM

[@Grithron2]

Re the vocal treatment used on the second bridge - it doesn't sound so different from what the Beatles did on Tomorrow Never Knows, i.e send the vocal track through a Leslie amp (not exactly hi-tech for the time). A song like this arguably could only have happened in the late '60s - Hendrixy wah-guitars versus Association+Beatles vocal harmonies, and old-school organ in the background. Plus overripe lyrics typical of the era - and this isn't an Anderson lyric as such, it's mainly the work of Clive Bailey. If Salvo listens to the whole album - he should definitely use the deluxe/bonus-tracks edition, in order to hear Something's Coming (two versions, one with the "don't be shy" verse, and one without), Dear Father (two early takes, both rawer and louder than the later single version), and the alternative single-version of Everydays which I for one prefer to the album version.

[@paulvaughanify1]

You will love what they do with Bernstiens "Somethings Coming" from Westside Story

[@josecalderon2036]

Why 90% of great rock musicians in the 60s and 70s were from England? My guess is that they were heavily influenced by American blues and jazz artists.

[@TheProgCorner]

Just listen to Chris Squire’s bass!!!

[@jeffschielka7845]

😎

[@barrybreen8745]

not trying to up set anybody but I saw led Zeppelin in 1973 in Southampton and knebworth

[@helenespaulding7562]

I’m never quite comfortable when people say a band was @ahead of it’s time”. What I think they really mean is that it sounds so contemporary. Which to me sounds like contemporary music is just copying the greats of the past. Perhaps I’m being unfair. But this music was very much a part of THAT time.

[@santon3967]

How about some more Led Zeppelin? Please?

[@johnpeniell9709]

Hey Sal, I strongly suggest you try out the band Magma. They are on the level of Yes and in some ways even surpass them.

[@robertjantzen6545]

Magma!? I want what you're smoking....lol.

[@PaulMcCaffreyfmac]

I still think that this band were so much better with Peter Banks, a much more interesting guitar player than the arguably more technically able Steve Howe.

[@sammybeck7794]

I like your thumbnail. No way this is 1969. How do you know if you were never around back in 1969? I guess you assume that those were ancient times. Believe it or not in 1969 the wheel was actually round and we weren't still doing our laundry beating it against rocks down by the lake

[@stanleymerritt4722]

Go directly to the Fragile album. It's where they really came together....and afterwards got even better. :)