The Yes Album

"Starship Trooper" redirects here. For the Sarah Brightman song, see (I Lost My Heart to A) Starship Trooper. For other uses, see Starship Troopers (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Yes, the title of the band's first album..

The Yes Album
Studio album by Yes
Released	19 February 1971
Recorded	October–November 1970 at Advision Studios in London
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	41:44
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Yes and Eddie Offord
Yes chronology
Time and a Word (1970) The Yes Album (1971) Fragile (1971)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	B−
Pitchfork	(8.1/10)
Rolling Stone	(positive)
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Record Guide
Sputnik Music

The Yes Album is the third studio album from the English progressive rock band Yes, released on Atlantic Records. It is the last record to feature keyboardist Tony Kaye until 1983, and the first to feature guitarist Steve Howe, who replaced Peter Banks in 1970. The album was written and rehearsed at a farmhouse in Devonshire, then home to Langley Studios, which was later bought by Howe who now lives there.

Upon its release in February 1971, The Yes Album peaked at number 4 on the UK Albums Chart and number 40 on the US Billboard 200, where it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The Yes Album is seen as the group's breakthrough release, setting the stage for their success with their following albums Fragile (1971) and Close to the Edge (1972).

Jon Anderson is credited as John Anderson on the album. Soon after, he dropped the "h" from his first name.

The album cover shows Tony Kaye with his foot in a cast. He had been in a car accident shortly before the picture was taken.

Rush's bassist/singer Geddy Lee included The Yes Album among his favourite albums in an interview with The Quietus' Mick Middles.

Background and content

Steve Howe appeared with the band for the first time and played a prominent role throughout. The band explored longer songs with "Yours Is No Disgrace", "Starship Trooper", and "Perpetual Change", foreshadowing the many side-length tracks that followed on Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans and Relayer.

The spacey, electronic-sounding guitar effect in "Starship Trooper" was achieved via a flanger, a device that was relatively new at the time of the recording.

Tony Kaye preferred Hammond B-3 and piano over the "new" (at the time) Moog synthesizers that Anderson was interested in using. This became a cause of contention within the band and had an influence on the line-up change, bringing in Rick Wakeman and his array of electronic keyboards from Strawbs. (On the album cover's inside gatefold, however, Kaye is pictured playing a Hammond spinet organ, probably an L-100 or M-100.)

In 2000 Q magazine placed the album at number 86 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

Howe's solo acoustic tune, "Clap" (wrongly written as "The Clap" in some editions), was heavily influenced by the Davy Graham track 'Fingerbuster'. The piece was written to celebrate the birth of Howe's son Dylan.

According to Alice Cooper on his radio show Nights with Alice Cooper, Anderson claimed to have written the first two movements of "Starship Trooper" alone, though the "Disillusion" movement (which evolved from an earlier song "For Everyone", heard on Something's Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969–1970 and The Word Is Live) is credited to Chris Squire.

The Würm part of "Starship Trooper" is a continuous cadenza of chords (G-Eb-C) played by ensemble and repeated adlib: first accompaniment: electric guitar on the right stereo channel, then acoustic guitar, bass pedals, and drums from middle channel, then organ and bass guitar with tremolo and distortion from left channel, then starts the guitar solo, that swaps from side to side. The whole piece lasts about three and a half minutes. "Würm" originally evolved from a song called "Nether Street" by Howe's earlier group, Bodast. While "Wurm" (without the umlaut over the "u") is an Old English word for "dragon" (worm, wurm, wyrm), the Würm is a river in Germany which gave its name to an ice age in geology.

Track listing

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Yours Is No Disgrace"	Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Tony Kaye, Bill Bruford	9:41
2.	"Clap" (recorded live at The Lyceum Theatre, London, 17 July 1970)	Howe	3:17
3.	"Starship Trooper" I. "Life Seeker" II. "Disillusion" III. "Würm"	Anderson, Howe, Squire	9:25

Side two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
4.	"I've Seen All Good People" I. "Your Move" II. "All Good People"	Anderson, Squire	6:56
5.	"A Venture"	Anderson	3:18
6.	"Perpetual Change"	Anderson, Squire	8:54

2003 remaster bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
7.	"I've Seen All Good People: Your Move (Single Version)"	Anderson	3:00
8.	"Starship Trooper: Life Seeker (Single Version)"	Anderson	3:28
9.	"Clap (Studio Version)"	Howe	4:02

Personnel

(taken from the sleeve notes)

• Jon Anderson – vocals, percussion
• Chris Squire – bass, vocals
• Steve Howe – guitars, laúd (credited as "vachalia") on "Your Move", vocals
• Tony Kaye – piano, Organ, Moog synthesizer
• Bill Bruford – drums, percussion
• Colin Goldring – recorders on "Your Move"

Reissues

• 1988 – Atlantic – CD
• 1994 – Atlantic – CD (Remastered)
• 2001 – JPN Limited Edition – ???
• 2003 – Rhino – LP & CD (Remastered with bonus Tracks )
• 2010 – MFSL – CD (Sourced from the original master tapes)

Rhino reissue

The Yes Album was remastered and reissued in 2003 by Rhino Records with several bonus tracks, including a studio version of "Clap". The original LP and CD version of The Yes Album refer to the song as "The Clap". The Rhino reissue refers to the song as "Clap" on the traycard, as Steve Howe intended.

Sources

• The Yes Album, CD booklet essay, Bill Martin, c.2003
• AllMusicGuide.com
• "Top Pop Albums 1955–2001", Joel Whitburn, c.2002
• Prog Archives: The Yes Album
• YES: The Authorized Biography, Dan Hedges, 1981.