Vale, Youdopia. I’m not much of a prog rock fan, although I certainly had my share of Yes albums in high school. I really dig Rick Wakeman’s keyboard playing, still. I came across this on Youtube today, and I listened to it a billion times on headphones, but this time without the weed. It’s still great. The chord progression is unique, the bass playing of Chris Squire is excellent, Steve Howe is an amazing guitarist (Mood For A Day is one of the most beautiful classical pieces I’ve ever heard), and Rick Wakeman is a keyboard virtuoso.

Listen to the bass build the tension and then release by sliding to the root, in time for the keyboards to take over with the mellotron chorus. Good stuff. And then when Rick Wakeman comes in with that amazing solo. I am not a progressive rock fan, as a rule. I don’t dig songs about the not to distant future, or hope, or sunrise, but… I like Yes. And the last section of the Starship Trooper cycle is The Coolest Shit Ever.

So here I stand at 40 saying that Yes is/was and awesome band that I like twice yearly. It must be that time of year. There’s no video to this, only the album cover, and you just hear the last segment of the song (Wurm), but it’s live and it’s fucking amazing. And hey, it’s not about Led Zeppelin or cancer, or fucking lolcats.

Chris Squire and Alan White got together with Jimmy Page in 1981, after their respective bands went belly up, and recorded some tracks, all of which were used later by one or the other on different projects. Their project was called XYZ, for Ex Yes, and Zeppelin. w00t.

Here’s a shorter version of the same song, but with some video. The sound quality isn’t as good, which is odd because it’s an official release.