Yes - Fragile

Man, you just weren't cool if you weren't into this record in the early 70s. Yes hit the "big time" around here with their hit "Roundabout."

It wasn't just the music, which to me was the end of the "hippie" era and the beginning of the "freak" era. There was the cover and that little book that came with it. The Roger Dean artwork. Dean also did covers for Uriah Heep.

But the music was so complex - experimental rhythms, contrapuntalism, introspective lyrics. Great musicianship from all these guys. I remember Rick Wakeman being into the classical-rock thing just like my then-idol Keith Emerson. I heard a story that when Wakeman was playing a gig with his former band, the Strawbs, he pushed his organ and it rolled too far and off the stage.

And to think these cool cats went on to have an all-mullet band in the 1980s. I hear they are touring again with the Fragile lineup. Might be worth checking out. After all, Fragile is a great record and an important one in the history of rock.

-- July 23, 2005 (DD)