Yes - Going for the One

2003 remastered, reissue of 1977 album with redesigned booklet, restored LP art, archival photos and new liner notes. Includes 7 bonus tracks 'Montreux's Theme', 'Vevey' (revisited), 'Amazing Grace', 'Going For The One' (rehearsal), 'Parallels' (rehearsal), 'Turn Of The Century' (rehearsal) & 'Eastern Number' (early version of 'Awaken'). Elektra. Album Description

Yes - Their Best

After the "Relayer" album and tour the band took three years off. Some of the members did solo albums, and keyboardist Patrick Moraz left the band. Ex-keyboardist Rick Wakeman returned to the fold bringing a massive Swiss church organ with him. "Going For The One" has a bit of a history for me. It is the album where I both discovered the band and also almost wrote them off. I had gotten into progressive rock in the late 70's through the band Kansas. After discovering that this whole thing called prog existed I started to explore some of the other big names in the genre and one of the first albums I picked up was Yes's "Going For The One". Prior to that I had heard "Roundabout" and "All Good People", but really did not know what Yes was all about. The first time I listened to this album I just did not get it at all. I gave it about 5 spins and although I acknowledged that the musicians were stellar I thought the material pretty much sucked. I put the album away and pretty much wrote Yes off. A few months later I decided to pull the album out again and give it one more try, and for some reason this time it clicked. Today "Going For The One" remains my all time favorite Yes album. To me it is the perfect mix of shorter (by prog standards) more accessible tunes like "Parallels" and "Wondrous Stories", sweeping epic ballads like "Turn Of The Century", and long epic almost classical pieces like the cornerstone of the album "Awaken". Even my least favorite track "Going For The One" has grown on me over the years. I really love this album and to me the 16 minute finale "Awaken" pretty much is the pinnacle of what Yes is all about. It still can give me goose bumps when I listen to it. "Turn Of The Century" is one of Jon Anderson's finest moments, and "Parallels" is an energetic rocker written by Chris Squire that begs to be turned up to 11. The single "Wondrous Stories" is just a cool little song that only a band like Yes could do. There are so many great and often subtle moments on this album that it is impossible to describe them all. Steve Howe shines all over this disc with his pedal steel work on the title track, the great acoustic interludes on "Turn Of The Century", and especially the guitar solo in "Awaken". In my opinion it is his all time best moment on guitar and probably a one off. "Awaken" is my favorite Yes track and ranks right up near the top of my all time favorite progressive rock tracks. It is everything that great prog should be. It just melds into you and is incredible to listen to on a good stereo system or with high quality headphones. This album took a while to grow on me and it probably is not what I would recommend to Yes newbie's, but "Going For The One' has become one of my all time favorite progressive rock albums, and my favorite album by Yes. July 31, 2008

THE BEST

well there are two things to be commenting on
the Album itself and the quality of the re-master
firstly whatever people say about what is "Progressive" or "art rock" or whatever any of that means(if anyone ever knew)
this is simply a Musical masterpiece
if you've never heard the album(which i doubt) there is one simple reason to go NOW and get it
"AWAKEN" the absolute Finest moment in recorded musical history
there's anpother great reason to get it
the rest of the songs.
Atlantic has re-mastered the yes collection and Going for the One
But the rhino version actually does it properly
the seperation of the instruments is back the depth of the recording is back
its as good as your going to get

ok the extra tracks
a mix of the "Paris sessions" and some studio run throughs
Ehh... nice to hear
but mostly forgetable
those that dont want to hear them can allways press stop at track 6 and for the rest of us it's a pleasant walk through some halfway decent Yes material
either way your not going to get sound reproduction of the original work done this well anywhere else
this may be Yes at their finest(and that is saying a mouthfull)
I love the fact that it came out during a time when most(if not all) popular music(not unlike today) was pretty much
Crap.Yes as allways waves the middle finger at mediocrity
and Yesfans forever love them for it.

Steve Howe might actually be God
well, at least Lord June 14, 2008

A fine album, up till that last track...

Rick Wakeman returned, and if you ask me that's a very good thing. I have nothing against Patrick Moraz, but is he Rick Wakeman? No. That church organ part on "Parallels" is cool, and Steve Howe plays a mean guitar solo. And then Jon Anderson gets up there and shouts nonsense. I literally can't pick out a single word of lyrics on that song. Not like anyone listens to Yes for their lyrics in the first place. But the attack on that song is fascinating. It's one of their most relentless rockers, up there with the "rock" parts of "Roundabout", "South Side of the Sky", "Heart of the Sunrise", and the entirety of "Siberian Khartu". What, you thought Yes couldn't rock? HA! The title track also shows that this group is, in fact, quite capable of rocking out. It's kind of like southern rock, actually. But it kicks total butt! Yes doing southern rock... you'd think it would be a dud track, but happily that is not the case. The riff rules, and the keyboards rule as well. It's enough to make it the best song on the record, in fact, and a well-deserved hit for the group. I also enjoy both the dippy (but still great!) ballads. "Turn of the Century" is Rick Wakeman at his best. Go ahead, listen to that and try telling me Rick Wakeman wasn't the best keyboard player on the progressive scene, which in turn made Yes the best overall band on that scene. And "Wondrous Stories" has one of the prettiest melodies in Yes history, even if the lyrics are... well, Jon Anderson lyrics. And then, just when it looked like they had another fantastic album along the lines of Fragile, Close to the Edge or Relayer on their hands, they blew it. Specifically, they blew it by letting Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson get crazy with the cheese whiz for fifteen minutes. And by "getting crazy with the cheese whiz for fifteen minutes", I mean "recording `Awaken'", which features such horrendously dorky lyrics as "Master of light, all pure chance as exists cross divided in an all encircling mode oh closely guided plan awaken in our heart" and "Master of soul, set to touch all impenetrable youth, ask away that thought be contact with all that's clear. Be honest with yourself, there's no doubt, no doubt" and, best of all, "AWAKEN SUNS HIGH STREAMS THRU AWAKEN GENTLE STRONG DREAMS REIGN HERE". Yes is a great band, but their lyrics really irritate me, because they try way too hard to be impenetrable poetry in the grand tradition of Bob Dylan. But it doesn't work, and I'll tell you why: giving us pseudo-universalist nonsense does not give you Bob Dylan lyrics. It gives you gibberish. And Rick Wakeman doesn't help, adding ultra-cheesy pianos and polymoogs and so forth. Forget all about "Awaken", listen to the other four tracks, and enjoy. February 5, 2008

'Prog group in naked man cover horror!'

A Yes album, what next?
I admit to being stumped by this `prog' thing. It's not something that keeps me awake at night, but I do worry.
For a start my cred hones in at just below Baked Beans, at the mere thought of a (HORROR!) Yes album. Even as I scribe, I can hear the mocking ghosts of my `alternative' past, jeering the act of placing a Yes album in my cd player.
The restless spirits of a hundred obscure indie groups rustle in the ashes of your humble narrators previous musical preferences, calling me away, away from the madness.
I feel somewhere in an unforeseen future, I will pay for this transgression.
But for now, `Going For The One'. A fine album.
Did I really just write that? Have I fallen so far? What happens now? Does this represent ultimate dismal failure in the field of rock reviewing?
The answer to all these questions is Yes.
Apart from the title track, which is a bit bland for moi's honed hearing, `GFTO' is indeed a fine album.
`Turn of the Century' and `Wonderous Stories' are superb ballads, while the scorching `Parallels' is a pacy rocker, driven along by ludicrously loud church organ and fearsome guitar. Impressive, and rewarding if you are in any way a music fan.
Ah, but what about the self-indulgent 15 minute saga at the end? Well, it's excellent as well. Builds to a rousing climax, and lets face it, it wouldn't be a Yes album without a self-indulgent, 15 minute saga, somewhere in its rucksack.
A typical cynical doubt;
Did Rick Wakeman REALLY need to go to Switzerland to record that fabulous cathedral-organ sound? Didn't they have one in Swansea or Swindon ?
In the storming context of `GFTO', he undoubtedly did, and there's something comforting in that ludicrous indulgence, something cheery in the thought he probably had to bung the incumbent a new roof or buy a mini-bus for some orphans, in order that `Parallels' can sound as good as it does.
It's a cliché but `GFTO', despite all my cynical misgivings, makes a strange kind of sense. It's very much a complete work, a sum component of all it's parts. A totality in rock sensibility, and is slightly subversive because of it.
After listening to it 6 times in a row, I don't feel I'm any closer to understanding it's ideals and philosophies, just like I'm no closer to offering anything in the way of explanation of this `prog' thing. In fact, the Yes album further muddies the water.
To my mind, and 20 odd years of throwaway sensibility have engraved this in granite, it's about the music ultimately. And on that score 'GFTO' isn't found wanting.
Now, Grateful Dead did you say?


January 4, 2008

customer review

Received product in good condition, in a timely manner.
Good job with customer service. December 23, 2007

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