Yes

The debut: two covers, a Speakeasy audition for Ahmet Ertegun, and an album that charted nowhere.
Yes, 1969

Released
25 July 1969
Recorded
Spring 1969
Studio
Advision and Trident Studios, London
Label
Atlantic
Producer
Paul Clay

The band signed to Atlantic after an audition at the Speakeasy Club in London for Ahmet Ertegun, and the press reported the signing in March 1969. They recorded in the spring, mostly at Advision with extra sessions at Trident, under the producer Paul Clay and the engineer Gerald Chevin. Banks later said Bruford's drums sounded like biscuit tins and his own guitar clangy. The band spent two days getting a hired Hammond organ to work, because Kaye's own instrument was a Vox Continental disguised as a Hammond.

"Beyond and Before" was written by Squire and Clive Bailey, formerly of Mabel Greer's Toyshop, and the band opened their live shows with it. The album also holds covers of the Byrds' "I See You" and the Beatles' "Every Little Thing". Two singles were taken from it, "Sweetness" and "Looking Around". The album did not chart in Britain or the United States.

Track listing

  1. Beyond and Before4:52
  2. I See You6:47
  3. Yesterday and Today2:49
  4. Looking Around3:58
  5. Harold Land5:40
  6. Every Little Thing5:41
  7. Sweetness4:31
  8. Survival6:18

Personnel

More from Yes

Time and a Word (1970), The Yes Album (1971), Fragile (1971), Close to the Edge (1972), Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973), Relayer (1974), Going for the One (1977), Drama (1980), 90125 (1983)

Sources

  1. Yes (Yes album), Wikipedia
  2. Yes (master release), Discogs