Gli Yes sono sicuramente uno dei gruppi più rappresentativi del cosiddetto progressive rock inglese d’inizio anni '70 insieme a Genesis, King Crimson e Pink Floyd.
"Fragile", disco datato 1972, è sicuramente il loro capolavoro, un album che riesce ad amalgamare rock e musica classica con l’apporto di una tecnica superba, mai fine a se stessa ma a servizio della melodia e della canzone.
L’opener del disco è la splendida Roundabout, introdotta da un delicato arpeggio di chitarra classica di Steve Howe che esplode in una trascinante song da otto minuti.
Gli Yes sono dei virtuosi e si sente; ma chi si fa notare in particolare qui è il basso di Chris Squire e le tastiere di Rick Wakeman che ci regala un grande assolo di Hammond nella parte centrale.
Altre tre canzoni propriamente dette sono: South Side Of The Sky in cui la chitarra di Howe è molto più rock del solito e Wakeman ci delizia con una bella parte solista stavolta di pianoforte; Long Distance Runaround che i tre minuti diverte ma non convince appieno; ma il vero capolavoro è la conclusiva Heart Of The Sunrise: undici minuti di controtempi parti quasi jazzate e intrecci strumentali da far venire il capogiro ma senza mai scadere nell'autocompiacimento.
Le altre tracks sono poco più che delle prove soliste di ogni componente. In questo frangente chi fa la figura migliore è sicuramente Steve Howe in Mood For A Day in cui diventa un moderno menestrello e costruisce dolci arpeggi di chitarra.
Wakeman si cimenta invece con una rilettura di un pezzo classico di Brahms, Anderson gioca con la propria voce in We Have Heaven mentre Bill Bruford concede ben pochi ma strabilianti secondi di tempi batteristici in controtempo in Five Per Cent For Nothing. Chris Squier in The Fish (che è una sorta di coda di Long Distance...) sperimenta con le distorsioni del suo basso.
In definitiva Fragile è un capolavoro di prog rock anni '70 di scuola inglese e lo consiglio a chi purtroppo non ha ancora avuto il piacere di ascoltarlo e penso possa essere un buon inizio per chi voglia avvicinarsi a questo genere senza rimanere deluso.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Roundabout (08:35)
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
I spend the day away
Call it morning driving through the sound and in and out the valley
The music dance and sing
They make the children really ring
Spend the day away
Call it morning driving through the sound and in and out the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see I'll be there with you
I will remember you
Your silhouette will charge the view
Of distance atmosphere
Call it morning driving through the sound and even in the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see I'll be there with you
Along the drifting cloud, the eagle searching down on the land
Catching the swirling wind, the sailor sees the rim of the land
The eagle's dancing wings create as weather spins out of hand
Go closer, hold the land, feel partly no more than grains of sand
We stand to lose all time, a thousand answers by in our hand
Next to your deeper fears, we stand surrounded by million years
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
Twenty four before my love and I'll be there
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
You spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound and in and out the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see I'll be there with you
02 Cans and Brahms (Extracts From Brahms' 4th Symphony in E minor, Third Movement) (01:42)
03 We Have Heaven (01:39)
(Jon Anderson)
Tell the moon don't tell the marcher
Tell the moon don't tell the marcher
Tell the moon don't tell the marcher
Tell the moon don't tell the marcher
(OR: Tell the Moon Dog, Tell the March Hare)
He is clear
He is clear
He is clear
He is clear
Tell who don't tell the marcher
Tell who don't tell the marcher
Tell who don't tell the maracher
Tell who don't tell the marcher
(OR: To look around)
We have heaven
We have heaven
We have heaven
We have heaven
04 South Side of the Sky (07:56)
(Jon Anderson/Chris Squire)
A river a mountain to be crossed
The sunshine in mountains sometimes lost
Around the south side
So cold that we cried
Were we ever colder on that day
A million miles away
It seemed from all eternity
Move forward was my friend's only cry
In deeper to somewhere we could lie
And rest for the day
With cold in the way
Were we ever colder on that day
A million miles away
It seemed from all eternity
The moments seemed lost in all the noise
A snow storm a stimulating voice
Of warmth of the sky
Of warmth when you die
Were we ever warmer on that day
A million miles away
We seemed from all eternity
The sunshine in mountains sometimes lost
The river can disregard the cost
And melt in the sky
Warmth when you die
Were we ever warmer on that day
A million miles away
We seemed from all of eternity
06 Long Distance Runaround (03:30)
Long distance runaround
Long time waiting to feel the sound
I still remember the dream there
I still remember the time you said goodbye
Did we really tell lies
Letting in the sunshine
Did we really count to one hundred
Cold summer listening
Hot colour melting the anger to stone
I still remember the dream there
I still remember the time you said goodbye
Did we really tell lies
Letting in the sunshine
Did we really count to one hundred
Long distance runaround
Long time waiting to feel the sound
I still remember the dream there
I still remember the time you said goodbye
Cold summer listening
Hot colour melting the anger to stone
I still remember the dream there
I still remember the time you said goodbye
Did we really tell lies
Letting in the sunshine
Did we really count to one hundred
Looking for the sunshine
07 The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) (02:42)
(Chris Squire)
Schindleria praematurus
Schindleria praematurus
Schindleria praematurus
Schindleria praematurus
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di paloz
"Fragile è il primo album degli Yes che ho comprato, e non me ne dimenticherò mai, perché mi ha fatto innamorare del gruppo."
"Roundabout, brano ormai storico della band, fonde chitarra, basso e tastiere in maniera pressoché perfetta."
Di Progressive86
Considero il progressive come l'impressionismo, la poesia del rock.
'Heart of the sunrise' è una delle migliori canzoni degli Yes, un viaggio nello spazio circondato dalla luce del sole.
