The Yes Album

When I was days shy of 17, during my junior year of high school, we moved.

I finished out junior year with the kids I knew, but senior year I entered a brand new high school.

Tough transition, but a positive one.

You see, I got the chance to be someone new. No baggage.

The one thing I remember the most was the peace I found leaving one life behind and entering a new one. And there was one album I remember listening to over and over, creating the soundtrack to that tender time.

The Yes Album.

I played it every day. "I've Seen All Good People," "The Clap," "Starship Trooper," "Yours is No Disgrace," "A Venture," "Perpetual Change."

Good stuff.

So driving home last night in a snowstorm, 30 years later, I slipped in the cassette (yes, a cassette — there's something groovy retro about playing cassettes in an MP3 world) and it brought me back to the summer of '77, leaving Kingston High behind and entering the new reality of Saugerties High.

Goodbye Bob Scully and Greg Mannhaupt. Hello Rick Woodward and Carl Peters.

It was a good change.

And The Yes Album was in the tape deck. That same cassette is still with me.

Comments

[Scott]

That album is a treasure. I found it out of sequence: Close to the Edge was my first great bonding experience with Yes. After that, I went backward to Fragile and forward to Relayer. It took me a while to dig all the way back to The Yes Album. (And I only just connected with Tales of Topographic Oceans a couple of years ago.)

You make a great point about cassettes, Dan -- sometimes the crappiness enhances the nostalgia (for lack of a better word).

'77 was a transitional year for me too; leaving KHS behind and moving to Nyack College. Big change...

[Cyn]

Great, great album. Big changes for you that year. Glad they were for the better. Big changes for me too--graduated high school. Music from that time will forever be etched upon my rock n'roll soul.

[Dan]

Scott, Cyn - glad you both can relate. Music creates a bond.

[Fred]

Haven't listened to The Yes Album in years. Time to dust off the vinyl!