Prog Rock Saturday: Fragile

Yes - "Fragile" (1972) - Atlantic Records

Hello Friends,

Its Saturday night and the Summer weather is finally here!  You know what that means... fancy cocktails on the porch, meats on the grill, the crickets are chirping and we've got some prog rock on the turntable.  Kicking off this season of Prog Rock Saturdays is another true classic of the genre, Fragile, Yes's fourth LP and first to feature the cover art of Roger Dean and the keyboard stylings of one Mister Rick Wakeman!

Wakeman, who replaced Tony Kaye, would introduce a deeper keyboard sound utilizing his own Classical influences along with the addition of more Moog & Mellotron.

The album contains nine compositions, five shorter pieces each highlighting an individual member of the band, and four longer songs that feature everybody.  Upon hearing the album's first notes, those familiar Steve Howe harmonics at the beginning of "Roundabout", the listener immediately knows they're in for a real proggy treat. Something ethereal and fantastic; a marriage of rock and classical styles.  Music that would ultimately define a genre but within a few years would quickly outdate and parody itself.

"Call it morning driving thru the sound and in and out the valley..."

Kicking things off is the eight-minute leadoff single, "Roundabout", which would actually peak at Number 13 on the Billboard Pop Charts in 1972 (albeit in an abbreviated form clocking in at under four minutes!)

Things get classical on Rick Wakeman's "Cans & Brahms", a short excerpt from Brahms's Fourth Symphony.  Singer Jon Anderson performs multiple harmonies with himself on "We Have Heaven"-- also clocking in at a very un-Yes-like under 2 minutes.

Side One concludes with the driving "South Side of the Sky" which seems to be about freezing to death while on some sort of mountain climbing expedition.  

Side Two opens with drummer Bill Bruford's 35 second instrumental, "Five Per Cent for Nothing" followed by the unlikely "hit" single, "Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)", a staple on 1970's FM Radio.

Steve Howe gets his time to shine on the classical guitar solo, "Mood For A Day"-- which we enjoy thoroughly more than the ragtime-y, "The Clap" (from The Yes Album.)

The album concludes with the 11-plus minute epic, "Heart of the Sunrise" which starts out sounding like a manic buzz saw but eventually comes around to nice, quiet, ethereal melodies featuring some nice interplay between Steve Howe's fingerpicking and Jon Anderson's elfin vocals.  Loud-quiet-loud at its proggy best!

Vincent Gallo like this song so much he used it in a pivotal scene in his 1998 weirdo-indie film, Buffalo 66.

Love comes to you and you follow...

Great album for listening to loudly on a balmy May Saturday. Fragile, along with The Yes Album and Close to the Edge, form probably the strongest trilogy of albums in the prog rock canon (with the possible of exception of Pink Floyd's Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals!)  The band would start to disintegrate and things would start to get way too overindulgent (if you can believe that) by 1973's double album, Tales from Topographic Oceans.

RATING: 4.5 Hot Colours Melting the Anger to Stones out of 5