Close to the Edge (song)

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"Close to the Edge"

Song by Yes
from the album Close to the Edge
Released	1972
Genre	Progressive Rock
Length	18:44
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer(s)	Yes and Eddie Offord
Close to the Edge track listing
Beginning of album	"Close to the Edge" (1)	"And You and I" (2)

"Close to the Edge" is the title track to progressive rock band Yes's album of the same name. The song is over 18 minutes in length and takes up the entire first side of the album. It consists of four "movements."

1 I. The Solid Time of Change
2 II. Total Mass Retain
3 III. I Get Up I Get Down
4 IV. Seasons of Man
5 Lyrics
6 External links

[edit] I. The Solid Time of Change

The song begins with low sounds of birds chirping, taken from "environmental tapes" that Jon Anderson collected, suddenly bursting into a much louder riff. The first several minutes include vocals without lyrics that hum along with the melody. About 4 minutes in, the lyrics are introduced; along with a chorus that remains throughout the song, though it will be developed in many different ways, with changes on the lyrics, time signature, tempo, Key signature and harmony:

Close to the edge, round by the corner...
Not right away, not right away
Close to the edge, down by a river...
Not right away, not right away

[edit] II. Total Mass Retain

The song continues with generally the same melody and style. It should be noted that the chorus here changes to a faster pace, and then slows down again at the end of the section. The final words "I get up, I get down" introduce the next segment.

[edit] III. I Get Up I Get Down

The song significantly slows its tempo and lowers its volume. This segment consists of two sets of vocals, there are the main vocals which contains most of the lyrics, and there are backing vocals, which are noticeably slower and contain some non-lyrical parts. At about 13 minutes into the song, an organ begins to play the main theme of this segment which changes from a minor to a major key as the music progresses.

[edit] IV. Seasons of Man

The original, fast-paced theme picks up followed by musical and lyrical structure which sounds similar to "The Solid Time of Change," though here Rick Wakeman's organ parts are particularly complex. The chorus is sung one last time before the vocals build up to the climax of the song in which all three motifs presented in the prior movements ("A seasoned witch...", "close to the edge, down by the river", "Seasons will pass you by, I get up I get down") are combined to a fugue-like whole. Afterwards, the final lyrics "I get up, I get down" are repeated as the song fades away into the "sounds of nature" in which it began.

[edit] Lyrics

According to the band's official website, Yesworld, the song is inspired by Hermann Hesse's book Siddhartha, an explanation which can cast the cryptic and mysterious lyrics in a new light, tracking the awakening of Hesse's character "close to the edge" of a river (and, symbolically, of the serial lifetimes of his soul) where he experiences a spiritual awakening. According to that point of view, the lyrics are about how people can seek spiritual illumination, and find a new state of mind, living a whole life. In addition, Anderson was also concerned about how the words sounded, sometimes more than what they meant, creating, thus, verses that often don't seem to mean anything, such as "The time between the notes relates the colour to the scenes".