In the summer of 1972 Yes were in the studio composing and recording their soon to be released album 'Close To The Edge'. Over the years since this LP has topped many polls as the Best Prog-Rock album of all time. 

In June of 2015, before the dawn of my music blog, long time Yes bassist Chris Squire sadly died from leukemia, aged 67.  

All this signals the timing of 'My YES Week'. So welcome to 'Close to the Yes'. 

Beginning naturally with a Chris Squire composition from the 1977 'Going For The One' LP. An often-overlooked contributor to Yes’ lyrics, on “Parallels” it's clear that some of the best vocals the band recorded were when Jon Anderson and Chris Squire sang a song as a duet. 

Plus it's one of those classic Yes tracks that starts with the guitar solo (by Steve Howe). And ends with another solo. An all time favourite track of mine, there's even a great story about the recording:

In addition to recording in Switzerland at Mountain Studios, the organ on "Parallels" and "Awaken" were played on the church organ at St. Martin's church in the town of Vevey, some four miles away. The band thought of hiring a mobile recording studio to record on location, but they were advised to rent a telephone line for the day as the quality of the country's lines are of high fidelity and can be fed through directly to the studio in Montreux. With Rick Wakeman in the church and the rest of the band in the studio, Alan White counted the band in and they played the song through. Wakeman described the experience as "absolute magic". 

Some YouTuber has 'mashed' all this together in a video. Not the best pictures but the music is just fantastic. 'Parallels' by Yes 

With many band line-up changes down the years and the various versions of YES, it begs the question 'When is Yes not quite Yes ?

> Coming Soon .... [meaning next week]