Classical musician reacts -- ROUNDABOUT -- Yes -- FIRST TIME LISTENING -- *yes/no, maybe so?!?*

The element of the song that always grabs me is the driving electric bass of Chris Squire, RIP. His entrance injects some funk into the song (definitely not to be confused with disco) and carries the song for most of the duration. His style always did more than just provide rhythm and beat… he approached the bass as a lead instrument, providing some of the more interesting and memorable bass lines in rock history… and “Roundabout” is no exception.

That master bassist Chris Squire is the high harmony with lead singer Jon Anderson. The 3rd lower harmony is the lead guitar Steve Howe.
The Wizard of the keyboard is Rick Wakeman. Check out his incredible bio. drums are the amazing Bill Bruford. It doesn’t get any better than 70’s YES. Throw a dart. Wherever it lands you hit a masterpiece.
Also there are great live performance videos. Some due to age not so great.

Dayum!! Not only are you intelligent and educated, but yer durned purty, too!!

This was prog. Disco came later

I have seen many reactors listen to this song, so I can say in all seriousness, that this song has the power to make people downright giggly.

Smoke a joint you really like it

Back when there was real music, not like that crap playing today

Holy crap, your audio is amazing! You can really hear the placement of everything in the mix. Honestly, I'm really impressed - all the other reactions to songs from this era usually involve a crappy almost 'mono' sounding playback. And the reaction is really great too - welcome to top tier progressive rock :).

Can anyone think of a song in the last ten years that even comes close to this one? I can’t.

Jon's lyrics are generally used for their sound and color and not always for their meaning.

Try Heart of the Sunrise

This IS Progressive Rock.

😎👍 If you enjoyed this, then I highly recommend another song that came out at around the same time, "The Story In Your Eyes" by The Moody Blues. It has kind of a similar vibe to it, except the lead vocalist is a baritone instead of a castrato. 😉

Really enjoyed your interpretative intro to one of my favorite bands of all time, ever since this came out on the radio. Disco?? No, not by a country mile! You're in for a real musical treat as you embark on your Yes journey. Next stop? Here are a few suggestions: Starship Trooper, And You and I, To Be Over, and Close To The Edge. Or to simplify, just play 'The Yes Album' & 'Close To The Edge' in their entirety, as they contain most of these. Enjoy!!

This is before the awfulness of disco and not dance music at all. This is progressive rock which is influenced by styles from classical, jazz and world music. These songs have many transitions with different time signatures. There is more wirhin the music than you think. They performed this live.

In case others haven't covered this - the genre is Prog Rock. The drums would have been acoustic - electric drums were nonexistent or rare at the time. The only electronics would have been the keyboards played by Rick Wakeman.

One might think they were ahead of their time...but just think what Mozart or Bach might have done with this:) The question is how they would of dealt with Chris Squire's bass line when he goes into beast mode:)

Saw them live in concert in 71'. They were the opening act for Jethro Tull.

Stay with YES for some more reactions😊 all of their Musical is live this. Try Awaken for the nett time.

Yes had some of the best musicians, but their lyrics are usually nonsensical. Yet the music is so good and energetic, who cares? Yes, Pink Floyd, and Genesis were the best of prog rock. Each band had a unique voice but all had the same high quality. You will also like Genesis when you get there. (many prefer other bands, but these three are the top of prog for me) I look forward to hearing more Yes with you, along with more Pink Floyd.....and your discovery of Genesis.

Don't worry too much about the lyrics. It's more a tone poem than anything else.

Disco?
I thought you knew something about music. This is as far from disco as you can get.
Disco didn’t rear its’ ugly head til years later.

Disco comes along about five years later

Yes is one the greatest rock bands ever that's graced the world. Please review their other masterpieces such as:
Close To The Edge
The Gates Of Delirium
And You And I

Please you have to listen "And you and i" pleasee!!
You are Amazing!!!

I'll say YES was progressive before there was progressive. Cris Squire was the basist in the group at the time. He played his custom 5 string Rickenbacker base guitar. That he played like a rithem or lead guitar. He was a goat.
5 and 6 string base gutars are more common now but unheard of then.

Disco arrived around 1977

As a classical musician, if you immerse yourself into Yes classics, you will discover their classical training, and their creation of modern classical music in many early epics.

Another great Yes "road trip song" is their cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "America", but 11 minutes long Vs 3 and half minutes. Vastly different songs, but I just love their extended cover and its amazing instrumentation, which I have played on several road trips. Close To the Edge is another fantastic example of the best of Progressive Rock, and the likes oof Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Rush, etc.

You have just listened to 5 of the most talented musicians who ever lived.

Unapologetically PROGRESSIVE - you wouldn't expect to take in the complexity of a symphony first time. 'Yes' purposefully avoided pigeon-holes and the music still maintains that individuality 50 years later. Lyrically, I laways think of them like one of those montage images that are made up of thousands of tiny, unconnected photos - only when viewed as a whole does it make sense - in much the same way as the disparate musical themes and styles gel once you gain familiarity. An interesting reaction, nice to listen to someone who understands the technicality and musicianship of the artists.

Yes was my go to band back in the 1970s. Check out "Heart of the Sunrise", my over all favorite, but so many many great songs.

I haven’t gone through all the comments, but in addition to Close to the Edge, their indisputable masterpiece, and Fragile and the Yes Album, I would recommend Relayer and Tales from Topographic Oceans (a four movement work that probably is as close as any rock band ever got to a Mahler symphony, at least in length and formal construction).

You were perceptive in envisioning a road trip while listening to this, because the song was conceived after the group took a road trip through some rural area in the British Isles with lots of mountains and clouds and wildlife (enhanced by cannabis). You would definitely like their other work, the most popular of which was from this early seventies phase. Another radio hit off this same 1971 album was "I've Seen All Good People," which has a much simpler structure but one that I think you'll still find appealing. (Also, Toto was only partly from the eighties. Some of their very best stuff was from the late seventies, particularly 1978 with songs like "Hold the Line" and "Georgy Porgy.")

I'd like to see/hear you react to "YES ~ Close to the Edge".. Thanks for reacting to YES ☀

Thanks for sharing your journey - I appreciate your insights. And since you asked at the end - throwing on something like Close to the Edge or Awaken could show their longer compositions. - cheers.

Yeah. '71 was a pretty cool year. 2nd year in college. Lots of fri/sat nights lolling on a couch in a dim living room with a beer or better, listening to stuff like this with your buds.

The smile of this beautiful woman is enchanting and captivating. God bless her ❤

See also: Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Moody Blues, Tangerine Dream, Jethro Tull.... What happens when classically trained musicians try pop music?

Disco??? God god, woman, you're not even old enough to know what disco is! You need better terms of reference.

saw Yes twice in the mid 70's. In the Roger Dean set era. On shrooms.

Yes is classifed as progressive ROCK. Jethro Tull, ELP, Kansas, Traffic, and others all fit in this progressive rock category and its amazing the variety of approaches taken by the different bands. Yes, ELP (From the Beginning, Lucky Man), Traffic (Low Spark of high heeled boys, Mr Fantasy, J ohn Barleycorn must die) on one end, Jethro Tull (locomotive breath, aqualung) in the middle, and Kansas closest to traditional Rock - Carry on Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind are two songs from Kansas

Yes is Prog. See Jack Black's School of Rock.

Beautiful woman, beautiful music, what could be better. Love your take on the meaning, you caught on right away. Hey if you like choral groups, you have to check out Pentatonix (copyright can be a bit of a headache but worth it) and Voctave. They’re the Yes of a cappella music.

the song was inspired by a drive through the British countryside.

Think of it as listening to a painting

Consider Genesis's "Supper's Ready" and "The Cinema Show"

The lyrics don't make a lot of sense because they were chosen for their sound, not their meaning.

The founder members of Yes were Chris Squire a choir boy under the musical director Barry Rose who would go onto have that role at St Paul's cathedral (Barry Rose played church organ on Fish out of Water Squires solo album) and Jon Anderson a pop singer in a band called the Warriors. They wanted a vocal band and both sing very high. The other lower voice was Steve Howe the guitarist. Live you can hear them using this three part harmony. Check out South Side of the Sky.

Genius music, never to be bettered. Saw them live in 1973.