Wow, I have to talk about the video first. I never knew it existed! It's Yes in Bruges, Belgium! Jon Anderson, wearing a groovy shirt, takes a leisurely boat ride on a beautiful canal. During the second verse he's walking among tall trees in some sort of quasi-academic setting. At 2:25 we get heads popping up from behind trees...the playful side of Yes! At 2:35 we get a quick glimpse of a nun. Soon she is chasing them on cobblestone streets, down stairs and around corners. She's saying No! to Yes!: 'We do not want your rock n roll British progressive music near the church! You had better run!' Wow, it looks like Yes are short of breath, they really need to stop smoking. In the end, they give up and the nun takes the whole band on a canal trip...to jail! Dire non a Oui!
Everydays was written by Stephen Stills (appearing on the Buffalo Springfield Again album), and Yes covered it on their second album, Time and a Word. It will always remind me of laying on the floor in an upstairs room at the Garcia's house. My high school friends Alex and Eugene Garcia had access to their older brother's record collection, and he had lots of prog rock. I can recall listening to Time and a Word while studying the covers of albums like King Crimson's Lizard and Uriah Heep's The Magician's Birthday.
Yes's version is heavily orchestrated, featuring arrangements by Tony Cox, conducting musicians from the Royal College of Music. I remember being stunned by the thick strings at 0:06-0:08 when I first heard them. The first two minutes are slow and leisurely. At 2:00, the strings become spooky and meandering. At 2:13, Bill Bruford sets up an intense pace on the high hat, and at 2:25 (the heads around trees part), we are shaken by a loud unison of instruments. Things build up and are released at 2:56 into a swirl of guitar, bass and organ. Although guitarist Steve Howe is in the video, Peter Banks is the guitarist on the song. He plays a fantastic solo, even inserting a line from Ode to Joy at 4:15.
Stick around for Chris Squire's mighty bass flourish at the very end. So cool.
Who's the nun? Is it Teri Nunn
ReplyDeleteI like the memory about being in an upstairs room laying on the floor looking at album covers - I remember doing that a lot as a kid
ReplyDeleteI think the nun is played by Duane...he's there ev-ry-day.
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