The Gates of Delirium - Yes (1974)
The reason I love Yes lies in the last five minutes of this 22-minute monster. Having given us patriotism, battle and its effects in the previous 16, the world goes still. That is, except for a lonely slide guitar solo by Steve Howe. Then, as if a shade on the battlefield, Jon Anderson's plaintive plea for peace enters our ears. If we can remember that Progressive rock is a merger of styles, moods and time signatures, than Yes has already summed up the genre perfectly by this point in the song. With the "Soon" section, they give us one of the most haunting pieces in popular music. I have loved Yes's tales of Chess, Utopia and Topographic Oceans. I cherish this symphony of destruction and love. Inspired by Tolstoy's War and Peace, it opens their Relayer album with a fever that never loses it's heat on subsequent listens. My dream band would open a show with this, and close with Supper's Ready. Hey, the blog doesn't have PROG in the title just because it's a fun word!
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