JUST REMEMBER
THAT THE GOAL
IS FOR US ALL
TO CAPTURE
ALL WE WANT
ANYWHERE
Cracks Appeared In The Air
is one of the many
Highland releases
from The Yes
Albumphase of Yes’ career
and there are several
misconceptions
surrounding this tape.
It is listed on the cover
as the
March 27th, 1971 show
at the Deutschlandhalle
Art Festival in Berlin.
Some have argued that
the bonus tracks on
Down At The Edge
listed as being from
April 16th in Stuttgart,
are really this tape.
That is not true;
the April 16th
Böblingen fragment
is used instead.
Others have claimed this
is a mixture of the
Böblingen
and
June 5th Berlin tape.
All of the speculation
and confusion
is not true.
The tape that Highland claim
to use is the one
they actually use
and this release,
advertised as the
March 27th, 1971
Berlin show,
is really the
March 27th, 1971
Berlin show.
It is another very good tape
from this era,
one of the few
that survived
in reasonable quality.
It begins distorted
but clears up
during the show
and turns out to be
very enjoyable.
Unfortunately
it cuts out after
”Perpetual Change”
eliminating the final two songs
of the set,
“Everydays”
and
“America.”
At 2:13 in
“Perpetual Change”
the taper stops
the tape to check
how much he has left
and that slow down
and pause remain
on the tape.
It lasts about two seconds
and doesn’t detract
from the enjoyment
of the show,
but it is there.
This show appears during
a month of heavy tour promoting
the new album which was
released the previous month.
Yes had already toured
with
Iron Butterfly
right before the
album’s release
in January
and were playing
all of the UK
then they traveled to
Europe for
this appearance.
The tape begins with
the long
“Also Sprach Zarathustra”
tape leading into
“Yours Is No Disgrace”
lasting about
twelve minutes
and kinda lacking the energy
of other performances
from this era.
Perhaps they were tired
from the trip
over from England.
Jon Anderson
greets the audience,
saying:
“Yeah, thank you.
I’d like to say it’s nice
to be here in Berlin.
We finally got out
of the studio and
there’s life that, that
may exist.
We’re going to do a song
from our third LP,
a song that features
Steve on a vachalia,
here, thrashing away.
” There seems to have been a problem
with the house lights taht
were finally fixed.
Anderson reacts,
“We’re getting the lights now”
and
Steve Howe
can be heard saying
“The lights, at last!”
Anderson continues to
describe the next song
with the cryptic description,
saying it’s
“a song about people gathering,
whatever…
A song called
‘I’ve Seen All Good People.’”
It comes off much tighter
than the first song
and is fun to listen to.
Anderson gives a
long introduction to Howe
who has his solo spot,
saying,
“Steven to my right,
he’s going to play
some acoustic guitar things,
which you can just relax to,
listen to,
for us guys.
And, he’s going to play,
this is another track
from the LP,
this is a song,
songs, lots of songs,
if I do a tap dance.
A song called
‘Clap.’”
His song contains an
interlude with
Mason Williams’
“Classical Gas”
as was the custom.
The final song
on the tape is
“Perpetual Change”
which is
“a song written down in Devon.”
Bill Bruford’s
drum solo sounds
extremely heavy
in this recording
and at the end
of the song
Chris Squire acknowledges it saying:
“That’s Bill Bruford
there on that one,
performing a
drum break,
drum solo, on drums”
and Anderson chimes in
“He’s so good I thought it
was spot on right, son. It was.”
The tape unfortunately runs out
on what turns out to be
a very good performance.
Cracks Appeared In The Air
is another recommended
Highland release
from this busy
and important era
for Yes.
NOTES :
THE SONG
"STARSHIP TROOPER"
Is Not From This Show
And Has A Small
Different Sound
Just A BONUS
TRACK I LIKED
You Can Keep It
or Take It Off
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