Yes – Going For The One

This is an OK album. Not their best but I'm an old Yes fan, so I'm starting to enjoy it. Mainly purchased the LP for the trifold cover.

I was curious to hear what this album sounded like. After a few plays I started to like it. I wouldn't rate it as one of their best, but that's just my spin on it. Not great but not bad.

When I bought that for the first time around 1980 it meant a major disappointment to me. So, I wasn't listening to Yes for quite a long time then, and I started with The Yes Album (1971) and with Fragile (1971) approx. 3,4 years ago once again. Recently, I was listening to Going For The One for the first time in 40 years, and... I was totally disappointed again. For me it remains being a letdown, a major step downstairs in comparison to the first half of the 70's.

The beautiful guitar-like sound on "Wonderous stories", named Vachalia, is a Spanish Tenor Laúd. Steve Howe received it as a gift from his sitser after a trip to Portugal, so he misnamed it on some places as "portuguese guitar".
https://www.facebook.com/RubioGuitars/videos/breve-historia-de-un-instrumento-inexistente-la-vachalia-de-steve-howe-guitarris/1451771061604258/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-BMlq_zyko

I guess it's just high time Mr Wilson remixed this classic at last.

i have a trifold sd19106 from the us but cant find it on here

This is excepts from a letter I wrote someone to go along with a copy of this album:

The title track is just one of my favorite songs ever. The lyrics are pretty abstract but my interpretation is that it is about athletic pursuits and being the best. We started saying ‘Going For the One’ at work sometimes a while ago to mean when you are really going to just steam roll everyone to be the best and be successful at something. There is a line in the song where he says ‘The truth of sport plays rings around you’ and I always thought of that as referring to the Olympic rings. I have no idea what the song was about to the singer when he wrote them and I don’t want to know. The song uses a slide guitar, like they use in country music, but it is used in a really weird (and sometimes even obnoxious) way. For years I didn’t understand how the guitar was making these sounds, I only found out maybe a year ago. The guitarist Steve Howe is one of my favorite guitarists ever because he is really inventive and can play lots of different styles, and he does things like this. He doesn’t care about rules, he just makes different sounds with the guitar.

There is something about the rhythm of the verse when the vocals start that gets me fired up. And the chorus which has no words except to repeat ‘Going for the one’. It repeats it like it is really important, and you need to listen, and understand it, or try to. There is a bridge section that is more abstract and seems like it is just tying everything together with the whole universe and everyone. When I used to do drugs a lot, and go out a lot, I used to get dressed and put this song on right before I left. I would get fired up so I could try to go out with a lot of confidence and see what trouble I could get into. I feel kind of disgusting for that, for tarnishing one of my favorite songs with gross memories, but I don’t think that anymore when I listen to it.

My favorite part of the song is at the end. They play an extended version of the bridge, and it seems to almost go on too long, then the song breaks and there are beautiful harmonizing vocals and the group pauses a few times but the slide guitar is just soaring into outer space, hitting higher and higher notes. I am dead serious that this portion of the song has brought tears to my eyes before because it is so beautiful. It ends on a wonderful note, and kind of brings you back to earth without being too rough about it.

The next song ‘Turn of the Century’ would you believe has also made me cry. Maybe I am just emotionally broken. It is a totally different song and the guitar is all acoustic. It is just a beautiful love story and it is a great follow up to the intensity of the song before it.

The last track on side A is called ‘Parallels’ and it such a typical Yes song. It ‘rocks’ harder (I feel corny for using that word), and its not heavy metal or something but it is heavier and more powerful and you hear what Yes can do. It is not as experimental as the other two songs before it so it is a great way to close the album.

Side B only has two songs. The first one ‘Wonderous Stories’ I have heard on the radio before. It is just a beautiful song that relies on their singer Jon Anderson and his wonderful voice. There is a line where he sings ‘I beg to hear your wonderous stories’. We used to joke about this guy who worked here (he is now retired). His name was Donald and he lived and worked in New Jersey. He was originally from Jamaica and he was really an idiot. He worked here like 30 years so he had tons of knowledge but he told lies and acted tough all the time. We used to joke that if you saw Donald you were going to hear some ‘Wondrous Stories’. Also my boss has said that to me when I come back from a long or crazy road trip and he wants to hear how it goes, he will step into my office and say “let's hear your wonderous stories”.

The last track on the album is ‘Awaken’ and it is 15 minutes long, which is why there are only 5 songs on this entire album. I’ll be honest - I’ve never heard it before, only bits and pieces. So I couldn’t possibly expect you to, but if you just put the side on - and this is the beauty of records - it is easier to just let the side run out then to get up and mess with the player. So maybe you will listen. Yes is famous for long songs like this. They have two other albums which only have three songs each!

Never have I experienced such a transcendent spiritual high from a rock song over the decades as I have with Awaken. So, as far as I'm concerned, that track is pretty much the apex of rock music as a genre, rock music as an art form, rock music as a spiritual experience, and rock music in a truly progressive sense. Together, the of Yes aimed for "The One" (in more than one sense) and most certainly reached them all.

I consider myself very fortunate to have once sat within close proximity of Steve Howe while singing and playing Awaken in its entirely by himself. It was nothing less than a remarkable feat considering how complex and long that piece of music is.

I bought this album when it first came out. It is a very dark red when you hold it up to the light. Never heard of this before. Still have a the record in question in pristine condition. It was never my favourite Yes album but I often wondered about the deep dark red colour.