This Be The Verse

Speak to me of summer, long winters longer than time can remember,

Setting up of other roads, travel on in old accustomed ways.”

It’s about time that I posted about Yes — you should know that I purposely dilute the amount of progressive rock on TBTV. Too much talk of space and parallel universes attracts the wrong crowd. But, every now and then, I’m creatively entitled to write about songs with names like “Starship Trooper” —  not to be confused in any way with the B-movie. I regularly heard Yes on the stereo as a wee young lad (explains a lot), but buying The Yes Album LP and listening to this particular song for the first time brought me into the thick of it all.

“Starship Trooper” is classic Yes. Multiple movements. Chris Squire’s signature bass antics. Steve Howe’s folksy interruptions. Bill Bruford (not Alan White) behind the kit. This is a band of musicians. The most striking part of the song is the third movement, Würm, which consists of a crescendo-ing loop of spacey chords. And that might sound boring to most. But add into the mix two key ingredients: tripleted-sixteenths on Bruford’s right foot and the most orgasmic guitar solo you will ever hear. Gives me chills every time.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.