Original

This was released in late’74. One record with the gatefold cover again by Roger Dean. Rick Wakeman was replaced by Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz who had been in the band Refugee which included the two remaining members of The Nice after Keith Emerson left for Emerson, Lake & Palmer. His more Jazz and Funk style was different from Wakeman’s more Classical style. One of their better albums with “The Gates Of Delerium” a 21 minute track on side one another of my favorite Yes songs. Jon Anderson describes it as a war song with themes taken from the novel War and Peace. After several verses there is a long instrumental section that gets pretty frantic at times representing a battle before it slowly mellows out and segues into “Soon” a song of peace. That section was released as a single. “Sound Chaser” starts with some Jazzy notes by Moraz then taken over by Howe’s guitar. Another up-tempo rocking song it is abruptly interrupted by some weird cha, cha, chas before a synthesizer solo near the end. “To Be Over” is a mellow song that I never liked much but it does have great instrumentation. This tour was the first time I saw Yes in July of 1975. I drove my ’63 Ford Falcon to The Spectrum in Philly with two friends. “The Gates Of Delerium” was a highlight for me. After the instrumental pandemonium of the battle turned into the quiet “Soon” it was quite an experience. Returning to Wilmington after the show we went to the local Jack in the Box for some munchies. After going through the drive-thru and eating there we must have pissed someone off there, I don’t remember what since none of us were very aggressive people, because driving down Philadelphia Pike to take one friend home a car came behind us very fast and threw something at the back window breaking it. The friend in the backseat got some glass on him. I turned around and reported to the State Police Troop 1. Nothing came of it. Almost a year later I saw them at JFK stadium with Peter Frampton. Pretty much the same set as the year before with Moraz still on keyboards. Wakeman would rejoin later that year to begin working on their new album.