The Answer Is...YES

     They say, "you can never judge a book by it's cover". That may very well be true, but "they" didn't say anything about album covers. There has never been a band more associated with their album covers than Yes. The man behind many of those covers, as well as the band's iconic logo, is Roger Dean. His trademark designs featured fantasy landscapes that consisted of organic constructions and mythical creatures. It was a perfect marriage of music, art and marketing.
     When in high school, I was seduced by the siren call of the Columbia House Record and Tape Club. For one shiny penny I could pick 13 cassettes. Awesome! Part of the lure was the advertisement, which was a sheet of album cover stickers, ranging from Led Zeppelin to Anne Murray to Chicago. All you had to do was pick 13 albums and scrounge up a penny. Many of the albums were unfamiliar to me and I literally chose them by their covers. I don't remember all 13 albums I selected, nor do I even have most of them anymore. However, I remember two of them were by Yes; Classic Yes and Drama. Classic Yes was, indeed, classic. I knew most of those songs from the radio, like "Roundabout" and "Long Distance Runaround". Drama was a complete unknown, but it had a cool cover. I don't have it anymore, but I remember only liking one song, "Tempus Fugit". I discovered later that Drama was the first Yes album without vocalist Jon Anderson. Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of The Buggles were recruited for this album. The Buggles only claim to fame is that their video for "Video Killed The Radio Star" was the first to be played on MTV. Horn would go on to produce Yes and Downes joined Yes' Steve Howe in the supergroup, Asia.
     So, I was pulled in to Yes by the album covers, but it was the music that kept me there. Classic Yes was one of my go to tapes. Then I bought the prog rock masterpiece, Fragile. Obviously, "Roundabout" is the standout track on the album. It begins with Steve Howe's amazing guitar intro and the lyrics are great. I especially like the line: "in and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky, they stand there". My favorite song, however, is "South Side Of The Sky". It's a spectacular, sonic melding of rock, classical and jazz. I became obsessed with Steve Howe. I bought Asia, GTR, solo albums and even Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe. And what do all those albums have in common? Roger Dean covers.
     The only thing I have on cd is the Rhino boxed set called In A Word Yes. It's a very good career retrospective, much of which I'd never heard before. I would recommend that my kids start with Fragile. I should probably get it on cd though. If they like that, then they should try the boxed set. After that they can chose them by their covers. Here's my list of favorite Roger Dean album covers. Peace.

1) Asia- Asia
2) Yes- Fragile
3) Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe- ABWH
4) Yes- Relayer
5) Yes- Union
6) Yes- Tales From Topographic Oceans
7) Asia- Alpha
8) Yes- Classic Yes