YES Close To The Edge 1972 UK ORIGINAL PRESS A1/B2 Nr MINT

£ 216

$ 286

£ 216 Sold For

Apr 12, 2014 Sold Date

Apr 2, 2014 Start Date

£ 20 Start price

12 Number Of Bids

Great Britain Country Of Seller

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Description

YES Close To The Edge 1972 UK ORIGINAL PRESS A1/B2 Nr MINT

SUPERB FULLY TEXTURED GATEFOLD w/UNSPLIT GREEN INNER

YES
Close To The Edge

UK ATLANTIC (K 50012) ORIGINAL PRESSING (September 1972) OF YES' PROG MASTERPIECE
WITH THE VERY EARLY A1/B2 MATRIX, FIRST FULLY TEXTURED GATEFOLD SLEEVE AND FIRST ISSUE GREEN LYRIC INNER SLEEVE - TWO FLIPBACKS, NO PRINTERS CREDITS

LOVELY COPY - SEEN LITTLE USE - SOUNDS SENSATIONAL THROUGHOUT

PRESSED ON HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL (143g) WITH THE 1972 ATLANTIC LABELS - THE ORANGE ON THE BOTTOM HALF OF THE LABEL IS MORE BRICK RED IN COLOUR - A CHARACTERISTIC OF ONLY THE VERY FIRST ISSUES
MATRIX: K 50012 A1 / K 50012 B2
THE RECORD IS HOUSED IN A SOFT BACKED MATT AND TEXTURED (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) GATEFOLD SLEEVE WHICH HAS A FACTORY SEALED LEFT SIDE EDGE
COMPLETE WITH THE FIRST ISSUE GREEN LYRIC INNER SLEEVE WHICH IS COMPLETELY SQUARE - NO OPENING THUMB NOTCH AND NO PRINTERS CREDITS BENEATH THE CATALOGUE NUMBER

With 1971's Fragile having left Yes poised quivering on the brink of what friend and foe acknowledged was the peak of the band's achievement, Close to the Edge was never going to be an easy album to make.
Drummer Bill Bruford was already shifting restlessly against Jon Anderson's increasingly mystic/mystifying lyricism, while contemporary reports of the recording sessions depicted bandmate Rick Wakeman, too, as little more than an observer to the vast tapestry that Anderson, Steve Howe, and Chris Squire were creating.
For it was vast. Close to the Edge comprised just three tracks, the epic "And You and I" and "Siberian Khatru," plus a side-long title track that represented the musical, lyrical, and sonic culmination of all that Yes had worked toward over the past five years.
Close to the Edge would make the Top Five on both sides of the Atlantic, dispatch Yes on the longest tour of its career so far and, if hindsight be the guide, launch the band on a downward swing that only disintegration, rebuilding, and a savage change of direction would cure.
The latter, however, was still to come. In 1972, Close to the Edge was a flawless masterpiece

NOTES ON THE CREATION:
Close To The Edge may sound like the most carefully conceived of concept albums, but its creation owed more to chance and deft tape editing.
Yes’s method of working up new material at the time involved everyone playing live in the rehearsal studio until the music either ground to a halt or someone made a mistake. The band would then go back a few bars and start again. With the tapes rolling, Eddie Offord or the tape operator would be feverishly taking notes. Thus the title piece was patched together from possibly 30 or 40 edits. According to Rick Wakeman, the take of the closing session had to be retrieved from a dustbin full of tape after Offord, working all-night on the master, had spliced the wrong edit. “When we finally found the right section we were horrified because the sound did not match, there was lots more echo,” Wakeman recalls. “But after a few listens it seemed to work, sort of opened the music out, so we reproduced it live.”
For all the “amateurism and shamateurism” that Brufford, the soon to depart drummer later complained of, Close To The Edge still holds together impressively as a work of sustained creativity and inspired playing.
Today, the title track stands as a landmark prog concept masterpiece which is arguably, unrivalled

Side 1: Close To The Edge
Side 2: And You And I / Siberian Khatru

LABELS: NEAR MINT
A clean, unmarked pair of labels which carry just a few light spindle traces
VINYL Visual: NEAR MINT
In natural light both surfaces are practically unmarked and retain their original deep glossy sheen. Under bright light some harmless wispy hairlines are visible
VINYL Audio: NEAR MINT
Lovely copy - not seen much use and my play-check at very loud volume found very little to fault - beautifully clean sound (exceptionally clean in fact) with nothing but an occasional tiny intermittent tick - impossibly minor and really barely worth a mention
SLEEVE: NEAR MINT
Superb example of the notoriously difficult sleeve to find in decent condition. All edges are crisp, sharp and square with just a small amount of wear to corners. It's the surfaces however which are exceptional - hardly any rubbing to speak of at all
INNER SLEEVE: EXCELLENT+
Apart from general light signs of handling the inner is clean, unmarked and unsplit

POST & PACKING:
A PROTECTIVE POLY SLEEVE, NEW INNER SLEEVE WITH ANTI-STATIC LINER, QUALITY BOX (NOT ENVELOPE) MAILER AND AMPLE STIFFENERS ARE ALWAYS USED TO ENSURE THAT YOUR RECORD ARRIVES SAFELY
UK: FREE (2nd Class Recorded Delivery)
UK: £9.00 (Royal Mail Special Delivery Next Day by 1pm)
EUROPE: Airmail: £14.00 (International Signed For delivery)
INTERNATIONAL: Airmail: £17.00 (International Signed For delivery)

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526 (GS 6.6.6 (526))

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