Close to the Edge (song)
song by Yes
"Close to the Edge" is a song by the English progressive rock band Yes, featured on their fifth studio album Close to the Edge (1972). The song is nearly 19 minutes in length and takes up the entire first side of the album. It consists of four movements.
Movements
I. The Solid Time of Change (0:00 - 6:04)
The song fades in with the sounds of running water, wind chimes, and birds chirping; a layering of sounds derived primarily from "environmental tapes" collected by lead vocalist Jon Anderson. These nature sounds move through a crescendo and into a somewhat menacing guitar melody, which is composed of a cacophonous musical passage that features a two-note guitar line which rapidly passes down and then up four octaves, in 128 time. The bass ascends through a line based on the notes of the second mode of the D harmonic minor scale (also called Locrian natural 6), adding an exotic flavor to the already cacophonic texture. The guitar melody is punctuated by a series of sudden band-harmonized vocables. Again, a crescendo signals a change, this time into a more traditional and less cacophonous melody. Like a classical composition, this melodic passage is the establishment of a theme that will go through many variations throughout the piece.
The lyrics are introduced at 4:00, along with a chorus that repeats throughout the song.
The public source identifies “Close to the Edge (song)” as song by Yes. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Close, Edge and song.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q648858. The first chronological checks are 1972.
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This entry incorporates text from “Close to the Edge (song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.