Yes – Fragile Outtakes (Rhino/Atlantic)

For Record Store Day Black Friday, Rhino Records put together an interesting set called Fragile Outtakes, grabbing eight tracks from the recently-issued Super Deluxe box set, giving us a look into the band’s creative process for one of the biggest albums in their catalog.  

The set opens with the rehearsal take/early mix of the band’s signature tune, “Roundabout”  (it’s listed as “early/rough mix,” but that’s incorrect).  Jon Anderson’s rough vocal is lacking the double-tracking and harmonies of the finished version, but also features some alternate lyrics.  Steve Howe adds some Spanish guitar stylings to the recognizable riff that were later nixed.  There are long stretches missing vocals, but this track gives every member a chance to shine. There’s a part, near the end of the song, where you can hear the board cutting off the guitar as they experimented with moving it from the left to the right channel and back.  

“All Fighter’s Past” is a true outtake that didn’t make the album.  It’s pretty poppy for Yes, and features some cool, backwards guitar and keyboard fills, thanks to Rick Wakeman, opening with a set of lyrics, before becoming just an instrumental by the end.  Next is “We Have Heaven” full version in the Steven Wilson mix – it sounds fabulous, all those Anderson vocals hitting you from every direction.  The “full version” means that it keeps going an extra 90 seconds more than the album version.  Side 1 ends with an early take of “South Side of the Sky,” which features alternate Anderson vocals, and an unused keyboard section from Wakeman, that resembles “Stone Henge” from Spinal Tap 🙂 (thankfully removed for the completed version).  

Side 2 kicks off with an alternate take of herky-jerky “Five Percent For Nothing,” which is pretty similar to the album version, followed by the alternate of “Long Distance Runaround/The Fish,” where you hear Anderson breathing into the mic near the start, some alternate keys from Wakeman, morphing into “The Fish,” where Chris Squire’s bass is way up in the mix, and we hear some alternate soloing near the end.

“Mood For Another Day” is particularly cool in that, with this alternate version, you can hear the strings buzzing, and Howe breathing – it’s less polished as well, but that seems to bring it down to earth a little.  Closing out the set is a rough, alternate “Heart of the Sunrise,” including a grittier vocal, and additional keyboard flourishes.  

The real selling point of Fragile Outtakes is that, as good as the finished versions are, it’s nice to hear them in rough, unfinished form – it’s shows off a human side of Yes that we don’t often get to see.  —Tony Peters