2: Yes – Starship Trooper

Length: 09:25
Year: 1971 (recorded 1970)
Appearance: The Yes Album
http://rapidshare.com/files/168648969/03_-_Starship_Trooper.mp3.html

Starship Trooper was one of those rare examples of songs exceeding six minutes that even the most square, mr. mainstream, three-minute-meanie pop radio stations couldn’t resist playing in it’s entirety, and it’s easy to understand. The piece has a similar feeling to that which I expressed towards the Granpa film of childhood magic, only that (besides being in the context of progressive rock of course) this is taken to a much more emotional level and just explodes with summery joy. The song is separated into three parts, "Life Seeker", "Disillusion" and "Würm", Würm by far being the most noted part of the song as a cosmic, dreamy buildup. To quote wikipedia ‘’The Würm part of "Starship Trooper" is a continuous cadenza of chords (|G-Eb|C|) played by ensemble and repeated adlib: first accompaniment: electric guitar on the right stereo channel, then acoustic guitar, bass pedals, and drums from middle channel, then organ and bass guitar with vibrato and distortion from left channel, then starts the guitar solo, that swaps from side to side.’’. However, it’s largely being in the context of coming after the blissful melodic parts that makes it so great, having you in just the right state of mind when it begins.

Even if the buildup to the guitar solo at the end is the central part of Würm and probably the highlight, the actual guitar solo feels too short barely going over the one minute mark. It’s almost like Yes interrupts with a silent ad saying ‘’if you want to hear more, go see us live, there is an open spot for jamming’’. And true, at least this void is usually filled with around three minutes more of guitars and synthesizers going nuts, like this 13:06 one from Keys to Ascension http://rapidshare.com/files/168648971/02_-_Starship_Trooper.mp3.html, but none of the live performances manage to get the same clean, gentle, delicate qualities of the album version in the song as whole.