Wiki
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Length
6:16
The Gates of Delirium is the first track on Yes’s 1974 album, Relayer. At almost 22 minutes, it takes up the entire first side of the LP. Before the re-issue of Tales from Topographic Oceans or In a Word: Yes (1969 - ), this was the longest officially released studio recording by the band. A 22min 40sec live version of the track recorded at Cobo Hall, Detroit on 17 August, 1976 appears on the live album Yesshows. Loosely based on Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, the song begins with a prelude, which leads into a lengthy instrumental section (beginning at about the 8 minute mark) representing the battle. The final section (entitled Soon) represents the aftermath of the battle, and was released as a single in 1975.
Performance of the song
A loud crashing sound heard in the middle of the song is caused by a set of old automobile parts mounted on a rack being pushed over. The band decided to keep it in instead of doing another take. Alan White explains in the liner notes of the 2003 remaster of the album.
"The percussion on that song is pretty unusual," he says. "Jon and I used to travel together to Chris' home studio, where we recorded the album. We would stop at a junkyard along the way and pick up parts of cars. We'd just go there and bang on things. There were springs and pieces of metal, brake, and clutch plates. We'd buy them and bring them back to the studio. We built a rack and hung all these things off it, and we'd bang on them. During the recording I pushed the whole thing over. That crash is what you hear on the album."
Single issues
“Soon”
Single by Yes
from the album Relayer
B-side
"Sound Chaser"
"Roundabout"
Released
January 8, 1975
Recorded
1974
Genre
Progressive rock
Length
4:18
Label
Atlantic Records
Producer
Yes and Eddie Offord
The last part of the song, entitled Soon, was issued as Atlantic single #3242 on January 8, 1975. Its b-side was typically a single edit of "Sound Chaser" (3:13), though copies exist of the release with both "Sound Chaser" - probably in the same single edit - and "Roundabout" or a mono version of the song (without "Sound Chaser" in any form) as the b-side.
Live performances
The song was performed in its entirety during the lengthy set of tours between the releases of Relayer and Going for the One. It was revived for the 2000 Masterworks and 2001 Magnification tours.
Otherwise, only the "Soon" fragment was performed.
It was found in the "Big Medley" of the Tormato tour. A version of this can be found on The Word is Live.
It also appeared on the 9012Live tour in 1984-'85.
The song was not regularly played live again until the Open Your Eyes tour. However, it did appear on April 4, 1988 in Tokyo, Japan and October 28 and 29, 1989 in Wembley, UK on the Big Generator tour, and on April 9, 1991 in Pensacola, Florida on the Union tour.
More recently, the song was performed on Yes's 35th Anniversary tour; before this (but after the Open Your Eyes tour), the song only appeared on September 6, 1999 on the The Ladder tour.
Remaster
The 2003 remastered version of the Relayer album included a studio run-through of this song in its entirety. It is somewhat shorter than the original version, hauling in at 21:16. (Compare to 21:56 on this CD issue.) However, no date is given for this recording.
Other versions
A much different edit of "Soon," this one 5:44 in length, was released on The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection.
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