| "Roundabout" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover of the Dutch release of the single. | ||||
| Single byYes | ||||
| from the albumFragile | ||||
| B-side | "Long Distance Runaround" | |||
| Released | 4 January 1972 (US)[1][2] | |||
| Recorded | August–September 1971[3] | |||
| Studio | Advision, Fitzrovia, London | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock[4][5] | |||
| Length |
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| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Producers |
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| Yes singles chronology | ||||
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"Roundabout" is a song by the Englishprogressive rock bandYes from their fourth studio albumFragile, released in November 1971. It was written by singerJon Anderson and guitaristSteve Howe and produced by the band andEddy Offord. The song originated when the band were on tour and travelled fromAberdeen toGlasgow, and went through manyroundabouts on the way.
The song was released as an edited single in the US in January 1972 with "Long Distance Runaround", another track fromFragile, as theB-side. It peaked at number 13 on theBillboardHot 100 and number 10 on theCash Box Top 100 singles charts.[6] In 1973, Anderson and Howe won aBMI Award for writing the song.
The song originated in March 1971 when the band were on tour promotingThe Yes Album (1971), travelling from Aberdeen to Glasgow after a gig inAviemore, Scotland.[7][8] They encountered manyroundabouts on the way; Anderson claimed "maybe 40 or so", which inspired Anderson and Howe to write a song about the journey as they sat in the back of the band's transit van, and include the roundabouts and the surrounding mountains into the lyrics.[7][9]
Anderson had smokedcannabis during the trip, "so everything was vivid and mystical".[8] Anderson added: "It was a cloudy day, we couldn't see the top of the mountains. We could only see the clouds because it was sheer straight up ... I remember saying, 'Oh, the mountains–look! They're coming out of the sky!'"[7] He began to write the song's lyrics in his notebook in a free-form style with minimal edits: "I just loved how words sounded when I put them together."[8]
Within 24 hours, the band had arrived back home in London where Anderson reunited with his then wife Jennifer, which inspired the song's lyric "Twenty-four before my love, you'll see, I'll be there with you".[7] Aloch they passed as they neared Glasgow became the idea behind the line "In and around the lake".[7] Upon their arrival at their hotel in Glasgow, Anderson and Howe began to put down song ideas on their recorder.[8]
In August 1971, Yes regrouped in London to prepare material for their fourth album,Fragile (1971). Early into the sessions, keyboardistTony Kaye was fired from the group over his lack of interest in learning more keyboards to expand the band's sound, and was replaced byRick Wakeman. The group then moved toAdvision Studios in September 1971 to recordFragile with audio engineerEddy Offord as their co-producer, using a16-track recording machine to layer their ideas, at which point, Howe later said, "The song became pure magic".[8] The rhythm tracks were recorded first, in separate sections.[8]Fragile contains four group-performed songs with five solo tracks written and arranged by each member; "Roundabout" is one of such collaborative tracks.[10]
Howe recalled the track was originally "a guitar instrumentalsuite" and had a basic outline worked out when he first developed it. "All the ingredients are there—all that's missing is the song. "Roundabout" was a bit like that; there was a structure, a melody and a few lines."[7] In 1994, former Yes guitaristPeter Banks whom Howe replaced in 1970, claimed he had come up with the song's main riff several years prior to the band recording it.[11] The song was recorded in sections in a series of tape edits, a method of recording that was still relatively new to the group. They had played it through in rehearsal several times, but Squire recalled the group would make sure to "get the first two verses really good" and record from there.[11]
In its original form, the song began with the acoustic guitar, which Howe played on a 1953 Martin 00–18, but the group soon thought a more dramatic opening was needed.[8] This led to Wakeman playing an Em chord, alternating with a C chord on the piano that were recorded and played backwards, creating an effect that Howe described "as if it's rushing towards you". Offord recalled a considerable amount of time was spent to get it right in the studio because it involved a lengthy process of picking the right voicings to use, and editing them correctly.[11] Howe thought the piano added a sense of drama, intensity, and colour to the song.[11] An early idea had the song start with what Anderson described as "something of a Scottishjig" on Howe's acoustic guitar, which he had played to Anderson in their Glasgow hotel room.[8]
Squire played his bass guitar parts on a Rickenbacker and in the final verse, overdubbed his line using Howe'sGibson ES-150 electric guitar.[11] To complement Squire's playing, Wakeman playedarpeggios on hisHammond C3 organ on his right hand while playing Squire's bass parts with his left. For the song's slower section, he plays an organ arpeggio and flute sounds on aMellotron which he said gave the section a "Strawberry Fields mood".[8] Apart from his acoustic guitar, Howe plays a 1961 electricGibson ES-5 Switchmaster throughout the song.[8] Anderson noted the music has a "Scottish feel" to it and described the solo part as like areel, a traditional Scottish country dance.[10] Wakeman's Hammond organ solo was recorded in one take.[12]
Once the instrumental tracks had been put down, Anderson entered the studio early one morning and recorded his lead vocals. When the rest of the group arrived, they recorded the vocal harmonies.[8] At the end of the song Anderson, Squire and Howe perform three-part harmonies that are repeated eight times, during which they also sing a second harmony part that Anderson said resembles the main melody to the nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice".[11] He later revealed Wakeman is singing the notes to the rhyme which was placed "against the grain of what we were doing" to make it sound more intriguing. To close, Howe repeated his acoustic guitar introduction butended on an E major chord.[8]
"Roundabout" was first released as the opening track onFragile, in November 1971 onAtlantic Records. In preparation for its release as a single in the US, the song was cut to 3:27 to make it more suitable for radio airplay. Some changes include an abridged instrumental intro, which forgoes the 40 second nylon string passage played by Howe and skips the second hearing of the bass riff.[13] It was released, with "Long Distance Runaround" on theB-side, another group written track onFragile, on 4 January 1972.[10]Record World said that "If, as it seems, the time has come to say yes to Yes, then this drastically-chopped cut pulled from the newFragile album will succeed mightily" and praised the harmonies.[14] The song peaked at number 13 on the USBillboard Hot 100 singles chart, the band's highest-charting single on the chart until 1983 with "Owner of a Lonely Heart".[10] Elsewhere, "Roundabout" went to number 23 on theDutch Top 40 chart.[15]Billboard ranked it at number 91 on itsYear-End Hot 100 singles of 1972. The full-length, album version was used as a B-side in 1973 and a live version was released as a bonus single in copies ofClassic Yes in 1981.
In June 1973, Anderson and Howe won aBMI Award for the top songwriting and publishing awards held byBroadcast Music, Inc. for 1972.[16]
"Roundabout" has become one of the best-known Yes songs; it has been performed at nearly every concert since its release, and is widely regarded as one of the band's greatest compositions. It was used as the theme music for the BBC concert programmeSounds for Saturday.[17] "Roundabout" was used inOutside Providence (1999). In the 2003 filmSchool of Rock, Dewey Finn recommends the song and its keyboard solo to one of his students, saying that "it will blow the classical music out your butt". In the DVD commentary for the film,Jack Black says that the keyboard solo is his favorite in any song. "Roundabout" is a playable track in the music gameRock Band 3, but has an extra harmonic at the beginning of the song. The song is referenced in the Season 4 episode ofThe Venture Bros. "Perchance to Dean", in which a similar melody is played like the ending to the actual track.[18]
David Slavković ofUltimate-Guitar wrote, "Younger generations might remember the song ["Roundabout" by Yes] as a meme. But no matter how you got to it, there's no denying that [it] is one of the most important rock pieces of all time. Just take a listen to that bass."[19]
In 2012, "Roundabout" was used as the ending theme song for thefirst season of theJoJo's Bizarre Adventureanime series.[20] According to the director, "Roundabout" was one of many songsJoJo creatorHirohiko Araki listened to when he wrotethe original manga.[21]
The usage of "Roundabout" withinJoJo's Bizarre Adventure has additionally led to both it and the series' "To Be Continued" insert becoming a collectiveinternet meme, in which videos, most notably of events that happen in real life, feature the song's introductory acoustic guitar riff before coinciding with the "To Be Continued" insert, typically freeze-framing at a point where an accident, injury or death seems imminent.[22] The meme was referenced at the ending of theFamily GuySeason 20 episode, "Brief Encounter" whereStewie Griffin asksBrian Griffin if he wants to close the episode with the meme in afourth wall break, where Stewie shoots Brian with a bazooka and kills him at the start of the meme closing the episode.[23]
"Roundabout" was used again as the ending theme for the season finale ofJoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean.[24]
"Roundabout" was played during Yes' induction to theRock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. The song was performed by keyboardistRick Wakeman, vocalistJon Anderson, guitaristsSteve Howe andTrevor Rabin, and drummerAlan White withRush bassistGeddy Lee filling in forChris Squire, who died in 2015.[25]
A cover version of this song, byTodd Rundgren, John Wesley and Tony Kaye can be heard in the 2018 Tribute Album "A Life in Yes - The Chris Squire Tribute."[citation needed]
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