Rating: 
Summary: A modest Biography of Yes
Review: I Began the book with much enthusiasm, but I must say I was saddened by the lack of real content. The book does share a good insight at the origins of Yes but falls short in a few areas. Mr Welch tries to convey the emotion of the music too much at times. It is very difficult to describe Yes Music since it involves pure feeling. We learn more about Yes's love affair with Vegetarian store than with the band. I had the distinct impression that Chris was trying to protect the bandmembers by not bringing up enough of their personal lives. There was also not enough work devoted to Yes in the studio. What we need is to have each bandmember right an biography of the band, then we can piece it together. David Carlin, Phila. PA
Rating: 
Summary: Cobbled together news articles shed little light
Review: I have to agree with most of the reviews here; mostly personality and business problems, little on the construction of what is some of the most complex music of the 20th century.The book is best when Welch talks about the early years of the band; how they started, where they came from. After the Yes Album, a lot of the book seems concerned with chart numbers, gold and platinum sales, accounting discrepencies, and first-class trips to Bermuda. A lot of this material reads as if Welch had just boilerplated his original articles into book form with little or no editing. Paul Stump does better with less, and we get a strong picture of the music. Not here. Funny vegetarian stories and Trevor Rabin's musical awards.
Rating: 
Summary: needed a more supportive author
Review: i liked some of the obok but not all of it. i didn not like how the author trashed albums like Tales From Topographic Oceans and Tormato. i wanted to read a book about the band's history not how the author felt about each album. plus he didn't get as much into the later stuff like he did with the earleir stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and informative.
Review: I've always respected Yes and their music. I got this biography in order to learn more about the band's long history. I find this book to be above average. I have learned much more about Yes by reading it. The author, Chris Welch, has written biographies on other musical groups, too. He's a popular music journalist in the UK. He offers many insights into the band's long history. He also has had personal contact with Yes. The photos are also interesting. The book is well-written. I give it 3.5 stars. It's well worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and informative.
Review: I've always respected Yes and their music. I got this biography in order to learn more about the band's long history. I find this book to be above average. I have learned much more about Yes by reading it. The author, Chris Welch, has written biographies on other musical groups, too. He's a popular music journalist in the UK. He offers many insights into the band's long history. He also has had personal contact with Yes. The photos are also interesting. The book is well-written. I give it 3.5 stars. It's well worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: MOUNTAINS COME OUT OF THE SKY AND THEY STAND THERE
Review: My favorite progressive rock band from the 1970s as money grubbing spoiled rock stars? Yes? No! The author certainly loves the band but reveals them as quite human after all, blowing the lid off the Yes mystique of cosmic peace and mind altering exploration, as they scramble to keep pace with changing public musical tastes and advancing middle age. Even after reading "Close To The Edge, The Story of Yes", the band members remain as strangers coming across as mere participants in the great machine called Yes, and as less than mature men who blame all their troubles on everyone but themselves. The author's narrative rolls along serving Yes information, however tedious to the unadorned, in an enjoyable way until the end when he suddenly dropa out of sight allowing the concluding chapter to serve as a promotion for the band's new album. One wonders if the band's participation for the book was dependent on that promotion.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing New - A Limp Effort
Review: One would have hoped that a late-90s bio on England's best Progressive Rock band would have picked up where Dan Hedges' excellent YES (1979) left off. But Chris dropped the ball big-time. Most of the book deals with 70s Yes - in fact some of it reads like Hedges' book. But once we get into the 90125-era the author resorts solely to interviews for his material. The story drops any pretense at narrative and becomes a transcript of his interview tapes. And the period from 90125 to the present is merely glossed over; there is no depth in his writing. The reader comes away with the impression that this period is unimportant to the author, and maybe even to the band itself. Maybe that's why live Yes consists in large part of music from three 70s albums and rarely of music post-90125. Overall a lukewarm offering. Whatever happened to the book BEYOND AND BEFORE that was promised in the Yes boxed set of 1991?
Rating:
Summary: Not great!!
Review: There are three major flaws with this book. One, it is marred by many inaccuracies. Most of them are insignificant but it gets irritating after a while. Two, there is more about the bands personal problems and the business side to it than about the musical side. Three, there is too little information on the "golden years" of the band, 1972-77. Welch concentrates on the very early days. If you have read Hedges, Martin, Morse and Mosbo you will know most of the story already but Welch certainly reveals more contriversial things than they did. Personally I yawn when Welch tells about how much money they made on this or that concert. I don't care!! Having said all these negative things, I have to say though that the book is fairly entertaining. If you are a fan of the band you should buy it, since Hedges biography is out of print (I think).
Rating: 
Summary: enthrauling
Review: This book gives an excellent history of the band YES. It also gives an excellent feel of the development of late 60's and early 70's rock and roll in the London rock scene. It is by far and away the best work on the band to date. If you enjoy YES, the band that has created some of the best rock music of all time, you are sure to be captivated by their story as told by Chris Welch. Welch is uniquely qualified to tell the story as a rock critic and close friend of the band who has followed their work for thirty years. Welch gives great insight into the business of rock 'n rock and of a band true to its roots of recording music authentic to its vision.
Rating:
Summary: Great book... wrong title listed
Review: This is a great overview of a group that has left quite a legacy on music with their most original sound and vocals. Yes has been influential in many ways and has quite the interesting history, all of which is concisely put together here. Now, if only Amazon.Com will figure out that they have it listed under the wrong title. The title of the book is CLOSE TO THE EDGE. Oh well. Buy it anyways. Good reading.
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