America

Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew has got Yes spinning their take on "America" from that New Age of Atlantic sampler, and it is one of those covers that shows exactly how the band took a familiar folk road-trip story and stretched it into something much larger. Chris Squire once explained that when Yes first formed, Simon and Garfunkel were everywhere as hitmakers, and both he and Jon Anderson were big fans, which is why they chose the song. They figured that taking someone else's material and putting their own treatment on it would give audiences a clearer idea of the band's style right from the start, since people already knew the original. That approach fit the early days perfectly, when the group was still mixing covers with their own writing and aiming to expand things beyond the usual three-minute pop format.

The recording happened with the lineup that had just come together for Fragile: Jon Anderson on vocals, Steve Howe on guitar, Chris Squire on bass, Rick Wakeman on keyboards, and Bill Bruford on drums. They laid it down around the same time as that album and released it both as a single and on the Atlantic Records promotional sampler New Age of Atlantic in 1972. The single reached number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100, which was actually higher than the original Simon and Garfunkel version managed when it finally got its own single push a couple of months later. It became one of the band's most frequently performed covers over the years, ranking high on their live setlist totals, because the arrangement gave them room to open things up with shifting time signatures, classical interludes, and extended instrumental sections that turned the wistful bus-ride narrative into a full progressive journey.

There is an interesting earlier influence on the arrangement. A Scottish band called 1-2-3, which later became Clouds, had been performing a rewritten version of the song as far back as 1967, based on a Paul Simon demo tape that had been left in a London studio. Their take already included changes in time signature and newly written segments, and Jon Anderson has acknowledged hearing that version before Yes worked up their own. Steve Howe later met Paul Simon at a relief concert years afterward and asked if he had heard the Yes recording. Simon said he liked it a great deal and thought the band should have taken an arrangement credit. He even singled out Howe's long guitar solo in the middle as something that could stand on its own, which Howe appreciated because the band had reinvented the piece quite a bit with different moods and moments running through it.

That connection to Simon and Garfunkel goes right back to how the band got started in the first place. In the spring of 1968, Jon Anderson was working at a London club called La Chasse on Wardour Street, cleaning up and thinking about putting a new group together. Jack Barrie, who ran the place, introduced him to bassist Chris Squire, who was playing with the psychedelic outfit Mabel Greer's Toyshop along with guitarist Peter Banks. Anderson and Squire hit it off immediately because they both loved the close harmony singing of Simon and Garfunkel, and that night they wrote a song called "Sweetness" together. Anderson soon joined Squire on stage for an encore with the Toyshop, and within weeks they were rehearsing in the basement of the Lucky Horseshoe café on Shaftesbury Avenue.

They brought in drummer Bill Bruford through an advertisement in Melody Maker, added keyboardist Tony Kaye, and kept Peter Banks on guitar. The name Yes was suggested by Banks as something short, direct, and easy to remember. Their first gig under that name was in Essex in early August 1968. A big break came in November when they opened for Cream's farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall, which led to a residency at the Marquee Club and an appearance on John Peel's Top Gear radio show. Atlantic Records signed them after Ahmet Ertegun heard them at the Speakeasy, and the debut album arrived in 1969, mixing original material with covers. The early lineup shifted when Steve Howe replaced Banks in 1970 and Rick Wakeman came in for Kaye in 1971, setting up the period when they recorded "America" as a way to showcase that expanding sound on the New Age of Atlantic sampler.

The band kept returning to the song live because it gave them a chance to demonstrate their approach to arrangement while still connecting with audiences who recognized the melody. Over the decades it stayed in the repertoire for various lineups, showing up on compilations like Yesterdays and later live releases, and it continues to highlight the blend of vocal harmonies and instrumental exploration that defined Yes from those first meetings in Soho. Fans who want to dig deeper into the full catalog and current news can check the official site at yesworld.com, follow along on Facebook, Instagram, and X. There are also active communities of supporters gathering on Facebook to share stories and updates about the band's long history. Keep listening to THE ZOO for more of these deep cuts and the stories behind them from the Zoo Crew.