Arriving UFO

Well now, Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew just spun up Arriving UFO by Yes off that wild 1978 album Tormato, and if that doesn't lift you right out of your boots and into the night sky, nothing will. This track sits smack in the middle of the record, a six-minute sci-fi trip that Jon Anderson cooked up after catching Close Encounters of the Third Kind not once but twice. He had this tune already floating around, something about messages in the sky and meetings no one had ever dreamed of, and the film just locked it in for him. Anderson has talked about how the idea of UFOs and higher places speaking down has always lived in his songwriting, from the early astral traveler days right through to this one. He finished the lyrics around the time he saw the movie, figuring we'd never really know what those vessels look like or how they arrive, but the wonder of it was pure delight. Steve Howe added his guitar work, and Rick Wakeman stepped in to write the instrumental section that gives the whole thing that bright, exploratory lift with those Moog chords cutting through.

Of course, Tormato itself has always been a bit of a lightning rod among the faithful. Critics gave Arriving UFO a rough ride, calling the production compressed and dull, with studio trickery and sound effects swallowing some of the magic. Pond and others thought the muddy vocal mix left Anderson sounding distant, almost like he was broadcasting from one of those ships himself. Howe has said the band can barely remember how to play most of the songs from that album, and they haven't touched much of it since the tour that followed. Wakeman has been even more direct over the years. He once said if he could pick one album to remix and have the guys add a couple extra bits, it would be Tormato, because it had unfulfilled potential and suffered from the worst final mix he'd ever been involved with. Fans on the other side of the fence dig the quirky ambition and the hippie-dream lyrics about linking everyone and the coming of outer space. Some even point to live versions from the 1979 tour, where the band played it a handful of times with a rotating stage and odd little sound effects, turning the studio haze into something more open and alive. There are bootlegs out there of a longer studio jam called Railway Fourteen that Wakeman thought could have been one of the best arrangements they ever had if it had been captured right.

All that creative push and pull was part of the band from the very beginning. Yes started in London back in 1968 when singer Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire crossed paths at La Chasse Club on Wardour Street, just a few doors down from the Marquee. Jack Barrie, who ran the place, introduced them after noticing they both had a thing for harmony singing and the kind of structured yet adventurous music that was starting to bubble up. That same night they headed back to Squire's flat and wrote Sweetness, the song that would land on the first album. Anderson had been knocking around with groups like the Warriors and cleaning up at the club to make ends meet, while Squire came out of the Syn and then Mabel Greer's Toyshop. They pulled in guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and drummer Bill Bruford, and the new outfit rehearsed in the basement of the Lucky Horseshoe café on Shaftesbury Avenue. The name Yes came from Banks after Anderson suggested Life and Squire offered World. Their first gig under the new name was in Essex that August, and before long they were filling in for a no-show Sly and the Family Stone at the Speakeasy and opening for Cream's farewell at the Royal Albert Hall. From those early club days the band built that signature sound of thick vocal harmonies, intricate arrangements, and a willingness to chase ideas that felt bigger than ordinary rock and roll.

That same spirit of looking outward and upward is exactly what Arriving UFO carries forward on Tormato. The album was the last with the classic Anderson-Wakeman lineup before things shifted, and it still finds its way onto turntables among listeners who appreciate the band at their most playful and slightly unbuttoned. You can dig deeper into the whole catalog and the ongoing story over at the official site Yes, follow along on Facebook, catch the latest photos and posts on Instagram, and see what they're sharing on X. Dedicated fans gather at Yesfans to swap stories and memories, and there's a big active group on Facebook where thousands of listeners keep the conversation going at YES fan group. Here at THE ZOO we keep spinning the deep cuts and the strange, wonderful ones just like this, the kind of records that make you look out in the night and wonder what might be arriving next. So stick around, Zoo Freaks, because the next track is already cued and the night is just getting started.