Jon Anderson is a classic spiritual hippy, he has an interest in all religions. He writes literal lyrics, a clear story he also writes poetic snapshots that mean things to him but would be a struggle for people with no clues, he also writes purely for the rhythm and sound of the words in a musical sense. I love all these because regardless of the form it's always beautiful.
"Coins and crosses never know their fruitless worth." Several cultures have a tradition of putting coins on the eyes of the dead, especially during the funeral. I've always thought that this line was saying that by the time you're laying with the coins and crosses, it's too late to do whatever you may have been planning, whether it's repenting of your sins, or simply letting someone know you love them. Don't shirk the moment.
This type of lyrical cross-breeding is common with Anderson. This is a love song but contains elements of their Starship Trooper phase. I think. Love yalls reactions!
This song is just beautiful and had transcended the decades and remained relevant...I feel so fortunate to have grown up in such a magical era of music. Fantastic!
Jon Anderson has said that he often chooses words for their sound. Occasionally he will throw in the odd one liner such as 'loneliness is a power we have to give or take away forever'. Or Your Move is about a game of chess as an analogy to the moves you make in life. I would say you can read into the songs what you wish but there is no singular meaning. The overall aspect of Yes are the broader themes of life and in general a positive outlook. And You And I is possibly the longest love song written. When Steve Howe wrote about Close to the Edge he meant living by the River Thames. Anderson took it and made it more universal and cosmic. My favourite versions of AYAI is on the triple live album Yessongs and the related film of the time. The combination of pedal steel, synth strings and bass pedals creates this swelling emotion. Howe's facial expressions demonstrate the pain and agony of pulling all the emotions out of the song. Later live versions in my opinion are spoilt by Howe's squiggly bits on the pedal steel. It gives it a slightly comical feel which detracts from the overwhelming stirring of emotions. The early live versions are so strong it can move you to tears.
Honestly, "choosing words for their sound" is the point of poetry anyway. I think it's in "Black Orpheus" where Sartre makes that comparison. In prose, he says, words are vehicles for meaning, but in poetry their aesthetic nature is also important. Cedric from Mars Volta is similarly willing to write nonsense lyrics that sound good. Late-period King Crimson often gets that way, too.
I find it so refreshing that you guys are not afraid to talk about your personal spiritual beliefs! Anderson is a universalist but has done gospel albums. I am a Christian but absolutely love this band. Thinking man's music!
Thanks so much, you're right - life is good. That symphonic section! I don't think any band really hit the idea of the Grand Musical Theme like this band. Fabulous!
On religion, Anderson is, I believe, a universalist. Raised Christian but the 60s brought in Hinduiism and Buddhism to pop culture (Close to the Edge).
You got it. Life WAS really good when I was 19 and heard this for the first time, in 1972. Every Yes song is a journey that varies every time you hear it. Hippy dippy and trippy. As were the times. Understanding Jon's lyrics is a strenuous mental excercise and After 50 years I think they're not decipherable on a logical basis. They can and do affect the listener on an emotional level. Yes is a band unlike no other, and one of my top 3 favourites. I loved your interpretation!
"Every Yes song is a journey that varies every time you hear it." 100% agree. It's timeless music that people will be listening to till there are no more people. It the progression of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd etc. etc. etc. fused together for eternity.
There's a version of this that they did with an orchestra in 2001 that I consider the definitive version. The studio version is obviously fantastic as you can see and is the right place to start, but the orchestral version moves me to tears every time I hear it.
My favorite song of theirs and "Yes" is my second favorite group behind only "Pink Floyd"! Depending on what kind of a mood I'm in one or the other is usually playing in my house!! This is such an ethereal song! One of my favorite memories it was years ago playing this song out in the Eastern White Mountains of Arizona in the wilderness among the Mountain Meadows and it just fit perfectly! Such a great song!!
If you start with knowing that the divine is within you and all around you Yes music becomes a spiritual journey. To think that Jon Anderson is self taught, Steve Howe self taught and Chris Squire self taught but he was a church choir boy, one must assume that the divine had a hand in their talent. Never conflate dogma with faith
I've listened to Yes steadily for 45 years accept when I was converted to Christianity, for several years I didn't listen to rock or modern music. I started listening again because all the church music became modernized and ended up back with Yes as my go to. For me they are the most talented, creative and diligent band in the modern era, their music takes me to another place like no other. In other words "transcendent", way to preach it Vin, Jesus lives!
Watching both of you listening to this reminds me of Highschool hanging out with my friends. We listened heavily to Yes and Pink Floyd, usually somewhat under the influence, but the memories have barely faded. We saw Yes in concert I believe in '78 at Madison Square Garden, they were spectacular.
Sorry guys, though there can be many vague interpretations, don't allow your Christian mindsets to cloud it's basic meanings, some of which does hint at ONE's perception of The Ultimate Divine Source of Existence. The YOU is that Force and how together through Love, we discover our deeper connection, appreciation & understanding of the wondrous Divine Nature of Things we seek within. This is a Spiritual Love song! The music itself is viscerally and deliberately pastoral and along with the lyrics suggest we are in a Natural setting, a place from which to discover life's true meaning. Thus the instrumental crescendo is Us now connecting to Thy Source. "A Man conceived a moment's answer to the Dream. Stay in the flowers daily sensing all the themes". "All complete in the sight of seeds of Life with YOU" . Yeah, Money & Religion can and often does corrupt this goal. "Coins and crosses never know their fruitless worth", when "Chords are broken locked inside The Mother Earth. Too often We do disconnect but the link exist within Nature. The singer, Jon Anderson has been quoted as saying "It's all about the reasons that We call to discover our connection with the Divine". "And You & I reach out for reasons to CALL! )))))))))))))))))))"
If you’re keen to listen to this jam again, I really suggest this version ( ruclips.net/video/AYmeJlm7Gcg/видео.html ). They’ve gotten better with age, and the orchestra accompaniment elevates it to another level.
I am 63 years old. I first heard this song when I was a young kid when it came out in 1972 and I bought the album. I first saw this band perform the song live in 1975 when I was 15 years old. You are quite right about the memory thing. Something magical about their music. And in concert they made this song and all their songs sound like thunder and lightning. Far heavier in concert, almost like heavy metal which did not exist then. They also had the biggest light shows in the business back in the 1970s. I had never even seen laser beams and all the other light systems that they had until I went to their concerts. I still go to their concerts.
"You and I" by The Yes has to be, by far, the most recent song I have ever heard in this madcap Manhattan lifetime of yours truly. Proust talked of privileged moments, and listening to certain classics by The Yes, will put hair on your chest, proverbially speaking, and take it off if too much is there. And this is why we love The Yes and "You and I". Words! Thank y'all and stay groovy. It is important.
I once saw an interview with Bill Bruford, and I am paraphrasing here that he once asked Jon Anderson what a song was about. Jon went on a twenty minute dissertation and at it's conclusion, Bill said, "yes, but what it the song about?" I have been listening to Yes since I was five years old, I am now fifty-six. Everyone enjoys music their own way, but if you don't mind some advice. Don't try to understand the lyrics, let them and the music take your mind where it will go.
Imagine the cojones it took to tell your record company, "yeah, we have an new album idea. It will be three songs in total." I can never pick my favourite among the Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge but for today it will be Close to the Edge!
"A man conceived a moments answer to a dream." We all live but for a moment. Only a short time. Man's birth, humans, are the answer to God's dream. He thought it up, and did it. We are what God was trying to do and had been dreaming of. You are important to God. A big statement.
Spot on, life was good when this came out. But it always makes me happy to listen to again. This music is still good and life is still good. But in high school, this came out in an era when we would gather at someone's house whose parents were gone, and get high and listen to entire albums like this one. And that was when there weren't full on backyard parties with full bands (like Van Halen in my area). These things don't exist any longer. Poor kids nowadays.
And you and I climb, Crossing the shapes of the morning. And you and I reach, Over the sun for the river. And you and I climb, Clearer towards the movement. And you and I called, Over valleys of endless seas...🤔
dont try to figure out yes lyrics, Rick once said that Jon was the only guy he knew who was trying to save the planet while living on a completely different one...Jon often refers to his disillusionment and dislike of organised religion, while still being totally spiritual and believing in God
Yeah, don't worry about the lyrics. Jon Anderson wrote via a stream of conscious. I've listened to this album a hundred times and never thought much about the lyrics. The music is supreme and stands on its own, singular and spectacular . You're only going to hurt yourself trying to discern meaning. 😅🤣😂
You've still got to hear gems such as 'Starship Trooper' from The Yes Album, the epic title track from Close To The Edge and the pristine magnificence of Fragile. Some of the band's earlier stuff is also worth a listen, particularly their cover of Stephen Stills' 'Everydays'.
Many times… Jon Anderson’s lyrics are best appreciated for their sound in relation to the overall song. They don’t necessarily make any kind of sense. Jon will be the first to admit that. It’s nice that you’re trying to interpret them… But sometimes that’s a fool’s errand. Yes that’s an overall sound.
Jon Anderson dedicated this to his wife during a concert in the early 2000s. I definitely think it was a romantic muse. When I first heard this in 1972, I was 17, and just loved it (and the entirety of Close to the Edge) for its spaciness. The older I got, the more I understood about relationships, the more I appreciated it as an entre' to an intimate relationship.Whether that relationship was romantic or beatific, I don't know... or care. I just like the sound of it! I have no idea why you folks projected anything religious onto this. I don't think it necessarily has that attribute.
Lyrics certainly open to interpretation. My take: about contact with the higher self through meditation. Seems like Jon has said he was reading Buddhist and Hindu writings at the time this was written.
Coins and crosses, I always took to mean that materialistic ideas of the human being is meaningless and the true path is to surrender to love. As did Christ.
![An Unexpected Gem ✨ | YES - And You and I [REACTION VIDEO]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mjFr4IXMx94/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm 70, saw them live 3 times, and I still remember almost all of the lyrics...yet I can't remember what I had for dinner last night!
Jon Anderson is a classic spiritual hippy, he has an interest in all religions. He writes literal lyrics, a clear story he also writes poetic snapshots that mean things to him but would be a struggle for people with no clues, he also writes purely for the rhythm and sound of the words in a musical sense. I love all these because regardless of the form it's always beautiful.
Very well said
"Coins and crosses never know their fruitless worth."
Several cultures have a tradition of putting coins on the eyes of the dead, especially during the funeral. I've always thought that this line was saying that by the time you're laying with the coins and crosses, it's too late to do whatever you may have been planning, whether it's repenting of your sins, or simply letting someone know you love them. Don't shirk the moment.
This type of lyrical cross-breeding is common with Anderson. This is a love song but contains elements of their Starship Trooper phase. I think. Love yalls reactions!
Spiritually Uplifting and joyful ☀ that was my emotional response to Yes at the time
This song is just beautiful and had transcended the decades and remained relevant...I feel so fortunate to have grown up in such a magical era of music. Fantastic!
It's majestic. Just fucking majestic.
No lies told my boy
Jon Anderson has said that he often chooses words for their sound. Occasionally he will throw in the odd one liner such as 'loneliness is a power we have to give or take away forever'. Or Your Move is about a game of chess as an analogy to the moves you make in life. I would say you can read into the songs what you wish but there is no singular meaning. The overall aspect of Yes are the broader themes of life and in general a positive outlook. And You And I is possibly the longest love song written. When Steve Howe wrote about Close to the Edge he meant living by the River Thames. Anderson took it and made it more universal and cosmic. My favourite versions of AYAI is on the triple live album Yessongs and the related film of the time. The combination of pedal steel, synth strings and bass pedals creates this swelling emotion. Howe's facial expressions demonstrate the pain and agony of pulling all the emotions out of the song. Later live versions in my opinion are spoilt by Howe's squiggly bits on the pedal steel. It gives it a slightly comical feel which detracts from the overwhelming stirring of emotions. The early live versions are so strong it can move you to tears.
Honestly, "choosing words for their sound" is the point of poetry anyway. I think it's in "Black Orpheus" where Sartre makes that comparison. In prose, he says, words are vehicles for meaning, but in poetry their aesthetic nature is also important.
Cedric from Mars Volta is similarly willing to write nonsense lyrics that sound good. Late-period King Crimson often gets that way, too.
I find it so refreshing that you guys are not afraid to talk about your personal spiritual beliefs! Anderson is a universalist but has done gospel albums. I am a Christian but absolutely love this band. Thinking man's music!
trying to figure out YES lyrics is like trying to put together a puzzle with a billion pieces.
Thanks so much, you're right - life is good. That symphonic section! I don't think any band really hit the idea of the Grand Musical Theme like this band. Fabulous!
It’s empathy. always. you have it, or you don’t.
seeing them live blew me away .never though they could replicate the sound from studio ,, how wrong was i
On religion, Anderson is, I believe, a universalist. Raised Christian but the 60s brought in Hinduiism and Buddhism to pop culture (Close to the Edge).
One of the greatest songs EVER made! Should be included in a time capsule for future civilizations to discover.
You got it. Life WAS really good when I was 19 and heard this for the first time, in 1972. Every Yes song is a journey that varies every time you hear it. Hippy dippy and trippy. As were the times. Understanding Jon's lyrics is a strenuous mental excercise and After 50 years I think they're not decipherable on a logical basis. They can and do affect the listener on an emotional level.
Yes is a band unlike no other, and one of my top 3 favourites. I loved your interpretation!
"Every Yes song is a journey that varies every time you hear it." 100% agree. It's timeless music that people will be listening to till there are no more people. It the progression of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd etc. etc. etc. fused together for eternity.
There's a version of this that they did with an orchestra in 2001 that I consider the definitive version. The studio version is obviously fantastic as you can see and is the right place to start, but the orchestral version moves me to tears every time I hear it.
My favorite song of theirs and "Yes" is my second favorite group behind only "Pink Floyd"! Depending on what kind of a mood I'm in one or the other is usually playing in my house!! This is such an ethereal song! One of my favorite memories it was years ago playing this song out in the Eastern White Mountains of Arizona in the wilderness among the Mountain Meadows and it just fit perfectly! Such a great song!!
Thank you for reacting to the greatest band ever: YES!!!
On my list of best Love songs ever
Coins and crosses - I think he meant money and gifts.
After hearing this.. and hearing you both, I really appreciate you.. thank you very much.. for sharing! Keep doin.. God bless you both!
If you start with knowing that the divine is within you and all around you Yes music becomes a spiritual journey. To think that Jon Anderson is self taught, Steve Howe self taught and Chris Squire self taught but he was a church choir boy, one must assume that the divine had a hand in their talent. Never conflate dogma with faith
I've listened to Yes steadily for 45 years accept when I was converted to Christianity, for several years I didn't listen to rock or modern music. I started listening again because all the church music became modernized and ended up back with Yes as my go to. For me they are the most talented, creative and diligent band in the modern era, their music takes me to another place like no other. In other words "transcendent", way to preach it Vin, Jesus lives!
Watching both of you listening to this reminds me of Highschool hanging out with my friends. We listened heavily to Yes and Pink Floyd, usually somewhat under the influence, but the memories have barely faded. We saw Yes in concert I believe in '78 at Madison Square Garden, they were spectacular.
I cannot believe that people actually pay you to react to a song. That just boggles my mind to no end.
Thats amazing to me ....musical psychiatrist? Lol...one couple rakes in 95k a year through merchandising....etc..they have 254k members
Sorry guys, though there can be many vague interpretations, don't allow your Christian mindsets to cloud it's basic meanings, some of which does hint at ONE's perception of The Ultimate Divine Source of Existence. The YOU is that Force and how together through Love, we discover our deeper connection, appreciation & understanding of the wondrous Divine Nature of Things we seek within. This is a Spiritual Love song! The music itself is viscerally and deliberately pastoral and along with the lyrics suggest we are in a Natural setting, a place from which to discover life's true meaning. Thus the instrumental crescendo is Us now connecting to Thy Source. "A Man conceived a moment's answer to the Dream. Stay in the flowers daily sensing all the themes". "All complete in the sight of seeds of Life with YOU" . Yeah, Money & Religion can and often does corrupt this goal. "Coins and crosses never know their fruitless worth", when "Chords are broken locked inside The Mother Earth. Too often We do disconnect but the link exist within Nature. The singer, Jon Anderson has been quoted as saying "It's all about the reasons that We call to discover our connection with the Divine". "And You & I reach out for reasons to CALL! )))))))))))))))))))"
If you’re keen to listen to this jam again, I really suggest this version ( ruclips.net/video/AYmeJlm7Gcg/видео.html ). They’ve gotten better with age, and the orchestra accompaniment elevates it to another level.
Agree
Yes the studio version always sounds too rushed after you've heard them really stretch out with it played live.
That was a good rection. You didn't stop the song at all. I guarantee "Close to the Edge will be a 10".
I am 63 years old. I first heard this song when I was a young kid when it came out in 1972 and I bought the album. I first saw this band perform the song live in 1975 when I was 15 years old. You are quite right about the memory thing. Something magical about their music. And in concert they made this song and all their songs sound like thunder and lightning. Far heavier in concert, almost like heavy metal which did not exist then. They also had the biggest light shows in the business back in the 1970s. I had never even seen laser beams and all the other light systems that they had until I went to their concerts. I still go to their concerts.
"You and I" by The Yes has to be, by far, the most recent song I have ever heard in this madcap Manhattan lifetime of yours truly. Proust talked of privileged moments, and listening to certain classics by The Yes, will put hair on your chest, proverbially speaking, and take it off if too much is there. And this is why we love The Yes and "You and I". Words! Thank y'all and stay groovy. It is important.
You’re quite right. Loved this in my teens; love in my 50s
And yes it’s a love song ❤
Watch the live version in the film YESSONGS.
Better yet go see them live. Twice for me. In 1978 and 2022. Absolutely fantastic!
You have a blissfull Yes journey ahead my friends!
I once saw an interview with Bill Bruford, and I am paraphrasing here that he once asked Jon Anderson what a song was about. Jon went on a twenty minute dissertation and at it's conclusion, Bill said, "yes, but what it the song about?"
I have been listening to Yes since I was five years old, I am now fifty-six. Everyone enjoys music their own way, but if you don't mind some advice. Don't try to understand the lyrics, let them and the music take your mind where it will go.
As Rick Wakeman once said, "NASA is spending billions of dollars to go to Mars. They should just ask Jon. He's already been there!"
Rick also said "Jon was trying to change the planet whilst living on different one".
Imagine the cojones it took to tell your record company, "yeah, we have an new album idea. It will be three songs in total." I can never pick my favourite among the Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge but for today it will be Close to the Edge!
"A man conceived a moments answer to a dream." We all live but for a moment. Only a short time. Man's birth, humans, are the answer to God's dream. He thought it up, and did it. We are what God was trying to do and had been dreaming of. You are important to God. A big statement.
This is my second favourite Yes song. My favourite is Turn of the Century.
I sang this song to my daughter when she was young to go to sleep. Best Yes album, and my favorite song.
Spot on, life was good when this came out. But it always makes me happy to listen to again. This music is still good and life is still good. But in high school, this came out in an era when we would gather at someone's house whose parents were gone, and get high and listen to entire albums like this one. And that was when there weren't full on backyard parties with full bands (like Van Halen in my area). These things don't exist any longer. Poor kids nowadays.
And you and I climb,
Crossing the shapes of the morning.
And you and I reach,
Over the sun for the river.
And you and I climb,
Clearer towards the movement.
And you and I called,
Over valleys of endless seas...🤔
Watch some early concert footage. Masterful.
dont try to figure out yes lyrics, Rick once said that Jon was the only guy he knew who was trying to save the planet while living on a completely different one...Jon often refers to his disillusionment and dislike of organised religion, while still being totally spiritual and believing in God
Yeah, don't worry about the lyrics. Jon Anderson wrote via a stream of conscious. I've listened to this album a hundred times and never thought much about the lyrics. The music is supreme and stands on its own, singular and spectacular . You're only going to hurt yourself trying to discern meaning. 😅🤣😂
You've still got to hear gems such as 'Starship Trooper' from The Yes Album, the epic title track from Close To The Edge and the pristine magnificence of Fragile. Some of the band's earlier stuff is also worth a listen, particularly their cover of Stephen Stills' 'Everydays'.
It seems they only react when paid thus suggestions on here an utter waste of time.
You are such a beautiful couple, mate! 🙂
As A JW Faith Is Important For Hope
C'mon... Tell me you didn't have a deep desire to hold her close
Many times… Jon Anderson’s lyrics are best appreciated for their sound in relation to the overall song. They don’t necessarily make any kind of sense. Jon will be the first to admit that. It’s nice that you’re trying to interpret them… But sometimes that’s a fool’s errand. Yes that’s an overall sound.
What about Emerson Lake and Palmer live Montreux jazz festival 1997 Tarkus or Pictures at an Exhibition ✌🏼❤️
Check out the Yessongs version. Even better!
Gates of Delirium or Awaken next? ❤
It's called And You & I
Please please do. Starship trooper Symphonic. You'll get it.
Jon Anderson dedicated this to his wife during a concert in the early 2000s. I definitely think it was a romantic muse. When I first heard this in 1972, I was 17, and just loved it (and the entirety of Close to the Edge) for its spaciness. The older I got, the more I understood about relationships, the more I appreciated it as an entre' to an intimate relationship.Whether that relationship was romantic or beatific, I don't know... or care. I just like the sound of it!
I have no idea why you folks projected anything religious onto this. I don't think it necessarily has that attribute.
Lyrics certainly open to interpretation. My take: about contact with the higher self through meditation. Seems like Jon has said he was reading Buddhist and Hindu writings at the time this was written.
oh my god....just play the song...
One somg as whole album.
"Sloooowww Dooowwnnnnn"
You NEVER REACT TO YOUR PATREONS here
Jon Anderson said that when he wrote lyrics was always stoned. So...
Trying to come to a conclusion about Yes lyrics . . .🤔
Coins and crosses, I always took to mean that materialistic ideas of the human being is meaningless and the true path is to surrender to love.
As did Christ.
Wow someone is a huge Yes fan $$$......I could never get into their music, but I appreciate their talent.
i dont understand why you dont say what you think about music, you always speak of lyrics
Please, dude, either stop yelling or turn your mic down. You are too loud and piercing.
Jon anderson epic