South Side of the Sky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- 12 November 1971 (UK)
- 4 January 1972 (US)
- 8:04
| "South Side of the Sky" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Yes | |
| from the album Fragile | |
| Released |
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| Recorded | September 1971 |
| Genre | |
| Length |
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| Label | Atlantic |
| Songwriter(s) |
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| Producer(s) |
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"South Side of the Sky" is a song by progressive rock band Yes from their album Fragile.
It opens with the sound of a howling wind, then the song starts after a thunder-strike, bursting into a heavy, riff-dominated rock song. At around 2:08, Rick Wakeman's piano comes in along with another few seconds of wind. At around 3:19, Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Jon Anderson start singing wordless vocal harmonies along with the piano. This continues until about 5:42, when the earlier heavy riff part returns, with the wind in the background. The song fades out in the end to the same howling wind that occurred throughout.
Ultimate Classic Rock critic Ryan Reed described the song as being Yes' 6th heaviest song saying that "Howe goes wild with some of his most ferocious guitar tones...and engineer Eddy Offord sharpens every angular riff into a dagger."[2]
Anderson stated that "This is a song about climbing mountains. It’s dangerous, but we all must climb mountains every day."[3]
The original and a new "acoustic" version of this song, with piano as the dominant instrument and without the sound effects, appears on the 2004 U.S. version of the three-disc compilation album The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection. This new version is on the third disc, which consists of material newly recorded for the album, while the original version of the track appears on the first.[citation needed]