So I've been listening to a bit of latter-day Yes lately, and was wondering if anyone else considers the following as their official Yes canon:
1 - Yes
2 - Time And A Word
3 - The Yes Album
4 - Fragile
5 - Close To The Edge
6 - Tales From Topographic Oceans
7 - Relayer
8 - Going For The One
9 - Tormato
10 - Drama
11 - 90125
12 - Big Generator
13 - ABWH
14 - Union
15 - Talk
16 - Keystudio/Keys To Ascension/Know (original working title)
17 - Open Your Eyes
18 - The Ladder
19 - Magnification
20 - Fly From Here
I include ABWH because, really, it is Yes, just a side-version of Yes, and it's more Yes than any other bands with Yesmen in the 80's had (like Asia, which had Howe and Downes). Besides, including ABWH is essential in the chronology to better understand where and how Union came about.
I also would group them in chunks of five:
1-5 = "The Bruford Years", the formation of where Yes started to what made them famous
6-10 = "The Anderson/Squire/Howe/White" years, where this line-up made the most albums and continues/finishes their classic era
11-15 = "The Rabin/Dual-Yes" era, which includes the 3 Rabin-made albums, as well as ABWH and the often misunderstood Union
16-20 = "Latter Day Yes", and while it began with the classic line-up doing the Keys material, it changed a bit with OYE and The Ladder, which turned them back into something different that carried over into Magnification. Oddly enough, FFH ends this group just as Drama did back then, the Downes/Horn pair on both ends each group of 10 albums (the first 10 and the last 10), as they introduce old material that didn't make it on Drama.
It's all very fitting, and it will be interesting to see where Yes go next, especially now that Benoit David is out and Jon Davidson is in.
-Marc.