Pop Song 246 of 500 'Roundabout' Yes 1971

Pop Song 246 of 500 'Roundabout' Yes 1971

The song originated in March 1971 when the band were on tour promoting The Yes Album (1971), travelling from Aberdeen to Glasgow after a gig in Aviemore, Scotland. They encountered many roundabouts on the way; Anderson claimed "maybe 40 or so", which inspired Anderson and Howe to write a song about the journey as they sat in the back of the band's transit van, and include the roundabouts and the surrounding mountains into the lyrics. Anderson had smoked cannabis during the trip, "so everything was vivid and mystical". Anderson added: "It was a cloudy day, we couldn't see the top of the mountains. We could only see the clouds because it was sheer straight up ... I remember saying, "Oh, the mountains–look! They're coming out of the sky!", and began to write the song's lyrics in his notebook in a free-form style with minimal edits. "I just loved how words sounded when I put them together". Within 24 hours, the band had arrived back home in London where Anderson reunited with his then wife Jennifer, which inspired the song's lyric "Twenty-four before my love, you'll see, I'll be there with you". A loch they passed as they neared Glasgow became the idea behind the line "In and around the lake". Upon their arrival at their hotel in Glasgow, Anderson and Howe began to put down song ideas on their recorder.[6]

In August 1971, Yes regrouped in London to prepare material for their fourth album, Fragile. Early into the sessions, keyboardist Tony Kaye was fired from the group over his lack of interest in learning more keyboards to expand the band's sound, and was replaced by Rick Wakeman. The group then moved to Advision Studios in September 1971 to record Fragile with audio engineer Eddy Offord as their co-producer, using a 16-track recording machine to layer their ideas at which point, Howe later said, "The song became pure magic".The rhythm tracks were recorded first, in separate sections. Fragile contains four group-performed songs with five solo tracks written and arranged by each member; "Roundabout" is one of such collaborative tracks