Sometimes it takes me awhile to "get" it...

I don't think I would generally be considered dense. However, I have occasional bouts of being slow sometimes. Rarely, though, does it happen twice in relation to the same subject.

What am I talking about here?

Well, this morning, as I rode into Oxford on the Water Eaton Park 'N Ride bus, the song that my little Nano chose for me was Yes' famous "Your Move" + "All Good People" from their classic 1971 album "The Yes Album".


I'm not sure if I've ever actually heard that song through personal-stereo-type headphones before. And while I was recently in Singapore, I bought some really cool Sony phones which have some degree of noise-reduction as well. They have really exceptional sound.

So as I listened to the "Your Move" portion of the song, just as the organ comes in -- and just before the "All Good People" part -- I noticed some vocals in the left channel. I'd never heard them before. Previously, I'd only heard the background refrain of "Don't... surround yourself...with...your--self."

The voices I noticed in the left channel could clearly be heard to be singing "All we are say--ing....is give peace a chance." They sang it twice. And I was stunned to hear this for the very first time!

So before beginning this blog entry, I turned to my new favorite resource -- Wikipedia -- to see if there were any comments about my observation. There weren't in the Wikipedia article about "The Yes Album" (which is linked above), but I noticed there was a link to a page about the song itself within the article. And lo and behold, there it was -- the reference to the Lennon song! (By the way, you'll find a corresponding reference to Yes in the Wikipedia article about "Give Peace a Chance", too.)

It's amazing to me that I'd never noticed this before!

I'm reminded that when "The Yes Album" was first released and I heard "Your Move" + "I've Seen All Good People" for the first couple of times, I didn't notice that the "Your Move" words were referencing the game of chess. I think somebody mentioned it -- or a DJ made the comment on the radio -- I'm not sure. But I figured my excuse for that oversight was that I'm not a chess player. I'm sure that those who play the game spotted the meaning of the lyrics immediately.

So this is the second discovery about this one particular song!

Is my discovery this morning also news to anybody else out there, or am I the only Yes fan in the world to have remained oblivious to the fact that "Your Move" contained a peace message? Do let me know, OK?

Janet

PS. A postscript, since getting home. I told John about this, and he was unaware of it as well. You know, I believe he enjoyed the discovery of the Lennon refrain as much as I had earlier in the day!