Are The Yes Album, CttE and GftO the best 3 of Yes

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 Yesshead wrote:

Hello! I just made an account because of this excellent thread.
Well, I agree with the OP's premises. As a long-term Yessfan, I, for
one, do consider The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, and Going for
the One to be truly the best three studio albums by the band.
The
Yes Album really signalled a sea change in their sound, featuring amazing and
classic Yessongs like Yours Is No Disgrace and Starship Trooper, and Close to the Edge, with its grand structure and spiritual themes—not
just the title track but also other songs like it—is frequently regarded
as the peak of early 1970s prog-rock in general. Going for the
One, on which the real Yes-keyboardist returned to the band and the
jazz-rock tendencies showcased on the confused Relayer were abandoned
regarding new material, indeed successfully combines accessibility with
complexity, featuring standout "easy listening" songs such as the
beautiful Wonderous Stories and the drumless masterpiece Turn of the Century,
while on the other side, Yes was demonstrating their fully grown ability
to create a perfect intricate yet still pleasant long-form with Awaken,
featuring a church organ instead of jazz-rock bursts like on the side-long track from the previous studio album.

That phrase 'the real Yes keyboardist' is very interesting! It seems that Rick seriously got the hump after TFTO so left. Relayer is then a fearless bold step into the future and everything that progressive rock should be. Fast forward a few years and the management are begging Wakeman to return. This can't possibly be for commercial reasons as Wakeman was shifting serious amounts of units with Six Wives, Journey, King Arthur and the White Rock albums all charting high? Perhaps I'm just a natural born cynic 