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Jerry's Vintage Tune Of The Day #67
128 sats \ 4 comments \ @JerryGarcia 10 Feb 2024 Music

Yes are an English progressive rock band formed in 1968. The band members were all virtuosos in the craft, in my opinion. Steve Howe is one of my favorite guitar players of all time. The song I selected showcases his virtuosity, which was performed live with just Steve and his guitar. If you've never heard this, you're in for a treat. Here's The Clap:

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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @Bitman 10 Feb 2024

A small factoid on the title:

From Wikipedia > Howe's solo acoustic tune, "Clap" (incorrectly titled "The Clap" in original album pressings)

In accidentally changing the title to, 'The clap' it greatly subverts the title a lot.

Instead of being written as a celebration that Steve Howe's son Dylan had been born, the additional word changed the meaning entirely so that it sounded like it was written about a sexually transmitted disease.

'The clap' is slang for gonorrhea.

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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @JerryGarcia OP 10 Feb 2024

I heard that story too. I always wondered why, if it's true, he introduces the song on the live recording, made before the album was released, as "The Clap." You can clearly hear it.

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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bitman 10 Feb 2024

You're quite right, and that incorrect title was picked up and used until recently...

https://web.archive.org/web/20131220052043im_/http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/features/yes-album/steve-howe-acoustic-corbis-630-80.jpg

Steve Howe talks The Yes Album track-by-trackSteve Howe talks The Yes Album track-by-track

https://web.archive.org/web/20131220024110/http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/steve-howe-talks-the-yes-album-track-by-track-568616/3/

²/6 Clap

“I was so happy that Yes were open to having this type of song on the album, but I didn’t have a title. Jon said, ‘Why don’t you call it Clap?’ And I said, ‘That’s great – Clap.’ It was so simple and innocent.

“We recorded it live with Eddy Offord [at the Lyceum Theatre in London]. He used a Revox A77 going at 15 i.p.s. on quarter-inch tape. I think he put up a couple of really good mics up, but I’m not sure what they were. The only problem with the song was when Jon mis-announced it on stage and called it ‘The Clap,’ when it’s really just called ‘Clap.’ On the new CDs it’s written out correctly, but on the old albums it’s called ‘The Clap.’

“It’s the first song I ever wrote, and I think it’s really a good piece. I wrote it on the 4th of August in 1969, when my oldest son, Dylan, was born. The very night that he was born, I finished the song. Originally, it was a dedication to Chet Atkins, but then it became a dedication to Dylan.

“It combined a lot of things I’d learned or imagined. I always wanted to write music, and when I decided to write solo guitar music, it was earth-shattering inside, because suddenly I was an independent person. I could stand up on stage and play Clap. That meant as much to me as it did to be in Yes.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @JerryGarcia OP 10 Feb 2024

Thanks for posting this! I always thought that sounded like Jon Anderson introducing the song. I never knew the details. Am I correct that I have found a fellow Yes fan?

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