Yes: Isolated Bass on “Heart of the Sunrise”

The 1971 Yes album, Fragile ends with “Heart of the Sunrise”, a bass-heavy track anchored by the one and only Chris Squire.

Here’s the bass line in all its glory, with a little bit of the rest of the track bleeding through.

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Share your thoughts

  1. Daniel Bonin

    Great. Now it would be nice to have some Ray Schulmann isolate bass track

  2. I love hearing these because its nice to hear that even Chris Squire was a little sloppy, a little buzzy. I feel like sending this to sound guys and engineers who constantly complain about fret noise and clicks in this quantize sick world we live in.

    • Bram

      Hahahah exactly what I thought when I heard it but given the time it was recorded in, truly great line

  3. sonofabitch! That is some crazy pickstyle. I have always loved the song but hearing it all by itself is amazing!

  4. Tommie

    Love this track and the bass sound! To bad there’s no mention of the kind of tremolo/vibrato effect there is used.

  5. Nice! However, it would have been better if they had included the bass overdubs. There are a couple parts (essentially the chorus’) where Chris played ascending and descending arpeggiated chords over the root bass line with a lot of the low end taken out to keep them from sounding too muddy.

  6. james

    Hi guys. Actually the tremelo effect on this track was from a vintage marshall guitar head that had tremelo built in. Pre master volume English model. Not a “bass amp” per say. But a nice gritty edge. Also check out the very cool original recording of starship trooper. More great tremelo marshall bass tones!

  7. David Hughes

    I’ve always wanted to know how Chris switched from the bridge-only pickup to both pickups at 6:57. At least that’s what it sounds like he did to me.

  8. David Hughes

    I’ve always wanted to know how Chris switched from the neck-only pickup to both pickups on the fly at 6:57. At least that’s what it sounds like to me. I don’t the the characteristic “click” when the change is made.

  9. Jim

    Chris was my all time favorite bass player.