"Siberian Khatru" is the third song on the albumClose to the Edge by English progressive rock bandYes. Live versions of the song are included on the albums Yessongs, Keys to Ascension, Live at Montreux 2003 and In the Present – Live from Lyon. Multiple performances of the song are included on the 2015 boxed-set , which features seven complete consecutive concerts recorded on the band's late 1972 North American tour. According to an interview with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, "Khatru means 'as you wish' in the Yemeni dialect of Arabic. When we were working on it, I kept singing the word over and over again, even though I had no idea what it meant. I asked somebody to look it up for me, and when they told me the meaning, it worked for the song."
Structure
"Siberian Khatru" is primarily in the key of G major and related modes such as Mixolydian. The song is typical of Yes' music of this period, featuring abstruse lyrics, complex time signatures and polyrhythms, and it is divided into multiple sections, with alternating vocal and instrumental passages with many of the vocal sections harmonized in at least three part harmony. The album version begins with an introductory guitar riff, after which the main instrumental theme is introduced. The structure of the main theme is a four-measure phrase consisting of three bars in common time and the last bar in 3/4. This theme is repeated until the verse section begins. The lyrics start at about 1:05. The song progresses through various sections, featuring an electric sitar solo by Steve Howe, a harpsichord solo by Rick Wakeman, a steel guitar solo by Howe, and finally an electric guitar solo by Howe. There are several polymetric sections featuring the guitar, playing in 7/8 meter with bass and drums playing in 4/4 meter. Before the final section there is a harmonized vocal section which features vocables- rhythmically precise vocal stabs and no actual words, sung with nonsense syllables. The coda section is similar to the introduction, returning to the main instrumental theme with a guitar soloon top of it, which fades out to the end of the track. In live performances of the period, when it was regularly used as the opening number, the final chord of the pre-recorded "walk-on" music was cross-faded into a bridging minor-key Mellotron passage, followed by the opening guitar riff, and was usually concluded with a reprise of opening riff.
Music inspired by "Siberian Khatru"
, the guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, has cited the guitar solo at the end of "Siberian Khatru" as an influence for his own guitar solo on the 1999 Red HotChili Peppers song "Get on Top": "I was thinking about Steve Howe's solo at the end of Yes' "Siberian Khatru". The band sound is really big — and they're playing fast — and then this clean guitar comes out over the top. It's really beautiful, like it's on its own sort of shelf. For "Get on Top", I wanted to play something that would create a contrast between the solo and the background."
