ABSTRACT

Yes's “Close to the Edge” models masculinity in a manner similar to many examples of sonata form by purging feminine elements to achieve closure and by using form as a primary locus of musical pleasure. 1 I experience this construction of masculinity as a negotiation of contrasting relations to the closet: the body-denying nature of formal listening was a component of my closeted adolescence, while the purging of femininity evokes pleasures of bonding with straight men as an openly gay person. This understanding differs from readings of “Close to the Edge” that focus on long sections of formal ambiguity and the absence of heterosexual romantic lyrics as a basis for queer identification. 2 In rare moods, I myself hear the song on these terms. However, I temporarily took an intensified pleasure in the song after noticing a troublesome masculinity. This pleasure contradicted my queer identity informed primarily by feminism and cross-identification with lesbians. The tension between a queer identity marginalized by traditional masculinity and taking pleasure in that very masculinity raises the question of how musical pleasure can be sites of disidentification, as much as identification. 3