Keys to Ascension (1996)(Click for larger view)
Jon Anderson - Vocals, Guitar, Harp
Steve Howe - Guitars, Vocals
Chris Squire - Bass, Vocals
Rick Wakeman - Keyboards
Alan White - Drums, Vocals
Live TracksSiberian Khatru
The Revealing Science of God
America
Onward
Awaken
Roundabout
Starship Trooper
Studio TracksBe The One
That, That Is
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Talk was a critical success, generally regarded as the best of the three albums by the
90125 lineup, but it was a commercial failure, having been released on a small label with little to no resources with which to promote it, and which went bankrupt. Trevor and Jon were fighting again, and this time Trevor decided that enough was enough, and he left the band. Tony followed him out the door.
Jon made some phone calls and eventually convinced Rick and Steve to return to Yes. The lineup was now the same as
Tales from Topographic Oceans,
Going for the One, and
Tormato. It had been nearly 20 years since this band had played together (other than being part of the
Union tour), but it was a return to "classic" Yes in much the same way as ABWH had been, and this time with all five members being Yes veterans and with the name Yes on the cover.
They began writing, and Jon got the idea of playing a few shows near his home in San Luis Obispo, California. The Fremont Theater was a small venue, and the idea was that playing live together, under controlled conditions, would be a way to get the old energy back.
They played three shows, and all three were recorded. The seven live tracks here were taking from those recordings. Unfortunately, music as complex as this is a challenge even for musicians of Yes calibre, and the two weeks they had set aside for rehearsal had not proven to be sufficient. Upon listening to the tapes, the band agreed that some overdubs were in order. Three tracks have their vocals almost entirely replaced, and there are instrumental overdubs as well. Still, the band did play all of the music you hear on the album, and four of the songs had never been released on an official live album before, so they were anxious to release it.
By the time the overdubbing and final mastering was done on the live tracks, they had also completed two new studio tracks. One was nearly ten minutes in length and the other was over 19 minutes, a new "epic". Some members of the band, most notably Rick, felt that they should wait until they had a full album's worth of material, which they could then release as a new studio album. Being included as "bonus tracks" on a live album would marginalize the new songs.
But as is the case so many times in Yes history, the suits made the final decision, and in hindsight, it was not for the best. The album was released as a two-disc set, with the live material given primary importance, and the two new songs including as "bonus" tracks. It was given an elaborate package, with a new Roger Dean cover, a booklet with lyrics and extensive liner notes, a poster, and a slipcase over the entire assembly.
It was released by unknown label Essential Records (a division of Castle Communications), given almost no promotion, and became yet another Yes album with great potential, but which few people even knew existed.
Keys to Ascension 2 (1997)(Click for larger view)
Jon Anderson - Vocals, Guitar, Harp
Steve Howe - Guitars, Vocals
Chris Squire - Bass, Vocals
Rick Wakeman - Keyboards
Alan White - Drums, Vocals
Live TracksI've Seen All Good People
Going for the One
Time and a Word
Close to the Edge
Turn of the Century
And You And I
Studio TracksMind Drive
Foot Prints
Bring Me to the Power
Children of Light
Sign Language
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A few months later, the band had completed five more songs, including another epic. Yes management eventually made a deal with yet another small, unknown label, Purple Pyramid (a division of Cleopatra Records) to release the remaining live tracks from the San Luis Obispo recordings, and again include the new songs as "bonus tracks".
The band now had enough material for a new album, and would have had a full CD if they had not released the other two songs. At one point, Jon had even come up with a title for the new album,
Know. But the decision was made to release the remaining live tracks and new studio tracks together as
Keys to Ascension 2. Rick was furious and quit Yes, again.
The new album matched the first
Keys to Ascension, with the two CDs in a single case, another poster, Roger Dean artwork, and a slipcase over the entire package. It was released, given no promotion, and within a year was found in cutout bins in discount stores.
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I have to agree with Rick. This should have been the huge, triumphant return of classic 70's Yes. Seven new songs, including
two epics! They could have shopped this album to Atlantic, their home for so many years, and would have been taken back under their wing. Instead, almost no one even knew that the band was back together, and because of that, it had already broken up again by time the music came out. The only people who knew about it were people such as myself who regularly haunt the record stores and look in the Yes section for CDs to replace their old vinyl. That's how I found both of the
Keys to Ascension releases.
A lot of Yesfans like the new live tracks. Many of these had never been released on an official live album before. But the band is older now, and I'm not sure if it's a given or what, but they play much slower now. To me, "Close to the Edge" is nearly unbearable. Maybe it's supposed to be heavy and driving, but to me it just sounds slow and plodding. "Turn of the Century", one of my favorite Yessongs of all time, is finally played live, but Jon can't hit the high notes anymore, so just as the big musical climax is coming up, they transition to a lower key. It feels like they downshifted, or ran into a huge puddle of mud, with the finish line in sight. A hole opens up and all the energy drains out. Most of the new live material is like that. Great songs, but they should have rehearsed more, or overdubbed less. And it's just too obvious that the vocals were overdubbed in places. There are spots where the sound quality is noticeably different.
I do like the studio tracks. They definitely stand on their own and should have been released as an album. "Mind Drive" is my favorite, but "That, That Is" (the other epic) isn't bad. "Lifeline" (Steve's steel guitar solo which is the closing section to "Children of Light") is amazing. And "Sign Language" is a nice, mellow, instrumental to close out the album.
I read a quote from Chris Squire in an interview years ago, and he mentioned that they had set out to record "a certain amount of new music". I don't know exactly what that meant, but I noticed that the total running time of the seven studio tracks is 74 minutes, the length of a CD in those days. CDs were later expanded to 80 minutes, but they were originally 74 minutes. I know this because in 1997, once I had both of these albums, I looked for a cassette (remember those?) to put the studio tracks on because I didn't have a CD player in my car, and when I went to the store, I was surprised to find that they made 74-minute cassettes. 90 minutes was the standard for years, but since CDs were 74 minutes, so were tapes. For a while, anyway.
In 2001, they finally put the seven studio tracks on a single disc, and even restored Rick's original instrumental intro to "Children of Light", which was excised (in retribution perhaps) when he left the band before the final mastering was done. The disc was given the name
Keystudio, an ugly cover, and no promotion. Some of the tracks were reworked, and it's handy to have them all on a single disc. But it's almost sad to see it now, knowing what it should have been.
A box set was also created, with the four original CDs, and a concert DVD. I've tried to find this, but it's probably out of print and only on Ebay or used on Amazon.
(Click for larger view)