Author Topic: The Official Yes Thread  (Read 257166 times)

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Offline gazinwales

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1925 on: May 15, 2017, 02:47:02 AM »
What's the general opinion on ABWH?
I had it on cassette many years ago, finally got the remastered CD, sounds pretty good, but a little dated.
I guess the most noticeable two things are Bruford's simmons (electronic) drums and lack of bass prowess.

Offline IDontNotDoThings

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1926 on: May 15, 2017, 02:59:12 AM »
Pretty solid beginning, but the final third bring it down a ton for me. I rank it low overall but if they cut it after Quartet it'd probably make at least top 12.
ドリームシアターはあまり好きではありませんが、ペンと紙を持っていたので、なんてこった。

Offline Stadler

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1927 on: May 15, 2017, 09:53:27 AM »
I RARELY say this kind of thing, but for me, ABWH suffers for no Chris Squire.   I feel like Anderson's voice and Howe's guitar are just too... thin, for lack of a better word, without Chris's harmonies (Jon) and unique bass (Steve).   I really do feel like Chris is the only unreplaceable member of that band.  It's the same with Onion.  The only non-Yes-West song I really like is "I Would Have Waited Forever", and guess who sings on that one...

Offline Orbert

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1928 on: May 15, 2017, 10:23:24 AM »
ABWH came out at a time when Yes was on hiatus, but the official lineup was still the 90125 band.  I grabbed ABWH the moment I saw it, because to me, the "real" Yes was back.  Yeah, yeah, arguments about "real" Yes and official and all that.  Didn't matter.  It was a chance to hear four of the five main guys together again.

It does suffer from a lack of Chris Squire, no question, but they had Tony Freakin' Levin on bass, and he's no slouch, definitely a worthy guy to at least cover the low end in a group like this.  The problem IMO is that they didn't let him loose.  He's low in the mix and lacking the punch which Chris would've provided, but that's not his fault at all, and in fact I find it odd that they didn't let him loose.  Let him thump, let him ring, let him pluck, let him sing.  I know Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe were the "name" guys, but if Levin had been more of an equal member in that band, it would have been a stronger band.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1929 on: May 15, 2017, 06:02:59 PM »
I like the ABWh album quite a bit.  The first four songs are all dynamite and Order of the Universe is quite good as well. 

I have no beef at all with Bruford's electronic drums.  Some of his drumming on that record is  :hefdaddy :hefdaddy.  He does a drum fill in the live version of Birthright that is one of my favorite drum fills ever, during the crazy section about halfway into the song.  Looking it up, it is around 4:21 or so, where he does these three quick hits which, combined with what Wakeman is doing at the time, is just pure awesomeness.

Offline Architeuthis

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1930 on: May 16, 2017, 12:00:01 PM »
I love the ABWH album!  Very melodic and has alot of charm, I find myself in a better mood after listening. The live concert filmed on that tour in Concord Ca is amazing!
You can do a lot in a lifetime if you don't burn out too fast, you can make the most of the distance, first you need endurance first you've got to last....... NP

Offline Kwyjibo

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1931 on: May 21, 2017, 10:00:42 AM »
ABWH was and is a great record. Teakbois is a low point but the rest of the songs are good or great, I like it a lot. My favorites are Themes, Birthright, Brother Of Mine, The Meeting and Order Of The Universe.

But as others have said, using Levin to his full potential would have made it even better.

And I'm not sure, but a lot of the rhythm guitars don't sound like Howe's playing to me and I was always wondering if Milton McDonald recorded most of them and Howe only added some leads. Does anyone know something about this?
Must've been Kwyji sending all the wrong songs.   ;D

Offline ytserush

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1932 on: May 28, 2017, 08:05:22 PM »
What's the general opinion on ABWH?
I had it on cassette many years ago, finally got the remastered CD, sounds pretty good, but a little dated.
I guess the most noticeable two things are Bruford's simmons (electronic) drums and lack of bass prowess.

I love it but those Simmons do sound dated. Actually the production sounds dated as well. Music is great though. Prefer the live album.

Offline SoundscapeMN

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1933 on: July 13, 2017, 08:15:45 AM »
of all people, Alec Baldwin interviewed Jon Anderson . Very cool!

https://www.wnyc.org/story/jon-anderson-musical-adventure-isnt-over/

Offline Stadler

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1934 on: July 13, 2017, 09:00:16 AM »
What's the general opinion on ABWH?
I had it on cassette many years ago, finally got the remastered CD, sounds pretty good, but a little dated.
I guess the most noticeable two things are Bruford's simmons (electronic) drums and lack of bass prowess.

I love it but those Simmons do sound dated. Actually the production sounds dated as well. Music is great though. Prefer the live album.

There were some good moments - "Brother Of Mine" was strong - but it was just... I expected a lot more from those particular guys.   I saw the tour, and it was good, but it started with "Time and a Word" (I'm pretty sure there was no Howe), "Owner of a Lonely Heart" (I don't remember if Howe played on that or not) and "Teakbois" (my least favorite song on the record, and the side of Anderson that I really, really, REALLY dislike the most), and I was ready to check out at that point.  Then was Howe's solo spot, so I got the unique privilege of hearing the rarely played "Clap" and "Mood for a Day"...

Offline ytserush

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1935 on: July 22, 2017, 09:02:04 AM »
What's the general opinion on ABWH?
I had it on cassette many years ago, finally got the remastered CD, sounds pretty good, but a little dated.
I guess the most noticeable two things are Bruford's simmons (electronic) drums and lack of bass prowess.

I love it but those Simmons do sound dated. Actually the production sounds dated as well. Music is great though. Prefer the live album.

There were some good moments - "Brother Of Mine" was strong - but it was just... I expected a lot more from those particular guys.   I saw the tour, and it was good, but it started with "Time and a Word" (I'm pretty sure there was no Howe), "Owner of a Lonely Heart" (I don't remember if Howe played on that or not) and "Teakbois" (my least favorite song on the record, and the side of Anderson that I really, really, REALLY dislike the most), and I was ready to check out at that point.  Then was Howe's solo spot, so I got the unique privilege of hearing the rarely played "Clap" and "Mood for a Day"...

Have no idea what you were expecting ("Time And A Word" and "Owner" was a medley.) and aside from the new album the set was pretty much focused on the classics.

Offline Architeuthis

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1936 on: July 22, 2017, 04:35:41 PM »
I have a Yes 4 CD box set that has a really cool song called "Run With the Fox". I never really paid attention to that song before but I listened to it intently the other night and it is awesome. Anybody know which album that's on? I'm assuming Drama, it has a lot of Chris Squire vocals. It's such a fun song to listen to! 🐕
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Offline Orbert

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1937 on: July 22, 2017, 09:42:49 PM »
"Run with the Fox" was something that Chris Squire and Alan White put together, during the Yes hiatus which followed the collapse of the Drama lineup (Horn-Downes-Howe-Squire-White).  It was released as a single around Christmas time 1981, and is credited to Squire and White.  It's not on any album; it's just a rarity that shows up in things like the YesYears box set (which I assume is what you're talking about).

Offline Architeuthis

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1938 on: July 23, 2017, 12:10:24 AM »
Cool, thanks for the info Orbert!  Yeah I have the box set with the yellow packaging. It's cool they included rareties such as RWTF and some studio demos. I also have another cool demo CD called 90124,,  studio out-takes of 90125 with different versions of the songs before Jon Anderson arrived for the final cuts..
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Offline Orbert

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1939 on: July 23, 2017, 07:38:55 AM »
Yeah, 90124 is an interesting one.  Officially, it's Trevor's demos for the songs which ultimately became the album 90125.  Unofficially, I've read more than one thing that seemed to say that people were wondering how much of the 90125 lineup was Trevor, how much was "real Yes" (Anderson, Squire, White) and stuff like that.  90124 answers that question and shows both.  You can hear how much Trevor already had in place, but also how much things changed before the final versions.  Some of that can be attributed to the normal things you might change before recording, and some I'm sure had to do with Jon Anderson never wanting to record anything that he didn't have at least some input into.

Offline Architeuthis

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1940 on: July 23, 2017, 01:12:28 PM »
Songs such as Changes, and It Can Happen were completely different arrangements and with a lot of Squire on the vocals along with Rabin. The final cut 90125 is definitely an improvement, but the 90124 demos are really cool, plus the golden album cover rather than silver on 90125. Good stuff!  :tup
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Offline gazinwales

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1941 on: July 23, 2017, 02:52:39 PM »
Apparently there is supposed to be a 20 minute version of 'Cinema' lying around somewhere.
Rabin was asked about it and why it wasn't on the remaster of 90125, he responded he wasn't asked or contributed to the release.
Hopefully one day it will get an official release.

I think Trevor Horn had a huge influence of the sound of 90125, I am pretty sure he would have been involved with the song arranging.

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1942 on: July 23, 2017, 03:35:30 PM »
Thanks for my cousin I got a 20 bit Japanese remastered version of 90125. It sounds amazing
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Offline Orbert

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1943 on: July 23, 2017, 06:29:41 PM »
Pretty cool!  :tup

Apparently there is supposed to be a 20 minute version of 'Cinema' lying around somewhere.
Rabin was asked about it and why it wasn't on the remaster of 90125, he responded he wasn't asked or contributed to the release.
Hopefully one day it will get an official release.

I think Trevor Horn had a huge influence of the sound of 90125, I am pretty sure he would have been involved with the song arranging.

Yeah, what appears on 90125 as "Cinema" is supposedly the intro section of a larger piece called "Time" that they were working on at one point.  After many years of speculation, there's never been any confirmation that recordings exist of it, even rough demos or anything.  That's a shame.  But I'm sure that if anything was confirmed, we'd know about it.  The guys at YesFans are fanatic.  We'd know.

So anyway, they kept the intro part because it led nicely into "Leave It" but called the piece "Cinema" in memory of the original band name (Squire-White-Rabin at first), before they became the next Yes.

I like Trevor Horn as a singer, writer, and musician, but he really shines behind the boards, and that's where he feels most comfortable.  He definitely helped make 90125 as awesome as it was.

Offline Stadler

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1944 on: July 24, 2017, 06:47:25 AM »
Even though it was put together with duct tape and bailing wire (there's a great article on the making of the record on the Yes site mentioned above), I think "Talk" is one of the best sounding records I own, and that is almost all attributable to Trevor Rabin. 

Offline Architeuthis

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1945 on: July 24, 2017, 08:33:17 AM »
Talk is a great sounding record and one of my fav Yes albums. The kick drum sounds weird but it works for the overall vibe of the album..
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Offline njfirefighter

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1946 on: July 25, 2017, 04:14:19 PM »
I see Talk as a very under appreciated album. I always liked that record. Aside from The Calling, which did get some albeit brief, steady radio play in the Philly area, which has always been a big territory for Yes. The rest of that record pretty much mostly went ignored. I like all of side 1, The Calling and Real Love are my two favorites from that record. Side two needed some time to grow on me but parts of it are very good.   

Offline Orbert

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1947 on: July 25, 2017, 04:47:16 PM »
There are a few reasons why Talk is so underappreciated.  One of the biggies is definitely because it received almost no promotion, because Victory Records filed for bankruptcy shortly after the album was released.  So unless you visited records stores on a regular basis (which some people still did in the 90's), you didn't know it even existed.  Another is that after the Union album, the return of the 90125 lineup caused many longtime fans to just ignore it (and again, that's if they even knew that it existed).

I remember seeing them play "Walls" on the David Letterman show.  I had no idea that Yes had a new album out, and the song seemed fine, but I have to admit that when I saw the lineup, I didn't really give it a fair shake.  Great, more YesWest.  According to one story, Letterman was driving in his car one day and heard "Walls" on the radio.  He actually pulled over and his producer to get Yes on the show.  Talk sold something like 300,000 copies worldwide, probably most of them because of Yes being on the Letterman show.  No one else even knew the album was out.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1948 on: July 25, 2017, 05:44:32 PM »
KSHE here in St Louis actually played the crap out of The Calling for a while, and even Walls got played quite a bit.  In fact, my supervisor at work at the time, after hearing The Calling on the radio and liking it, asked me if Yes had a new singer.  I think Squire's voice being the dominant one in the harmonies of the chorus must have thrown him off.  I can't imagine what else would have made him think they had a new singer.

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1949 on: July 25, 2017, 08:05:45 PM »
Same here in Boston. 
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Offline Architeuthis

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1950 on: July 25, 2017, 09:13:45 PM »
 The Calling and Walls was played a lot in the Seattle, Vancouver BC, and Victoria area for quite a while. Sadly, nothing since the mid nineties. Endless Dream is one of my favorite Yes epics of all time and prhaps one of my fav songs of all time..
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Offline njfirefighter

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1951 on: July 26, 2017, 04:55:03 PM »
Even better than Talk, coming just two years later are two Phenomenal releases by the Anderson, Squire, Howe, White and Wakeman lineup. Keys To Ascension 1 (1996) and Keys to Ascension 2 (1997) Highly recommend both of these. It is the last studio recordings of that lineup featuring a combination of new studio material and live material on both releases and is in my opinion the closest Yes have gotten back to that classic lineup sound since.

Offline Orbert

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1952 on: July 26, 2017, 05:39:17 PM »
Absolutely.  I've heard some say that they were "trying too hard" to recapture the 70's magic, and there may be some validity to that, but in general, I consider the Keys material to be the last great music Yes music.  That's not surprising, since it was also the last music created by the classic lineup.  20 years old now.  Wow.

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1953 on: July 26, 2017, 05:58:56 PM »
I always looked at it going back to their roots.  Nothing wrong with that.
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Offline ytserush

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1954 on: July 26, 2017, 06:41:10 PM »
"Run with the Fox" was something that Chris Squire and Alan White put together, during the Yes hiatus which followed the collapse of the Drama lineup (Horn-Downes-Howe-Squire-White).  It was released as a single around Christmas time 1981, and is credited to Squire and White.  It's not on any album; it's just a rarity that shows up in things like the YesYears box set (which I assume is what you're talking about).

Great box!

Used to be a Christmas staple for a few years. Always reminds me of Christmas.

Offline ytserush

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1955 on: July 26, 2017, 06:43:09 PM »
Yeah, 90124 is an interesting one.  Officially, it's Trevor's demos for the songs which ultimately became the album 90125.  Unofficially, I've read more than one thing that seemed to say that people were wondering how much of the 90125 lineup was Trevor, how much was "real Yes" (Anderson, Squire, White) and stuff like that.  90124 answers that question and shows both.  You can hear how much Trevor already had in place, but also how much things changed before the final versions.  Some of that can be attributed to the normal things you might change before recording, and some I'm sure had to do with Jon Anderson never wanting to record anything that he didn't have at least some input into.

Love that album too. Probably more than I should.  Kind of strange to play 90124 and those Rabin era Yes songs right after.

Offline ytserush

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1956 on: July 26, 2017, 06:50:36 PM »
There are a few reasons why Talk is so underappreciated.  One of the biggies is definitely because it received almost no promotion, because Victory Records filed for bankruptcy shortly after the album was released.  So unless you visited records stores on a regular basis (which some people still did in the 90's), you didn't know it even existed.  Another is that after the Union album, the return of the 90125 lineup caused many longtime fans to just ignore it (and again, that's if they even knew that it existed).
.

That would be the main reason right there.

When your label goes under you're pretty much dead in the water. I'm convinced that's why Dream Theater's first album was a resolute commercial failure. If they had gotten ANY promotion in 1989 they would have been as big as Faith No More was back then. At least Dream Theater would have had a fan base to tap too.

 By 1994, the music industry was already fully fragmented and there weren't many radio stations that would play a new Yes record, but if they had done more TV who knows what could have happened.

Offline ytserush

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1957 on: July 26, 2017, 06:52:11 PM »
Even better than Talk, coming just two years later are two Phenomenal releases by the Anderson, Squire, Howe, White and Wakeman lineup. Keys To Ascension 1 (1996) and Keys to Ascension 2 (1997) Highly recommend both of these. It is the last studio recordings of that lineup featuring a combination of new studio material and live material on both releases and is in my opinion the closest Yes have gotten back to that classic lineup sound since.

I have nothing bad to say about those albums.

Offline njfirefighter

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1958 on: July 26, 2017, 07:07:39 PM »
"Run with the Fox" was something that Chris Squire and Alan White put together, during the Yes hiatus which followed the collapse of the Drama lineup (Horn-Downes-Howe-Squire-White).  It was released as a single around Christmas time 1981, and is credited to Squire and White.  It's not on any album; it's just a rarity that shows up in things like the YesYears box set (which I assume is what you're talking about).

Great box!

Used to be a Christmas staple for a few years. Always reminds me of Christmas.

Speaking of that box set and Christmas in the same sentence reminds me. I need to add that box set to my Christmas list for this year  :biggrin: I have it already, I have the Cassette package  :lol I need it on cd. I remember there was some pretty cool stuff on that. 

Offline Orbert

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Re: The Official Yes Thread
« Reply #1959 on: July 26, 2017, 07:38:38 PM »
As it happens, I got YesYears for Christmas, too, the year it came out.