Yes: All things about their 50th Anniversary Tour

I'd like to think that "YesWest" kept the Cinema name in a parallel universe, leaving the door open for Howe and Wakeman to rejoin or leave Yes as they saw fit over the course of the 1980s before we finally got Union... Oh, and Bruford left those horrible electronic drums in the practice room!

 

Going by what I saw in the video "In the Big Dream," about the making of the album, Howe was glad to be back with Jon again. He said he thought "it was time."

Of course, he could have been putting on a good face (though that's not one of his strengths), but he looked happy (again, not necessarily a normal state). You see Steve playing the intro to quartet to a tape, where he seems to be enjoying his riffs (which I quite like). This segues into a great full version of the song- unfortunately not on the album.

One of my fave videos ever: it starts w/ Jon sitting in a chair, in the background you hear "you are now entering into the realms of fantasy..." while the camera slowly moves in on Jon, centered on his eye, until... you go right through to the explosion of a colors and shapes. The whole thing is edging towards saccharine and smarmy, but I think Jon is sincere and I love it.

But my original point is I feel Steve was engaged- but again we differ: quelle surprise!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't BB first use electronic kit with Crimson?

 

Yes, Simmons and with Roto-toms and other acoustic drums.

 

Yeah. And i still don't particularly care for it, but 80's Crimson was making music that even today seems to exist out of it's time...it sounded like it was coming from the future, and so it made sense for Bill to expand his sounds and use new technology, since he was playing new music (and thus new drum parts), and also working with other band members who were doing the same. But when going out on a nostalgia tour playing stuff from 1972, it didn't fit at all. It's so odd, too...the man was absolutely the master at playing his kit in the most musical way, and very much a delicate touch, and to replace it with that awful electric snare sound that seemingly only had one velocity setting and took all the nuance out of his snare hits was so puzzling.

 

I think that Bill is just a bit odd himself and to him that electronic kit was not the norm and Bill is not the norm. It did pretty much ruin most of the songs though. I wonder if the other guys in the band even cared. That awful snare sound just ruins all the songs and took away most of the dynamics that were so great on albums like Fragile and CTTE.

 

As a (retired) drummer myself, the main thing that bothered me about Bill using electronic drums on the Union tour in particular was how little his playing contributed to the overall sound. On many of the "YesWest" tracks, he'd often just provide a percussive backing that often wasn't there on the original studio versions, leaving much of the heavy lifting to Alan, who was at least more tasteful in his use of pads for effects based on what I've heard from the 9012Live and Big Generator tours. Also, from experience with some of the earliest style e-drums, they didn't just lack velocity settings, but were an absolute nightmare on your hands after just a few minutes - good riddance to 'em!

 

I wasn't old enough at that point to really be aware of the current musical culture. I love so much music from that decade now, but I wonder if, by 1988-89, artificial drum sounds were so prominent in everything that the rest of the band didn't even blink. Alternately, perhaps the union (no pun intended) of those four was so fragile, that no one was going to risk saying anything that might disrupt it.

I remember an interview with Bill talking about that specifically, saying Alan was the "meat and potatoes" and Bruford was...something else, I can't really remember. But their styles were so different, it wasn't like pairing up complimentary drummers in an Allmans/Dead situation...one of them had to take the lead, and of course it was going to be White, whose style is heavier, more direct, and more arena-ready than Bruford's. Whereas Crimson's multi-drummer setup rearranged old material to feature the drummers, Yes didn't really make any changes, they just went out and played the songs the same way they had in the past, just with more people onstage. I'm sure it wasn't a particularly great experience for Bruford artistically, but he's a pro, and went out and did his job and got his paycheck.

 

I've only recently discovered Yes, but I find the Union period fascinating more for what didn't happen rather than the miracle that was so many musicians sharing the same stage (if not a studio as well - Rick was absolutely right to call the resulting album "Onion" in retrospect because of how much it makes him cry listening back to this). For one, it's interesting to see how little Steve was involved with the YesWest songs, and I would have been interested to see what Rick and Jon might have brought to material from Drama. Maybe when the inevitable Re-Union takes place?

 

Just saw Dr.Bill Bruford at the R&RHOF on Wed.for a 2 hour interview and Q&A.....very interesting. He didn't bring up anything about a reunion.

 

Wow completely disagree ABWH is a fabulous album and much better than anything Trevor Rabin has ever done...still listen to it today and that tour blows all of that Rabin stuff by a wide margin, the best yes I ever saw was that tour

 

Yeah, he said that, but it's not quite true in my eyes!

I get that some people love it though.

I like Talk as an album, but I find everything after the "Silent Spring" section of "Endless Dream" to be pretty boring. And I like a lot of boring music! I've been trying to really like that piece of music since release day in 1994. I don't hate it or anything, I just can't get into it. And I have trouble finding anything in there that has the passion, soul or even the organic melodic sense of some of Yes' greatest music.

There is some wonderful music on Talk, and I can see why members of that lineup find it their strongest album. It certainly seems to be the most collaborative, at least in a sense that they all seemed to be positive and happy with their contributions, but I wouldn't call it Yeswest's strongest album. Again... just my own opinion.

I don't know, it's pretty equal... And I mean that all around. When Yes is weak, it's hard for me to say 'this Yes is weaker than that Yes'. I mean, weak is weak. I think the problem most have is that they have their own personal preferences on members. And it's brutal, fans will say "Trevor Rabin is the greatest guy in the world" and then all of a sudden it's like "Almost Like Love" is a million times better than "Close to the Edge". Or I'm a Steve Howe guy therefore "Teakbois" is a masterpiece next to "Owner of a Lonely Heart". - And although I prefer certain types of music or certain styles of playing to others, I try to just hear it all with a clean slate. So I'll take each album for what it is. I don't expect Trevor Rabin to sound like Steve Howe on guitar. And I don't expect Tony Kaye to sound like Rick Wakeman. Nor do I really want it that way.

I can criticize most of their albums for something if I wanted to, but the only album I think I could really negatively dig into honestly and openly would be Union. And that's mostly because there is little on that album that was actually what the main contributors wanted. It's not honest and frankly a lot of it just isn't very good. The other annoying thing is, there are several of those songs out there in rough mixes that are a million times better than what made the album. It could have been a much better album. - The tour sure was awesome though.

 

Talk is crap

 

Lol

 

You were born in the eighties? Now that explains a lot....ok we come from different generations so our tastes are sure to be different, you weren't around when yes was good

 

And openly admitted he did it for the paycheck. Always forthright, BB. Class act all the way.

 

Talk is cheap...

Yes - Talk

ABWH is even cheaper...

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe - Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe

 

Hollandaise sauce.

The return of Bruford, Wakeman & Howe occurred under less than ideal circumstances, but I'm glad I got the chance to see the 1989 and 1991 tours. It was fantastic to see the complete Yes Album lineup onstage for "Yours Is No Disgrace."

 

Call me crazy, but I didn't have a problem with Bruford using electronic drums on the ABWH record. When he comes in with them about 10 seconds into Order of the Universe, I air drum to those electronic snare hits every single time. Very cool effect. And I can't imagine Themes without them.

 

Very true. Check out the two Bruford Levin Upper Extremities albums. They are amazing. Added bonus is David Torn's guitar playing. Even Chris Botti managed to be interesting here, unlike everything else he's ever done.

 

Hey, people are discussing a classis YES album, not what comes out your mouth

 

No, but I've spent a considerable amount of time with their entire catalog. I think my Top 5 would be Relayer, CTTE, Drama, Talk, and TYE.

 

fellow 80s born those picks are actually kinda similar to me if I were forced to pick. probably would swap the yes album out as I prefer those tracks live I'll replace it with the even more controversial for some reason keystudio.

don't let the old folks get ya down I've noticed they tend to get sticks up their asses at some point.

 

If you were around at the time of an album's release, I'm sure that affects your thoughts on it and all the subsequent music. I wish I'd been born earlier to get to see all the good stuff, but on the other hand, when I discovered Yes in high school, I basically explored their entire catalog at once, without any preconceived notions or biases against certain albums or lineups. (Same with Rush, who I got into around the time of Test For Echo. I loved their 80's stuff as much as the 70's, since luckily there was no one around telling me otherwise)