YES "Fly From Here" with re-recorded vocals in 2017?

An update:
Yes Launch New Version of Fly From Here At 50th Anniversary Fan Convention

 

^^^
It looks like the whole album has been remixed with an added bonus of Horns vocal on the title track or has he re-recorded his voice on all the songs? It's not that clear! It will get an eventual commercial release .

 

I also see that there will be a new track. I wonder if this is "Go Through This". I know the live track from the 1980 tour was put out, but I don't remember a studio track. Its definitely not on the Drama cd's bonus tracks...

 

I'm not really understanding the reason for this remix with new vocals from Trevor. I have the original release with the bonus DVD and find it to be fine as it is. I get that Trevor had something to do with the album's production and the impetus of the project was "We Can Fly From Here" which he and Geoff had composed way back during the preemptive Drama days, but I'm just not understanding the need to feature this. Was this something that he and Squire had spoken of before his passing and is it some sort of posthumous tribute? In that light, I suppose it's easier to understand if that were the case; even so, I'd rather be interested in a show during the Drama tour, which I tend to doubt will ever surface, but one can dream and wonder.

 

I'm all for the Trevor Horn vocal version: "Drama" is one of my favorite albums by Yes and I like the idea of hearing a second album by that line-up. I only wish they did that in the first place instead of screwing around with poor Benoît David!

 

Actually, it is. It's listed as track 9 on the '04 remaster and it's an instrumental take, credited to Steve, Chris and Alan with the working title of "Have We Really Got To Go Through This".

 

So are Trevor Horn's vocals on all the other tracks too?

 

Assuming that he would have been amenable to it at the time that the album was recorded, I don't think Trevor Horn ever would have considered becoming the full-time lead singer of Yes again. So given that they wanted to continue to tour, they needed to get a "real" lead singer other than Horn.

 

I'm not in love with Benoit but they really felt the need to revisit this in this way? Seems like they should of like figured this out in 2011..... I dont know.

 

I felt that Benoit sounds very much like Trevor Horn on Fly From Here. I never felt he was a weaker alternative to Horn.

The thing i'm more upset about is the fact that Fly From Here wasn't made and released in the early 80's after Drama!

 

Yeah, I see that now, and I see why I'd forgotten about it. Its really tame compared to that live version WITH vocals. Its practically another song.

 

I agree. Benoit sounds great on FFH. But, I am curious as to how this sounds with Trevor doing the lead vocals. And of course the bonus track!

 

I do.

 

I would take the original mix with Benoit without the lousy mastering. Remove the compression and bright eq please.

 

Yeah, I don't imagine that he would be redoing the vocals for the Squire track. I'll be interested to see what other changes are in the works here, including this additional track. Would this be an outtake from the 2009 sessions or maybe something older?

 

So, new vocals are somehow making Fly From Here better? More weirdness from Yes...

 

What the hell, why not? It's a much more interesting curio than another current-day, feeble live album, IMO.

 

I probably said the same thing when this first started bubbling up: I'm in and glad for it. But... it's fairly anti-climactic that it's happening NOW instead of then.

Yeah, yeah hindsight 20/20 and all that but, to me, it seems pretty clear that the moment has all but passed except for the die-est of die hards - but I think - at the time - a reunion of the Drama line up with Trevor would have garnered a good deal more interest.

 

Yeah, that's my take too. I don't really need this, but it has potential to be interesting and an improvement. I don't need anymore live releases from the current Yes lineup.

 

I definitely want this.

 

Judging from the 3 tracks offered from the 3 disc comp, The Word is Live(2005) in Go Through This, We Can Fly From Here and Tempus Fugit, of which, sonically are quite rough, the performances are actually quite good and it offers a glimpse of how the Drama lineup sounded during this strange, brief era of Yes. Rather than having Trevor retrack vocals and doing a remix of a record that was already made and features, yet again, a brief lineup of the group that no longer exists, to my mind, it would make more sense to release a Vault collection from the Drama tour; perhaps a two disc, 3 record vinyl set could be offered as a gesture of closure on Trev's time in the band as lead singer.

Food for thought, in Chris Welch's bio on the band(which came out around 1999, I have the updated version from '03), it clearly stated that Chris had interviewed Trevor after the fact and Trevor stated that he absolutely hated the idea of being the lead singer in Yes, from the time he entered to the time it ended and he was much happier being involved in the production side of the band, hence his credits on 90125, Big Generator and Fly From Here. While I think that it's an interesting exercise on one hand, that Trevor is featured doing the vocals on this updated version of FFH, knowing the facts that were stated earlier, it's just an odd and strange notion to do this treatment to a record that isn't considered a classic Yes release. I suppose it's feeble on my part, to babble about why this shouldn't be significant as it's already been done and it does add to the constant dysfunction within the workings of the band, which, has always been a constant if you study their career timeline throughout the years. It's just frustrating to me and a bit of a mystery as to why the group makes odd decisions such as this.

 

I think Trevor likes singing, just not performing and touring as much (particularly not as a replacement for an irreplaceable, iconic vocalist).

The three tracks on The Word Is Live come from the best sounding available Drama recording, which is awful. If a multitrack or pre-FM feed ever turned up, I'd be very interested in an official release of it. I have a couple audience boots from the 1980 tour that are oddly more listenable than the bootleg of that radio broadcast. I'm not sure the band would sign off on a more extensive 1980 live release anyway, but unfortunately (As far as I know) there isn't any material there to release even if they could. It's a bummer. The band was absolutely on fire, even if Horn struggled a bit vocally as the tour wore on.

 

Hes a better version of Horn than he is of Jon. That’s why I cant even listen to any of his non-Drama /FFH Yes recordings.

 

This is an embarrassingly desperate move. What could they possibly expect from this?

 

I'm going to hold off until they release the "More Cowbell" remix in 2021.