The Yes Album by Album Thread (Part 2)

Me too.

However, credit where it's due, they did a fantastic version of Starship Trooper.

 

OK, despite my pleas, RRB disregarded Song of Seven. This is a shame because there is so much interesting stuff going on muscially on this album that I feel would benefit more from his insightful analysis than from my mere praise. It is probably the solo album with the strongest Yes pedigree as nearly half of the tracks were originally proposed as Yes songs.

To me the argument for Jon Anderson as a musical genius starts with his contributions to TYA, Fragile, CTTE and Relayer, continues with Olias where he shows what he can do all on his own (putting out a work of comparable vision with only his own basic instrumental skills), is again spotlighted on Awaken, and then reaches full flower with this album, where he shows he can take a group of unknown musicians and guide them into creating something as musically sophisticated as much of Yes's 70s output - and catchier to boot.

despite my pleas, here are my comments on this album, which to me is the best thing Anderson has been part of since either Relayer or Close To The Edge. Yes, I like it even more than GFTO, and it's nice to have him working with crack musicians again, which was the missing element on Olias.

"For You for Me" – 4:21
"Some Are Born" – 4:03
"Don't Forget (Nostalgia)" – 2:59
"Heart of the Matter" – 4:18
"Hear It" – 1:48
"Everybody Loves You" – 4:06
"Take Your Time" – 3:07
"Days" – 3:28
"Song of Seven" – 11:16

For You For Me: Starts a bit cheesy tomodern ears with synths and drum machine - but this was 1980 and that was cutting edge at the time - and the bass soon starts cooking - the bass work is a highlight of this track and the album - and any objections melt away once Anderson enters with his characteristic joyful expression he communicates so effectively. By half way through the funky bass has me thinking "Chris who?," ok all we lack is guitar. And then we get this cooking guitar solo.

Some Are Born: Love the upbeat melodic bali-esqe Towa Teia Taka Tei vocals that opens it. Nice lyrics that take a similar approach to Turn Turn Turn. Band gets a nice groove going. And the song ends with the opening vocal bit going at the same time as the groove from the ain song. This one originated in the Yes's post-Tormato sessions, but their rough take on it pales compared to this.

Don't Forget: I enjoy the melody and the music on this one, particularly the bass and sax work and backing vox. OK the lyrics are a bit sappy. Very interesting musically the way the riffs of the instruments start and end at each time, almost erasing the bar lines.

Heart of the Matter: This is a kicking funky R&B groove like nothing Yes had done with Anderson previously, though less far off from tracks like more recent tracks like Does It Really Happen. Not prog, but joyful sophisticated music.

Hear It: Very Yes like as it starts out soundling like an acoustic Howe/Anderson duet (if someone told me Steve played the acoustic on this track, I would believe you), then adds additional instruments - but all in support of the acoustic guitar and vocals. Well done. This composition again dates back to Jon's last sessions with Yes.

Everybody Loves You: Beautiful melody - among Anderson's strongest. Very interesting use of shifting time signatures (help me out here RRB). Instrumental bit in the middle with the bass solo would not sound out of place on any classic Yes record. Choral vocals sound like something Squire might have cooked up. Great outro that almost foreshadows Phish. Another that was first played with Yes, but nowhere near as well.

Take Your Time: Pretty. One of the most straight forward tracks on the album. Nice melodic bass. If I had to cut one tune on the album, this would be it. But I'm glad I don't.

Days: A lovely pastoral acoustic tune. The only other person in pop music that could put across a song like this as nicely is Donovan. Actually it would be real nice to hear Donovan and Anderson collaborate some time as they come from such a similar musical place. The ending segment with Anderson playing three harp tracks and some keys is reminiscent of Olias, as is the beginning of the next track. THis originated when Anderson was still with Yes as well.

Song of Seven. This epic track has everything. It starts out sounding like a symphonic/choral work for about the first 4 minutes, and then the "song" part starts with a gorgeous melody and some of Anderson's finest lyrics. The contain the imagery of his early work, but manage to tell a more or less coherent story not just leave you wishing you had left them as more or less sound and not looked at the lyric sheet. Lovely guitar solo and fills that couldn't have been bettered by Howe to my taste. Then a more electric recap of the symphonic/choral opening, now including guitar. It wraps up with a pastoral segment with nice child like vocal harmonies and melodic guitar, evoking pieces like Soon and Nous Sommes du Soleil. If I could take up to 11:16 of music featuring Jon Anderson to a desert island, this track would be it.

I feel that, with so much of the material from both Song of Seven and Drama originating in the post-Tormato sessions by the Tormato lineup, if they had managed to stick together and work up all this material to the best of their abilities they could have produced the finest work in the Yes catalog, and perhaps in progressive rock as a whole. But the lackluster takes from those sessions suggest that perhaps their heart was not in it to do the material justice (though they are early run throughs of not yet fully formed songs and anyone who has played with a band know how unfair it is to judge musicians based on that). With the fine results produced on both Song of Seven and Drama, I can't complain about what we got.

 

song of seven is a terrific album. it is another one of the solo albums I would have liked to have heard after YES made it theirs.

 

Now 90125. Not really Yes to me. This album and the next had me thinking that Howe was the essential element in Yes. At the time I was much more into Asia than into this album (I saw Asia twice - at the beginning and end of their first album tour, with the first being at the Tower and the second at the Spectrum, showing how they had exploded; having seen Yes three times, I did not bother seeing them on this tour - which seems to have been a good decision based on the DVD - and did not see them again until Union), though Asia has aged poorly, and I now prefer 90125.

My understanding is that Tony Kaye played very little on this album and that the "additional keyboards" by Trevor Rabin are mostly what you hear. It would be interewsting to learn just what Tony did play, if anyone knows. As well as if there is any accuracy to the reports of an off stage keyboardist on the subsequent tour. It certainly does not have much of the Hammond drive sound that Tony featured on the first 3 Yes albums. And Chris Squire's playing is barely recognizable on this album. The bass work here pales compared to Song of Seven. The most Yes like element on the record are the Anderson vocals, but he doesn't even sing all the lead parts, and really it sounds less like Yes to me than Song of Seven does.

Owner of A Lonely Heart: OK it's catchy, it has a cool video. Good 80s track that doesn't remotely sound like Yes except for the guy singing parts of it. Listneing to Rabin's lackluster demo version of this has me thinking Trevor Horn's production is more responsible for its success than anything else.

Hold On: Corporate rock. Why are they doing this?

It Can Happen: OK this sounds a bit like Yes at least with the Sitar at the beginning, an d I like the way the vocals come in over it. Pretty good.

Changes: Really the only progressive track on the album, very interesting temportally and love the instrumental section,

Cinema: A not terribly impressive brief guitar based instrumental. Can't imagine why this one a grammy apart from the industry perhaps wanting to acknowledge the sales Yes achieved this year. Did nobody release any either melodic or techinically impressive instrumentals that year? Were the Dixie Dregs on hiatus perhaps?

Leave It: Cool vocals and production and video. But about half way through I'm thinking "Leave It" more than "Love It"

Our Song: Fairly nice but a bit overblown.

City of Love: It Rocks but is a bit too stilted.

Hearts: Nice melodies. Very Jon. This and Changes are the real reasons to pull out the album.

 

"Hold On: Corporate rock. Why are they doing this?"

IMHO, the best cut on the album.

 

Man I got mixed feelings about 90125.
At this point, I still have it, file under Yes but mentally consider it the debut album by a short-lived 80s rock band called Cinema that borrowed Yes' rhythm section during their hiatus from their main gig.
When I forget who the musicians are, it's a fun album but I can never take it too seriously because I am sort of allergic to some of those 80s synths unless I'm in the right mood.

 

Live work is where the Yeswest lineup sometimes lose me big time, far more so than what they got up to in the studio. Sometimes what they did was okay to me, a few people mentioned they did a respectable Starship Trooper and I like their take on And You And I as well. They were doing a good job on Perpetual Change early on in the 90125 tour, I don't know why they dropped it from the set list so quickly. However, a lot of times I agree they dropped the ball when they played older material.

I particularly hate the way Trevor Rabin handled Yours is No Disgrace live, instead of doing what Steve Howe did and used the guitar solo as a tasteful chops showcase or a way to try playing more aggressively than usual, Trevor opted for tuneless shredding that had nothing to do with the song or showing how he had Mahavishnu Orchestra guitar licks memorized.

On the behind the scenes documentary on the 9012Live DVD, Trevor talks about how he thinks the Wurm outro to Starship Trooper is boring. I think he calls it "heavy metal nonsense." Well, what do you call the way you play Yours is No Disgrace then, guy?

 

My oversight again. I need to check the release dates instead of relying on my memory. Will post my take on it within a day or so.

 

When I was at UVM in 1980-81 I did a long review of Anderson's Song of Seven. It was for a creative writing class and it ended up going in the student newspaper. I was a little embarrassed the last time I read it but it was very positive and I still like the album today. I wouldn't put it above anything Yes had done to date (album-wise) but it's a very pleasant listen if you're not expecting too much prog in the mix.

 

If you care to dig it up and transcribe it (I can't imagine much written in 1980 is already digitized) I would love to read it

 

I can't even find it right now but I'll see what turns up.

The 2nd half of 1980 was quite a time for this new Yes fanatic. Song of Seven came out the same month as Yesshows and only 3 months after Drama. Also, my first live show was in August.

 

90125 - I'm pretty darn sick of Owner of a Lonely Heart by now, and I felt the same way about Leave It for many years also. Part of me was disappointed to hear the new, modern direction Yes took when this album came out, but I still learned to like it. I'm sure I like it even more now than I did then. It's not at all the Yes we knew, but it's quality stuff.

Back to Yesshows:

I'm still not sure how they managed such a brilliant segue. Nothing about that even sounds like an abrupt cut. Work of genius that was.

The proper release done at Strawberry mastering most certainly does not sound muddy.

 

Thanks for saying my review might add some insight however, you have nailed a lot of the important facets of the album. I will give it a shot though.

 

I loved 90125 when it came out. It was my first exposure to Yes. It's a legit album and one of the best of the 80's.

And I became a Yes fan because of it. I knew nothing of earlier output at the time.

I certainly do now. And we've all heard more of the behind-the-scenes details since, and I'm sure more will come out later.

My 2014 view: Yes stopped with Tormato. That was it. Following that it became a name.

A strong brand name to be leveraged by the corporate machine that was the 80's music industry. A strong name to be leveraged by its owners.... formerly great musicians, lost in a haze of drug use, devoid of material, with greatly diminished skills. And apparently diminished ethics.

Accustomed to a very grand and expensive lifestyle that haunts them to this day. With Drama (not 90125) came the still current strategy of using the name as a platform for other people's material. Sometimes other people's playing. Didn't work with the Buggles, so the AOR guys introduced them to Trevor Rabin. They couldn't call it Yes legally (now down to 2 members, 1 original), so they called it something else until they could dig up Anderson and Kaye so that they could.

90125 worked brilliantly. Big Generator was another attempt at the same. Union was an even grander exploitation that backfired. Shame on Bruford and Wakeman for even taking part. Then back to milking Trevor Rabin some more. By 1994 I'm not sure we had heard much of Chris Squire's bass playing for a solid 14 years. I often wonder if that's not Sherwood on KTA. I don't think we got a legit Yes album after Tormato 'till Magnification.

Then back to milking Horn, now Davison.

Call me a cynic.

 

The production is so high quality on 90125, like Horn's work with Frankie and ABC. It was nice to see his great success as a producer after his horrible time at the end of Yes. I played the album many times when I first got it and thought, this is the new Yes after all, but its style was definitely different than what I expected. Some of the heaviness of Drama was still there, and I thought Rabin brought an interesting blend to the harmonies, although I did hear quite a bit of Trevor Horn in Leave It. The songs have a certain sameness and an acoustic number or something a little more left field in a prog sense may have helped me like this more. Remember King Crimson had come out with Discipline and that was such a departure in style for them, I was expecting a little more experimentation with this album.

It was nice to have Jon back although he is a bit muted (on purpose, perhaps?) except for Hearts which sounded like it could have come from Animation.

I still don't quite understand what happened to Eddie Jobson, it would have been interesting to see what he could have brought to the table. Tony Kaye was very much in the background on this album, and it is tough to single out what he plays on any given song.

I did miss Steve Howe although I thought this was a better album than the first Asia album, which was disappointing considering all the fanfare it had compared to this album. Hardly anyone had heard of Trevor Rabin and most of us had no idea how involved he would become.

I missed Roger Dean as well although we were promised that the album cover would have something to do with the stage setup, what that was was not clear.

The shows were really quite different than any Yes shows I had ever seen before, with girls paying more attention to Rabin than the others. Plus they played many songs faster and a bit sloppier than the old Yes did and had a lot of playing around on stage between Squire and Rabin, something Howe would never do. But this is probably best left to discuss with the next album.

 

90125 rules all stereo systems.

 

Aren't all bands simply brands? How else can groups of musicians collaborate and produce music?

 

True. My beef with Yes is the 2nd part of your statement.

 

Which is what? I asked two questions.

 

Song of Seven by Jon Anderson

Released November 1980
Produced by Jon

Jon Anderson - lead vocals, acoustic guitar (2), keyboards (1,7,8), harp (8)
Ronnie Leahy - keyboards (1-9)
Ian Bairnson - guitar (1-3, 5-8), bass (2), backing vocals (2)
Clem Clempson - guitar (4,9)
John Giblin - bass (1,3,6-9)
Jack Bruce - bass (4)
Mel - bass (5)
Morris Pert - drums, percussion (1-3, 5-7, 9)
Simon Phillips - drums (4)
Dick Morrissey - saxophone (2,4)
Johnny Dankworth - alto saxophone (3)
Damian Anderson - keyboards (5)
Chris Rainbow - backing vocals (2-4, 6,8,9)
Deborah Anderson - harmony vocals (9)
Delme String Quartet, arr. by David Ogden (9)
Mike Dunne - engineer

1. "For You for Me" – 4:21
2. "Some Are Born" – 4:03
3. "Don't Forget (Nostalgia)" – 2:59
4. "Heart of the Matter" (Anderson, Ronnie Leahy) – 4:18
5. "Hear It" – 1:48
6. "Everybody Loves You" – 4:06
7. "Take Your Time" – 3:07
8. "Days" – 3:28
9. "Song of Seven" – 11:16

For You For Me
A moderate paced funk laced tune. The tune is based around chord shifts to fifths....C-G, D-A etc. and the melody follows somewhat. Jon vocals are great and at one point he shifts to a preacher type approach in the vocals. The outro is also very good with Jon in pleading style vocals.

Some are Born
As Rfreeman stated, the song starts with Baliesque lyrics and melody. The song is rooted in a folk like chord progression in D but Jon's arrangement turn it into something special with all kinds of influences including Pop, Rock and Jazz. Great melody based on the D chord tones. The song ends with a dance like outro.

Don't Forget
Neat song with some tinges of the calypso in its A-E progression. The bridge goes into a R and B type chord progression that fits in nicely with the calypso type rhythms. Some great percussion in the outro.

Heart of the Matter
As Rfreeman stated, a nice R and B shuffle groove tune. Great chorus with some playful melodies from Jon. The song modulates to B for the second half of the song with a heavy R and B outro with Jon adding in some jazz tinged vocals at the very end. Cool song.

Hear it
A folk tinged D major tune. Jon has a knack for these folk based tunes but he uses melodies that are not in the folk tradition that raise the tune to a different level with his own stamp on it.

Everybody Loves You
Starts out with a nice modal choral like melody based in A. The verse chords are based around C-A Major and sound very unusual due to the out of the ordinary progression. The songs changes keys along the way. There is a jazz based interlude with a bass solo in the language of Jaco Pastorius. Ends rather abuptly with a jazz decension. Another great song.

Take Your Time
Beautiful simple tune with very few chords in the verse. The melody is a wonderful ascending tune over the static chords. The bridge is also very good with another simple progression and lilting melody.

Days
The opening reminds me of Weather Report trying to sound ultra melodic. As Rfreeman stated, the song is very pastoral sounding. The melodies are very British sounding in the style of Delius. The interlude/outro is great with some nice classical guitar fills and sound effects.

Song of Seven
The epic piece starts out with a homage to one of Jon's heroes...Jean Sibelius. Very symphonic sounding with touches of chorale lines. The verse section has a Sibelius like descending melody. At around the 4 minute mark, the song shifts gears and picks up a folk like rhythm in a strange sounding key...like it is microtonally between A and Bb. Very unusual. A nice understated guitar solo at around the 7 minute mark by non other than Clem Clempson of Humble Pie fame. At 8:30 the song ramps down with just Jon and piano and some guitar fills. Jon sings some lines using variations of the themes heard earlier. The song ends with a pastoral feel that dissipates the energetic sections that came before....a Jon trademark songwriting move. The song ends with some chime like instrument....not sure exactly what it is but it is an unusual end to the song.

I hope this adds a little to Rfreeman's excellent review. I still enjoy this album this day. Is it my favorite solo by him? No, (Olias) but it is still a great album and has moments of brilliance in the Jon style.

 

damn it, you are right. I never thought about that or wanted to. I sat here trying to come up with one example of someone I can defend. I guess neil Young comes close but even he uses his name to sell Farm Aid. A great cause but still selling a brand. now what do I do? how do we distinguish the ones who truly sell out or the ones who stay true to what they believe in? I am getting off topic but I will never forget the time I strolled up to a merch booth at a Rush concert and they were selling thongs. shook my head and walked away.

 

I posted up top I think this is a great album and thank goodness he used musicians this time. Love that Jack Bruce is on a track.

 

not being a pain but I guess we aren't doing...classic yes

Classic Yes was my 3rd Yes album ( yes album, fragile through gifts). it was how I discovered and you and I. never knew Siberian or close to the edge until I got yessongs a bit later. I do remember not liking roundabout due to not having the acoustic guitar.

 

When I saw Jon Anderson at a record store promotion (remember those?) at a big mall outside of Philly in 1982, I was not sure exactly what to ask him to sign. After all, he had gone solo, there was no Yes then and I was nervous at what he would think of what I asked him to sign.

It took me all of 5 minutes to make up my mind: Close To The Edge and Song Of Seven.

Needless to stay, he gladly signed both and was most gracious about it. A moment I will never forget.

 

Thanks Bear! You got lots of stuff I would have had to work hard to approach. What should we check out by Sibelius that is similar?