Chasing the Sounds [Archive] - Yesfans.com: Founded 4/01

Dragonfly

01-16-2002, 10:04 AM

The thing about "Sound Chaser" that always appeals to me is that it's a song about music.

Jon sings of the impact a musician feels when one finally "listens" to music instead of just "hearing" it: "From the moment I reached out to hold I felt a sound"

And then the rush a musician gets when the tables turn from one being the audient to being the performer: "And what touches our soul slowly moves as touch rebounds" ("touch rebounds" being translated here as the "touch" of music as it arrives to its "rebounding" or its redirection outward when one performs music.)

There are references to the actual performance of a song as one concentrates to maintain the flow of a piece: "Counting form through rhythm" as well as the opportunities available to a modern musician using new technologies to create their own music: "electric freedom" (something Yes has always taken advantage of.)

He references the math involved in complex musical structures (which this song certainly contains) and the maintenance of the beat throughout a series of changes to a song's structure: "And to know that tempo will continue, lost in trance of dances, as rhythm takes another turn"

And even what it means for the band to perform, hoping to inspire others:
"As is my want I only reach to look in your eyes"

The purity of this piece of music - whose theme is music itself - coupled with the fact that it's a brilliant and FUN composition sets my body in motion. Just hearing the opening sequence makes my hair stand on end.

Dragonfly:yesbird:

"Cha-Cha-Cha Cha-Cha
Cha-Cha-Cha Cha-Cha"

:running: :running: :running:

briser

01-18-2002, 03:06 AM

Well, after reading your post I had a listen to this album again - as I now play guitar (I didn't when I got that album) I got to thinking two things - the guitar playing is unique, absolutely no noticable influences at all (well to me anyway) and the bit in the middle of the song is almost un-copyable. Brilliant.

As for "Gates", the construction of a piece of music like that always leaves me in awe of "real" musicians, (not wanabe's like myself). Funny, it's the only song I know that has a song name given to one part of it by fans ("Soon") that has become a standard - i.e. "they did a great version of "soon" live last night" etc....

Don't really know much about Patrick Moraz but he certainly played some great keys on that album.

Dragonfly

01-18-2002, 09:31 AM

Actually, the band have adopted that name, too. I don't know if the lyric sheet on the album's inner sleeve uses it. I'll have to check.

If you have 9012LIVE - THE SOLOS, you'll see they use the title "Soon" for Jon's bit. This is done with Tony Kaye on keyboards doing the bare minimum of accompaniment. There is actually a version with Rick Wakeman on keys(!) The TORMATO tour included a long medley of tunes (namely "The Fish") which ended with "Soon". It's very good as the whole band play on it.

As for titled excerpts, "Leaves of Green" is another example - taken from the section towards the end of "The Ancient - Giants Under The Sun" (a.k.a.: side 3 of TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS). I believe the band have used that name as well (though I can't remember where.)

Dragonfly:yesbird:

YYY

01-20-2002, 05:46 PM

I first heard 'Relayer' the day it was released with my Yesfreak buddies in my dorm room in Cleveland. We all waited until we were all together to prepare ourselves for this momentous occasion. Because after Tales and Wakemans departure, we were on pins and needles to hear what they could possilbly do next. I mean - where could they go after CTTE and Tales.

I think we all needed emotional medical attention after the album was complete. All of our dreams were realized far beyond anything we could have imagined. This was a brave new world on every level. WOOOO!!!! Relayer is where Yes peaked and what a day it was.....

Jeremy Bender

01-10-2004, 01:39 AM

YYY, did you need medical attention because of any chemical enhancement? Hahahahaha! (I wrote that because I just read about you and your friends tripping while listening to TFTO).

I *think* I'd heard a tiny bit of Roundabout on TV on one of those "K-Tel Hits of the 70's!" things, but Relayer was my first real exposure to Yes. I was living in a small town in the California desert called Victorville and one day my friend Matt and I walked in to the one record store in town. I was immediately blown away by what they were playing when we walked in: the "War" section of GOD. I begged my parents to buy the album the next week and that was that.

Erdy1

01-10-2004, 02:49 PM

Definitely the most frantic Yes song. it's just all over the place! Aptly named, perfectly fits the lyircs, a true work of art. Even the Cha Chas are ok, although I will always wonder why they put them in!

YYY

01-12-2004, 08:45 PM

Jeremy, After taking our prescribed dosage, TALES was all the medicine we needed for the next couple of hours. Then it was time to escape the incrouching dorm room walls to experience the natural outdoors in order to put what we had just heard into practice.

"Talk to the sunlight caller"

Erdy, I've always loved Jon's chants, especially the Cha Cha Cha's. Chants by nature are sung to induce 'trance', so it always seemed a perfect fit within YES music. Jon did it a lot in Olias. I wish he'd do more of it.

Faceintheplace

01-12-2004, 10:21 PM

Jon's refered to his lyric writing style on those classic Yes pieces as 'word paintings'. What a perfent way to describe it.

YYY

01-12-2004, 11:54 PM

Fire, that's perfect! It is a great desciption.

C0ops

02-11-2004, 12:05 AM

Very insightful personal thoughts on the song i tend to agree. This is the most heavy song on the album... I enjoy it everytime i hear it again and again...very beutiful piece to go along with to be over to compliment TGOD

Ryan

02-18-2004, 05:19 PM

yep, this songs pretty special isn't it.

ANTIOCH

02-18-2004, 07:29 PM

Dragonfly

02-18-2004, 08:18 PM

YES will never recapture the sheer energy that came out of "Relayer". They may, and have put together releases that match the brilliance of the material; but the energy was, and is; in a world of its own.I couldn't agree more, Antioch. Just today I was thinking about how Yes reached what was probably their most profound peak with CLOSE TO THE EDGE. The creation of such a work with a Classically trained keyboardist as well as their Jazz drummer was something never equaled in the world of music. A true Fusion. But then I thought, "Well, they peaked just as high on RELAYER" with the Jazz drummer replaced by a Rock drummer, but the Classical keyboardist replaced with one accomplished in Jazz (I don't want to limit Patrick as his Classical work is also good), created an entirely unique Fusion. And how!

CLOSE TO THE EDGE was a spiritual and emotional high while RELAYER was its intellectual and psychological equivalent. This is particularly true when you think of each album's "#2" song: "And You And I" and "Sound Chaser". Both albums are pure brilliance. It's hard to offer just one up as "best". (I can say "favorite", but that's not the same thing.)

Dragonfly :fly:

Timmo

03-09-2004, 07:33 PM

I couldn't agree more, Antioch. Just today I was thinking about how Yes reached what was probably their most profound peak with CLOSE TO THE EDGE. The creation of such a work with a Classically trained keyboardist as well as their Jazz drummer was something never equaled in the world of music. A true Fusion. But then I thought, "Well, they peaked just as high on RELAYER" with the Jazz drummer replaced by a Rock drummer, but the Classical keyboardist replaced with one accomplished in Jazz (I don't want to limit Patrick as his Classical work is also good), created an entirely unique Fusion. And how!

CLOSE TO THE EDGE was a spiritual and emotional high while RELAYER was its intellectual and psychological equivalent. This is particularly true when you think of each album's "#2" song: "And You And I" and "Sound Chaser". Both albums are pure brilliance. It's hard to offer just one up as "best". (I can say "favorite", but that's not the same thing.)

Dragonfly :fly:

To me, "Close to the Edge" is like a flawless crystal...symmetrical, balanced, harmonious.

"Relayer" is that same crystal, smashed and made into a sculpture. The symmetry is gone, but the energy is much greater. "Close to the Edge" feels almost like a perfect discovery, like finding a flawless diamond in a pile of rocks, whereas with "Relayer," you are part of the artistic creative process when you listen to it.

TIM
Venice, CA

Dragonfly

03-09-2004, 10:28 PM

To me, "Close to the Edge" is like a flawless crystal...symmetrical, balanced, harmonious.I think of "Awaken" as the most perfected "musical image" Yes has created.

If you think of it in terms of a free-form, wire sculpture and suspended it from its mid-section it would balance horizontally. It's got near-perfect symmetry with the slow, low opening, the high peaking movement, the low valley, the high peaking reprise and the low, slow ending. Beautiful.

Neither "Gates of Delirium" nor "Close to the Edge" is as equally balanced. That doesn't make "Awaken" better, necessarily. It's just more symmetrical.

(Your use of an artistic metaphor made me think of it. I hope you enjoyed the analogy. :D)

Dragonfly :fly:

YYY

03-10-2004, 08:06 AM

To me, "Close to the Edge" is like a flawless crystal...symmetrical, balanced, harmonious.

"Relayer" is that same crystal, smashed and made into a sculpture. The symmetry is gone, but the energy is much greater. "Close to the Edge" feels almost like a perfect discovery, like finding a flawless diamond in a pile of rocks, whereas with "Relayer," you are part of the artistic creative process when you listen to it.

TIM
Venice, CA

I would actually apply each of your descriptions to both CTTE and RELAYER with AWAKEN a close second. The symmetry is there but sculpted in a different manner

Timmo

03-10-2004, 07:40 PM

I think of "Awaken" as the most perfected "musical image" Yes has created.

If you think of it in terms of a free-form, wire sculpture and suspended it from its mid-section it would balance horizontally. It's got near-perfect symmetry with the slow, low opening, the high peaking movement, the low valley, the high peaking reprise and the low, slow ending. Beautiful.

Neither "Gates of Delirium" nor "Close to the Edge" is as equally balanced. That doesn't make "Awaken" better, necessarily. It's just more symmetrical.

(Your use of an artistic metaphor made me think of it. I hope you enjoyed the analogy. :D)

Dragonfly :fly:

YES. But, to me, CTTE has more "Symmetry," than "Awaken," but both have FAR more than "Gates."

Again, not that one is any better than the other two, just a different aesthetic and approach.

Personally I like "Gates" the most, but I love all three. I like the dischord, chaos, "unbalance," etc.

TIM
Venice, CA

YYY

03-11-2004, 04:44 AM

YES, GATES strikes a wonderfully different chord in me that no other YES album has duplicated

Earl Grey

03-11-2004, 04:52 AM

RELAYER was MY album when it came out.

My friends were still burnt over the fact that Wakey wasn't on the new YES album. They approached it more tenatively than I did.

I LOVED Tales... But it was introduced to me. I didn't discover it.

I decided that I loved Relayer before my cohorts did, and for that reason, I've always thought of it as my 'find'.

After all of these years, the entire issue seems silly and pedestrian. But at the time, it meant a lot.

Now ALL YES albums are mine! ;)

I get chills when I hear that opening crescendo of Fender Rhodes notes climbing up the scale... hanging in the stratos...

I may have been a pedestrian wanker know-it all, but I had great taste in music as a teenager!

:ele:

YYY

03-11-2004, 05:24 AM

Definately Earl,

The beginning of GATES is one of the MOST moving openings in Rock music history. From Howe's opening harmonics to his riffs in the first minutes, GATES grabs you and doesn't let go. I was waiting for its release date and loved it right away. Immediately I called my YES fanatic friends who informed me that they had also just purchased it. We went on and on raving about it over the phone before planning an official altered states listening party to celebrate its release under a more deeper state of consciousness.

Earl Grey

03-11-2004, 05:32 AM

Definately Earl,

The beginning of GATES is one of the MOST moving openings in Rock music history. From Howes opening harmonics to his riffs in the first minutes, GATES grabs you and doesn't let go. I was waiting for its release date and loved it right away. Immediately I called my YES fanatic friends who informed me that they had also just purchased it. We went on and on raving about it on the phone before planning an official altered states listening party to celebrate its release under a more deeper state of mind.

Ah, I was speaking of 'Soundchaser' there Wendell! Those twinkling piano notes suspended in the cold thin air, finally shot down to the earth (or the crust of whatever planet YES was on at the time!) by the rest of the band. Rising agian... again...

Gates is an amazing work as well! As is 'To Be Over'. Don't get me started... It's nearly bedtime for Bonzo over here!~

Honestly, the entire album segues perfectly for me, and I think of it as a seamless whole. Relayer may be my favorite YES album...

It's always a tight race between Relayer and CTTE for the gold ring.

:yesbird:

03-11-2004, 05:41 AM

I really respected Yes at that time. They were still striving for the pinnacle of this thing called "Yes".

But, they had a bump in the road with Wakey leaving. They came back with Relayer saying "You think we've lost our stride? Try this on!"

And they WORKED that tour. There was no slouching at all. Every moment was genius. Within 2 minutes of the first song we knew Yes was still Yes (and more).

And I fully agree with Dragonfly's initial comment: Nothing on this album bears any influence to anything else. Purely unique. Yet it paints very familiar pictures.

Timmo

03-11-2004, 02:19 PM

YYY

03-12-2004, 05:31 PM

[QUOTE=Earl Grey]Ah, I was speaking of 'Soundchaser' there Wendell! Those twinkling piano notes suspended in the cold thin air, finally shot down to the earth (or the crust of whatever planet YES was on at the time!) by the rest of the band. Rising agian... again...

It's always a tight race between Relayer and CTTE for the gold ring.
------------------

For sure Earl, Sound Chaser is simply one of the hippest and fierces songs YES has ever made.

Of the two, I often feel that Relayer might be a most solid (structurally).
There is still that return to the second verse of "I get up, I get down" that tends to lag ever so slightly. A minor point to be sure but I think it puts Relayer a head (by a nose).

Great Tim,
After each YES listening party, I'd realize the shear complexity and the huge amount of music being created below the surface. Those were great sessions with no regrets.

gleeman

03-12-2004, 06:01 PM

I'd agree that Gates is the tightest structurally of the big 3 epics. CTTE and Awaken seem comprised of distinct and seemingly unrelated parts ("I Get Up I Get Down" seems like an insert, and the ascending theme in the intro is not used elsewhere), whereas Gates develops inexorably, building slowly but surely towards the battle sequence. It all seems well unified and cut from the same cloth. And though you could argue that "Soon" is just tacked on to the end, it is actually a crucial part in GOD's war-and-peace narrative.

But back to what started the discussion, yeah, the lyrics on Relayer are great. Hard edged and economical like the music, serving a clear narrative purpose while retaining the "sound image" painterly quality that Jon was after at the time. The lyrics for CTTE seem like so much dribble by comparison. "And rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace"---huh? I'm reminded of Bill's infamous reply to Jon's suggested title of Total Mass Retain--"Why not call it 'Puke?' "

YYY

03-12-2004, 07:21 PM

LOL !!!!!!!

Timmo

03-12-2004, 08:42 PM

Ah, I was speaking of 'Soundchaser' there Wendell! Those twinkling piano notes suspended in the cold thin air, finally shot down to the earth (or the crust of whatever planet YES was on at the time!) by the rest of the band. Rising agian... again...

Gates is an amazing work as well! As is 'To Be Over'. Don't get me started... It's nearly bedtime for Bonzo over here!~

Honestly, the entire album segues perfectly for me, and I think of it as a seamless whole. Relayer may be my favorite YES album...

It's always a tight race between Relayer and CTTE for the gold ring.

:yesbird:

Me2, but I have to give the gold ring to Relayer.

Too bad Rick is such a pussy about playing anything from it.

TIM
Venice, CA

Jackaranda

08-25-2006, 08:53 PM

Jon's refered to his lyric writing style on those classic Yes pieces as 'word paintings'. What a perfent way to describe it.

The lyrics on Relayer, and Sound Chaser in particular, are, imo, the best lyrics Yes has ever written. Other albums may have a larger volume of lyrics, but the Relayer lyrics are just amazing.

sirlespaul

09-24-2006, 04:24 PM

Yeah the lyrics are pretty sweet. it seems like Relayer and Close to the Edge each had awesome lyrics.

somissound

10-01-2006, 01:20 AM

Relayer is their masterpiece...

Unique, intense, beautiful, heavy, adventurous, heavenly...

Earl Grey

10-01-2006, 12:48 PM

I have a Jon-signed/numbered litho of the album cover on my office wall...

Relayer was a departure for YES at the time, I loved the album from the very first listen... It seems like we didn't listen to much else when it came out... ANd I'm still finding new things buried deep in the grooves, all these years later. It's still fresh, and sounds quite unlike anything else the band, or anyone else for that matter, had ever recorded.

'Soundchaser' is one of the strongest Yessongs. Will we ever hear it live again? Dunno, I wish.

Howe seems to be having a bit of a renaissance, 'chop-wise', right now, so who knows?

The album is a delight, and sounds as fresh now as it did the day it came out. I love Relayer!

EG:yesbird:

relayerjim

10-01-2006, 01:26 PM

The Relayer album never gets old.
I don't go a month without listening to Relayer...

pedro skychaser

10-01-2006, 08:43 PM

on soundchaser they gallop as one to a mighty crescendo...fish+alan dropout to leave the hovianMaestro still soaring skywards with his electroFlamencoSolo....all Art aspires to this one moment of Music...the tympanis alan stands to bash are not shabby either---no band comes close to this song,album,achievement...no,not even MUSE...

RABARKS

10-06-2006, 11:51 AM

Just a chance observation on the subject:

I always wondered what those chirping sounds were at the beginning.
I was quite surprised to see Jon actually "playing" a flute on the QPR video excerpts on Youtube!

F.C.

10-29-2006, 01:34 PM

"Sound Chaser" is naught but a bold progression on what they've started doing on "The Ancient" in Tales--and this might be one of the reasons Wakeman is, as referrred above, too much of a pussy to play it. I often see remarks from Rick that Yes were going "too much avant-garde for his tastes" by the time of Tales and I'm also aware that he'd decried Relayer on the radio back in '75. Whereas I prefer Tales for offering a wider pallette of emotions and nuances (quare, the bloody thing has four twenty minute songs to get its point across, it's no wonder), I heartily endorse Relayer as their second best album--it's more robust than Tales, more concise than CTTE, and flows better than both of the aforementioned records, and "Gates Of Delirium" is indeedly their best epic. "To Be Over" serves as the calm after the storm that is "Sound Chaser" and "Chaser" remains as their edgiest, more daring and if I may say it again, bold composition Yes has ever done. From the lyrics you can tell Jon's guiding us through a journey through the sounds, exploring everything they have to offer. They roam through tempo changes, speeding up and slowing down, there's a beautiful, cathartic and electric solo by Howe that remains unmatched, aided by tympani and washes of synthesizers right after a heated performance of the band, from the Rhodes tinkling notes to the verses and so on, and then the solo fades out for a second verse where Jon expresses his feelings through that journey, and then it all starts again, slowing down, speeding up, Howe's slithery steel guitar and I really like the Moog Sonic Six solo by Moraz, really gear--his synth tones may be different, but they're unique--to the band furiously chanting "cha cha cha" like a tribal chant--summoning the sounds, perhaps?--until it ends.

What else can I say? It discobombulates you, takes you to so many places and you're assured to land in safe ground as it's over. With sheer sincerity, this is one of the most beautiful masterpieces by Yes.