WOLFman
05-17-2004, 10:05 AM
As the name may suggest, I'm a bit of a Trevor fan (not in the same way as some of the WOLFwomen on this site, but still a fan!) I know that I might be preaching to the converted a bit with this, but I just thought I'd add my two cents as to why any criticism of Trevor's time with Yes is completely unjustified.
Imagine this - you're a young, talented musician, with the world at your feet. Record companies are desperate to sign you up and get you a band, within which your talent and sing-writing ability can flourish. You are given two options - something with Keith Emerson, and a project with Chris Squire and Alan White, called Cinema. By no means is this meant to be a 'new Yes' - it's a contemporary band, playing contemporary music. You try this option, and it goes well - they love the songs you've written, and you rehearse them dilligently. The record company aren't sure - think a lead singer is maybe needed. Your new colleagues consider their old bandmate, Jon Anderson - fine, you say, he could make a good lead singer for Cinema.
THEN - it's decided that, with four ex-Yes members, the band should be called Yes. It doesn't matter that you joined Cinema, doesn't matter that the songs you wrote make no attempt to be 'Yes songs' - if its called Yes then it will probably be more successful. You're not sure - Yes is a band with a great history (you've long respected them) and Cinema have never been Yes. Anyway, the others are eager so you go with it, spending a few weeks with Jon ensuring his stamp comes over the album. Its still a Cinema album, however, and in no way sounds like the Yes of the past - but then it was never meant to.
You release the album, and go on tour. Unsurprisingly, it's a massive hit - you're a musician at the top of your game, and Trevor Horn the same in the producers chair. Being, now, through little or no choice of your own, a member of Yes, you are expected to learn, and perform, some numbers from the Yes back catalogue, along with the stuff you've just written.As a long-term fan, eager to be more than just an identikit of the previous Yes guitarist, you suggest delving deeper than just the 'greatest hits', but are overruled - so it's the same songs that the band performed ad nauseum in tours past. 70s Yes fans (well, a lot of them) aren't happy - who is this imposter, hogging the limelight, and standing in Steve Howe's spotlight? How dare he? Never mind the fact that the guy is, obviously immensely talented - never mind, either, that in a few short weeks he's learnt, and is now performing, some of Howe's toughest material to a incredibly high standard. Never mind that Howe has left to join another band producing stuff just as 'culpable' of producing the sort of AOR rock ('selling out'?) so hated from this new Yes. Nope, this man is to be derided. It is a feeling which remains until your departure 11 years later, a departure celebrated by some to this day.
IS THIS FAIR?
And, while I'm at it, how about this! It's time for a second album, and, knowing this will be a 'Yes' album (remember, the last time you had NO IDEA) you eagerly plan material more in keeping with the history of the band - still contemporary, but with more than a passing nod to the great works of the 60s and 70s. Oh no you're not. The record company, and your fellow band members (when they're prepared to cooperate at all), liked the success of Cinema - and they want more. Have you got any stuff you've been working on yourself? Well, yes, actually, but it's not Yes music... Never mind, let's get it on the album. Let's make it the first single.
So, you've just finished up the difficult (for many reasons, but none, I'd suggest, of your own making), but hugely successful Big Generator album and tour. Not as successful as the first album and tour, but still up there as one of the most successful ever for Yes. But maybe your bubble is bursting? Maybe the Yes fans don't want you in Yes anymore? Whatever, your lead singer (who you and the other Cinema members had dragged, virtually, from the musical wilderness) does a runner and starts up another band, claiming this to be 'the real Yes'. But when they find success hard to come by - they even try to perform one of your hit songs - in the competitive 80s rock market (and potential hit songs even harder) you get a call from said lead singer, asking if YOU have any songs THEY could use. Not being a guy to hold a grudge, you send a couple, and you're asked if you'd like to join up with a big 'Union' concept. You're not sure - your band (Yes) having enjoyed much more success than ABWHL - so you ask the bassist who got you to join Cinema in the first place what he thinks - but low and behold, he's already laid backing tracks on the other band's material! Now what?
You agree to participate in a 'Union', but in truth you hardly get to play a fair part - only three of 'your songs' are added to ABWHL 2, and even then you aren't given time to finish them properly. When you join up for the subsequent tour, you play your best but it's clear the other guitarist doesn't appreciate your presence - after all, you're just an imposter. Afterwards, when said lead singer decides to re-join your incarnation of the band (Cinema?) -whether for contractual reasons or others, don't know if anyone really knows - you work slavishly on an album that, you hope, will be worthy of being called a 'Yes' album, having been given the responsibility from the others. You play the results to them, and are met with unreserved delight, especially from the lead who breaks into tears on hearing one track, which on the subsequent tour he hails as one of the 'classic Yes songs'. In turn, the album and tour fail to achieve success (again, a variety of factors could be pointed to here, one of the main being that, when you were 'encouraged' to join the other band in 1990/1, you were forced to end your relationship with your record company, and subsequent deals turned sour, leaving you with a small company facing liquidation) and, as soon as it finishes, the lead singer starts making noises, again, about wishing to get back to the 'real' Yes. Despite having done so much for the band, you are promptly asked/forced to leave, and neither you, nor the songs you played such a large part in playing (some of the most successful 'Yes' songs of all time) are really ever spoken of again, even when someone is hired, basically, to recreate your role, albeit 'in the background'. On occasion, one or two songs will be played, but never is your involvement in them acknowledged, even the ones you virtually wrote yourself.
I apologise profusely for the length of this post. If anyone has bothered to read it all, thanks very much - don't know how much of it anyone will agree with but it'd be good to get some feedback. I hope I haven't given the impression that I'm some Rabin zealot who hates the other members of Yes, because that's simply not the case - I just think the criticisms made of him are unjustified, and the way he refuses to hit back at the detractors (even those within the band) is a constant source of amazement.
Imagine this - you're a young, talented musician, with the world at your feet. Record companies are desperate to sign you up and get you a band, within which your talent and sing-writing ability can flourish. You are given two options - something with Keith Emerson, and a project with Chris Squire and Alan White, called Cinema. By no means is this meant to be a 'new Yes' - it's a contemporary band, playing contemporary music. You try this option, and it goes well - they love the songs you've written, and you rehearse them dilligently. The record company aren't sure - think a lead singer is maybe needed. Your new colleagues consider their old bandmate, Jon Anderson - fine, you say, he could make a good lead singer for Cinema.
THEN - it's decided that, with four ex-Yes members, the band should be called Yes. It doesn't matter that you joined Cinema, doesn't matter that the songs you wrote make no attempt to be 'Yes songs' - if its called Yes then it will probably be more successful. You're not sure - Yes is a band with a great history (you've long respected them) and Cinema have never been Yes. Anyway, the others are eager so you go with it, spending a few weeks with Jon ensuring his stamp comes over the album. Its still a Cinema album, however, and in no way sounds like the Yes of the past - but then it was never meant to.
You release the album, and go on tour. Unsurprisingly, it's a massive hit - you're a musician at the top of your game, and Trevor Horn the same in the producers chair. Being, now, through little or no choice of your own, a member of Yes, you are expected to learn, and perform, some numbers from the Yes back catalogue, along with the stuff you've just written.As a long-term fan, eager to be more than just an identikit of the previous Yes guitarist, you suggest delving deeper than just the 'greatest hits', but are overruled - so it's the same songs that the band performed ad nauseum in tours past. 70s Yes fans (well, a lot of them) aren't happy - who is this imposter, hogging the limelight, and standing in Steve Howe's spotlight? How dare he? Never mind the fact that the guy is, obviously immensely talented - never mind, either, that in a few short weeks he's learnt, and is now performing, some of Howe's toughest material to a incredibly high standard. Never mind that Howe has left to join another band producing stuff just as 'culpable' of producing the sort of AOR rock ('selling out'?) so hated from this new Yes. Nope, this man is to be derided. It is a feeling which remains until your departure 11 years later, a departure celebrated by some to this day.
IS THIS FAIR?
And, while I'm at it, how about this! It's time for a second album, and, knowing this will be a 'Yes' album (remember, the last time you had NO IDEA) you eagerly plan material more in keeping with the history of the band - still contemporary, but with more than a passing nod to the great works of the 60s and 70s. Oh no you're not. The record company, and your fellow band members (when they're prepared to cooperate at all), liked the success of Cinema - and they want more. Have you got any stuff you've been working on yourself? Well, yes, actually, but it's not Yes music... Never mind, let's get it on the album. Let's make it the first single.
So, you've just finished up the difficult (for many reasons, but none, I'd suggest, of your own making), but hugely successful Big Generator album and tour. Not as successful as the first album and tour, but still up there as one of the most successful ever for Yes. But maybe your bubble is bursting? Maybe the Yes fans don't want you in Yes anymore? Whatever, your lead singer (who you and the other Cinema members had dragged, virtually, from the musical wilderness) does a runner and starts up another band, claiming this to be 'the real Yes'. But when they find success hard to come by - they even try to perform one of your hit songs - in the competitive 80s rock market (and potential hit songs even harder) you get a call from said lead singer, asking if YOU have any songs THEY could use. Not being a guy to hold a grudge, you send a couple, and you're asked if you'd like to join up with a big 'Union' concept. You're not sure - your band (Yes) having enjoyed much more success than ABWHL - so you ask the bassist who got you to join Cinema in the first place what he thinks - but low and behold, he's already laid backing tracks on the other band's material! Now what?
You agree to participate in a 'Union', but in truth you hardly get to play a fair part - only three of 'your songs' are added to ABWHL 2, and even then you aren't given time to finish them properly. When you join up for the subsequent tour, you play your best but it's clear the other guitarist doesn't appreciate your presence - after all, you're just an imposter. Afterwards, when said lead singer decides to re-join your incarnation of the band (Cinema?) -whether for contractual reasons or others, don't know if anyone really knows - you work slavishly on an album that, you hope, will be worthy of being called a 'Yes' album, having been given the responsibility from the others. You play the results to them, and are met with unreserved delight, especially from the lead who breaks into tears on hearing one track, which on the subsequent tour he hails as one of the 'classic Yes songs'. In turn, the album and tour fail to achieve success (again, a variety of factors could be pointed to here, one of the main being that, when you were 'encouraged' to join the other band in 1990/1, you were forced to end your relationship with your record company, and subsequent deals turned sour, leaving you with a small company facing liquidation) and, as soon as it finishes, the lead singer starts making noises, again, about wishing to get back to the 'real' Yes. Despite having done so much for the band, you are promptly asked/forced to leave, and neither you, nor the songs you played such a large part in playing (some of the most successful 'Yes' songs of all time) are really ever spoken of again, even when someone is hired, basically, to recreate your role, albeit 'in the background'. On occasion, one or two songs will be played, but never is your involvement in them acknowledged, even the ones you virtually wrote yourself.
I apologise profusely for the length of this post. If anyone has bothered to read it all, thanks very much - don't know how much of it anyone will agree with but it'd be good to get some feedback. I hope I haven't given the impression that I'm some Rabin zealot who hates the other members of Yes, because that's simply not the case - I just think the criticisms made of him are unjustified, and the way he refuses to hit back at the detractors (even those within the band) is a constant source of amazement.