anderson on bonus tracks?

[vtchatman]

i thought jon was not on drama so where do the bonus songs with his vocals come from?

[Rick N Backer]

As I understand it, a fair amount of stuff was recorded with JA in Paris in the winter of 1979 and of course he sang on it. Some of these songs were binned (thankfully) some went onto his Song of Seven album and some ended up later on Drama.

I imagine that as is usual when a band get together to record a new album they look over stuff that didn't make it last time, or brought in things from their own noodling. I do recall that Drama was made under a very tight schedule and so maybe more than before the band had to re-visit stuff they'd done before. There was a radio interview with the new lineup on the BBC in mid May 1980 when Steve Howe said they'd just laid down a 3 part piece (Machine messiah no doubt) and had done an 8 minute piece the day before (Into the Lens perhaps). Bearing in mind the album hit the shops in August 1980, that's going some for Yes!

The reissue of Drama neatly ties up this period between 1979 and 1980 and JA ends up on some of the songs because they were how they originally sounded back in 1979. JA was never part of the Drama recording sessions themselves.

Unless anyone knows otherwise, that's the reason.

[betterdeadthanred]

The best song from the Paris Sessions (Golden Age or something to that effect) ended up being improved and included as the overture to Rick's 1984. An OK album, but the overture is proof that these songs could have turned into something great. That's not to knock Drama however, as that could be my favorite Yes album in the post Relayer era. (yes, that means I like it more than Going for the One)

[The Whale]

drama better than gfto? scratching my head... well in the Yes speak DVD Rick said that the band had started recording the next album (after tormoto) when Allen broke his foot roller skateing and during that delay john and rick decidead to leav the band so I do belive that jon was a part of the recording sessions and that is where Golden Ages came from.