Into The Lens

[yesmandroc]

Like it? Don't like it? Would like it if it weren't for "i am a camera. camera, camera." ?

I like it. I agree that its a bit cheesy, but I like that about it. No one else wold do it like that. That attracts me.

[Faceintheplace]

My second favorite track off Drama. Second only to the mighty Machine Machine.

[JL]

I have always loved this song. It may not have the best lyrics ever written, but the music is stunning. Steve, Chris and Alan are on fire on this one.

Come to think of it, Steve, Chris and Alan are on fire on the entire album.

[allgoodyes]

"Into The Lens" is a good song musically but it comes up a little short on lyrics and the vocals are a bit thin.

While I do enjoy listening to every song on Drama, my favourites are "Tempus Fugit" and "Does It Really Happen?"

[Scooty]

Apart from the actual words " I Am A Camera..."

This song is really really well constructed. It's interesting in that it's a clue as to Yes' survival into the 80's, (before Trevor Rabin came along), how thier sound was morphing, and calming down a bit, but still wholly progressive in its nature. I even detect a hint of the Police being an influence here..just a bit. Again, as I say so many times, Alan, Chris and Steve are TIGHT on this record. The interplay is phenomenal. Chris' is really pushed up on the vocal lines on this track..I like that.

[Timmo]

To each his own.

[cinderella]

I liked the Buggle's version better.

[Joedude]

No problem from me. I like the song alot. Yeah, the "I am a camera" thing is odd to say the least, but Yes seems to have a few odd lyrics like that.

[cinderella]

:music-smi I think it's a fun song.
Every band needs to have a few of those in their catalog.

[yesmandroc]

To each his own.

Is that your way of saying that you don't like it?

[pianozach]

Apart from the actual words " I Am A Camera..."

This song is really really well constructed. It's interesting in that it's a clue as to Yes' survival into the 80's, (before Trevor Rabin came along), how thier sound was morphing, and calming down a bit, but still wholly progressive in its nature. I even detect a hint of the Police being an influence here..just a bit. Again, as I say so many times, Alan, Chris and Steve are TIGHT on this record. The interplay is phenomenal. Chris' is really pushed up on the vocal lines on this track..I like that.


Yes! What HE say! :1loudspkr

[umgekehrt]

Like it? Don't like it? Would like it if it weren't for "i am a camera. camera, camera." ?
Would like it even more if there were more "I yam a camera camera camera"

[raz]

i like it.
in fact i like all of drama.
at first i didn't, but then i actually listend to it and i did.
it's the 1980's Relayer - Yes out there doing something different.
I wish they played more of this live.

[PO]

I like it. I didn't know there was a problem with the camera ... lyric until the Internet.

[yescop]

I told my ex-wife that one time,"I am a camera". She asked me why and I responded with a wild look in my eyes,"Because I can snap at anytime". And to this day I wonder why she divorced me.Sheesh...


:badass:

[ANTIOCH]

'The Buggles' version seems to fit the lyrics better, but the 'YES' version is a well crafted vision on this theme. I am a fan of "Drama" as well.

[Olias of Sunhillow]

I don't know the buggles version. I think it's an okay song. Not really my favourite but okay.

[rememberer]

"I Am A Camera" sits better with me than it used to. If I stop and remember this is a guy from Living In The Plastic Age, that IS pretty cosmic.

"I Am A Vacuum Cleaner" -- now THAT really would have sucked. ;-)

[Timmo]

In case anyone doesn't know, "I am a Camera" was the mostly non-musical play (and movie) developed from Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" and which eventually became "Cabaret."

[Timmo]

Is that your way of saying that you don't like it?Um, yeah.

[Bluebird71]

This was the first song on Drama that truly hooked me and I still like it, hmmm, probably second best, after Tempus Fugit. It has wonderful, kind of 'expansive' guitar-playing from Howe. The chorus -especially the keyboards- reminds me of Abba, would you believe! But that's okay, I like them as well. :music-smi

Lyrics never bother me in the least as I nearly always concentrate exclusively on the music itself. And for me Into The Lens has a lot to offer in that respect.

[Jackaranda]

I love it.

Steve talks in YesYears about the Yes "fiddle faddles" that were added to the original song the Buggles had. I'm glad they did it.

Good video also, with them on the ITR stage.

[TNyesfan]

I used to love Fiddle Faddle. I wonder if Steve know it's a delicious snack food?!

[luckeydoug1]

This is one of my least favorite Yes songs.

[Steve St Thomas]

It's the first one I truly ever heard, before knowing who Yes were. So it's a sentimental favourite. I like both the Buggles version and the Yes version.

[Albedo]

I'm not crazy about the I am a Camera lyric, but the rest of the lyrics are actually pretty good I thought. My favorite along with Tempus Fugit on Drama.

[Steve St Thomas]

What's not to like about the Into The Lens lyric?

Memories, how they fade so fast
Look back, there is no escape
Tied down, now you see too late.
Lovers, they will never wait.

Time passes, memories are temporary, don't get caught up in the past. That's what that says to me. If you look back to them too much, you will forever be trapped back there. Lovers? Maybe saying that when in love, you are caught up in the moment, especially when love first begins? You are always waiting for the next time to be together, remembering the time you were together, imagining what you'll do when you are together, there is no Time when Love begins. You are in all times at once.

I am a camera

A device used to freeze moments in time. To capture memories, no matter how good or bad they are.
Our minds are cameras. We hold on to and freeze moments in our lives just like this little device. Cameras are just an extension of what we do in our thoughts and with our thoughts.

Take heart, I could never let you go
And you, always let the feeling show
Love us all, how you never broke your heart
You lose them
If you feel the feeling start.

Seems to be saying that a particular person was afraid to get their heart broken? Many chances to experience love have been lost because this person will never take the chance to have thier heart broken. The first line seems to be sentimental, almost endearing, a bit sympathetic towards the person. It all depends on what that ''feeling'' is that starts. Is it love?

I am a camera, camera, camera

Freezing moments in time again.

And you, may find time will blind you
This to just remind you
All is meant to be.

All I can see is a person lost in moments, memories, confusion. Getting caught up in
all of it, rather than letting things just happen as they are meant to be.

Here, by the waterside
There, where the lens is wide
You and me
By the sea
Taken in tranquility.

Narrator is saying, this is what you're missing be trying to be in all times at once. This is where we are meant to be, wide focus, panoramic, where all is peaceful. Rather than get caught up in the past, or the present, or the future, freeze framing in that stasis, expand the lens to get the bigger picture.

Taken, taken so easily
To pass into glass reality
Transform, to transfer, to energy.

Moments all stolen. That become transparent, frozen like glass, picture framed
never to be what they were, only to be gazed upon, reflected upon, never lived again.
It is not living . . ..

Taken, taken, so easily
To pass into glass reality
Transformer, transferring energy

There by the waterside
Here where the lens is wide
You and me
By the sea
Taken in tranquility.

Reminder once again --- open the lens, get the bigger picture.

Nothing wrong with those lyrics that I can see. Quite beautiful really.

[Albedo]

What's not to like about the Into The Lens lyric?

Memories, how they fade so fast
Look back, there is no escape
Tied down, now you see too late.
Lovers, they will never wait.

Time passes, memories are temporary, don't get caught up in the past. That's what that says to me. If you look back to them too much, you will forever be trapped back there. Lovers? Maybe saying that when in love, you are caught up in the moment, especially when love first begins? You are always waiting for the next time to be together, remembering the time you were together, imagining what you'll do when you are together, there is no Time when Love begins. You are in all times at once.

I am a camera

A device used to freeze moments in time. To capture memories, no matter how good or bad they are.
Our minds are cameras. We hold on to and freeze moments in our lives just like this little device. Cameras are just an extension of what we do in our thoughts and with our thoughts.

Take heart, I could never let you go
And you, always let the feeling show
Love us all, how you never broke your heart
You lose them
If you feel the feeling start.

Seems to be saying that a particular person was afraid to get their heart broken? Many chances to experience love have been lost because this person will never take the chance to have thier heart broken. The first line seems to be sentimental, almost endearing, a bit sympathetic towards the person. It all depends on what that ''feeling'' is that starts. Is it love?

I am a camera, camera, camera

Freezing moments in time again.

And you, may find time will blind you
This to just remind you
All is meant to be.

All I can see is a person lost in moments, memories, confusion. Getting caught up in
all of it, rather than letting things just happen as they are meant to be.

Here, by the waterside
There, where the lens is wide
You and me
By the sea
Taken in tranquility.

Narrator is saying, this is what you're missing be trying to be in all times at once. This is where we are meant to be, wide focus, panoramic, where all is peaceful. Rather than get caught up in the past, or the present, or the future, freeze framing in that stasis, expand the lens to get the bigger picture.

Taken, taken so easily
To pass into glass reality
Transform, to transfer, to energy.

Moments all stolen. That become transparent, frozen like glass, picture framed
never to be what they were, only to be gazed upon, reflected upon, never lived again.
It is not living . . ..

Taken, taken, so easily
To pass into glass reality
Transformer, transferring energy

There by the waterside
Here where the lens is wide
You and me
By the sea
Taken in tranquility.

Reminder once again --- open the lens, get the bigger picture.

Nothing wrong with those lyrics that I can see. Quite beautiful really.
Exactly!

On another level - "There by the waterside, here where the lens is wide" I always think of a lake as an eye looking out. Just my unbidden reaction to that lyric.

[umgekehrt]

It's the best Yes song ever.

[Steve St Thomas]

Exactly!

On another level - "There by the waterside, here where the lens is wide" I always think of a lake as an eye looking out. Just my unbidden reaction to that lyric.

Yea I get that as well.

Considering how many songs on DRAMA deal with Time, you gotta wonder if there's a concept or theme going on. Huh. Go figure.

[shortexchanges]

I really enjoy the song. The lyrics are buggles, the musical arrangement YES! Drama Rocks hard! Into the lens really gets cookin and then kicks --!!

Great video on Greatest hits!!

[ham]

Best tune on the album and it showed just what that line-up could have done had they gone on... Its the track that still make people go "huh" about when they hear it I find...

"Video nearly save the prog-rock stars.........." :headset: Ermmmmmmmm???

[relayeire]

I have always loved it... why? Steve's steel in the intro and bridges... the intricacy also of those parts, with the band members all playing something different (a la Perpetual Change)

the tight guitar-piano interaction in the latter "I am a ca-me-ra, ca-me-ra, ca-me-ra..." section...

the Buggles' version is great, too... much simpler but appropriate for a new wave band...

[umgekehrt]

You could hear immediately that it wasn't written by Jon. Jon would've written "A seasoned camera could call you from the depths of your disgrace" or something like that.

[MrZuLu]

Sweet!

[ToBeOver]

What's not to like about the Into The Lens lyric?

Memories, how they fade so fast
Look back, there is no escape
Tied down, now you see too late.
Lovers, they will never wait.

Time passes, memories are temporary, don't get caught up in the past. That's what that says to me. If you look back to them too much, you will forever be trapped back there. Lovers? Maybe saying that when in love, you are caught up in the moment, especially when love first begins? You are always waiting for the next time to be together, remembering the time you were together, imagining what you'll do when you are together, there is no Time when Love begins. You are in all times at once.

I am a camera

A device used to freeze moments in time. To capture memories, no matter how good or bad they are.
Our minds are cameras. We hold on to and freeze moments in our lives just like this little device. Cameras are just an extension of what we do in our thoughts and with our thoughts.

Take heart, I could never let you go
And you, always let the feeling show
Love us all, how you never broke your heart
You lose them
If you feel the feeling start.

Seems to be saying that a particular person was afraid to get their heart broken? Many chances to experience love have been lost because this person will never take the chance to have thier heart broken. The first line seems to be sentimental, almost endearing, a bit sympathetic towards the person. It all depends on what that ''feeling'' is that starts. Is it love?

I am a camera, camera, camera

Freezing moments in time again.

And you, may find time will blind you
This to just remind you
All is meant to be.

All I can see is a person lost in moments, memories, confusion. Getting caught up in
all of it, rather than letting things just happen as they are meant to be.

Here, by the waterside
There, where the lens is wide
You and me
By the sea
Taken in tranquility.

Narrator is saying, this is what you're missing be trying to be in all times at once. This is where we are meant to be, wide focus, panoramic, where all is peaceful. Rather than get caught up in the past, or the present, or the future, freeze framing in that stasis, expand the lens to get the bigger picture.

Taken, taken so easily
To pass into glass reality
Transform, to transfer, to energy.

Moments all stolen. That become transparent, frozen like glass, picture framed
never to be what they were, only to be gazed upon, reflected upon, never lived again.
It is not living . . ..

Taken, taken, so easily
To pass into glass reality
Transformer, transferring energy

There by the waterside
Here where the lens is wide
You and me
By the sea
Taken in tranquility.

Reminder once again --- open the lens, get the bigger picture.

Nothing wrong with those lyrics that I can see. Quite beautiful really.

The lyrics to this song have always touched me. I like your interpretation, Steve. I believe when we listen to lyrics of a song, they are individualistic feelings or emotions and we can't always accurately interpret what the lyricist was feeling at any given time when they penned it... we can only assess what we get out of the song while listening to it and can only speculate what was meant by them. Just depends on what you're going through in your life each time you listen to it as to what you derive from it.

:keyboard:

[umgekehrt]

I've actually always thought that this is a song about someone with photographic memory...

[Jackaranda]

The Buggles version is good in its own right.

[Steve St Thomas]

Hmmm. I swore we'd be discussing the preponderance of Time as a subject matter on DRAMA by now. I mean like, every song has something to do with Time, you can't get away from it on this album. The only one that can be excluded somewhat is White Car, but even that one bears allusions to ghosts/ shedding or removing things (from the future?)

White Car
Downes/Horn/Howe/Squire/White

I see a man in a white car
Move like a ghost on the skyline
Take all your dreams
And you throw them away
Man in a white car.

I mean, I'm purposefully coming up with an album that deals exclusively with the concept of Time. It says so in the title! But Drama is just full of songs about Time, and I just have to wonder what dat's all about, and who was mainly writing the lyrics for this album.

[Steve St Thomas]

I'd suggest a different track order though ------ Run Through The Light coming before White Car.

[pedro skychaser]

[QUOTE=Steve St Thomas]Hmmm. I swore we'd be discussing the preponderance of Time as a subject matter on DRAMA by now. I mean like, every song has something to do with Time, you can't get away from it on this album. The only one that can be excluded somewhat is White Car, but even that one bears allusions to ghosts/ shedding or removing things (from the future?)

heh steve st tee-trevor was musing on the notion of kissing tina charles 1 minute and then singing in front of 12000 people @ madison square garden the next...where does the time go??



petermcguiness.tripod.com

[JB86]

I freaking love Into the Lens. I'm not musically knowledgable, so I may look a prat here, but Chris Squire's bass intro in the first 10 seconds is what attracted to me to this song. If it's not bass, then correct me.

After reading what Steve wrote, maybe this could be seen as an antidote to 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'- which says the opposite of what Into the Lens is saying at times.

My favourite lyrical part is the "here, where the lens is wide.."- I really like the keyboards at this part.

[Steve St Thomas]

Didn't realise that the Machine Messiah is actually present!

http://www.glcorps.org/machine.gif

But I'm sure it's taller than represented here.

[pedro skychaser]

"man in a white car"-gary numan in a sports car apparently,
"i am a camera"-christopher isherwood novel(also see "vermillion sands" on 2nd buggles album)
"systems of chance" lyric i always thought was lotto!!!


petermcguiness.tripod.com

[Steve St Thomas]

"i am a camera"-christopher isherwood novel(also see "vermillion sands" on 2nd buggles album

petermcguiness.tripod.com

Then the title of this web page might interest you

Christopher Isherwood (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/german/berlin_class/people/isherwood.html)


....but for those who hate links and want to see RIGHT NOW . . . the title of the page is
BERLIN: The City As Body, The City As Metaphor.

Gosh, wasn't that what was being alluded to in Machine Messiah?

Cables that carry the life
To the cities we build
Threads that link diamonds of light
To the satanic mills

"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed." (from Goodbye to Berlin, 1939)

It's Isherwood's novels that had Cabaret adapted from them. I Am A Camera was also a play and a movie.

[Steve St Thomas]

"man in a white car"-gary numan in a sports car apparently

So when you see Gary Numan you get to throw all your dreams away? I think that's giving Gary a bit more power than he has. A lot of times, it's read what the inspiration of something is, and then that is super-glued to the song as its definition. It may be the source, the image that inspired the song, seeing Gary Numan go down a road, but what gets said in White Car either says a lot about Gary Numan, or was worked into the song to present a mood. Could be either. But super-glue doesn't always seal it all up nice & tight. ;)

"systems of chance" lyric i always thought was lotto!!!


A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole operating under the condition of an unknown and unpredictable element in happenings that seems to have no assignable cause ------ that is how lotto operates pedro. That's the principle of gambling. ;) Though there are predictability factors in any ''game'', especially with a very set condition of certain numbers and their chance of appearing, systems of chance is what gambling of any kind depends on. :)

[Steve St Thomas]

Next up is Into The Lens once again.

Just finding it mildly amusing that Lens starts off like a musical march, and considering Does It Really Happen? has just kind of outright said, you have chosen your direction, you've drawn your graph, go west young person, it's just kind of humorous that Into The Lens starts out very ''marchy''.

[Steve St Thomas]

...... and why does the album cover for Going For The One seem to suit Drama much much better to me now. No offense against Roger Dean, but there was a missed opportunity on the cover art for Drama, that Hipgnosis would probably have picked up on. But then again, I don't know how they reached what they got for Going For The One...... and why Drama was called Drama, when it should have been called Time, or Tempus Fugit, or My Body The Industrial Complex or something ;)

[Yes_Fan_4_Life26]

Um Steve...

Have you ever considered writing a book.

Like a track by track or a play by play?

I like how you dive deep into these things but never drown.

Really good!

[pedro skychaser]

i like how you dive deep into these things but never drown.QUOTE.

a bit like that esteemed lifeguard in the flash picture...steve st tee is a mine of useful info+opinion...my favourite teeism was the colour theory that we see as babies the colours black,white,red,yellow first in that order,as spynmeister nardelli sings in that song!!!!!!!


much appreciated mr tee......




"loki plunged into the icy water and was dragged by the sporeguide(which can be quite painful)"

[Steve St Thomas]

Um Steve...

Have you ever considered writing a book.

Like a track by track or a play by play?

I like how you dive deep into these things but never drown.

Really good!

Thanks alot, but I don't consider it (book writing).

Cus I just know it wouldn't sell, no one would read it. Well, they might, discount it, and then I see the same things getting said about 2 or 3 years later by someone else for magazines/periodicals/reviews. Did a track by track of The Fixx's Phantoms over a year ago. Noticed the stereo L-R is flipped. It's now being announced by others at Amazon in their reviews. Small example, quite pedantic really. But I often shake my head in disappointment when I see something I've said get ''absorbed'', when it should have been absorbed years ago when it happened!!!! :lmao: But I also get a great deal of plasure that it's getting noticed in any capacity. Not that it makes it true. I just always saw it as common sense, and just there to begin with.

My best writing is about George Harrison though. That's where I truly love the subject matter, and just love proving that there was more to him than meets the eye, and that he was one of a kind. Sometimes that takes pointing out some things people might not want to know, or consider. That's why that sort of thing rarely gets read.

[JB86]

Did anyone else notice the metronome on 'Into the Lens'? Maybe another reference to time there.

[Steve St Thomas]

Moving this to its own thread, cus I realised (duh) about 15 posts ago that I was off-topic, but I've never seen the topic come up before about how Time obsessed Drama is. ;)

TEMPUS FUGIT otherwise known as Drama (http://www.yesfans.com/forum/showthread.php?p=703161#post703161)

[MrZuLu]

Considering how many songs on DRAMA deal with Time, you gotta wonder if there's a concept or theme going on. Huh. Go figure.Steve's breakdown of the lyrics reminded me of the book was I was reading at the Time this album came out. Back then there was no internet.
Being a sound and recording engineer and in a working band i didn't have time for TV so I missed the Good days of MTV.
With that said when I was home relaxing, I would kick back and read and listen to Yes...

when I brought Drama home i put it on obviously and sat back and grabbed my book.

There was a reference to "Looking where the Lens is wide" in the story

I stopped reading, put the book down and started the record over this time paying attention to the words

the book was...

Robert A Heinlein's ~ Time Enough For Love

Just the name of the book reeks of Drama

[Steve St Thomas]

Did anyone else notice the metronome on 'Into the Lens'? Maybe another reference to time there.

Most likely so, because it doesn't really simulate a camera does it? It's one more example of the music on Drama accenting the lyrical content or theme. As in Tempus Fugit being in a race to get to the ''answer'' of Yes. I hope to find some time to look in to the musical side of Drama tonight.

[Steve St Thomas]

Steve's breakdown of the lyrics reminded me of the book was I was reading at the Time this album came out. Back then there was no internet.
Being a sound and recording engineer and in a working band i didn't have time for TV so I missed the Good days of MTV.
With that said when I was home relaxing, I would kick back and read and listen to Yes...

when I brought Drama home i put it on obviously and sat back and grabbed my book.

There was a reference to "Looking where the Lens is wide" in the story

I stopped reading, put the book down and started the record over this time paying attention to the words

the book was...

Robert A Heinlein's ~ Time Enough For Love

Just the name of the book reeks of Drama

Now THAT'S something every useful! Virgil, The Golden Age, Tempus Fugit, Isherwood, are all pretty good 'pinpoints'' of inspiration, but THAT example is pretty damn illuminating. Thanks for that Mr. Please post that in the Tempus Fugit thread if you would.

And someone, anyone help me find the lyrics to We Can Fly From Here and Go Through This!!! HELP!!!!

[Steve St Thomas]

Love this quote from Heinlein:

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.

[pedro skychaser]

re -sound effects on "i am a camera"-why did they not sample the sound of a shutter opening+closing ala the cash register in floyd's money?too tacky?!? (btw-one of my fav videos-they all look great,fish has his buggles-goggles on,they're trim+hip-fish never looked happier-steve's hair is long enough to blow in the windmachine,geoff pouts,astro rocks+the hornmeister muses about time apparently!!

petermcguiness.tripod.com

[Steve St Thomas]

re -sound effects on "i am a camera"-why did they not sample the sound of a shutter opening+closing ala the cash register in floyd's money?too tacky?!? (btw-one of my fav videos-they all look great,fish has his buggles-goggles on,they're trim+hip-fish never looked happier-steve's hair is long enough to blow in the windmachine,geoff pouts,astro rocks+the hornmeister muses about time apparently!!

petermcguiness.tripod.com

It does make you wonder why they didn't. But that is definitely a ''clock'', at one point it sounds like a cuckoo clock (Downes is playing either a Voice Patch on Synth, or even Vocoder), but it's definitely a clock.

[Steve St Thomas]

But think about this for a second......


When Horn is singing I am a Camera, as this clock ''ticks'', what happens in the music?

It pauses. But then the clock returns. You probably know exactly where I'm talking about. Since I have the CD on me, I can point exactly to where, but I'm sure you know where it is. It's signified by the announcement I Am A Camera, the clock ticks, and then a Piano comes in that pauses everything, but the clock (the cuckoo clock sound) returns, almost as if its implying, you only stopped time for a second.

[The Whale]

Wow I just read all the lyrics to all the songs on Drama and it never struck me but time and love is the constint theme. even the album cover it depicts many of the lyrics (by the water side, she runs like a cheeta, faster than the morning at dawn?) and look how the geogriphy progressis as you get closer to the forground. It starts with Ice glassures and then turns to high mountins suriounded by islands, then fields and rolling hills and ends in the fourground with sand dunes. it starts as Ice caps and then (dies) ends with sand duns? Never thought Drama was that deep ~ need to listen to this again.

[Steve St Thomas]

Wow I just read all the lyrics to all the songs on Drama and it never struck me but time and love is the constint theme. even the album cover it depicts many of the lyrics (by the water side, she runs like a cheeta, faster than the morning at dawn?) and look how the geogriphy progressis as you get closer to the forground. It starts with Ice glassures and then turns to high mountins suriounded by islands, then fields and rolling hills and ends in the fourground with sand dunes. it starts as Ice caps and then (dies) ends with sand duns? Never thought Drama was that deep ~ need to listen to this again.

I like how the cats seem to have given up the chase on the other artwork for the album!

[Steve St Thomas]

:lmao:

In 1979, The Buggles rocketed to the top of the charts with a cute single 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. The idea for the song was derived from Horn's readings of science fiction author Robert Heinlein. In one particular novel, the lead character vacuumed sound from the radio. The Buggles wrote a song upon that theme, envisioning that music video would overwhelm the scene. Now twenty years after the song, their prophecy has indeed been correct.

Been looking for that for awhile. Now I found it. Hurrah. Does this mean. .. . .

[Steve St Thomas]

Right now I feel like saying, and there you ----ing have it. There you go.

Thank you Mr. Zulu for pointing towards Robert Heinlein. I knew that would be fruitful.

[Orbert]

I like it. I don't know if it's "sweet" but it's a good song. I've never heard the Buggles' version.

[shortexchanges]

There by the waterside
Here where the lens is wide
You and me
By the sea
Taken in tranquility.

as with the lyrics on roundabout

I will remember you

your silhouette will charge the view

of distant atmosphere

I have always felt that these lyrics are symbolic of a loving creator (like jesus)

who takes us like water where the lens is wide to heaven where we are remembered perfectly in the presense of God!

I belive we live in the memories of others as others (especially those who have passed) still live in our memories.

It give me great comfort to believe that God remembers me and will like a computer down load my life (a program) to his harddrive and live as a perfect memory for eternity.

Yes has christian meanings to christians and folks of other faiths who have faith as they speak of a universal higher being that can reflect in all of us the better things in this reality.

I feel yes touches us all deeply and we have community by this profound shared personal experience.

Most people dont get YES!

Drama Rocks

Take me in tranquility !!

[ToBeOver]

There by the waterside
Here where the lens is wide
You and me
By the sea
Taken in tranquility.

as with the lyrics on roundabout

I will remember you

your silhouette will charge the view

of distant atmosphere

I have always felt that these lyrics are symbolic of a loving creator (like jesus)

who takes us like water where the lens is wide to heaven where we are remembered perfectly in the presense of God!

I belive we live in the memories of others as others (especially those who have passed) still live in our memories.

It give me great comfort to believe that God remembers me and will like a computer down load my life (a program) to his harddrive and live as a perfect memory for eternity.

Yes has christian meanings to christians and folks of other faiths who have faith as they speak of a universal higher being that can reflect in all of us the better things in this reality.

I feel yes touches us all deeply and we have community by this profound shared personal experience.

Most people dont get YES!

Drama Rocks

Take me in tranquility !!

Although I'm not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, I really like what you have said here, Mark.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

:keyboard:

[DJSalt]

Of all the YES Albums, I always thought that the lyrics from Drama paid less homage to a supreme presence and a firmly-rooted moral ethic.

That said, I still love the album, musically. Back then (when it came out) there were no internet sites and the world media was not so connected. The first time I even knew YES had re-formed was when I heard the album "World=Premiered" on WMMR in Philly. I don't know if it was actually world premiered there but that's what they claimed.

It was like someone had revived YES from the dead and had an impact on me. The music was still very YES-Prog and yet had a renewed energy that said "we're baaaaaaack!"

As a photographer, Into The Lens quickly caught my attention and remains one of my faves from this LP.

Steve St. T - your analysis is awesome, I very much look forward to reading more of your posts on YES lyrics.

Short Exchanges - Thank you for the spiritual interpretation, I hadn't considered it that way and now have to go back and rethink the whole album!

[Steve St Thomas]

Steve St. T - your analysis is awesome, I very much look forward to reading more of your posts on YES lyrics.


Thanks DJ. You'd get more posts like that if I could understand what the hell Jon Anderson's talking about. :dog:

Sorry, I just have had no connection with his lyrics whatsoever. Not even in an aesthetic sense.