Keys, a Jug of wine, and thou...

[new_sum_do_solve_ay]

Surprised no one has started a thread for Keys I. This is great stuff. Lets talk about the old music, the news material, and the elaborate packaging.

I like Be the One. I like how the recognizable riff here comes from the drums.

[allpurechance]

Surprised no one has started a thread for Keys I. This is great stuff. Lets talk about the old music, the news material, and the elaborate packaging.

I like Be the One. I like how the recognizable riff here comes from the drums.

Ah Keys.This IS good stuff,new_sum!The 1st time I ever heard any of this material,well it came at a very poor juncture of my life.Hard times.As difficult as any I've experienced.May it not get any tougher than that.The live material,and I do not care how dressed up it is,retaught me instantaneously just how deep in my heart Yesmusic had crawled,largely surreptitiously.

So,I got drunk and cried with the music.Siberian-that electrifying Steve solo.At long last,The Revealing Science Of God on a live album.This is where the tears really began.How could I have ever discounted this song?The answer is,I hadn't.I had just forgotten.I needed to be reminded.America,live!It has now become my definitive version of the song(although,the remastered Fragile gives the original studio version a sheen which seemed long absent.).Onward,how lovely the Steve acoustic guitar.Awaken!Another Yessong which had long required a live version to remind us of that in performance Yes lustre.A kicking Roundabout!An even more kicking Starship Trooper!

As for the studio material,I have always preferred That,That Is,socioeconomic-political polemicizing and all.It has all the Yeselementals,to my mind.Over even the later Mind Drive.

And,then!To realize that there was a 2nd Keys!This was the beginning of my own personal reacquaintance with Yes,after another long period of doubt,which will never happen again.For these reasons alone,I will always revere the Keys recordings.

Amongst far too many other drunken sessions in this man's life,this was one of the most fine,most sublime.And,I was alone.And Yes that's sad in it's way,but in another way,the only way it could've been,the only way it should've been.Yes caused me to look into my heart and recognize that amongst all the other detritus there,there was still perhaps good.I might not otherwise have ever suspected it to be so.

[neilius]

I was thrilled to bits when this came out, being a trooper at the time!

[new_sum_do_solve_ay]

And,then!To realize that there was a 2nd Keys!This was the beginning of my own personal reacquaintance with Yes,after another long period of doubt,which will never happen again.For these reasons alone,I will always revere the Keys recordings.

Amongst far too many other drunken sessions in this man's life,this was one of the most fine,most sublime.And,I was alone.And Yes that's sad in it's way,but in another way,the only way it could've been,the only way it should've been.

Keys II is something I want to comment on eventually but I am at work and can't really give a good analysis. I feel it is more thorough in many ways....

I wanted to comment about what you said concerning listening and musing on these albums on your own. I must say that corresponds with some of my Yes experiences. I because a Yes fan in college I would think. But after ABWH I never really had detailed discussions with people about Yes music. It was something that made me miss college. So for me much of newer yes has been like a solo appreciation type of thing. It has been kind of like mini-capsules of philosophy/compassion/righteoussness all delicously delivered with care. As I learned more about life I really appreciated Yes more and more. Like I've said in previous posts: I don't know too many fellow Yes heads. So it has been really great to discover this forum. Keeping the Yes-ness alive is kind of what keeps me from becoming superficial.

As for your drinking bouts well I hope it was vodka cause everything else leaves you with a helluva headache! There is a tendency to think of Yes as music for the 'peak' experiences and 'highest highs' but I never looked at it that way. There are singular depths too.... and I've seen a few myself... Yes sings about so many facets of the human experience, and I'd say learning about life is not possible without the low experiences as well. Those who have nothing but smooth rides can't really learn about their fellow men or themselves properly...

[CybrKhatru]

Ah....1996.

The 10th Anniversary of SLO is approaching.

I don't spin this one often, but it does bring back such great memories. In spite of the live overdubs (the shows were raw, to be sure, but they didn't need as much fixing as was done!) this is a great souvenir. Those who are interested in such things should seek out the tapes from 3/5/05 (aka Keys to Chris' Birthday) to hear what the shows sounded like sans the fix-its. We do pull that one out from time to time. Tasia and I used to say that the "finished product" is what Yes would have sounded like with another couple days of rehearsal.

I dunno...I "liked" seeing them raw like that. It showed that they were humans, not gods. And the emotional energy exchanged between band and audience was so palpable. THAT'S what a live gig is truly about. If you're not "feeling" it, who gives a rat's if the band is note-perfect?

Granted, I wouldn't want to see them "raw" all the time...rehearsal is good!, and paying $75 to witness a rehearsal when one is expecting a "show" is a bit much...but for those shows it was appropriate. I heard that the Wednesday show was the best of the three. But the first two weren't no slouches either.

Frank, I STILL love That That Is...although I really liked hearing Mind Drive live (and my appreciation for it raised considerably as a result), I do still prefer TTI to it. Wish they'd play that one in concert!

---Matt

[Sheerah]

I didn't even know about it until I joined Yesfans.
Such a valuable place,this is.

[allpurechance]

Buh-bump!

lmaooOOOOOoo

(I love you folks...)

[Scooty]

I was there, second night..

I was floored, I cried tears of complete joy...it was an amazing set of shows..

GFTO, Revealing, Turn Of The Century, America...I could have dies that night and would have been a happy corpse..:)

[pedro skychaser]

keys 1-very special time -birth of son and realisation that the only lullaby i knew the words to was wonderous stories-pre internet days so i spose i read about new album in a music mag-hard times as my wife was ill and had to take time off work for 2 years -anyhow keys 1 was played daily and sustained the spirits-thats why i'm here.

[Earl Grey]

I was there, second night..

I was floored, I cried tears of complete joy...it was an amazing set of shows..

GFTO, Revealing, Turn Of The Century, America...I could have dies that night and would have been a happy corpse..:)

Wow Scooty! I didn't know you were there... Dood!

I wasn't, I hadn't heard about the show... I was still griping about YES in the eighties, and it slipped right past me while listening to TALES on a bad cassette player in my car.

Ah, but when the album of the event appeared in the record store, I was right there.

I love the studio tracks, especially those on Keys II. I wrote something about this in the 'Keys thread' a couple of years ago...

I was SO ready for the Keys albums when they appeared. A balm for a weary soul, and both albums remain as such to this day.

I'm one of those who actually loves the DVD! 'Onward', how I'd love to hear that again live...

On my wish-list for YES-2006! It will happen.

EG:yesbird:

[Scooty]

Oh yeah man!!
I camped out for 16 hours to get tickets..thought I had first nite tix, than it turned out they added a 3rd show, which became the first nite..

I slept in front of BooBoo's records to wake up the next morning to see this most amazing event. I tell you what, I wouldnt have known about it at all if it weren't for belonging to Y.I.S back in the day (Yes Information Service) ran by a great guy in Modesto Cali..Nic Cappacio I received a postcard regarding the announcement..

lucky was I!

[allpurechance]

Gentlemen?lol-

Keys/SLO changed my life from approximately 3,000 miles away and at least several months after the fact!

So deep was I in the aforementioned funk that I wonder if I would ever have recovered without the assistance or the existence of this wonderful event...

Frank

:O)

(Ugly details available upon request,but...LOL!...I wouldn't recommend it...!)

[Earl Grey]

Oh yeah man!!
I camped out for 16 hours to get tickets..thought I had first nite tix, than it turned out they added a 3rd show, which became the first nite..

I slept in front of BooBoo's records to wake up the next morning to see this most amazing event. I tell you what, I wouldnt have known about it at all if it weren't for belonging to Y.I.S back in the day (Yes Information Service) ran by a great guy in Modesto Cali..Nic Cappacio I received a postcard regarding the announcement..

lucky was I!

BooBoos! I LOVE that place! Haven't been there in years, are they still in business? They actually used to sell my first album on 'commission', back when...

Funny, I used to play 'Linnea's' coffee house in SLO regularly in the eighties, and I didn't even know that Jon went there for his morning Chai...

Appearently he still does sometimes!

:ele:

[gitsy]

Whilst I am not a fan of the album I feel it’s incredible important as it started the ball rolling again. Who would have thought this would lead to Open your Eyes, The Ladder and of course Magnification.
What’s the story does anybody know, how did the concert come about, was there a long term plan at this stage?

[Earl Grey]

Gentleman?lol-

Keys/SLO changed my life from approximately 3,000 miles away and at least several months after the fact!

So deep was I in the aforementioned funk that I wonder if I would ever have recovered without the assistance or the existence of this wonderful event...

Frank

:O)

(Ugly details available upon request,but...LOL!...I wouldn't recommend it...!)

Frank...

I listened to Keys sort-of unrelentingly, back in the mid to late nineties, when my parents got sick and I was taking care of them.

One night my dad heard the acoustic-bit from Mind Drive, he walked into the den and said, "That's 'YES' huh? I recognize them"

"Yeah Dad, it's their new album."

"They were good before. Huh. I think they've matured, this is really good!"

Words of wisdom from my dearly departed Dad...

He was a classical-buff, he sang in the LA Master Choral for a bit, he took me to my first Yesshow (TALES '74), he knew what he was talking about, my Dad had impeccable taste...

There's a review for ya!

:ele:

[Scooty]

Im sure BooBoo's is still around, they are an institution!!!

It was so weird to camp out in front of a record store for tix to a show that had been announced a mere few days prior..

I camped for hours, and came back the next week for the show. I distinctly remember people from all over the world calling the record store for tix, like the stock exchange..it was a wild time! The announcement came from nowhere....

I was shocked and stoked to have the privilige to attend..

Sidenote, I had a Drink or 2 at the pub, The Frog and Peach wherein Jon recorded Promise Ring.....the nite of the SLO gig I attended

[Earl Grey]

Earthling Books...

Now there's another cool place in SLO...

They didn't have a sound-system, so I'd sit down by the fireplace and start playing, you'd always get a little crowd there, and I'd send them off to BooBoos to buy my 'cassette album' (HAHA!).

A long long time ago, but it seems like yesterday. I didn't know Jon lived there at the time...

Early 1990 I actually had a gig at Brubecks, I hear they aren't there any more...

[CybrKhatru]

Scoot--!

Wow...I didn't know you were there too! We probably bumped into each other and didn't even know it...

Yeah, if it hadn't been for Nic and the folks at YIS (plus a few others who kept the AOL board informed), we wouldn't have known about it either...it was the best-kept secret in Yesdom.

It did come at a time where NFTE and a.m.y were more-or-less the only internet-related sources of Yes info. We're certainly MUCH better informed about stuff now, aren't we?

Matt