ABWH v/s DRAMA

[Sonoacustico]

Hi,
I've read several times about people don't accepting Drama because the abscense of Jon. And I was curious to know what Yes fans think about ABWH, should it be considered as a true yes Album and not Drama?

Best regards

Claudio


PS: I will post my opinion about this soon :-)

[tardistraveler]

Well, technically, I don't accept ABWH as a true Yes album, because it wasn't done under the guise of Yes. However, the songs are definitely Yes-ish, and I enjoy the album. I saw the tour live on pay-per-view, and it was as good as seeing Yes proper!

As to Drama, I'm one that loves this album. Yes, I do miss Jon, but Squire really shines on this one! And I think Trevor Horn does a good job with the vocals - he had guts to step in after Jon departed, and I think he's not always given the credit he deserves. And, the tour was wonderful - I really enjoyed it despite the absence of Jon.

So, two great albums here, as far as I'm concerned. I enjoy them both.

[Sonoacustico]

Yeah, I think Geoff Downes work was really underrated here, his chord-structures and sounds are incredible! and Machine Messiah is a Masterpiece!!!

And as for ABWH, I absolutely enjoy listening to it, but I miss Squire a LOT more than I miss Jon on Drama. And I also don't consider it to be a Yes album, I think about it as a multi-solo project... similar (not equal) for example to Squire, Moraz and Bruford playing together, or Wakeman, Howe, Bruford and Squire playing together in a solo context. Anyway I think the ABHW album was very good, and the live disc and VHS was SUPERB.

Greetings

Claudio

[RobAdams]

Only after the return of Jon Anderson was I able to convince myself that DRAMA without him was a legitimate YES album. I think if the band had continued without Jon, I'd have not accepted it as YES.

And no matter how close to YES the ABWH recordings are, without Squire, it just ain't 100% genuine YES to me. But I must admit - Tony Levin and Jeff Berlin were both good choices for the bass role.

[yarstruly]

I have said this before, but to me Drama sounds more like Yes than ABWH does....I LOVE both albums though. I think Drama would have been better received if they had changed the name of the band from Yes to Drama, so then the Jon thing would not be an issue...

[Dragonfly]

DRAMA is Yes, legally. They even tried to capture "theYes spirit" when creating it. (Translation: they tried to make it sound like Jon was still in the band.)

ANDERSON BRUFORD WAKEMAN HOWE is certainly Yes as well. The best example (if anyone really needs it) are 10 out of the 14 tracks on UNION. True, Chris sings harmony a couple of them, but the rest of those tracks are Anderson Bruford Levin Wakeman and Howe performances. (O.K., Wakeman's work was screwed with, but that's not the point here.) If those ten tracks are "Yes", then all of ABWH is, too. It's certianly more "Yes" than anything with either Trevor.

Dragonfly :fly:

[Martin Riley]

Drama is certainly Yes. Without it Yes as an entity wouldn't, in my opinion, have continued. They may have reformed many years down the line like many others have but I'm struggling to think of any re-formations that have led to anything substantial ( I stand to be corrected here). As Rob said, I don't think Yes could have continued as Yes for a long space of time with Trevor Horn on vocals but as an interim to keep the name alive as a working band it is of considerable importance.

ABWH is also Yes in my opinion. The YesWest team weren't going to get anything together at that time, so why not have another version. I feel that just about any combination of the past and present members can conjure up something that would be 'Yes'. I don't have any fixed notion of what is and what isn't Yes as regards the different permutations of line-up.Having said that a line up of say,

Chris Squire
Patrick Moraz
Pete Banks
Trevor Horn
Bill Bruford

would be surprising.

[chrysanthemum]

For what it's worth, ABWH does now appear on Yes's official site in the discography and the lyrics section. If Yes themselves acknowloedge it to be a Yes album, that's good enough for me.

[gt76yesman]

I miss Chris on ABWH, but I miss Jon a lot more on Drama. They should both be considered YES IMO. Or, if you say ABWH isn't then Drama should not either. I go with both as YES and I DO considered them YES not withstanding Chris' personal opinion.

Glendo

[Soul Dreamer]

Accepting the music, without the musicians names; and it's Yes ! Sure, Jon & Rick are missed on Drama, but not to the point you can't accept it. And Chris is missed on ABWH, but not enough to ignore the material.

[Paul Allen]

ABWH is an Anderson solo project in disguise. It has some great moments, but Drama is a much better product. I think that they should re-make Machine Messiah with Rick and Jon and put it on the next record.

[Mr. Holland]

For me, they are defenetly both Yesalbums. It's the feeling I get from those albums, the music that is on there, rather then the "label" that is on the cover. In my cd-rack I've put all my cd's in alphabetical order, and when I have more then 1 cd from an artist, then those are in order of release. ABWH is there not under A, but among the Yesalbums, between BG and Union........

[BlankReg]

In my opinion, ABWH is Yes. As was Drama and “YesWest”.

To me, ABWH is a “Yes” album as the band obviously wanted to be considered Yes and their intent was to make a band record (as opposed to the solo albums with members of Yes as guest musicians, which are billed as solo albums and not band albums, e.g. Squire’s Fish Out of Water with Bruford and Moraz playing throughout).

Drama was a Yes album, as Howe/Squire/White were dedicated to taking Yes to the next logical step after the departure of Jon and Rick. Sure, they admitted that things had to change dramatically (no pun intended), but the core of the music was indeed Yes music.

And for the same reason, I believe Yes with Trevor Rabin was Yes as well. Rick Wakeman himself said in YesYears that Yes is not any particular group of musicians. It’s those musicians who are in the band at the time that have the responsibility of carrying the music forward (that’s a paraphrase, but close to what he said).

Reg.

[Dragonfly]

For what it's worth, ABWH does now appear on Yes's official site in the discography and the lyrics section. If Yes themselves acknowloedge it to be a Yes album, that's good enough for me.I was very pleased when I first saw this. I always felt that the main members of Classic Yes were being slighted without this inclusion. The only reason ANDERSON BRUFORD LEVIN WAKEMAN HOWE wasn't called "Yes" was that Chris et al won a lawsuit. Otherwise, it would have gone out under the "Yes" banner.

Hmmm, I wonder what it would have been titled?

Dragonfly :fly:

[soulsearcher]

they are both YES IMO.
i love them both, i listen to them both...
but although i have heard ABWH tunes by the individual artists, i have yet to hear something form "drama", save chris' rift from "tempis fugit."

[gt76yesman]

Hmmm, food for thought, had the ANDERSON BRUFORD LEVIN WAKEMAN HOWE album gone out as a YES album, what would the name be???

Howe about - THE COCOON AND THE CHRISLESS

er, well maybe not.

[Mr. Holland]

Maybe it would have been the same as the video...."In The Big Dream"...?

[gt76yesman]

I like that title. I really like that video, oh, now I gotta go put on Brother of Mine.....

[the'YES'kid]

For me they are 100% Yes albums. If 90125 & Big Generator are Yes albums why not Drama & ABWH. I love both, but If I where to choose I'd go for Drama.

For me DRAMA is a 100% PERFECT album.