Wakeman's Best Yes

[Q]

In the spirit of Genevive's "Steve's Stand-Out Album" thread, this is a discussion of the very best Wakeman studio performance as a Yesman. (not to be confused with "Your favorite Wakeman album," another question altogether, for which there's a separate thread)

What's Rick's very best Yes performance?

I keep coming back to Fragile. It seems to me that his moments on GFT1 and CTTE were inspired but peripheral. On Fragile, his work is thoroughly integrated with Steve's, in a way that I think stands out among the rest ...

Q

[Martin Riley]

Shall I say Union

No, of course not.

I'll go GFTO. Majestic.

Although I also have a soft spot for Tormato, even though I know a lot of people thoroughly dislike the sounds he created on that album. I just love the way that he(and also Steve) made the most of every crammed little space they had on that one

[PO]

I have got to say Yessongs. There is soooo much "Signature Wakeman" on this album.

His organ solos on Roundabout and CTTE.

His Mellotron use on Siberian and CTTE.

Ad nauseum, ad nauseum.

And his fire when in a live setting. He jumped into this self-created multi-keyboardist role with a grin. He was setting the standard in front of the world. He made "Rick" out of richard wakeman.

[BredYes]

Close to the Edge: that church organ, his solo after this. The duet with Chris after 3 minutes in Siberian Khatru. Hist tasteful contribution to And You and I.

Of course Yessongs is great too (Henry 8; the solo in Roundabout is funny and of course the ending of Starship Trooper.

Wakeman added a lot to GFTO. On every song he sounds very different.

Fragile is a good one too but I think he was not such an integral part of the band at the time they were recording that one, because he was new at that time.

So:
1. Close to the Edge
2. Going for the One
3. Yessongs
4. Fragile

The other albums (Tormato, Keys, Union, ABWH) I rank lower.

[Thoughtbecontact]

If we're looking at individual songs, it's Awaken. Rick and Steve push each other to their talented limits. The contemplative second half with the tuned percussion and Chris providing the time passage counterpoint is a particularly wonderful composition in the way it builds in intensity. But the ultimate point in this piece comes after Jon sings "Farewell, farewell," and Rick has that magnificent organ run and Steve finally joins him on the steel--it's the ultimate meshing, Steve as the profane and Rick as the sacred, coming together in a moment of gnostic revelation.

As for an entire album--it's CTTE, there are so many great mmens on it, all the organ work on the title cut, the beautiful mellotron bridge on AYAI and the sheer rocking on SK. Wonderful work!

[Sonoacustico]

I agree with most of the people. My choices are CTTE, Awaken, South Side of the Sky and Mind Drive, he really rocks in that one!

About Mind Drive, I believe that he (I don't think it was intentionally) but he plays in some Kaye, Downes and Moraz styles for some moments, for example, the trumpet-like synth arrangement at time 01.33 is very typical in Geoff Downes playing, and the synth-horns arrangement at time 16.08 has the same feeling that the synth-horns that Tony Kaye used to play at the end of Owner of a Lonely Heart (live) In fact I can imagine Tony Kaye playing those lines, lol. plus, the synth solo on 16.36 is imho very very Moraz-like, and finally the last solo (17.26) is 100% Wakeman. what do ya think about it people? just a funny thing I felt since I listened to this great tune for the first time :D

Greetings

Claudio

[R'tanys]

GFT1
Parallels
Rick makes a church organ ROCK!

[gathernear]

Fragile makes the most impact, for me. Rick brought the keyboards up to the level of everyone else. This is the point where the music changed. Rick added so many new sounds to the band. By the time they recorded Close To The Edge, they invented a new kind of music. How does that feel?