Anderson, Wakeman and Rabin Working on New Album

[luna65]

It'd be great if it sounded straight out of 1985.

I believe I can say with absolute certainty - having discussed the history of his career with Trevor directly - that this would never happen. Trevor is not interested in revisiting the past, not even the recent past.

[luvyesmusic]

I believe I can say with absolute certainty - having discussed the history of his career with Trevor directly - that this would never happen. Trevor is not interested in revisiting the past, not even the recent past.

http://youtu.be/hTwWBKbI4VM

http://youtu.be/YpPlbMPRSUI

Are you sure about that? ;-)

[downbyariver]

http://youtu.be/hTwWBKbI4VM

http://youtu.be/YpPlbMPRSUI

Are you sure about that? ;-)

Those were awesome. :) He's still got it. :)

Honestly, he's so good in the first clip that he overshadows the rest of the band. In the second clip, the band can keep up with him some and it sounds even better- but the band looks like a bunch of people in their early 20s.

He's wasted doing movie soundtracks and the odd acoustic album. I mean, I'm not going to tell the man what to do, but if he's got another 90125 or Big Generator in him, and can get it out there, I'd sure love to listen to it.

[Mr. Holland]

I want a studio album that's original in the sense of having all new songs, but I would be thrilled if it were in the vein of 90125 or Big Generator. A third part of the trilogy, as it were (I don't count Talk, because that went in a totally different direction). It'd be great if it sounded straight out of 1985. I feel like Yes right now is going for replicating the time period from The Yes Album to Drama- that's what their concert playlists are drawn up from, that's the type of album Fly From Here sounded like, etc.. It'd be great if we had AWR to take up the banner of 90125/Big Generation with those songs played live in concert, and, most importantly to me as someone who can't really afford to do concerts, an album of all original material in that vein. Between the two of them, we could sort of get the complete Yes (The actual Yes should really be doing material from both eras, but they aren't).

One fear I have for this project is that it just turns into like another Talk or 70s style Yes thing. Don't get me wrong, that album was alright ("Walls" was very catchy), and Yes made some awesome music in the 70s, I just feel like it's being done. What we're not getting is the 80s style stuff. And, to be clear, I know that Talk was from the 90s, I'm sort of mixing two ideas together in this paragraph. :)

I'm also not sure I want it to a mesh of Jon Anderon and Trevor Rabin's latest solo stuff, or The Living Tree meets Jacaranda. I mean, I'd get it. I'd enjoy it. It just wouldn't be as memorable and as cherished a part of my collection as an album of them doing new material similar to their first two albums together.

Totally opposite view here. I think Talk is the best thing the Yeswest line-up did. Don't get me wrong I love 90125 and BG as well, but Talk to me was the climax of Yeswest and the collaboration between Rabin and Anderson.

But as said in my previous post, don't expect an AWR album to sound like Yeswest. Also don't expect it to sound like classic Yes. I think if it comes to fruitition it will very much be it's own beast. It's 18 years down the line from Talk and Anderson, Wakeman and Rabin have not been standing still, they have developped as musicians taking in all sorts of other musical experiences. Looking at it from that angle it would be quit disappointing to get just another 90125 or BG, because it would show no growth at all.

Btw. on FFH; I don't like everything about it, some is good, some is rather weak, but I don't think it sounds much like the Yes from TYA-Drama, FFH is very much it's own beast as well to me.

[luna65]

Are you sure about that? ;-)

It's not the same thing and I'm also fairly certain you're aware of that too.

In the second clip, the band can keep up with him some and it sounds even better- but the band looks like a bunch of people in their early 20s.

That's because they are; it's his son Ryan's band GROUPLOVE.

[bicko]

I heard it the other way around and I even think Bruford mentioned it somewhere in an interview some years ago; Howe, Bruford and Wakeman were dropped because Victory wanted the 90125 line-up, thinking it had more commercial potential.

Just as a matter of interest, I have a tour programme at home of Emerson Lake and Palmer's Black Moon tour (a friend gave it to me, i never went.) This was when ELP were also with Victory. On the back page, was listed all of Victory's lineups, including, and I quote:-,
"Yes. Jon Anderson, Tony Kaye, Trevor Rabin, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, Alan White".
There it is. Printed. Black and white
It very nearly did happen, my friends

[luvyesmusic]

That's because they are; it's his son Ryan's band GROUPLOVE.[/QUOTE]

Ah, thanks for the info. :-)

As any parent though, you would think Trevor would be against his kid being involved with "grouplove". ;-)

[1yesfan]

If this lineup works and they tour even a few shows you will hear 90125 stuff, maybe BG or Talk. May be a few songs but we will get it. They have to do it, they would be crazy not too.
It will be billed as "Members of YES together with a new album and a few oldies in celebration of 90125 annv". HA HA

[bondegezou]

Putting aside all the baggage about who gets to "perpetuate the legacy" and why, I'll just say that if I just wanted someone to put together a basic song over a couple of days that I would find engaging, tuneful and memorable and my choices were some combination of personnel pulled from Squire, Howe, White, Davison and Downes or Anderson and Rabin then my gut instinct is that I would probably enjoy the Anderson/Rabin track more. I just think those two have stronger, more classic pop instincts. Of course...I also think that Anderson/Downes could be a tune monster, even though they have never worked together and may never work together.

a) That is a completely different discussion.

b) If I just wanted someone to put together a basic song over a couple of days that I would find engaging, tuneful and memorable and my choices were some combination of personnel pulled from Squire, Howe, White, Davison, Downes, Anderson, Rabin or Wakeman, then my gut instinct is... Howe and Squire, I think. Maybe Downes.

When I think of the basic songs Anderson has done recently, stuff like "Music is God", "Unbroken Spirit", "Under Heaven's Door" and "You Got the Light", I'm fairly unimpressed. In contrast, I think "Open" works much better. However, I then think about songs like Asia's "Through My Veins" and "Wish I'd Known All Along", largely by Howe, or Squackett's "Can't Stop the Rain/Perfect Love Song", largely by Squire, and those are engaging, tuneful and memorable, they are classic pop.

I adore Rabin's Jacaranda, but it's a very different beast to "a basic song". I don't know of Rabin having written any pop songs for nearly 20 years, so I don't know what he could come up with now! DBA's Pictures of You is now out on vinyl (CD release to follow), so that's another test of Downes' pop writing skills.

Henry

[bondegezou]

Wakeman was in Yes from '71-'74, '77-'79, '89 (counting ABWH)-'92, '96-'97 and 2002-2004, that is grant total of 11 years. Rabin was in Yes from '83-'94, also 11 years, so not a much shorter time frame....

You're right: I guess YesWest's much lower rate of output makes it feel like less time.

So, anyway, Squire and White have clocked up longer in Yes than Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman put together, before we even add in Howe and Downes! (Someone check the maths on that statement for me...)

Henry

[bondegezou]

Totally opposite view here. I think Talk is the best thing the Yeswest line-up did. Don't get me wrong I love 90125 and BG as well, but Talk to me was the climax of Yeswest and the collaboration between Rabin and Anderson.

YesWest was, in my eyes, built on the Rabin/Squire partnership. Thus, I can't see Talk, an album on which Squire is partly absent, as "the climax of YesWest", the collaboration we saw from 90125 through to the Union tracks. Talk is a whole, new beast, even if, on paper, it appears to be the same band.

Henry

[crotale2112]

I would love to hear Wakeman rip a few wild moog solos in some Big G and Talk songs...


With this line up I would think songs like Shoot high aim low and Endless dream would fit well with Wakemans mind and gear..







having Squire there to add some vocals and bass pedals would be nice too..



having Howe do a bad ass fender slide solo in the end of shoot high aim low would be great.. like the one in the ending of the Children of light song.


oops.. need to stop dreaming of the real yes..

[Punj Lizard]

I would love to hear Wakeman rip a few wild moog solos in some Big G and Talk songs...
With this line up I would think songs like Shoot high aim low and Endless dream would fit well with Wakemans mind and gear..

having Squire there to add some vocals and bass pedals would be nice too..

having Howe do a bad ass fender slide solo in the end of shoot high aim low would be great.. like the one in the ending of the Children of light song.
oops.. need to stop dreaming of the real yes..

I love Children of Light - start to finish.

[crotale2112]

I love Children of Light - start to finish.

me too.. loved hearing it live in Hartford Ct



take a look at this you yesfans...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...PlGBXqgGI&NR=1

I like the energy..

I like seeing Wakeman be a part of it- it seems he is having a good time with it.. after seeing this I still have hope..



hope of the real yes to be..

a yes with a true "open door" policy

[Sharp on Attack]

I think if it happens, chances are it will very much be in the vein of songs like Walls and where Will You Be...no, it's not a bad thing for me !

[Mr. Holland]

YesWest was, in my eyes, built on the Rabin/Squire partnership. Thus, I can't see Talk, an album on which Squire is partly absent, as "the climax of YesWest", the collaboration we saw from 90125 through to the Union tracks. Talk is a whole, new beast, even if, on paper, it appears to be the same band.

Henry

I guess you have a point there, all though wasn't it in your interview with Rabin where he sort of admitted Anderson played a much more important role on 90125 then is generally thought?

[Paul Allen]

I think if it happens, chances are it will very much be in the vein of songs like Walls and where Will You Be...no, it's not a bad thing for me !

That album was made like 20 years ago. Why would anything they might do today sound like THAT or anything else from the past. I totally disagree.

[downbyariver]

That's because they are; it's his son Ryan's band GROUPLOVE.

I've been listening to some of their stuff on youtube, and they're actually very catchy for a young indie band. I'm thinking about getting their album. I think there's some talent there. The female vocalist is particularly strong and there's sort of a Strokes meet White Stripes meet Elliott Smith meets 80s rock and roll vibe. Good to see a band in their 20s that seems up with the times and doesn't sound horrible. :) They are far and few between these days.

[Reflections]

We go now to Mr. Rabin for a comment
"This banana has a bit of sh*t on it... are you filming?"
=)

[Sharp on Attack]

That album was made like 20 years ago. Why would anything they might do today sound like THAT or anything else from the past. I totally disagree.

We'll see Paul. Obviously we'll have to wait and listen.