Alternate running order

[McDuck]

I was pondering the “From A Page” material and how it might have become a full album using some of the tracks from “Fly From Here.” I think these alternate albums might have worked well this way. They end up with short running times, but they are still both longer than “Drama!”

FROM A PAGE+
1. “To the Moment” Wakeman 6:09
2. “Words on a Page” Wakeman 6:18
3. “From the Turn of a Card” Wakeman 3:24
4. “The Gift of Love” Wakeman, Squire, Howe, David, White 9:52
5. “Solitaire” Howe 3:30
6. “Don’t Take No for an Answer” Howe 4:22
7. “Into the Storm” Squire, Wakeman, Howe, Horn, David, White 6:49
Total: 40:24

FLY FROM HERE-
1. “Fly from Here – Overture” Horn, Downes 1:52
2. “Fly from Here, Part I: We Can Fly” Horn, Downes, Squire 5:04
3. “Fly from Here, Part II: Sad Night at the Airfield” Horn, Downes 5:25
4. “Fly from Here, Part III: Madman at the Screens” Horn, Downes 4:36
5. “Fly from Here, Part IV: Bumpy Ride” Howe 2:16
6. “Fly from Here, Part V: We Can Fly (Reprise)” Horn, Downes, Squire 2:18
7. “The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be” Squire, Johnson, Sessler 5:25
8. “Life on a Film Set” Horn, Downes 5:06
9. “Hour of Need” Howe 6:46
Total: 38:48

I might have preferred placing “Hour of Need” with the other Oliver Wakeman tracks, but that would leave the albums unbalanced in length. Any thoughts or alternate suggestions?
-> Ray.

[Lt. Casanova]

Two days ago I was thinking about what if From a Page was a full album and had tracks from Fly From Here and my track list was exactly like this. Did we telepathically communicate unknowingly?

[John Vehadija]

I did a similar thing, must be in the air

[Soundwaveseeker]

Last year I burned a CD-R of From A Page as I imagine as a full album. It was:

side 1:

From A Page
Words On A Page
We Can Fly From Here (single edit) - I believe this was always going to go on the album even if Horn/Downes never returned to the fold, I could be wrong
Solitaire
Hour Of Need (long version)

side 2:

The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be
Don't Take No For An Answer
Gift Of Love
Into The Storm

I left off From a Turn Of A Card because it's more of an after-the-fact Oliver solo track with later Benoit vocals. It's a song for a different project. I understand one could say Solitaire could be considered a solo Howe track on one of his solo albums, but since he has acoustic solo tracks on other Yes albums, I still consider it under the Yes banner.

If From A Page was released like this in 2010, It still would have been a decent Yes album in this form. So it's good to have From A Page Expanded and Fly From Here Return Trip to augment what is already.

[Sharp On Attack]

I did something similar, adding Don't Take No... to From a Page...I wouldn't move Hour of Need or Into The Storm though. I regret Oliver didn't do a piano version of Aliens - instrumental or retrieving vocals from Chris- to make a full album. And the finished Go Through This should have appeared on Return Trip !

[Sharp On Attack]

Also I remember Oliver W mentioning the reworking of a classical piece for the early sessions...Hasn't surfaced yet.

[Ash Armstrong]

The albums as they are are just fine. That's how the music came to us, so take them on those terms. I just don't get this constant thing about jiggling around with already released stuff to make pretend albums. You're less enthused by this or that track on this or that album? Too bad. That's the album. That's the musical statement.
If you buy a cake and aren't too thrilled with almonds or cherries, then either don't buy that cake, or try to swallow it quickly so you don't taste them too much, but pulling the cake apart to remove those ingredients you don't like so it's more palatable? Good grief!

[Grey Wolf]

But that's the beauty of digital music, you can skip the tracks you don't like. Better yet, make a playlist of just the songs you want. Mirror to the Sky is vastly improved for me by cutting it down to three tracks, and putting the title track at the end!

[Grey Wolf]

Last year I burned a CD-R of From A Page as I imagine as a full album. It was:

side 1:

From A Page
Words On A Page
We Can Fly From Here (single edit) - I believe this was always going to go on the album even if Horn/Downes never returned to the fold, I could be wrong
Solitaire
Hour Of Need (long version)

side 2:

The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be
Don't Take No For An Answer
Gift Of Love
Into The Storm

I left off From a Turn Of A Card because it's more of an after-the-fact Oliver solo track with later Benoit vocals. It's a song for a different project. I understand one could say Solitaire could be considered a solo Howe track on one of his solo albums, but since he has acoustic solo tracks on other Yes albums, I still consider it under the Yes banner.

If From A Page was released like this in 2010, It still would have been a decent Yes album in this form. So it's good to have From A Page Expanded and Fly From Here Return Trip to augment what is already.

I was going to do something like that , except I'd keep Turn of a Card and throw out Don't Take No For An Answer.

[Soundwaveseeker]

The albums as they are are just fine. That's how the music came to us, so take them on those terms. I just don't get this constant thing about jiggling around with already released stuff to make pretend albums. You're less enthused by this or that track on this or that album? Too bad. That's the album. That's the musical statement.
If you buy a cake and aren't too thrilled with almonds or cherries, then either don't buy that cake, or try to swallow it quickly so you don't taste them too much, but pulling the cake apart to remove those ingredients you don't like so it's more palatable? Good grief!

The albums are fine as is. But thinking up different running orders or new versions of this or that is just some xtra fun, really, nothing more. Alternate albums and 'what if' scenarios are just something to play around with. Ultimately I'm happy with any of these albums as is and am glad they exist, in whatever form they first arrived in. It's funny - once I made that CD-R and listened to it once, I went back to the originals. Since I had no involvement in the original works, anything I could concoct as an alternate album still feels like a mix CD-R, and that's ok. We can bake our own cakes sometimes, but most often the original recipe still satisfies.

[Susanne]

I don't ever make specific alternative albums. But I do put all (or, rather, most) of my Yes songs in one big folder, and so a different Yes 'album' shuffles itself out every time. I enjoy the unpredictability.

[soundchaser09]

Hmm an interesting idea:

Fly From Here

Fly From Here Suite
Aliens (see the Squackett version for reference)
Life on a Filmset
Hour of Need
Into the Storm


From a Page

To the Moment
The Man you Always Wanted me to be
Turn of a Card
Words on a Page
Solitaire
Gift of Love

[carlmarx38]

According to Wikipedia's page on the album, they had begun rehearsing four of the songs that ended up on FFH during the FROM A PAGE sessions : "Fly From Here" (title track), "The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be", "Hour of Need", and "Into the Storm". It's also been mentioned (maybe by Oliver himself) that some of his keyboard parts can still be heard on the final version of "Into the Storm" that ended up on the album. So any fan-made "Deluxe Edition" of FROM A PAGE should include those four IMO.

[Gtkgasman]

I don't ever make specific alternative albums. But I do put all (or, rather, most) of my Yes songs in one big folder, and so a different Yes 'album' shuffles itself out every time. I enjoy the unpredictability.

Oh - there’s a big surprise! 😉😉😊😊

If I was smarter, and had the patience to learn the diff applications and how to do that, I prob would too!!! But, how would I get my exercise, if I wasn’t walking over/running up the stairs to the record player every 20 minutes. 🤣🤣