I mentioned to my brother via text a while back that Yes had five singers. I don't think he is familiar with the last two but when I mentioned Trevor Rabin he said that was "a bit of a stretch." So what I'm wondering is can Trevor be considered a former lead singer for Yes. He did sing lead but I'm not sure if he ever sang lead on an entire song all by himself except for maybe Make It Easy which was really more of a solo song imo.
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Last edited by Soundchaser413; 02-25-2023, 01:10 PM. -
Love Will Find a Way is essentially Trevor on lead vocals. He also sang lead on Love Conquers All. He shares lead vocals with Jon on Changes, Lift Me Up, Saving My Heart and Walls.Last edited by Enlighten; 02-25-2023, 12:21 PM. -
Chris Squire sang lead vocals on "man on the moon" from Open Your Eyes but I don't think that by itself made him a Yes lead singer. Imo, it's harder tosay with TR because he shared lead vocals on several tunes lilke you point out but he was mainly known as a guitarist. However, he was more than just a backing singer like Chris or Steve.Originally posted by Enlighten View PostComment
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Why does the title matter? His vocal contributions are there on all the songs he contributed to from lead to co-lead to background.Comment
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I don't know if I'd say LEAD singer but I think while he like CS just had the typ of voice that being backup vocal was diff then you typically heard in bands. Not lead but strong backup presence.
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he was never THE lead vocalist for the group (for any albums or tours), there was always another designated lead for Yes as a whole whenever he was doing songs where he would perform a lead vocal. so i would consider him an official vocalist in yes, but not a lead vocalist - however of course did perform the lead vocal part for certain songs, but many bands do that with 'secondary' or backing vocalists.Comment
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He was an important vocalist during his time in Yes, but he was never the band's lead vocalist. Keep in mind, for example, that a lot of Toto's big hits feature their lead guitarist and keyboardist on lead vocals, co-lead vocals, or backing vocals, but yet only on one album was either ever considered the band's lead vocalist.
You can only have one lead vocalist at a time as a band, even if some people other than the lead vocalist might be the lead vocalists on select individual songs.
Also, if intent matters, Jon Anderson was brought back specifically in part because Trevor Rabin and Chris Squire either didn't want to be lead vocalists, the label didn't want them to be lead vocalists, or something along those lines. Trevor Rabin never considered himself the lead vocalist of Yes. He was never listed on the back of an album cover that way.
This is a different question, by the way, from whether he'd have been a good lead vocalist. I think Rabin would have made an excellent lead vocalist for some other band in the 80s (It might have been hard for him to do it in Yes simply because of the high notes in that back catalog.)."A lot of the heavier conversations I was having with Chris toward the end were about his desire for this thing to go forward. He kept reiterating that to me. [...] He kept telling me, 'No matter what happens, Yes needs to continue moving forward and make great music. So promise me that that's something you want to do.'. And I have to keep making music. It's just what I do. [...] I'm a fan of the band and I want to see it thrive and that means new music." -Billy SherwoodComment
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The Beatles. The Eagles, and The Beach Boys had more than one lead vocalist at the same time.Originally posted by downbyariver View Post
I looked at 90125's and Talk's covers and it just says vocals for band members without the word "lead". I couldn't find anything clear for BG
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Grateful Dead always had two 'lead' vocalists.Sometimes the lights all shining on me, other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long strange trip it’s been.Comment
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Yes vocals have never sounded better than on the YesWest records with Anderson, Squire and Rabin contributing.
“Well ain’t life grand when you finally hit it?”-David Lee RothComment
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That’s true. Squire/Anderson/Banks were good too. And imho Anderson/Squire/Sherwood, sometimes with Howe, sounded great on Open Your Eyes.Originally posted by Frumious B View Post
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I look at it like the band Queen: Freddie was the main vocalist, though you also had Roger Taylor or Brian May either doing a lead vocal for a whole song or singing a verse or a middle part where Freddie Mercury isn't singing, or maybe doing a call and response thing with the other singers. So I don't consider Trevor Rabin one of the main lead singers of Yes during his tenure, even though he's done a whole song or most or half a song's lead vocals here and there. He's more in the Brian May/Roger Taylor mode. Same can be said for Chris, who's I've always seen as Second In Command in the vocal mix. With Trevor, they pretty much had Jon as Freddie, and Chris/Trevor in the May/Taylor roles.Comment
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I think of “lead vocals” as “primary vocal,” in the sense that the person who is the lead vocalist is the main singer on most of the songs. If we look at 90125c for instance, you’ve got a few songs (such as Changes, It Can Happen, Leave It) where you have multiple “lead” voices. But Jon was still the primary vocalist on the album.Comment
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Well, if Trevor Rabin was never a proper lead vocalist for Yes (and I'm not necessarily saying he was) then he sure sang more lead vocals than any other member in Yes besides the proper lead singers.
I'm not familiar enough with Queen to comment but I know the Moody Blues had more than one lead singer also. Usually it was either Justin Hayward or John Lodge but sometimes Ray Thomas or Mike Pinder. I believe Graham Edge (the drummer) only did the spoken word poetry parts and not so much vocals. Gentle Giant had more than one lead singer too but usually it was Derek Shulman. So GG only really had one main singer even though a few others sang lead sometimes too. It can be tricky sometimes distinguishing between lead singers and backup singers who sometimes sang lead vocals.Comment
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Sporadically. (But, of course, mainly Jon.)Comment
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