Rabin or Banks?

[patrickq]

Which of the two do you prefer, specifically as a member of Yes?

[patrickq]

I’m asking out of genuine curiosity. I’m leaning Rabin but those first two albums were pretty good.

[Enlighten]

TR, just wish he would have brought more of his expanded palette of talent to Yes. Man, they would have been dynamite if he had been allowed to bring his Jacaranda sensibilities to the band.

[soundchaser09]

Trevor 100%, he helped to add a whole new dimension to Yes music, Peter was great in his time, but I feel Rabins contributions were larger and more impactful.

I prefer all Rabin era albums to the first two anyway.

[Mr. Holland]

Trevor 100%, he helped to add a whole new dimension to Yes music, Peter was great in his time, but I feel Rabins contributions were larger and more impactful.

I prefer all Rabin era albums to the first two anyway.

Exactly my take!

[Soundwaveseeker]

I probably go Rabin, but Peter Banks was nobody to sniff at. Rabin came into the band fully formed and even though it wasn't even supposed to be Yes when he came on board, he was instrumental at much of what Yes were during that era. He was allowed to fulfil most of his musical ambitions within the structure of the Yes band. Banks was not allowed that luxury, and did not come to full fruition with Yes. He did become a better player, with Flash, Empire, etc, he just wasn't given the opportunity to grow with Yes.

But many of us here have proposed the 'what if' scenario of what Yes would have been like if Banks had stayed. There just isn't as much Banks as contributor to Yes as there is Rabin as contributor to Yes. So I'll go Rabin, but with much respect to Peter Banks, the Rodney Dangerfield of Yes. If there was a point where Banks came back for a while, it would have been easier for me to vote for him instead. But Talk and Big Generator are monster fun, so Rabin it is.

[kkleinschmidt]

I'm happy to see some Peter votes and I almost went there myself but Soundwaveseeker sums up my feelings nicely (minus the BG mention) so I'm going with Trevor.

[Roundabob]

I voted for Peter. Nothing against Trevor, who is outstanding, and breathed new life into Yes. To my ears, the first two albums sound like Yes, and show the potential of what was ahead. 90125, BG, (my least favorite of the three albums),and Talk (my favorite of the three albums) have their moments, but they don’t sound like Yes to me.

[downbyariver]

I voted for Trevor Rabin, because 90125 and Big Generator are both in my top 6 Yes albums, whereas Yes and Time and a Word aren't. Obviously, Yes couldn't have made the two Rabin albums without Rabin, who was the dominant creative force on the two 80s albums he was a part of (Though I think producer Trevor Horn and the rhythm section of Chris Squire and Alan White were important as well, it's clearly Rabin's baby). They might not even have been an active band at that point without Trevor.

At the same time, I think Peter Banks deserves credit for helping establish an initial style for Yes that I think Steve Howe adopted and expanded upon (Or was selected to join the group in part because he sounded right for the role previously filled by Banks). So, in a very real sense, there may have been no Yes as we know it had Banks not been there in the very early years.

To some degree, the question is setting up the better guitarist with the better albums who brought the band back from the dead and make it's second golden age possible against the guy who helped design the role of guitarist in a Yes context simply by being there (and wasn't by any means a bad guitarist himself- he just clearly wasn't Steve Howe or Trevor Rabin) and in doing so helped create Yes' identity. It's not necessarily an easy question to answer. I'd go with Rabin, though.

[Somis Sound]

I only really dig a few songs off the first 2 albums. But I absolutely love certain songs off all 4 albums with Trevor. The deeper cuts. Like Jay said, too bad he didn't bring that Jacaranda range to a final Yes album and just get super out there...

[Enlighten]

I only really dig a few songs off the first 2 albums. But I absolutely love certain songs off all 4 albums with Trevor. The deeper cuts. Like Jay said, too bad he didn't bring that Jacaranda range to a final Yes album and just get super out there...

They would have absolutely slayed it, Erik. If they could have let go of their 90125 Derangement Syndrome and given the middle finger to any corporate pressure and just gone to Rabin bizzarro world, holy crap, what a Yes album they could have made.

[JMKUSA]

Peter Banks was a better overall fit for what I think of Yes than Trevor Rabin. But Rabin was more successful as a composer. He’s incredibly talented.

I ultimately voted Banks but have lots of respect for Trevor. I enjoy both of their eras of the band, for different reasons.

[Somis Sound]

They would have absolutely slayed it, Erik. If they could have let go of their 90125 Derangement Syndrome and given the middle finger to any corporate pressure and just gone to Rabin bizzarro world, holy crap, what a Yes album they could have made.

Yep. Don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I was expecting ARW studio stuff to be like a Yes meets Jacaranda type thing. Even Rabin had said some of the material was very different.... Oh well, will be interesting to hear Rio.

[luvyesmusic]

It would almost be inconceivable that I would vote for something, or encourage voting for something called/named “Peter”, but in this case I will go for Banks.

Sure, Trevor, management, record label, MTV and Eddie Jobson, he was in the video for a bit but turned into a bat and flew away, but that was left out in the cutting room of the production.

Yes some great classic songs with Peter and his influence loomed large with the first one that Steve actually contributed. Not only did Peter come up with the name YES, but he took that crate of extra large underwear “the boys” found on the road, and after first wearing it on his head, said that if ELL can wear capes, my mum can make capes out of these extra large underwear. And now you know the rest of the story. Also, after seeing Jimi light his guitar on fire and play with his teeth, it was Peter who waited for one hand Tony to leave and aporoached a newly caked Wakeman, and suggested that Rick use his insane wingspan arms to play two keyboards, so that Peter could squat and run underneath like Chuck Berry. There is no know footage that I know off.

Trevir had new ideas and technology, along with some very difficult guys to work with, but without the other Trevor, 90125 would’ve have been that great. Peter was also behind the camera and did most of the filming of OOALH. Without the other Trevir, the new technology sound wasn’t all that for me, and I think Pete could have been a better guitar gunslinger than Trev. He wasn’t Steve Howe, and to me, the shredding was not the ability of the guys that I liked in Preist, Maiden, Schenker and Dokken.

[patrickq]

Had this poll been done 20 years ago (and maybe it was), Rabin might not have fared quite as well as he is now (ahead 12-8). And this even though Talk would’ve been around 10 years old at that point. Is this due to a fair number of fans souring on Howe because Anderson was not asked to re-join, resulting in some of us rallying around ARW, necessitating some to “re-evaluate” Rabin?