Yes - Decades

Tomorrow, April 7, 2017, is the day that Yes will finally be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.  I've already shared my thoughts on this rather questionable institution, so I won't bother repeating myself here.  Instead, I will celebrate this new honor on my favorite band with a quick peek at three often overlooked albums, each released roughly ten years apart.

But first, the album that falls perfectly into the front end of this timeline.  And, in many ways, was the true first album by this band.  Yeah, I know, they did two albums before this, Peter Banks was a fine guitarist, whatever.  If you're a dyed-in-the-wool Yes fan, you own both of those albums.  And, you never listen to them.  Because, compared to the rest of the entire catalogue, they suck.

Steve Howe was, and is, not only head and shoulders above most rock guitarists, he's entirely unique in his approach and his sound.  If Hendrix was Van Gogh, and Clapton was Monet, Howe was Georges Seurat.  You should look that up.

That one addition to the band elevated the quality of everything that everybody was doing, including the songwriting.  This album was so far beyond Time And A Word that it might as well have been an entirely different band.  TAAW and the original Yes album showed influences of the Beatles, the Moody Blues, and had a lot of potential, maybe, if they kept at it.  The Yes Album sounded like Yes, and nothing else did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd4jeeu90Rk

Most of the best songs on this album were, imho, done better on 1973's Yessongs, but it's still a good album.  My personal favorites are; Yours Is No Disgrace, Starship Trooper, and Perpetual Change.  To set the timeline, this album was released in 1970.
Jon Anderson - vocals
Steve Howe - guitar
Tony Kaye - keyboards
Chris Squire - bass
Bill Bruford - drums

Drama came out in 1980, ten years after The Yes Album.  A lot of water had gone under the bridge in that decade.  The previous year, the band had gotten together in Paris to try and put together the follow-up to 1978's Tormato, which had not been well received, either by the critics or the fans.  It was a disappointing album, especially after the triumphant return of Rick Wakeman.

A quick explanation; Tony Kaye had been let go after The Yes Album, replaced by Wakeman.  Then, after Fragile and Close To The Edge, Bruford left and Alan White came on board.  Wakeman left in '74, then came back in '77.  His return was on an album widely regarded as one of their best; Going For The One.  After that, Tormato was quite a letdown, widely considered their worst album since the first two.

The sessions for the next album, working title; The Golden Age, didn't go well.  Wakeman and lead singer Jon Anderson quit and dove into their burgeoning solo careers.  Howe, Squire, and White debated packing it in, but Squire spoke to a couple musicians whose work he liked.

Trevor Horne and Geoff Downes were a mainly-studio entity that called themselves The Buggles.  Their claim to fame was that the video for their UK hit, Video Killed The Radio Star, was the first video ever shown on MTV.  Squire got together with them and invited them to replace Anderson and Wakeman.  It should have been a recipe for disaster.

But ... it wasn't.  Drama is a great album, and has held up well over time.  The songs are great, and the performances are stellar.  The tour didn't get rave reviews in the UK, but the American audiences reacted well.  I caught their stop in Springfield, MA with Mike and Mark Woodbury, and we loved it.  Horne doesn't hold a candle to Anderson as a singer, and Downes is a lot more subdued than the extroverted Wakeman, but they did just fine.  Below is a link to one of the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzxZzIiO84Y

So, they went from this to greater and greater triumphs, more and more popularity, and a long string of great albums.  Right?

Er ... no.  Well, yes, but ... not in this form.

After the album and tour, the five members of Yes went their separate ways.  Howe and Downes formed Asia, and went on to more success.  Trevor Horne became one of the hottest producers of the '80's.  That left Chris Squire and Alan White to find a new home.

The pair jammed with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of the recently disbanded Led Zeppelin, and contemplated a collaboration to be known as XYZ.  Ex-Yes and Zeppelin.  Probably just as well.  Ahem.  They went from there to hook up with a guy in LA whose claim to fame was that he was something of a popstar in his home country of South Africa.  Trevor Rabin had come to America for the obvious reasons, and fell in with Squire and White.

They decided to form a band, to be called Cinema.  They needed a keyboardist, so old friend Tony Kaye was called in.  After some rehearsal, they decided they needed a better singer, too.  And who was better than Jon Anderson?

So that's how the 90210/Owner Of A Lonely Heart version of Yes came to be, also known as YesWest.  But by the late '80's they were languishing.  This band did 2 albums, and then ... didn't.  So Anderson, being Anderson, got bored.  He called up some old mates and put together a tour and got them writing some new songs.  They were going to go out as Yes, but the current Rabin/Squire/White/Kaye Yes took them to court.

So instead, they went out as Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, with Tony Levin on bass.  Another recipe for disaster?  Certainly not!  Their one and only studio album hit the stores in 1989.  Not a decade, but close enough.  And fitting in with the theme of albums that SHOULD have sucked ... but didn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1vGoyxOwGI

Which brings us into the 1990's.  They were getting up there in years by this time, in rock years, and their output after this was spotty.  Not without high points, but even those came with caveats.  ABWH was followed by a Yes fan's dream; 8 members of Yes Large on stage together.  The album, Union, sold well and the tour made money.  But, really, it was a mish-mash of half finished ABWH and YesWest tunes that, largely, was a disappointment.

Really, the high point of the decade was the final YesWest album, Talk, which was good but sold poorly, and Keys To Ascension, a mostly-live set featuring the "classic Yes" lineup and some - again, imho - really bad studio songs.

By 1999, Yes was a 6-piece, adding guitarist Billy Sherwood along with another new keyboardist, Igor Khoroshev.  Personally, I think Khoroshev is quite possibly the best keyboardist the band ever had, excepting of course Rick Wakeman.  But after he was busted for groping a female cop in Texas, he was let go.  Damned shame.

This album followed what had to be their poorest received album ever, Open Your Eyes.  Reminds me of the situation after Time And A Word and Tormato.  And, as Yes was wont to do, they followed what should have been a career-ender with a borderline masterpiece, The Ladder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWyph2DgYV8

All right, not a masterpiece, too poppy, some say too much filler, but hey!  I defy you not to get that groove going while listening to it.  The above tune, Lightning Strikes, is the most dance-able song in 7/8 I've ever heard.  There's some really great stuff on here, seriously.

So, this was probably the last really good Yes album, although Magnification had its moments.  They're an oldies group now, and the surviving members are pushing 70, but reviews say they still get the job done.  Squire's passed away, and they booted Anderson years ago when he became unable to tour regularly.  Still, I've got to catch one more Yes show while they're still out there.

So here's to Yes, and whether or not you like them or agree with me about these albums, they are certainly the best at what they do.  Easy to be first, when you're the only.  And kudos to the Rock Hall for sneaking them in under Jann Wenner and Little Steven's noses.  From what I hear, they're being inducted by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush!  Wish I could be there.