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SEPTEMBER 8, 1977
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Source: Circus Magazine
Yes Is Going for the Big One
Wakeman Rejoins Former Partners for Mammoth US Tour
By Jim Farber
After exploring obscure topographic oceans and relaying messages of dour
cosmic urgency over the last few albums, Yes have finally come back to
earth with a new LP, Going for the One (Atlantic), that harks back to the
raunchier moments of Fragile and The Yes Album. For seven months the boys
worked on this disk, up there at Mountain Studios in snow-capped Montreux,
Switzerland, trying to get the sound just right, for not only is this Yes's
first recorded utterance in over two and a half years, but also the band's
premier reunion with wayward keyboardist Rick Wakeman. To show off the
fruits of their seclusion, Yes embarks this month on a full-scale, two-plus
month US tour. The arrival of Rick Wakeman's outer space creatures will
have to wait -- or take second billing to this terra-firma band of musical spacemen.
"I think the new album will bring back the fans we lost on the last few
albums," says Rick Wakeman optimistically. The whole thing is easier to relate to."
"The album is a kind of celebration," affirms vocalist Jon Anderson.
"Over the last two or three years we've been experimenting a lot and we're
happy to have been given that chance. Any musician should be given the
chance to extend his horizons and luckily we've been successful enough to
do so. But generally we think of this as a more eventful album. We've
come back to a happier medium. It's something we felt we wanted to do at
this time. If we wanted another 'Tales' concept we would have gone in that
direction, but we needed to relax for a while -- a little more laughing and jive."
Jive?!!? From a band of stone-faced artists like Yes? This band certainly
has changed. One can only wonder then, if the tirade of criticism heaped
on the band for their alleged pretentiousness over the last few years has
had any influence on this recent reversal of character. "I don't think we
reacted to the criticism mainly because, as pieces of music on stage, these
older songs were very exciting to perform," says Anderson defensively.
"'The Gates Of Delirium' did not work so well on record, but I think live
it was a very exciting thing for people to see. The problem was, for the
FM stations it became more and more difficult to play our music. So all
we've had to rely upon is Yes's charisma as a band. Luckily, the fans who
come to see us don't just come to see a band that's doing well. They have remained loyal to us."
As Wakeman implies, it's not only the music that's more accessible but also
Jon Anderson's spacey lyrics. "Maybe my logic is getting a little
clearer," Anderson admits. "At times I will still write fantasy because
the sound of the words can be more important than the meaning, but I'm
always trying to conjure up pictures and the ones on the new album I
believe are clearer. I haven't changed my style, I'm just developing."
Anderson views the lyrics to each song on the album as individual, offering
no cohesive concept for the whole. One of the album's most straight
forward lyrical and musical tracks is the title song, "Going For The One,"
reminiscent of such early Yes rockers as "Roundabout" and "Yours Is No
Disgrace." Dominated by Steve Howe's slide guitar, the song almost seems
to have more in common with Lynyrd Skynyrd than recent Yes, joyfully
forcing Anderson into his most earthly and emotional vocals in years.
It's only Chris Squire's intruding bass and Alan White's complex drum
patterns that give the song the inimitable Yes touch. "I wrote that song
two or three years ago," Anderson explains. "It's about sports. The catch
line is 'The truth of sport plays rings around you/Going for the one.'
Part of the song is about horse racing and there's a little bit on a film I
saw about going down the Grand Canyon River on one of those rubber dinghies
and there's also a bit in there about the cosmic mind, which is something I
think a lot of people have been getting into lately."
As usual, the album, features some literary influences, particularly on
"Awaken," the fifteen minute closing number. "Awaken" seems to have the
most in common with Yes's more serious pieces, highlighted by a Steve Howe
guitar solo as frenzied as Robert Fripp's most intense work with King Crimson.
"While I was in Switzerland I had a chance to read a book called 'The
Singer,' Anderson explains. "It's about this 'Star Song' which is an
ageless hymn that's sung every now and again and that inspired this song.
It's also influenced by a book I read recently about the life of Rembrandt
-- that affected me quite significantly. I feel the song ends the whole
'Topographic' relation of ideas."
Another of the more "heady" songs on the album is "Turn Of The Century," an
eight minute slow build-up number with Yes's trademark wash of layered
synthesizers. Anderson feels this song is the most experimental on the
album and accordingly, he admits it may not appeal to too many people. "It
was originally a short song that we developed. As we began to rehearse it,
I started thinking, 'Let's try to musically tell the story without me
singing it,' and then when I do sing it, it'll sound even better."
Of the more direct songs, "Wonderous Stories" has the loveliest melody,
while "Parallels" offers an almost heavy-metal kind of feel. "Chris Squire
wrote that song," Rick Wakeman explains. "When we were putting together
the track I went down to a church in Le Vey, which is a village right near
where I live, and they have a beautiful church organ there, so I suggested
to the rest of the band that we link up lines from the church to the
studio. So they sat in the studio and played and I sat in the church and
played, and we put it down at the same time. It was absolute magic."
"Parallels" and the other four cuts on the album feature the same crisp
production sound Yes is famous for, even though their old engineer, Eddie
Offord, was replaced on this album by John Timperley, the same man who
turned the dials for ELP's latest opus, "Works, Volume 1."
Likewise, for their massive U.S. tour this Summer, there are many musical
changes as well for the band. "The show is much less extravagant,"
Anderson promises. "We're calming the staging down and we focus on the band
more. Also we don't want to spend three hours on stage, so we're cutting
out the Topographic stuff concentrating on a two hour set with the new
album and earlier favorites."
Throughout this summer stint, though, music won't be the band's only
concern. Rick Wakeman, in particular, plans to spend much of his extra
time tracking down space travelers. "I'm convinced this summer there will
be landings on Earth of beings from other planets," says Wakeman with
intense seriousness. "Over the last few years I've become obsessed with
this. I know there have been landings already. I can't prove it but I
can't disprove it either. I have hundreds of books, charts and classified
information at home and if my calculations are correct, there will have to
be general announcements about space men coming this summer. People will
have to be warned. Otherwise it could turn out like another War of the
Worlds situation."
Though he won't go quite as far as Rick, Anderson also sees some validity
in these Erich von Daniken-influenced cosmic travelers, though he maintains
a more "hippy utopian" sort of view. "I do believe that what you don't see
you don't know and there are things going on that we have no idea about.
Things are moving in the general direction of getting ready for something
heavy. It is the Age Of Aquarius. Things are generally getting better
even if the don't seem to be. But Rick is the expert on these things. He
sits up on top of the mountains here and just waits. He's certainly trying
to track down somebody."
Still, even if Wakeman's cosmic search goes unfulfilled, the summer tour
should yield a live album -- one disk from this jaunt plus a second from
last Summer's tour, making a double set for possible Christmas release.
Also, the band will begin work on another album in December that should be
out in early 1978.
"This next year is going to be awfully busy," Anderson sighs. "We
generally take things more relaxed now, though. I think we'll be making
lighter albums for a few years to come. we've spent our time being a bit
serious and now it's time to loosen up. We haven't really make any drastic
changes. I just feel we're all much happier now."
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