Decided to revisit some Yes since we did our Drunk reaction! This was a very different vibe as compared to roundabout, not a bad track but perhaps less prog than we were hoping for. Hope you guys had a good weekend! 😁🔥
Hey A&A -- Very fair and targeted reaction - Accurate. This is a prime example of what I despised about the 80's. Too slick; too much polish and all of the bands started to sound the same. I would love to hear the demo... Watching your drunk reaction now. I think I'm ready for it! smh lol. Have a good one! :)
80's Yes is just okay, imho. For kickass Yes, check out Yours Is No Disgrace and Your Move/I've Seen All Good People. Then Close To the Edge- a prog masterpiece.
Wow, I didn't expect that song, for sure 80's style. Alex's face at 1:11 says it all, and I knew it was coming too !! pure GOLD. For Prog rock, I would suggest --> Supertramp "Crime of the Century" , " School" or "Bloody Well Right" to start. If you want to go straight to an epic song - try "Fools Overture" Peace Guys.
One of the best YES songs ever!! The production took it to another level. Took what would have been a mediocre pop tune and made it into an innovative prog tune🎸
This was the guitarist's throwaway tune on a home 4-track demo he presented to producer Trevor Horn when he was trying to score a solo record deal. Horn locked onto this tune and wound up reassembling Yes around him.
I get that I do not understand all the intricate details of production and making of songs,but all I know is 35 years later I can still jam to this song.
The first time I heard this song, it threw me for a loop cos of the random changes and sudden bursts and the 80s production style. But the chorus was catchy so I kept listening to it, and as a result, the entire song grows on you, and all those sudden changes and bursts and the 80s production all begin to "blend" better and you begin to appreciate its "eccentricity" (which may be a better word than "obnoxious"? lol). It's one of my favorite 80s songs now.
i remember i heard this when it first came out. a departure from their earlier work. a radio DJ in philly said that "Yes" should now be called "Yeah!" Great song.
This song saved my sanity in the 80's. As a junior high student, I listen to America's Top 40 before bed, and Michael Jackson was #1 for weeks. Weeks! One night, MJ was #2, and I was wondering, who's #1. I remember Casey Kasem saying, "And our new #1 hit is..." and the opening riff of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" plays. I had tears of joy.
I don’t think it’s a matter of aging well or not aging well. I think it’s more that the “80’s sound” is more of a stand-alone, like a snapshot in time. Whereas a lot of the 90’s sounded like a throwback, production-wise, to the 70’s era, the 80’s just sounds like the 80’s. It sounds like nothing before or since, which is why some people love it and some hate it. It has it’s own identity and I love it.
Oh jeez, yes... that video... all I remember of it now is the dude scooping up small yellow scorpions and plunging his face into them as if it were water from a basin. Left my jaw hanging first time I saw it, like "What dafuq did I just see...?"
@@metalmark65 I just saw them last year for their 50th anniversary. I've never missed a Yes concert if at all possible since 76. They opened with close to the edge . I got to take my 19 year old daughter and she cried through the whole thing. She said she couldn't believe she was hearing this live and especially hearing it with me.💜
Or Heart of the Sunrise, or South Side of the Sky, or the whole Fragile remaster including America. Or Perpetual Change...or even some Astral Traveller. After ALL that, maybe a couple tracks from "Going For the One" like Parallels and Awaken.
This is the Yes song with the most radio play, but many classic Yes fans hate it. Check out "Starship Trooper" and "South Side of the Sky" for some real classic Yes.
I've been listening to Yes since 1973 and while it's not proper Yes I don't hate it as a Pop song. It's Anderson's vocals and Squire's bass that carry it.
stalrunner I agree, though listening again with headphones, it sounded better than I remember. But I wasn’t a fan of their music after about their third album.
This band was actually Cinema formed by ex Yes members Trevor Rabin {keyboards] & Tony Kaye [guitar] who were not in the band when Roundabout was recorded. They asked Jon Anderson to do the vocal so it became the new Yes instead of Cinema . Chris Squire was bass player for both.
This is like a Pop version of YES. Let's just say they are The Preeminent Progressive Rock Band. Listen to YESSONGS "Yours Is No Disgrace" " Heart Of The Sunrise" "Siberian Khatru" all of it.
Yessongs is probably one of the best live albums ever done. It has the bands rendition of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring- I think they call it the Firebird Suite. When it was first performed in Paris in 1913, it caused a riot. Not exactly rock and roll but apparently it had the right attitude.
@@JamesSavik I absolutely agree. The Best Live album ever done. Yet out of the hundreds of people I have met in my life, only a few have heard it. I live in the Southern US though. I can't believe I have to beg people to listen. Their LOSS.
You completely nailed the producer's role in making that album. Trevor Horn, the ex-lead singer of Yes produced the album, and felt that single needed some punch, and added the 'exclamation points' as an afterthought.
@@MissAstorDancer trust me, I am well-versed in the history of Yes. I was not intending to cut and paste a Wikipedia article on the band. It was making it simple.
You have to realize this song was revolutionarily fresh when released. It wasnt trendy but edgy in its day. It really took everyone by surprise. 90125 is a classic album, with hints of prog throughout and at least one full on prog song at end of side 2
I feel that you boys would like Electric Light Orchestra or ELO. Y’all seem to like more of the ‘70’s type music. Nobody is doing ELO. Try Don’t Bring Me Down. Released in 1979.
Or for the ultimate in bizarre - The fact that Jeff Lynne was a major contributor to the Xanadu soundtrack (probably the worst movie ever made, so bad that you enjoy watching it) But the soundtrack went double platinum.
Hi Andy & Alex, I'm Bob I'm 66yrs old, grew up listening to all the music you've been sharing. Lots of good memories! Been subscribed for several weeks now. Love and appreciate your comments! You guys need to give a listen to the Allman brothers band, especially - " In memory of Elizabeth Reed". The Allman brothers where Greg Allman on keyboard and vocals, Duane Allman on guitar, deceased, Dicky Betts guitar, two drummers.... I've had the privilege of seeing them live several times. Incredible!! Enjoy!!!!
Back in high school days I was giving someone a ride. He's looking though my tapes and says, "Rush? Kansas? Yes? ELP? Christ, Joe, where's the good music?" Yeah, he had a long walk home.
agree with everything you said except for Emerson Lake and Palmer. Good band but I blame them entirely for the Punk movement. Kansas ruled but no one will admit it
King Crimson was one of the few great original Progressive bands who transitioned into an 80s band that was just as creative, intelligent and innovative as they had ever been. And they got even better into the mid-90s!
If you've only done "Roundabout" (from 1971), you should dip into "Close To The Edge" (1972)- many regard this as the best prog album ever, especially the title track.
There are a lot of great Yes prog songs noted in the comments, however, the way to appreciate prog rock is not song by song, but by listening to an album - the art was the album. And if you're listening to classic Yes, or other prog bands of that era, you should determine where the album sides were divided and listen on a per side basis. That's the box they had to work within to create their art, and that's how it was produced and presented for the listeners.
I love Yes. I loved their 70’s stuff AFTER as a young kid this was on the radio a lot & made me look more into them. This is more nostalgic for me, i was like 10 lol... loved Ive Seen All Good People from Yes best, besides Roundabout.. the 80’s were extraordinarily diff then the 70’s!
Produced by Trevor Horn of 'The Buggles', he was an early pioneer of sampling using the Fairlight CMI sampling system, these sounds seemed to creep into so many productions in the 80s, I have to agree with Alex on this one
Yes has a handful of world class songs from the early 70's... Starship Trooper And You and I Long Distance Runaround I've Seen All Good People Yours is No Disgrace
I can think of a few others as well: Close to the Edge, Siberian Khatru, South Side of the Sky and Heart of the Sunrise. Later on there would be Gates of Delirium and Awaken of course.
“Starship Trooper” is a more progressive Yes song, in the vein of “Roundabout.” Also, try “Tempus Fugit.” That song has some of the more pop-style elements of the 80s, while still retaining some of their more progressive roots...including some KILLER bass playing.
I agree with Tempus Fugit. Some members left the band, so it is not the original line up, but it's an amazing prog-rock song. Like complicated musical notes but still catchy and melodic at the same time.
It wasn't the original lineup as soon as Steve Howe joined the band in 1970, and the original lineup never returned. Never did more than two albums in a row without a lineup change. Honestly, unless you're attached to one musician, and if you're just getting introduced to Yes, don't worry too much about the specific lineups. In fact, listen to the albums out of chronological order, and the commonalities will become apparent to you more readily than if you focus on personnel. Just be prepared to accept that the style wanders a bit, and toes are dipped in other genres at times. As for "Tempus Fugit", YES! My only bit to add would be that both "Does It Really Happen?" and "Machine Messiah" off that same album are not to be neglected, for the bassline and for the complete arrangement, respectively.
Full disclosure: I've owned this record since my brother gave it to me as a 14th birthday present and I've enjoyed it ever since. Having gotten that out of the way, I have to say that this is not proper Yes. This is like saying to you "hey listen to this song 'Amanda' (1986) by this band you've never heard of called Boston". Yup. Precisely. 90125 featured a very talented guitarist/songwriter/vocalist named Trevor Rabin, who alongside Chris Squire formed a band called Cinema. They had a guy named Trevor Horn (look him up, he's a really interesting character) as producer. Cinema also featured Tony Kaye on keyboards. They recorded a bunch of songs based on Rabin's demos. Then they asked Jon Anderson to add vocals to the tracks. With Anderson, Squire and Kaye, Cinema had 3/5 of the original Yes lineup from 1968. Anderson (or someone in marketing) suggested that they change the name to Yes. And you have....this. I mean, it's a fine record, but..... Go back to proper Yes. And proper Yes does not include anything involving Trevor Rabin. Proper Yes would be anything from 1971 to 1972. The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge. This last album is (not just in my opinion) the best example of progressive rock. Even Robert Fripp (look him up) would agree.
One of the better prog rock bands from that period and this is one of their best - you never know what’s coming next in a ‘Yes’ song which makes it all the more exciting. Great great musicians - huge respect to them and to you guys for covering this!
You guys are totally right about the evolution of this song. Trevor Rabin, the guitarist, brought it in as a basic verse-chorus-verse rock tune and wasn't even going to present it to the band. Then Trevor Horn, the producer, got a hold of it and polished it up, including all those horn stabs and flanged drum breaks. Sampling was cutting-edge technology at the time, and Horn decided to exploit his new toys, the Synclavier and Fairlight synthesizers, for this song. He did the same thing for "Leave It" on the same album, feeding in the vocal tracks to his sampler and multi-layering them. Horn also helped create the band The Art of Noise out of these sessions -- they built their entire sound around samples and looped drums. It was revolutionary stuff at the time. The drums on this song aren't sampled. Horn wanted a crisp sort of Stewart Copeland sound, so he tuned Alan White's snare drum up high and then kept taking parts of his kit away until he was eventually just left with snare, hi-hat, and kick drum, to force him to focus on the groove. This is the song and album that turned me on to Yes, but I sort of agree that the production hasn't aged so well. I still love the guitar solo on "Owner," though.
I saw Yes do this at the Philadelphia Spectrum. Jon walked around the crowd while singing this song. I happened to have seats at the boards and he was slapping people's hands as he went by. He came to me and I gave him a Soul Brother shake instead and he laughed. He has the softest hands for a man lol. A great moment for me. Changes is my favorite song. Really, all the songs on this album are good.
The explosion sound was put in by producer Trevor Horn, because he didn't wan't the words Eagle in the sky.so he put the shotgun effect in to shoot the Eagle.and to get one over on Jon Anderson.😂
Their 80s commercial phase was funky and quirky. They were a prog rock band with a unique sound. Them and Steely Dan had some interesting time signatures in a few of their tunes.
Loool. They literally looked confused by the mix at one point. That was so funny. This tune sends chills up and down my spine. All Yes does that. Old and new.
Must listens by pre 80s YES - Survival, Starship Troopers, And You and I, Yours is No Disgrace, Heart of the Sunrise, and Time and a Word. There are a few others but these are the big ones I can remember off the top of my head
This song, when it came out, actually got me to research more older Yes so kudos for that. It was trendy, but it works to distinguish it from other 80’s stuff.
Trevor rabin was absolutely the pinnacle of this album and the single owner of a lonely heart he didnt exactly get on with producer Trevor horn but later conceded that horns production was the thing that made this album huge
Progressive Yes is The Yes Album 1971 - Great Song "Starship Trooper" , Fragile LP 1972 "Roundabout" and "Heart of the Sunrise" Close to the Edge LP 1972- "Close to the Edge". If your really eager for Yes Progression - Tales from Topographic Oceans LP 1973 - 4 Songs- 1 on each side of a 2 LP presentation
Although this track is drastically different from their earlier work, it reached #1 on the Billboard singles chart in 1983 and the 90125 album as a whole is an absolute masterpiece. Perhaps more importantly it introduced a whole new generation, myself included, to the music of Yes. I recommend "Heart of the Sunrise", "Starship Trooper" or "And You and I" for your next reaction. The ABWH (Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe) album is a Yes album, they weren't able to acquire rights to the name "Yes" because of their bassist Chris Squire. For many fans of Yes, the ABWH album is one of their absolute best. From that album I'd recommend "Soul Warrior". Really enjoying the channel.
Yea, people need to remember this song was a huge moment in rock history. Think of the pop giants that were out in 83, and im fairly certain this song was the longest running at number 1 in that year.
I saw Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe at a concert in the mid 80's at Torontos exhibition stadium. They only used part of the venue. There were about 17 thousand yes fans there and they played 95% of the classic YES songs. It was an amazing concert and lasted around 4 hours. Their newer stuff was OK but the older stuff really resounded more for me anyways!! At least I had a chance to see them live. It was awesome!!
Love this song! It had you two rockin' the head moves! Ha! As for doing another "drunk review", my ol' lady soul says, "No!", but my "I refuse to grow old soul", says "Yes!"....just don't drive anywhere. Okay? 😁😉
Heart of the Sunrise is classic 70’s Yes. I’m sorry but this song is and will continue to be a classic. How it is you guys have never heard it before is crazy. Keep on listening!
Those sound affects produced in the song was because it was a video song played over and over on mtv you have to watch the video to understand the sound affects to understand why the sound affects were produced into the song
You'll never get a Crimso reaction video posted, but you guys owe it to your own musical growth to eat them up. From the initial lineup (incl Greg Lake on bass and vocals) to the Discipline incarnation and beyond. Continual progression and reinvention, at the hands of music genius, Robert Fripp.
@@juttapopp1869 Robert Fripp has a well earned reputation as king of the take-downs. He most vigorously protects his copyright. They can talk about all they want, but to actually play a song from the album, better luck getting Fripp to make a personal appearance, IMHO.
Andy, I'm with you on this one. Alex, 80s production elements notwithstanding, the song is phenomenal. It's way bigger than its parts. Rhythmically, melodically, the arrangement and the message make this a memorable song. The video is also unforgettable. I loved it when it came out. And I love it now.
“Roundabout” is a great song. “Owner of a Lonely Heart” is a great song. Just different styles. I like this album a lot and I think the production is stellar, but then again, I’m a fan of slick, polished 80’s production.
Real Yes is the 70's stuff. Do 'Close to the Edge', 'Heart of the Sunrise', The Gates of Delirium', 'South Side of the Sky' or 'Siberian Khatru' for the real prog stuff!
This was a fascinating “70s Prog Rock Meets 80s New Wave” time in music. Lots of 70s bands had to adjust or die. Some succeeded, some disappeared forever.
worked at trevor rabin's house...he lived just under the H in the Hollywood sign...wanted to put up a fence to keep fans away at the end of the cul-de-sac...worked in 100 plus summer days only to build it and have the city take it down...super nice guy...offered us lemonade at his pool...the south african accent i did not expect...wife was super sweet...great guy
@Joseph DeFilippis Hmm, did he? I don't recall ever seeing anything about that and thought that Nigel Gray did the engineering and production on those early records, with Hugh Padgham doing the later ones.
Really enjoyed watching your reaction video for "Owner..." I'm a big Yes fan and I'm always confused by this song - there's a long complicated history to it and the album that you can look up if you want, but the odd thing is that I think of it as an okay to good 80s pop song, a complete anomaly for Yes, and it was their only #1 hit. It, and the album as a whole is no where near the "Yes" that is considered by many to be the quintessential "Prog Rock" band. 90125 (the album) was a revival of the band and an attempt to go in a different direction (with a new guitarist) and with a different approach to music. The producer, by the way, is Trevor Horn, considered by some to be one of the architects of the 80s production sound. Again, something you can research if you want. >>> As for a suggestion for a Yes track that shows them taking their instruments to new places, I'll suggest something I didn't see in any of the comments below. The song is "Sound Chaser" from the 1974 album "Relayer." It's a long track (9 minutes or so) and it may seem to rely on studio tricks, but they actually opened live shows with the song, and those performances were even crazier. The song has a jazzier more angular feel and the musicianship and song writing is ridiculously good.. Thanks again.
Production by Trevor Horn of the Buggles, who was the bass player and singer for the Drama album, he rejoined about 25 years later. Trevor Horn said the original demo by Trevor Rabin had all the sound effects on it, they weren't his idea!!!
Hey fellas, give Yes's album "Drama" a listen. It's their first 1980's album (albeit without Jon Anderson or Rick Wakeman). The entire album is fantastic but I would start with "Tempus Fugit". Chris Squire's bass riffs are out of this world.
Mike K Totally agree with you about the "Drama" album. It is a masterpiece, and its stature has only grown over the years. As a lifelong fan of classic Yes music, I have always loved it, but when it first came out in 1980 a lot of crybabies unjustifiably completely dismissed it simply because original singer Jon Anderson was no longer in the band. And, well, yes (!), the song "Tempus Fugit" in particular would be an awesome track for rocker dude and little blond twink here to sample on their show, whether or not they are intoxicated at the time.
Close to the Edge is the greatest piece of music YES ever wrote. After making that album Bill Bruford said, and I'm paraphrasing, "it was perfection, so I knew we'd never write anything better, so I quit and joined King Crimson". I believe in that one statement he gave high praise to both bands.
