Listening to YES: Drama, Part 2 

This is one of their most underrated albums. Fell in love with this one the moment I first heard it.

R.I.P. Mr Squire. Chris you are SO missed my friend.⚘⚘⚘😎

This is my favorite Yes album, though my favorite “classic Yes” album is “Tales…” I just love ❤️ what this album brings to the table. I have to say it was not loved by most of the “classic Yes” fans at the time… I can only say that overall this album has aged well…

We were in mourning at the time for the loss of the classic Yes line up. The addition of the Buggles was a painful wound. Trevor Horn struggled to sing the classic Yes songs in concert and at Hammersmith Odeon I felt a dejected atmosphere. However, when the blinkers were taken off Drama revealed itself to be a most pleasing album that particularly showcased Howe, squire and white in harness while the production talents of Trevor Horn gave the sound a polish that was missing on Tormato. Without the baggage of the day Jim has seen it for what it is. A very Good Yes album.

Squire's bass didn't play, he made it talk. His syncopation with Alan is just so spot on.

Trevor Horn played the bass on the Run Through the Light track

The song Into the Lens, was a Buggles' track called "I am a Camera," adapted into a Yes song. There are videos of the Buggles available.

And did we mention Steve Howe on guitar? His playing is stellar and incredible as usual. IMHO there are hints of his guitar licks on the first 2 Asia lps to come...

As much as I admire Bill Bruford's work on drums, I gotta admit Alan White is a really great drummer, he hits hard and plays great fills, he's particularly in great form on Drama

Ladies and gentlemen Chris Squire and Yes the greatest show on earth. At this point in time Chris Squire is the only original member still in Yes and until his passing in 2015. That is proof that Squire was YES. To think of all that music he wrote, pure genius. There isn't one song on any of their ten albums up to Drama that I don't love. I imagine Squire and Moon jamming.

Best instrumental Yes album of all. However, once they took the act on the road, Trevor Horn just couldn’t cut it on Jon’s material, just didn’t have the register. When Jon returned, he refused to do any Drama material. Peaked at 20 on Billboard. After the failed tour, the band split up, White and Squire forming the short lived X,Y and Z with Jimmy Page.Fell apart when Plant would not get aboard. Jon joined up with Vangelis and did solo work. Howe, Downes, Carl Palmer and John Wetton formed Asia.Trevor Horn, who actually did most of the production work on Drama and was traumatized by the tour (fan reaction was bad) went forward as a producer, producing Mike Olfield’s 1991 Tubular Bells II.

For me one of the greatest things about Drama is Squire's bass and backing vocals. He is on the foreground like never before (or since sadly). The bass opening riff to Into the Lens, bass solo at the end of Does it Really Happen and the complex speedy bass runs in Tempus Fugit are, to this day, his standout moments for me. Simply a wonderful re-energised Yes!

I think Drama is such a suitable name for this album. Every instrument is having its own little ecclectic journey and you can hear their parts distinctly in the mix. Mmmm that vinyl quality has def bought this to my attention....and you of course Jim😎

Yes were revitalised by the Buggles members and delivered a belter of an album. I love the small instrumental fade out on “Run through the light” with Howe’s guitar and Downes’ keyboards creating a lovely sound. Saw them at Birmingham Odeon on the Drama tour in November 1980 - great show.

Big Generator is another under appreciated Yes album

Howie is so amazing

Hi Jim from Italy, I am very happy to see your enthusiasm about the greatest band ever. I have seen them 4 times in my life and I will remember it for all my life. If you want try to listen "Fly Form Here" the yes album they released in 2011 with David Benoit on vocals, produced by Trevor Horn, it is an album "Son of Drama" because the songs were written in that period but never published. It is a very interesting album and the members are always on top of their brilliance. Stay prog and God bless Yes...... bye

This album is one of my favorite Yes albums......it was a great gift in the 80's on my birthday. Yes it was a Birthday gift. LOve it!!!!!

In Run Through The Light Horn played a fretless bass, Squire plays the piano.

Wonderful reaction...

Drama is one of my favorite YES albums for sure. More big changes coming Jim. More energy, more reinventing themselves coming up in '90125' and 'Big Generator'. Big line up changes. The band breaks up then reforms with Jon returning. Trevor Rabin is now the front man with Jon singing some lead and back up vocals. YES evolves once again and it's brilliant! You're going to love these next two albums Jim!

Just incredible stuff, isn't it? Top 5 Yes album for me, easily. I feel like the "prog community" has really come around to Drama in the last few years. I recall some very dismissive comments about it on forums back in the day, which seemed to be solely predicated on who was in the lineup rather than the quality of the songwriting and musicianship.

Well reacted Jim, Drama really has it's own unique place in Yes history. I always wished this line-up would have done at least one more album together but in a way that happened 30 odd years later with the release of "Fly from here" with left over material from the Drama sessions further developed plus new material, produced by Trevor Horn & featuring a new fantastic vocalist Canadian Benoit David formerly of the Canadian prog band Mystery. IMHO a very good album that hopefully one day you'll also review, all the best, Cheers

Jim. On the Run Through the Light, Trevor Horn is playing the bass. Horn wanted Squire to do the bass tracks but Chris insisted Trevor do it.

Trevor Horn played the fretless on Run through the Light.

*"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!"* Its really great re-living my 1st time putting this Lp on my turntable in late 1980. I would start going backwards into their catalogue and discovering "Close to the Edge" and "Relayer", which awakened me again, in what music could be. "Into the Lens" is such a gorgeous track, all the layers and moods. Its another "visual" track as well, and how we try to remember all the moments that mean a lot to us, or wishing we could have tried harder to remember certain moments so they wouldn't be forgotten. It sounds like Squire was using a "Fretless" in Run Through the Light??? But then . . . "Tempus Fugit", man Jim, you called it; So much energy, vitality and urgency! This was the 1st track I heard off of it on KLOS 95.5 (apparently here in the U.S. different tracks were featured than the U.K.), and had to purchase the album as soon as I could. It was cool to be treated to a "Promo Film" for the track, that I either saw on The Midnight Special or Don Kirshner's Rock Concert program. Squire is just exploding on this track. Agreed, its an awesome album. And I listen to it often, and single tracks that have made it to various Themed Playlists. Wiki has a thorough page on the album as well: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_(Yes_album) - Really glad you LOVED it Jimmy! Again, was really great listening along with you.

This album is extremely underrated. Great reaction. Can’t wait for you to get to Yes’s 1994 album Talk. Talk is (imo) their most underrated album. Especially with Endless dream.

Into The Lens is a gong written by Buggles, there's a new wave version in their second album with the title I Am A Camera.

Ahhh Jim What a lovely thing to see It's always a pleasure to see a reaction such as these on albums like this...preconceptions broken and utter brilliance out in the open... I hope this will lead you to the asia route sometime soon so the transitions are clear Thank you...

Drama is a great album, i first started listening to Yes because of Drama. I was a fan of Trevor Horn and then I figured out he was a part of Yes and I had to listen. I instantly liked Drama and when I looked at youtube videos about Drama, a lot of people claimed that it wasn't well received when it came out. It's understandable because while it still is amazing, it's nothing compared to Awaken, Relayer, Close to the Edge etc. I listened to this without knowing a single thing about Yes and I thought it was a great album and it still is.

8:13 I am the camera!! So cool 👁️🎥

In the top 50 ever records in history! I got confused with the changes and actually thought that was John Anderson singing for a really long time haha I got this a few months after they put it out, and I didn't appreciate it as a best album back then. I was taking every song on their merit and played tempus fugit till neck my broke!

A masterpiece of it's type and shows how they were able to evolve and adapt to change. 90125 is different again, Trevor Rabin's "Cinema" is something else, I have it as my ring tone, and it does turn heads when it goes off. Another good one Jim, thankfully music is one of those constants you can always rely on in this troubled world.

Wonderful album, great Yes line up. Trevor's voice is marvelous. The Fly from here album is a continuation of this Yes version. Specially return trip.

So glad to see a positive review of this album. I love this album. I had all the YES albums. They were a huge favorite. But this was the first new YES album to come out since I had started buying records. I wasn't put off about the line up. At that time it seemed like all the bands that had been around had something new going on. Black Sabbath had Dio, Rush had Permanent Waves, Queen had The Game, etc. The only YES tour I've seen was Drama.

Side two is well placed on the album. The strength is side one, however Fugit will melt your face when you try to play it on guitar and bass. Chris is playing the bass made for him with the effects inside the bass.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, fans of this album (like me) had been clamoring to have these songs played live, but Jon Anderson would have none of it. Chris Squire managed to sneak the "Tempus Fugit" riff into his solos, but that's as far as it went. One of the upsides to Anderson's departure in 2008 was suddenly this music was OK again. That's what led to the whole Fly From Here project in 2011 ("Fly From Here" was an outtake from the Drama sessions played on the 1980 tour, which formed the basis of the entire 2011 album), and Yes even played the entire Drama album on their 2016 tour. Trevor Horn even came out to sing one of the songs at concerts in the UK. But back in the pre-Internet 1980s it was hard to get information about the background of these albums. Still, once fans learned that these two new guys had been in a band called the Buggles that sent people scurrying to check out their music (which was VERY different!) Their first album was actually a minor success (it included a song that was the very first video broadcast on MTV) so wasn't hard to find, but the second one -- Adventures in Modern Recording -- came out after the 1980 Yes lineup had folded and Geoff Downes had gone off to form Asia, so it was essentially a Trevor Horn solo record. But on there is the original version of "Into the Lens", called "I Am a Camera."

Into the lens reminds me of topographic oceans

Your comment on the production quality of this album compared to Tormato (and to some degree Going for the One) echoes my own thoughts at the time. For some reason Yes's sound kept getting brighter and tinnier following Tales. This album is a return to a richer and warmer sound. I think that is one reason why I preferred the live versions of songs off Tormato and Going for the One. The in-concert sound was better than the albums.

Jim: "I just realised I missed lunch; Time Flies." Ba ha ha ha! I see what you did there. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

No lunch because of 'Drama'? That's commitment! 😄 Love the atmosphere and sound of this album that seamlessly seems to blend Yes's 'classic' prog sound with a bit of art-pop and new wave (plus heavy guitars)!

The Buggles version of "I am a camera" is the one I like more... The Yes version seems a bit more fractured .. Both great though..

Funny, this was my first introduction to Yes and it didn’t feature Jon... interesting back story to this album and its connection to The Bugles. Perfect album for me.

One of the greatest bands

Steve and Chris asked Trevor to sing higher than his normal range to mimic Jon's range. It WORKED !!

Great Cover!

Hi Jim... Thank you so much for doing a full review of this so underated Yes album. I am a 64 yr old rock and metal head who grew up listening and loving all the early Yes albums ...saw them in 1972 ...Close To The Edge tour.....but thought they weren't quite themselves on Tales of....and Tormato . However I bought this album when it came out and to me the band were re-energised. ..I loved it straight away from the opening strains of Machine Messiah...to the fast paced Tempus Fugit... Brilliant. Looking forward to your next reaction. Take care. Peace from Liverpool UK 👍✌️🤘☮️ I saw them on this tour at Deeside Leisure Centre ...they were brilliant. I remember when this album came out a lot of Yes fans

Hi Jim! I can't believe your entire Yes journey is only a year long. April 6 2022 must be date for playing one of the albums ;-) Jim’s Yes journey. Close to the Edge 6 / 7 April 2021 Fragile 28 April/ 1 May 2021 Yes Album 22/23 June 2021 Yes 22 July 2021 Time and a word 26 /27 August 2021 Relayer 7 / 8 September 2021 Tales from Topographic Oceans 15/16/17 October 2021 Going for The One 24 November 2021 Tormato 19 January 2022 Drama 28 February / 1 March 2022

Hard to name a favourite album because I love so many Yes records, but this is right up there. Wonderful that they constantly find creative approaches to compositions. With few exceptions they simply write masterful music.

Hi Jim…just bought this from a proper nice record shop in Derby…second hand of course!…bloody love it!..minus a couple of the big names but wow its fantastic….one of my mates a big yes fan who amazingly saw them live in the 70’s lucky sod!!…well he hates it….tried to make him give it another go but to avail….anyway….all the best from sunny Derbyshire…..cheers

Thanks many.!

Here we go for part 2 :)

Trevor did a great job but never felt comfortable filling the shoes of Jon. Audiences gave him a hard time when they toured this album but I saw them live and he did a great job so kudos to him, in particular. Geoff did a brilliant job on keys too !!

RIP Alan.

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes,....

An amazing addition to the YES collection...I loved it, the first time I heard it, despite being a long time Yes freak!

I believe it’s Trevor Horn on “lead bass” on “Into the Lens”. For some reason, Chris felt he couldn’t get it right and thus, also being a bass player, Horn had a go alongside Chris. Pretty sure that’s correct if you look it up. Chris often used the bass line from Tempus Fugit in his solos in the early 00s.

I must admit...the idea of someone aping Jon Anderson's unique instrument gave me Millie Vanilli vibes. But damned if he doesn't make it sound beautiful. Other bands, whom I shall not name, have seemed to try, only to wind up screeching. So glad to be finally hearing this one. Grazie!

I saw this tour at Leicester DeMontfort Hall it was great Trevor Horn sounded good to me and the band rocked. The only down side they insisted the bar closed before they started which took an age. I also saw Jon Anderson at the same venue that year on his Song Of Seven tour and that was magical in a more floaty ethereal way.

I’ve just realised, I was so busy reading the comments that I forgot leave one myself. Jim you didn’t disappoint with your reaction and you were bang on with your description of this fantastic album.👍

The entire album is outstanding to say the least, but if I had to pick a track as my favorite, I have to go with tempus Fugit. (Time Flys). Chris is on fire on this tune.

Can you hear the Police influence on Tempus Fugit ? Track 2 - Trevor Horn on fretless bass , Squire on electric piano.

Fretless was played by Trevor Horn

Always loved this side

Such a Masterpiece!!! Great Work of Art!!!! I love this album!!! and their new "the Quest" is really good too.....you should check it out!!!!

I love hearing you articulate why Drama is such a singular moment. You have a way with putting into words precisely how I feel about this stellar album. Thanks for loving it as much as I do! Certainly a standout Yes album, and an unsung one at that.

My favorite YES album is the one that's on at the time. I bet you'll be pleasantly pleased with their next ventures also. They just keep surprising.

This is what Tormato could have sounded like with denser production quality. Guess that is why it didn't quite make the grade with many Yes fans even though the music was amazing.

I think you'll really enjoy their next album because it is yet another fresh change in direction from Drama. The difference is really fun, but the unfortunate aspect is that we don't get more music just like Drama. But 90125 rocks hard and still hangs on to several of the tropes of Yes music, so I hope you'll enjoy it. This has been so fun to see you flip out over Drama. It is thrilling for me because I've been loving this album for 40 years, since 1 or 2 years after it was originally released. Thanks for sharing, Jim!

I missed Jon's voice and Rick's insane keyboard work on this one. Plus Mr. Anderson was very gifted at making songs flow. Good stuff that could have been so much better.

There's an interesting echo to the career arcs of Yes, Genesis, and Gentle Giant here: all three bands made a pop move with their 1978 album and kind of biffed it. All three sat out 1979, then came back with their best album in years in 1980. All three of those 1980 albums were both notably more forward-looking and had more of a foot in progressive rock's past. Each was, I believe, the last _great_ album by those three bands (in the case of Gentle Giant, the last album, period.)

Liking the lunch comment Jim ...Tempus Fugit indeed 😂 👍✌️🤘☮️

Jim , Thanks for this and your excellent review. It has made Yes people realise this album is not one that should not be listened to . But is probably the best produced album by the group and has so much energy. Don’t forget the Directors Cut video of Yes in 2003 performing Awaken. It’s on You Tube as l mentioned previously. It will complete your trilogy of this song. Keep up the good work and l like it you are now on to early Genesis as well. Regards Roger

I love into the lens 😁

It's been ages since I last listened to this album, and, holy cow, I don't remember it sounding this damn good. I'm glad I gave it another chance!

Yes, tempus certainly does fugit. 😁

Adventures in Modern Recording, the second album from the Buggles! Also an excellent album and you can see why Howe and Squire needed Horn and Downes. Sad that Jon never wanted to do any of these songs live, especially after Horn's successful production of subsequent albums.

This album makes me feel all the windows of Yes music wide open and a flow of fresh, revitalizing air after the disappointing Tormato

From the first time I heard it, I thought Steven Wilson's Luminol takes the drum pattern at the beginning and middle of Into the Lens as its jumping off point.

Saludos desde Ecuador. Drama definitivamente es un gran álbum, uno de de los mejores de Yes para mi gusto, personalmente lo prefiero a Relayer….. me encantaría que comentes sobre Octopus de Gentle Giant.

Loved the reaction, Jim! I'm glad you liked this album as much as I do; for me it's in Yes' top five albums, but some people just can't get into it.

I think your reasons for liking it are some of the ones I really dig, too. It's Yes with grit and I love seeing that other side of such a fantastic band. It really jives with my love for heavier music. Chris Squier's bass is just so monstrous on this album.

You're absolutly correct with your comments, I really prefer this over 90125. As I said you should try "Fly from here".

Hi Jim! As you mentioned the production of Tormato was a little messy, there are some good songs on Tormato but you can feel the energy levels have dropped compared to GFTO. If you have listened to any of the Paris session demos for the proposed album after Tormato that never materialised, you will see the energy dropped even more, with more than half the band not wanting to make the melodic songs from the demos. As you can see Drama is the reaction, what the three other band members wanted plus the influence of the two new band members, a heavier, tighter, punchy Yes. You will see the most dramatic change to Yes on the next album 90125 with band member changes.

Trevor plays fretless bass on Into the Light.

Been watching your videos all Easter weekend, it really is great content. You have really helped me in entering the world of Yes !

Would have never got into searching through the yes catalog without tempest fugit - love it! Radio station would do what they called mini-concert (basically 3 songs) I'd tape them to play in my car. That damn song with no discernable title... lead me to buy almost every yes album to that date (early 80s). That's for that. Great journey to take eh? ☺ Welcome to anyone who wants to hear great players

The best yes album

Jon returned as a member of the band for the next album, Trevor took on a producing role, and YES went the pop route with songs like "Owner of a Lonely Heart". Then, in the early 2000s, when Jon left YES again for medical treatment, they made "Fly from Here: Return Trip (2018)" with the same lineup as when they made "DRAMA". (The idea itself existed during DRAMA) It's a true "sequel to DRAMA" album, so please give it a listen!

In retrospect this was a great album. Stand out tracks for me were Machine Messiah, Could it really happen and Tempus Fugit. Great reaction!

Tempus Fugit has a Police vibe to it cause of the rasta/reggae type sound and choppy staccato singing like Sting. Great album. Many non-Yes fans hear it and think it's Rush.

The band said that this was their most “ punky” album as Punk had great influence at that time. Fans were scathing of The Buggles replacing Jon and Rick but those two had lost the appetite to stay with the band at that time and a new direction was needed. Although the US fans mostly accepted the new members on the world tour the British fans gave Trevor Horn a really hard time plus the fact that his voice was strained as the tour progressed and he couldn’t always hit Jon’s high notes. After the world tours the Buggles declined to make another album and tour and the remaining three members had a hiatus. In 1981 Chris and Alan recorded tracks with Jimmy Page in a group that was going to be called XYZ but nothing came of it. The next Yes album contains the US number one hit single Owner of a Lonely Heart so yet another different Yes sound for you to peruse.

Always enjoy you work. Drama is a wonderful record at an interesting time for the band and for the time it was released in general. Keep up the great work!

it is indeed a powerfull recording, great production, and definitly much better than Tormato. If I'm listening to it I'm always surprised how direct, hard rocking and complex it sounds (in a positive way). But it shows Yes in the post-punk years, searching to find it's way into the 80ies, and going to it's commercial succes with "Owner of a lonely heart" (with again another line-up)...Still great stuff ;-)

Such a great album!!!

Alan Whites drumming on this album is way up there

Excellent album far,far better than 90125 and Big Generator.

This is my first time listening to this album, I had hoped that after their groundbreaking run of albums from the early 70's they would continue exploring the outer reaches of their world of rock, fusion and psychedelia. They did something else entirely, sadly, and I fell off the wagon. Even with the benefit of hindsight and an open mind I'm still not able to get back on.

Even without Jon Anderson, this album is a gem in the Yes catalog.

There are two albums which I consider quite similar to this one in terms of being a bridge between the old and a new - yet being a separate genre on their own. Both from 1980. And I have a feeling you will like both of them. The first is "Duke" by Genesis. Similarly, it's not yet their 80ties pop, yet it's much more fresh in terms of production and ideas than their earlier stuff, especially from the later 70ties. You will get there eventually, I bet you would want to discover their prog stuff first. Second is '[A]" by Jethro Tull. This is probably more controvential, but again: not 80ties poppier sound yet, but something new comparing to their earlier folk-prog stuff. And the preconditions for you are less demanding: only Tull's "Stormwatch" and both albums by U.K. (Eddie Jobson plays on "[A]") ;) The drumming is superb on both.