I didn’t mind some of the stuff on “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”, but was disappointed with “Tales from Topographic Oceans.”
It was a two record set and had just one small solo part I liked.
Specifically, the Mini solo here: http://www.minimoog.net/topographic_solo.mp3
This style was a lot like much of the soloing on “White Rock”, including the rarely used Mini noise modulation.
I think Rick was the one who got tired of Yes’ direction and left.
That’s what I read anyway.
However (and despite that he’s a nice guy in person), I thought Moraz was terrible and a huge mismatch for Yes.
Everyone has their own tastes, but I truly despised “Relayer.”
I DID like some songs from Rick’s “Criminal Record” and “Rhapsodies” though.
Hah, Relayer is my favourite Yes record although I prefer Wakeman to Moraz. Actually Tales… suffers from being too long. I find that by skipping the overdone third part it’s a much better work (try it). I love that part (two?) of Tales… where Jon is singing “Relayer” with a great chugging riff.
Also, wasn’t this one of those albums where everyone was over dubbng their parts individually rather than playing together as a unit, or am I thing of Pink Floyd?
Yes, everyone has their own taste. For me, Relayer was difficult to wrap my head around for the first month. It slowly grew to become (and still is by a huge margin) my favourite YES album. I saw them at the Hollywood Bowl in 1974 and Fresno in 1976, Moraz’s first and then his final tour with YES.
My sense was that he was the perfect candidate to take on the keyboard duties. He wasn’t a Wakeman by a long shot, yet he played the old Wakeman parts in his own unique way. I always love it when people dare to do things their own way. Too many tribute bands these days try to make their stage performance sound exactly like the studio album.
You wanna talk about terrible mismatches for YES? Ever hear of Trevor Rabin? Geoff Downes? Tony Kaye (the second time around)? Benoît David? But especially Trevor Rabin.
I somewhat agree with you.
However Yes itself had changed styles considerably by then.
That alone was disappointing.
Trevor Rabin wasn’t a bad guitarist, but still kind of pop oriented to fill Steve Howe’s boots.
Perhaps blame Trevor Horn.
It would seem he was more into pop than progressive rock.
I didn’t mind “Tempus Fugit” for example, but it was nothing like earlier Yes.
Nothing later Yes played took me on any sort of “trip.”
Geoff Downes WAS quite a disappointment though.
He’d stack piles of keyboards up… a huge wall.. and yet didn’t play anything terribly inspiring.
One of those musicians who seemed to be enamored by how he appeared visually in front of all those keyboards.
My favorite hobby is to collect the albums of bands and play them in chronological order being fully aware of the band changes, social trends and developing skills of the musicians. The arc of the band’s life fascinates me. Yes is the most bizarre journey of them all! Fragile, Close to the Edge and Topographic Oceans are the masterpieces for me, and they all have a Rick Wakeman influence (although group decisions seems to be Jon’s way or no way).
Rick was (sorry) cheesy without Yes, but I also cringe every time the 1812 Overture is played and its the same pompous, corny stuff suitable for a movie score and no more. This comment insults hundreds of great film scores, I know. Still, Rick Wakeman good or bad is part of my history
1st post here…Rick Wakeman being my keyboard idol it seemed like a good place to start!
Like many of you I grew up on Yes and Rick’s solo work.
For me my favorites of his older solo work would be 6 wives, and Criminal Record. I am warming these days to King Arthur, but I think a big problem with a lot of his solo work is his choice of vocalists. Honestly I think I would have preferred he didn’t have any vocalist at all in his solo work because I think most people buying his solo records wanted to hear him, not a singer.
Of later solo work I love the Wakeman with Wakeman stuff, and he has a few albums of piano solo which are quite nice.
One thing I wish Rick did more of, is use old analog sounds. Most of his playing the last decade or two is very digital with little effort to reproduce the older sounds. I get that he wants to keep things fresh for himself, but I guess I just much prefer analog sounds.
For Yes, I did see the Union tour and really enjoyed it. (I also had spectacular seats!) though the Union album is not one I’ve listened to in a long time. I did like Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe as well (and saw that tour too…but needed binoculars to see anything)
While Rick is my hero, I like Relayer a lot and enjoy Moraz’s playing though it is much more Jazz to Rick’s Baroque.
I may get Keys to Ascension some time, but otherwise I don’t have much interest in current Yes. For me…no Anderson = no Yes and I strongly favour a Wakeman there as well…if not Rick than Adam.
For myself, currently in an effort to get my technique back I am putting together performing the 6 wives album, plus maybe some of the extra tunes from the Hampton Court performance, and maybe some of Arthur to stretch it out. I am sticking with analog sounds albeit with mostly modern instruments. Sadly my only Moog is an animoog which I’m not using right now for this project. I’d love to have a minimoog to use for it, but alas my Korg mono/poly has to fill that role (along with some mainstage/Garageband synths) for the time being.
Just saw an advert that YES is coming to Seattle in March.
Howe, Squire, White, with Downes on keyboards and a new vocalist Jon Davison. They are advertising that they will play three albums in their entirety, The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, and Going for the One.
Bring Jon, Rick, and Patrick back and then play Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans, and Relayer. Now that would be worth something…
Wakeman disowned the Union recording. The producer took his MIDI tracks and replaced the sounds behind Rick’s back. Pretty sacrilegious. That was a big topic in Keyboard magazine for a while (Rick: “I wouldn’t trust him with a food mixer”). The producer had his counter-argument which was followed by many letters to the magazine, and not one letter defended the producer.
Yep - great solo and patch. It’s also the first sound I try and copy on every synth and, until some of the recent MM VSTs, a sound that no other synth could make!
although I prefer Wakeman to Moraz. Actually Tales… suffers from being too long. I find that by skipping the overdone third part it’s a much better work (try it). I love that part (two?) of Tales… where Jon is singing “Relayer” with a great chugging riff.
