Thursday 24 June 2021

What was the best Yes-related album of 1991?

Another historical poll, this time of the best Yes-related album of 1991. Union had been released, the 8-piece band went on tour, but what else were the band members doing that year... and was their music outside the band any good? 78 of you voted and the results were:

1. Steve Howe: Turbulence (w/ Bruford): 37%, 29 votes

2. Queen: Innuendo (w/ Howe): 22%, 17 votes

3. Jon & Vangelis: Page of Life (w/ Anderson): 14%, 11 votes

4. Bill Bruford's Earthworks: All Heaven Broke Loose: 12%, 9 votes

5. Seal: Seal (w/ Horn, Rabin): 4%, 3 votes

6= Rick Wakeman: 2000 A.D. Into the Future: 3%, 2 votes

6= Asia: Live Mockba 09-X1-90 (w/ Downes): 3%, 2 votes

7= Rick Wakeman: The Classical Connection: 1%, 1 vote

7= The Moody Blues: Keys of the Kingdom (w/ Moraz): 1%, 1 vote

7= Marc Almond: Tenement Symphony (w/ Horn): 1%, 1 vote

There were 2 votes for 'other', but not specified as to what. There were no votes for Terry Reid's The Driver (w/ Horn, White) or for several Rick Wakeman albums (African Bach, Soft Sword, Aspirant Sunshadows, Aspirant Sunset, The Private Collection). Wakeman released a lot of albums that year...

A clear win, then, for Turbulence. Howe had recorded the album some years before, but it had got indefinitely delayed, which is why Howe brought some of the ideas in the album to ABWH for what eventually became Union. Then, unexpectedly, Turbulence re-appeared, putting Howe in the unexpected position of having two albums with common compositions in the same year.

Howe also nabs second place for his guest appearance on the title track of Queen's Innuendo, their last release while Freddie Mercury was alive. The album was huge in most of the world (if less so in the US), going Platinum in the UK, Germany, France, Spain etc. Indeed, I think the track "Innuendo" is the most widely heard thing Howe has ever played on. It was later included on Queen's Greatest Hits II, an album that has gone 13 times Platinum in the UK, 8 times Platinum in Australia, 5 times Platinum in Spain, Diamond in France, and so on.

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