Yes vs. The Living Tree

It's been an exciting week for Yes fans. Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman have begun their joint tour, and their album The Living Tree is expected any day now; multiple tracks can already be previewed online (see here). Meanwhile, Yes have gathered in Los Angeles to record their new album, with Trevor Horn producing.

These two projects, while both hugely anticipated, sit either side of the fault line in Yes fandom. Their first album is a defining moment for the new Yes line-up, while those critical of Howe/Squire/White's decision to move on with David and Wakeman jnr. have The Living Tree as a rallying cry. Comparisons between the two albums are inevitable.

While we await the chance to actually hear both, what struck me is that the two albums are being made in very different ways. Anderson/Wakeman have adopted what one might call a very agile, or (depending on your perspective) a very cheap, approach. There's just the two of them on the album and they weren't ever together in the studio. Rick recorded his parts in England, while Jon... Jon wasn't even in a studio, recording his vocals while on the road touring. Contrast that with Yes's more traditional approach: the whole band together, with a producer, in a fully-equipped studio (see here for details).

Other comparisons spring to mind. The two albums have a very different relationship to the Yes back catalogue. The Living Tree is expected to have a number of re-recordings of old Yes classics. [UPDATE: In the end, those plans were abandoned and the album is all new material.] The new Yes album is expected to have one re-recording of a rather obscure old Yes number ("We Can Fly from Here", played live on the Drama tour but never released as a studio recording by Yes). The new Yes album is expected to have a Roger Dean cover, while The Living Tree has a somewhat Roger Dean-esque cover.

Here's to both albums being available in the shops and a proper comparison of the music being possible!

Why will Yoso make a fraction of the amount CIRCA: did on each CD sold?

Having been around for over a year, and already on their fourth drummer(!), Yoso's debut album, Elements, is now available for pre-order. Release comes in July, the exact date depending on format and where you live.

It seems the delay has been, in part, because the band sought a different business model than its predecessor (and ongoing sibling) band, CIRCA:. While CIRCA: self-released material, but have had to largely abandoned live work, Yoso are aiming at a bigger market, with a CD released through a regular record company (Frontiers Records, who also have Asia on their books), and a tour planned.

As such, this is an appropriate time to direct you to this entry from the fantastic Information is Beautiful blog. It illustrates how a band might get ~80% of the sale price of a self-released CD, but a mere 3-10% on a standard retail CD. And forget being an artist and making money from Spotify or Last.fm plays!

So why not always self-release? Because a record label and selling through mainstream retailers means you can reach a much bigger market. But you need at least 8 times as many sales to make the same amount of money. Thus, the difficult decision for a band like Yoso.

New Jon Anderson interviews

There's a couple of new Jon Anderson interviews accompanying his short solo tour. The MusicStreetJournal one has this fantastic quote that may, or may not, explain many a pet cat's behaviour in the garden: "Flowers – we give flowers as a gift – for love, for remembrance, for harmony. And flowers have three components: They smell, like a perfume, they color, and they also make sound. But, you know we’re not cats, so we can’t hear it. But, they do make a sound. And it’s been pretty well proven on many levels…."

What's particularly interesting about that interview and a local US newspaper one is that Anderson's attitude to Yes continuing without him appears to have mellowed from a few months back. Whereas previously he was saying he was fit and ready to re-join the band, now he talks about not being capable of doing the sort of big tours Yes are doing: "Those guys [Howe/Squire/White] like to be on the road, they're like journeymen. I'm not like that. My body would never be able to do what they do. I can't do four or five shows a week, or all this hotel travelling. My body just wouldn't take it." And he appears more accepting of this: "I had to let the past go. I had to just let go of the band. Let go of that energy that I’ve been working with for many, many years. Now I’m working on a new sort of energy".

Anderson also makes a couple of tangential comments about his final period with Yes and writing music: "About four years ago I just put in an ad on my website: "Musicians Wanted" because I wasn't getting much feedback from my close people, which was the band. So I thought, "hey I'll just reach out to people who want to work with me." And then, talking about large-scale pieces: "They're exciting to do, because they are like climbing mountains. And I used to drag the band up the mountain half the time, and sometimes a couple would stay with me all the way. And of late it just became "Well, if you want to do that, Jon, you're going to have to do it by yourself.""

ABW... R?

Online fan discussion continues to be dominated by Rick Wakeman's announcement of a project with Trevor Rabin and other ex-Yesmen. Wakeman seems to have confirmed Jon Anderson as the third man, as widely predicted. Now, the March 2010 issue of Classic Rock Presents... Prog claims Bill Bruford will come out of retirement as the fourth member of this group.

I like Prog magazine, but my gut feeling is they're wrong. It would be a dramatic volte face for Bruford, who has so firmly retired and who has so often made clear a complete lack of desire to ever re-join Yes. That said, it wouldn't be the most surprising turn of events in the story of Yes...

[18 Mar update: Bruford has now denied his involvement.]

The possibility of ABWR has seen comparisons drawn to the original ABWH, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, the rival Yes line-up formed in 1989. The pull of the historical parallels is so strong that fans seem almost to presume that the bass player will be Tony Levin (or Jeff Berlin) again, that Bruford will play electronic drums again, that there will be a tour of Yes music plus again and an almost inevitable new Union with the current Yes line-up.

Stop! Do not be taken in by these fantasies. ABWH was 21 years ago. 21 years is as long as the time between Yes's first album, Yes, and ABWH! We're in a completely different context now and there's little reason to expect this to unfold in a similar way. I wouldn't be surprised to see Anderson and R. Wakeman back on stage with Howe/Squire/White at some point - the nostalgia will always exert a powerful gravitational pull - but I expect an ABWR, or AWR, in 2011 to be a very different beast to ABWH in 1989. Let's wait for a new story to unfold rather than trying to force it into the shape of an old one.

Henry

First half of 2010

In January-June 2010...

Musician : gigs played or announced : albums announced

Trevor Horn : 1 gig : 1 album
Jon Anderson: 5 gigs : 0 albums
Rick Wakeman: 11 gigs: 1 album (but it is 3 CDs)
Steve Howe: 67 gigs : 2 albums

Steve Howe is playing more than one gig every 3 days in the first half of this year!

Is May a possible date for recording a new Yes album?

I see Alan White is doing the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp in London at the end of May. Nothing odd about that, you might imagine, what with Alan having done multiple previous Camps in the States.

But London is a bit further to travel than previous Camps. Might Alan be over in the UK for anything else around that time? Chris Squire is based in London now, and Steve Howe and Oliver Wakeman are both in the south of England. It would make sense to record a new Yes album in the UK. Squire has talked of recording in March-May. They'll need to work around Howe's touring plans (with his Trio in March and with Asia in April/May), but could plans be firming up? Could Alan be doubling up a stay in the UK to do both the camp and record with Yes?

Yesmen together outside Yes

Apparently, on last Saturday’s Rick’s Place (Rick Wakeman’s radio show on Planet Rock), Rick announced that he is working on an album with Trevor Rabin and two, as yet unnamed, other ex-Yesmen. Cue furious speculation at Yesfans.com about what this might be and the identity of the two others. Billy Sherwood posted a non-committal message that would seem to imply he wasn’t involved. If I had to guess, I’d say the other two will be Jon Anderson and Tony Levin (whether you consider him an ex-Yesman or not), but we know so little, it could be almost anyone.

Perhaps more important than who the other two Yesmen might be is the question of what this project is going to be. Is this basically a solo album with guest appearances, or is this a full-blown collaboration? What many want is a rival Yes, a second ABWH. Given Rabin and Wakeman both seem averse to large-scale touring and given both appear to remain committed to their many other works, I get the impression that we’re not looking at the genesis of a rival Yes band.

So, presuming reports are accurate and this project comes to fruition, what might four Yesmen working together sound like? The Yesmen have often worked with each other outside the band: e.g. Asia, The Buggles, CIRCA:, Moraz/Bruford, White, Turbulence, 1984 and so on. Three Yesmen working together is less common, but there are still a fair few examples: Ramshackled, Fish Out of Water, Adventures in Modern Recording, Conspiracy, In the U.K., Criminal Record, All to Bring You Morning, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, Esquire, Jabberwocky and more.

But four or more Yesmen on an album, we’re down to a fairly short list. I can think of 13.

1. ABWH (1989) – of course! I almost didn’t include it here as I just think of it as a Yes album
2. The Six Wives of Henry VIII (Rick Wakeman, 1973) – Wakeman, Squire, Howe and Bruford together on “Catherine of Aragon” plus White on other tracks
3. Beginnings (Steve Howe, 1975) – Howe, White and Moraz together on three tracks, plus Bruford on others
4. The Steve Howe Album (Steve Howe, 1979) – Howe, Bruford and Moraz on “All’s a Chord” plus White on other tracks
5. The Classical Connection II (Rick Wakeman, 1992) – includes a Six Wives era recording called “Farandol” with Squire, Howe and Bruford
6. Tales from Yesterday (various artists, 1995) – Howe, Sherwood, Banks and Moraz appear, but all on separate tracks
7. Pigs & Pyramids—An All Star Lineup Performing the Songs of Pink Floyd (various artists co-organised by Sherwood, 2002) – Sherwood, Squire and White together on “Comfortably Numb” plus Kaye and Levin on other tracks
8. Back Against the Wall (various artists organised by Sherwood, 2005) – recycles “Comfortably Numb” and Kaye’s track from Pigs & Pyramids, plus new appearances from Sherwood, Levin, White, Wakeman, Howe and Downes, but mostly apart (“Hey You” unites Sherwood, Downes and White)
9. Return to the Dark Side of the Moon: A Tribute to Pink Floyd (various artists organised by Sherwood, 2006) –Kaye, White, Wakeman, Howe, Bruford, Banks, Downes and Levin all guest but often separately: “Speak to Me” unites Kaye and White with Sherwood producing; “The Great Gig in the Sky” unites Sherwood, Howe and Wakeman; “Money” unites Sherwood, Bruford and Levin (seemingly recorded entirely separately); “Eclipse” unites Kaye and Banks with Sherwood producing
10. CIRCA: 2007 (2007) – Sherwood, Kaye, White and writing contributions from Rabin
11. From Here to Infinity (Jim Ladd’s Headsets, 2007) – includes a cover of “Starship Trooper” organised by Sherwood with him, Kaye, Wakeman, White and Howe all performing
12. Led Box: The Ultimate Tribute to Led Zeppelin (various artists co-organised by Sherwood, 2008) – Sherwood, White and Kaye are all on “All of My Love”, with Wakeman and Downes appearing on other tracks
13. Abbey Road: A Tribute to The Beatles (various artists co-organised by Sherwood, 2009) – with Sherwood/White/Kaye on “Get Back” and Sherwood/White/Downes on “Let It Be”

Most of these don’t actually have the four Yesmen playing together and there’s no guarantee that this new Wakeman/Rabin project won’t be the same, with just scattered guest appearances. When do we actually get four Yesmen together on the same track? Apart from ABWH, there’s “Catherine of Aragon”, “Farandol”, “Lost Symphony”, “Beginnings”, “Will o’ the Wisp”, “All’s a Chord” and “Starship Trooper” (2007 cover), plus CIRCA:’s “Don’t Let Go” and “Look Inside” if including Rabin’s writing contribution.

I like all those albums (some more than others) as I like most of the albums with three Yesmen, but there’s clearly a huge variation between them. With some, additional Yesmen make guest appearances that amount to little more than curios. Others are good, but just completely different from Yes. And then sometimes, there is something of the Yes magic and an almost-Yes piece emerges. That list of 9 individual pieces with 4+ Yesmen would make a pretty good lost Yes album.

In terms of who’s most collaborative, across the 13 albums listed, White is on 10 (confirming his reputation as being easy to work with), Howe 9, Sherwood 8, Wakeman & Kaye 7 each, Bruford 6, Squire & Downes 4 each, Moraz & Levin 3 each, Banks 2, and Anderson & Rabin 1 each.