Released on Nov. 5, 1983, per Wikipedia.
Curious as to how many of us discovered Yes and/or prog with that song. It was my gateway into all of this. I was 12 years old and had never heard of Yes before that song. I loved it from the first time I heard it. Not my favorite Yessong anymore, but it still holds a special place for me.
It wasn't my gateway into prog, that was I think Jean Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield. My brother had Tubular Bells and I loved what I heard. I sorta knew that there was more to discover out there and with the use of a pop / rock enclyclopedia which had lots of entries that were crosslinked with each other (so in the case of Oldfield it said at the bottom "Check Progressive Rock page xxx") I quickly discovered a whole lot of other music. I went from Oldfield to Pink Floyd (I knew Another Brick In The Wall) to Vangelis. And then came 90125. My brother had it probably because of Owner and taped it partially for me. I really liked it especially Changes so with the help of that encyclopedia I set out to listen more from Yes. So it happened that my local library at that point only had Yessongs available and I brought that one home. I thought, well it is 3 albums so I get to listen to whole bunch of their songs in one fell swoop. But boy, this was quite different music then on 90125. It was a tough listen at first but it was And You And I that clicked first and then it was Perpetual Change. I noticed that a whole different style of drumming compared to the rest of Yessongs was on that song and discovered it was a man called Bill Bruford. He had his own entry in the encyclopedia and through there I 'discovered' King Crimson and Genesis. And well... the rest is history.
It was my "gateway" into Trevor Rabin..never heard of him before reading his name on the back of the album cover... I guess I'm one of the few "old" fans out there who wasn't put off listening to 90125 the first time.. I thought.. hey Yes is back.. still find the album to have it's merits.. never understood all the hate for Rabin era Yes..
Last edited by happytheman; 11-05-2013 at 12:45 PM.
It was pop in my ears, so I was dissapointed. A little impressed by the production, but I disliked the music.
The first YES tune I heard was Roundabout.
I was already into YES, albeit only for about 3 years. I was excited at the prospect of them reforming and toruing. When I heard this for the first time I was massively let down. This ceratinly wasn't what I was expecting. I enjoyed the tour though.
Agreed.Originally Posted by happytheman
Very talented guy that just took them in a bit of a different direction.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Interesting replies so far. I know "Owner" brought in loads of new fans at the time. Could be most of those people never got into the back catalog and moved on. Those of us who stuck around were perhaps the exception to the rule.
For those of us who got into Yes with The Yes Album or before, OOALH was the beginning of the end. It dumped the patented "Yes sound" for something new and shiny and very eighties. In an effort to "remain relevant" Yes gave up everything that made them Yes.
Oh, and I loved it.
^ditto, minus the final sentence.
I was already into Yes, but OOALH and 90125 were the first new Yes since I got into them (in 1981). I wasn't actively waiting for anything new - didn't know they were working on anything - so I thought the album was pretty good. However, endless repetition of the song on MTV (the Eddie Jobson era!) eventually made me pretty sick of the song. Although the video seemed effective at first, I didn't really like it much. I never bought 90125 on CD and sold off my vinyl long ago - I have little desire to hear the album again. Actually, the quick, percussive nature of a lot of the music paired with Jon's voice was just a little too much. He sounded like a pitch pipe!
The fact that the song is 30 years old makes me feel very old, because I vividly recall the week the song came out, as I was visiting a friend in Buffalo and we heard the song a lot in the many bars we went to. It was also the time that Ghost Busters was released, as we went and saw that. LOL - how 80s can you get?
I've never had 90125 in my collection (though to be fair, I only own two post 80 recordings). When I thing of Owner, I think of the only time I've seen Yes live. A buddy of mine gave me and my wife tickets as a wedding gift (coolest wedding gift!). That was in 1998. Saw them in Vancouver. When they began playing Owner, I took the opportunity to visit the men's room. Fortunately the song, short for their live repertoire, was just long enough for me to make it back to my seat for the next song - likely some 70's classic!
Happy birthday Owner.
me too. I bought the 45. pretty sure I wore out both sides of it.
I like OOALH more today than 30 yrs ago.
When this came out, I was just a few months shy of my formal intro to prog, but I def' already knew the radio hits by Rush & Yes. I can't believe this is 30 years old today. This song (& entire album) was the kick in the ass Yes needed at the time. More recently its been the target of a few jabs, but its a solid album & for Yes, a strong comeback single. At the time the "orchestra hit" sample was popular in hip hop & Yes jumped on that bandwagon. It was such a radical album for them & I love it. Lotsa good summer '84 memories.
Very 80s, as it seems you took Doc Brown's Delorrean because Ghostbusters came out in the summer of '84.
Same here. It's hard to believe it's been that long! I can also remember exactly where I was when I first heard the song. It turned out to be such a transformative moment for me, in terms of the musical path I ended up following. Within a year I'd bought the entire Yes catalog and was knee-deep into discovering a treasure trove of '70s progressive rock.
Dirty little secret: I've always preferred Trevor Rabin to Steve Howe. First impressions are hard to shake. I'd love to see Trevor come back to do a three-album tour of 90125, Big Generator, and Talk. I know, it'll never happen ...
Loved the song when I first saw the music video on MTV. 90125 and the next album, along with a greatest hits, is the extent of my Yes collection.
I was 13 when this came out. "90125", "Asia" and "Genesis" (shapes) all hit me around the same time (all on cassette), which started my journey. I would spend the next several years seeking out the back catalogs and other related bands. Of these three albums I would say that 90125 aged the best.
-noisynoise
www.polarizedguru.com - 5-piece jazz fusion group
www.incandescentsky.com - inventive improvisational instrumental ensemble
Well it wasn't an overnight thing but I think the roots of me getting into prog can be traced to this song. I heard this song(and then a few more from this album)then went out and bought the cassette tape. I had heard YES before this including parts of the Yes album but my young ears couldn't handle that yet and I probably thought it was some old hippy jammy rock thing. However, I became more curious about YES after 90125 and rediscovered my dad's copy of TYA. RIght before I went to camp in the summer of 1984 I ordered "Classic Yes" on cassette and I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't for "owner of a lonely heart" and 90125. So yeah I do trace my getting into prog back to this song as weird as that sounds.
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