The appeal of Rick Wakeman

[2steves]

His style. When you hear him play, or hear one of his songs, you can easily recognize it's Rick who is playing. Not many keyboard players are as recognizable as Rick.

In general, I find his music to be FUN, extremely melodic, and chuck-full of keyboard instrumentation. Often, the cheeser the better. I just want to hear him play goopy sounding keyboards. He's also extremely prolific, and you have to sift through everything to find what you like. I have given up on him several times, only to turn around and find a new one that's pretty great.

I get it though, his music tends to lack anything else interesting about it. There's nothing deep about his music. At all. The guitars and drums are fairly ordinary, and the singers are often odd or unappealing, the lyrics are just plain dumb. Nobody in his bands are ever as flashy as Rick Himself, except when he's in YES. So, if you're not a keyboard player, or a keyboard fan, the music may hold little interest for you.

Very correct about his style---Bruford said what interested him about Rick's playing is there's not a lot of blue notes in him---unusual for a lot of players. And his solo's when good are like no other players solo's.

[EJD]

He really did take Yes to the next level, in my mind. And he's a funny, funny bastard. But like many here I'm all set with most of his solo stuff.

[mozo-pg]

He played on Close To The Edge.

[WytchCrypt]

Well, to be honest Wakeman has never been one of my favorite keyboard players and other than a few sections of Journey his solo stuff does nothing for me so it's not that...with Yes though, he really was a quantum leap forward from Tony Kaye. I don't think Yes would have been nearly as big as they became in the 70's without him and it would be hard to imagine CttE or Tales with a keyboardist who didn't want to play synth

[luvyesmusic]

Outside of YES, Rick always seems to select singers who are half a step above Steve Howe if he were a true lead-singer. ;-)

I also like when he plays in a cape. :-)

I love Rick and many ways. Will get back to this after dinner sometime later this evening.

[happytheman]

His long blonde hair?.. Seriously.. he did personify the 70's with his cape / hair etc. didn't he? And a damn good keyboard player to boot! He has so many solo albums I wouldn't begin to know where to rank them.. Still contend his "Excerpt" from Yessongs was his best solo effort.... With that said.. both Criminal Record / White Rock have some nice stuff on them.. and I even like a few selections from Rhapsodies

[arturs]

Sometimes I just need some proggy schlock and bombast, you know? And when that mood hits, nothing scratches the itch better than Rick's solo oeuvre...

[Progbear]

What is the appeal of Rick Wakeman's music?

Beyond Six Wives (which was a superb instrumental prog album, but I think it promised more than Rick was, in the end, able to deliver), there really wasn’t much. Well, his live shows back in the day were apparently quite the flashy visual extravaganza, so he was at least entertaining to watch (though he never really recovered from the King Arthur on Ice debacle, to say nothing of Lisztomania*).

*though Ken Russell must shoulder the lion’s share of the blame for this one. A similar career path as Rick’s: one excellent feature film in Women in Love and lots of cheesy, excessive (yet oddly compelling and entertaining) glop from then on.

[Progbear]

I would say the one thing that tends to drag his work down is his puzzling choice of vocalists. That being said, his material can't be sung by just anyone. It really requires a wide range and an ability to properly phrase the material.

I actually rather liked Gary Pickford-Hopkins (or whatever his name is) and thought he should have been the sole vocalist on Journey and Arthur. Ashley Holt, though...he’s perhaps not as awful as many would have you believe but still, he is...not good.

To me the most remarkable thing about Wakeman is how prolific he's been, averaging almost two albums released per year going back to 1973.

Nobody has mentioned the reason for his prolific nature: apparently A&M completely screwed him over, giving him a pittance in royalties for his big-selling albums. He’s basically been forced to release 2+ albums a year just to keep his head above water.

[Soc Prof]

Generally, when talking about his solo output- not much. He's surprisingly unimaginative as a writer.

I agree...except that it is surprising. Not every great player is a great (or even good) composer.

I do like parts of Six Wives, and the re-recorded version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth has me liking an album that initially failed to impress me.

[rickm]

He took YES to a higher level.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

People like him because he was in a band called Yes. So, the real question here would be "What's the appeal of Yes' music?" and I could not answer that question since I don't find it all that appealing... well... it's better than Genesis and VDGG but that's not saying much. All the other Brit Symph bands are better to my ears

Honestly, Six Wives is a lot more enjoyable to me than any Yes album.

[Oreb]

I enjoy the first three quite a bit. Strong on big, highly melodic prog without ever becoming too challenging or straying too far from pop music.

It was that pop sensibility, matched with the ornate packaging of Journey and Arthur, that made them huge at the time IMO.

[bob_32_116]

I never quite got my head around 1984. Chaka Khan is a great vocalist, but it just seemed like such a total mismatch.

[cavgator]

When Rick consults his spiritual/religious muse, his efforts can be astonishing, particularly on the pipe organ. I never tire of listening to Judas Iscariot, Awaken or his other more ethereal works. I love his Dante Period/Hell piece on Lisztomania as well. These pieces evoke a tragic sadness that captures me. His portraits of evil are indeed dark, while his lighter happier stuff does not evoke the same appeal...

[Oreb]

I never quite got my head around 1984. Chaka Khan is a great vocalist, but it just seemed like such a total mismatch.

Rick's pretty critical of it, but IMO it's a very strong album.

The Tim Rice lyrics are good as well - about the only time in his career (Dave Cousens excepted) that he worked with a good lyricist.

[Man In The Mountain]

He made better solo albums than Patrick Moraz, everyone's favored Yes keyboardist. Rick even made better solo albums than Keith Emerson.

Rick is everyone's favorite keyboard pin cushion, totally undeserved. I think it must have it's roots in Tormato.

[bob_32_116]

Rick is everyone's favorite keyboard pin cushion, totally undeserved. I think it must have it's roots in Tormato.

Is he? I guess it depends on the circles in which you move. I don't think I've ever hard anything but praise for Rick's work in Yes. I would say his reputation was made way before Tormato.

[Jubal]

I love King Arthur. It gets slammed here an awful lot by those who view it retrospectively, instead of through the prism of the times. He could never release something like that today and be taken seriously. Back then, it was entirely appropriate, IMO.

I would say the one thing that tends to drag his work down is his puzzling choice of vocalists. That being said, his material can't be sung by just anyone. It really requires a wide range and an ability to properly phrase the material.

Well said.

[happytheman]

Nobody has mentioned the reason for his prolific nature: apparently A&M completely screwed him over, giving him a pittance in royalties for his big-selling albums. He’s basically been forced to release 2+ albums a year just to keep his head above water.

While this is a shame.. I find it hard to believe his fan base has continued to buy the majority of his releases.. how does he stay above water other than his Yes royalties? I know in his book Just say Yes he was ecstatic when Jon called about the ABWH sessions.. he was one hurting pup at that point financially.. and obviously the Union tour didn't hurt either..

[Fracktured]

I really enjoy Six Wives, Journey, Arthur, No Earthly Connection, White Rock and Criminal Record. I find Judas Iscariot to be perhaps one of the best pieces of prog music written. It's mesmerizing. Much of the rest of his output has little to no interest to me.

[llanwydd]

To try to answer the original question, it seems to me that Wakeman is a musician to Americans and a personality to the British. Most British people could identify him by his voice but hardly any Americans could. To us, his appeal is his music. To them, though, I think it is his television appearances.

[Scrotum Scissor]

To us, his appeal is his music. To them, though, I think it is his television appearances.

Here in mainland Europe, Wakeman's music (i.e. compositions/releases/"works") has been a point of outright ridicule even since the mid-70s. In the annales of musicology, his "approach" - if that's what it forms - is interpreted not as rock but as definite "crossover" antics and aesthetics - a phenomenon which is still loathed within musical academia.

During my decades as a progressive rock fan, I can remember one - 1 - single person who defined himself as an actual fan of Wakeman's compositional "achievements". Still I knew several who admired his style, although his technique and that purpoted "virtuosity" was often described as overrated by many piano majors I spoke with. I particularly remember a trained pianist and art academic I myself was working with in a band during the early 90s, who stated that he really dug Wakeman for his showmanship, sense of energy and ambition, but that the alleged elitist talents of the man were little but a delusion to the uneducated ear. And the guy duly sat down at his rack and demonstrated this by playing and explaining things from Wakeman's discography, never deriding it yet still exposing its trickery and levels of appearance.

Wakeman is still rather entertaining and funny though.

[yamishogun]

To me, Fragile and Close to the Edge are outstanding, but I agree with Wakeman about Tropographical and only listen to "Ritual". I like Going for the One but Tormato, not so much. My problem was on Keys. When I first heard it, I laughed "And here comes Rick Wakeman!" The keys on Keys stick out too much for me, I guess.

But I wasn't aware until this year how funny he is! Can someone link what he said about his DUI? Thanks

[ronmac]

I just watched the last 45 minutes of "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" (1953) on TCM starring an incredibly monotonous Robert Taylor. That movie could really have used Rick's music. I mean that seriously.