Make it Easy is even worse in that respect. Very exciting proggy intro to a really mediocre tune...
Make it Easy is even worse in that respect. Very exciting proggy intro to a really mediocre tune...
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For me, the chorus sinks this one. It's weak as a day old kitten.
I always liked Our Song. It does have some of the old YES vibe. Lots of good stuff on this record though, even the hit single! Leave It ranks pretty low for me...
^^ "City of Love", on the other hand, is a real dog.
I can recall listening to Anderson introduce the band members during a show from the TALK tour.............1994.
When it came time to introduce Rabin, Anderson said that............"he gave us our second Roundabout".
It was made clear at that point that Anderson did indeed enjoy the attention and the royalties of OOALH.
And, although I have never disliked Rabin, I certainly prefer the song-writing of the more traditional members of YES.
Don't know who produced this but this isn't the only time Camron has sampled some prog. He used part of Wakeman's "Lancelot and the Black Knight" on some other song.
Most obscure prog rap sample I can think of is "Genesis" by Prodigy, which seems to produce the Seconds Out version of Firth of Fifth
I was never big on Leave It, even though I did like the intro. It could Happen-same thing. My favs are: Changes, Hold On, My song, and Hearts.
I heard OOALH in Trader Joes yesterday...
"Always ready with the ray of sunshine"
City Of Love was one of those songs that sounded much better onstage, especially that wicked version that's on 9012Live, where Rabin does that crazy whammy bar noise guitar solo at the end.
The thing about 90125 that still bugs me is how processed most of the album sounds, if you know what I mean. I've said this a few times before, but a lot of the songs, like Owner Of A Lonely Heart, City Of Love, Leave It, etc sound like they were assembled inside a computer, rather than tracked by a band playing live in the studio. You sometimes hear wisecracks about how "The band weren't even in the studio at the same time when the record was being made" (or even "The band weren't even all on the same continent when this album was made"), and I think this record is a perfect example of why anyone would care about such things. It just sounds so "pieced together". I even remember Rabin complaining when he was interviewed in Guitar Player about how he wanted more of the "band" sound that you hear on Cinema (which is weird because Big Generator, the record he supposedly produced, also has that "pieced together inside the computer" vibe).
That's why I think the live versions of those songs frequently sound better, because they actually sound like all five of them (or six, if you count the auxiliary keyboardist under the stage) are in the same room, playing together, because you know that's exactly what they're doing.
I don't know under what circumstances these things happen, but apparently there's a lot of prog samples in rap these days, and some of them are off pretty obscure records. I remember Steve Feigenbaum saying that there was some rapper who sampled a track off Two Rainbows Daily by Hugh Hopper and Alan Gowen. From what I gather, Hugh's share of the royalties basically paid his hospital bills the last couple years of his life. And I recall there's another hip-hop thing with a FM sample in it.
Actually, if we're going to talk about the "great intro/mediocre song" thing, I think Behind The Lines by Genesis takes the cake there. I think Changes, Miracle Of Life and Make It Easy are all far superior songs to Behind The Lines, which just sounds to me like one of Phil's lame pop ballads, which Banks and Rutherford beefed up with a couple interesting instrumental bits.
Though, just to play devil's advocate for a second, both Rabin and Horn have gone on record (in Chris Welch's Yes biography, for example) as saying that the vast majority of 90125 is the band playing live in the studio. They really were that tight, but I guess it's 80s mania for all-things digital, pioneered by the likes of Horn, that give it that processed sheen.
The bit where Anderson sings "no, no regrets at all," he almost SOUNDS like Dio. The rest of the time he's doing that unconvincing "I'm the most badass pixie-voiced singer you'll ever hear" thing (see also "Rock Gives Courage").
"Hearts" actually does sound like a JA piece, come to think of it. I guess I never thought of it that way because Rabin sings the first verse. But even then Rabin's singing in Anderson-ese ("Set your heart, sail down the river"). You know what's funny about "Hearts".. Rabin actually tried to create a soulful melody outside the tuned percussion melody line. When JA sang it for "Change We Must," he just duplicated the tuned percussion melody line (hear for yourself below). I really have to give Rabin a lot of credit for going outside the box when he wanted to.
Last edited by ThomasKDye; 10-21-2015 at 11:01 PM.
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you may recall how owner used to open with a pretty hip guitar intro, the interesting thing about that intro was that it was actually amputated from the early version of our song. really would have been a much better intro than that fade in.
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I played a compilation of all the YesWest stuff while driving last week, I have to say that I like it even less than I did before.
It's deliberate! The difference between that AM sounding, reverb-swamped intro and the clean sound of the rest of the song was intentional.
I have to say I'm not fond of some of the keyboard sounds on 'Our Song' (a bit dated IMHO) but I never had any problem with the track itself. There's only one weak link on here and that's 'City Of Love' IMHO.
There's all sorts of inventive touches on almost every song which, to me, link it to the old Yes. I remember being surprised by those pretty cliched 'arena rock' guitar licks at the beginning of 'Hold On' (a long, long way from Steve Howe) but the song has that terrific vocal bridge.
Our Song is a very, very minor ditty in Yes' canon, but still quite an enjoyable tune. Some weeks ago I pulled out 90125 after ages and really enjoyed the experience. I could barely remember what City of Love and Hearts sounded like, still don't to be honest, but Leave It and It Could Happen are much better than I remembered. Great tunes, great production values, great tracks IMO.
As for the prog intro segued by mediocre tunes pattern (e.g., Changes, The Miracle of Life, and Make it Easy), I would add the Endless Dream suite that appears in Talk. Very nice, evolved intro followed by absolutely nothing. IMO, again.
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