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Thread: Yesterday and Today - A 50th Anniversary Tribute To Yes

  1. #26
    Cheers for the story, Dave!
    SymfoZone progressive rock radio show: www.symfozone.com

  2. #27
    I've lost track of where you said this, Squids, but you were talking about different approaches to doing a tribute album. Do you stick closely to the originals or do you try something very different?

    My first response was that I generally enjoy covers that try to do something different, but then I thought about that and decided it's more complicated than that. I'm enjoying Yesterday and Today (I have it playing now), but I think my favourite Yes tribute album remains Tales from Yesterday. That's got some interesting tracks that take less highly regarded Yes songs and does different things with them, like Shadow Gallery's "Release, Release" or the Patrick Moraz and Peter Banks pieces. It's got Steve Howe & Annie Haslam's "Turn of the Century", which sticks pretty closely to the original, but is just done really well. And then it's got something like "Siberian Khatru" by 'Stanley Snail', which sticks closely to the original (and is performed really well), but then does something different in the middle of the piece. Different approaches and I like all of them.

    So, I think I would say I like re-imaginings of tracks that do something different -- other examples might include Stefano Vicarelli's "Mood for a Day" on Tales from the Edge, or Keith Emerson's "Black Dog" on Led Box, or some of the Yes pieces done by the Steve Howe Trio -- and I like pieces that stick closer to the original. However, with the latter, the comparison to the original is more apparent, so you've got to be able to deliver a strong performance.

    And with the latter, it's also about the small differences. We're Yes fans: we've heard the originals countless times. Even small variations get noticed. It just might take a few more listens with the cover version.

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
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  3. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Squids View Post
    That's pretty much my story on that! Would still love to hear the original jam of Cinema though.
    Indeed. I've met one person -- working for, but not in Yes -- who has heard it. Based on his description and some others I've seen, the long piece, "Time", was more than a jam, it was a thought-through piece, but it is just more of the same, it's the same themes, there's not some entirely different section.

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
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  4. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by bondegezou View Post
    I've lost track of where you said this, Squids, but you were talking about different approaches to doing a tribute album. Do you stick closely to the originals or do you try something very different?

    My first response was that I generally enjoy covers that try to do something different, but then I thought about that and decided it's more complicated than that. I'm enjoying Yesterday and Today (I have it playing now), but I think my favourite Yes tribute album remains Tales from Yesterday. That's got some interesting tracks that take less highly regarded Yes songs and does different things with them, like Shadow Gallery's "Release, Release" or the Patrick Moraz and Peter Banks pieces. It's got Steve Howe & Annie Haslam's "Turn of the Century", which sticks pretty closely to the original, but is just done really well. And then it's got something like "Siberian Khatru" by 'Stanley Snail', which sticks closely to the original (and is performed really well), but then does something different in the middle of the piece. Different approaches and I like all of them.

    So, I think I would say I like re-imaginings of tracks that do something different -- other examples might include Stefano Vicarelli's "Mood for a Day" on Tales from the Edge, or Keith Emerson's "Black Dog" on Led Box, or some of the Yes pieces done by the Steve Howe Trio -- and I like pieces that stick closer to the original. However, with the latter, the comparison to the original is more apparent, so you've got to be able to deliver a strong performance.

    And with the latter, it's also about the small differences. We're Yes fans: we've heard the originals countless times. Even small variations get noticed. It just might take a few more listens with the cover version.

    Henry
    I'm with you on cover song approaches, Henry. For that reason, I love Saxlife's "Total Sax Retain." Heck, I even like some of the lounge versions from "Close To The Lounge."

  5. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by roylayer View Post
    Heck, I even like some of the lounge versions from "Close To The Lounge."
    WHY DID NO-ONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS!!?!?!?!?!?!?!

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
    Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/

  6. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by bondegezou View Post
    WHY DID NO-ONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS!!?!?!?!?!?!?!
    LOL. They're not all winners, but I particularly like Owner Of A Lonely Heart, I've Seen All Good People, Wonderous Stories, We Can Fly, and Onward (It's a bluegrass version!). Long Distance Runaround is pretty good too.

  7. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by roylayer View Post
    LOL. They're not all winners, but I particularly like Owner Of A Lonely Heart, I've Seen All Good People, Wonderous Stories, We Can Fly, and Onward (It's a bluegrass version!). Long Distance Runaround is pretty good too.
    A mere four euros! So I got it. (Partly because four euros might be a lot more pounds tomorrow the way things are going...)

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
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  8. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by bondegezou View Post
    I've lost track of where you said this, Squids, but you were talking about different approaches to doing a tribute album. Do you stick closely to the originals or do you try something very different?
    Yeah I went on a rant about it but then deleted it because no one responded and no one even asked! Haha. So I thought maybe it was unnecessary to go on about it. However, since you've asked... here's what my plan is for the series of tribute albums I'm producing.

    First, the project itself is called "Sonic Elements" and this was something that started when I wanted to do tribute albums using the drum tracks I did with famous drummers and my sound/sample library company Sonic Reality. The idea there was to do a Rush tribute using Neil Peart Drums (actual drum tracks I recorded with Rush's producer Nick Raskulinecz and Neil himself), a Pink Floyd tribute using Nick Mason Drums (actual drum tracks I recorded with Nick Mason and the original engineer of Dark Side of the Moon, Alan Parsons) and so on. The premise behind it is that some of the "elements' would be VERY authentic sounding because of the same recording equipment, gear and in some cases the same musician were being re-recorded in a similar way to the original album the song came from. It's almost like we got hold of the multi-tracks and did new tracking over individual parts... except to do that requires license deals or it would illegal to do without an arrangement with the label and band (which is highly unlikely to happen for such a niche business as making Progressive Rock tribute albums).

    The idea was/still is to have a variety of multi-generation musical guests (mostly known from the Prog world) play on the songs and add NEW "elements" to it that wouldn't be like the original. Sometimes there would be alternate arrangements and creative liberties taken and other times it'd be mostly a faithful "cover" respecting the melodies, arrangement and even the sonic qualities of the original but perhaps with a female vocalist instead of a male vocalist or visa versa or some specific guitarist or other musician playing where you'd recognize the blend of their style and the style of the band for something new (ie. like Steve Hackett playing on Cinema... comes off as a blend of something Yes-Genesisy for a minor "twist" to the original).

    In addition to that, the plan was/is to do some experimental original songs with these elements (particularly with the re-arranged drum tracks to other songs because drum parts on their own are copyright free in terms of songwriting). So, starting about 6 years ago Billy Sherwood and I co-wrote a bunch of vocal and instrumental tunes to drum tracks from Neil Peart, Nick Mason, Terry Bozzio, Billy Cobham and others. "Times Gone" and "Trifecta" from the bonus material here are examples of that (and were also part of an EP I did called "XYZ - A Tribute To Rush"... there's a full Rush tribute album coming next year). Most of those songs are predominantly Billy's style (especially with him writing lyrics and his style is very different from my lyric writing style) and he sings them as opposed to me. But, that's just the start. It could possibly expand to include myself and others singing original songs with these various "elements" too.

    However, I'm behind on releasing the Genesis-related ones, Pink Floyd-related (which includes an offshoot separate album with the McBroom Sisters doing female-led Pink Floyd covers including from the time in the late 80s and 90s when they sang with Gilmour's Floyd) and others so this Yes tribute was a nice catalyst for getting the rest of them out there. The Yes covers we recorded were resurrected this year because Fernando and I wanted to show our love and appreciation for Yes on their 50th Anniversary. We actually wouldn't have planned to release it at the same time Billy released his Chris Squire tribute. I would have thought that have been released earlier in the year as I remember him talking about the mixing of it a long time ago and that whole thing. I also didn't know it had a lot of the same people but I'm also not surprised... many of these people are mutual friends. Although I think I was the one who introduced him to Hackett possibly. Well, anyway, it's cool and an honor to do it even at the same time because the year is almost over and someone had to pay tribute to this awesome band and to Chris!

    I understand you like creative covers where a lot is changed. I do too but one has to be very careful when doing that. It can either turn out great or ruin the song. We could have taken more creative liberties on this album I admit. We were quite faithful to the original versions apart from the mix of people who each lend their thing to it (and that alone does make it different). But, there are new things to enjoy about it even if sometimes subtle. It should be enjoyable to most Yes fans as we respected a lot of "Elements" (like me playing an RMI electric piano on Long Distance Runaround... as opposed to some sparkly digital sound some other tribute would do and I personally would hate that.).

    One of the tributes we're doing is the entire Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. There are creative elements in the bonus tracks. But the songs themselves... only embellishment of the original arrangements because man... if someone changed the keyboard solo on In The Cage I would be annoyed. It better be darn good if you're going to mess with perfection! You really gotta know what's ok to change and what you just shouldn't. Kevin Gilbert or Francis Dunner's covers of "Back In NYC" are good examples of how far you can go with it without breaking it. But, that said, Francis sings the same song on this tribute with the full original arrangement (and balls that go along with it). That's not to say there isn't something new to enjoy about each and every one of these tracks. If there wasn't then there would be no point. But, just as songs take slightly different shape when performed live even by the same band, this is what can happen on the Sonic Elements series of tributes. I just go very "close to the edge" for authenticity so it almost feels like some sort of "mash up/remix" (and believe me if I COULD get permission to do this with the actual multi-tracks I would!!!!).
    Last edited by Squids; 11-15-2018 at 06:27 PM.

  9. #34
    Member Top Cat's Avatar
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    Pace yourself Dave, we don't want you to flame out too soon.
    I know you are an energetic and creative person and have a lot of things on the burner, in the oven and on the table.
    I love your work and creativity but you have to shut down from time to time and I worry you aren't taking down time, which can affect your health.
    I know you know this, just wanted to share my thoughts cause I care.
    Soundcloud page: Richard Hermans, musical meanderings https://soundcloud.com/precipice YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@richardhermans4457

  10. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by Top Cat View Post
    Pace yourself Dave, we don't want you to flame out too soon.
    I know you are an energetic and creative person and have a lot of things on the burner, in the oven and on the table.
    I love your work and creativity but you have to shut down from time to time and I worry you aren't taking down time, which can affect your health.
    I know you know this, just wanted to share my thoughts cause I care.
    Oh well thanks man. I appreciate the concern and I have been pushing it to the limit lately just because of the deadlines. After this run it should be back to "normal" (which is still a work-o-holic's normal but this has been a little nuts).

  11. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by roylayer View Post
    LOL. They're not all winners, but I particularly like Owner Of A Lonely Heart, I've Seen All Good People, Wonderous Stories, We Can Fly, and Onward (It's a bluegrass version!). Long Distance Runaround is pretty good too.
    "We Can Fly" didn't work for me, but, yes, I'd pick "I've Seen All Good People" and "Onward" as highlights. "Don't Go" is interesting too.

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
    Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/

  12. #37
    https://www.spreaker.com/user/kevinm...=episode_title

    This is an interesting podcast review of Yesterday and Today. They get a few things wrong like, well, it's Kerzner not Kertzner (ehem haha) and I think one of the reviews got confused with the bonus material (he mentioned the bonus tracks also appearing on Billy's other albums and he also said "the Pink Floyd one" so I think he got confused with the Chris Squire Tribute which includes "Comfortably Numb"... ours does not and none of these bonus tracks appear on the "Prog Collective" so ignore that bit, he's mistaken). The main first reviewer is more accurate and did a very thorough review of every song including the bonus tracks and mentioned everyone who played on it! He was also very efficient about it too. Hats off to him for that! He only missed that there IS information about who played on the bonus tracks on the Bandcamp page. But, perhaps we should have (and still could do) a special downloadable PDF with more info about the bonus tracks. To be honest, I'm so glad people (like this reviewer) are loving the bonus tracks and have the interest to know more about them so... since it's the wonderful world of digital and our own download site we can actually do something like that after the fact! It's on my list. A PDF with more info on the bonus material and also I think we're going to make the special edition bonus tracks also available in regular 16 bit 44.1 (CD) quality waves and mp3 as well. That's not an official announcement of it but just something I would like to do based on the reaction to it.

    Originally the two bonus tracks "Trifecta" and "The Architect II" were intended to be on the CD itself but we ran out of room. Also, the abridged "Turn of the Century" was short because it was initially going to be part of the "Acoustic Medley" but we split it up to give Jon Davison his own trio of songs and we thought Sally and Dave's beautiful TOTC would make a nice segue song elsewhere on the album... and again there wouldn't have been enough room to do the whole song anyway. Granted we could have taken off another song to MAKE room for it that's true (and GFTO is probably one of Fern and my favorite Yes albums as well) but to go BACK and re-record the ENTIRE song and leave off an entire other song is just not realistically something that can be done AND have the album finished in the year they're celebrating their 50th Anniverary (believe me I do this kind of stuff all the time and that's why the other tribute albums aren't out after 6 years in production on and off... time to wrap it up and get it out there and we can't do EVERY song we'd want to do.).

    Another critical point they make, and it's a darn fair one, is that it's a 50th Anniversary Tribute to Yes but we only span 26 years instead of the full 50. I mean, we get "POINTS" for going back to the first Yes album 50 years ago and do TWO covers of that era on there (that's really where the "going back 50 years" aspect comes from) but we stop at Big Generator. So... you may ask... WHY? Why stop there? Well... ok, I'll tell you. First, there's only so much room on a CD to do a tribute and you have to pick and choose the best songs that honor the band. That's tough with a band like Yes, especially because some of their albums like Close To The Edge or Relayer only had THREE songs on it, three rather long songs. The best way to get that onto one tribute CD is to do some medleys and segues (and on the bonus disc we even did some mash ups that reference the hits... instead of doing Roundabout and Owner which some people appreciated... and even some of the later stuff is a quick Easter egg head nod... like "Open Your Eyes" for example).

    The other reason is that this is a very personal Yes tribute from Fernando and I. My favorite Yes music is from The Yes Album to Big Generator. That's what I grew up listening to. His favorite era goes back further to the first Yes album (and he produced those two songs and played most of the instruments with those singers) and he goes up to Drama I think but he's not as into the Rabin-era (so I was the one who produced the Rabin-era tunes on this as I love that stuff). We both, of course, love all the 70s Yes albums. After Big Generator for me it's hit and miss. I really like Mind Drive but that's another long one. I've actually never heard TALK if you can believe it. I tried to buy it a few times but it's hard to find. Weird. I need to give it a listen since I do dig the Rabin-era stuff. I think Billy and I started a cover of "The More We Live" which he co-wrote for UNION I believe. But, it never got finished, at least our version of it, and he did a version of it I believe on the Squire tribute so there you go. This is our reason or excuse for not going past Big Generator. Should we have? Yes. Or Maybe I should say. Haha. If we had room on two CDs I think there would have been more of a reason to do it (and could have put our original songs on CD as well).

    If the album does really well (and so far it appears to be successful) there's always a chance we can do a part 2 going past Big Generator into the albums from then to Heaven & Earth. It's not on the top of my wish list in terms of the labor of love factor but it'd be a fun challenge to go through their post Big Generator albums and pick the best ones to give it our treatment... in fact, there may even be more room for changes (no pun intended) such as, ironically, instead of making something sound more "modern" we could actually make it sound more "vintage/classic 70s". We actually did that by adding Mellotron and lap steel to "Changes" giving it a bit of Wakeman/Howe essence that some people picked up on (the first reviewer in this podcast seemed to almost pick up on that subtle but fun injection... he sited a "Howe-esque" element to it at least). So, if we did a part 2 I guess we could take some of the 80s and 90s production and make it sound more like Close To The Edge production using Hammonds, Minimoogs, Mellotrons and RMI with Leslie guitar and the like. That sounds like a fun project. I'd also welcome anyone else to do it! Go for it. Go for the ONE! We've at least made this statement of love and appreciation for the Yes eras we're personally into the most.

    I'm already back to working on my own songs and about to release a band album with "In Continuum" (ironically featuring a lot from Jon Davison who guests on it). Then we have tributes to do for Genesis (it's their 50th next year!) and Rush and others. It's a side project to our own original works but it's a fun thing to do, paying homage and respect to the artists who influenced us. It's even more fun to do it WITH people from the band or extended family. That's part of the whole series and even though these reviewers made it sound like we're the first to do that we're really not. Billy has been doing that for quite some time so I have to give credit where credit is due. He is the KING of the Prog rolodex special guests and has had all sorts of Yes men on his albums (including the Squire tribute which they haven't yet reviewed so... they'll find out when they review it that he too has a lot of Yes people on his as well... like TK, Jay and Jon for example). I've never talked to him in detail about his philosophy regarding that except that I know he and the label he works with apparently like to do that and have a field day with it. Fun!

    As for me, I like to do these tributes with a "fantasy band" element to it and almost a "mash up/remix" quality to it (but without the benefit or hassle of trying to work with the original multi-tracks... because I'm a sound designer who owns a sampling company and an engineer myself who is friends with a lot of the guys who made those albums, it's a fun challenge to recreate those recordings and then have the rights to do what I want with them creatively). So, within that it makes sense to bring in some of the guys from the band itself. In the case of Yes, I guess there's something fresh and fun for them as well to play these same songs with other people (whether it's me, Fernando or Steve Hackett, Marco Minnemann, Robert Berry, District 97). For one thing, they can feel the love and appreciation for them from us. It's an interesting way to honor them. To play "Machine Messiah" WITH Geoff Downes... he's mostly doing us a solid by guesting on it BUT I imagine it's also a good feeling for him to know how much we care about him and his brilliant work on Drama. He's also a fan of SOC and my solo albums. So he was happy to do it. No one could be happier than me though. I play keyboards because of guys like Geoff Downes, Tony Banks, Rick Wakeman, Richard Wright... so the honor is still mostly mine (and Fern's because he feels the same way).

    Anyway... just sharing with you guys. Listen to the podcast if you want an objective play by play opinion on the album. I don't know these two guys. I guess they've been doing Yes podcasts for quite some time. I think that's great for Yes fans that they do this and also what Henry does. Not every band has people dedicated to them like that!
    Last edited by Squids; 11-16-2018 at 10:43 PM.

  13. #38
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Dave, I know this is probably trying to look a bit too far into the future right now, but do you think you'll have any participation from members of Rush on a Rush tribute album? And who else could you see contributing (Fernando, obviously!)?

  14. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    Dave, I know this is probably trying to look a bit too far into the future right now, but do you think you'll have any participation from members of Rush on a Rush tribute album? And who else could you see contributing (Fernando, obviously!)?
    Well, 1/3 of Rush is already on it because I produced Neil Peart Drums with Sonic Reality. That's him actually playing his kit as recorded by Rush's producer Nick Raskulinecz. He's the only drummer on it besides Marco Minnemann. Now, ironically Marco works with Alex Lifeson and I do know both Alex and Geddy to a certain extent. BUT... since Rush is a smaller "family tree" of musicians, basically just the trio, and with Neil's retirement they're "on hold"... I don't know how much they'd want to "play Rush" with us per se. Maybe just a little bit but so far no the other guys aren't on it. The closest would be fellow Canadian musician/singer Rik Emmett from Triumph who sings "Red Barchetta". Here's a clip: https://soundcloud.com/sonicelements...re-se-teaser-2

  15. #40
    Quote Originally Posted by Squids View Post
    His favorite era goes back further to the first Yes album (and he produced those two songs and played most of the instruments with those singers) and he goes up to Drama I think but he's not as into the Rabin-era (so I was the one who produced the Rabin-era tunes on this as I love that stuff).
    Interesting that you mention this, my favorites from the album are Cinema, Changes and I'm Running, maybe because you don't typically hear these with Yes covers. I was also struck by how great Jon Davison sounds in the Acoustic Medley, I think that format suits him very well.
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  16. #41
    Quote Originally Posted by noisynoise View Post
    Interesting that you mention this, my favorites from the album are Cinema, Changes and I'm Running, maybe because you don't typically hear these with Yes covers. I was also struck by how great Jon Davison sounds in the Acoustic Medley, I think that format suits him very well.
    Thanks Noisy! Yeah I love all the classic Yes albums of the 70s but I guess, being a keyboard player, those early 80s albums from Yes and Genesis are awesome to me. Drama and 90125 especially. Big Generator to a lesser extent as everything made after 1983 isn't as lush or gritty as early 80s production. I forget who's idea it was to do "I'm Running". I think it might have been Billy 6 years ago who suggested it. Or maybe it was me thumbing through the album and thinking it was an under-rated tune. I actually don't remember. What happened with this is that I had been working on other covers with Billy in 2011 and since he had done so many things with Yes we did a few things including Yours Is No Disgrace with Tony Kaye just because it would be fun to work with him. Then, this year Fernando and I were talking and said "someone needs to do a tribute to Yes on their 50th Anniversary!" and even though we had heard about Billy's specific Chris Squire tribute (to be honest, for some reason I thought that was going to be more of his solo stuff than as many Yes tunes as it has... I wasn't in touch with Billy about any details whatsoever so it was all a surprise to me that it even had some of the same people like Sonja and Hackett etc.), we didn't know of any straight up Yes tribute albums being made this year. We suggested it to our label partners who happen to be the managers of Yes. They LOVED the idea so we did a combination of newly recorded tracks along with these tracks I started with Billy 6 years ago... and that includes those three 80s Yes tunes from the "Rabin-era". Now that Billy is an official member of Yes (Official) and there's that whole ARW Yes, it probably wouldn't have happened that I'd be getting him to do the Rabin-era stuff. So, it was just lucky that it was done at a different time I guess. Great that all of this finally got released and just in time to celebrate their 50th! And also great to respect that period of the band which was significant to their success (even though we didn't do "Owner of a Lonely Heart").

    I'll tell you a funny little story though. In 2005 I had the chance to perform with Jon Anderson with Nick D'Virgilio, Stan Cotey (of Giraffe), Mark Hornsby and myself backing him up along with guys from Earth, Wind & Fire. I had a full horn section there so I suggested that we do "Owner" with them. We also did "Long Distance Runaround". But, when we were going to do a sound check which was our only chance to rehearse just one run through a certain "guitar hero" who shall go un-named took up ALLLLL of the sound check time to "jam" with his band. So, without ANY rehearsal whatsoever we dropped "Owner" (too many people on stage to screw it up... even though I'm sure it would have been darn good anyway... just didn't want a train wreck). I did, however, go ahead and perform Long Distance with JA with no rehearsal because I wasn't going to completely give up the chance. Here's a clip:

    Last edited by Squids; 11-17-2018 at 03:49 PM.

  17. #42
    FWIW, I'm Running is one of my favorites on the tribute album too.

  18. #43
    Here's a review from a Yes fan who apparently thinks the tribute is from Yes themselves... even though the chances of YES Official doing "I'm Running" or "Changes" or "Cinema" or "Sweetness" or "Yesterday and Today" from the first album are about as slim as it gets! Haha. I'm glad he enjoyed it regardless.


  19. #44
    I enjoyed some of this disc A LOT. The Hackett contribution is stunning. A couple of bits miss the mark, but on the whole it's well worth investigating.

    Various thoughts here: http://www.realgonerocks.com/2018/11...ribute-to-yes/

  20. #45
    Quote Originally Posted by bondegezou View Post
    I've lost track of where you said this, Squids, but you were talking about different approaches to doing a tribute album. Do you stick closely to the originals or do you try something very different?

    My first response was that I generally enjoy covers that try to do something different, but then I thought about that and decided it's more complicated than that. I'm enjoying Yesterday and Today (I have it playing now), but I think my favourite Yes tribute album remains Tales from Yesterday. That's got some interesting tracks that take less highly regarded Yes songs and does different things with them, like Shadow Gallery's "Release, Release" or the Patrick Moraz and Peter Banks pieces. It's got Steve Howe & Annie Haslam's "Turn of the Century", which sticks pretty closely to the original, but is just done really well. And then it's got something like "Siberian Khatru" by 'Stanley Snail', which sticks closely to the original (and is performed really well), but then does something different in the middle of the piece. Different approaches and I like all of them.

    So, I think I would say I like re-imaginings of tracks that do something different -- other examples might include Stefano Vicarelli's "Mood for a Day" on Tales from the Edge, or Keith Emerson's "Black Dog" on Led Box, or some of the Yes pieces done by the Steve Howe Trio -- and I like pieces that stick closer to the original. However, with the latter, the comparison to the original is more apparent, so you've got to be able to deliver a strong performance.

    And with the latter, it's also about the small differences. We're Yes fans: we've heard the originals countless times. Even small variations get noticed. It just might take a few more listens with the cover version.

    Henry
    I enjoyed Tales From Yesterday as well, I'm not sure which of these two tributes I prefer. I love the version of Astral Traveler on the former.
    I really enjoyed that middle section of Siberian Khatru on Tales from Yesterday. That's taken from Bruford's tune: The Sahara of Snow. I thought that was a great add-in there.

    I always enjoyed the way Yes would re-arrange their songs a bit on stage. The acoustic version of Long Distance, the use of the EDS 1275 instead of the acoustic guitar on And You And I, the Big Medley.

    I was very excited when ARW announced their first tour and talked about how they were going to re-arrange all of the songs. I thought the alternate take on Awaken was a nice change, most of the other tunes didn't seem so re-arranged to me. Except for AY&I, which was not my favorite version of that song.

    The official Yes seems pretty confident in their view that audiences want to hear the records reproduced on stage in a way that sounds very close to the record. I do appreciate the effort by Downes to incorporate a lot of the original keyboard sounds, he does a great job with that. But I have skipped the last couple official Yes tours as I'd prefer to hear some variations on the arrangements. Otherwise I can just play the record at home. Also, it's hard to re-produce the original record when the original lead vocalist is not there. That's not a criticism of the new singer, he does a very good job. But is is not the same voice.

  21. #46
    Quote Originally Posted by Squids View Post
    Yeah I went on a rant about it but then deleted it because no one responded and no one even asked! Haha. So I thought maybe it was unnecessary to go on about it. However, since you've asked... here's what my plan is for the series of tribute albums I'm producing.
    My question was there was only intended rhetorically! But, then, I did want to know all that, so thanks. :-)

    Have been listening to Yesterday and Today on headphones, which allows us to appreciate the details, the subtle variations from the original tracks. Loving Fernando's banjo on "I'm Running", for instance.

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
    Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/

  22. #47
    Quote Originally Posted by bondegezou View Post
    My question was there was only intended rhetorically! But, then, I did want to know all that, so thanks. :-)

    Have been listening to Yesterday and Today on headphones, which allows us to appreciate the details, the subtle variations from the original tracks. Loving Fernando's banjo on "I'm Running", for instance.

    Henry
    Thanks Henry. I liked the Latin percussion he did on that track as well. It's funny, Fern and I shared the Howe-era stuff work-wise, splitting it up, but he took on the Banks-era on his own and I was supposed to take on the Rabin-era on my own but I asked him if he'd do some stuff for "I'm Running" and when he, being Cuban, brought out the percussion I just smiled. I didn't even think of that but it made sense. We probably could have gone further with that concept and played around with the track more (although could have gone potentially too hokey and gimmicky as well which I don't like). I do like how it came out and we didn't have forever to try a million things. In fact, I have to say, if it weren't everyone being extremely efficient with their sessions (and this is a lot of people) we wouldn't have been able to do this in time. It was a great team effort.

  23. #48
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    Since I gave this to myself for Christmas, I gave it a first spin today. Boy this is good stuff! So far, the one-two punch of "Cinema" and "Changes" are my favorites.
    "Normal is just the average of extremes" - Gary Lessor

  24. #49
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    Great version of YIND. That alone is worth the cost
    I like hearing the drums up in the mix and great sound choices, production and playing

  25. #50
    Member SunshipVoyager1976's Avatar
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    Those Sound cloud clips are exceptionally well edited and presented, and have certainly made me decide to pull the trigger on this, despite tribute albums not usually being in my wheelhouse. Nicely done!

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