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Thread: Was "Soon" composed by Vangelis?

  1. #1
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    Was "Soon" composed by Vangelis?

    Despite having read Chris Welch's and Aymeric Leroy's books on Yes, I don't remember suggestions that Vangelis could have been the composer of "Soon", the final section of "The Gates of Delirium".

    However, by reading an obituary written by Paul Wiffen, I stumbled upon this:

    "In 1974, Rick Wakeman quit Yes over the Tales From Topographic Oceans album and tour, and so Yes needed a new keyboard player. Jon Anderson and his record company boss Phil Carson had heard about this Greek keyboard wizard in Paris but no-one could give them anything but the address of his home/studio, so they jumped on a plane to Paris and took a taxi to the address they had. A beautiful girl opened the door to them and waved them in when they said the name Vangelis. As they walked to the pile of keyboards in the distance, an arrow flew across the room and embedded itself in a bullseye target next to them.

    “Is he trying to kill us?” asked Jon Anderson. Phil Carson peered at the perfectly placed arrow and replied, “I think if he wanted to kill us, we would be dead already!”

    In fact, archery was one of Vangelis’ favourite hobbies and he almost represented Greece in the Olympics when he was a teenager. In every studio where Vangelis worked he would put a target so that when he was struggling to come up with the right melody, he would loose off a few arrows to help him focus.

    After the initial fright they were soon able to persuade him to come to London to try out with Yes for a few weeks and Phil Carson agreed that they would ship all of Vangelis' keyboards to London and arrange his visa status.

    Things were going well in rehearsal and a piece emerged which Yes fans often refer to as 'Soon' (the final quiet section of 'Gates Of Delirium' from Relayer) which featured mainly Vangelis’ keyboards over which Jon Anderson’s angelic vocals and Steve Howe’s slide guitar (bathed in echo) soar in almost painful beauty. Vangelis was in and plans started to be made. But then someone mentioned touring and Vangelis was adamant that he would never tour again. So within minutes Vangelis was out of the band he had just joined!

    Vangelis didn’t care, he and his keyboards were legally in London where he had tried to come 10 years before with Aphrodite’s Child. He quickly made a deal to give Yes the copyright on ‘Soon’ in exchange for not recouping the costs of bringing him and all his equipment to London and the visa charges, plus a gentleman’s agreement that Jon would sing one song on Vangelis' next solo album (presaging an extraordinarily successful partnership)."

    https://www.soundonsound.com/news/va...-2022-obituary

    Can any of the Yes scholars onboard confirm this story?

  2. #2
    I have never heard that story but it sounds very plausible.
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  3. #3
    Member lazland's Avatar
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    This is the first I have heard of this, but I do agree it sounds very plausible, and it would be interesting to see if there are any other pieces of evidence to support it.
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  4. #4
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    "Soon" really does sound like it could be a Vangelis melody. Sounds plausible to me, too. (And I'm one of those who has always rejected the "Vangelis played on Olias" theory out of hand.)
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    Member Koreabruce's Avatar
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    This is quite interesting! I agree that the chord structure is very much in a Vangelis-like musical vein. It could also be that the melody was something Jon Anderson improvised along with the Greek keyboardist's improvisations. Clearly, it would be useful to hear such a story corroborated.

  6. #6
    It isn't impossible. The part that I struggle with is how it remained completely secret. I've read Vangelis bios, interviews, etc.. Never came up once, even after Anderson pissed off Vangelis in the 90's/00's. Yielding a copyright is one thing, allowing yourself to be completely removed from the writing credits is another. Certainly they made sure he was credited roughly a decade later with the ABWH tune Let's Pretend.

    I can totally see them working on it, and I can see him perhaps influencing the ultimate arrangement of the song. But I suspect the core song still came from Anderson with Howe.

    Just my $0.02. I could be totally wrong.
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    Member yesman1955's Avatar
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    Too bad he's not around to confirm or deny the story officially.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by yesman1955 View Post
    Too bad he's not around to confirm or deny the story officially.
    Jon Anderson is around.
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  9. #9
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by battema View Post
    Never came up once, even after Anderson pissed off Vangelis in the 90's/00's.
    Jon pissed off one of his musical partners? C'mon. Who's gonna believe that?

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    So what did Patrick Moraz get in exchange for him not being given a writing credit on Awaken? Free shipping of his keyboards back to Switzerland? [emoji6]

    Edit: Oh no wait, they were already in Switzerland!

    I was just reading over on Yesfans how during the recording of The Ladder Chris, Billy & Alan wanted to get rid of Igor but he was 'Jon's man' and they couldn't do anything about it. It's non stop drama with the Yes keyboardists.
    Last edited by Steve983; 06-05-2022 at 01:17 PM.

  11. #11
    It makes me wonder how he expected to be in the band without touring, but I guess stranger things have happened.

  12. #12
    Member dropforge's Avatar
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    Ditto on the plausible part. Ditto on "I've never heard this one before"!

  13. #13
    Man of repute progmatist's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by battema View Post
    It isn't impossible. The part that I struggle with is how it remained completely secret. I've read Vangelis bios, interviews, etc.. Never came up once, even after Anderson pissed off Vangelis in the 90's/00's. Yielding a copyright is one thing, allowing yourself to be completely removed from the writing credits is another. Certainly they made sure he was credited roughly a decade later with the ABWH tune Let's Pretend.

    I can totally see them working on it, and I can see him perhaps influencing the ultimate arrangement of the song. But I suspect the core song still came from Anderson with Howe.

    Just my $0.02. I could be totally wrong.
    Vangelis may have simply taken personal pride in knowing his music was being performed by one of the biggest bands at the time.
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  14. #14
    Even if he didn't write the basic structure, any keyboard he added would have a Vangelis texture to it, and new boy Patrick Moraz during the recording would be encouraged to reproduce that sound.

    "Patrick, can you make it more...Greek?"

  15. #15
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Halmyre View Post
    "Patrick, can you make it more...Greek?"
    "Sure, I'll play it on my Fender Rhodes."
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  16. #16
    Member gearHed289's Avatar
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    Definitely a cool story, especially the arrow part.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Triscuits View Post
    "Sure, I'll play it on my Fender Rhodes."
    NOOOO!!!

  17. #17
    Member Hunchentootz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Koreabruce View Post
    This is quite interesting! I agree that the chord structure is very much in a Vangelis-like musical vein. It could also be that the melody was something Jon Anderson improvised along with the Greek keyboardist's improvisations. Clearly, it would be useful to hear such a story corroborated.
    I'm very upset you didnt continue the use of 'plausible' in your reply - you ruined the thread! Just kidding... hehe.
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  18. #18
    Member Digital_Man's Avatar
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    I don't see why anyone would make it up but maybe the story has become exaggerated over time. Who knows.
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  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve983 View Post
    It's non stop drama with the Yes keyboardists.
    technically, only with Geoff Downes

  20. #20
    I always thought that the advance from RCA paid for Nemo Studios? Anyway, I also thought Vangelis composed a lot of Olias too
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  21. #21
    “Sooooooooooooooo, oh, Souvlaki…………”

  22. #22
    I have never heard this before. It's plausible. It's plausible that Vangelis had some small input on a tune Anderson brought to the band, but this got exaggerated in the telling of a story. It's plausible that this is a misunderstanding, a garbled anecdote. How intriguing...
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  23. #23
    Member Koreabruce's Avatar
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    The questionable bit is that I'd never ever heard of this until now... after, what, 48 years?! Still, it is not without interest. Someone should ask Jon... or Steve.

  24. #24
    It's an interesting discussion, but with little evidence at our disposal. The only thing I can say from reading/listening all the various interviews I've consulted, is that it's one bit of music that I've never heard any Yes member claim credit for, despite it being so popular. For instance the ballad at the end of "Ritual" is supposedy by White (who also plays uncredited piano on it), but Anderson, for instance, has never to my knowledge clearly claimed to have come up with the music. Some have noted similarities with the title song from the film "The Way We Were", which was in the public consciousness in the months prior. The story as told is plausible - it is something that technically could have happened, although as some have noted it's strange that it never emerged before. Now, it's a beautiful melody and moving lyric, but the arrangement also plays a big part (not to mention what comes before it in "The Gates of Delirium" as scene-setting), so it would be interesting is, for example, Moraz's beautiful keyboard textures were inspired by Vangelis' arrangement of that section. We know recordings were made during the writing sessions, as we have a working demo of "Sound Chaser" on the latest reissue of "Relayer" (supposedly the one recorded just after Moraz had spontaneously come up with the intro), there are probably more, including with Vangelis as it's difficult to imagine that the recording set-up was not in place until Moraz joined. Supposedly Eddie Offord's then-assistant Genaro Ruppo has a lot of tapes from his period working with the band. It would be great to finally hear some more of those.
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  25. #25
    Once I read this story it made totall sense
    especially because of the parralels and similarities to So Long a go So Clear

    The parts that sound odd was why did they bother to fly to Paris especcially to recruit Vangelis who was no so well known those days
    and
    They had him shipp hi entire studio and start reheasing bu only in the middle of reheasing they raise the iisue of touring
    that sounds like nonsese
    But regarding to Soon being written by Vangelis - that seems likley

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