Barring 69 Love Songs, which is a special case, I think this is the only album I've bought three times. I've already told the story of the first two times, on cassette and LP, but this is the 2004 CD re-issue with ten extra tracks.
In a Melody Maker interview feature with Jon Anderson — dated 27 September 1980, after Jon had left Yes — Allan Jones wrote:
Anderson began to relax; he was certainly more humorous, less intense than I'd expected. He started talking about some songs that he'd written on the last Yes tour with Rick Wakeman. He seemed to relish the fact that they'd been considered too off the wall for Yes: one had been about a dentist, another had been a reworking of Randy Newman's Rider in the Rain, written from the viewpoint of the horse. I could scarcely believe this kind of banter, began to warm to him.
When I ordered the album from Amazon, I hoped that some of the extra tracks might include these Anderson/Wakeman compositions. Sadly not. As with Going for the One, the extra tracks are largely rubbish, especially Money with its ugly tax-exile sentiments. The half-decent ones are the early versions of Some are Born and Days, which eventually turned up on Jon Anderson's 1980 solo album, and the orchestral track of Onward on which none of the members of Yes perform.
As for the album itself, well I stand by my earlier comments, and still find a lot to like in it. The sleeve notes are almost apologetic in offering explanations for why this may not be top-flight Yes, but it still has it moments. I think it is top flight. It has its own distinct character — as any good album should have — and in my book it's way better than Fragile where everyone in the band has to have their own solo spots.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
|
Comments