There is an excellent article on the history and current status of progressive music in the January issue of Guitar World (the one with Courtney Love on the cover)
Since I made it this morning for Elinor and Jan using sections of Dean's original, reformatted and resized appropriate to the purpose, I can assure you it's one of a kind. If you have any specific requests or questions, float'em my way off list.
Yes story book update.
There has been some major changes to the forthcoming book by Chris Welch "Close to the edge-The Story of Yes".
This was originally going to be available in paperback, but it has now been decided that it will be in Hardback only format.
The price (UK/Europe) has risen from 9.99 (pounds) to 17.99 pounds. That will be the RRP, usual discounts apply if purchased via Dave McMann/L.I.B.S.
The publication date has changed from 12th Jan' to 14th of April.
This book will be on sale in the USA, unfortunately I do not know the US price.
The ISBN is unchanged: 0.7119.6930.2
Regards.
L.S.M for D McMann
http://homepages.enterprise.net/davemcmann/index/Downloads.html
"Mr. Banks advised he has a new retrospective CD coming out in Feb/March. The compilation entitlted, "Can I Play You Something?", features music from 1964 to 1968, the pre-Yes days. Chris Squire is on some of the tracks. ....."
A one-year subscripition to Music News Network is $20 in the U
S, $27 in Canada/Mexico; $36 elsewhere, payble to Music News Network - P. O. Box 21531, Tampa, FL 33622-1531 USA.
Getting back to talking about Yes. I just got the Music News Network newsletter, and the June 1998 Yestival video is going to be mailed out "within the next month" to those who have already ordered it.
The article says: "The video clocks in at about four hours and contains all interviews and performances with Steve Howe, Peter Banks, Geoff Downes, Alan White, Bill Sherwood and Chris Squire, in their entirety."
The cost, inc. S&H, is $35, payable to Music News Network. Send to: MNN, P. O. Box 21531, Tampa, FL 33622-1531. It'll take about 4 weeks (so it says) for delivery.
Got a Yes website? The Yes Webmaster Multimedia Shop has stuff fer you.
A couple of people have asked me for the URL of that Talk show which I mentioned (it was posted to a.m.y but never here.) It's only the first 40 minutes or so of the show and it's mono, but it does sound very good, probably better overall than the Binghamton or Canandaigua boots. The URL is http://sanford.bgroup.org/shazam/ and looking at it again, it looks like the rest of the show is up now.
I always wondered what it would be like to live in a Yes album cover, all those delicately melted rocks and floating trees and such. Any ole way, I found this architectural website where they feature Roger Dean's "Home for Life", and well, it's right out of his artwork, and you can definitely see where it might be an expansion of his brother Martyn's pod furniture. Can you
say pod home? Frodo be gone and we be here now. If you want to take a look go here:
http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/jewelion/tec.htm
or click here:
Roger Dean's Tectonic House
*********************************
From: Henry Potts [potts@icrf.icnet.uk] - Jan 15
I have some photos of the Home for Life exhibition mock-up and further Dean-related links at http://www.bondegezou.demon.co.uk/deanglst.htm.
I just wanted to pass this along... Yes will start recording their new album this Sunday the 17th in Vancouver.
Liquid Tension Experiment (Tony Levin, Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess) are doing several live dates. These may be the only dates the band will ever do. If you are fortunate enough to be near one of the cities they are playing, by all means, make the show. The tour dates are up at Music Street Journal.
I came across something of an oddity in the second-hand shop the other day in the form of an album by Demis Roussos. Perhaps not a name familiar to you in North America, but in the UK we know of Roussos for making rather cheesy 'easy listening'. However, as it happens, Roussos began his career back in a Greek prog band called Aphrodite's Child with one E. Papathanassiou, also known as Vangelis, and they have gone on working together on and off throughout their careers.
What I found was The Phenomenon: 1968-1998, a 2CD collection of all of his solo and Aphrodite's Child singles. There's also a 4CD boxset with rarities, live tracks etc. Aware of the Vangelis link, I had a look at the album and was surprised by two releases from the early '80s produced by Vangelis and both recorded at the Nemo studios in London. "Race to the End", released 16 Mar 81, is credited to Vangelis and Jon Anderson, while "Lament", released 28 Feb 82, is credited to Anderson alone.
I thought these might be covers of Jon & Vangelis material, but neither is familiar to me and I couldn't find any songs with similar titles in a quick browse through the Yescography website. They appear to be originals.
The verse of "Race to the End" uses the "Chariots of Fire" theme, so I would guess that Anderson's contribution is the lyrics. These do seem somewhat Andersonic. "Lament" is typical of Anderson's solo work of the period musically, but nothing outstanding. It sounds like Anderson wrote it for his own voice and Roussos does his best to imitate Jon; the result is hard to describe.
No details are given as to who performs the pieces. I would guess that Vangelis did the music given that he produces. I don't hear anything of Anderson -- there's mainly just Roussos singing, plus some very deep and un-Jon-like backing vocals on "Lament".
************************
From Roy Derousse [relayer@iname.com] - Feb. 1
These 3 songs were co-written by Jon Anderson for the album Demi: Race to the End, Lament, Song for the Free. Here is some more info from Mike Martin on the "Freedom of Running, Freedom To Fly (Race to the End)" single:
===
"Here is the info from the packet, which consists of a 7" 45 rpm and a folded blue info/lyric sheet on heavy stock that was wrapped around the single:
DEMIS ROUSSOS
Is a Singer!
Demis Roussos was one of the victims of an international incident in which he and forty other people were deprived of their freedom! [Note: If memory serves, this was an Arab airplane hijacking that took place sometime around 1985; the plane landed in Europe, and Roussos was released fairly quickly.]
Demis Roussos - singer, Vangelis - composer/musician have a song with a message for the world...
"Freedom of Running, Freedom to Fly" (Race to the End)
[This hype is followed by the lyrics, which are credited to Jon Anderson only on the single itself. They begin: There is but one freedom / Man running along (sic, actually sounds like "alone") / Each step that he's taking / A step to his soul..]
Label: 21 Records, distributed by Atco. 3:44, both sides same track. (P)1981 PhonoGram Int'l BV"
===
I would really love to hear Jon sing a version of that song, preferably backed by Vangelis! :)
He also covers some Jon and Vangelis tunes on another album that I have by him.
Here's the info for Steve's new CD which will be released next month. I got this from VoicePrint's web site:
Artist: Steve Howe
Title: Pulling Strings
Price: 7.99
Label: RESURGENCE
Cat No: RES132
Track Listing:
Sweet Thunder
Diary of a man who vanished
Excerpts from Close To The Edge
Excerpts from Beginnings
Pleasure Stole The Night
Sketches In The Sun
Rare Birds
Windy And Warm
Excerpts from Turn Of The Century
Misty
Excerpts from All's A Chord
Running The Human Race
Everytime You Look Over My Shoulder
Theme from The Gates Of Delirium, followed by Soon
Blinded By Science
My White Bicycle
Information: Legendary guitarist Steve Howe joined Yes in 1971. The ultimate prog-rockers fell apart in 1981, reformed in 1983 and there have been on-off incarnations ever since. They released a new album in 1997 on Eagle and have been touring the world since. This album was recorded live in Chicago and Minneapolis in November 1994 by Dave Natele and Dave Wilkerson. It features many solo classics and faithful renditions of legendary Yes songs, including Excerpts from Close To The Edge ending with the classic underground 60's track My White Bicycle. "The idea behind this
tour was to accompany myself occasionally using six backing tracks enabling me to include steel guitar to enlarge the dimension of my solo show." (Steve Howe)
The Unofficial Chris Squire Website (FishNet) organize the second
Chemistry poll. You can participate until February 1:
Fish Tales
The ... Artist Shop update reads as follows:
"Coming in March, Various Artist/Tribute to the Titans. The perfect introduction to Magna Carta's tribute albums to Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Rush and their Keyboard Hall of Fame Volume 1, Steinway to Heaven. Also included are a couple tracks from their forthcoming tributes to Emerson Lake and Palmer which is not slated to be released until April. This collection features performances by Steve Howe & Annie Haslam, Keith
Emerson, John Wetton, Rick Wakeman, Kevin Gilbert, Jordan Rudess & Jerry Goodman, Magellan, Robert Berry, Mike Keneally, John Petrucci and many, many more!"
[snip] ...the ELP tribute mentioned is the same one we've been hearing about that Geoff Downes, Peter Banks and Igor Khoroshev make appearances on but it's really a Trent Gardner/Magellan project. More info on that one at MagnaCarta (and probably this tribute sampler as well.) At any rate, while Howe and Wakeman appear on the tribute sampler (doing "Turn of the Century" and Beethoven's "Pathetique" respectively) neither one appears on the ELP tribute.
More info available here: The Artist Shop
Hello, list! A bit of news from The Igor Khoroshev Web Site:
Tim Morse, best known to Yes fans for his oral history of the band titled "Yesstories", has interviewed Igor for the April issue of Keyboard magazine. This issue should begin appearing in newsstands and mailboxes by early March.
To visit The Igor Khoroshev Web Site
I don't even know what to say about this one, so I'll just pass it along as I found it. from TV Guide Online (in case it seems too unbelievable, the URL for this is TV Guide Online.)
------
TV's George Jefferson Preps Rock Opera
Tuesday, January 26, 1999
Are you ready for a rock opera penned by The Jeffersons star Sherman Hemsley and Yes warbler Jon Anderson?
The two '70s pop-culture icons are collaborating on a new CD, Festival of Dreams, featuring lyrics by Anderson and music by TV's George Jefferson. It might seem like an unlikely pairing,
but Hemsley tells Dish that the two stars are good pals. And Hemsley is no stranger to the music biz, having recorded the 1980s rap single "Ain't That a Kick in the Head."
Hemsley and Jeffersons costar Isabel Sanford are enjoying a resurgence in popularity these days, thanks to the addition of their classic sitcom to the Nick at Nite schedule (a marathon
runs today through Friday, 9 pm/ET to 1 am/ET, then weeknights at 10 pm/ET) and their popular series of Old Navy TV ads.
"They're so corny they're good," Hemsley says of the ads, which feature both stars camping it up on an airplane. "I remember when I first saw an Old Navy ad, I couldn't figure out what it was.
I thought it was an ad for an airplane or something."
Sanford tells Dish the enduring popularity of The Jeffersons was something she never gave much thought to while working on the series from 1975 to 1985. "I had no idea," she says. "We just
worked from day to day, month to month, year to year."
-- Rich Brown
This just in from our show prep source here at the station....btw...if any of you would like to "suggest" to the powers that be here that we need to play some Marillion and Fish, our email is qualityrock@wrhq.com, or you can go to our webpage and submit suggestions:-
"JON ANDERSON ON BROADWAY? Yes singer Jon Anderson is movin' on up. Anderson is collaborating with Sherman Helmsley, the actor and singer best known for his role as "George Jefferson" on the CBS comedies 'All In The Family' and 'The Jeffersons'. The pair, who have reportedly been friends for quite some time, are said to be working together on a rock opera called 'Festival of Dreams'; Helmsley is writing the music, while Anderson is handling the lyrics. Though Helmsley has recorded before (he once put out a hip-hop inspired album called "Ain't that A Kick In The Head"), this is his first foray into the rock realm."
The latest issue of Q magazine (March) has a feature on the best progressive rock albums of all time. Their 'essential dozen' is (there isn't a ranking in the mag, I took it upon myself to nominate the number one to three positions!!) :
The Yes Album (TYA)
Van Der Graaf Generator - H to He. Who Am the Only One.
King Crimson - ItCoCK
ELP - Brain Salad Surgery
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Marillion - Misplaced Childhood
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Radiohead - OK Computer
The Moody Blues - On the Threshold of a Dream
Aphrodite's Child - 666
The Teardrop Explodes - Wilder
This is what they say about TYA :
"The overblown silliness of TftO has fostered a not entirely accurate picture of Yes as nitwit veggies in kaftans. Sure, they wouldn't use one note when 30 would do, but their roots also lay in R&B, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Byrdsian harmony pop. It's those influences working in tandem with symphonic aspirations and techno-flash leanings that makes TYA their best work. There's not a whit of pomposity, just a dynamic rock group playing with a youthful zeal. You might even describe them as hungry."
"Best Track" - Yours Is No Disgrace
"Best Moment" - The colossal conclusion to All Good People. a face-off between those teetering layered harmonies and Tony Kaye's hammy but splendid organ chords. ""
"Tim Morse...Yes biographer" is the start of a review in February's issue of UK-based professional magazine 'Record Collector', this time for his book regarding Classic Rock.
Does anyone have an opinion regarding this new book? I for one would be interested to see it...and comments!
Incidentally, Bill Bruford's work is in effect plugged in the same issue of 'Record Collector', by way of an editorial reference to the DGM music label facility set up by Robert Fripp. When a colleague and I (on a major dose of anti-inflammatory steroids!) interviewed Fripp almost 2 years ago for 'Record Collector', had he not got rather engrossed in extending an interview with national newspaper 'The Independent', DGM might have had a bigger plug, ages ago. (I supplemented our article with an extra dose of Greg Lake, who gave us some info-gems!)
Mike's Webpage is a newly completed "Yes page" I built, for people who have Yes Websites, chalked full of Yes/Roger Dean goodies. Having browsed around most the Yes related websites out there, I thought a web page for Yes Webmasters would be a good thing. It has easy to download Roger Dean gifs with transparent backgrounds, MIDI Files for background music, Yes Wallpapers, Yes "Skins" for WinAMP the MP-3 player and more. (It's also listed on Yes-hoo)
If any Southsiders are sitting on any goodies they'd like to donate, attach'em to an email.