------------------------------------------------------- SEPTEMBER 8, 1977 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: Circus Magazine Yes Is Going for the Big One Wakeman Rejoins Former Partners for Mammoth US Tour By Jim Farber After exploring obscure topographic oceans and relaying messages of dour cosmic urgency over the last few albums, Yes have finally come back to earth with a new LP, Going for the One (Atlantic), that harks back to the raunchier moments of Fragile and The Yes Album. For seven months the boys worked on this disk, up there at Mountain Studios in snow-capped Montreux, Switzerland, trying to get the sound just right, for not only is this Yes's first recorded utterance in over two and a half years, but also the band's premier reunion with wayward keyboardist Rick Wakeman. To show off the fruits of their seclusion, Yes embarks this month on a full-scale, two-plus month US tour. The arrival of Rick Wakeman's outer space creatures will have to wait -- or take second billing to this terra-firma band of musical spacemen. "I think the new album will bring back the fans we lost on the last few albums," says Rick Wakeman optimistically. The whole thing is easier to relate to." "The album is a kind of celebration," affirms vocalist Jon Anderson. "Over the last two or three years we've been experimenting a lot and we're happy to have been given that chance. Any musician should be given the chance to extend his horizons and luckily we've been successful enough to do so. But generally we think of this as a more eventful album. We've come back to a happier medium. It's something we felt we wanted to do at this time. If we wanted another 'Tales' concept we would have gone in that direction, but we needed to relax for a while -- a little more laughing and jive." Jive?!!? From a band of stone-faced artists like Yes? This band certainly has changed. One can only wonder then, if the tirade of criticism heaped on the band for their alleged pretentiousness over the last few years has had any influence on this recent reversal of character. "I don't think we reacted to the criticism mainly because, as pieces of music on stage, these older songs were very exciting to perform," says Anderson defensively. "'The Gates Of Delirium' did not work so well on record, but I think live it was a very exciting thing for people to see. The problem was, for the FM stations it became more and more difficult to play our music. So all we've had to rely upon is Yes's charisma as a band. Luckily, the fans who come to see us don't just come to see a band that's doing well. They have remained loyal to us." As Wakeman implies, it's not only the music that's more accessible but also Jon Anderson's spacey lyrics. "Maybe my logic is getting a little clearer," Anderson admits. "At times I will still write fantasy because the sound of the words can be more important than the meaning, but I'm always trying to conjure up pictures and the ones on the new album I believe are clearer. I haven't changed my style, I'm just developing." Anderson views the lyrics to each song on the album as individual, offering no cohesive concept for the whole. One of the album's most straight forward lyrical and musical tracks is the title song, "Going For The One," reminiscent of such early Yes rockers as "Roundabout" and "Yours Is No Disgrace." Dominated by Steve Howe's slide guitar, the song almost seems to have more in common with Lynyrd Skynyrd than recent Yes, joyfully forcing Anderson into his most earthly and emotional vocals in years. It's only Chris Squire's intruding bass and Alan White's complex drum patterns that give the song the inimitable Yes touch. "I wrote that song two or three years ago," Anderson explains. "It's about sports. The catch line is 'The truth of sport plays rings around you/Going for the one.' Part of the song is about horse racing and there's a little bit on a film I saw about going down the Grand Canyon River on one of those rubber dinghies and there's also a bit in there about the cosmic mind, which is something I think a lot of people have been getting into lately." As usual, the album, features some literary influences, particularly on "Awaken," the fifteen minute closing number. "Awaken" seems to have the most in common with Yes's more serious pieces, highlighted by a Steve Howe guitar solo as frenzied as Robert Fripp's most intense work with King Crimson. "While I was in Switzerland I had a chance to read a book called 'The Singer,' Anderson explains. "It's about this 'Star Song' which is an ageless hymn that's sung every now and again and that inspired this song. It's also influenced by a book I read recently about the life of Rembrandt -- that affected me quite significantly. I feel the song ends the whole 'Topographic' relation of ideas." Another of the more "heady" songs on the album is "Turn Of The Century," an eight minute slow build-up number with Yes's trademark wash of layered synthesizers. Anderson feels this song is the most experimental on the album and accordingly, he admits it may not appeal to too many people. "It was originally a short song that we developed. As we began to rehearse it, I started thinking, 'Let's try to musically tell the story without me singing it,' and then when I do sing it, it'll sound even better." Of the more direct songs, "Wonderous Stories" has the loveliest melody, while "Parallels" offers an almost heavy-metal kind of feel. "Chris Squire wrote that song," Rick Wakeman explains. "When we were putting together the track I went down to a church in Le Vey, which is a village right near where I live, and they have a beautiful church organ there, so I suggested to the rest of the band that we link up lines from the church to the studio. So they sat in the studio and played and I sat in the church and played, and we put it down at the same time. It was absolute magic." "Parallels" and the other four cuts on the album feature the same crisp production sound Yes is famous for, even though their old engineer, Eddie Offord, was replaced on this album by John Timperley, the same man who turned the dials for ELP's latest opus, "Works, Volume 1." Likewise, for their massive U.S. tour this Summer, there are many musical changes as well for the band. "The show is much less extravagant," Anderson promises. "We're calming the staging down and we focus on the band more. Also we don't want to spend three hours on stage, so we're cutting out the Topographic stuff concentrating on a two hour set with the new album and earlier favorites." Throughout this summer stint, though, music won't be the band's only concern. Rick Wakeman, in particular, plans to spend much of his extra time tracking down space travelers. "I'm convinced this summer there will be landings on Earth of beings from other planets," says Wakeman with intense seriousness. "Over the last few years I've become obsessed with this. I know there have been landings already. I can't prove it but I can't disprove it either. I have hundreds of books, charts and classified information at home and if my calculations are correct, there will have to be general announcements about space men coming this summer. People will have to be warned. Otherwise it could turn out like another War of the Worlds situation." Though he won't go quite as far as Rick, Anderson also sees some validity in these Erich von Daniken-influenced cosmic travelers, though he maintains a more "hippy utopian" sort of view. "I do believe that what you don't see you don't know and there are things going on that we have no idea about. Things are moving in the general direction of getting ready for something heavy. It is the Age Of Aquarius. Things are generally getting better even if the don't seem to be. But Rick is the expert on these things. He sits up on top of the mountains here and just waits. He's certainly trying to track down somebody." Still, even if Wakeman's cosmic search goes unfulfilled, the summer tour should yield a live album -- one disk from this jaunt plus a second from last Summer's tour, making a double set for possible Christmas release. Also, the band will begin work on another album in December that should be out in early 1978. "This next year is going to be awfully busy," Anderson sighs. "We generally take things more relaxed now, though. I think we'll be making lighter albums for a few years to come. we've spent our time being a bit serious and now it's time to loosen up. We haven't really make any drastic changes. I just feel we're all much happier now." Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com