This Day in Music History: Yes/Heaven & Earth (07/16)

On this date in 2014, Yes released their 21st studio album entitled Heaven & Earth. It is their first album with singer Jon Davison in the band's line-up, and the final studio album to feature original bassist Chris Squire before his death in 2015.

It was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, who first worked with the band on recording sessions in 1979, and mixed by former member Billy Sherwood. Upon its release, Heaven & Earth peaked at number 20 in the UK, the band's highest chart performance since their 1994 album Talk. It also entered the US chart at number 26.

I have previously covered this album in more depth here: Side One, Side Two.

This Day in Music History: Yes/Open Your Eyes (11/24)

Open Your Eyes is the seventeenth studio album by progressive rock band Yes, released on this date in 1997. It was Yes's first "full" studio album after the twin projects Keys to Ascension and Keys to Ascension 2, which were both live and studio albums.

It is the first album with former session member Billy Sherwood on guitar, and the only one on which he also plays keyboards. Open Your Eyes reached #151 in the US during a chart stay of one week. One whole week. This album is crap.

This album is covered in more detail in the following posts: Side 1, Side 2.

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Music Monday (Open Your Eyes, Side 1)

Open Your Eyes is the seventeenth studio album by progressive rock band Yes, released in 1997. It is the first album to feature Billy Sherwood as a band member, and the only one on which he is the main keyboard player.

The cover of Open Your Eyes references the band's 1969 album debut, but is otherwise boring as Hell. This is the one album I pretty much never cared for (me and lots of other Yes fans).

Following the reunion of the mid-1970's "classic" lineup of Yes (and the release of the two live-and-studio double albums Keys to Ascension and Keys to Ascension 2), keyboard player Rick Wakeman had left the band once again, throwing future tour and album plans into jeopardy. In order to sustain momentum, the band was obliged to come up with a new workable lineup as well as new sources of song material.

Billy Sherwood had previously been involved with Yes as a backup keyboard player and guitarist on the Talk tour (as well as being considered as a potential new lead singer during Yes rehearsals circa 1990). More recently, he had worked as engineer and producer for part of the Keys To Ascension project. 

He had had a strong working relationship with Yes bassist Chris Squire since the late 1980's, when the two had begun work on a duo project called The Chris Squire Experiment (later to become Conspiracy). Yes singer Jon Anderson was impressed by some of the early Conspiracy material and became interested in singing on it, in part because of Yes' need for new material. Consequently Sherwood, Squire, Anderson and White began working on several Conspiracy songs together with the aim of transforming them into Yes songs. Sherwood has said the band was falling apart after Wakeman's withdrawal and that he led on songwriting activity to keep the band going, working with Squire, White and Anderson. Guitarist Steve Howe was not practically involved for most of the process and made his contributions to the album at the end of the sessions. By the end, Sherwood was formally inducted into Yes – he would play second guitar and sing harmony vocals on tour.

Although Sherwood played the bulk of the keyboards on the album, two other keyboard players were involved. Steve Porcaro (Toto) had played keyboards on the title track when it was a Chris Squire Experiment piece and his parts were retained. Russian keyboard player Igor Khoroshev performed on "New State of Mind", "No Way We Can Lose" and "Fortune Seller". Khoroshev was hired as the band's keyboard player on the tour and would be a full member by 1999's The Ladder.

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The Music

1) New State of Mind - The first thing I noticed about this song was that there were vocals all over the place. It was like Jon was a guest vocalist on the track or something. The music is just meh.

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2) Open Your Eyes - The song was written by Sherwood and Squire. Originally titled "Wish I Knew", the song was intended for inclusion on a solo album of Squire's. The song was released as the lead single from the album and reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. As of 2014, "Open Your Eyes" is the band's last charting single. :-(

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3) Universal Garden - Best song on the album by far. Jon singing cosmic lyrics with Howe on acoustic guitar. Now that's a recipe for success. Sherwood had wanted this to be the title of the album but was outvoted by the others.

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4) No Way We Can Lose - Yes you can, by making clunkers of a song like this. It almost feels like a bad Trevor Rabin song that was left off Union or something.

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5) Fortune Seller - I kinda like this song for the vocals, but it basically makes no sense and is pointless beyond a few good lines.

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6) Man in the Moon - Once again, not a bad song. It kinda sounds like a Squire solo song with Jon on it.

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In an earlier post I described Talk as basically a Trevor Rabin solo album. This album is the same substituting in Billy Sherwood, and that's a big drop off.

This Day in Music History: Yes/Magnification (09/10)

Magnification is the nineteenth studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released in 2001.

Magnification is Yes' first album of the new century and their second using a live orchestra (the first being Time and a Word from 1970). It marked the band's last studio album to date with vocalist Jon Anderson.

Released between the departure of Igor Khoroshev the previous year and Rick Wakeman's fourth return in 2002, it is the only album in the band's history not to feature any keyboardist, and the only one involving only four Yes members.

Following the departures of guitarist Billy Sherwood and keyboardist Igor Khoroshev, and Rick Wakeman's decision not to rejoin the band, remaining members Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Alan White decided to fill the keyboard role with an orchestra, and hired film composer Larry Groupé to compose and conduct original orchestrations and musical bridges.

The album was re-released in 2002 as a limited and numbered 2-CD set with alternate artwork; the second disc contains three live performances and a CD-ROM track with an interview, video of "Don't Go," and a live video of "The Gates of Delirium". 

This album also features the song "Can You Imagine", in which the main vocals are sung by Chris Squire with Jon Anderson on backing vocals. This Squire-penned song was originally recorded in 1981 as a demo entitled "Can You See" for his aborted XYZ project.

Apart from the traditional Yes themes of spirituality and relation to nature and divinity, the album also addresses personal issues (Jon Anderson's relation with his daughter Deborah in "Don't Go") and political issues (the war in Bosnia in "We Agree", the plight of drunk-driving youth in "Spirit of Survival")

Track Listing

1. Magnification

2. Spirit of Survival

3. Don't Go

4. Give Love Each Day

5. Can You Imagine

6. We Agree

7. Soft as a Dove

8. Dreamtime

9. In the Presence Of

I. Deeper

II. Death of Ego

III. True Beginner

IV. Turn Around and Remember

10. Time Is Time

Friday and the Random 10 (Testosterone Edition)

So the time has come to roll out another random 10. Sometimes it feels like a very short week in between doing these. Other times it feels like we week is just empty with nothing to blog about.

I mean I throw different things out there to see if any of them get any traction (like the polls). Also I have long term "projects" like the magnet challenge up top. Also up there is something new this week I'm trying with license plates. I'll see how that goes.

So basically if you have any ideas of something you would like to see every week just hit me with your suggestions. I'll probably make it mine in some weird way, but I will def give you credit for it.

Now let's get back to that music thing. Looking at last week, no one got banned so all is good. As usual the rules and whatnot are up top as well.

Bring it on? Oh it's been broughten!