Me and my journey through life, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and all wacky, funny, deep, depressing and interesting points in between. My interests are varied from one end of the spectrum to another. Basically, the disappointing side of mediocre.
Relayer is the seventh studio album from the English progressive rock band Yes, released on this day in 1974 on Atlantic Records. It is their only studio album recorded with keyboardist Patrick Moraz in the band's line-up; he joined in August that year after Rick Wakeman left over differences regarding Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) to pursue his solo career.
Following Wakeman's decision to leave the band, the remaining members proceeded to work on new material for Relayer. The group wrote and rehearsed new songs and proceeded to record in Squire's home in Virginia Water, Surrey. The album has the same format as Close to the Edge (1972), with one track occupying side one and two tracks on side two. The album saw Yes experiment with elements of funk and jazz fusion. Upon release, Relayer helped continue the band's success in the 1970's, peaking at #4 in the UK and #5 in the U.S. The closing section of "The Gates of Delirium," titled "Soon," was released as a single in January 1975. The album is certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
I have covered this album previously here: Side 1, Side 2
So if there was any good news at all coming out of 2016 it was that three of my favorite bands made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Not that it matters much anyway, the place is a sham, but to be inducted this year are YES(!), Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), and Journey. This week's countdown, and the first for 2017, will be 16 random songs from these bands and no one else. It's the only way to send out the Year of Hell*.
After covering the first side of Relayer last week (one whole song), I'm back to go over side 2, which only includes two songs in itself.
1) Sound Chaser.The first song up is one whose tittle I have used for various things on this blog from time to time. I read one article about this song that when the journalist first heard it, he thought Yes had lost their minds and gone crazy. It is a wild ride.
Faster moment spent spread tales of change within the sound,
Counting form through rhythm electric freedom
Moves to counterbalance stars expound our conscience
All to know and see the look in your eyes.
Passing time will reach as nature relays to set the scene,
New encounters spark a true fruition,
Guiding lines we touch them, our bodies balance out the waves
As we accelerate our days to the look in your eyes.
From the moment I reached out to hold, I felt a sound,
And what touches our soul slowly moves as touch rebounds.
And to know that tempo will continue
Lost in trance of dances as rhythm takes another turn,
2) To Be Over. After all of the wildness of The Gates of Delirium, and especially Sound Chaser, this song completes the album in a much more relaxed and mellow way. It's almost like it is an escape from the frenetic pace that came before.
We go sailing down the calming streams
Drifting endlessly by the bridge
To be over
We will see
To be over
Do not suffer through the game of chance that plays
Always doors to lock away your dreams
Think it over
Time will heal your fear
Think it over
Balance the thoughts that release within you
Childlike soul dreamer one journey
One to seek and see in ev'ry light do open
True pathways away
Carrying closer go gently
Holding doors will open everyway
You wander true pathways away
After all your soul will still surrender
After all don't doubt your part
Be ready to be loved ********************************************************************************
First of all, I haven't done this in awhile. As a matter of fact, the last time was back in June when I covered the last side of Tales from Topographic Oceans. That album caused such a stir in the band that Rick Wakeman left (for the first time). For the next album, Relayer, the band auditioned several prospective replacements, the closest contender being the Greek keyboardist Vangelis (from Chariots of Fire fame). He did not become a member of Yes, but these auditions paved the way for several future collaborations between Vangelis and Jon Anderson. The band finally chose Swiss-born Patrick Moraz, as a replacement while Relayer was well into production. The album title comes from the lyrics of "The Remembering (High The Memory)" from Tales from Topographic Oceans.
Here is the Roger Dean cover:
Relayer has the same song format as 1972's Close to the Edge - a long epic on the first side, and two nine-minute pieces on the second - but employs a radically different musical style. "The Gates of Delirium" is a dense, 22-minute piece that was inspired by Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. It features lyrics about the futility of war and a lengthy instrumental middle section portraying 'battle' with galloping rhythms, martial melodies, dissonant harmonies, and clashing sound effects. The final section, in which the drive of the previous sixteen minutes is replaced by a gentle melody and a lyrical prayer for peace, was released as a US single under the title "Soon".
Relayer Side 1
The Gates of Delirium
This song is another epic masterpiece that has to be experienced, not just listened to. To me, this is the first album of theirs that really sounded "futuristic" and in some ways it's a shame it is the only Yes album that Patrick Moraz was on.
The finale section (Soon) may be the most beautiful music Yes has ever produced.
Stand and fight we do consider
Reminded of an inner pact between us
That's seen as we go
And ride there
In motion
To fields in debts of honor
Defending
Stand the marchers soaring talons,
Peaceful lives will not deliver freedom,
Fighting we know,
Destroy oppression
The point to reaction
As leaders look to you
Attacking
Choose and renounce throwing chains to the floor.
Kill or be killing faster sins correct the flow.
Casting giant shadows off vast penetrating force
To alter via the war that seen
As friction spans the spirits wrath ascending to redeem.
Wars that shout in screams of anguish,
Power spent passion bespoils our soul receiver,
Surely we know.
In glory
We rise to offer,
Create our freedom,
A word we utter,
A word.
Words cause our banner, victorious our day.
Will silence be promised as violence display?
The curse increased we fight the pow'r
And live by it by day.
Our gods awake in thunderous roars,
And guide the leaders hand in paths of glory to the cause.
Listen, should we fight forever
Knowing as we do know fear destroys?
Listen, should we leave our children?
Listen, our lives stare in silence;
Help us now.
Listen, your friends have been broken,
They tell us of your poison; now we know.
Kill them, give them as they give us.
Slay them, burn their children's laughter
On to hell.
The fist will run, grasp metal to gun.
The spirit sings in crashing tones,
We gain the battle drum.
Our cries will shrill, the air will moan and crash into the dawn.
The pen won't stay the demon's wings,
The hour approaches pounding out the Devil's sermon.
1. Once there a lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all – young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.
2. Each creature and its own manner, clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.
3. But one creature said at last, "I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom."
4. The other creatures laughed and said , "Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!"
5. But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.
6. Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
7. And creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, "See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!"
8. And the one carried in the current said, "I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure."
9. But they cried the more, "Savior!" All the whole cling to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a savior."
