The Von: Union

Showing posts with label Union. Show all posts

Thursday, April 30, 2020

This Day in Music History:Yes/Union (04/30)

Union is the thirteenth studio album by British progressive rock band Yes, released on this date in 1991. It was so called because it brought together the previous Yes album's lineup (Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Trevor Rabin, Alan White, Tony Kaye) and the then ex-Yes members group ABWH.

Front Cover by Roger Dean

This Day in Music History: Yes/Keys to Ascension 2 (11/03)

As a follow up to the previous album from a year earlier, Yes released Keys to Ascension 2 on this date in 1997. It also followed the same format as its predecessor having live tracks with new studio tracks. Also, more Roger Dean ya'll:

Like the first seven tracks on the previous album, the first six tracks on Keys to Ascension 2 were recorded live in San Luis Obispo, California in March 1996. The second disc features studio recordings made in November 1996. Rick Wakeman wanted these studio tracks to be released with Jon Anderson's working title Know, with the disc of live tracks thrown in as a bonus. Wakeman's preference was not honored and by the time Keys to Ascension 2 was released, he was no longer in the band (again).

This Day in Music History (09/20): Yes/Tormato and Yes/The Ladder

On this day in music history, Yes was at it again (they love the month of September apparently) with not one, but two different albums released on this date.

First, in 1978, Yes released Tormato, which had a few decent ideas, but overall was basically crap.

The original album title was to be Yes Tor, referring to a geological formation in southern England. The photographs taken by Hipgnosis for the album cover were seen as so unimpressive that Rick Wakeman (RW!), in frustration, threw a tomato at the pictures. The cover and title were adjusted accordingly. No, really. That's how it got its name.

Friday and the Random Ten (Chris Squire Edition)

It was a sad week in music for me as Chris Squire, bass player extraordinaire for my favorite band YES, passed away suddenly from Leukemia at the age of 67. Since he was the only member who played on every album, this week's randomness will center solely on their music. Even though the Top 10 list from last week sent them to Exile Island, I am going to flip that around as the only music to be featured this week. It's my tribute to a great musician.

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Music Monday (Union, Side 2)

So now we have hit the midpoint of Yes's 1990 album Union and are moving on to side two. Side one can be found here.

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Side Two

1) Miracle of Life - Another song about whales and saving the oceans.

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2) Silent Talking - Great song here from the ABWH camp. It doesn't ring, it doesn't ring true...

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3) The More We Live/Let Go - This song is the first appearance of Billy Sherwood, who was being considered as a replacement for Jon Anderson at the time. He will resurface later, but this actually a very good song.

The more we live, the more we learn, the more we know.

The more we give, the more we love, the more we grow.

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4) Angkor Wat - Easily the most experimental song on the whole album. Mystical and awesome, it is probably my favorite as well. I wish Yes had done more stuff like this.

I am a child of the universe.

I deserve total recognition of this in the light of God.

Being a child of the universe,

I want to live in a world without war

I want to live in a world without starvation

I want to live in a world without pestilence

I want to live in a world of love, peace and harmony

Because I am a child of the universe.

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5) Dangerous (Look Into the Light of What You're Searching For) - Long title but another good song from the Anderson group. There was a dance mix version of this song (they did that a lot in the late 80's/early 90's) that had a longer, extended middle section.

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6) Holding On - Another almost haunting song for me. Holding on to a changed and ended relationship that led to dark days of wondering. How long this energy of winter? How many times is time enough?

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7) Evensong - This is a version of Bill Bruford (drums) and Tony Levin's (bass) duet from the ABWH tour. I always think of it as a small intro to the next song.

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8) Take the Water to the Mountain - Sadly, the only song to survive from the ABWH II demos. It's more exotic sounding, but it also leaves off an entire verse for a more haunting ending.

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And there we have it. Union reached No. 7 in the UK, and No. 15 in the US during a chart stay of 19 weeks. As of 2014 Union is their last studio album to reach the Top 10.

The Japanese and European editions also included the song "Give and Take".

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Monthly Review (August, 2014)

Man, August is gone already? Dang. Time flies.

Here's a review of the most popular posts from the past month. Check out July here.

10) Music Monday (8/11/14) - Covering the first side of the Union album by Yes.

9) Still hanging around from March 9th of last year is the Big Bang Theory ladies dressed as Disney princesses.

8) Hump Day, Poll Day (8/20/14) checks in here. This post gave the results of the Iron Man/Captain Jack poll as well as addressing all those Ice Bucket challenges.

7) I asked you to choose between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. This post would have ranked a lot higher if the votes from the previous month would have been included. It may have even been #1.

6) Hump Day, Poll Day (8/24/14) These polls are just something I am testing but the results seem to get better each time. Having people choose just one TV show between Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, Sherlock, True Blood and Game of Thrones got the most poll activity so far. BTW, this poll is still currently active if you have not voted yet.

5) Friday and the Random 10 (8/14/14) This was the Zig Zaggety edition where I got called out for being not so manly because of the last song. Whatev.

4) Deep Breath (8/24/14) - Questions I had from the first episode of Doctor Who was read and commented on by many and got me lots of new Twitter followers. Hey guys!

3) Friday and the Random 10 (8/08/14) - I'm sure this had nothing to do with the Tragic Kingdom or Disney in any kind of way. Nope, not at all...

2) Still hanging around from February of 2012 is my personal list of Top 10 Yes album covers. This is still #2 all time.

Drum roll please...

Checking in at #1 is Hump Day, Poll Day from 8/6/14. It gave the results from the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings query and also started the debate between Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr. The whole Captain Jack Sparrow vs. Tony Stark/Iron Man thing. Yeah.

And there you have it. Hopefully in the following months I can provide much more variety as the time allows.

Thanks for the read!

Monday, August 11, 2014

Music Monday (Union, Side 1)

So now we have reached the point in 1990 where both ABWH and Yes are starting to compose and record material for a their next albums (the ABWH demos were covered here). So enter the record executives who wanted to resurrect the Yes brand name. Jon Anderson and Chris Squire came up with the idea of merging together both projects into one album. Goodbye ABWH II. We hardly knew ya.

What resulted was an album called "Union" (a lot of thought went into that huh?). At least it had a Roger Dean cover:

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The Music

1) I Would Have Waited Forever - Great song here. You can tell which songs came from the ABWH camp and this is one of them.

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2) Shock to the System - Maybe my favorite song on the album and a powerful one at that too. I see this as the "Fist of Fire" of the album.

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3) Masquerade - Acoustic guitar piece by Steve Howe. Beautiful. Nominated for a Grammy.

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4) Lift Me Up - Yes's last #1 single to date. The video shows all eight (!) members including both drummers. It is a song about homelessness, in Trevor Rabin's own words:

Lyrically, the verse was a little dark, we tried to make it somewhat vague as to what it was about, but one of the pictures is that it's a homeless person. 'Look around, I've got nowhere to stay... you look me up, you look me down' the guy who goes into the restaurant to use the bathroom and they look at him, 'No you can't come in here.' And he just looks to the sky and says, 'Lift me up and turn me over,' you know, help me out.

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5) Without Hope You Cannot Start the Day - This is a haunting song for me, especially the intro. After my breakup, all I could think was "In between this moving out to save your soul it came way, and took it out; Oh why?"

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6) Saving My Heart - The second single released from the album which peaked at #9. This is obviously a Trevor song and is very meh to me.

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Friday, August 16, 2013

Friday and the Random 10

Now that I have finished that other wimpy post, it's time for something manly. How about some music? And let's make it random! Yeah, you know the deal. The rules and whatnot are over there → to the right as always. Looking back at last week I see that Chicago and, ummm who would that be, oh yeah Rick Wakeman are banned for this week. On a side note, I deleted a lot of RW last week, only leaving the actual classics. The rest was just...unnecessary.

And now for the manly music!

Friday and the Random 10

I made a little page last week which you can see listed to the right over there (--------->), that explains all the ins and outs of the random 10. It's also an archive of terms and special awards, so if you're late to the party here it will help you understand some of my ramblings.

Anyway, here we go. Ready! Set! Random!

1) Stevie Nicks/After the Glitter Fades - From her classic album Bella Donna.

2) Yes/Dangerous - Demo for the Union (onion) album. I have an upcoming post on this mess of an album. This song even had several dance mixes. Yeah, you read that right.

3) Syd Barrett/Love Song - Thought I had gotten rid of this crap. Time for the Cybermen.

4) America/Sandman - Another new artist for the countdown. Welcome to the party!

5) AC/DC/Are You Ready - Love these Aussie rockers!

6) Jon Anderson/Days - This is another one of those Yes demos that didn't quite pan out and ended up on a solo album. Album cover winner in Song of Seven.

7) Styx/Unfinished Song - This is a song that shows up on some versions of the Man of Miracles album but not others. Nice little DDY song from the Wooden Nickel years.

8) Yes/Love Conquers All - Yet another Yes demo. This is basically a Trevor Rabin song that didn't make it onto 90125. It was one of those unreleased songs that appeared on the YesYears box set.

9) Pink Floyd/The Fletcher Memorial Home - I'm trying but I still cant get into them.

10) Chicago/Take the "A" Train - This is from their big band album Night and Day. Still trying to recover from those 80's, but at least they picked the right genre.

Well that will do it for another week peeps. Seems like there were a lot of demo/unreleased type songs this go round. The STCS for this week is Guns N' Roses/Welcome to the Jungle. Wow, wish we could have opened with that, but I'll let them play us out. Until next week...