Going for the one

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Going for the one
Studio album by Yes

Publication
(s)

7th July 1977

Label (s) Atlantic Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Progressive rock

Title (number)

5

running time

38:54

occupation

production

Yes

Studio (s)

Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland

chronology
Yesterdays
(compilation 1975)
Relayer
(studio album 1974) 		Going for the one Tormato
(1978)

Going for the One is the tenth music album by the English progressive rock band Yes and also their eighth studio album.

Emergence

The first ideas for the as yet untitled follow-up album to Relayer (1974) came about during the Yes tour from May 28, 1976 to August 22, 1976, during which a total of 53 shows were played. During this tour, an early two and a half minute version of the later album title Awaken was played under the title High Vibration . It was the beginning of the piece, which the then Yes keyboardist Patrick Moraz had largely composed, which is why he was definitely involved in the creation of Going for the One . However, since he was replaced by his predecessor Rick Wakeman in the course of work on the album , this was not noted on the album. Moraz did not receive any money for his musical contributions to Going for the One , which subsequently led to some legal disputes between him and the band. For example, the chord progression at the beginning of Awaken goes back to Moraz alone and can therefore also be heard in his song Time for a Change from his solo album Out in the Sun (1977).

The recordings for the Yes album Going for the One began immediately after the tour ended in September 1976 in Montreux on Lake Geneva . The Mountain Studios there were the only place the Yes musicians could agree on. After the demanding Tales from Topographic Oceans , which was followed by the more aggressive album Relayer , Yes wanted to return to a more accessible music and a more positive mood with their new album, which led to differences with Moraz, who used the experimental, jazz- influenced style of Relayer preferred; In addition, there were difficulties in the collaboration between Moraz and guitarist Steve Howe , which the other group members perceived as a hindrance to work on the new album and which is why they were looking for a solution that later resulted in a separation from Moraz.

When in November 1976 the chance arose to bring Rick Wakeman back into the band, band manager Brian Lane in particular drove his return. Lane (at the time also manager of Wakeman) looked mainly at economic aspects. With Journey to the Center of the Earth , The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the round Table and No Earthly Connection, Wakeman had released three highly successful solo albums in a row - as a popular artist he was of course a guarantee for higher sales figures Yes products -, on the other hand, he lost a lot of money with his extensive tours to Journey to the Center of the Earth and King Arthur (some of which he conducted with an orchestra).

Wakeman reacted cautiously to an initial request from Yes road manager Alex Scott in October 1976, after all he had left Yes in 1974 for musical reasons, as he had not found access to Relayer's music . The band's renewed offer to collaborate was therefore carefully worded: they wanted to pay Wakeman to work as a session musician on the new album. Wakeman finally agreed to that. However, when he was sent the tape with the first sketches of the songs from Wonderous Stories and Going for the One , Wakeman realized that the band had reverted to the old song format and considered working on Going for the One .

At a Warner Bros. party. -Europe boss Claude Nobs finally spoke to Chris Squire with Wakeman about his status as a session musician. Squire told him that it would be problematic for the band to find a keyboard player who could play Wakeman's contributions on the upcoming tour. The very next morning the lead story was in the music magazine Melody Maker : "Wakeman rejoins Yes" (Wakeman returns to Yes).

Wakeman also returned because the other band members gave him freedom in terms of his solo activities. The joint work on Going for the One dragged on until May 1977, but compared to earlier studio recordings, it went comparatively smoothly. Rick Wakeman even enjoyed his time in Montreux so much that he stayed in Switzerland for a while. Only Steve Howe suffered from the increasing stress of the many concert tours and recording sessions.

publication

Immediately after the release of the album turned Frank Laufenberg this before in the SWF "Pop Shop" and told it several anecdotes about the shooting, for example, that the church organ with the musical pieces Parallels and Awaken by Rick Wakeman in the church at Vevey be recorded live because the church had been wired to the studio and real live recordings were possible.

Track list

  1. Going for the One (Anderson) - 5:32
  2. Turn of the Century (Anderson / Howe / White) - 7:55
  3. Parallels (Squire) - 5:58
  4. Wonderous Stories (Anderson) - 3:50
  5. Awaken (Anderson / Howe) - 15:38

Going for the One was remastered in 2003 and re-released by Rhino Records with the following bonus tracks:

  1. Montreux's Theme (Howe / Squire / Anderson / White) - 2:38
  2. Vevey (Revisited) (Anderson / Wakeman) - 4:46
  3. Amazing Grace (Trad. Arr. Squire) - 2:36
  4. Going for the One (Rehearsal) (Anderson) - 5:10
  5. Parallels (Rehearsal) (Squire) - 6:21
  6. Turn of the Century (Rehearsal) (Anderson / Howe / White) - 6:58
  7. Eastern Number (Early version of Awaken ) (Anderson / Howe) - 12:16

Remarks

  • The church organ on the album was recorded from St. Martin in the neighboring village of Vevey over a normal Swiss telephone line, the quality of which was sufficient for the recording. There the recordings emerged Vevey , an organ / harp - duet Wakeman with Anderson, the first time in 1991 as part of the compilation YesYears appeared.
  • The song Going for the One was written in 1974 or 1975.
  • The turn of the century text refers to the ancient Pygmalion myth and the opera La Bohème .
  • Parallels was a song by Chris Squire that he hadn't taken on his solo album Fish Out of Water and that the band reworked for Going for the One .
  • The interface between the parts developed by Moraz and the parts of Awaken that were more strongly influenced by the rest of the band can be heard to this day: While the opening part is characterized by diminished jazz chords , the major chords of the circle of fifths dominate in the remaining parts . The beginning of the guitar solo at 2:50 was initially part of a solo piece by Steve Howe.
  • Amazing Grace was played by Chris Squire as bass solo on all tours from 1980 to 1992 (a total of 298 times).
  • The early version of Turn of the Century shows how closely the making of Going for the One is linked to the band members' solo projects. The piece begins and ends with the same guitar runs as Surface Tension from Steve Howe's solo album The Steve Howe Album (1979), while a middle section (from 2:53) is almost identical to sections of Silently Falling from Chris Squire's solo album Fish Out of Water .
  • A bonus track on the Rhino re-release of Tormato 's follow-up album , Everybody's Song (an early version of Does It Really Happen ? , which was ultimately heard on Drama (1980)), dates from the time between Relayer and Going for the One and was believed to have been recorded with Moraz.

Single releases

  • Wonderous Stories (3.45) / Parallels (5.52) 1977 Atlantic ATL 10999 (UK), reached number 7 in the English charts in September 1977
  • Going for the One (3.40) / Awaken pt. 1 (6.40) 1977 Atlantic K 11047 (UK)
  • Going for the One / Turn of the Century 1977 (UK)
  • Parallels / Wonderous Stories 1977 (UK)
  • Awaken / No B-Side 1977 (UK)
  • Going for the One / Parallels Atlantic K 10985 (UK)
  • Wonderous Stories (3.45) / Wonderous Stories 1977 Atlantic 3416 (US)
  • Wonderous Stories (3.45) / Awaken pt. 1 (6.40) 1977 Atlantic 3416 (US)
  • Turn of the Century / Wonderous Stories 1977 Atlantic K 10036 (B)

Cover

The cover is very futuristic, it shows a naked man standing with his back to the viewer in front of the photo montage of a modern skyline . The buildings are from Century City in Los Angeles . Different colored patterned lines surround man and building. The picture presumably stands for the contrast between the natural state of humans (represented by the nakedness of the man) and his highly cultivated, the former constricting state, represented by the repellent facades of the high-rise buildings.

For the first time since The Yes album , Going for the One, a Yes cover was not designed by fantasy artist Roger Dean . Instead, the design was carried out by Storm Thorgerson's company Hipgnosis . However, the classic Yes logo designed by Dean was adopted. It was reduced to the outer lines and integrated with the album title.

reception

Going for the One (Atlantic K 50379) reached number 1 in the English charts and number 8 in the USA .

The album marks a break in the musical development of the band in several ways: Five years after Fragile (1972), there were more than four songs on a Yes studio album for the first time, including the double album Tales from Topographic Oceans . The songs are organized much more tightly, apart from the longtrack Awaken there are no longer any longer instrumental passages that had dominated the two previous albums. The pieces are structured much more simply, including Awaken , which is ultimately largely based on the circle of fifths harmonically and melodically on a figure of three tones and their inversions. Going for the One is more closely related than any other Yes song (with the exception of All Good People from The Yes album (1971)) to classic rock 'n' roll , Parallels (even if it comes up with an interesting arrangement) and Wonderous Stories are the easiest pieces that Yes has had to offer since Time and a Word (1970). Wonderous Stories even turned out to be a small single success. In addition, with a few exceptions, the lyrics of the songs were easily understandable: Going for the One was about sport, in Turn of the Century a little story was told. In addition, the cover was not by Roger Dean, but by Hipgnosis.

The only problematic sound of the album is considered to be. The band had decided to produce themselves, which meant that each member had their own man at the mixer. For the first time in a long time, this work was not overseen by Eddie Offord, but by John Timperley and his assistant David Richards (who also worked with Queen ). The sound quality of the album is thus below the standard that the band was used to in the 1970s.

The album was released on July 7, 1977 and was very well received by fans and critics alike, certainly not least because of the lack of unusual experiments, but at the same time certainly also because of Awaken , which compensated many fans of the band for the other contributions that were all too pop. To this day, many (including Yes singer Jon Anderson ) consider it the most successful Yes piece. The separation from Patrick Moraz seems only logical against this background. Such a harmony-focused album like Going for the One is just as difficult to imagine with Moraz on the keyboards as a relayer with Wakeman's participation. Rick Wakeman's style of major harmonies went much better with the music that Yes was now making.

The Going for the One cast live in Indianapolis (1977)

Concerts

Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White showed their virtuoso playful mood on the tour for the album. Many concerts sold out quickly. The musicians successfully communicated the positive mood of the album to the audience.

live

Live recordings of the tracks on Going for the One can be heard on 9012Live: The Solos , The Word Is Live , Keys to Ascension , The Masterworks , Yesshows , Keys to Ascension 2 and "Like It Is".

Web links