Drama (album)

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drama
Studio album by Yes

Publication
(s)

August 18, 1980

Label (s) Atlantic Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Progressive rock

Title (number)

6th

running time

36:54

occupation

production

Yes

Studio (s)

Town House, London

chronology
Tormato
(1978) 		drama Classic Yes
(Compilation 1981)
90125
(studio album 1983)

Drama is an album by the musical group Yes , released in 1980. There has always been an almost continuous line-up change at Yes; In this case, however, Jon Anderson (vocals) and Rick Wakeman (keyboards) two of the most important band members had left the group. However, this had less of an impact on the music and thus on drama than many would have expected. Anderson and Wakeman were replaced by the Buggles Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn , who can only be heard on this Yes album. This makes Drama the first of three studio albums on which Jon Anderson does not sing. It is the twelfth album and the tenth studio release.

Emergence

After the failure of the Paris Sessions in late 1979, Steve Howe , Chris Squire and Alan White returned to the studio to work on new material. The band's manager, Brian Lane, had already booked an American tour that was completely sold out. Howe, Squire and White focused on the harder, rockier material that had previously been rejected in Paris by Anderson and Wakeman. This material became the basis for the next album, drama , including Run Through the Light , Does It Really Happen? and Tempus Fugit , (Have We Really Got to) Go Through This , which was later only played live but did not appear on Drama and first appeared on the Rhino edition of the album, Crossfire (on In a Word: Yes (1969 -) ), on bootlegs under the title Untitled I and another nameless song, which appeared on the Rhino edition as song No. 4 (Satellite) was released, but was ultimately not used on the album. In 1981 it was played by XYZ under the title Telephone Secrets (or Telephone Lies ) just before 90125 , also as part of the Cinema Sessions .

A last attempt to get Anderson and Wakeman on board failed at the beginning of 1980 because Anderson could not get used to the songs and financial disputes made an artistic collaboration impossible. Wakeman, who thought Anderson's voice was indispensable, saw no future for Yes and left the band as well. Howe, Squire and White then continued working on their songs.

The exit of Anderson and Wakeman was not publicly announced in view of the sold out tour out of caution. Except for a few people around the band, nobody knew about it.

Initially, a live album was planned as a bridge before further activities, which Chris Squire put together. When Yesshows , the planned title, had progressed so far that the first test pressings were available, new developments at Yes took up Squire's time. The Buggles, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, who just had a worldwide hit with their pop song Video Killed the Radio Star , were also signed to Brian Lane and happened to work in the same studio as Howe, Squire and White. As big Yes fans, they watched the core of the band at work. Her questions about Anderson and Wakeman were answered evasively. Horn then tried to sell them a song called We Can Fly from Here . Squire was interested, and as Steve Howe and Alan White were not available at short notice, a session with Squire, Horn, Downes and quickly became Bill Bruford organized during the one We Can Fly from Here rehearsed. It was later played live regularly by the drama cast on the tour, but did not find its way onto the album. A studio recording of the piece was slated for a release of the Rhino edition of Drama , but it did not materialize due to communication difficulties between Trevor Horn, who owns it, and Warner / Rhino. It wasn't until 2011 that it was released as part of the Fly from Here suite on the studio album of the same name .

It was only after some time that it was revealed to Downes and Horn that Anderson and Wakeman would no longer join Yes. Presumably they wanted to keep the possibility of reconciliation open as long as possible. It was only when the time for the tour was running out towards the end of the sessions that Downes and Horn were asked if they would like to become Yes members. They both agreed, and Drama was completed in record time by combining the Yes material with some of the Buggles' songs. The publication of the planned live album was then postponed.

It was only during the tour, and only reluctantly and very reluctantly, that the line-up was announced.

Cover

The Fantasy Artists Roger Dean had on previous albums Tormato and Going for the One not worked for Yes. Only for drama could Dean be engaged again.

The front of the fold-out cover of Drama shows three black panthers running down a slope in a plane behind two white birds. The plain is bordered by a sea in the background. In the sea there are small islands and to the right a shipwreck protruding halfway out of the water. Huge icebergs form the end to the rear. At the top in the middle is the curved Yes logo in a new plastic metallic style. Underneath the album title in sharp, pointed letters. The image continues on the back with red, coral-like tree-high structures. Here, too, an iceberg in the background.

On the inside there is a picture of the new cast that takes up almost the entire width. To the right of it at the edge again the new logo, including the album title, then the song title and the other album information. Below the picture again very symbolically the three panthers watching the two white birds.

Track list

Original album

  1. Machine Messiah (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 10:26
  2. White Car (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 1:21
  3. Does It Really Happen? (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 6:33
  4. Into the Lens (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 8:33
  5. Run Through the Light (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 4:42
  6. Tempus Fugit (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 5:17

Remarks

For financial reasons only, the names of all musicians involved are included with each song, but of course each title has its own history:

  • Machine Messiah is based on a Buggles idea, but of all the pieces on Drama is the one that was most likely created in cooperation with all members. An instrumental passage in odd time in the middle section goes back to White. By Geoffrey Downes comes the quote from Charles-Marie Widor 's Fifth Symphony (the beginning of the fifth set / Toccata).
  • White Car pays homage to Gary Numan and is by Downes and Horn.
  • Into the Lens is also from Downes and Horn. It can also be found in 1981 as I Am a Camera on the second Buggles album Adventures in Modern Recording .
  • The basic versions of Does It Really Happen? , Run Through the Light and Tempus Fugit come from the original Yes page. A bonus track on the Rhino re-release of the previous album Tormato , Everybody's Song , an early version of Does It Really Happen? , comes from the time between Relayer and Going for the One and was probably recorded with the keyboard player at the time, Patrick Moraz .
  • Two tracks were rehearsed by the band but did not appear on the final album: Go Through This and We Can Fly from Here . The former was released in 2004 as Have We Really Got to Go Through This in a studio version on an "Expanded & Remastered" version of Drama (see below), the latter as part of the suite Fly from Here on the studio album of the same name from 2011. The two Live versions were released on The Word Is Live in 2005.

Republication

The album was remastered and re-released in 2004 by Rhino Records . This edition contains the following 10 bonus tracks:

  1. Into the Lens (I Am a Camera) (Single Version) (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 3:47
  2. Run Through the Light (Single Version) (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 4:31
  3. Have We Really Got to Go Through This (Howe / Squire / White) - 3:43
  4. Song No. 4 (Satellite) (Howe / Squire / White) - 7:31
  5. Tempus Fugit (Tracking Session) (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 5:39
  6. White Car (Tracking Session) (Downes / Horn / Howe / Squire / White) - 1:11
  7. Dancing Through the Light (Anderson / Howe / Squire / Wakeman / White) - 3:16
  8. Golden Age (Anderson / Howe / Squire / Wakeman / White) - 5:57
  9. In the Tower (Anderson / Howe / Squire / Wakeman / White) - 2:54
  10. Friend of a Friend (Anderson / Howe / Squire / Wakeman / White) - 3:38

Remarks

  • Titles 9-16 had never been published before.
  • The title song No. 4 (Satellite) was revisited by Squire and White along with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant during the XYZ sessions. The song was also played during the Cinema Sessions , but didn't land on 90125 .
  • The tracks 13-16 are from the failed Paris Sessions (November 1979) and were recorded by Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Alan White and produced by Roy Thomas Baker .

12 inch sound carrier

  • Into the Lens (12 ″ Remix) (Promo)

live

Review

The reviews in the English press were shaped by the changed music scene ( punk , new romantic , new wave ) and accordingly catastrophic. The New Musical Express summarized it succinctly: "'Yes': No Thanks". Not only Yes as a band had to struggle with image problems in the English press, the Buggles were not very popular despite their single hit. The album was received with mixed feelings among the fans, less because of the music, but mainly because of the departure of Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, both of whom were extremely popular. But even Wakeman, who initially vehemently rejected the album, later sees it as the important intermediate step to the later very successful album 90125 . After all, three years before Owner of a Lonely Heart, the song Into the Lens was played often and very successfully in discos.
The weak point of the band is the high voice of Trevor Horn , which is comparable to Anderson, but too weak . Squire was convinced that Horn was up to the song material, old and new, in the studio he also achieved a convincing performance, but he could not confirm it live.

Concerts

During the tour in England, the fan base followed closely who had more viewers, Yes or Jon Anderson who was on tour at the same time. Both did well, but Anderson had the hearts of fans on his side with his well-chosen program, which was balanced between Yes and solo titles. Yes played Go Through This and We Can Fly From Here in addition to the new tracks on this tour . The two live versions were released in 2005 on The Word Is Live .

Horn's vocal problems, especially with the old Yes titles, and an argument with White put a strain on Horn and the atmosphere in the band. At the end of the tour in the USA and England, which was quite short for Yes standards, it was clear that Yes was about to finally end.

This paved the way for the live album Yesshows ; the almost predecessor became the successor to Drama on November 24, 1980 . The few specimens of the trial pressing, which were weighed in gold on the market, can now only be recognized by the imprint of the different year on the label.

Yes fell apart after the tour ended. Shortly thereafter, Steve Howe, at the suggestion of the then former Yes manager Brian Lane, got together with former King Crimson , Uriah Heep and UK member John Wetton , and later also with Carl Palmer from Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Geoff Downes together, and the four formed the band Asia . He describes the situation at the time as follows: “When Geoff and I left Yes, there was actually no one else there.” However, Chris Squire and Alan White continued to work together and looked for new musicians - including Jimmy Page and Robert Plant from those who had just dissolved Led Zeppelin , with whom they started the XYZ project in 1981 - to tackle new projects.

Alan White's band White played a few live concerts after the turn of the millennium, but a major tour has not yet materialized. This is particularly regretted by fans who like drama , as White always played material from this album. When The More Drama Tour of the bands The Syn (with Chris Squire), White and Steve Howe, which was planned for 2005, was also canceled, the chances of ever hearing drama material live again fell further. It was not until 2008, after Yes frontman Jon Anderson had to take a break in the summer due to a severe asthma illness and a substitute singer had been found in Benoît David ( Mystery ), later Jon Davison ( Glass Hammer ), that the titles Tempus Fugit and Machine were taken Messiah back into the live repertoire.

On Cruise To The Edge (a progressive rock cruise) in 2017, Yes played the full-length album.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nick Deriso: Geoff Downes on Asia, Yes and 'Video Killed the Radio Star': Gimme Five. somethingelsereviews.com, August 9, 2012, accessed December 30, 2018 .

Sources and web links