Keys to Ascension

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Keys to Ascension
Studio album by Yes

Publication
(s)

October 23, 1996

Label (s) CMC / Essential Records

Format (s)

2 CD

Genre (s)

Progressive rock

Title (number)

9

running time

1:56:12

occupation

production

Yes

chronology
Talk
(1994) 		Keys to Ascension Keys to Ascension 2
(1997)

Keys to Ascension is the title of a live / studio album and concert video by the progressive rock band Yes and was released in 1996. It is the first album since Tormato (1979) that Yes released with the classic line-up of the successful 1970s.

Emergence

Songwriting and recording of the new studio tracks

In May 1995 Yes singer Jon Anderson called former Yes guitarist Steve Howe to ask him what he thought of a revival of the "classic" Yes line-up (Anderson, Howe, Chris Squire , Alan White , Rick Wakeman ) . Howe liked the idea and agreed to take part in a corresponding project. In July 1995, keyboardist Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe traveled to Los Angeles to meet with US-based band members Anderson, Squire and White. The five musicians decided to get back together as Yes . The mood was unusually positive and the band members decided to start working on new songs as soon as possible. Anderson, Squire and Howe met that summer to write new songs. This work continued until autumn.

Disappointed with their last management, Left Bank, the band hired Squires manager Jon Brewer (from Impact) as band manager. CMC President Tom Lipski had signed Yes, whom he called his favorite band, and suggested writing new songs rather than simply producing a live album.

In November Howe traveled to the USA again to continue working with him on the new songs in Anderson's home town of San Luis Obispo . These songs, That, that is and Be The One were finally recorded in February 1996 only by Anderson, Howe, Squire and White, Wakeman could only arrive on January 29, 1996 due to other obligations, played his keyboard parts afterwards and prepared them prepare for the upcoming live performances together with the other musicians.

The concerts in San Luis Obispo

Even while Anderson, Squire and Howe were writing new songs, the plan had been made to organize a concert in New York or Philadelphia, which would subsequently be released as a video and a live album. Rehearsals for such a concert had started in October, albeit without Rick Wakeman, who could only join the band at the end of January. Later, however, it was decided against a big concert.

At the beginning of 1996 the band rehearsed first with four, and from January 29th with five, old material for a short-term concert in the small Freemont Theater, an Art Deco cinema in San Luis Obispo . It wasn't until ten days before the concert that the band decided to give two concerts on March 5th and 6th. Both were sold out within a short time via the fan clubs.

During rehearsals, representatives from Yes' old record company Atlantic Records visited the band in San Luis Obispo. Business offers from Atlantic were rejected by Yes.

At short notice, the band decided to let fans into Freemont for a dress rehearsal on March 4th. When someone came up with the idea of ​​charging $ 100 for entry on March 4th, it angered the band and the fans, but Anderson, Squire and White overruled Howe and Wakeman, and so an entrance fee was charged for the dress rehearsal. This created considerable tension in the band. The concerts themselves were very successful, however, as Yes played many songs that had not been performed live for years.

The concerts were recorded for publication later that year. Since only three concerts were played, from which one could put together recordings for a live album, it was considered necessary to correct errors afterwards in the studio. When Steve Howe came for four days to correct some of his vocal passages, he noticed that no band member was overseeing the mixing of the recordings: Anderson and Wakeman were on solo tours at the time, Squire and White had also already left. Howe then decided to do this himself, assuming it would take a little time. In the end, however, the work cost him almost half a year. Only Jon Anderson helped him occasionally.

Difficulties with management and record company

Ideas to go on a tour in the summer of 1996 failed, much to the displeasure of the record company, which considered a tour necessary to promote a new Yes release. At that point the band, the management and CMC were divided on whether a live album and a studio album should be released separately or whether live and studio material should be released together. Since only small sales figures were expected for a live album and a pure studio album, given the disappointing sales of the previous album Talk, seemed too risky for the small record company CMC due to the necessary advertising expenditure, it was decided to include some of the songs recorded in San Luis Obispo to release the new material in the hopes that the latter would boost record sales. This was particularly displeasing to Rick Wakeman, who would have preferred to see a complete studio album released, to which the live recordings would have been added as a bonus CD.

On October 23, 1996, part of the concert recordings from San Luis Obispo appeared together with That, That is and Be The One as a double CD under the title Keys To Ascension on the CMC International label. When Yes demanded an advance that was too large in Lipski's eyes for the planned concert video, Lipski prevented its publication in the USA. Due to technical problems, the release of the video had to be postponed two days before the planned release date.

In order to promote the new album, press appointments and television appearances were organized. The band has appeared on the Howard Stern Show , the Fox After Breakfast TV show and on the radio , among others . In November Yes played a small acoustic set at the Tower Records record store on Sunset Boulevard . But in November CMC had already ended the advertising campaign, record sales were bad and without a tour there was no improvement in sight. The band returned to the studio to record new songs for their next album, Keys to Ascension 2 . At this point, CMC had already lost interest in the band.

Due to the lack of success, Yes changed management. They turned back to their former agency, Left Bank Management.

Track list

CD 1

  1. Siberian Khatru (Anderson / Howe / Wakeman) - 10:16
  2. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) (Anderson / Squire / Howe / Wakeman / White) - 20:31
  3. America ( Paul Simon ) - 10:28
  4. Onward (Howe / Squire) - 5:40
    • contains new intro Unity by Steve Howe
  5. Awaken (Anderson / Howe) - 18:29

CD 2

  1. Roundabout (Anderson / Howe) - 8:30
  2. Starship Trooper - 13:06
    • I. Life Seeker (Anderson)
    • II. Disillusion (Squire)
    • III. Worm (Howe)
  3. Be the One (Anderson / Squire / Howe) - 9:50
    • I. The One
    • II. Human child
    • III. Skates
  4. That, That Is (Anderson / Squire / Howe / White) - 7:15 pm
    • I. Togetherness
    • II. Crossfire
    • II. The Giving Things
    • IV. # That Is
    • V. All in All
    • VI. How Did Heaven Begin?
    • VII. Agree to Agree

The last two tracks are new studio recordings.

Remarks

  • Be the One and That, that is are the two new studio tracks that were released here for the first time.
  • That, that is is about gangs, drugs, and violent crime, unusual topics for Yes

Chart placements

Keys to Ascension (Essential EDF CD 417) reached number 48 in the English and number 99 in the US charts.

occupation

Cover

The cover for Keys to Ascension was designed by fantasy artist Roger Dean , who was responsible for many of the classic Yes album covers back in the 1970s. The double album is in a slipcase.

The two covers show islands connected by natural bridges. The idea goes back to Jon Anderson.

live

The live tracks (all songs on CD 1 and songs 1 and 2 on CD2) were recorded during three concerts in San Luis Obispo (March 4th, 5th and 6th, 1996). Neither Be the One nor That, that is were ever played live.

Know -Tour

For the summer of 1997 a tour with the Keys-to-Ascension material under the name Know was planned. Ten concerts in the USA (June 12th to July 27th) were specifically announced in spring 1997 and put on sale. Rehearsals were scheduled for May. However, the ticket sales went badly because CMC had hardly advertised the Keys albums and so few fans knew that Yes were active again, and it turned out that they had booked halls that were far too large. Since the tour dates had not been agreed with Rick Wakeman (he had planned a solo tour at the time, so that he could not go on the tour) the planned concerts were canceled. Wakeman also had different ideas about a tour: while he was envisioning a tour through large halls, the other musicians wanted to play concerts in smaller clubs, as a tour through large halls represented too great a financial risk in view of the poor sales of the last Yes albums would have. Initially, the tour was supposed to be rescheduled in autumn, then it was completely canceled. The option of touring together with Emerson, Lake and Palmer was rejected by all involved.

Because of this chaotic management (Wakeman had wisely not signed the contract with Left Bank Management), but also because some of his musical contributions had been deleted afterwards, Rick Wakeman left the band.

Due to the poor sales of Keys to Ascension , which CMC attributed to the fact that Yes had not gone on tour, the record company stopped the release of Keys to Ascension 2, which was planned for spring 1997 .

Sources and web links