Line #14 Trivia/Yes


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2	* BlackSheepHit:
3	** "Roundabout" off ''Music/{{Fragile}}'' has few progressive elements compared to most of their '70s output. It even sounds like a straightforward rock song if you listen to the radio edit. The original length? [[EpicRocking 8:37]]. Radio edit? ''3:27''.
4	** "Owner of a Lonely Heart" off ''Music/NineOhOneTwoFive'' was a catchy New Wave pop rock tune that sounded nothing like anything the band ever did before then. One of the first mainstream songs to ever use sampling, it was one of the most revolutionary and influential songs of the '80s and the popular MTV video helped introduced the band to a new generation of listeners, many who never knew they were a progressive rock band until then. Play this song to anyone, then play one of their '70s songs, and the listener will think they are two completely different bands. It remains the band's sole number one hit.
5	* BreakthroughHit: ''Music/TheYesAlbum'' was their first album to chart in America, and "Your Move" was their first single to make the Top 40.
6	* ChannelHop: Since the '80s, the band changes record labels almost as often as they change members:
7	** The ''[[Music/{{NineOhOneTwoFive}} 90125]]''-''Big Generator'' lineup was on Creator/AtlanticRecords' sister label, Creator/AtcoRecords.
8	** After being dropped by Atlantic, the "Yes West" lineup merged with Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe to release ''Union'' on Creator/AristaRecords.
9	** ''Talk'' was released on Victory Records.
10	** ''Keys to Ascension'' was released on Essential! Records in the U.K., with later reissues on Sanctuary, and CMC International in the U.S.
11	** ''Keys to Ascension 2'' was released on Purple Pyramid in the U.S.
12	** ''Magnification'' was released on Eagle Records in Europe and Beyond in the U.S.
13	** ''Fly From Here'' was issued on Frontiers, as was ''Heaven on Earth''
14	** ''The Quest'' was released on Inside Out Music.
15	* ChartDisplacement: "Wonderous Stories" is the band's best performer in their homeland, in spite of not becoming a set list mainstay or as remembered as the two entries above on BlackSheepHit.
16	* ColbertBump: For some young anime fans, and especially the Japanese audience, their first introduction to the band would be with "Roundabout" appearing as the first couple endings to the 2012 adaptation of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''.
17	* CreatorBacklash:
18	** Music/RickWakeman has long been open about his discontent with ''Music/TalesFromTopographicOceans'', citing how the impulse to fill out four sides of vinyl resulted in a great deal of what he considered AlbumFiller. Wakeman later stated that there was about an hour of really good music on it, and that it would've been better suited for the CD era given that there was too much usable music for one LP and too little for two.
19	** Wakeman also disliked ''Tormato'', which influenced the cover choice, and the band themselves have expressed disappointment in its production.
20	** Anderson had a particular distaste for ''Big Generator'', which contributed to his decision to leave afterward. His next album, ''Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe'', was in many ways a complete departure from everything he felt was wrong with ''Big Generator'', such as single-focused writing and trying to mimic ''Music/NineOhOneTwoFive''.
21	** Also most of the participants of ''Union'', due to the overproduction, ExecutiveMeddling and replacement of band contributions with that of session musicians and computer editing in post-production. Rick Wakeman famously calls it "Onion" [[IncrediblyLamePun as it brings tears to his eyes]] and he said that when he first heard it, he chucked the CD out of his limo and only has heard one other time since. He also famously quipped, "The only person that didn't play on this album was [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments my dog]]". Bill Bruford simply said it was "just awful". The tour supporting ''Union'' in 1991 only included up three of its songs in the setlist, and only one, "Saving My Heart", appears on the ''Union Live'' album, which wasn't released until ''twenty years later''. It is more a document for fans of the "mega-Yes" lineup of that time than for the ''Union'' album itself.
22	* CreatorKiller: ''Drama'' seemed to be this until the band came back for ''Music/NineOhOneTwoFive''. ''Union'', however, killed their commercial success, and all their studio albums have since been released on indie labels, though they're still an in-demand live act and several of their albums have still charted in the UK and elsewhere.
23	* DoingItForTheArt: Anderson temporarily left the band after the ''Big Generator'' tour because he felt that the writing for the album had been too focused on trying to write hit singles and appeal to the MTV crowd.
24	* ExecutiveMeddling: Rick Wakeman wasn't allowed to compose anything on ''Music/{{Fragile}}'' for legal reasons [[note]]except for, allegedly, the piano bridge on "South Side of the Sky", which went uncredited anyway[[/note]], which explains why his solo piece on that album is arranged classical work by Brahms. His contributions on followup ''Music/CloseToTheEdge'' were credited as [[LoopholeAbuse "themes"]] to get around the contractual lockout.
25	** This is the reason ''Music/NineOhOneTwoFive'' is a Yes album instead of a Cinema album. Cinema was originally Music/TrevorRabin, Chris Squire, and Alan White, with Tony Kaye added mainly for live shows (Rabin and Trevor Horn played most of the actual keyboard parts on the album). However, after Jon Anderson joined the fold, Atco Records [[DolledUpInstallment insisted that the band be called Yes]] (but then again, consider the fact Squire, Kaye, and Anderson were founding members and Alan White had been the only drummer since Music/BillBruford left). Rabin wasn't happy about this, not wanting to be perceived as a replacement for Steve Howe.
26	** WordOfGod says that this was a major force in the making of ''Union''. After the underperformance of Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe's debut album, Creator/AristaRecords, who were in a financial rut following the Music/MilliVanilli lip syncing scandal, decided to retool the follow-up as a Yes album to capitalize on brand recognition. Since the incumbent lineup of Yes was simultaneously recording a follow-up to ''Big Generator'', Arista persuaded those members to contribute to ABWH's project, then cobbled together material from both albums plus pieces by the individual members. Additionally, producer Jonathan Elias replaced parts by ABWH with session musicians in order to get the album finished on time.
27	** After ''Union'', the record label Victory offered a contract to record ''Talk'' only to the members who had been on the hit eighties albums, ''Music/NineOhOneTwoFive'' and ''Big Generator''. They then made sure an epic length song ("Endless Dream") and an old song by Rabin, "Walls", appeared on the record; the latter, much to Rabin's chagrin. In a bit of poetic justice, [[CreatorKiller the label folded shortly after its release]].
28	* HeAlsoDid:
29	** Rick Wakeman contributed keyboards to several Music/DavidBowie albums: ''Music/SpaceOddity'', ''Music/HunkyDory'' and ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars''. Bowie offered him a permanent spot in his backup band, but Wakeman chose to join Yes instead. Wakeman's not the only Yes keyboardist with a connection to Bowie; Tony Kaye was also part of Bowie's band for his 1976 Isolar tour.
30	** Wakeman and Steve Howe also played on Music/LouReed's first solo album.
31	** Music/BillBruford's original stint in Yes can be seen as this for those familiar with work with Music/KingCrimson, on top of solo work.
32	** Rick Wakeman contributed keyboards as a SpecialGuest in, out of all things, Music/BlackSabbath on the track ''Sabbra Cadabra''.
33	** Steve Howe provided the Flamenco guitar interlude in the TitleTrack to Music/{{Queen\|Band}}'s ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'', thanks to it being too difficult for Music/BrianMay to play.
34	** Music/TrevorRabin has had a decent career in scoring, doing the soundtracks for films like ''Film/Armageddon1998'', ''Film/NationalTreasure'', ''Film/ConAir'' (alongside Mark Mancina), and ''Film/RememberTheTitans''. "Titans Spirit" from the last of these has been [[RecycledSoundtrack recycled]] for Creator/{{NBC}}'s coverage of the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames and UsefulNotes/BarackObama's acceptance speech after winning the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Rabin is part of producer Creator/JerryBruckheimer's ProductionPosse at this point, having scored or co-scored thirteen of Bruckheimer's films. In total, he has more than forty film score credits, though some were collaborations with other composers. He's taken a break to focus on Yes with Anderson, Rabin, and Wakeman, though.
35	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
36	** ''Talk'' was this for a long time; the album only ever had two CD printings for a long time (the initial release in 1994 and a limited re-release in 2002; the latter reformats "Endless Dream" as one track and adds an extended mix of "The Calling"), which means getting a CD of ''Talk'' involves finding a used copy or paying inflated prices for the scarce amount of new ones. And if you want to TakeAThirdOption and buy the mp3 version? It turns out ''Talk'' has never had a legitimate digital release, and is not available in full even on streaming sites like Spotify (some of the album used to be available, but as of September 2014 it's vanished entirely). However, the album did receive a 2-disc vinyl reissue in 2015 that's slightly easier to find. Averted as of 2024, with the release of a 30th anniversary box set.
37	** The original version of ''Fly From Here'' (not the ''Return Trip'' remix, which is much easier to find) is actually harder to find on CD than ''Talk'', and ''Return Trip'' is the only version available digitally. Both the original ''Fly From Here'' and ''Return Trip'' were also released on vinyl but are quite rare and expensive.
38	** Steven Wilson's 2017 remix of ''Relayer'' does not feature the infamous percussion rig used in the 'battle' section of "The Gates of Delirium". Apparently, it was recorded directly overtop of the final finished master, and thus was not available as its own separate track for proper remixing. Either way, the Blu-ray version of this album includes both the 2017 and original versions; and pressings from other years are still in circulation.
39	* MoneyDearBoy:
40	** ''Music/{{Fragile}}'' had the band members doing "solo" pieces to record the album quickly in order to pay back the bank loan for Rick Wakeman's keyboards. However, it's still considered one of the band's best albums.
41	** Bill Bruford has said in interviews that the major reason he formed Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe with his former Yes bandmates was the potential to make far more money than he could performing solo. However, he left Yes after ''Union'' a few years later due to feeling artistically constrained, despite the money.
42	* TheOtherDarrin: Alan White, after Bill Bruford left Yes in 1972 to join Music/KingCrimson.
43	* ThePeteBest: Peter Banks, who got fired for complaining about the addition of an orchestra on ''Time and a Word''. Curiously, his first name and that of the TropeNamer are "Peter" and their surnames begin with the initial "B".
44	* NoExportForYou: ''The Studio Albums 1969-1987'', a Europe-only box set of the band's Atlantic/Atco catalog packaged in LP replica sleeves.
45	* PromotedFanboy:
46	** Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of Music/TheBuggles were both fans. They tried to submit a song to Yes in 1980, and were asked to join as replacements for Anderson and Wakeman, since both bands had the same manager (Brian Lane). They hadn't even known about the shakeups in the band lineup yet.
47	** Benoît David was lead vocalist for Yes tribute band Close to the Edge before becoming the lead vocalist of Yes. Similarly, Jon Davison has also been involved in a Yes tribute band before his hiring.
48	* ProductionPosse: In TheSeventies, producer Eddie Offord and album cover designer Roger Dean.
49	* ReferencedBy: Creator/MutantEnemy is named after a line from their song "And You and I", a song which was itself inspired by Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy'', with its mutant enemy; The Mule.
50	* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Igor Khoroshev left the band after being accused of sexual assault by two female security guards on tour.
51	* ThrowItIn:
52	** The percussion rig of scrap parts being knocked over in "The Gates of Delirium" was an accident.
53	** ''Literally'' led to the final cover of ''Tormato''. Creator/{{Hipgnosis}} had been showing Yes the photographs taken for the cover at the Yes Tor, when the album was still planned to be named ''Yes Tor'', when a frustrated Wakeman [[ProducePelting threw a tomato at one of the images]], annoyed by how poor he felt the proposal was. Hipgnosis ended up incorporating the effect into the final cover, and the album was renamed ''Tormato''.
54	* TroubledProduction:
55	** ''Drama'', thanks to Alan White's foot injury stopping recording, the disastrous Roy Thomas Baker sessions, and Wakeman and Anderson leaving the band.
56	** ''Big Generator'' took over two years to make due to Trevor Horn leaving production early because he and Tony Kaye weren't getting along, Trevor Rabin becoming IAmTheBand and disagreeing with Jon Anderson. Anderson was looking to make a Yes album with the classic 70s style, while Rabin wanted to evolve ''90125'''s sound and score another Top 40 hit. Also, they recorded the album in 3 different studios, all in different countries. They started out in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, but they decided to go to UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} to record it in an Italian palace. They recorded "Shoot High, Aim Low" there, then they went to the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom to record "Rhythm of Love", then ended up ''back where they started in Los Angeles'' to record the rest of the album. When Chris Squire was interviewed about the album, he said that he and Alan White recorded their parts on the album over and over during the ''whole two year period''.
57	** ''Union'' as described in the ExecutiveMeddling entry above.
58	** ''Fly From Here'' had similar birthing problems with another Wakeman/Anderson exodus and the legal and personal issues that kept Yes from recording for ten or so years.
59	%%The following example has been commented out for being Zero Context Examples. Do not uncomment them without expanding them to explain how they apply.
60	%%** ''Close to the Edge''
61	* UnCanceled: The band's 1982 re-[[StealthPun union]], though it wasn't originally intended that way.
62	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
63	** After the low sales of ''Yes'' and ''Time and a Word'', Creator/AtlanticRecords was seriously considering dropping the band if their third album was also a commercial disappointment. Yes didn't know it at the time, but ''Music/TheYesAlbum'' was their make-or-break moment...and they passed with flying colors.
64	** Music/PhilCollins was scheduled to audition to be their drummer, but earlier that same day he auditioned for Music/{{Genesis\|Band}} and went with them instead. Collins later toured to support ''Music/ATrickOfTheTail'' with Music/BillBruford as the second drummer.
65	** ''Music/{{Fragile}}'' was originally envisioned as a double album with live tracks. This was dropped because of cost concerns and the need to get the album out quickly to pay off the bank loan for Wakeman's instruments.
66	** After the breakup of Yes in 1981, Chris Squire and Alan White tried to form a {{supergroup}} called XYZ with former Music/LedZeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Plant quickly lost interest in the project and the band folded. But then Squire and White started working with Music/TrevorRabin...
67	** Jimmy Page entered the picture yet again when he wanted to collaborate with Bill Bruford in a project he had with [[Music/BadCompany Paul Rodgers]] called "The Firm". Bruford had to decline due to contractual and artistic conflicts, but this ultimately left him free to do ABWH a few years later. [[note]]Page ultimately recruited Music/ManfredMann drummer Chris Slade for The Firm.[[/note]]
68	** Music/{{Vangelis}} was also seriously considered for a spot in the group after Rick Wakeman left but chose to go solo. He did collaborate with Jon Anderson in the early '80s.
69	** They were reportedly turned down for UsefuLNotes/LiveAid because there was no room on the bill.
70	** Rabin, Kaye, Squire, and White originally asked Trevor Horn (who had already committed to be the producer) to sing on the album that would become ''Music/NineOhOneTwoFive''. Horn refused (remembering the poor reception from fans he had received on the ''Drama'' tour). It was only after this that Squire met Anderson at a party and brought him back into the fold.
71	** Eddie Jobson (ex-Music/RoxyMusic, Music/JethroTull, {{Music/UK}} and Music/FrankZappa keyboardist/violinist) was recruited to join Yes in 1983 after Tony Kaye (who had recorded some of the keyboard parts as a special guest) had finished his studio work on ''90125''. Jobson and Kaye rehearsed with Yes for the ''90125'' tour, and Jobson participated in the filming of the "top of the skyscraper" part of the video of "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" (though he was largely edited out later), but some personal[[note]] Right before the ''90125'' tour started, the band caved to original manager Brian Lane's demand to include at least three members of the original Yes, thus including Kaye supported by backstage players. Jobson was informed via phone call while rehearsing Yes material in his Connecticut studio.[[/note]] and musical differences[[note]] Jobson began work on his first solo album: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHFc9DeWcCA&list=OLAK5uy_lW25qeD2Dmt904srf36qfr1UIV47-sQ8w Zinc: The Green Album]]'', shortly after {{Music/UK}} disbanded. It wouldn't see release until 1983 after touring with Music/JethroTull and before the Yes episode. [[/note]] led Jobson to leave the band.
72	*** Jobson would share more extensive details of his time with Yes in [[https://alt.music.yes.narkive.com/ZYjvULS7/jobson-on-yes a Usenet thread.]] A decade before ''90125'', he was briefly courted to replace Rick Wakeman following the latter's exit after ''Tales From Topographic Oceans''. By that point, Music/RoxyMusic hit their stride after replacing Music/BrianEno with Jobson on their ''Stranded'' and ''Music/CountryLife'' albums. Jobson refused the gig, taking a dim view of Chris Squire and the [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll lavish lifestyles]] of his prog contemporaries. Yes wound up hiring Patrick Moraz, fresh off cutting an album with Refugee featuring ex-The Nice members Lee Jackson and Davy O'List[[note]] Ironically, Roxy's first guitarist before Phil Manzanera. [[/note]].
73	---> '''Jobson:''' As naïve as it may have been, [[DoingItForTheArt I really was in it for the music.]]
74	** Music/{{Supertramp}}'s Roger Hodgson was also considered as Yes frontman when Anderson went off to form Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe in the wake of ''Big Generator''. The band ultimately decided to merge back with ABWH, but not before he wrote some songs with the band, which is why Hodgson has a writing credit on "Walls". A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z3Q_WyYZ4Y 1990 demo recording]] with Hodgson and Rabin on vocals surfaced on the latter's 2004 ''90124'' album, giving an idea of what a Hodgson-fronted Yes might have sounded like.
75	** "Love Will Find a Way" was originally written for Music/StevieNicks.
76	** When Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, the band formed by those ex-Yes members which was Yes-in-all-but-name, they were nearly going to (somewhat humorously) call themselves "No". "The Affirmative" was also mooted. As a jab to the official band, they released the ABWH album under the catalogue number of ''9012'''6'''''!
77	** The album that became ''Union'' started off as a second Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album, tentatively titled ''Dialogue'', or ''We Make Believe''. However, "Take the Water to the Mountain" is the only piece from ''Dialogue'' that ended up making it intact onto ''Union'', with the rest of the tracks remaining unreleased until Jon Anderson finally included some of them in a rarities collection in 2006.
78	** Legal issues (and Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman's health problems) kept the reunited "Classic Yes" Anderson-Howe-Squire-Wakeman-White lineup that toured in the mid-[[TheOughties 2000s]] from recording a new album. By the time they got to record a new album (''Fly from Here''), the line-up changed considerably.
79	** Oliver Wakeman intended to contribute heavily to the writing of ''Fly from Here'' before he was booted out for Geoff Downes, who contributed to the title track of that album. By the time it was finished, "Into the Storm" was the only piece Oliver contributed to that remained, although he actually played on parts of the title suite and "Hour of Need" as well. Interestingly, although Benoit David was largely mixed out of the ''Return Trip'' remix, Oliver's contributions were kept intact. The 2019 ''From a Page'' EP (Which consists of several tracks from the ''Fly from Here'' sessions not used on the album) also features Oliver on keyboards.
80	** Several outtakes have been released through the years which reveal quite a lot about the group's writing process. "All Fighters Past", a fragment included on the 2015 remix of ''Music/{{Fragile}}'', reveals that a segment of "The Revealing Science of the God" dates back at least to the sessions for ''Fragile''. It's only a fragment because apparently the group reused tapes of material that they didn't feel was satisfactory, which makes one wonder what was erased in the studio. A rehearsal of "The Revealing Science of God" included on the 2003 remaster of the album (inexplicably not included on the 2015 remaster) also reveals that the same segment got a TriumphantReprise in the rehearsal. The band cut it in the final version, but it feels like a loss. (WordOfGod says that the original version of that particular song was over twenty-five minutes long.) Jon Anderson has expressed a desire for awhile to re-edit ''Tales from Topographic Oceans'' for concision, but one wonders whether there was other material left on the cutting room floor that would have improved the album.
81	** Similarly, "South Side of the Sky", as revealed on the 2015 remix, had a radically different arrangement when the band was rehearsing it. There was a cheerful acoustic guitar/organ passage in the instrumental midsection that got removed because it didn't fit with the mood of the song, which makes sense, but the band doesn't seem to have reused it later, which is a shame, because it's rather charming.
82	** In 2018, the band released ''Fly From Here - Return Trip'', an alternate version of the 2011 album which among other edits and remixing, features Trevor Horn on lead vocals instead of Benoît David. The album thus could be seen as an exercise in What Could Have Been for the ''Drama'' lineup had they not disbanded after its tour.
83	** [[http://forgotten-yesterdays.com/dates.asp?ftype=1&qbandid=1&qdec=1970&qdateid=496 At one point]] (see the bottom comment), although nobody knows how serious the offer was, Yes asked Music/KingCrimson guitarist Music/RobertFripp to perform on one of their albums. Whether or not this was an offer to be their permanent guitarist after Peter Banks left the band is unknown, but Fripp said no. Instead, Jon Anderson provided vocals for King Crimson's "Prince Rupert Awakes", and Bill Bruford would join King Crimson as their drummer after leaving Yes.

Context Trivia / Yes