One of a continuing series in regards to the myriad variety of Trevor’s discography.
Yesterday I saw this Tweet, and it reminded me that I had written about this very thing over a year ago but had never posted it...so now's a good time as any:
One of prog’s eternal mysteries - what did Trevor Rabin do on WTTP? I’d like to think it’s him and Lippo on Ballad Of 32.
— Martin Ingram (@throg) June 12, 2014
So without further ado...WELCOME.
~*~*~*~
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan, or, A Vision In A Dream"
Trevor Horn (the other Trevor Charles in the history of Yes) is deservedly considered a Super Producer, one of those whose talent and methodologies signify that when he comes to a project, the end result will bear his unmistakable stamp, he puts part of himself in all the records he brings to fruition. And at the beginning of his career as a producer there were two records he put more of himself into than perhaps any other, two records which have certainly defined his career over the whole and endure as classics not only of their time, but outside of it. Both are – and this may be a hotly-contested opinion – Pop Prog masterpieces.
The first is Yes’ 1983 release 90125. The other is this album:
As time and various commentary has revealed, Welcome To The Pleasuredome is what is known as a “producers record,” a practice not unheard of in the 1960s and ‘70s; many of the biggest hits of those eras were simply studio projects, the brainchild of one particular producer or another featuring a cadre of studio musicians. Frankie Goes To Hollywood didn’t necessarily start out as a pet project but evolved into one courtesy of Mr. Horn and his grand vision for world pop chart domination.
And this is where the Maestro (Our Trev) enters the picture. According to various accounts (among them The Two Trevors), Mr. Horn has Mr. Rabin to thank for bringing the Frankies to his attention, and ultimately massive success. The story goes that the Maestro caught the Frankies performance on the Channel 4 music program The Tube and informed Mr. Horn this was a group he should consider signing to his new imprint ZTT.
As indicated on both his official discography and various citations in the media, he also played on the album, one of his more interesting credits, except…well, it’s not actually official. Trevor is missing from the printed credits of the record. Yet - and this likely put a self-satisfied smirk on the faces of any number of Yes purists - Steve Howe is credited for his contribution to the album's title track. (The tr.net discography also lists the second album Liverpool and again no official credit can be found; but I am limiting the topic of this essay to the debut.)
But that may not be a surprise when you consider the credits as a whole. As one of an unofficial group of Yes historians, Henry Potts commented a few years ago in a discography entry on a Yes fansite:
I've given the official credits above, but they are a pack of lies! Of the FGTH material, Johnson wrote all the lyrics and the music is mainly by Johnson/O'Toole/Gill. There are very significant re-arrangements and additions from Horn and his crew. None of the FGTH instrumentalists play on the album at all; again, Horn and his crew played everything. Horn himself probably plays on the album (keys? bass?) and certainly did programming for it. Howe is as credited and Trevor Rabin also did some uncredited guitar session work.
In an exchange with a fan on Twitter, vocalist Holly Johnson did not recall Mr. Rabin playing on the album, his answer to the inquiry was:
Steve Howe played on the title track only. Steve Lipson played most of the guitar on the album.
I'm sure readers are asking, "Humble Narrator, whatever do you mean by 'Pop Prog' or by putting Frankie, YesWest, and prog in the same essay? Have you lost your fangirl mind?!" But I fully believe there is such a thing and the designation has to do with the scope of the ambition of the work, the sense of grandeur created by every aspect of the recordings. Mr. Horn is viewed as the savior of Yes in no less than three different eras and in part it's because he does hold a certain reverence for the aims of prog, if not always the execution. Pleasuredome is certainly one of the most well-crafted and sophisticated albums in the history of pop music, and more than a bit subversive in its aims: musically, socially and even politically. Mr. Horn was always thinking big, not only in terms of his career but in his desire to craft productions which would dominate the taste of the entire world. Consider the title track and the way it combines both a pop hook in the bassline as well as the movements of both melodic and ambient sections with other adventurous elements to create a literal imposing fanciful construction in the aural sense. The suite (if you combine all those pieces into one, which I believe you are meant to) takes up the entire side of an album, a bit unusual for a pop song to do at the time.
It has been said this album is far too farcical, over the top, over-indulgent and just plain vulgar. But I disagree, for underneath the winking sexual references, silliness and pandering is an elegance which could only be found in the 80s. As critic Wyndham Wallace noted in an article for The Quietus upon the 25th anniversary of the album's release:
Undeniably far from faultless, Welcome To The Pleasuredome nonetheless challenged notions of authenticity, ridiculed the establishment, confronted taboos, embraced artistic and cultural literacy and dissected contemporary paranoid society. [...] Maybe it’s simply that people consider Welcome To The Pleasuredome to contain too much filler, a swollen pustule of glossy style over little substance. But all of these things are what make this record so extraordinary, because Welcome To The Pleasuredome is much more than just music. It’s a manifesto, a satire, a historical document, and a masterpiece whose weaknesses may be evident but whose strengths are overwhelming.
So wherein lies our Maestro in all this sonic splendour? The savage electric textures of the title track and "War?" The shards of metallic sex in "Relax?" In the reprisal of The Boss' classic riff in "Born To Run?" The atmospheric Floydian layers of "The Ballad of 32?" The crisp chords of "Krisco Kisses" and "Black Night White Light?" It could be any one of those as Trevor can play anything (and has) to meet the needs of the session at hand. So it makes for an interesting consideration at the very least, a game of Spot The Trevor. And also interesting that no one has ever asked him about it, or at least not that I've ever read in my years as a Rabinite.
But I believe Welcome To The Pleasuredome deserves a spin for reasons more than mere investigation...because they don't make records like this anymore. Not even by Trevor Horn.
