The new issue of PROG (cover story: Pink Floyd's new release The Endless River) contains an article about the making of 90125 from their "The Albums That Saved Prog" series. The article, featuring quotes from Trevor, Chris Squire and Jon Anderson is - in my estimation - mostly factual regarding events (which do get confused in the telling from time-to-time) and interesting in regards to some of the quotes.
For example, a funny detail from Trevor's recounting of his first meeting with Chris Squire and Alan White:
So, the three of us agreed to meet at a sushi bar in London. Chris was late, which I was to discover was usual for him, but we eventually went back to his place and jammed.And with the fullness of time we know The Two Trevors are good friends now, but it is noted that there was much tension between Rabin and Horn at the outset:
Chris thought we needed a frontman, someone who sang. But Trevor and I just didn't get on at all.Also noted is one of the most telling historical details...Phil Carson's unrelenting insistence that the Yes name be revived. As he has recounted in other interviews, Carson put much of his own money toward the recording of the album but his boss, Ahmet Ertegun, was not interested in signing the band to Atlantic without the assurance of the brand name, and thus the only way Carson could recoup his costs was to present Ertegun with a new album by Yes.
There is also another mention of the alternate mix of the album which had been previously noted by Trevor Horn in his lecture for the Red Bull Academy in 2011, but Squire does not elaborate on the details:
Trevor Rabin wasn't satisfied and did a couple of his own remixes. But the label were very happy with the original mix, and we didn't want to compromise and have a few Rabin remixes alongside the rest from Horn.What actually occurred is Trevor desired a different mix of the album and enlisted producer/engineer James Guthrie - whom he had originally approached to co-produce Wolf a few years earlier - to create new mixes, which took place at Mayfair Studios in London. But when Horn got wind of the project he asked Ertegun to put a stop to it and use the original mix. Only two tracks had been remixed, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and "Hearts," when work was halted.
The article concludes with an observation that the popularity of 90125 helped to revive - and even reinvent - Yes for a new decade, with Trevor and Chris noting that their audience expanded thanks to the success of "Owner" and the album.
The November issue of PROG can be purchased now at all available retailers.
