Media Watch: Rock Candy issue 23

Available now, the latest issue of UK-based magazine Rock Candy features an examination of the '80s YesWest oeuvre, 90125 and Big Generator - Jon and Trevor are interviewed by well-known (to us) journalist Malcolm Dome.  The interview with Trevor is fairly in-depth as regards the events of Trevor's development deal with Geffen and how that ultimately led to his joining up with Chris and Alan and thus to the revamping of Yes and the creation of those aforementioned albums.  There's a few details I don't believe I'd heard/read before, such as Mutt Lange being the one to recommend Trevor as a touring musician for Foreigner (though it certainly makes sense, given that Lange had produced their latest album of that time, 4).

Also of note: in the interview with Jon he discussed the "lost" documentary of the 9012Live tour, which we all know actually does exist as Access All Areas on the DVD release of the concert film.  Jon takes credit for the idea entire, although I've been given to understand (after my remarks in the episode of Have You SEEN This? regarding the film) that Chris was responsible for choosing Steven Soderbergh based on a short he had created which Soderbergh was using as an audition reel at the time.

artistry acknowledged

Congrats to Hannah Hooper and Grouplove on their Grammy nomination!  Healer has made the final five slate for Best Recording Package, with the potential award going to Hannah and Julian Gross as art directors.

As with all the Grouplove releases, the album cover was created by Hannah and features many of her illustrations in the accompanying booklet.  Long-time fans are also aware Hannah painted the portrait of Trevor which serves as the cover of Jacaranda.

the latest earworm

Dropped today from those happenin' lads in Captain Cuts, a new track featuring pop vocalist AJ Mitchell.  Not quite a sunny banger like we've become accustomed to, but still quite catchy even cast as a song of longing for a missed connection.

guess who

As I posted about some weeks ago, Wakey has got a new program available via subscription called Rick's Plaice and today has posted a brief cameo featuring a good friend (which I predicted, but not quite in this way).  One may only hope that Trevor makes an actual appearance in the show itself at some point.  I'm assuming because of the context of the clip that is indeed the case. 

But I think the most interesting part of this is not what one might think it is...though I see that some people have already commented on it.

speculating about Cinema

I came across this particular YouTube upload during one of my usual forays and while I appreciate its' ambition I do have a few issues with its' premise...

The description box provides the context:
After Yes disbanded in 1981 following the Drama tour, bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White formed a new group with singer-songwriter/guitarist Trevor Rabin and former Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye. This new group was known as "Cinema." Demos were recorded and a debut album began to take shape... That album was never completed. As the album was being mixed, Jon Anderson returned to helm the vocals and the band name "Cinema" was jettisoned. Yes had returned! But what would that album have sounded like without Jon Anderson? Through the years, bits and pieces of the Cinema-era songs have surfaced. This video represents a "best guess," using the songs that were either completely recorded or contained elements and riffs that would later result in the official 90125 release. Some of these songs are complete, others a bit rough, but you will get the picture...

First of all, that album was completed.  If it wasn't, we wouldn't have had "Make It Easy" and "It's Over."  According to Jon Dee (who was one of the only two fans who witnessed the Cinema lineup in action) there are extant copies of the Cinema album in the hands of at least a few people.  I would well imagine each of the Trevors has one, for example.  And likely Alan White as well.  Also, designer Garry Mouat has stated that the album packaging was originally created for a Cinema release, and was subsequently altered to reflect the new/old identity.  So there is a fundamental flaw in this particular assertion.  However, I can wholly understand desiring to speculate regarding what a Cinema album would contain and what it would sound like.  As his tracklisting illustrates, we have some basis to imagine a group led vocally by Trevor and Chris.

The playlist contains selections which are complete finished songs as well as demo recordings.

Presenting the album that almost was... "Yes: Cinematic" 

1) Make it Easy 2) Owner of a Lonely Heart  3) Moving In  4) It Can Happen  5) Changes  6) Cinema  7) It's Over  8) Fools  9) Hold On  10) Promenade

My points of critique/response are offered thus:

-1-  Everything on 90125 existed in some form before Jon's rejoining.

A Cinema album would have absolutely included "Leave It" and "City of Love."  If you listen to "Leave It," for example, the vocals which are truly dominant are Chris and the two Trevors; it's definitely an example of how Jon was "flown in" (in audio engineering parlance) to flesh it out.

-2- It doesn't make any sense to include more than one version of a song.

As example, you wouldn't include both "Don't Give In" and "Make It Easy" - you would probably only have the latter.   So why would you include both "Hold On" and "Moving In" - if it's simply for the purposes of illustration then the obvious choice is "Moving In." 

-3- "Promenade" is not era-appropriate.

If we take Trevor at his word. he worked up a version of this composition for inclusion on Big Generator, not 90125 - even though, yes, there was an prior version of it (as we have the evidence of a demo from the early '80s).

-4- The appropriate date is still 1983.

Recording of the album was not actually completed until mid-1983, so even if it had been released as a Cinema album, it would have occurred in 1983, not 1982.

So in terms of my best guess, the Cinema album would have probably been more like the following if we consider comparisons for what made the final running order:

Owner of a Lonely Heart

Moving In

It Can Happen

Changes

Cinema

Leave It

Make It Easy

City of Love

Fools

...but you can certainly create a version which omits "Leave It" and "City of Love" and substitute with "It's Over" and "You Know Something I Don't Know," or "I'm With You" for example.  Or even - though I shudder to think - "Would You Feel My Love."  But that's just in terms of what we are aware of - the majority of fans don't know all of the songs which were recorded for the album, and we might never know.

Granted, Jon's contributions to 90125 are fairly significant even considering that he was only involved for about three weeks in the final recording process.  Without Jon you would not have "Our Song" or "Hearts" but you would have a version of those songs.  There are versions of all of the songs, but Jon did make a fair amount of changes/additions to the majority of the lyrics.

After my deep-dive examination of 90124 and what that album should have been if it was truly going to be a precursor to 90125, it strikes me that we could also consider the Cinema record as a version of 90124, since supposedly that was the original catalog number assigned (and thus the title).  Naturally we are left with a certain amount of speculation, but my contention is that the game of What If is always better played when you know as much history as is out there to discover.

off-topic: kudos to a friend of mine

I don't often make off-topic posts but...this is something really special to me and I wanted to publicly celebrate the occurrence - just a nice ray of fandom sunshine, so to speak.

Over 20 years ago, I joined an online community devoted to Nine Inch Nails - one of the earliest-known groups, in fact - called Perfect Isolation (a phrase which came to be associated with NIN but also a phrase Trent Reznor lifted from the Pink Floyd song "Waiting for the Worms" because The Wall is one of his all-time inspirations).  And for the next 15 years or so I was a loyal member of that online family containing people from all around the world, one of the most inclusive online groups I've ever been a part of, which speaks as much to the nature of Trent's universal appeal as it does to the way the Internet can be either an echo chamber or a place which positively expands your mind.  In both online and outside life we experienced meet-ups, successes, scandals, fights, sockpuppets, marriages, kids...just about anything you can imagine which can happen to a particular group of people who band together in an intentional community.  We weren't interested in being the best-known or the biggest fan community - we left that to Echoing The Sound - we were more about being a family.  A very weird sort of family, but that was the depth of our affection for each other.  Not everyone really "got" the vibe, but if you did, then you would always be welcomed.  We were fans of NIN, but we were also fans of each other.

And we also had a guy from New Zealand join (under the username HaloNineteen if I recall correctly) who became our virtual kid brother and then grew up to become a television journalist and filmmaker and then today...it all comes back around again as David led an online panel discussion with Trent and his ongoing collaborator Atticus Ross, plus current and former collaborators and members of the Nine Inch Nails touring band upon the occasion of Nine Inch Nails' induction to the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame, class of 2020.

with thanks to Gosia Rost for the screencap from YouTube

And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.  I can't fully express how proud I am to see David not only having won the respect of one of his all-time favorite musicians, but also witnessing the professionalism and personableness which he has exhibited throughout his career.

Our PI enclave has scattered to the wind a bit (though we can find each other when we need to) and the online forum as it once was is no more, but the spirit of our community, our family, lives on because the love of music is something which can always build connections - and if you're lucky - for a lifetime.

Media Watch: PROG issue 114

In the latest issue of PROG (the story of Kate Bush's Never For Ever as the cover story) is a review of Changes penned by the publication's editor, Jerry Ewing.

The review discusses the box's contents with various editorializing, but he opines more than once regarding his confusion over the exclusion of Jacaranda.  One might very well be confused until one realizes that Rob Ayling has no interest in actually attempting to license material for release.  But maybe Ewing doesn't know that.

It is all nicely summed up thus:

Changes is an excellent appraisal of (most) of the career of one of modern progressive music's true giants.  It leaves you in eager anticipation for his upcoming solo album.