A look into the musical world of Trevor Rabin: composer, performer, and a man of many careers.
Introduction:
A series of essays wherein I explore the numerous musical identities of my favorite musician: from child prodigy to teen idol to guitar hero to singer/songwriter to award-winning in-demand film composer.
Featuring news/updates and commentary/analysis of Trevor's career and associated projects. Comments are disabled but please feel free to contact me at rabinesque.blog@gmail.com.
The master list of releases for National Album Day, scheduled for October 18th, has been published and in keeping with this year's theme of Rocktober, included among the many classics is the 1987 Yes release Big Generator from Rhino Records. According to the information I've been able to find, it will be on 140-gram orange-colored vinyl, but the sleeve will feature the classic royal-teal color scheme of the original vinyl release. This can be pre-ordered from a number of sites/stores but likely also available in record stores on the 18th.
Thanks to the eagle-eye of one long-time reader of the blog, it appears that Beginnings - the originalBeginnings - has been released to Apple Music in an apparently remastered form (meaning it is not a needledrop from a vinyl source). Apple does have particular standards regarding the source and quality of the media submitted for streaming, so it's not surprising that this represents a better-quality version.
It also appears Apple Music is the only platform on which this release is available.
This is very strange and yet also fully amazing. I don't have any inkling of the meaning of this either timing-wise or regarding the choice of this particular album, save that it's something which, accidental or intentional, is wholly deserved for loyal fans.
In the second installment of Ron Fair's column for American Songwriter magazine, he chronicles his discovery of Trevor's music...it's quite the story! Long-time fans are aware that Trevor has frequently cited Fair as being the first record company executive to recognize the potential of "Owner" when he was originally attempting to obtain a recording contract after his development deal with Geffen went bust.
The article contains a video of Fair's edit of Trevor's original demo for "Owner," the full version of which was included on the 90124 release in 2003. Interestingly, the story of how Yes came into the picture - and Fair claims that (presumably) Phil Carson and Chris Squire had heard Trevor's demo of "Owner" at that time - is somewhat different to previous narratives (but let's remember Yes is a band which has numerous versions of their history in general). I think it certainly makes for a more dramatic story for Trevor Horn to have "discovered" the potential of the song himself, but who knows?
As loyal readers are aware, last year I published an essay on one of the early Rabbitt singles, "Hallelujah Sunshine" (aka "Hallelujah Freedom"), originally released in 1973. And I could have actually proven my assertion entirely had I been aware that the single had also been uploaded to YouTube the year prior by Brian Curran, who is a veritable treasure trove of ZA musical history courtesy of his South African Rock Encyclopedia website. However, I would like to state that since I wrote the essay back in 2020, I maintain it was composed via my own original research (as is much of the content of this blog).
But - and this is a rather big conjunction - but there is a wrinkle to this particular single in my opinion. And that is...the two songs don't appear to be sung by Trevor. So readers: you be the judge. Give it a listen and let me know what you think - email is in my banner.
I will say long-time die-hard fans are aware that in 1973 Trevor and Ronnie were serving their compulsory conscription in the ZA Army, so it's possible Trevor wasn't able, time-wise, to contribute as much to those tracks as he normally would. It doesn't sound like it's at the wrong speed or anything which would affect the vocal in such a way. So I'm a bit mystified, but perhaps the revelation is forthcoming. As the passage of Time has proven, there is always more to learn.
With thanks to my esteemed fandom colleague Henry Potts for the heads-up.
A bit of an oddity, I suppose you could say....toward the beginning of the month on the Monstrosity podcast Trevor was interviewed by David Race, a Los Angeles-based comedian and "paranormal enthusiast." Although to be honest this really comes off more as a "Trevor reacts to some dude saying a bunch of stuff about him." It's essentially a fan (who was formally a Philadelphia-based disc jockey) who just wants to talk to him about Yes-related things and as such I'm not sure how interesting it is to long-time diehard fans because we're not hearing anything we haven't already heard.
Trevor's interview takes up most of the run of the episode.
