Media Watch: award-winning yet again

Trevor is this year's recipient of the ABSA Special and Extraordinary Talent Award, awarded by the South African Jewish Report publication/website.  Trevor accepted the award via simulcast from Los Angeles, as noted in this article: https://www.sajr.co.za/rockstars-sing-trevor-rabins-praises/

An article in the special issue profiling this year's winners notes that Trevor is currently at work on composing a symphony and creates digital artwork "for fun" (as evidenced by the cover of Rio).

Another comment, in regards to his time with ARW, he states "That was the last time I performed," which seems to possibly confirm what some fans (including myself) have come to suspect: that Trevor is essentially enacting a "soft" retirement from live performance, at the very least.

The Secret Discography: a song needing to be sung

One of a series which examines Trevor’s musical career in South Africa.

(Author's note: this essay was originally written in 2020.)

For those collectors who are constantly on the lookout for uncommon items, the four early Rabbitt singles are among the rarest of finds.  Even my South African connection hasn't been able to track any of them down for me, although fans have been treated to a couple uploads on YouTube: the original version of "Locomotive Breath" as well as "Backdoor of My Heart."

However, with one of those - "Hallelujah Sunshine" - we can at least listen to a version which half of Rabbitt also performed on, and it appears on Margaret Singana's 1977 album Tribal Fence.

You probably want to stop me at this point to note: "But those songs have two different titles!"  This is true, but I believe that Rabbitt's version may have been retitled thanks to government censorship.  And if it sounds like too much of a stretch for credulity's sake, I will state that two songs which contain hallelujah as the first word of a two-word title both credited as being written by someone with the surname of Campbell?  What are the odds?!

Continuing with my assertion, the song is actually titled "Hallelujah Freedom" - written and originally performed by Junior Campbell, a Scottish singer/songwriter who had a hit in the UK and Europe with the song in 1972.  Rabbitt's version was recorded and released in 1973.  Viewing the production credit, I'd say it's a fair assumption that Mutt Lange produced the session.

Margaret's version was recorded for Tribal Fence featuring Trevor on guitar, bass, keyboards and backing vocals, Neil Cloud on drums, with additional guitar and percussion by Julian Laxton and additional backing vocals by Rene Veldsman with Avril and Miriam Stockley.  Trevor arranged and co-produced the track.

And why would the South African government censor such a song?  In 1973 it was standard practice for anything which could be considered remotely objectionable, just as they censored Rabbitt's first version of "Locomotive Breath."  Specifically, when you consider the song's lyrics - which portray an oppressive situation - well, I would say it's fairly obvious that they would seek to suppress anything which could possibly be construed as political.

Oh, they took away the love inside me

that memory will always ride me.

They broke my heart and I could not stand the pain.

Oh, they tried to make me crawl behind them

they even tried to break my mind in

they grabbed my pride and they threw it in my face.

But seriously, listen to the song and when you get to the chorus, substitute "sunshine" for "freedom" and it works just fine.  I don't believe it's out of the realm of possibility to posit that the government considered freedom a dirty word at the time.

It's a perfect fit for Margaret's proud and powerful voice, and from the arrangement I would say it's probably rather close to Rabbitt's version, though perhaps a bit more on the pop side of things.  The way all the voices sing out the closing refrain of just gimme freedom is an inspiring message of protest to conclude this album with, a work which acknowledged there were two worlds in South Africa, and one of them was on "the other side of the fence."

But the significance of the song - how it can speak to any situation of struggle - means it's easy to understand why Trevor performed it more than once in the course of his career, and directed it at a nation which needed to hear its' message as many times as it could be expressed.

Media Watch: PROG issue 151

In the new issue of PROG (Marillion on the cover), is an article regarding the making of Talk, featuring interviews with surviving YesWest members Trevor, Tony Kaye, and Jon Anderson.  This issue is on-sale now in all the usual places.

Media Watch: new interview

Making a third appearance on the Yesshift podcast, Trevor discusses the reissue/remaster of Talk.

Flashback Friday: golden oldie

Thanks to a tip-off from a regular reader...this is an upload - I believe - of a track from one of the Lekker Kitaar albums which Trevor recorded under his Trevor Terblanche pseudonym.  Most of that material is instrumental, so it's still my best guess as to the actual source, since this features Trevor also singing the song in question which does appear to be based on John Lennon's cover (from the Rock n'Roll release) of Ben E. King's 1961 classic in terms of arrangement.  It is worth noting that all three of those albums each had a Beatles-related song included in the tracklist.

Talk 30th Anniversary box set release

Announced today (although I will say that I had received word of this a couple months back) is a long-awaited re-release for Talk, the 1994 album which marked the last time we would hear the full YesWest lineup on record.

It's wonderful to see this "lost" classic get the full archival treatment, from a very interestingly titled distributor, Spirit of Unicorn Music.  The release is scheduled for May 24th on vinyl and CD, featuring a bonus disc of edits, demos, and instrumental versions as well as a full live show from the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center in Canandaguia, New York on June 19th, 1994.

The press release contains one particular piece of information which is historically interesting:

Talk was also one of the first albums to be recorded and edited entirely digitally, without using traditional audio tape. It was a groundbreaking move at the time, but the technology, as advanced as it was, was not without its problems. In January 1994, Northridge in the San Fernando Valley in California was hit by an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale, and production had to be halted as the early Apple Mac computers they were working on were being affected by the tremors. To put the technology into context now, in its unedited form, Talk took up 34GB of memory, which today could be transferred via a flash drive in seconds.

I imagine there were any number of albums being recorded at the time which were affected by the Northridge Quake but another which has been publicly documented is The Black Crowes' third album Amorica, also released in 1994. 

And this is a perfect time to get into the Talk frame of mind with my essay on the album from 2016.

https://rabinesque.blogspot.com/2016/03/talk-and-modern-sound-of-yeswest.html

update: stringing for Joe

Announced today is the release date for Joe Bonamassa's new Live at the Hollywood Bowl, presenting the show from 2023 which featured orchestral arrangements from Trevor as well as David Campbell and Jeff Bova.

The release will encompass the following formats: CD/DVD, CD/BR, 2 LP Vinyl (180-gram), and digital streaming/purchase and is on sale May 17th.

Media Watch: Rock Classics: 90125

(With thanks to highfell on Yesfans.)

A new entry in the Rock Classics book series - examining albums in the Classic Rock canon - is an examination of 90125 by Stephen Lambe, author of Yes: Every Album, Every Song and co-author of Classics: Yes in the 1980s. The book will be published in July of this year.

Against the odds, the astonishing 90125 (1983), became Yes’ best-selling album. Featuring new interviews with several of the main protagonists, including Jon Anderson and Trevor Rabin, this book traces the complicated story of the album from its 1981 demos to the conclusion of Yes’ massive world tour in 1985.

90125 was never intended to be a recording by one of the 1970s leading rock bands, but a combination of commercial expediency and luck saw a release by Cinema - featuring Yes stalwarts Chris Squire, Alan White and Tony Kaye alongside Trevor Rabin - become Yes following the last-minute recruitment of Jon Anderson. A US number one hit single "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" led to a triple platinum record and a massive world tour, giving this band a new lease of life in the 1980s.

90125 is reviewed in full, and the book also includes a detailed look at the somewhat complex and contrived process that created it, followed by an examination of the album’s legacy and remarkable afterlife.

As is noted in his bio: His piece about the album for PROG magazine was the inspiration for this book., then I imagine we can expect that the book will contain interview excerpts not previously published in last year's PROG cover story.

You can preorder it from Burning Shed via this link:

https://burningshed.com/store/sonicbond/stephen-lambe_rock-classics-yes-90125_book

A pleasant surprise!

Yesterday, Trevor announced that he would be releasing the demo version of "Fragile" - previously only available as a bonus track on the deluxe Rio release - to streaming services.

As stated in the social media post:

I’m particularly pleased with the space, in terms of production, and happy with the simplicity of the lyric. Life is harsh, fickle and Fragile. My intention regarding the guitar solo was for it to drip onto the “page” so to speak.

Given that he wrote this song to spec for Agent X's showrunner, I'm assuming that the lyrics at least somewhat reflect the narrative concerns of the series as a whole (or perhaps only the last episode).

Media Watch: (not) making the cut

Published today is a listicle-of-sorts regarding some of the songs recorded in '82-83, I assume this originally appeared as a sidebar in the full issue of PROG featuring the 90125 cover story.

https://www.loudersound.com/features/yes-songs-left-off-90125

Of the six songs listed here, I have already provided some commentary in my entry about 90124 from the Changes review series (that particular entry was posted in August of 2020) but I'll comment here too.

"Time"

In fandom circles this is considered the true lost track, and Trevor notes that it would have included "Cinema" in its' complete version, but I have a theory that the original instrumental version of "Make It Easy" which is in fandom circulation may actually include "Time" as well.  I think the reason why it generates so much conversation/speculation is the belief that "Time" represents a sort of lost prog potential for YesWest which, as with many popular myths, doesn't necessarily hold up.

"Make It Easy"

...and the author noted that detail too (re: the relationship between "Time" and this song).  "Make It Easy" is a definite part of Yesstory given the use of the intro in live performances of "Owner" as well as its' archival release on the remastered/expanded version of 90125, and so I feel like it doesn't necessarily always need to be included in the discussion of "lost" tracks.

"It's Over"

What is truly interesting to me about this song is that - beyond its' inclusion on the reissue of 90125 - there isn't some other version of it floating around in fandom circulation.  It's credited solely to Trevor but it really feels like it was something which became fully-realized when subjected to the Cinema process.

"Red Light, Green Light"

My esteemed fandom colleague Henry Potts refers to this song as "mysterious" as regards its provenance in Yesstory.  Trevor Horn made mention of it in an NME interview from 2021, noting that the drumloop on the Art of Noise track "Beat Box" originally came from the recording of this track (which, according to this article, took place at Air Studios).  And Alan's playing is right on the money, as always!  So one thing we could speculate about "Red Light, Green Light" (as it languishes in relative obscurity) is that it was probably at least somewhat funky.  Now this is the song Trevor should be asked about, rather than the 1001th inquiry regarding "Time."

"Carry On"

AKA: "You Know Something I Don't Know," and as I've noted previously, this song was resurrected briefly as an instrumental performed on Trevor's solo tour in 1989.  Its' inclusion in the Cinema rehearsal recording which is in circulation means that this song is usually cited in these kinds of discussions.

"Open Your Doors"

For years I saw this song referred to as "Open The Door" but when you listen to the recording, it really does sound like open your doors.  This is a definite outlier in the Cinema oeuvre (with a really bad-quality version in circulation).  The article states that it sounds "nothing like Yes" which is true but they weren't trying to sound like Yes at that time.  So it represents just as valid a direction as any other in my estimation.

Media Watch: the (storied) history of "Owner"

Published almost on the anniversary of OoaLH charting at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 is this article from Guitar Player regarding the creation of said hit single.  I'm assuming it was originally a part of the main interview published last month.

https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/yes-how-i-wrote-owner-of-a-lonely-heart

And...it's a story long-time fans know very well.  Or at least one of many stories.  Just for perspective's sake I found this article which is from 2021 featuring Jon's point of view.

https://www.rhino.com/article/deep-dive-yes-owner-of-a-lonely-heart

And then another article from 2021 also featuring other perspectives...

https://www.loudersound.com/features/yes-story-behind-owner-of-a-lonely-heat

Given the 40th anniversary of 90125 a few months back there's been a lot of coverage about the album and the song published of late (as example, one posted on the BraveWords website last month).  But one thing which stuck out for me in this latest one was this bit:

He learned it had reached number one while vacationing in Miami. As he celebrated with a glass of champagne by the hotel pool, a woman whisking down a water slide slammed into him and ruptured his spleen. 

Trevor told the story of the accident (and Shelley's heroic effort to pull him out of the pool all on her own) during his Guitar Center in-store appearance in 2012.  He stated it happened on his birthday, January 13th.  The day "Owner" hit number one was January 21st (which is one helluva belated bday present).  But it certainly makes for a dramatic scene, right?  Trevor's greatest career triumph followed by a life-threatening accident, how fortunes can change from one minute to the next.  Heck, even just a freak accident happening on your birthday is enough drama for anyone.

All that to say...I think this is an interesting example of how - when a cultural artifact is so revered, so famous - there are always going to be differing perspectives regarding how and why it is special, how it was created, and the truth likely lies somewhere in between.

The Secret Discography: uncovering a classic

Long-time readers of the blog are aware I first posted about the album The Bull and The Lion back in 2018, and this week an article regarding the album and its' place in South African music history was published on The Arts Desk website.

https://theartsdesk.com/new-music/music-reissues-weekly-mike-makhalemele-winston-%E2%80%9Cmankunku%E2%80%9D-ngozi-bull-and-lion

It provides well-researched historical context as well as an insightful review, and it's great to see this kind of coverage for a lost fusion classic.  As the album is now available across most if not all streaming platforms, I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Jacaranda and curious regarding Trevor's forays into jazz during the ZA years.

prized as platinum

A very happy birthday to Trevor, one of our national treasures, and we're grateful to continue to be the recipients of his creativity and artistic vision.  All good things to you on this day, Maestro!

Some pictures from the past for our collective viewing pleasure, which I imagine more than a few long-time fans have already seen/collected, but these are some of my favorites.

1978, this was from the same photo session which other publicity photos were used to promote Trevor Rabin.

This jacket dates way back, I think, so this might be either 70s or 80s era.

A very interesting piece of endorsement merchandising, from 1987.  Jon and Tony also had Korg phone cards.