Media Watch: near-miss

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.

https://americansongwriter.com/ron-fair-the-true-crime-story-of-the-classic-hit-owner-of-a-lonely-heart/

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?

Three down, one to go.

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.

"Hallelujah Sunshine" b/w "Hidden Feelings"

Media Watch: new interview

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.

https://sites.libsyn.com/125662/monstrosity-with-david-race-ep-37-trevor-rabin-of-the-band-yes-and-preston-dennett-from-ancient-aliens