Going for the One or Tormato?

[just_bassics]

"Circus of heaven" took a long time to grow on me, not just because of its arrangement, but because I felt at the time that Jon Anderson was saying goodbye. The lyrics were haunting at the end, where (to me) Jon seemed to be saying that the "Circus" was all these wonderful, truly amazing things, but lacked simple beauty... I thought his next move was to leave YES and pursue a different course. That is what happened, of course, but not the way I thought it would. Still, Tormato ranks high on my list because it is a little raw and under produced, but those are also the same reasons that many feel it wasn't up to standards. And, of course, punk rock was chipping away.

Last year when we visited England, I would like to have visited Yes Tor but there just isn't time for everything.

The cover of Drama, with the three cats chasing the two fleeing swans said it all. But Drama just gets better and better with time.

Drama, Big Generator, ABWH... what's the common thread?

[johnallg]

Drama, Big Generator, ABWH... what's the common thread?

Alan White?

[just_bassics]

No, because Alan White was not part of ABWH.

These three albums are significant to me not for who is there, but who is missing from the lineup. In Drama, it's Jon, Big Generator is Steve and ABWH it's Chris. YES music to me (and people can disagree with me here and that is fine) is best when these three members are in the lineup. The three recordings listed are examples of Yes when one of them is missing and I think the result can be heard clearly. I chose Big Generator over 90125 or Talk because it was more of a collaborative project on Jon's part. Of the three, my favorite is Drama and my least favorite is ABWH which is amazing, becaust that is the Fragile lineup. But, without Chris Squire's contribution, it didn't really measure up, although it is still really good.

So, the common thread is that each recording has a main member missing, my point is how differnt each CD sounds as a result. Of course, musical styles of the time have a lot to do with it as well.

On a different note, I had a long and pleasant conversation with Jim Mouradian of Mouradian Guitars yesterday. He is still in the business, happily running a repair shop in Cambridge MA. and not planning on building any more guitars in the near future. He is a friend of Chris Squire and still a big fan. I contacted him because I was looking for information on my 2nd favorite CS bass, the Mouradian Reality, (the silver one, not the green one with Squire's initials) and he was happy to relate all of the details. Unfortunately, only 14 were actually produced, but at least I got the information I was looking for.

[woodyng]

thread hijack in progress- ...very interesting,jim! i also really love the look of the reality bass-sorry to hear of it being an extremely limited production,as i think it's a very sleek,elegant design,and would love to check one out. also,i just realized that i meant to say "yesWHOLE" instead of yeshole earlier in the thread,but either way......

[yesmrsquire]

going for the one by a long shot is my favourite. However, at the moment i would put on the Tormato cd than going for the one, due to overplaying GFTO

[rickenbrother]

I much prefer "GFTO".

[haw]

Love both but Tormato probably has the edge as it has Future Times/Rejoice, Madrigal, Release Release, Onward and Silent Wings whereas I generally listen to only GFTO itself and Parallels these days.

Tormato also gets my vote mainly because my earliest memories are wrapped up in that album-I was something like 3 or 4 when it came out and my parents played it incessantly on the the car tape player and living in the country we were in the car all the time.

Finally, the bass sound on Future Times and Silent Wings were the one of the reasons I picked up a bass. A really nice creamy Mu-tron III sound brought out the best in his parts and as a result he seemed to write them in a really abstract way (3.53-4.02 on Silent Wings).

It'd be nice if he brought the Mu-tron out a bit more in his solo bits at Yes shows - saw the 35th DVD recently and when he dropped the Silent Wings riff in, I thought it sounded a bit thin with just the delay on IMO.

[henry5]

GFTO by a mile for me; if it wasn't for the production (which I still struggle with however many years later) it could actually be my favourite Yes album. Awaken is far and away my favourite Yes track (in fact it's possibly my favourite track of all time if there is such a thing, although the Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond runs it close), I love Parallels, Turn of the Century.....fantastic. If it sounded more like the Yes Album it'd be perfect.

[ram]

Awaken is cool - my kids got me a live Yes CD set (Yes: The Word is Live). It has a live version of Awaked from 1979 as performed in Chicago. Just mind blowing is all I can think of to describe it. Almost as good as when I saw it done live in '78!!!

[jazz1234]

Has to be GFTO for me ... it was the first Yes album I bought on original release - on vinyl of course. They're all great songs and show the breadth of Yes music, from the epic (Awaken) to the sublime (Turn of the Century/Wonderous Stories). And I got the album signed by the classic line-up in Melbourne a few years ago.

[windchimp]

Tough to decide...both have their merits. GFTO has some tasty bass lines - I'm particularly fond of the title track. Same goes for T'mato - Release-Release has always been one of my favorite Yes "rock" songs to play (along with ST and YIND). If it came down to a "Desert Island Classic" it would have to be GFTO. There - I did it - I actually made a decision today!

[LeftyRickBass]

It took a while to hear through the heavily-reverbed sound of GFTO, but all the songs resonate deeply for me. "Awaken" has still got to be one of their finest epics.

Tormato certainly has its moments, but I'm not a huge fan of the "Harmonised" chorus-y sound that CS went with on much of the record - except of course on "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom", where it works a peach! The Harmonizer itself is pretty nifty in "Arriving U.F.O." however - it took me a while to work out that that's what that sound was in the intro/outro.

Plus, on "Awaken," you get two Ricks (though not at the same time) - Howe's 360/12 OS and Squire's 8-string potato-head. I've often wondered what he used for the fretless part, but no video evidence that I can tell from the various footage sources seem to point to anything in particular. Never even seen his alleged fretless Rick....

I saw YES, on their "Union" tour. Saw them in Atlantic City NJ...I had a front row seat. They were "In the Round". They performed "Awaken". Shortly before the start of that song...Squire came out from under the stage--RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME--he was holding the Wal triple-neck bass.
This bass has a 6-string neck which has TWO sets of THREE strings tuned in octaves.
( I actually talked to Chris about this guitar---though I can't remember what he said about WHICH strings they are ),
This produces a 8-string sound---he played this for the 8-string passages of the song.
The middle neck is a fretless.
I wonder if he had this bass at the time they recorded GFTO.

LeftyRickBass


The White Zone is for the loading, and unloading of passengers only!!!!!

[jmp4001]

LeftyRickBass wrote:

“I saw YES, on their "Union" tour. Saw them in Atlantic City NJ...I had a front row seat. They were "In the Round". They performed "Awaken". Shortly before the start of that song...Squire came out from under the stage--RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME--he was holding the Wal triple-neck bass.”


If this is the show I think it is, I have a bootleg DVD of it, which is actually pretty good. I think it was at some Trump affiliated place.

Getting back to the original post, I'd have to say Going For The One for me.

Awaken - Turn of the Century - Wonderous Stories - Parallels - Going For The One. There is no filler. Plus the band was on such a good vibe high in Montreaux with Wakeman back.

Much as I do like Tormato, there are some rather ordinary spots - Don't Kill The Whale - Madrigal - Release Release - while all ok, are really nothing special, and not on the same level as Future Times and Silent Wings of Freedom.

The video clips from the band working out On The Silent Wings Of Freedom are great though.

[LeftyRickBass]

jmp4001,

You are correct.....the Atlantic City show on the "Union" tour took place at Trump's Tahjma Hall Casino.

Wherever did you find a DVD Bootleg of it ?????


LeftyRickBass





The White Zone is for the loading and unloading of passengers only!!!!