So what was your reaction...

[david_donlon]

I was delivering Straw Hat Pizza in Santa Maria CA, in the company car, when I heard it come over AM radio. I was stunned because I had not heard that YES was up to anything. Not that I was real plugged in at that time. I was a fan already, but maybe not the fan of the 70s stuff I later became. I didn't have a lot of the albums, just Close to the Edge and Fragile, also Drama I think. I loved all that.

So anyway, the song comes on, and I instantly know that's Jon Anderson singing. And I think I can hear Chris Squire singing in there too, but of course I didn't know who Trever Rabin was yet. I remember being in a state of disbelief and confusion. Unlike most here, though, I really liked the song. It sounded of a piece with the era, but so different and strange too, that it seemed like a brilliant updating of what was going on then. I couldn't wait to hear it again.

I can still listen to the songs from that time, but their shine, what made them sound different and set them apart, seems to have faded with the years. Of course that hasn't happened to their output from the 70s for me.

[aceonbass]

I thouht it was a new and different sound for YES, and that was a good thing. One of the things I like about YES is the "phases" they go through in their sound. I could probably go the rest of my life without hearing "Owner Of a Lonely Heart" again, but that song and that album put YES back on the map and probably gave them the money to keep going to this day. If not for that album. YES would have been dropped from Atlantic and robbed of a lot of royalties from their back catalog. This is more or less according to Chris Squire from an old interview. The song "Changes" still gets cranked to this day when I play my 4008CS to it.

[johnallg]

Well stated Dane. It did put the life back into the force of Yes.

Okay, so I'm listening to Ladder again. I had forgotten all about "It Will Be A Good Day" - that one touches my soul as only few Yes works truly can - like it is part of every atom of my being. It is a Lake Michigan sunset song.

Homeworld is a retro-ish Yes tune, good stuff. "Lightning Strikes" just gets me going - great 7/4 piece. There are a lot I can take or leave. "The Messenger" is interesting, reminds me of earlier Yes. "New Language" sounds like Yes melding almost all eras or flavors. Then there is "Nine Voices" - reminds me lyrically of "Future Times".

"One the word will enter all our hearts
Two the duel will alter them
Three jewels countenance divine away delight away
four the fight to free the land
Five the islands of Arabia
Six the tears that separate
Six the tears that separate"

Lastly, and unrelated to Ladder, in the "what was he thinking" vein, I link to this picture on NFTE:



Oh, one favorite line from Ladder - "Show me how you got this award for being alive."

[aceonbass]

Hey John...where'd you get that picture of my living room?

[johnallg]

Hey John...where'd you get that picture of my living room?

Actually it is from the recording studio where Chris recorded the parts for Swiss Choir - seems like a gutsy move to leave THE BASS laying across a chair like that.....

[ted_williams]

Owner of a Lonely Heart - I loved it when it came out. It was great to hear Jon back with the band. Having been a big fan of Drama, I thought it was fitting that Trevor Horn still had a part to play with Yes. It was exciting to me that one of my favorite bands was finally getting the airplay and attention I thought it deserved all along.

[shamustwin]

Owner Of A Lonely Heart - I was happy to hear Yes again on the radio, and a big hit it was. I resigned myself to the fact that it was a pop song, and that's what they had to do to stay viable at the time. And next to a lot of pop songs of the era, it's certainly stunning, musically.

From what I've read (IIRC), OOALH started out as a non-Yes project with Chris and others, and was decided at a later date to be issued as a Yes song, being that so many members of Yes actually were on the record!