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Tales from Topographic Oceans
Listening guide
This week, Mark and I considered what makes 1989’s Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe a great Yes album. You might now be shouting at your podcatcher, “It isn’t a Yes album,” and we address that question as part of our discussion.
If you remain unconvinced – or if you are convinced – or you are undecided, please do add your comments to the show notes below.
IsABWH a Yes album?
- Is it a good album?
- Is it a good Yes album?
Let us know if you agree with us!
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Yes – The Tormato Story
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Theme music
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert
33 replies on “6 reasons why Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe is a great Yes album – 650”
Anyone can say that the ABWH album is not a Yes album, either by name or legally. But musically it’s a Yes album, and with Roger’s artwork on the album, singles and promotional material that’s strongly reinforced. And the Dean stagework on the tours definitely, to me, added a strong Yes feel. Regardless of the drum sound, the music sounds and feels like Yes to me, as do the lyrics. And the tour shows were marvelous. I saw 3 shows in person, and the Shoreline cable tv broadcast live that night, and they were all very memorable.
I completely agree, it’s certainly a Yes album in spirit, even if it’s not ‘legally’ Yes. I saw them live as well, and other than Chris not being there, it was an excellent Yes show in every other regard.
I thinks its one of their best albums especially Quartet. I just bought Jon Anderson newest album, True, Fantastic
This recording is absolutely a Yes album! Listeners looking back at the Yes catalogue as a historical record may fail to recognise how many fans felt at the time. For many, classic Yes as they knew it had ended with the release of ‘Drama’. I loved Drama the first time I heard it, it was, and remains an awesome record, but it was different from classic Yes music. Then we had about five years of ‘Yes West’. I followed the band during that period, enjoyed the music but it remained subtly different to original Yes.
To be honest, I have come to appreciate the Yes West period over the years and am now much more receptive to it.
But in 1987, when ABWH was released it felt like we had something back that we thought had been lost forever. I now dislike the 80s sound of the record, (although the music remains magnificent). But when I first looked at the Roger Dean Artwork and played the record back in 1987, I remember thinking ‘Wow, Yes are back!’ A little bit of magic had come back into the world. Of course, I would have preferred an ‘ABWHS’ band, but my excitement at the return of true Yes was only confirmed when I saw them perform live and bring back the epics to live performance…
I love this ABWH album. I am an Australian but was in New York in 1989 and was invited by a few friends to see ABWH. I had not heard of Yes (Bar OOALH) and didn’t know any of the songs – a stand out that I still remember was Ricks keyboards going bizerk and loud at ‘The Order of The Universe’.
I then was painting houses in New Jersey with the radio on and ‘Brother of Mine’ was on every 2 hours and got stuck in my mind.
I bought the album and took it back to Australia and played it to a number of friends who ended up likening to Yes to this day.
My wife and I both love Quartet (which no one else seems to like :() but could have been another reason it is Yes with its naming of several Yes songs in the second section.
I would also like to point out, although Kevin’s story kills the idea, that Australia does indeed have a native eagle called “the Wedge-tailed Eagle which has an extremely large range: it’s found throughout mainland Australia, Tasmania and southern Papua New Guinea. It prefers wooded areas and open forests, but can be found in coastal and alpine regions.” with it’s Ozzie white face/beak it could be mistaken for the one on the cover!.
Thanks for covering this topic and glad it has some fans.
Hi Aussie John
Aussie Alan here. Mate I’m totally with you. I reckon Quartet is among the finest pieces of music the band have produced, and like the epic on the current Anderson album, deliberately quote from the bands earlier catalogue. In my view the best piece on the a really strong album.
Rode on the back of a motorcycle from Boston to Montreal , to see the show . Then Quebec City . Amazing ….
Wonderful extraordinary beautiful ….
Nice touch of yes at the end.
Nope. No album is a Yes album without Chris Squire. I love this album and listen to and enjoy it often. For me, to be considered Yes, it must include Jon Anderson and Chris. Everyone else is optional. Just like Foreigner can’t be Foreigner without Lou Gramm. It can still be good but it is now something else that is good. I understand that I am in the minority here. So be it.
Wrong about Squire…the sound of YES, besides the vocals, is ALL Steve HOWE. Squire was animated, entertaining and a superb, pioneering bass player, but ask anyone unfamiliar with YES and their first reaction and comment to their music, is about the masterful guitar playing. Rest in peace Chris.
I do enjoy it but, with out a Squire it’s not a Yes
I agree with that too. But, that doesn’t make it bad. It just makes it different. I have seen all versions of YES. They’re all excellent to me. And, the different lines just makes it more interesting. However, I will always be biased to Close to the Edge. But again, they’re all great to me.
Thanks everyone for your comments and your support. We will do more these type of episodes , as they appear to be popular amongst our listeners.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Mark Anthony K
Thanks for bringing this content to us Mark and Kevin. But Mark, in recent podcasts when you have given your weather update from ‘The Great White North’, you haven’t mentioned what’s up with the dog. I hope he’s still doing well and enjoying walks with you…?
Hi Alan,
Thank you for your kind words and your mentioning of my dog Shadow.
Unfortunately the reason I haven’t been speaking about him is because I had to put him to sleep.
He seriously hurt his back about a month ago and he never recovered. I miss him everyday.
Mark Anthony K
I’m really sorry to hear about your dog, Mark. Our dogs are very special companions.
Hi Mark
Just saw you comment about Shadow. How awful! I’m so sorry to read that. It must be a difficult time for you and your family. But he was a lucky fellow to have found his forever family and spent many good years with you….
All they really want is to be with ‘their people’ and if he went to sleep with a family who loved him he’d be a happy doggo. Wishing you well Mark…
Thank you for all the podcasts! Amazing listen. However, this particular episode was puzzling. After the 6 reasons why “Fly from Here is great” episode where you discuss the track listing with missing Oliver Wakeman songs, I was certain you would discuss Vultures. Not one mention of this beautiful song!?!?!? If Vultures was on the record instead of Teakbois, it would have been so much better. I know you can’t cover all aspects of the record, but this is a hidden gem.
Roger Dean is a massive part of Yes, but there is no art without the music. The music comes first and acknowledgment of the fine cover is enough. There are so many other important things about the MUSIC that should be discussed, not Roger Dean. Look at 90125…arguably their best record. No Roger Dean.
Finally, please do 6 reasons why Talk is a great record. I would love to know if Chris Squire played a single note on it. I’ve read so many things about his addictions and rehab….can someone please clear this up? I know why Billy was playing bass on the tour, but did Trevor just use synth bass and play the other bass parts? Any consideration would be appreciated.
Again, I LOVE this podcast and if I’m sounding negative, I’m sorry. Don’t mean to be. Just a little fired up! :-). Keep up the amazing work and look forward to the next one.
FYI, if you’ve never heard them, check out the ABWH demos for the 2nd album, which includes songs not used on Union. https://youtu.be/z2-wWF6nYfY?si=yL7SRCzn42_vApPa
Great show I agree 100%
When this album came out I thought it was a yes album seen the show live I did not get to see Tony live however Jeff Berlin did a great job
Was one of the best Yes shows I’ve been to
Great topic and episode. Very much enjoyed the discussion. Yes it’s a Yes album! Rick explodes back into the Yes family after 10 years and it is well worth the wait! Plus love Mark’s point about the production. A very clean and well recorded album. It’s stood the test of time (at least for me) as I still listen to it regularly along with various live recordings from that tour. I was lucky enough to see them 3 times on that tour and fortunate enough to still have great memories of the shows! Thanks Kevin & Mark!
Yes, I still own the abwh Cassette. It is a Yes album under a different name. I did however liked the VHS concert. Roger Dean cover, that is Yes. What about Asia! That is another Yes under a different name. I Like It!
ABWH is the Yessiest Yes album since Tormato .i bought the CD the month it came out . I saw two ABWH concerts ( 1989 & 1990) and said (in 1989) ” this is the best Yes concert ever” !
Great comments about this album of course it’s a yes album it couldn’t be anything else but it’s great so many people are still listening to it.
This album was my introduction to Yes. One day I was in the local record shop and I saw the Brother of Mine single. It said Anderson and I thought: “I wonder if this is Jon Anderson of Jon & Vangelis?” So I put the single on, and from the very first “So, giving all the love you have” I was sold.
The guy running the store (and who is a good personal friend of mine today) told me that the band was almost Yes, and if I liked it, I should check out their 70s material. Of course, I did remember “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, which was a big hit in Norway back in 1984.
For many years I also regarded this as a Yes album, but today I realise it really isn’t. The production is nothing like any other Yes record, it wasn’t written as a band and the bass playing on this album is so buried in the mix that I sometimes forget there is a bass player on it. But that was in the spirit of the times. Just listen to albums from 1987 and up to 1990. It’s like the bass sound just disappeared.
Of course the music magazines were all over this album. “The classic Yes lineup!” And I remember there were lots of articles covering the release and who wrote about the lawsuit.
And Arista, bless their hearts, really pushed this album. The released three singles and did just as many music videos. The single “I’m Alive” was even re-recorded (I suspect with session musicians as especially the guitar playing on the single sounds nothing like Steve) with extra lyrics, and an elaborate music video. And in the autumn they released the In the Big Dream VHS! Good times.
Brother of Mine also got a music video (made by the old Hipgnosis gang who also did the video for Owner…) and the single was six minutes long.
Because this was my introduction to Yes, I have soft feelings for this album. Today I can hear the problems with the drums, but this was the 80s, it was supposed to sound like that in those days. And I miss Chris Squire on it. As I mentioned earlier, the bass is hidden in the mix.
So far I’ve bought this album five times. The original LP, with the black cover that folds out, a cassette version when I was in the army, the original CD in the mid 90s, the remastered CD with the bonus material released in the 00s (finally I got Vultures on CD) and the LP version released last year.
I’ve also got the 10″ single of Brother of Mine, the 12″ of Order of the Universe and the 7″ of I’m Alive.
I still like the album. Side A hasn’t got one single weak moment on it (apart from some production choices) and Wakeman especially is on strong form. On Side B the quality dips. The intro for Quartet is nice, the rest of the track not so much. Teakbois? Ugh! Order of the Universe? It’s ok, but Jon’s voice really grates me on that one. Let’s Pretend is ok, but original with Jon & Vangelis (never officially released) is much better.
Great show guys. I had to listen to the album again, and I still really like side A. And I would have loved to see that tour. I got the VHS and live album released in 1983, and it’s friggin’ great!
It is a good album 90126 is not an yes album but it has many appreciated tracks. Later this group merged with another for yes union project. Anything around yes has a chance to be good but it does not have the name yes.
I just seen this and it looks like yes sounds like yes well there you go
I can think of this as a Yes album if I remove the time axis from consideration. Without any before or after context, it’s undeniably an album with lots of Yes members making music with many Yes qualities. Tracks from it go on my Yes playlists. I expected one piece from it to be performed on the Union tour.
But I would struggle to think of it as the Yes album after Big Generator, in the same way that I’d struggle to think of Talk as the Yes album after Union. It’s revolution rather than evolution in both cases.
Historically, any kind of linear sense of the band operating continuously, was disrupted from the eighties onwards. Line ups exploded and alumni reconvened in mutually convenient combinations.
So, it’s yes and no for me. Without historic context, we can with ease bless ABWH into the Yes congregation retrospectively, but at the time it seemed a kind of Anti-Yes, with the four members mainly having in common the impossible to ignore attribute of not currently being in the band Yes.
I think there’s some good music on the album, and also some moments that might not have passed the more democratic creative process earlier. There is no album officially credited to Yes that sound to me as dominated by Jon Anderson as ABWH.
It is a good album. It’s years since I listened to it but my recollection is that it lacks the intensity of other Yes albums.
I really enjoyed the discussion as it makes me want to revisit the music when I have the time.
I enjoyed reading the comments here as it’s polarised opinions to some extent.
I’d love to hear more shows like this.
It’s definitely a Yes album. To my thinking, there are 8 core members of Yes (Anderson, Squire, Bruford, Kaye, Banks, Howe, Wakeman, White), and the more of those 8 that are on an album, the more of a Yes album it is. There are six official Yes albums that include fewer than four of those core members, and the latest (excellent) album has only one, so any album with four core members has to qualify as a Yes album.
Having said that, I don’t feel it’s a great Yes album. Overall, I’d rate it as “good”.
On the subject of ABWH – recently lauded by this podcast and mentioned in almost any exploration of 80s Yes, one refrain is consternation with the electronic drums. As a consumer of that album when it was released, plus a handful of live shows in 1989 and 1990, I view the main departure from Yesness in the lack of a rhythmic anchor in the music. The album and live shows seemed like there was nothing tying the music down – it seemed predominantly melody floating in a tinny way, and did not have the solid grounding of the Squire/White anchor that we hear on the SLO rekindling of the band’s ‘classic’ lineup. Not a slight against Bruford/Levin at all, since it was a lighter sort of jazz-prog effect, but in those days I interpreted an ABWH ticket as passage into a Yes concert experience, which it wasn’t really.
To me the ‘easy fix’ to this would be to retro-fit a Squire-style bass treatment and replace the Simmons drums with an acoustic kit sound on a couple of ABWH studio tracks, so that fans could get a sense of what the tracks would sound like if they were moored a bit closer to the classic Yes harbor.
I write wondering if Miguel Falcao could be approached to do this – interpret Brother of Mine and Themes, perhaps, in the Squire style he so masterfully deploys in his other videos. And could he or someone else manipulate the main kit aspects of the drum tracks – snare, bass drum, toms and floor toms – to have the sounds of an acoustic kit? Is this something you could ‘toss out’ in a subsequent podcast, and/or approach Miguel about?
If this has already been done, please link or direct me to a video or audio of such – I’d appreciate having a listen. If not, I think that this re-interpretation would be an interesting view and listen for fans.
I like the album and saw the tour a half dozen times, but find the sound too 80s with the keyboards and drums. It started as a Jon Anderson so album and has a lot of that sound too it on things like Teakbois. Brother of Mine I love though, and feel like it would sound great if performed by the current band.
ABWH is grate. I found the cassette and vhs packaged together at Walmart for $10 back in ’95. I was 18. I still l have both to this day.