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Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius
This week Mark and I had all sorts of fun thinking about whether there are any short Yes epics – or if this idea is even possible. We set ourselves the restriction of only choosing Yes songs less than 6mins in duration so can you guess what we came up with and how we justified our choices?
It was sad to hear that Ozzy Osbourne died this week, only a few weeks after performing his last ever concert with his Black Sabbath bandmates. I can’t say I was a dedicated fan of Ozzy or Sabbath but my introduction to heavy metal was when a friend of mine took me up to his room in a slightly creepy Victorian mansion and played me the self-titled album by the Birmingham band. How appropriate the setting was. I also learned to play Paranoid on the drums when I was a teenager and my younger son taught my daughter, when she was a toddler, to sing the alphabet to the riff from War Pigs. My elder son was a true fan so he was upset when we heard the news.
As you know if you’ve read the new Tales book or get your information from many other sources like Matthew Paine on Facebook, Rick Wakeman was a huge fan of Ozzy who he met at Morgan Studios while Yes were recording Tales. He ended up playing keys on 2 songs on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath which was being recorded over the road in another Morgan studio at the time. Eventually, Ozzy returned the favour by singing on Rick’s “The Return to the Center of the Earth”, as pointed out by Paul Graf also on Facebook.
Our own Doug Curran interviewed Ozzy for his radio show in 1981 so do make a point of reading his reflections on that on the YMP Facebook discussion group
Rest in Peace Ozzy.
https://www.quora.com/What-makes-epic-songs-epic
Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide
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- Joseph Cottrell
- Wayne Hall
- Ken Fuller
- Jeffrey Crecelius
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11 replies on “Are there any short Yes epics? – 682”
Rick Wakeman’s TRIBUTE TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2002) is actually a compilation of renamed tracks taken from THE HERITAGE SUITE (1993) and SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD (1995), so not really created with the Tolkien books in mind at all. The album was also released under the name LANDSCAPES OF MIDDLE EARTH (2001), but you’re better off if you just stick with the original albums from which the tracks were taken, both of which are quite good.
Came here to say this. You are correct, it is a compilation put together by the label. Though my copy is titled Songs of Middle-earth. Rick Wakeman is a Tolkien fan though. He appeared in a documentary titled J.R.R. Tolkien: Master of the Rings, where he jokingly compared Jon Anderson to him in terms of how they’re on one world while being on yet another world. Roger Dean is also in the documentary.
It was for that documentary hat the compilation of renamed tracks was created (as a bonus CD with the DVD).
I tend to think that pre “Relayer” the band were very reliant on repeated sections in order to extend their pieces rather than through composition. Sometimes to good effect, sometimes not so much.
So I would like to put in a vote for “We Have Heaven” as it covers an astonishing amount of ground in under 2 minutes. “Fish” similarly so in under 3 minutes. Both tunes would give sides 2 and 3 of TFTO a run for their money in terms of the sheer volume of musical ideas in them (really enjoying the book btw, probably more than I have ever enjoyed the actual record!)
When it comes to the New Age end of ambient music that might have influenced Jon Anderson you maybe have to go back to the early / earliest days when the idea of New Age was more nascent and exploratory and it hadn’t established the musical clichés with which it became associated.
With that in mind I can highly recommend a compilation that came out about ten years ago called “I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age In America, 1950-1990”.
That release pointed me to Gail Laughton’s “Harps Of The Ancient Temples” from 1969 (I suspect Jon Anderson would have been well aware of this record), Don Slepian’s “Sea Of Bliss” from 1980 and Constance Demby’s “Skies Above Skies” from 1977.
I think this is more the musical palette Anderson has been drawing from over the years rather than Brian Eno or Robert Fripp’s forays into this territory etc.
More recently prolific French composer Jonathan Fitoussi has released some wonderful music, both solo and collaborative. All on Bandcamp for anyone fancying a browse. Would highly recommend “Poeme Symphonique”, “Plein Soleil” and his collab with early electronic music stalwart Suzanne Ciani.
Don’t kill the whale would be my choice.
I thought for a moment Mark with his talk of a car coming to the rescue in London/New York was leading to Man in a White Car – which would have stretched the imagination. My own suggestion (and I was amazed that you didn’t pick it) is Can you Imagine. Whilst this may not hit all of your criteria to me it has always sounded epic.
Umm… Changes, anyone? Or what about Shoot High Aim Low?
Great choices, except that both are over 6 minutes.
I nominate “Face to Face.”
I know you “blipped” over Fragile but in terms of an epic how could you ignore Long Distance Runaround? It has everything, fabulous speed changes, great instrument playing and classic yes vocals, not to mention the great live version on Yessongs. I would also add The Fish but I dont want to be greedy!! Great show. Keep it up.
Hi Mark and Kevin
Hope weather is good. Enjoyed this weeks topic, a challenging one that had me wracking my memory.
I agree with some points and disagree with others. I’m sorry Mark, I just don’t see ‘Leave it’ as an epic or even cinematic in anyway. It’s the most pop thing in 90125! ‘Cinema’ is an excellent choice, or as an alternative ‘Hearts’ with its anthemic chorus and keyboard swells. It even has a brief Kaye organ solo!
Angkor Wat is a track I really love, and agree with Kevin that it’s a worthy inclusion. ‘The more you love’ from the same album has epic elements to it and seems a spiritual successor to Hearts.
Looking elsewhere in the catalogue, my vote would go to ‘Onwards’ and ‘Run to the Light’ on Drama, my favourite track from Bugglyes.
Great show as always!
Enjoyed this episode very much.. I’m guessing that the first piece of research Kevin did in preparing for this was to check the run time of Future Times/Rejoice! But just missed at a little over 6 minutes… would have been at the top of my list too!