Album: Fly from Here
Artist: Yes
2011 Frontiers Records in Europe/US; Avalon in Japan
CD (FR CD 520); limited edition CD + DVD Digipak (FR CDVD 520); LP
(FR LP 520); box set with CD, DVD, LP, T-shirt (L size), poster and
lithograph of cover art (FR BS 520)
Chris Squire: bass, vocals, lead vocals
(7)
Steve Howe: electric & acoustic
guitars, steel guitar, mandolin, vocals
Alan White: drums
Geoff Downes: keyboards, piano, Hammond
Benoît David: lead vocals
with:
Oliver Wakeman: additional keyboards (2,
6, 9)
Trevor Horn: additional backing vocals,
keyboards, guitar (3)
Luís Jardim: percussion
Gerard Johnson: piano (7)
Produced by Trevor Horn
Engineered & mixed by Tim Weidner
except (10) engineered by Curtis Schwartz/Steve Howe
Sleeve design: Roger Dean
Tracks:
side A:
1. "Fly From Here - Overture" [Horn/Downes] (1:53)
2. "Fly From Here Pt I - We Can Fly" [Horn/Downes/Squire] (6:00)
3. "Fly From Here Pt II - Sad Night at the Airfield" [Horn/Downes]
(6:41)
4. "Fly From Here Pt III - Madman at the Screens" [Horn/Downes]
(5:16)
5. "Fly From Here Pt IV - Bumpy Ride" [Howe] (2:15)
6. "Fly From Here Pt V - We Can Fly Reprise" [Horn/Downes/Squire]
(1:44)
side B:
7. "The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be" [Squire/Johnson/Sessler]
(5:07)
8. "Life on a Film Set" [Horn/Downes] (5:01)
9. "Hour of Need" [Howe] (3:07)
10. "Solitaire" [Howe] (3:30)
11. "Into the Storm" [Squire/Wakeman/Howe/Horn/David/White] (6:54)
Japanese CD bonus track:
12. "Hour of Need (full-length version)" (6:46; exclusive to Japan
until 2016)
DVD content (Japan, Europe): making-of documentary (18:30 duration).
The Japanese release has non-optional Japanese subtitles.
Notes: Release dates were 22 Jun (Japan physical release), 1 Jul
(Europe; Australia; digital release in Japan), 12 Jul (US/Canada), 5
Aug (Brazil). UK and Irish retailers generally listed 4 Jul. French
release in practice occured in Jun.
"Fly from Here" is based on the 1980 Buggles/Yes song "We Can Fly
from Here" and further parts by The Buggles in c. 1981. "Life on a Film Set"
is a version of "Riding a Tide", a c. 1981 Buggles demo. "Solitaire" is an acoustic
solo piece by Howe. There was a digital-only single of "We Can Fly
(Radio Edit)" (4:15), as well as a music video.
By around the end of November 2011, about 5 months after its
release, Fly from Here had
sold 72,000 copies worldwide, including 32,000 in the US. A report
at the beginning of Feb 2012, so about 7 months after release, said
the figure was just short of 100,000. (For comparison, Keys to Ascension had sold about
55,000 copies in the US in its first 13 months. By late Nov 1999, Keys to Ascension had sold about
63,000 copies in the US; Keys to
Ascension 2 48,000; Open
Your Eyes 40,000; The
Ladder, after about 2 months, 42,000; and Talk, 298,000. In the UK, Magnification sold about 10,000
copies after 5 months, climbing to about 14,000 after 1 year. The Ladder sold about 20,000 in
the UK.) Downes said in early Mar 2012 that Fly from Here has sold more
copies than Magnification.
Official
national chart positions
|
Peak
|
USA
|
36
|
Japan
|
56
|
Germany
|
16
|
UK
|
30
|
France
|
134
|
Italy
|
49
|
Netherlands
|
43
|
Czech Rep.
|
33
|
Switzerland
|
39
|
Sweden
|
31
|
Norway
|
24
|
While O. Wakeman played keys on the 2010 sessions, Geoff Downes then
became involved. He had already liaised with Horn over the plan to
record "We Can Fly from Here" in 2010, but his initial recording
contributions where when he was in LA in Jan and early Feb 2011.
Wakeman has talked about re-using material he wrote for the album
elsewhere and one song he wrote during the 2010 recording sessions,
"From the Turn of a Card", was included on his album with Gordon
Giltrap, Ravens & Lullabies,
with David guesting on vocals. "The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be"
began as a demo in the 2006/7 writing sessions for an abortive
Squire solo project: the song is co-composed by Gerard Johnson (The Electric
Opera/Funky Monkey, St Etienne, ex-The Syn, ex-Peter Banks),
while the lyrics were co-written by Simon
Sessler (works with Chris Kimsey; worked with IQ, Terry
Reid, Francis Dunnery).
The first batch of Yes's recording sessions were 3 Oct-12 Nov 2010,
during which they recorded or partially recorded "Into the Storm",
"The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be", "Hour of Need", "Don't Take No
for an Answer" (eventually released on Return Trip), "The
Gift of Love", "To the Moment", "Words on a Page" and "From the Turn
of a Card", the last four all eventually being released as From a Page. Wakeman had "a riff
and lyrics" for another song, "Credit Carnival". On his website, Howe
describes this initial period thus: "October crawled as we got
started, into a steady pace. Then, once "Fly from Here Part 1" had
been recorded with Trevor [Horn], we tried out further songs with
Tim [Weidner], including "Into The Storm", "The Man You Always
Wanted Me To Be" & "Hour Of Need", making it 6 weeks." "The Gift
of Love" also used an idea from the 2006/7 Squire/Johnson writing
sessions. The band then played a short South American tour before a
period apart, and a return to the studio in Jan 2011. Sessions
continued through Feb (somewhat longer than originally planned).
While the band were on tour in Mar, Downes continued working on
keyboard parts. This continued in Apr, which also saw some more
vocal overdubs recorded. Final work on album—Jardim's percussion,
final guitar overdubs, mixing and mastering—came in Apr. In a Jun
2011 interview, asked when the album was recorded, Squire
said:
We started in October,
November, and we had a break over the holiday period and
reconvened in mid-January till the end of February. We finished
the recording, most of it except for vocals, which we finished
in London in April.
In an Oct 2011
interview, Howe was asked how long the album took to make:
Primarily three months with
the whole band throwing their weight in and then periods after
that when it was just a keyboard session for a week, or mixing
for a week which we got a little bit involved in as the end of
March came along.
A song entitled "Corner of the World", which may have become "In
a World of Our Own" on Heaven & Earth, and further
songs were also being developed after Downes joined, but were not
used on the final album. Shortly before recording final overdubs
for the album, David was interviewed by Progression magazine, saying, "At the end of the
day we recorded so many tracks that we could do almost two albums.
So the tracks are there, we just need to see what Trevor puts on
the final disc." In mid-May 2011 on the Asia tour, Howe and Downes
spoke to fans about the album and said that there were a few songs
that were left off the album. (HP, 12 Mar 14; updated 26 Oct 2019)
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