Album: Big Generator
Artist: Yes
1987 Atco
CD: 7 90522-2
Band members:
Jon Anderson: vocals
Tony Kaye: keybs
Trevor Rabin: guitar, keyboards, vocals
Chris Squire: bass, vocals
Alan White: drums, percussion
Produced by Yes, Trevor Rabin, Paul DeVilliers, and Trevor Horn
Tracks:
1. "Rhythm of Love" [Kaye/Rabin/Anderson/Squire] (4:49)
2. "Big Generator" [Rabin/Kaye/Anderson/Squire/White] (4:31)
3. "Shoot High Aim Low" [White/Kaye/Rabin/Anderson/Squire] (6:59)
4. "Almost Like Love" [Kaye/Rabin/Anderson/Squire] (4:58)
5. "Love will Find a Way" [Rabin] (4:48)
6. "Final Eyes" [Rabin/Kaye/Anderson/Squire] (6:20)
7. "I'm Running" [Rabin/Squire/Anderson/Kaye/White] (7:34)
8. "Holy Lamb (Song for Harmonic Convergence)" [Anderson] (3:15)
Notes: (****) After the success of 90125, Yes spent a
commercially unwise period of time making Big Generator.
Most of the band - Rabin, Squire, White and Kaye - had bonded and
wrote together, with Kaye and White perhaps more involved in writing
than ever before or after. But Anderson was still marginalised,
being brought in later to add ideas, as had occurred on 90125.
Kaye has talked of meeting with Rabin initially and planning much of
the album: 4 tracks have Rabin and Kaye listed first in the writing
credits. In a Jan
2017 interview, White said, "I remember when we were making Big
Generator and we were doing a song called Shoot High Aim Low.
I was messing around on the keyboard and Trevor Rabin came in and
said, "Hey, what are you doing there? Keep doing that." He came up
with a guitar line, and the next thing you knew we had the full band
playing it." "Love will Find a Way" was written for Stevie Nicks but
then recorded by Yes instead. Squire's core riff for "I'm Running"
dates back at least to the Squire/Howe/White sessions before Drama.
Rabin has recounted how Squire kept bothering him with the riff
until he eventually wrote a song around it.
But having written the album, they took a very long time recording
it, with Horn initially to produce but leaving the project partway,
after a falling out reportedly.
The result is often considered a mixed bag, but more disappointment
than not, by Yes fans, although I love the album. (HP, 26 Jan 2017)
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