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Yes - 90125 (1983)

YES 90125

The first time I heard "Owner of a Lonely Heart" on the radio, I was smitten. "What in the heck was that?" It was one of those HOLY SHIT songs that seemed to come out of nowhere. KISM from Bellingham had a strong enough signal to reach over into the suburbs where I lived. The song quickly worked its way into heavy rotation, but I don't remember hearing it on the two big stations in Vancouver.

It took me a while to find the record after first hearing the song. There was a record store across the street from where I worked, and I looked for this new Yes album. All I found were the old Yes records, nothing new. Of course, this only happened once, and I'm sure this was all compressed into the span of a couple of weeks, if that. Soon the song, along with the bleeding-edge orchestral blasts that were unlike anything I'd heard before, was everywhere.

This was Yes?

Yes.

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Of course, there was no internet back in the day, just word of mouth and the burgeoning age of video ... you learned what you picked up. Although I was a sporadic reader of Rolling Stone, and Spin didn't exist yet (Penthouse for Music, courtesy of Bob Guccione Jr.), I really had no idea what the back story was on 90125. Apparently, it was a hell of a story too.

I'm not about to try and retell it. Suffice to say that this was never meant to be a Yes album. The band initially referred to themselves as Cinema, and it was only after they sort of ran out of money and Jon Anderson came on board that things started to signal a change. Everyone in the band except Trevor Rabin had previously been members of Yes, and after Atlantic founder Ahmet Ertegun heard the early tapes, he agreed to cover the rest of the album (of course, I'll bet that was code for "to be recouped later"), and the rest, as they say, is history.

I'm guessing it must also have been a pain in the ass for Trevor Rabin, who I'm sure had no desire to be in Yes or have to learn the band's back catalogue when they went on tour. The album came out under the Yes banner and was now the new album by the legendary band, subject to all of the comparisons and scrutiny of their longtime fans. "WHERE'S STEVE? Blah blah blah, play the old stuff. Where's Roundabout?"

Me, I did not give two shits about the band's past or legacy. This is where I started, and I would follow the Rabin era. 90125, at least according to the writing credits, seemed to be very much a collaborative effort, although how much of that was merely tweaking Trevor's original demos is probably another story, and frankly, I don't need to know. See my earlier two-shits comment ... consider this the second shit.

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For me, I got hooked on the rock songs, "Owner of a Lonely Heart," "Changes," and the incredible "City of Love," and of course, the how was this a hit "Leave It," a song I absolutely adore. There were a couple of songs that didn't quite scratch the itch, like the Grammy-winning instrumental "Cinema," and the album's closing opus, "Hearts," which, oddly, over forty years later, is a stunning song.

I read somewhere not long ago that Trevor wanted the album to be judged on its own merits, and back when I got this, I didn't have any baggage with the band. This was truly my introduction, and it made me a fan. Sure, Jon had the quirky voice that was the hallmark of the old Yes, but I loved Trevor's voice and his guitar playing.

back cover

For me, I got hooked on the rock songs, "Owner of a Lonely Heart," "Changes," and the incredible "City of Love," and of course, the how was this a hit "Leave It," a song I absolutely adore. There were a couple of songs that didn't quite scratch the itch, like the Grammy-winning instrumental "Cinema," and the album's closing opus, "Hearts," which, oddly, over forty years later, is a stunning song.

I read somewhere not long ago that Trevor wanted the album to be judged on its own merits, and back when I got this, I didn't have any baggage with the band. This was truly my introduction, and it made me a fan. Sure, Jon had the quirky voice that was the hallmark of the old Yes, but I loved Trevor's voice and his guitar playing.

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