Union review

no, Anderson wasn't mainly responsible for Onion...if I remember, he went along to Trevor Rabin's studio, heard the music they (Squire, Kaye & White) were recording and quote 'immediately wanted to be part of it'...God knows why...  I think 2/5 is about right.

BTW, I saw them on the ReUnion Tour in 1991, in the Round, at Birmingham NEC, which was a good concert, but playing 'Dangerous' next to 'Awaken' only served to demonstrate how far they had fallen!

I tried Union once again last week, but apart from some good tracks I really dislike the album. I don't think you can held Anderson responsible for it. Nobody was really in control anymore, I guess. I think record company policy had a lot do with it, and maybe producer Jonathan Elias. There were loads of session musicians on Union. Lots of keyboard parts for instance weren't from Wakeman or Kaye.

I always understood that the making of the 2nd ABWH album didn't work out very well, and somehow there was contact between ABWH's record cie. (or Anderson?) and Trevor Rabin, who offered three songs for the next ABWH album. The record cie. wanted more. From then on, things started to move on. But now I'm on thin ice, I don't know if it really went the way I described this. Does anybody else know?

Although it was Anderson's pipe dream that there should be a big Yes reunion, I think it was mainly record company policy who molded a legitimate dream into some kind of monster. Although Rabin obviously had a lot of control of his own tracks of Union, a lot of the songs (especially from ABWH origin) turned from music into some sort of plastic. Bill Bruford already said that ABWH was a good idea, but that record company soon started to interfere, and started to destroy the whole project.

Unfortunately Trotsky they are. BG is awful at times but side 2 is at least listenable whereas side one leaves me cold. Open your eyes is a strange album indeed. There are sections of magic playing right through the album but none of the songs work in their entirety.Deary deary me! as Sir Alex Ferguson might have said if Mendes goal was allowed.

Still 3 stinkers out of 15 or so albums is not bad going. Oh and who was that clown on the reviews yesterday that gave relayer 2 out of 5.

I don't think Union is as bad as it's made out. I think it tends to suffer because of the band's bad feelings about it. Hell, I've seen it voted as Yes' best album by some people in a poll!

I also think Big Generator is okay, especially side two - I'm running is my favourite Rabin-era track along with I am waiting from Talk. Must admit side one isn't up to much.

Having said that, Yes' bad stuff is still a lot better than most bands' good stuff.

fandango wrote: no, Anderson wasn't mainly responsible for Onion...if I remember, he went along to Trevor Rabin's studio, heard the music they (Squire, Kaye & White) were recording and quote 'immediately wanted to be part of it'...God knows why...  I think 2/5 is about right.

Actually Anderson was mainly responsible:

a) only 4 of the 14 tracks came from YesWest (i.e. Rabin), so 10 of 14 came from ABWH (Anderson, et al), so Union is an Anderson album (rather than a Rabin album) by a factor of 3.5 to 1

b) The Rabin tracks are widely considered better than the ABWH tracks on Union

c) It was Anderson who worked closely and gave the green light to producer Jonathan Elias, widely blamed for the ill-fated album. It was Anderson who allowed Elias to do really stupid things like replace Howe and Wakeman's parts with sesssion musicians.

Snow Dog wrote: And those 4 YesWest tracks were from the Yes album that Atlantic refused to release, as there was no Anderson doing the singing!

True. YesWest even tried out a number of other vocalists during the late 80s/early 90s, including Roger Hodgson of Supertramp, Steve Walsh of Kansas, and Billy Sherwood of World Trade.

But let's face it, the material was weak, and the production even worse.

Trotsky wrote :

Always a matter of perspective isn't it ... Union was the first Yes album I'd heard properly ... at that point I only really knew Owner Of A Lonely Heart ... I didn't know my Rabin from my Howe and I love some of the songs on Union ... like Tormato I feel it's much better than its rep ...

Now Big Generator and Open Your Eyes ... Those are real stinkers ... IMO of course

I totally agree on that issue. Union defintely had it's moments (Take the water.., Ankhor, Give & take, ...) it just wasn't a real album, more like a commercial ABWH-album + a Yes EP.  I hate listening to "Open your eyes", I simply can't stand the whole thing. "Big generator" is not so bad but I only play it once in 5 years. When I do, I only listen to "Shoot high..." or "Love will find a way" from which the last one is more like a tasteful pop/rock tune. But I do listen to some Union stuff every now and then and for me this is the proof that, at least some of it, is pretty decent material. 

kirklott wrote: Snow Dog wrote: kirklott wrote: Snow Dog wrote: And those 4 YesWest tracks were from the Yes album that Atlantic refused to release, as there was no Anderson doing the singing! True. YesWest even tried out a number of other vocalists during the late 80s/early 90s, including Roger Hodgson of Supertramp, Steve Walsh of Kansas, and Billy Sherwood of World Trade. But let's face it, the material was weak, and the production even worse. I don't know, the album was never released! Actually it has been! You just need to stitch it together from Union, Yesyears (Love Conquers All), Conspiracy, etc. Trevor Horn's presence as producer was sorely lacking.

First, I don't admit that the material is week and second as Its not all together on one official albumI don't see how one can comment on production that doesn't exist!