Relayer: The Yes Masterpiece?

uduwudu wrote: Howard HUghes wrote - <I can’t help but wonder why they wouldn’t have continued with Moraz if they were happy with Relayer. Anyone know if they’ve ever talked about this? > Yes, I remeber an interview- can't recall the spoecific medium but those replying said he (Patrick Morazx) was too Swiss, too foreign. A slight parodying of Moraz' accented voice setrved to underline this. I think they just felt happier with Wakeman. Incidentally, Wakeman left Yes after Tales as he thought it wasn't (pop? eeerk) enough (should've waited ' til 90125...) Anyway....he later went on to say it hardly mattered if a song was 3 or 8 or 20 minutes, however long it took to say what they had to say. True he was enamoured of the GFTO sessions (they're writing soings again.) Intderestingly along came Tormato which did little for Yes other than prompting Wakeman and Anderson to depart. This was an album of songs. No coneptual themes. I do think with Relayer being the last of their acknowledged epics before Endless Dream, Be The One, That,. That Is and Mind Drive (all appearing within 2 -3 years and none since - and 20 years after Relayer then Relayer was certainly the last Yes classic to hammer theri themed epic tone poem ideas home. There is Awaken but Yes hit the rocks after '77 and spent too much time boxing the compass. After Drama they chased an audience rather than vice versa and this leaves Relayer as the last great evidence of epics. Mind You I think GFTO is equally fine. But having that themed consistency - that story feel to their recordings was essentially Yes' area of expertise. And they let it go... They're good at pretty much everything and making mainstream rock (their's is more distinguished than most others) but ... Relayer / Awaken are the last epics before the drama of the 80s. Interesting how the title track  of Relayer (such as it is) turns up on Tales...

Howard HUghes wrote - <I can’t help but wonder why they wouldn’t have continued with Moraz if they were happy with Relayer. Anyone know if they’ve ever talked about this? >

Yes, I remeber an interview- can't recall the spoecific medium but those replying said he (Patrick Morazx) was too Swiss, too foreign. A slight parodying of Moraz' accented voice setrved to underline this. I think they just felt happier with Wakeman.

Incidentally, Wakeman left Yes after Tales as he thought it wasn't (pop? eeerk) enough (should've waited ' til 90125...) Anyway....he later went on to say it hardly mattered if a song was 3 or 8 or 20 minutes, however long it took to say what they had to say. True he was enamoured of the GFTO sessions (they're writing soings again.)

Intderestingly along came Tormato which did little for Yes other than prompting Wakeman and Anderson to depart. This was an album of songs. No coneptual themes.

I do think with Relayer being the last of their acknowledged epics before Endless Dream, Be The One, That,. That Is and Mind Drive (all appearing within 2 -3 years and none since - and 20 years after Relayer then Relayer was certainly the last Yes classic to hammer theri themed epic tone poem ideas home. There is Awaken but Yes hit the rocks after '77 and spent too much time boxing the compass.

After Drama they chased an audience rather than vice versa and this leaves Relayer as the last great evidence of epics. Mind You I think GFTO is equally fine. But having that themed consistency - that story feel to their recordings was essentially Yes' area of expertise. And they let it go...

They're good at pretty much everything and making mainstream rock (their's is more distinguished than most others) but ... Relayer / Awaken are the last epics before the drama of the 80s.

Interesting how the title track  of Relayer (such as it is) turns up on Tales...

The original question that started this thread was essentially “... Which album is it that drives there point home?” Not, What’s your favorite Yes album.””

While it’s arguable that Yes actually has a specific “point” to drive home, it seems to me that their own preference for the make-up (or line-up) has to have something to do with it. To me that says that they were happiest with the Anderson, Howe, Squire, White, Wakeman line up. 

It would be interesting to know what they themselves consider their best works. I can’t help but wonder why they wouldn’t have continued with Moraz if they were happy with Relayer. Anyone know if they’ve ever talked about this? 

The Yes Album and Close to the Edge.
Fragile doesn't quite make it for me as a complete album, although it does have some of my favorite songs on it.

Relayer for me is 2nd tier, probably on a level with Going for the One.  Relayer just sounds "sterile" to me.

uduwudu wrote: Relayer is a fantastic album. A very easy to get war theme fits the music power and dynamics with a directness not reaily apparent on Tales. Tales is probably my favourite of the lot but it's not an obvious album in terms of it's lyrical focus. But this is the whole idea. It' s not pop music (though the broad category is Poular Music - I mean pop as in disposable.) This stuff (Prog and Yes especially requires study and analysis much the same as (non comic) opera, symphonies, concerto and orchestral suites, jazz masterworks from Ellington, Miles, Coltrane. and Tales, Relayer and the other Yes suspects fall into this In Depth category. Yes went on with Going For The One and the Keys material but Gates of Delerium has a unique ness that places it so evidently that this thread needed to be started. The greatest? The last greatest (arguably the last could be GFTO). But Gates is so epic. It's probably on it's own, a superior condensed idea than any one of the individual tracks from Tales which is a better sum considering that the album (if you folow the lyrics is a cyclic narrative.) Sound Chaser I've noticed gets a bit of a rough ride and To Be Over almost ignored. IMHO Sound Chaser absolutely electrifies. Wild Yes on fire like never before or since. To Be Over is an understated piece of charming lyricism with all the timeles beauty of a Turner. Wonderful album.

When Yes came to Brazil in 1998, I went to the show! They played a small part of "Sound Chaser", in a little medley, at the final of "The Fish"! Great Squire performance!

  Yeah, I saw that same tour but at Balboa Stadium in San Diego (whose massive columns were leveled some years back because of earthquake safety - do you care?). Sure, there was Gentle Giant (who I was too ill-informed about to savor), Gary Wright (enjoyable), and Frampton, who got a large Dixie cup of soda thrown up onto him by a ditzy fan. Yes did close the show (headliner?) but for some reason I don't remember "Gates" being part of the set. You lucked out if you saw 'em do it. I do remember the grace and beauty of Moraz's playing though, and the guys pulled out "Money" as one of their encores. My point here: Yes' Moraz era was golden!

i agree

Bitter Blogger wrote: halabalushindigus wrote: Yes, without hearing all of it, I would say that "Relayer" is their masterpiece. Why? Well, children, the year is 1978, I'm at a concert at Anaheim Stadium featuring GENTLE GIANT, PETER FRAMPTON and YES  so Frampton does his thing, right, and it starts raining hard when YES comes on the stage and just BLOWS!! away the crowd a freaking 20 minute assault of controlled frenzy. All I know is that people were leaving in DROVES with the rain and all that plus the relentless musical attack. I mean, I got bummed, I couldn't understand the music, it was just a musical assault that obliterated everyone. That's Relayer. Nothing comes close to this masterpiece. Nothing. Not Genesis not King Crimson. The music I heard that night in the rain from YES at Anaheim Stadium just tore my face off. I'm sure you meant 1976. Don't forget Gary Wright. He was on in between GG and PF. And were you able to get to the field? It was the best rock day I'll ever have. I even camped overnight to get a good spot behind second base.

Edited by Garion81 - January 26 2010 at 19:06

Bitterblogger wrote: Kashmir75 wrote: I like the trinity of The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge myself. If you add Tales and Relayer, there's a string of five works that no one (except maybe the Beatles and Zeppelin) can beat.