Trevor Rabin, your opinions

tuxon wrote: I like the 90125 album, have to agree with Cesar Inca about that album, with wakeman on board, or another great keyboard player, and some better arrangements it could have been more than the popclassic it became. Mind you, that Tony Kaye wasn't fully aboard also, there was another keyboardist involved aswel (forgot his name), Tony started it, left and returned again at a later stage replacing the intermediate keyboardist. If anyone know the full storie, please reply  Back on track to Trevor rabin. Trevor was/is a good guitarist and I like most of his guitarwork on the Yes albums he participated in. On 90125 he was very good, also Talk was a reasonable good effort, He lackes IMO the sophistication in his writing to bring about the magic that was there in the early to mid seventies. But he's not alone to blame for the decline in (progressive) quality. For some reason he became something of a foreman in the band, writing and producing most of the material. Either Jon or Chris should have stepped in, and take artistic control.

In 1982, Chris Squire and Alan White were planning to form a new band. Trevor Rabin at that time had 2 solo albums. Rabin was offered the chance (by some record label executives and managers) to join one of  two planned bands: one with Keith Emerson and Jack Bruce, and one with Squire and White. Rabin also auditioned for Asia in 1981, but it didn`t work. Rabin called Squire and White. They rehearsed and liked to play together. Squire invited Eddie Jobson, but he was busy recording a solo album. Squire met Tony Kaye at a party, and he invited Kaye to the new band. The new band was called "Cinema". They started to record demos. Atlantic/Atco records liked the demos. They started to record an album. In 1983, Squire met Jon Anderson and he played the new songs to him. Anderson liked the new music and joined the band, which changed their name to YES. During the final recording sessions, Kaye had some problems with producer Trevor Horn, and Kaye left the band to play again with the band "Badfinger" (he was an  "in-out" member of that band since 1979). YES carried on recording "90125", with Rabin and Horn adding keyboard parts. After finishing the recording of the album, YES invited Jobson again. He said "yes", and they rehearsed a bit, with Jobson even playing the electric violin in some rehearsals. They also filmed the "Owner of a Lonely Heart" video, on which Jobson appeared. Then, "Badfinger" split after lead singer/bassist Tom Evans took his life in Nov. 1983. Kaye re-joined YES, and the idea was to have Kaye and Jobson sharing the keyboards. Jobson didn`t like the idea, and he left YES. His appearance in the "Owner..." video was edited out, but he can still be seen in some parts of that video. YES started rehearsals for the "90125" tour.

I think that Rabin is a very good musician. I like the albums that he recorded with YES.

tuxon wrote: I like the 90125 album, have to agree with Cesar Inca about that album, with wakeman on board, or another great keyboard player, and some better arrangements it could have been more than the popclassic it became. Mind you, that Tony Kaye wasn't fully aboard also, there was another keyboardist involved aswel (forgot his name), Tony started it, left and returned again at a later stage replacing the intermediate keyboardist. If anyone know the full story, please reply........

THAT WAS EDDIE JOBSON!!

Listen to his green album: there you will find some damn good modern prog, with an 80s sound, but accurately ellaborated. Some of the tracks included there would have made good 80s songs, hypothetically speaking.

Regards. 

I'm with Cesar Inca on this one. I think it was a stroke of genius for the band to get Rabin in and update their sound but don't forget that Trevor Horn and Tony Kaye also played a significant part in renovating the band's fortunes. However I really rate Kaye as a player my fave Yes release is 'The Yes Album'. Even with his 'one hand on his organ and the other in the air' style...

In the long term, I'd say much like Director George Lucas and Star Wars, Rabin was a guy with one great idea that had enough inertia to last a few years.

I have some of his solo stuff as a result of the Yes 80's output and while it's competent, it lacks the emotional core of the Yes material both before, during and after his time.

That said; I like Talk very much.

While I think the Rabin-era stuff is enjoyable to listen to as music, lyrically and in terms of his persona, Rabin does not fit into what I call the Yes ethos (and by contrast, Downes and Horn do).

Lyrically, Rabin is more in the confessional singer/songwriter tradition, while the themes Yes had sung about up to that time are beyond that, more diverse than that, though they may include traits of that genre.

All you need to do is contrast "Drama" with "90125" to see how Rabin's lyrics bring down Yes's overall sound and band persona.

I think that's why Jon Anderson re-inserted himself and pushed him out. He had to get the band back on the right track.

I'm a big fan of Rabin era 'Yes'. Some of his songs are very technical compositions ie. 'Final Eyes', 'Big Generator' & the excellent track 'Talk'. Every Yes fan should be proud that Yes has these songs in their back catalogue!

And dare I say it, 'Talk' was the last great album Yes made!