That has to be the most awesome thing I've read tonight.

Agreed ^^

Quite exciting this computer magic.

Great article.

I might have to hunt down his book.

Wakeman/Yes weren't on my radar screen much, but that was a very entertaining read. A quoteable quote:

When the most enjoyable part of a live performance is the curry that you eat in the middle of it, you know that it's time to start thinking about moving on.

Hibno: Quite exciting this computer magic.

Ha! There were also some hints of "Jazz Odyssey" in that article, too.

Mmmm, a curry sounds so good. With meat, of course.

Very interesting. I was a huge fan back in Junior HS, and "Tales..." was probably my favorite album after "Yessongs." Wakeman might have been reduced to single-finger playing and curry eating at times, but he had his "Six Wives..." solo to showcase his talents, so I don't feel too sorry for him. Given some of the new age crap he has put out, it's a bit hard to swallow his claim that he was the beer-swilling, meat-eating outcast in the band. Unless it was all just pretense.

yeah, every band is now taking credit for being so called, "spinal tap", who cares?

I saw them at this show. The tour after Wakeman left. (pops)

"It wasn't the sort of outfit that attracted groupies: our fans were more likely to throw synthesizer manuals on stage than knickers."

Wow. I got to get the book...

Wow. I got to get the book...

Direct quote from the book:

"While the rest of the band were cleaning their vaginas, I ate pork with gravy and mashed potatos."

/or something like that.

I admit it, I fell for Yes back in the 70's. So really, I'm almost as lame as those who fell for Rush. The difference? I outgrew fondness for pseudosmart Yes.

I listen mostly to instrumental guitar music; i dig what Steve Howe did in "America". wow, he plays some sh+t on that tune. What a great player that guy is.

Good read. I'm still trying to figure out what a drummer being stuck in a clamshell has to do with a bassist stuck in a ... alien pod? It's completely different! One is a clamshell and the other's a pod! Nothing similar whatsoever.

/I wonder if his synth goes to 11

The New Originals?

Another similarity: Steve Howe and his massive guitar collection.

That_Bob_Guy: /I wonder if his synth goes to 11

9.6 !

When Yes and Wakeman were on Howard Stern a few years ago Wkakeman told the most hilarious and epic funny story about his drinking problem in the 70s.

Basically he went to see the doctor and told him he was drinking about a bottle of Scotch (his favorite drink) every day.
The doctor asked him what was his least favorite drink and Rick said that he absolutely despised Cognac. So the doctor tells Rick that in order to curtail his drinking binges that every time he is out to order a Cognac instead of Scotch.....so naturally the punch line is--"by the end of the first week I was up to a bottle of Cognac every day"

Much funnier in the true English gentleman manner he told the story.

Its a pity that I find Yes to be as tedious as a train ride
through Kansas; Wakeman sounds like a great chap

Who's Rick Wakefield and what does he have to do with the article?

After watching the Yes Years documentary, I thought that Bruford was the funniest guy in the band. I was wrong.

Honestly, choosing from everyone who's ever been in Yes, it's an easy pick who I'd like to be stuck in a car with on a long trip.

thank you very much, subby!
that was a funny and interesting read.

Great find.

/loves Yes

Great stuff. I've known for quite a while how incredibly funny Rick is. I was really looking forward to hearing some new material from the classic lineup again. Everyone has been up for it the last 5 years except for Jon.
Jon, who pined so much for the origianl band to get back together finally had his wish. And then stops it at every turn.

Now, 5 years later he finally agrees on making new music and touring but he's no longer healthy enough to.

A waste.

As a Yes fan who has loved Tales almost from the first time I heard it almost ten years ago, I still found this article awesome.

Apparently Derek Smalls was doing some surreptitious side work in the early 70's. As a guitarist, the cheeky bugger:

Third_Uncle_Eno: thank you very much, subby!
that was a funny and interesting read.

I second that.

I always had a hard time determining my favorite prog rock band. I choose, of course, based on their classic lineup. It always comes down to Genesis (with Gabriel) or Yes (with Wakeman and Bruford).

/Probably Genesis
//Loves Rick
///AWESOME observation Gulper Eel.
////Both Steves are also awesome

id heard the curry story before but not the clamshell thing. that was great. video?

When he mentioned curry, my thoughts immediately went to a story I heard him tell a few years ago in Buffalo (quote below from NFTE...):

[blockquote]...his regular Saturday was to eat hot curry and then meet with folks for a few drinks and then return home. One day, he ate some REAL spicy curry and he wasn't feeling all that well. Nevertheless, he continued to rendezvous with his friends and have a drink or two. Well, midway through the afternoon, Rick decided to leave because he was really beginning to feel the curry. He got in the car and started driving home. He said that he was keeping up with all the other traffic but he did admit being over the speed limit. Well, an officer with a radar gun ordered Rick to pull over. The officer asked if he had been drinking and Rick said yes, just a brandy and a beer. Rick was given a breathalyzer test; one which he failed. The officer arrested Rick on the spot. Meanwhile, Rick's stomach was REALLY beginning to act up. He asked the officer if he could use a restroom but he was denied that privilege. Somehow, Rick convinced another officer at the scene to allow him to use one of the neighbors facilities.
While in the restroom, the police officer stuck his foot in the door to keep the door open. Rick was thinking how strange this all is; he ate bad curry, became sick with his friends; got pulled over for drunk driving; and now he is in a strangers rest room with a police officer's size 12 shoe in the doorway. How much weirder could this situation get? Suddenly, a copy of The Legends of King Arthur is slipped through the crack of the doorway and a meek little voice said "Can you sign this for my son, Bennie?"[/blockquote]

I'd just like to say that Six Wives of Henry VIII is one of my all-time favorite albums.

/and I'm 26

Never liked Yes, loved this article

/For the record, Spinal Tap are very obviously inspired by Status Quo, right down to the short-lived flirtation with frilly shirts and flower power

Very interesting. Being a bass player once, of course I ran across Chris Squire. I liked Tales quite a bit as overblown as some think it is. What I didn't like so much was, after Closer to the Edge I missed the drummer....Bill Brufford. There just was something more to Bill. OPf course Bill left for King Crimson and we got Larks Tongue and Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, Red . What an era, I love the progressive rock stuff.

[flees in terror] The sparkly cape! The sparkly cape! THE SPARKLY CAAAAPPPPEEEEE! [/gives in to its beauty]

Frankly, Mr. Wakeman comes across as a bit of a mercenary in those excerpts. "I hate the music I'm playing but I'll sure enjoy the lifestyle that playing this music I hate provides". Oh well, he was always way overrated as a keyboard player, but for a time, he was perfect for Yes. Got in to Yes via Relayer, not much interested in all the stuff after that.

/ELP, that's where it was at for keyboard playing
//Drumming too
///No sparkly capes in ELP, that's for sure
////Slashies!

Henry Holland:

///No sparkly capes in ELP, that's for sure


No, just the horrors of skintight silver PVC:

Olympus Mons: What I didn't like so much was, after Closer to the Edge I missed the drummer....Bill Brufford.

bill BRUFORD is the drummer on CLOSE to the edge.

Henry Holland: ///No sparkly capes in ELP, that's for sure

elp was easily the first prog band to start dressing totally retarded and wearing mullets. buy their dvd 'beyond the beginning' if you want proof of that. they were wearing ridiculous costumes before peter gabriel was pondering his first weird haircut.

Olympus Mons: What I didn't like so much was, after Closer to the Edge I missed the drummer....Bill Brufford.

nevermind, you said 'after'. the spelling issue stands though.

GypsyJoker: No, just the horrors of skintight silver PVC:

have you ever seen the vid where emerson is playing the yamaha gx-1 with the tiger onstage with them?

mahavishnunj:

GypsyJoker: No, just the horrors of skintight silver PVC:

have you ever seen the vid where emerson is playing the yamaha gx-1 with the tiger onstage with them?

No--must have missed that one. Is that the one where they came on stage in their E,L,& P boxers' robes?

I'm not as up on ELP antics as I am with Yes, admittedly, although I've seen an equal number of their concerts.

GypsyJoker: No--must have missed that one. Is that the one where they came on stage in their E,L,& P boxers' robes?

i dont think so, im probably wrong but im pretty sure the boxer robes was that big concert where emerson was hoisted in the air and spun around in circles while doing a solo on grand piano. heres a screenshot of the tiger thing(its the best i can find with a quick search):

Link (new window)

check out how terrible that gx-1 sounds, and thats one of the most expensive synths of all time. im sure he made dizzy proud with that 'salt peanuts' quote during his solo with that godawful synth sound.

Henry Holland: Wakeman...was always way overrated as a keyboard player

Eat your fingers.

Right now.


/for shame

Great read. Thanks. I saw the "Other Side of Rick Wakeman" tour back in 2003 and he was hilarious. I have no doubt that the book is quite entertaining. Unfortunately, it looks like the book won't be published in the US until next May.

Looking around, I found a site, needcoffee.com, having a contest where you can win the "Grumpy Old Picture Show" DVD.

Olympus Mons : Bill left for King Crimson and we got Larks Tongue and Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, Red . What an era, I love the progressive rock stuff.

I also really liked the stuff he did with Bruford quite a bit (Feels Good To Me, One Of A Kind, Gradually Going Tornado).

GypsyJoker: No, just the horrors of skintight silver PVC

+1,000,000

mahavishnunj: elp was easily the first prog band to start dressing totally retarded and wearing mullets. buy their dvd 'beyond the beginning' if you want proof of that. they were wearing ridiculous costumes before peter gabriel was pondering his first weird haircut.

Hahahahaha. Nah, it was mostly Emerson, after the first tour or so, Palmer wore black and Lake wore a suit of somesort mostly. That's shooting fish in a barrel about mullets, though, they were *everywhere* in the early 70's, a plague of locusts there were. [Note to self: make sure highschool year book photos are never scanned and put on the Internet]

i dont think so, im probably wrong but im pretty sure the boxer robes was that big concert where emerson was hoisted in the air and spun around in circles while doing a solo on grand piano.

Nah, the robes were in 1972, in Japan, the revolving piano was in 1973/74, on the Brain Salad Surgery tour. The revolving piano = the sparkly cape of ELP.

Sylvia_Bandersnatch:
Eat your fingers.
Right now.
/for shame

No, I stand by what I wrote. Rick could play one style (quasi-classical), he couldn't really improvise for shiat, he had one setting on his Moog in the Yes days and so forth. As Bill Bruford said: "Rick can be summed up in one word: arpeggios".

How incredibly misinformed you are, Henry Holland.

There may be no other keyboardist with as many different textures as Rick Wakeman has. He probably has over 80 solo releases besides his work with Yes and there are numerous different styles represented on them.

He has probably contributed keys to more bands and solo artists than any other keyboardist as well from Cat Stevens to David Bowie to Al Stewart. Probably hundreds at this point.

He wasn't on Yes' "Magnification" CD that utilized a orchestra but on the last Yes tour 4 years ago he certainly replaced the orchestra quite well to the point where he made "In the Presence Of" his.

Check out more of his solo work before you slag the guys talent so dismissively. The guy has very few peers past or present... and a damn funny guy besides.

Musicology101: Check out more of his solo work before you slag the guys talent so dismissively. The guy has very few peers past or present... and a damn funny guy besides.

im with henry holland on this one. rick is as one dimensional as it gets and has THE ABSOLUTE worst taste in keyboard sounds of all time. 6 wives is ok, but 90% of his other solo work is amazingly gay and terrible. plus hes christian. i think moraz was easily the best keyboard player yes ever had.

My spelling is bad, especially at work where I get 2 seconds before a boss walks by.

BTW.... what do people here think of Gentle Giant?

As for Bill Brufford.... loved many of his solo projects with Allan Holdsworth and Jeff Berlin. Later too on the Clouds About Mercury by Dave Torn. Bill these days is like into jazz. I like much of that too.

Olympus Mons: BTW.... what do people here think of Gentle Giant?

Glad you asked!

Gentle Giant reviews from somebody who likes prog but not exclusively (new window)

Musicology101: Check out more of his solo work before you slag the guys talent so dismissively.

I like prog a lot, and I'm a huge Yes fan, but Wakeman's solo career (at least of the 70's stuff I've heard from him) is really uneven. The best ones I've listened to from him come after his initial surge in popularity: No Earthly Connection and Criminal Record.