POLL: Best Track on Yes' 90125

who would believe you?
wise men do

hold on -> it can happen is one of the most heroic stretches of hero music ever. it is music to save planets to

I read imago's stuff on the various poll threads and I say to myself, "here's a person who truly deeply cares about music and yet we have no common reference point at all, what an interesting experience," but no, this, this is what we have in common

only such fools
only such jealous hearts
only through love changes come

yes united us all

i'm trying to write a poem but what i'm doing instead is playing HOLD ON at maximum volume and almost crying, maybe this is the poem

how could men have understood the 1980s so perfectly and intuitively in only 1983

eh, it can happen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhbfyP578oc

Come, old boy, you had much better have the thing out at once
That is exactly what dentists always do
Now, go on! Tell me the whole thing

OP otm
“Leave It”

This was one of the first LPs I ever bought, but I only heard the CD bonus tracks a few weeks ago. They're mostly outtakes from the early, Rabin-heavy stages of the record. I can't imagine that this record could have had much more than modest success without Anderson's voice and Horn's unusual touches.
From this and Big Generator, Trevor Rabin's whole aesthetic seems to be steeped in AOR, in the way someone else might have all their ideas filtered through blues, country or folk music. I feel like you could give him any musical input and he would automatically reinterpret it via pinch-harmonic-heavy squealing lead guitar and fist-pumping choruses. Don't know if there's anything on Union or Talk to change my mind.

the part in Leave It where the scat singing goes into overdrive is so fucking funny

I was surprised how much I liked the Rabin bonus tracks, they're good. I wouldn't mind giving his own stuff a go, but it's one of these things I can't imagine getting around to for a long time

I am shamefully late at getting to this album 25 years after buying my first Yes album, but 'City of Love' strikes me as the exact kind of stomper that Zep would have made if they were still around when this album came out

"Owner" is good and all but 15 years later I'm still mad people obviously don't know the album tracks on this

So much talk of justice and liberty and freedom on this album!

the last Yes album to not have a single shitty track on it.

God, that a cappella breakdown in "Hold On" has been stuck in my head for the past week. You think that's all there is, and then it goes into that "round and round and round / we living in gravity" part.

Also, especially from a pop-songwriting angle, it's interesting to hear this earlier version of "It Can Happen" made by Squire/White/Rabin but without Trevor Horn, Tony Kaye, or Jon Anderson. Much weaker verse lyrics, keebs instead of sitar, first draft of a pop hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe2VlpOBmY0

The poll results gave me a mistaken impression of how strong the lesser-known tracks are before I'd ever heard them. I only finally listened last year and it's a really consistent album!

HEARING
TALKING

The Pink Floyd/Wizard of Oz thread now has this pair stuck in my head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG_VDj8Eh_g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftHyM_KSgE0

I worked in a record store when this came out, it was in heavy rotation then. I haven't listened to the whole album in probably more than 30 years. I almost always gravitate to their earlier stuff. Maybe it's time for a spin.

Also, I would have picked "Leave It."