Vevey, Switzerland
YES - GOING FOR THE ONE (1977)
I'm enjoying Rick Wakeman's giant organ right now.
You know - the one at the beginning of "Parallels" on Going for the One. That thing is MASSIVE..and resides in a church somewhere around this lake...
Today we will drive into CH (switzerland) again...having been there last week in bellissima Lugano....what a city!! The ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO played there at the studios of Radio Svizzera -- the Swiss radio station...really cool and VERY weird crowd in that....NO ONE seemed to be under 40 yrs old.... really - his crowds are usually way more diverse. It was surreal. So that was the ITALIAN part of Switzerland... today we go into the FRENCH part and the coming weekend, the GERMAN part. Really an interesting aspect of this tour I hadn't thought about till Vevey..
Going for the One was the record YES travelled to Switzerland in 1976 to make with the reunited classic lineup -- in other words Wakeman was back in the fold after a few years with, ironically, Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz (see yesterday's listening highlight). It was an important LP for them as they had been out of the scene for a little while - and punk rock had come along and spat in the eye of all the bloated, overwrought prog-music that YES had been a big part of... and this LP does have a more lean sound..a couple shorter songs to balance the epic "Awaken" and "..Century"....and the album actually did great!
I love this album, it really has Howe reaching out into a more rocking sound, what guitar-addict doesn't dig his "soloing all the way thru" approach on some songs... He's the man. He needs an avocado once in a while tho' -- that macro diet...makes a lot of sense on many levels, dietary and energetic, but man it CAN make you look kinda grey and lifeless...Macrobiotics blows it on the "fat-avoidance" and "tropical-avoidance" thing.. but I digress.
YES came here and set up camp, I need to read more about it, and see ALL the videos, but I've seen a few that exist on youtube of the rehearsals. They are fun 'cos you can see Anderson actually making up his wacky lyrics on the spot, or it looks so. They seemed to just pick an incredible area, get away from the world as it were, and focus on creating...
Steve Howe-- burning pedal steel on the opener "Going for the One", divine classical tones on "Turn of the Century" , tasty jazz-guitar licks on "wonderous stories". As giant of a figure he is in the guitar world he is STILL , I think, underappreciated for his diversity...he , like my favorite guitarists, is an eclectist, and has dug into every friggin type of "thing with strings" made that I can think of -- trad stuff like teles, strats, Pauls, wacky older medieval stringed instruments, lutes, mandos, guitar synths (he dove WAY into this with fellow Brit-Vegetarian-Eccentric guitarist Steve Hackett when they did GTR in the early 80s. Shoulda kept that band INSTRUMENTAL, but there is some burning and interesting playing on that. There's even a book out there detailing Howe's crazy collection of rarities, probably all on the web too.
The masterwork "Awaken" is also on here..what a timeless tune...Just driving along with this in my ears, looking at the beautiful mountains and huge fields everywhere... I can imagine some of the inspiration these guys had, relaxing in such a place, THIRTY years more remote and undeveloped, wow!
This track goes all over the place, really is an odd Yes piece in many ways -- again the amazing sounding church organ they used is highlighted -- I remember reading that they used some kind of -at the time - cutting edge recording technique to capture the organ parts, via phone lines or something, from the church to the studio. This is also One of Chris Squire and Alan White's coolest tracks...we were so glad when they brought it back to the setlist a few years ago....
Finally, the bonus tracks ---There are some cool practice takes of "going" "parallels", "century" and "awaken". I love these and so happy they have done this for just abt every LP. It's a rare way to peer into the writing and rehearsal process of some of my favorite music.....especially these 6, 8, 10 min pieces, always interesting to see how parts evolved. "Parallels"..man oh man i;m glad they opted for using the church organ. Awesome.
Amazing Grace" is a solo/distorted bass take on the gospel/spiritual american classic , played by Chris Squire, sound like over some simple, probably Moog Taurus bass pedal. His dirty-bass sound is a thing of wonder, this reminds one of the solo in "Ritual" originally from "Tales from Topographic Oceans"
"Montreux's Theme" is a nice, short piece that highlights Howe and Squire --they have a wonderful BACH-ish counterpoint in there..
As we pull into town I am checking out "Vevey" another bonus on the re-release -- it's another short instrumental with a brooding pipe organ and what sounds like some kind of theorbo , lute , or that other wacky middle ages thing I can't remember the name of - that has the timbre of a harpsichord..but a lovely little baroque-flavored work..and Vevey is of course the town we work in tonight... It's near a lake, the same lake -correct name is Lake Léman - that Montreux is on, scene of the famous fire.
ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO: the gig tonight is at ROCKING HORSE... and it ROCKS
Another rock n roll club , bingo, a couple in a row, now we're on a roll. The owner is real cool- Kevin, he also owns a vinyl store nearby and the Slicks planned to go there the next day. A big Belew/Crimson/Prog fan- -he was personally excited abt this gig - you are seeing that more and more -- the younger promoters, mostly guys in their 30s thru 50s who grew up with prog and eclectic musics... and now are booking shows.. a great trend. We are seeing that, literally on this tour and this was another example. Guys who really know how to treat the musicians and keep them comfortable.
Damn!! look who's also playing here soon...!
A real rock vibe -- STANDING PATRONS...the smell of legal pot in the air here and there, and just a real excited crowd, ready to rock..Tonighht we have a pair of Fender Twins for Adrian, well actually we are fooling the gear nerds, since we only use the twins as 'speaker cabinets'..the power isn't even on..we are just running right into the speaker jacks. Twins are pretty cool for him 'cos a good one will have some ballsy speakers in it - but ALSO the legs attached so he can TILT the amps--- all so important for him hearing,...Anyway , guitar sounded great...!
BTW -- the setlist on this tour is basically (beware: SPOILERS!!):
writing on the wall
ampersand
dinosaur
young lions
beatbox guitar
matchless man
madness
neurotica
of bow and drum
big electric cat
e
three of a perfect pair
****************
thela hun ginjeet
They killed it -- always so great with a crowd to bounce the energy back. 'madness' and 'neurotica' were really killer tonight. I almost triggered the spoken stuff at the exact right times. Very difficult doing it with an iPod, in the US we drag around a sampler...
Curtain Call, Vevey CH
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