Yes - Yes - Review

Songs: Beyond and Before, I See You, Yesterday and Today, Looking Around, Harold Land, Every Little Thing, Sweetness, Survival

Bonus Songs: Everydays (Single Version), Dear Father (Early Version # 2), Something’s Coming, Everydays (Early Version), Dear Father (Early Version # 1), Something’s Coming (Early Version).

Comments:

It must have been great for talented young musicians to make a debut rock album back in 1969. It was an era of innovation ever since Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone showed the world that everything was possible in Rock Music. Extremely strong commercial pressure did not exist at that time and new bands were allowed to experiment with their musical ideas in the studios. And musical references were widely available and first class. This was the era of the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Jimi Hendrix, Woodstock, Led Zeppelin and so many other great bands and festivals. All kinds of rock music were being explored and progressive rock was lurking around the corner.

It’s no wonder therefore that I love so many of the debut albums from that period. They sound original, catchy, honest, crisp, daring, sweet, simple, committed, spontaneous and to the point while at the same time you will find that they are not always as coherent, complex, confident and musically perfected as later work. But maybe that’s why I find them often very attractive.  

That’s also the case with the first album of vocalist Jon Anderson, guitarist Peter Banks, bass player Chris Squire, drummer Bill Bruford and Tony Kaye on keyboards. Jon and Chris wrote most of the songs and they were clearly influenced by the Beatles. The two ballads on the album, Yesterday and Today and Sweetness could have easily been written by Paul McCartney. They are beautiful love songs and Jon’s voice seldom sounded so honest and tender as on these two songs. Beautiful piano as well.

And in the Album opener, the very confident rocker Before and Beyond, I imagine the guys having listened to Sgt. Pepper and I Am the Walrus. Great guitar and very strong harmony vocals.

And there’s the cover of Every Little Thing of course with a Day Tripper riff in the intro. Still it’s a great version and it challenges the original as far as I’m concerned.

I See You, written for the Byrds by David Crosby and Roger McGuinn is transformed into a jazzy groove that would do justice to any of the great Steely Dan Albums. It shows that Peter is a very versatile guitarist who masters many styles. Bill Bruford also shines on drums here.

Looking Around is another rocker with great vocals and powerful interplay between organ and bass.

And finally we find Harold Land and Survival. Both songs point to the direction of the Multi Part Suites that Yes would exploit to full length in the future. The first song (about War as so many songs in those days because of Vietnam) could easily have been written by Peter Gabriel and has a Genesis –like feel to it. The latter however is pure Yes and a foreplay of greater things to come.

The Bonus Tracks are awsome and give us three great Yes Songs in early and final versions. It’s very interesting to note the differences. My favorites are the Single Everydays and Something’s Coming from West Side Story, a song that perfectly fits Jon’s angelic voice.

Yes is certainly not a progressive rock album. It’s much more a Pop album with a (prog) rock edge! That makes for a great listen and the excellent sound quality of the re-mastered version as well as the great bonus tracks only add to the pleasure.

Rating: ******** (8 out of 10)

Black = Good Songs

Green = Great Songs

Red = Could Be Better

Who should buy this Record: This is a great start for getting into the music of Yes. I can safely recommend this to everyone as long as you get yourself the Re-Mastered version.

John Lennon -Plastic Ono Band- 1970 - Review

John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band - 1970

Songs: Mother, Hold On, I Found Out, Working Class Hero, Isolation, Remember, Love, Well Well Well, Look at Me, God, My Mummy’s Dead. 

Type of Music: Rock/Folk

Comments:

In 1970, John Lennon wanted the world to know that he was displeased and frustrated. About his childhood, his parents, his fans, politics, social inequality, Elvis, Bob Dylan and even the Beatles. Only Yoko Ono escaped from his anger, probably because she had ordered him to do so!

Or maybe because he thought he really loved her or…really loved her or…

Now John could have told us all about that but apparently that was not good enough. Therefore John Lennon’s first and unique solo album became one big frustrated scream. Let it all hang out man as they said back in the seventies.

The danger existed of course that John’s scream would have been hard to listen to. Fortunately that's not the case because he was still able to write mighty good rockers and tender piano ballads, all stylistically close to the songs on Let it Be. And he invited Ringo to play drums! His drumming is an important part of this Album and confirms that he is  one of the great Rock Drummers.      

Sometimes, like in Well Well Well , John´s therapy starts to be a bit annoying. And I’m really sorry about John’s Mum but that does not make My Mummy’s Dead a great song even considering it was taped in the kitchen of Yoko´s Sushi Restaurant. And I’m not too keen on Remember. It reminds me too much of Bring it on Home to Me and even copies part of the lyrics of that song.

But in general, I have few complaints about this album. The Re-Mastered Sound Quality is excellent and most of the songs are quite strong. I have to warn you that it’s not an easy album to listen to. The church bells that open the album are an indication of the doom that follows. But Rock Songs like Mother, I Found Out and Isolation are well written and produced. And Hold On, Love and Look at Me are gentle ballads. When listening to Love I can hear the idea of Imagine being formed.

My favorite tune on the Album however is the Dylan pastiche Working Class Hero, a very realistic picture of some of the characteristics of our social structure.

The Re-Mastered version offers a booklet with some photos of John & Yoko, all the lyrics, apparently in John’s Handwriting and two bonus songs. One is the strong revolutionary single Power to the People. The other one is an invitation to Do the Oz. Unfortunately I have to gracefully decline this invitation.

I don’t recall having ever heard such a personal record. It’s really unique in that sense. John never repeated the procedure so apparently he was cured. And that, I’m sorry to say, proved to be a loss for Classic Rock Music.  

Bonus Tracks: Power to the People, Do the Oz.

Who should buy this Record: This is Essential John Lennon! It is also a unique album. As such it should be part of every Classic Rock Collection.

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)

Black = Good Songs

Green = Great Songs

Red = Could Be Better

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy & the Poor Boys - Review

Creedence Clearwater Revival Willy and the Poor Boys (1969)  

Songs:  Down on the Corner, It Came out of the Sky, Cotton Fields, Poorboy Shuffle, Feelin´ Blue, Fortunate Son, Don´t Look Now, The Midnight Special, Side o´ the Road, Effigy.

Type of Music: Late Sixties Blues (Swamp) Rock.

Comments: 

CCR´s fourth album was released at the end of 1969 and was another huge commercial success. It tells the story of the imaginary blues/rock band Willy and the Poor Boys, four guys from California showing the world they can play Southern Music as well as anybody else.

And indeed, they took two American originals (Cotton Fields and Midnight Special) and made them sound as if they were written for CCR in the first place. And that says something about their qualities. Nevertheless, I never liked Cotton Fields as a song despite the nice harmony vocals and I assure you that I´ve heard a lot of versions through the years from artists ranging between Udo Jürgens and the Beach Boys.

No, I prefer the rockers on the Album. For sure Fortunate Son is one of the great Anti Vietnam-War Songs and John sounds really upset here. And let´s not forget It came out of the Sky, for me the best song on the album. It´s a great rocker in Chuck Berry style. Try it out in your car with the speakers as loud as you can stand!

Everybody of course knows Down on the Corner. You probably heard it on the radio today and yesterday and the day before yesterday and…..

Less known is the instrumental Side o´ the Road. In fact it´s John´s guitar solo set on a Booker T & the MG´s kind of groove.

The Blues shuffle Feelin´ Blue is a nice enough song but I took away half a point as it´s just a tiny bit too long. And if you´re curious if CCR could come up with their version of Jimi´s Hey Joe, listen carefully to Effigy.

Some filler here as well. I fail to see the relevance of the Poorboy Shuffle and Don´t look Now is an inferior re-write of Bad Moon Rising.

So what do I tell you. It´s not a bad album but it does not quite convince me. I consider it to be a step back when compared to Green River.      

Rating: ******* (7 out of 10)

Black = Good Songs

Green = Great Songs

Red = Could Be Better

Who should buy this Record:  It´s not the first CCR Album you would want to buy. But Give it a Chance if you find it remastered and cheap!