My dude, that’s marketing:
dubbed “the man who invented the Eighties” by the publisher.
Marketing is not history. Again, much respect to Horn and the Buggles. They are absolutely a critical band from the era, but the great man theory just doesn’t hold water. 
Sure. Of course. My point is he’s a lot more than just the vocalist from The Buggles and one Yes LP.
If you liked that song breakdown I highly recommend Rick Beato’s YouTube channel where he spends 30+ mins dissecting and isolating tracks from the most popular classic rock hits of all time.
Here’s an in-depth examination of Roundabout:
And here’s Rick interviewing YES frontman Jon Anderson with an anecdotal story about Owner of a Lonely Heart origins:
Which immediately plants this in my ear, where it will be for the rest of the day
I hadn’t heard them in forever until an episode of Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone featured the Yes Album and I listened to it walking to work and found it great to rediscover. When I was listening to Yours is no Disgrace I was thinking it would be great to try and cobble a version together with my daughter (challenging but you know) so I just played it to her now and she loved it. She’s usually more metal than that but the bass and singing were the parts she wanted. Which suits me.
And that made me put on Freak Zone. That episode doesn’t show up any more. The Ralph Records one from a month ago is the earliest here.
That’s a great track.
I love that this has turned into a Yes appreciation thread. In my daily life, I don’t often run into other people who are very familiar with them at all.
There is an age factor in that. But any excuse to listen to Yes is a good one for me!
“It’s ok sir, no one does.”
Maybe they’re all out deep-diving in the Topographic Oceans.
Somewhat unusually for a Yes fan, one of my least favorite albums of theirs.
I recall not liking it and put a bit on there now and discovered why.
What would you recommend? I really enjoyed listening to the Yes album recently and I did watch the Rick Beato video on roundabout which made me really appreciate the song. I don’t know most of their stuff though.
I mean he produced a ton of shit that defines “the eighties sound” at ZTT - Propaganda, Art of Noise, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Grace Jones, 808 State - but he’s definitely not the only producer who influenced it. Martin Hannett and Steve Lillywhite deserve some credit too, not to mention Quincy fucking Jones
I listened to 90125 again recently for the first time in decades (I’m 54) and my favorite track is still
Agreed about the song. The video is like “someone call security, an 8 year old locked themselves in the video production room and they won’t stop fiddling with ALL the knobs”
If we are blaming one person for the sound of the 80s and that person isn’t Hugh Fucking Padgham we are doing it wrong.
If I could go back in time I’d, well money would be no object if I had a Time Machine so I’d pay him a lot of money to choose a different career.
You cannot go wrong with the entire album Fragile, that Roundabout is from. As I said earlier, I’m a big fan of Drama. The Yes Album is also good. After that, it kind of depends on taste.
ETA: I also really like Relayer, but that’s an album with only two very long tracks on it. It’s very prog rocky, if you know what I mean. But I really like it.
I think even the band members themselves view “Going for the One” (the album) and “Awaken” (its long track) as their peak. Phenomenal. Turn of the Century is also amazing.
And maybe for context: when I was a teenager in the 70s and lots of people I knew were into Yes, everyone thought Close to the Edge was their masterpiece, but I never really liked it much. From the classic era I would say Fragile and Going for the One are their best albums. I also really like Relayer, especially The Gates of Delirium. And Tales from Topographic Oceans is a little bit much, but side 1 is definitely one of my Yes favorites.
What’s weird to me is that I never noticed the “cowbell” (really like a pretty cheap synth rendition of a cowbell) on Owner of a Lonely Heart.
Oddly enough, I remember a time when a bunch of us at work were watching that Will Ferrell/Christopher Walken “more cowbell” clip, and someone said “it’s funny because there isn’t even a cowbell in the song”. That I can definitely hear.
It will be a controversial opinion, but really liked Union. Not their best album, but i have heard a lot of hate thrown at that one. Drama and Yessongs might be my faves, but they are all soooo good. Yes, even Tormato.
