That is pretty amazing. It is clearly formative for AON, who I liked a lot, but I think it is also a terrible remix of “owner of a lonely heart”, like so many other terrible “dance” mixes of songs in the 80’s, even though taken out of that context it is amazing and innovative. Fascinating.
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Same here. The other thing that confused me, was that there was a Trevor in Yes and a Trevor in AoN.
And according to Wikipedia, regarding the provenance of (some of) the samples: “According to Questlove, drummer in The Roots, ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ contained the first use of a sample as a breakbeat (as opposed to a sound effect). Yes incorporated five seconds of the drum breakdown in Funk, Inc.'s ‘Kool Is Back’ (1971), itself a cover of Kool & the Gang’s ‘Kool’s Back Again’ (1969).”
I don’t know alot about The Art of Noise, but being a big Yes fan, I did know that was on Trevor Horn’s resume after Yes…
It should be noted he was also in the Buggles who wrote Video Killed the Radio Star - the other half of that band being Geoff Downes, who, with Trevor Horn, later joined Yes for the 1980 album Drama. Geoff Downes later went to form Asia, with Yes guitarist Steve Howe…
Geoff Downes is back in the band and playing keyboards, while Trevor Horn produced their last record (Fly Away From Here - not the one that is coming out this week(?)). And Steve Howe is back in Yes.
Ah, I love this band. Going to see them in August!
I was not familiar with this cut on 90215. I really did not like the Yes album 90125, as the time that album came out I was a budding teenager hoping to finally see the band perform its early years with Jon Anderson, etc. It was rough hearing this music when I wanted to hear all the cuts on the Yes Album instead. So I thought the Yes album 90125 was garbage actually, and I never really liked Art of Noise type music.
that’s some pretty intense info–nice! I was not aware there was a 5 second break sample on there. it doesn’t sound like Quest is saying it was a loop (which seems like something I’d have noticed) but as a fill; still, the only drum fill sample I can mentally picture is maybe a second or less right before the guitar solo. I’m gonna have to listen to all of those and get to the bottom of this, for sure.
@Drowse03 @lsmm2008 yeah, as a teen in the early 90s, I was into Yes Album and Fragile era Yes, but as a dumb little kid “Owner” and “Leave It” were massive radio hits and I liked them as exquisitely-crafted 80s pop, which I still enjoy them for. I would never listen to my copy of 90125 as an album to be sessioned, but I keep an 8track player in the shower and still session Fragile in there all the time. But lsmm2008 is right, they’re basically two separate bands.
As usual these stories are more complex than a simple headline. Obviously AON wasn’t spawned by any one song, but yeah, this is a part of that story. I was a huge Yes fan in the 70s, saw many of their shows. Independently, I found AON in 1983 because the used record shop I frequented was playing “Beatbox” and I had to get that. I’ve only ever seen one AON live show (their Debussy show in '99).
I think both acts are very different live from how they record; some like one better than the other. I loved both.
I just discovered that Trevor Rabin released a bunch of early demo material in 2003, including his original version of Owner of a Lonely Heart, with the lyrics Trevor Horn hated so much.
OK, just got to this
here’s the break in question. it starts with the horn stab that everyone in @youneedcoolin 's video is attributing to James Brown, but the “5 second drum loop” that Questlove avers to sounds like nothing in “Owner.” Maybe they slowed it down? They may have sampled each drum hit in that break individually to get the sounds, then re-sequenced them into the beat for “Owner,” but my assumption is that that technique came later and in any event, that’s not a “loop.”
Here’s the album mix of “Owner” for reference
Here’s the original Kool & The Gang version of the song Funk Inc. was covering
I think that’s it. Same horn stabs. Those syncopated drum beats that follow are being pitched higher/faster in Owner, but I’m positive they’re the same. And once slowed down, I bet it all amounts to about 5 seconds’ worth of audio.
Hey, that’s good work finding the source, @noahdjango!
thanks! but I credit @Gyrofrog more than myself.
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