#big generator

yet another Yes album cover in chalk!! this time it’s Big Generator

10:31 PM EDT April 19, 2025:

Yes - "Holy Lamb (Song For Harmonic Convergence)" From the album Big Generator (September 21, 1987)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Album of the month / 2021 / 02 February

I like listening to music - gladly, all the time, everywhere. That's why I would like to share which music (or which album, after all I'm still from the vinyl generation ;-) I enjoy, accompanies me, slides up my playlists again and again...

Big Generator

Yes

Progressive Rock - Artrock / 1987 / Atlantic Records

Yes was and is an icon of the progressive rock era. With style-defining works in the 70s and hit parade-ready bombast rock in the 80s. The British group was formed in 1968 by Jon Anderson (vocals) and Chris Squire (bass) with backing musicians Peter Banks, Tony Kaye and Bill Bruford. With the commitments of Steve Howe on guitar before the third "The Yes Album" in 1971 and Rick Wakeman on keyboards before the fourth album "Fragile", which was released the same year, the line-up for the breakthrough was finally found. While the first two longplayers were still characterized by beat and psychedelic rock, Yes now played a major role in defining progressive rock.

1972 saw the release of "Close to the Edge", which is considered by many to be the creative peak of this phase. Without commercial pressure and on the long leash of their record company Atlantic Records, the band could afford any freedom. The symphonic-classical flow of progressive rock celebrated here culminates in the 18-minute "Sonata," which gave the album its title: the intro with nature sounds alone lasts almost 60 seconds, and then it gets exhausting, except for friends of off-beat and church organ. No wonder that the piece is often analyzed as a subject of musicological studies until today.

In 1973 - note this productivity! - followed after a live album: yes, in between also innumerable concerts were played! - finally followed "Tales from Topographic Oceans", an album which is seen as an "Opus Magnus" not only by Wikipedia. Four (in the later added deluxe version even six) pieces of about 20 minutes each - small symphonies. Anyone who finds Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" experimental will be proven wrong by the progressive rock of this era, not only by Yes.

There followed a time of coming and going of this band (or should it rather be called project?) and the musical search for meaning. Especially when frontman and singer Jon Anderson left. After all, especially his bell-bright vocals shaped the spherical compositions of Yes. Probably the highest singing voice that does not belong to any of the Gibb brothers. The four albums Anderson recorded with Greek keyboard impresario Vangelis also followed this recipe, albeit at a lower level.

Apropos Anderson... Always on the lookout for something new, he can certainly be considered an experimental mastermind who left the usual Western listening habits and used world music in his work before the term even existed. Despite his height of only 1.65m, he is one of the great. It's a good thing that he didn't leave the ground so much musically as in his private life. For example, he truly believed that his spiritual guide, the 'Divine Mother' Audrey Kitagawa, helped him see into the fourth dimension. He was probably an Englishman who enjoyed a Magic Cookie or two with his tea.

When Anderson and Squire finally returned to Yes in 1983, they found a congenial partner in Trevor Rabin, with whom they embarked on more down-to-earth - and, above all, shorter! - compositions. With the album "90125" Yes had more or less arrived in the mainstream. And the success proved them right. Their songs were now played on the radio, record sales went through the roof (more than 3 million in the U.S. alone), "Owner of a lonely heart" became an international success, and "Cinema" won a Grammy. A comparison with US success acts of the symphonic rock of that time à la Journey suggests itself. But with Yes the desire for the extraordinary still flashed again and again. That's good.

"Big generator" followed the success formula of 90125 in 1987 and after difficult years of internal band disputes, but could not match its commercial success. Nevertheless, for me it is even the better album, with one artrock anthem after another. If you can even see me playing air guitar through the window during driving songs like "Rhythm of Love" or "Big generator", it's the more leisurely songs like "Shoot high, aim low", "Holy lamb" or "Final Eyes" that have taken my fancy. Or the ones somewhere in between like "I'm running". Timeless rock ballads that I always enjoy listening to. And which have a little special twist with their careful "progressive interludes" like steel drums or xylophones.

A documentary of the highly successful 90125 tour (they were on the road for almost a year with 139 shows) was filmed by none other than Steven Soderbergh. On that tour, Yes was the first band I saw live when I was exactly one week 15 years old. My school friend Mark and I took the train to Munich, saw the - not only in my perception at that time - impressive show in the Olympic Hall, were picked up by my father, spent the night in my old childhood room and took the train again the next morning to our boarding school. Mark, with whom I had more contact again in the last few years, died completely unexpected a few months ago. Since then, Yes has a melancholic connotation for me that reminds me of the youth we spent together - eerily beautiful. Rest in peace, my friend!

Here's the official Video for "Rythm of Love":

https://youtu.be/MHXmS-e0RRo