GURU: THE PP GURU LIVES FOR THE PLEASURE, THE PP GURU LIVES FOR THE GUN!!

The PP Guru opened up a copy of Rolling Stone one day in early 1980 and felt as if his heart dropped into the pit of his stomach and was itching slowly out of his colon. The PP Guru was in his sophomore year of high school attending art classes and music theory courses. He met this kid in art class named Chris Gallo. The PP Guru and Chris Gallo got into a fistfight one time over some unfathomable reason. Kids in high school get into fights for some indiscernable reason that cannot be explained over the ravages of time, but he was sure it was for something really trivial- something along the lines of like having longer hair (which was usually a anti-social crime back then) or for wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt to class. We did however had one thing in common: we both liked Pink Floyd. So Chris's brother had a spare ticket for the Wall concert out in Long Island- Nassau Collisem to be precise. the PP Guru was inivited to ride shotgun and we made up and became friends for a short while until he moved up to upstate New York. Needless to say that Waters and Co was a mind numbing experience would be a understatement, but that's another blog entry for another time. Before Chris packed up to move, his brother realized that he wouldn't be needing their pair of Yes tickets which went on sale nearly a year in advance in anticipation of a new album, so they asked if the PP Guru wouldn't mind taking them off their hands. This was in February, mind you and the tickets were dated for September of later that year back at Madison Square Garden.

Hey, the PP Guru said, does the pope shit in the woods? So now having the tickets within his possession. All the PP Guru would have to do is find someone to go with him.

Yet, when the PP Guru opened up the Rolling Stones to the Random Notes section, he was utterly dismayed to find that Yes, currently in the throes of recording their new album in Paris with sleek producer, Roy Thomas Baker who's shoe polish matches the gleam of Top 40 bands such as The Cars, Queen, and Foreigner announced that the band would be their losing special spiritual advisor, Maestro Jon Anderson and the curry spitting capeman Rick Wakeman for the second time. The PP Guru even remembers the photos showed the two waving goodbyes to their fans.

Wait- Jon Anderson? The lyrical crux and chirpy main vocalist of the band leaving? That's impossible!! How will they survive without their singer who many canonize as the catalyst of the group ever since the band's interception for over ten years now. How would they function as a cohesive unit? If Ian Anderson had left Jethro Tull or Robert Plant walked away from Led Zeppelin (and they had problems of their own at this period of time), those groups' future would surely be in doubt.

Citing low album sales for Tormato, Jon Anderson was feeling the deep rooted neurosis of new wave music angst felt working with Baker, who happened to take one of the demos they were working on titled Dancing Through the Light and managed to make it sound like a ELO disco outtake wasn't helping matters many. Chris Squire and Alan White were also on the look out for outside written sources, and they were listening heavily to a demo submitted to the band by manager Brian Lane which was performed by a songwriting duo called the Buggles. Squire suggested that the new blood would be great for the band. Anderson's response was to get on the first flight back to London, repulsed even by the thought of working with a pair of Wham! wannabees. Wakeman's feeling was that there was nothing left for him in Yes if Anderson was gone, also follwed suit. Like the PP Guru said in his last entry of the Tormato album, the bonus tracks on the remastered Rhino version represented the worst of those sessions. The bonus tracks on the remastered DRAMA originally issued on August 18, 1980 reveals he best of the Baker sessions with the nearly 6 minute track, The Golden Age being the best song that Yes had never released (long sought after by bootleggers and hard core enthusaists) along with the two shorter but sweet and ominious In the Tower and Friend of A Friend. From that point, the relationship with Baker and the rest of the group had dissolved and Squire, White, and guitarist Steve Howe went back to work on new material and took Lane's consideration to task at hiring the duo of the Buggles which consisted of, singer /songwriter Trevor Horn and session keyboardist Geoff Downes to write and perform on the new record.

Two of the tracks, Dancing Through the Light & Everybody's Song recorded in Paris were co-written by Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman were slightly rearranged into brand new songs Downes and Horn sharing given writing credits on the reworked versions. Dancing Through the Light was changed to Run Through the Light and sounded more balladly and tender until Alan White's drums explodes like a white star dwarfing- a sound that could have been the architect of Phil Collins's solo hit, In the Air Tonight' which was no wonder since Hugh Padgham is credited as engineer on this album. Hugh would go on to be the successful producer of many future Genesis' and Phil Collins top selling pop albums such as Abacab and Invisible Touch. The other hold out number, Everybody's Song was polished off to become one of the new album's most endearing tracks, Does It Really Happen?

When the PP Guru first heard of the announcement that the remaining members of the Yes had allied themselves with a pair of new wavers, the PP Guru saw red, no not purple, but RED rage & frustration that remaining members of his favorite band would be joined on record with a bunch of pompadour sprouting amateurs, who were in no way close to their calibre of musicanship. This alliance had the stink of dry ice on it. The PP Guru had the prediction that the concert would be cancelled and the album would be permanently shelved - so feeling he had nothing much to lose, by the end of his sophomore year in high school he would ask a very pretty girl to attend the concert with him- a date well in advance that wouldn't be happening until next fall.

Enter Linda Freeman. Linda was the PP Guru's classmate in his Social Studies class. His teacher, Mrs. Uberto used to a Radio City Rockette and boy, she fumed at the thought of world class stoner such as the YOUNG PP GURU would even have the audacity to ask out such a glamourous girl, who had just taken third place in the runner-up to be selected as Miss New Jersey in the Miss Teen America contest, but as luck turned out, Linda knew that he wasn't that much of a doper as the reputation had led her to believe and knew that the PP Guru had a inner artist quality that she could warm up to. And from the moment she told him... YESSSSSSS, the PP Guru knew he had hit the big time. Linda was a prize package, not only did she have brains, but she was blonde with a Swedish background with fantastic looking sweater meats and thighs, and a magnificent wiggle to her walk, AND she had also two older sisters who shared the same attributes (the PP Guru also dated her older sister, Lisa when Linda was not available for a Asia concert). The PP Guru fondly remembers the day when he first asked her out - it was the last week of school and she was wearing this opaguely skin clinging spring dress. As she was walking down the hall adjacent to the Parsippany High School Library, the PP Guru stopped her and naturally just let out all that bottled up tension and simply asked her to the concert. Seeing a set of matching bra and panties through that dress really worked as incentive for him. Surprisingly, she accepted the invitiation, and then exchanged phone numbers and made plans to see each other after our summer vacation was over. The PP Guru mulled it over. He wouldn't have mind pushing up that time table up a notch and asked her if she wouldn't also mind seeing Alice Cooper at the New York Palladium (Billy Squier opened up), his date being just a month away. So it was from that awkward moment onward throughout the rest of his high school years, that Linda Diane Freeman became the Young PP Guru's on and off girlfriend- that was only reduced to spending time going to concerts and maybe some holiday get-togethers. Linda was one to crack open books and do gobs and gobs of homework- while the PP Guru dabbled in writing poetry and stories and wound editing his yearly creative writing class booklet. Linda went to Case Western University to study biology and the PP Guru ventured onward back to California shorty after high school was over (detours along the way to be explained in Tuesday's entry).

Oh high the memory of those see through saffron dress, those pagnant swimsuits and gowns she modeled for the PP Guru... Arrrgghh...! Oh, to be sweet sixteen again.


So when the PP Guru got more details on the new Yes release, he found that things still were looking apocalyptically more gloomier than ever as the new album's release date loomed nearer. Maestro Jon A and Rick wakey-Wake were still M.I.A, but to compensate, he did read that Eddie Offord was coming back to engineer and that Roger Dean would be providing the cover. That at least counted for something. When August 18, did finally rolled around, he got out his Scwhinn ten speed bike and rode down 10 miles down to Morris County Mall in Cedar Knolls, New Jersey, the exact same spot where he had seen Star Wars three years earlier and its' sequel, the Empire Strike Back a few months back and bought two copies of the new album (one for PP Guru and one for Linda) and sped back up to his place as far as his PP Guru legs could pump to plunk it down on the crystal needle of his year old stereo phonic system that he bought a year ago, saved up by his paper routes (the PP Guru had reformed from committing too many petty thefts and opened a saving account to buy expensive shit for himself, until his stepfather, in sorely need of A REALITY CHECK ROGER found out about it and pinched some of it to bet on the ponies at the nearest OTR ).

Anticipation mounting.

What would the new guys sound like?

Startiing off with Machine Messiah.

Holy shit! Unbelieveable! Trevor Horn almost sounds like JON ANDERSON (cullied with help from Chris's back up vocals). 10 minutes and 27 seconds of dark hellish guitars riffings- almost a precursor to heavy metal in a few places. And Geoff Downes's subtle keyboard flourishes and stinging appreggios playing is a nomination worthy of new prog rock god . White Car is another momentual listening achievement - a short keyboard suite that is no longer than a minute - would be the first Yes song that the PP Guru would learn to play on a keyboard without the accompaniment of a cheat sheet. (The PP Guru once perfomed it on a grand piano that was set up at the Friends of Lulu awards ceremony one year in San Diego. 21st Century Comics owner, Barry Short was so impressed that he had a tip jar set up for him). the reworked version of " Does It Really Happen" also has an excellent bass riff and piledriving percussion from White - in fact, it's Alan White's (or Eddie's superb engineering ) most memorable work he has ever done for the band and this is the prime example of how his skills are presented here.

A unused Buggles idea is the groundwork for Into the Lens, the eight and half minute eccentric piece that opens the second side is regarded as a love tap anthem between the young PP Guru and Linda - the chorus of I am a Camera would be a code for us to let each other know that life was peachy for us back them. The forementioned 'Run through the Light earlier in the post had a different mix than the one that was previewed on radio (the PP Guru prefered the much earlier one- but both are now available on the remastered version) , so the last of the original six recordings ends on the powerful keyboard and guitar heavy riffed "Tempus Fugit" which is represented for the first time live on CD on the new live box set of The Word is Live just released on Rhino Records. Also two unreleased songs from that era which were never recorded , but have been part of their live set "We Can Fly From Here" and "Go Through This" has been sought by the PP Guru for the longest time - are finally made available on the new box set. It's no small wonder, that the PP Guru identified with this album- he considers his favorite album behind Relayer.

Both the PP Guru and Linda took in Yes together at Madison Square Garden on September 6, 1980 (portions of that show are on the new CD box set as well) - the stage was the same as it had been on the previous two tours- with the only exception of Alan White's drum kit would revolve in the counter clockwise direction than the rest of the band did and would be on a seperate riser during the climactic moments during the live rendition of Machine Messiah. Geoff Downes was a wonder to behold - his keyboard work on older material such as Yours is No Disgrace and Heart of the Sunrise were on par with the more trained predecessors before him and he would be one of the keyboard players that would influence the PP Guru to take up keyboard playing as a hobby vocation (the other keyboard player to influence PP Guru would be Tony Banks of Genesis)- however not the same could be said for Trevor Horn, whose future was better cemented in producing Seal and Paul McCartney, was no Jon Anderson, that's for sure. The PP Guru distinctively remembers Horn's voice embarrassingly being tone deaf during certain sections of Yours is No Disgrace. Boy, did the PP Guru wish he had rented ear plugs from the concession stand before Linda and he found their seats in the orchestra pits. Chris Squire wore an gaudy pin-striped suit with purple lens- while Horn wore these hugh yellow framed jobs that wouldn't look out of place on a clownsuit. In fact, Horn wore a red clown suit with big green floppy shoes if he recalls.

Although the dates sold out everywhere, the band did not do so well on their home soil- so management decided that Yes should go into status for a while to rethink its ' future. Steve Howe and Geoff Downes went on to form Asia with John Wetton and Carl Palmer. Rick Wakeman went on make a gazillion more solo albums (what does he have now, like 80?) .Jon Anderson found himself teamed up with Oscar winning Chariots of Fire soundtrack composer Vangelis ( remember him? ) and they made a slew of albums together under the moniker of Jon & Vangelis, which recorded Canada's best selling album of the time, the Friends of Mr.Cairo (no doubt influenced by Jon's love for - watch that word - cinema ) in 1981 which featured a song that disco temptress Donna Summer remade called State of Independance. Trevor Horn became a hot artist producer for Seal, FRankie Goes to Hollywood , and ABC (but recorded one more Buggles album with Downes before calling it kaput that featured another version of Into the Lens but retitled I am A Camera - but weren't in formation when they the Buggles became a cultural icon in the launch of MTV with the promo clip of Video Killed the Radio Star being the first video ever played on that station). Chris and Alan went on to record a Christmas themed song called Run with The Fox and would have a run in with both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to form another super group that never got past the talking stage (although demos with Page exist on the collector's market).

And Linda? Who knows? The PP Guru, when he first moved to LA tried to talk her into coming out, but we just drifted away and just plain forgot each other he supposes. The PP Guru is sad that her children someday will never be his.

Personnel: Trevor Horn- vocals and bass (Run Through the Light), Geoff Downes - keyboards, Steve Howe- guitar and back up vocals, Chris Squire - bass, vocals, and piano (Run Through the Light), and Alan White - drums and percussion. Recorded at the Town House and SARM studios in London. Favorite lyric: History dicating symptons of ruling romance/ Claws at the Shores of the Water upon which we dance - Machine Messiah (Downes/Horn/Howe/Squire/White)

Left like a dead beaten speed freak to:

~

Coat
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Drama

Drama
Album by Yes
Release	August 22, 1980
Recorded	April - June 1980
Genre(s)	Progressive rock
Length	36 min 55 s
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer	Yes Backing tracks: Eddie Offord
Professional reviews
AMG link
Yes chronology
Tormato (1978)	Drama (1980)	Yesshows (1980)

Drama is the eleventh album by British progressive rock group Yes. It is unique for being the only release in the entire Yes canon to not feature long-time vocalist Jon Anderson. In early 1980, after rehearsing music for the follow-up to the tepidly-received Tormato, both Anderson and Rick Wakeman departed the band over creative differences.

Undeterred, the remaining members, Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Alan White carried on, and invited Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of The Buggles and "Video Killed The Radio Star" fame to join Yes. It was an unlikely partnership, but it worked - for one album, at least.

Recorded that spring and released in August, Drama featured a much harder-edged Yes with a distinct new wave flavor (in no small part due to the two new recruits). Perhaps to ensure that some of the old glory was there, Roger Dean was commissioned to design his first Yes cover in five years, and Eddie Offord, who had co-produced the band in their 1971-1974 heydey, returned to the studio for assistance. Drama fared well in the UK charts, but American audiences weren't so sure, with Drama becoming Yes' first album there in years to not reach the Top 10 or go gold. However, the supporting tour over there was another big success.

Despite this, Squire, Howe and White felt something was missing, and at the end of 1980, they decided to end the group and begin new projects. The band's dissolution wouldn't last for very long, however.

Track listing

All songs by Geoff Downes/Trevor Horn/Steve Howe/Chris Squire/Alan White.

1. "Machine Messiah" - 10:27
2. "White Car" - 1:21
3. "Does It Really Happen?" - 6:35
4. "Into The Lens" - 8:33
5. "Run Through The Light" - 4:43
6. "Tempus Fugit" - 5:15

Drama (Atlantic K 50736) reached #2 in the UK. It also reached #18 in the US during a chart stay of 19 weeks.

Drama was remastered and reissued in 2004 with several bonus tracks.

Personnel

• Trevor Horn: Vocals, Bass guitar on "Run Through The Light"
• Chris Squire: Bass guitar, vocals, piano on "Run Through The Light"
• Steve Howe: Guitars, vocals
• Geoff Downes: Keyboards, vocoder
• Alan White: Drums, vocals

Sources

• Drama, CD booklet essay, Brian Ives, c.2003
• AllMusicGuide.com
• "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c.2002
• Progressive Ears Album Reviews
• Los Angeles Times Calendar, May 25th , 1980: THE ANSWER ON YES IS YES!

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I was still with Ingrid — amused that my chums were hiding the fact they had scored with Sharon because I hadn't. Rachel's tale is for the year 1976 and another day ... I've nothing to add at this point ... - Sparks

GURU: STRANGE SUICIDE STIRRINGS BELOW THE PP GURU's BELT

Taking a breather from all this marathon Yesstory, that the PP Guru has been spewing to glance upward to the real world for a change (with occasional glances at his neighbor once in a while) and wants to know the 411 on this all goth girl army who call themselves the Suicide Girls who do these burlesque riffs on Carmen Electra's Pussycat girls while performing punk rock.

The PP Guru does find the concept enticing, but since he's been blogging on Yes albums, he totally forgot about their commander-in-chief, Missy Suicide was signing their book and new DVD: Suicide Girls: the First Tour at Tower Records in West Hollywood last Tuesday night. Eight recruited devotees, Stormy, Sicily, Nixon, Reagan, London, Tegan, and Snow were also on hand to sign posters and dvds. The dvd is described as a unique mix of punk and burlesque of the first national tour that has made it such a hit with audiences. Beyond the stage performances there is a behind the scenes featurette of their life in a van going from city to city looking for new recruits.

Fuck, and the PP Guru thought the Kiss Army was bad enough.

However, any girl not wanting to be to made into roadkill waiting for that van to run over them can log on to www.suicidegirls.com and sign up to join or form their own club. You'll have to have a spectacular looking body and have tattooes over it to join as some of these volunteers willfully demonstrate:

Look, to each his own, but the PP Guru sees a red flag goes up and he wouldn't be too anixous to corner one of these darlings in going south on them. Tattoo girls usually are viral carriers of hepatitis C and the PP Guru doesn't like to wake up in the morning with sores on his mouth.

Also in theaters today: The Transporter 2 with Kate Nauta.
The Transporter was an action film released in 2002. It is directed by Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen. It stars Jason Statham as Frank Martin, a "transporter", whose job it is to deliver packages without asking questions or allowing them to be asked of himself. When he breaks those rules for the sake of Lai (Shu Qi), he finds himself in more trouble than he'd like to have to deal with. A sequel, The Transporter 2 was released in 2005.

Kate Nauta and Jason Statham in 20th Century Fox's Transporter 2 - 2005

Kate Nauta in 20th Century Fox's Transporter 2 - 2005

Kate Nauta and Jason Statham in 20th Century Fox's Transporter 2 - 2005

The Transporter 2 is a 2005 film directed by Louis Leterrier and produced by - one of the many Sparky lookalikes - Luc Besson. It is the the sequel to the 2002 film, The Transporter.

Jason Statham stars as Frank Martin, a professional transporter who delivers package without question. This time, he chauffs a young boy when he was kidnapped. It is up to Frank to get him back. The movie is set in Miami, Florida.

Download high resolution version (503x755, 87 KB)

Apparently not Sparky but Luc Bresson

Another testicle tying tirade as told to ~ Coat
PS - If ZPD weren't a happy expectant father - he'd make a play for Twinkle ... sigh
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Suicide Girls

SuicideGirls logo - used on the website
and associated merchandise. The
company promises free lifetime
memberships to anyone who gets
the logo as a tattoo. - Adult websites
Social networking

SuicideGirls is a website that features erotica and text profiles of goth, punk, and emo -styled young women who themselves are known as the "SuicideGirls". It also functions as an online community with member profiles and message boards, and features interviews with major figures in popular and alternative culture. Access to most of the site requires a paid membership. Many similarly themed websites have since appeared elsewhere on the world wide web. The term Alternaporn has been used within the media and on the internet to describe the style of erotica offered by this and similar websites.

Origin of the concept and term

The SuicideGirls website and concept was created by SG Services, Inc. company president "Sean Suicide" (Sean Suhl) and photographer "Missy Suicide" (Selena Mooney, a former girlfriend of Suhl's) in late 2001, and based in Portland, Oregon. In 2003, the site operations moved to Los Angeles, California. They perhaps facetiously claim they started the site "just to see hot punk rock girls naked." Missy has also stated that the purpose of the site is to give women control over how their sexuality is depicted. It has been reported that the site is privately co-owned by Steve Simitzis (server admin and SG user, "s5") and his wife Olivia Ball (site programmer and SuicideGirl, "Olivia"). Other partners include Peter Luttrell of 3jane.com, where Suhl holds the title of VP of Creative Services.

The term "suicide girl" is often credited to a usage by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk, in his novel Survivor, though this has been denied by Sean, who claims to be unable to remember the source of the name. The use of "suicide" as a pun for those who "dyed by their own hand" (the source of the song title "Suicide Blonde" by INXS) may also have been relevant. As a trademark applied to the website, its models, and related merchandise and media, the term "SuicideGirls" is a single word, though this camel notation is often violated by external sources who split it into two words.

Website features

The website does not rely on model searches, but rather reviews international submissions at the rate of around 200 a week from women who want to become SuicideGirls. Originally, only one or two of these were typically accepted per week, though this eventually increased to one every day. The website presently features over six hundred SuicideGirls, each billed simply under a first name or one-word nickname. Most of the models have dyed hair, multiple piercings, and/or tattoos, in contrast to the often tanned, silicone-enhanced (though it should be noted that a small minority of the models on the site are so enhanced), bleached-blondes of stereotypical pornography. They are represented by nude photo shoots as well as self-written profiles and journal entries that they usually must keep updating in order to keep their images from being pulled from the site. It has been said that the SuicideGirls themselves have control over which images are included of them and how they are portrayed, and the photographs are generally intended both as an homage to classic pin-up art and a portrayal of alternative images of beauty. Some Suicidegirls have disagreed with the way their photos were used and have decided to leave the site where they are then added to the sites "Archive" girls. The Archive part of the site contains over 100 previously active Suicidegirls. One notable SuicideGirl is Zia McCabe, the keyboard player of The Dandy Warhols, who posted a set of nude photos on March 8, 2005 that were taken while she was pregnant.

In the interest of fairness, a SuicideBoys group was added as a subgroup to the site. The same SuicideGirls framework and aesthetic is applied to potential male models. Within the many member groups existing on the website, covering topics from specific people to regional notes, the over 4,500-member SuicideBoys is one of the most popular, along with the "potential model" group.

Cover scan of SuicideGirls 2004 photo book - credited to photographer
Missy Suicide. The cover model, "Mary", is one of the website's most popular.

Suhl has claimed that 55 percent of the website's paid members are women (which would be atypical for an ordinary porn website), and that the nude photos rate less than 20 percent of the website's traffic. Members are often active in organizing meetings and events offline, and the company also sponsors many itself.

Media coverage and spinoffs

Positive reviews of the SuicideGirls site have been featured in Rolling Stone, Wired, The New Yorker and other mainstream magazines; it was also featured in an HBO Real Sex special and on Nightline. Rock musician Courtney Love is a member of the site, and frequently leaves "rambling, stream-of-consciousness posts on the site." She also brought along several SuicideGirls during an appearance on MTV. Sixty-six SuicideGirls appeared in the PROBOT music video, "Shake Your Blood".

SuicideGirls has also branched out into a coffee table book printing images and SuicideGirl profiles from the website, and a traveling burlesque show featuring several of the SuicideGirls. A print magazine entitled SG Pin-Up was also scheduled for release, but after being delayed due to contract and licensing issues with some contributing photographers, the magazine was canceled. SuicideGirls also had a brief partnership with Playboy magazine, which regularly featured SuicideGirls on its own website.

As of May, 2005, Los Angeles and Orange County radio station Indie 103.1 has started playing a SuicideGirls radio show, scheduled to launch on May 22, 2005. The show runs Sunday nights from midnight to 2am PST.

External links

• SuicideGirls.com—warning: contains nudity
• SuicideBoys.com - redirects to group
• "Cynical, Bitter, Jaded as Hell. Also Naked.", City Pages, November 27, 2002
• "The Calculated Assault of Suicidegirls.com," Williamette Week Online, March 19, 2003
• "Live Nude Punks," Los Angeles CityBeat, September 18, 2003

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Shu Qi
They've dumped the hot Asian lady below for a generic blonde bimbo? What a shocker...

Hong Kong actress Hsu Chi

Shu Qi (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Sh? Qí; Wade-Giles: Shu Ch'i) (born April 16, 1976) is the stage name of a Taiwanese actress born Lin Li-hui (???). Her stage name is occasionally romanized as Hsu Chi, Hsu Qi, etc.

Shu Qi began as a model for adult magazines and other erotic photography. It did not take long for her to star in various soft porn films, before eventually switching to mainstream films.

Despite having one of the most appealing faces in Chinese cinema, she has never learned English, and because of this has rarely appeared in American or international films.

- Sparky (who is appalled)

GURU: ON THE BACK OF YOUR PP GURU's FORTY-SECOND SCREAMDOWN!!

The PP Guru continues with his time machine forays into his personal history by counting Yes studio albums in tribute to the new 3 CD live box set, The Word is Live released by Rhino Records (on sale at Tower Records for $39.99 and a double concert DVD - Songs from Tsongas out now from Imagine Entertainment (also on sale at Tower for $ 19.99). We are now up to the ninth studio lp called Tormato which was the first Yes album that kept the PP Guru in the loop as he was entering his freshman year of high school.

The follow up to the revitalized Going For the One, the one which welcomed back Rick Wakeman to the first of his many coming and goings throughout the band in its' later years had to contend with the sweeping new trends of both punk and the burgeoning new wave usurping the charts from other such prog rock stalwarts such as Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant, and Jethro Tull- Yes had to compensate with eight more songs which were more variegated and shorter.

Brian Lane, clearing up some of the tax problems that plagued the group in forcing them to take refuge to record Going for the One in Switzerland, booked them back into London's Advision studios and RAK for the mixing process (although Rick remained behind to live there- obviously his own tax problems were bigger than the band's own). Yes were back producing themselves, once again not retaining the services of engineer supreme Eddie Offord - (but he'll be back for one final time Count on it.).

The result of Tormato, divided amongst critics and fans alike were lukewarm at best. This was the album that even the band couldn't consider to be their best. Descension among the ranks was begining to rear it's ugly head in the politics of putting the project together. No one really wanted to run the show, hampering the band to act as a incohesive unit. No one really knew who was who playing what, as Steve Howe would attest, when he would sit down to lay down a guitar track and Rick Wakeman's keyboards would spiral into a whole different direction altogether.

Cover of the Yes album Tormato

And of course, there were plenty of goofing off in addition to the sloppiness of some sessions, the running of studio costs, and drunken debauchery going on behind the scenes. Some of the ideas were lacking in inspiration, that it took Maestro Jon A to percolate up an idea after he took in a matinee showing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind as the foundation of 'Arriving UFO '. Backed up by Rick Wakeman's patent trademarked biotron ( a precurssor to MIDI technology of linking two synthesizers to communicate with each other) units, witness Anderson attempting to sing like an alien on “Arriving UFO,” yet only comically coming across like Charlie Brown’s teacher, is utterly embarrassing at times.

Anderson also penned lyrics to a storybook idea once presented to his young son, Damion called “Circus of Heaven” (although the way the story is told in the lyric sounds unmistakenly like something out of Ray Bradbury's Something this Wicked Way Comes) where unicorns, Centaurs, elves, and other mythical creatures fight in a civil war that killed their brothership in a civil war of hate under the auspices of Zeus that took place in a circus tent was simply too much for hardcore Yes fans to absorb - even subjecting themselves to Anderson’s young son to the gaudy vocal mix of seeing no tigers, no bears, or no candy-floss was an untended irony that just comes off trite in the face of that song’s inane depictions of folklore creatures. But yet, Anderson rapidly reciting these complex but chessy incantions on vinyl is still a feat unmatched by other vocalists today.

Although fractured as much the material may be - the album's main valueable asset is none other than Chris Squire's manical bass playing. Chris does a fabulous job of bringing his sharp sounding highs in the treble bass playing to the foreground of many of the songs- there's no chance that it ever gets lost in the mix- it's always present to pay attention to and when it takes the lead spotlight on the intro to On the Silent Wings of Freedom, the near eight minute finale accompanied by a hard driving Alan White's drum beat - all bets are off! This piece of work with the traditional heady celestial lyrics provided by Anderson further cemented Squire's position amongst the echelons of all time superb bass playing. With a strong opener of Future Times, On the Silent Wings of Freedom is positively hands downs, the PP Guru's favorite Yes song of all time to end an album.

The Rhino remastered editions goes beyond this band's troubled times to even worse times when the band in between two world tours behind this album, went to Paris to lay down demos for some new tracks to be produced by Roy Thomas Baker, (the vinyl glossy producer genius behind the best selling albums by the Cars and Foreigner ) - most of the demos proved to be unproduceable and have only been available through bootlegging channels. Rhino has officially relinquished them here to make the average Yes fan to ponder- 'geez, have I really been waiting twenty years to hear this?' The worst of them are available on this remaster of Tormato - the best of them show up on the band's next remastered version of Drama. Bits and pieces have also appeared throughout the years on the box set collections of Yesyears and In a Word...Yes. Two b-sides songs , Abilene and Money are also included on the reissued Tormato.

The bonus songs made commerical available here have made their way on various solo projects. Steve Howe's composed High was later used as part of his solo spots on future Asia concerts and was retitled as Sketches in the Sun as well as another track of Steve's called Countyside found new life on his 1991 solo album Turbulence. Jon Anderson's Some are Born was recorded under better circumstances to be used as the single from his second 1980 solo album, Song of Seven - which is not really a PP Guru crowd pleaser. This demo version is strictly unlistenable - with Maestro Jon A simply having a 'bad hair in my throat day' - with cracks in his voice and unreachable wrong notes galore, the PP Guru now has cracked the Di Vinci Code of how a dog whistle really sounds like when it's blown.

However, all jibes and jabs aside, the PP Guru is eternally grateful for this album's release because it was the first one he bought on it's offical release date of September 20, 1978, just a few weeks into his freshman year in high school. The PP Guru wanted to stay in Westminister and go to high school in the state of California, rather than piss in your mouth Parsippany, New Jersey. The PP Guru just wasn't digging the east coast - it just wasn't his bag- he wanted a blonde girlfriend who wasn't a dye job Italian or a Puerto Rican who had to pencil out her mustache every morning with a Crayola Peach crayon. The PP Guru wanted a real buxom blonde of either English or German descent (and he's still looking to this very day) to help carry him over to the threshold and the PP Guru felt that breed only resided on the shores of Orange County. He would find a good substitute over the next two years but that will be discussed in the next entry. For now, Yes provided the perfect outlet for the PP Guru's increasingly ego-tripping personality, even though he did not feel he fitted amongst his peers, the PP Guru felt the band go only be appreciated in such arena venues as Madison Square Garden or Philadelphia's the Spectrum- there were no die-hard Yes fans that he knew to reside in Parsippany. All the goons that he got into fistfights or verbal exchanges with all were into either AC/DC or Ozzy Osbourne. Led Zeppelin was fine- releasing their farewell album, In Through the Out Door, the following year- their loyal legion of fucktards was not a crowd the PP Guru wanted to associate himself with anymore. The PP Guru was looking for a cult to find his own and that cult was Yes.

When the PP Guru had to face the cold hard fact that PP Guru was not going to stay in California to attend high school and had to face going back piss in mouth Parsippany to endure the tyranny of his stepfather, in sorely need of a REALITY CHECK ROGER once again (your days of smoking giggle weed with your aunts are now over, YOUNG PP GURU), the PP Guru came up with a plan: once upon arrival back home from a gruelling five day Greyhound road trip from Anaheim (and picked up at New York's Port Authority by his stepfather you know who) the PP Guru was going to pick up YES concert tickets from Ticketron first thing in the morning when sneaking over to Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, NJ. (where he still has an older aunt and uncle living to this very day. His 75 year old aunt just got arrested for assault & battery on his 81 year old uncle a few weeks ago after getting into a very heated argument. Way to go Aunt Babs!!) . He read the tour itinernary in Circus Magazine and knew they would be blowing into town within a matter of weeks The PP Guru didn't want to take anyone with him - but wanted to use one of the tickets as a ruse to upset and defy the in sorely need of a Reality Check Roger's authority or at least the uncontrollable lack of it.

Laguna Beach in California

The ruse was simple: at the dinner table, the PP Guru said since he is almost fifteen years old and has shown considerable talent of taking care of himself throughout most of his California sojourn and had blatantly lied about his increased cognitive awareness abilities after easing into a post psuedo blunt smoking lifestyle (the PP Guru may have smoked - but he didn't inhale) he made a firm decision to make the announcement to attend the Yes concert that Friday night and he would leave to there right after school (without coming back to bathe - which wasn't very hygeneic for YOUNG PP GURU). (in sorely need of a ) REALITY CHECK ROGER laughed, and mockingly assured the PP Guru that the only way that he would allow the PP Guru to go into New York City by himself was over his dead body. The PP Guru said he already bought the ticket and he can't refund it. (in sorely - oh fucking forget it already) REALITY CHECK ROGER said let's see it. The PP Guru whipped out A TICKET and showed it to him. REALITY CHECK ROGER swiped the ticket out of the PP Guru's hand, inspected it, and then just as the PP Guru anticipated, ripped the ticket in half. Just like he used to do to the PP Guru's comic books when he was younger.

The PP Guru took out his other ticket and kissed it.

So needless to say, the PP Guru made his first trip to Madison Square Garden, saw Yes perform In the Round - a circular stage set in the middle of the arena that was remote controlled to circulate the members of the band so that all the audience can get a close up and fair look at their fingering techniques. Even though the PP Guru was in the nosebleed area (for this tour and the 1979 summer tour -whereas the PP Guru got official 'parent' permission to attend ) he still can't get over the first feeling of seeing his music heroes in the flesh. He even saw Rick Wakeman get smacked in the head with a frisbee thrown on stage by some schmuck during the performance of Arriving UFO. The PP Guru left the show and still managed to beat (in sorely need of) a REALITY CHECK ROGER home from work (as a bartender he was probably drinking up all the profits and wrapping his Eldorado around a utility pole that night), but his mother got around to doing most of the smacking that night when she waited up that night after becoming to wise to the PP Guru's scheme.

Madison Square Garden

Album personel: Jon Anderson - vocals and acoustic guitars - Steve Howe - shitloads of guitars and shitty back up vocals, Chris Squire- bass guitars and vocals higher than Jon's - Alan White- drums, percussion, and drum synthesizer, and Rick Wakeman - quasi- tronic patented biotron space helmet and keyboards. Special guest star: Damion James Anderson for being "the chip off the old block" Favorite lyric: Power at first to the needs of each other's days/ Simple to lose in the void sounds of anarchy's calling ways / All unaccounted for in the craziness of power/ In the craziness - Release, Release (Anderson/White/Squire). ~ Coat
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Tormato

Tormato
Album by Yes
Release	September 17, 1978
Recorded	December 1977 - June 1978
Genre(s)	Progressive rock
Length	41 min 35 s
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer	Yes
Professional reviews
Allmusic.com link
Yes chronology
Going for the One (1977)	Tormato (1978)	Drama (1980)

Tormato is the eleventh album by British progressive rock group Yes. Issued as the follow-up to 1977's acclaimed Going For The One, Tormato received less than charitable reviews upon release and its virtues are still a matter of debate for Yes fans and critics.

Rick Wakeman himself has said that while Tormato indeed had potential, Yes never got the best out of some of the material, while Steve Howe admitted that Yes were unsure of themselves musically at the time.

Nonetheless, Tormato - which was the subject of another Hipgnosis cover design - still was a Top 10 hit worldwide, and birthed the minor hit single, "Don't Kill The Whale".

1. A. "Future Times" (Jon Anderson/Chris Squire/Steve Howe/Rick Wakeman/Alan White) B. "Rejoice" (Jon Anderson) - 6:46
2. "Don't Kill The Whale" (Jon Anderson/Chris Squire) - 3:56
3. "Madrigal" (Jon Anderson/Rick Wakeman) - 2:25
4. "Release, Release" (Jon Anderson/Alan White/Chris Squire) - 5:44
5. "Arriving UFO" (Jon Anderson/Steve Howe/Rick Wakeman) - 6:07
6. "Circus Of Heaven" (Jon Anderson) - 4:31
   • Featuring the voice of Jon Anderson's son, Damion
7. "Onward" (Chris Squire) - 4:05
8. "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom" (Jon Anderson/Chris Squire) - 7:47

Tormato (Atlantic K 50518) reached #8 in the UK. It also reached #10 in the US during a chart stay of 14 weeks.

Tormato was remastered and reissued in 2004 with several bonus tracks.

Personnel

• Jon Anderson: Vocals, percussion
• Chris Squire: Bass guitar, vocals
• Steve Howe: Electric and acoustic guitars, vachalia, vocal
• Rick Wakeman: Piano, organ, moog, synthesizers
• Alan White: Drums, percussion

Sources

• Tormato, CD booklet essay, Tim Jones, c.2003
• AllMusicGuide.com
• "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c.2002

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Sparky's had a steady in the lovely Costa Rican Ingrid who somehow lost her virginity in Laguna Beach on the 4th of July that year in lovely Laguna Beach. Heh. It all links some how. Sparky still dug Yes along with the Sex Pistols, Ramones, and the Dictators. We even managed to get to 2nd base in front of the woman who would be “Dear Abby” — call us naughty I guess. Sparky was so over Sharon though no one would believe him. o&0

GURU: YOU HAD TO LEAVE TO HEAR THE PP GURU's WONDEROUS STORIES !!

The PP Guru is still chugging along with his personal Yes studio album memoirs, and we're currently up to the eighth release of Going for the One.

Notice anything different?


There's a man's bare ass on the cover. C'mon, what else?

That's right, class. Roger Dean did not provide the cover this time around - Hipgnosis did, a British design group formed in 1968 who were a trio who included Aubrey Powell, Peter Christopherson and Storm Thorgerson specialized in making great cover art for Rock albums including many sleeves for Pink Floyd .

Going for the One was initially released on 7/7/77 - the very same day as Styx's landmark album of the Grand Illusion. Prior to this release, Yes was extremely swamped in doing two executive tours behind the last Relayer album, then after each member of the band took a little sabbatical to record a solo album to be released roughly the same time in the summer of 1976 (something that Kiss would mimic later on in their career). Alan White explored calypso and reggae on Ramshackled, Steve Howe went classical and jazz on Beginnings, Patrick Moraz explored South American rhythms while trying to tell us the Story of I, Jon Anderson expanded further on the themes based on Roger Dean's paintings on the Fragile and Close to the Edge album cover on his Olias of Sunhillow outing, and Chris Squire weaved his bass guitar gymnastics through orchestral chamber music on his much acclaimed Fish Out of Water, (with instrumental contributions by Moraz and Bill Bruford).

Yes were getting so big that they begin to start selling out arenas and baseball stadiums- reaching the plateau of headlining a sold out bill at the Jersey Stadium in Roosevelt, N.J, a bill that also included Peter Frampton and the Eagles as supporting acts. People were more geared up to see the Martyn Dean designed stagecraft and the laser light shows that could be seen as far away as the World Trade Center in New York rather than a frizzy haired pop star who's waste of talent was reduced to playing with wah wah pedals on his guitar. The stretching of lights to a sea of skyscrapers was an image that served as an harbinger to what the overall theme of the next album should be.

After further rest and searching for a tax relief amid the advance of punk rock and Elvis Presley come back tours making prog life miserable, Patrick Moraz offered his country of Switzerland as a place for a retreat to record some demos. So the band booked passage and set up shop (forgetting to pack Eddie Offord in his carrying case) at Mountain Studios in Montreux for sking and drinking or anything else that served up as inspiration. Eventually, this idea would begin to back fire on the Swiss poodle Spaceman, due to lingusitic difficulties and a bit of ego acne flare-ups, Moraz somewhat managed to get himself fired after making contributions to four out of the five new tracks ( on the remastered edition released by Rhino Records a couple of years back - the somber Turn of the Century track was once upbeated by a recurring Squire/Moraz jamming riff borrowed loosely from a song called Silently Falling, which appeared on Squire's solo album) with Maestro Jon A penning the album's only hit single, Wonderous Stories which will be the first of many future Yes tunes to paying ode to that world famous peyote pirate, Carlos Castaneda. Moraz went on to have a sucessful twelve year stint with the Moody Blues and was single handly responsible for reshaping their overall sound, landing their first ever collaboration together, Long Distance Voyager to the top of the world's charts in 1981. Eventually they gave him the shaft too.

So maybe now Vangelis was rethinking that offer to join the Yes Camp?

Not quite - for the door was now opened to welcome back that curryaholic capeman himself, Rick Wakeman to the fold - but logistically only as a session player.

Despite Rick's misgivings about Hindu temples, astral traveling, and holy shite scriptures and scrolls of a ancient long forgotten yesterday explored on Tales from Topographic Oceans, Rick felt that the more shorter made more assessible songs such as the title track and the "Phantom of the Opera" pleasing Parallels was more or less of what he and the rest of the band circling the same egg was more of where they should have gone with the music instead of being scattered in all sorts of opposite directions. The epic-length of man's search for Christian deism explored on the fifteen minute plus Awaken, didn't seem to bother Wakeman in the slightest, when he decided to hook up mikes from a St. Martin's cathedral in Vevey to a studio sounding board in Mountain Studios to record it's church organ.

Chris Squire - the one member in the band who originally phoned up Rick at 3 AM to join the band to record Fragile, conspired with the band's manger, Brian Lane once again to get him to resign on the dotted line to become a full-fledged member (Rick's solo career was still on the go) by playing a very nasty trick. At a party to celebrate the final mix of the album- Chris spilled out a sob story of how it would be nearly impossible for the band to find a session player to play Rick's keyboard parts on the road. They're new parts and they couldn't very well teach someone else to play them in the very short time alloted to finish the tour. ' Rick, would be too much of a bother to' - Rick put his hand up and stopped him before he could finish and said he liked the new material so much that he couldn't have imagined anyone else doing it but him. But then Chris pressed on- 'then, you couldn't very well be a session player touring with us- we'd have to pay you a session player's fee and you're worth more than that- you should consider becoming a full time member again'. Rick agreed that it certainly made sense and all in the room shook hands. Rick was officially back in the band again.

So as everyone left to mingle about the party - Rick couldn't help notice but spot this week's Melody Maker had the headlines already blaring in large black font: RICK WAKEMAN BACK IN YES! Rick found Brian Lane again and asked him how the press wound up with this story, or better yet, what would've happened if he had said no? Well, Brian said as he clasped his hand around his shoulder, 'That's a risk a manager has to take.'

The PP Guru was starting to become a tenderfoot Yes Fan roughly around this time in his history. He already had Fragile, but by the time he was finishing up the seventh grade, he had succumbed to peer pressure of becoming a Led Zep head accomplice to carry out a petty crime wave spree in their name. The PP Guru dabbled in shoplifting candy, Creem magazines, and smoked a little giggle weed to Rush 2112. He got talked into ordering records and eight track tapes from Columbia House and RCA clubs using bogus names and using his neighbors' address to send them to and waited for the packages to arrive. He and the Parsippany Parasites gang of tough tots in training would then go out and sell them for three dollars a pop to other hapless students at Central Junior High School whose parents wouldn't give them the allowance to purchase their own albums at the nearest Two Guys. The PP Guru had his own racket on the side when he would he would wait for people to put out their subscription payments for the Newark Star Ledger in neat little manilla envelopes in his apartment complex and ransack his entire 26 building plus apartment complex. No one suspected the PP Guru of this low level larceny because the PP Guru had his own PAPER ROUTES on the side, delivering the Morristown Daily Record and the Pennysaver.

The PP Guru used some of that money that he swindled to buy his very subscription to
Circus Magazine, a very prestine colorful and picturesque magazine that happened to be a rock and roll magazine with a lot of clout, in not only covering the music scene but also had articles on popular tv shows and fashion trends. The very copy of Circus Magazine that came in the mail for the PP Guru that summer had none other than Rick Wakeman on the cover (to talk about the new Yes album . The PP Guru was so excited that he had to take the magazine to show off to his friends at the pool located at his apartment complex.

However, the pool lifeguard working there at the time didn't really take a shine to the PP Guru's shenanigans. The PP Guru entered the pool area without his pool badge and even though the PP Guru was fully clothed and had no intention of going swimming (...yet) he wanted to show his friends like David Ben -Shimer, David Paskar, and Martin Nelson his new shiny glossy magazine with Rick Wakeman on the cover- but for some reason, the lifeguard told the PP Guru to come back with his bathing suit and his badge. The PP Guru said no and sat down on a lounge chair and proceeded to show off his magazine. The lifeguard was persistent on embarrassing the PP Guru in front of his friends - that the PP Guru angerily turned around and told the lifeguard that if he didn't stop bothering the PP Guru, the PP Guru was going to grab a gun and shoot his mother in the head. Then the PP Guru felt himself being roughly picked up with two hands. The PP Guru tried to put a struggle, but it was useless - his strong sage muscles weren't developed enough, so he reluctantly got tossed into the drink with both his clothes on and his new magazine in tow. The PP Guru emerged out of the pool more fucking furious than the Sub-Mariner ever was and with his teeny tiny voice of testicle dropping testoterone, he let out a barrage of expletives at the peon lifeguard. C U next Tuesday was even uttered, if the PP Guru remembers correctly. This mind set back of an episode even carried out the parking lot, and as the PP Guru inched his way towards home, cursing and screaming, but all the while coming to the stark realization that he can't walk in the front door of his apartment with his clothes all soaking wet and a magazine that had a mailing label with his name on it- not with his mother busy doing housework. The PP Guru had to go across the street where the Central Junior High baseball field was and sit on a bench to dry off. The magazine's pages were nothing a bleeding colored mess soggily stuck together.

The PP Guru would just sit here and dry off- but then something else hit him, a distant memory of someone he spotted at the pool who saw this whole episode go down-

Oh no- the PP Guru forgot! the PP Guru's step cousin from Rhode Island was visiting down for the summer. The niece to in sorely need of a Reality Check Roger was a basketcase herself- when she bonded with the PP Guru's half-sister and wound up being more of a pain in a ass than his half sister ever was. The step cousin who would always call the PP Guru ski slope nose , due to a accident to his protuberence suffered that caused him to quit the little league. She was there! She saw the whole thing happened while sitting in the bleachers of a home game. The same step cousin who used to sleepwalk at night, frightning the PP Guru nearly to death when she kept repeating the word asshole, asshole, asshole, over and over like a broken record while the PP Guru was out in the living room (his temporary bedroom at the time) watching a first season episode of SNL. The same stepcousin who would wet the PP Guru's bed at night. (OH! The stink of teenage female urine!) The same stepcousin who jumped up and down on that same bed, breaking the bedsprings and almost crushed the family cat in the process. The same twelve year old stepcousin who was also a goddamn fucking...

... tattletale.

And sure enough before the PP Guru put two and two together, a blue blazing Cadiallic comes roaring across the baseball field diamond towards the PP Guru.

Christine - The boat that nearly ran down the PP Guru readies it's headlights for it's next victim.

Why, it's in sorely need of a Reality Check Roger coming to try to mow the PP Guru down. Again. The PP Guru runs into the woods behind him to lose in sorely need of a Reality Check Roger and spends his first night in the cemetary just adjacent to where l old soldiers of the Revolution and the Civil War are buried. The in sorely need of a Reality Check Roger has been fuming all summer long that the young PP Guru had disobeyed his direct order of getting a haircut and wasn't allowed to see the first Star Wars movie until he did.

Ahhhhh, but the PP Guru already put his thumb out on Route 287 and hitched a ride to the Morris County Mall in Cedar Knolls to wait on line to see it earlier that summer- but in the sorely need of a Reality Check Roger didn't know that-

That was the first of many splendorous hair splintering incidents that the PP Guru had managed to outsmart his main nemesis, the in sorely need of a Reality Check Roger who was always threatening to send him off to military school.

Album personnel: Jon Anderson, Harp & vocals, Steve Howe, steel & electric guitars- very bad back up vocals, Chris Squire, bass guitars and very superb back up vocals, Rick Wakeman, keyboards and church organ, & Alan White, drums & tuned percussion. Favorite all-time lyric line: Now the verses I've sang don't add much weight to the story in my head/ So I'm thinking I should go and write a punchline/ But they're so hard to find in my cosmic mind / So I'll take a look out of the window - Going For the One, Jon Anderson.

The truth of sport plays rings around:

~

Coat
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Going for the One

Going for the One
Album by Yes
Release	July 7, 1977
Recorded	Late 1976 - Spring 1977
Genre(s)	Progressive rock
Length	38 min 49 s
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer	Yes
Professional reviews
Allmusic.com link
Yes chronology
Yesterdays (1975)	Going for the One (1977)	Tormato (1978)

Going for the One is the tenth album by British progressive rock band Yes. It was released in 1977 after an extended break for solo activity, and is especially notable for marking the return of keyboardist Rick Wakeman, who had departed in 1974 in the aftermath of the Tales From Topographic Oceans tour. His re-entry was faciliated by the firing of Patrick Moraz, after having only played on Relayer, due to creative differences.

After their extended break, the group regrouped in Switzerland, refreshed, and ready to record in late 1976. After constructing epic tracks for the last few years, Yes felt inspired to scale things back a bit and recorded some of their most direct and concise material in ages. Wakeman also varied his sound by largely forsaking his mellotron and experimenting with church organ to pleasing effect on "Parallels" and the sole extended track, "Awaken".

After many successive album covers with Roger Dean, Yes - who also produced the album entirely by themselves - commissioned Hipgnosis to create the artwork for Going For The One instead.

“Yesfamily Coverstories: Here we come to the first album since The Yes Album to have something other than a Roger Dean cover. This was not necessarily a slight of Roger, however. They still used his logo, and in fact the design company, Hipgnosis, was led by Storm Thorgerson, whom Roger knew. In fact, the publishing company Dean launched called Paper Tiger later published a book full of Hipgnosis album cover designs, "Walk Away Rene," and Storm was co-editor of some of the Album Cover Albums.

The Going For the One design appears in "Walk Away Rene." It shows a naked guy (could it be the blue naked boy from Yesterdays grown up? Nah.) standing before a dizzying array of buildings. Feeding into or out of him are rays of various designs and colors. It may remind us of the line, "I feel lost in the city" from "Heart of the Sunrise," but that was on a different album. I see it as a contrast between man's ultimately natural state (naked) and ultimately unnatural state (surrounded by skyscrapers).

The buildings, by the way, are from Century City in Los Angeles”

Yes' return, at the height of the punk movement that so despised them, was an unexpectedly successful one, with Going For The One reaching the pinnacle of the UK charts and even having a Top 10 hit single with "Wonderous Stories" - something that would have been considered impossible during the days of Tales From Topographic Oceans.

With its confident and natural qualities, Going For The One is still generally regarded by most critics as one of Yes' finest albums.

Track listing

1. "Going For The One" (Jon Anderson) - 5:32
2. "Turn Of The Century" (Jon Anderson/Steve Howe/Alan White) - 7:56
3. "Parallels" (Chris Squire) - 5:53
4. "Wonderous Stories" (Jon Anderson) - 3:49
5. "Awaken" (Jon Anderson/Steve Howe) - 15:31

Going For The One (Atlantic K 50379) reached #1 in the UK. It also reached #8 in the US during a chart stay of 21 weeks.

Going For The One was remastered and reissued in 2003 with several bonus tracks.

Personnel

• Jon Anderson: Vocals, percussion
• Chris Squire: Bass guitar, vocals
• Steve Howe: Electric and acoustic guitars, vachalia, vocal
• Rick Wakeman: Piano, organ, moog, synthesizers
• Alan White: Drums, percussion
  

Sources

• Going For The One, CD booklet essay, Tim Jones, c.2003
• AllMusicGuide.com
• "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c.2002

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Sparky was already a 1st generation Los Angeles 'faux punker' by this time - being way ahead of the curve.