I say it again, Their most underrate album, the album really reminds me of The Yes Album and Fragile with multiple great tunes. Enjoy the rest of another YES masterpiece. I was expecting that great reaction. Peace.
OMG. Love to see the praise for this album gushing in! I always thought this was a great album but never knew that so many other Yes fans thought the same way.... Looking forward to the 2nd reaction to Tempus Fugit 😁
Very cool reaction, JP! I think you're really going to love this album. Chris Squire and Alan White are absolute monsters throughout the album. As I said in my last comment, on your introduction to _Drama,_ Yes always had a lot of turmoil going on behind the scenes, especially during recording sessions, yet still managed to produce exceptional music. It's amazing, really. Most bands that went through that amount of "drama" for want of a better word, would produce garbage as a result, but Yes were not "most bands". Cheers!
God bless you, Justin 👏👏. You nailed it with perfect humour about YES. I've always said Squire was YES, especially after their solo album. Howe said that he loved making the album because of the FREEDOM he and Squire had to rock it up a level ✌️
Been a Yes fan since the summer of 1973 when I first heard Roundabout. This is my favorite album by them. Go figure. "Into the lens" on this album is equally impressive...
Welcome to metal Yes. They told Jon to leave his harp at home. This is an amazing album. An outlier in their catalog. An album many hardcore classic Yes fans reluctantly admit they love. I don’t have a problem with Trevor Horn’s voice. It’s not Jon but close enough. What I do really enjoy is that Chris Squire’s vocals are alongside Trevor’s on many tracks. I’ve always loved Chris’ voice. The rest of the album is great as well. Not a bad track on it.
Back then, some were also saying "I don't miss Jon Anderson," because he had gone on to his next project: Jon & Vangelis, which was TOTALLY suited for him! Their debut album "Short Stories" (same year as "Drama") was wild, unpredictable, strange and extremely beautiful.
Yo Justin! Great reaction. I bought this album in 1980 the day it came out. I’ve seen yes live at least a dozen times. Also rehearsal sessions iwhen Billy came into the band full time after Chris died. The greatest show on earth. You’ll love the whole album. Great mixes and different sounds. Enjoying your /our YES journey.
I love this album a lot, not a bad track on it. I do like Rick Wakeman quite a bit, but often times I find myself questioning his choice of sounds. By way of comparison, Jeff Downs playing is not quite as technical or as flashy as ricks playing, but Jeff’s choice of sounds more than makes up for the lack of super technical flash. Great album, really great song.
Justin, when you started the Yes discography one thought I had was "But will he stick with it long enough to get to 'Drama'?" Many of us had a feeling you'd like this. But yeah, what a statement of intent. Downes and Horn brought so much to this album, the cutting edge keyboard sounds (Downes had a Fairlight) and Horn's production chops, primarily. "Don't miss Jon Anderson." Yeah, but unfortunately Chris and Trevor are singing at the very top of their ranges here, which Chris did OK with on the subsequent tour, but it ended up sabotaging Trevor Horn's voice (that and songs like "And You And I"). The heaviness was much appreciated by the fans (as well as the nods to Yes classics like "Heart of the Sunrise" and "Yours Is No Disgrace"). But even though this album didn't last long in the charts, it was definitely noticed by rock musicians. Back in the 90's Dream Theater played Ronnie Scott's in London, performing a showcase of music that influenced them featuring a bunch of guest musicians. They actually covered this with Steve Howe!
Great reaction, I'm laughing at the "I brought jangly shells" line. I was a Yes fan for some years before I even knew about this album, found it in a dusty used CD bin in the early 90s. I felt cheated that this seemed totally lost and forgotten by that time. What blows me away is how this album, especially Machine Messiah and Does It Really Happen, have all these amazing seeds of ideas to the 80s incarnations. Both of them; I can hear both 90125 Yes as well as ABWH here. Which is weird, I've always thought Trevor Rabin was the most integral element to 90125 Yes, and Wakeman/Anderson the most integral elements to ABWH. But none of them are part of this album.
This was my introduction to YES, I was a fan instantly. I had never heard a band that had such a heavy sound and yet could also shift effortlessly into such exuberance and full vocal harmonies all the way through. I went from this to Close to the Edge and Fragile, which although a very different phase, It was obviously the same unique band and those albums had some real furiously rocking moments as well. I don't think it was the heaviness of Drama that put Jon and Rick off, as much as it was the pressure to simplify and shorten the songs and to lean into a more radio, MTV friendly sound. Even though the album didn't turn out that way, it is YES as an unapologetically hard rockin monster, and I think they needed to prove that at the time. It was something that was already lurking in their sound anyway, we can hear it on Relayer, Fragile and Close to tbe Edge. YES were always loud, fast and furious and I think those who thought they were lightweight clearly did not witness them live or listen to The Gates of Delirium or Ritual. I still consider Drama among my top 5 albums from YES.
I loved this album when I first heard it and it has always been near my top ranking of Yes albums. Listening to it today, it seems like a precursor to Dream Theater.
When I first heard this I didn’t realize it wasn’t Jon Anderson. I love the Buggles. There couple of albums are more prog than most people think based on Video Killed the Radio Star, especially their 2nd album. Buggles trivia: Hans Zimmer of movie composer fame was in the Buggles briefly and in the Video Killed the Radio Star and video playing keys.
Cool! I knew you would love this one. Dream Theater covered it live and the title of the song is mentioned in their epic "Octavarium". Definitely an influence on the prog metal scene.
I really like this album - starts and ends with bangers. Steve Howe was on top of his game. I like the singing and how they emphasized Chris Squires back-up vocals to make it sound more like traditional Yes.
This opening track is so incredibly more interesting and well produced than anything on the previous 'Tomato Soup'. This lineup of Yes deserved a few more albums before it all became "Radio Adapted Elevator Music"
A fun thing to do is to watch "How It's Made" type of manufacturing videos with this playing over. Also, there is a part that always reminds me of Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine, and I wonder if that was intentional.
I love you mimicking Jon Anderson. Fairy Dust and Unicorns. LOL! After saying that, this is my favorite Yes album! Jon Andersons new album (Truth) is killer. You can call it a new Yes album. It has all of the ingredients of Yes. Jon is 79 years old and sound the same if not better.
You had me cracking up with “Jangling shells”! SO TRUE! ( although Jon COULD bring some ballsy energy with Heart of the Sunrise). this tour was my second yes concert. I remember being amazed to see Jeff Downes keyboard set up, had a computer. It was the first time I had seen one involved in music.. and I absolutely love this tune! It brings me energy when I need a pick me up
It's true, King Crimson used to be really bad with the blocking, but it seems they've loosened up a lot in the last year or two, so there are a number of KC reactions on RUclips now. Would love to hear your take on "Starless" from 1974's "Red" album.
I think you're right they loosened up. I was shocked to see reactions in recent months to songs from their first album as well as Discipline without the audio being blocked. I thought Fripp would have to pass on to the next world before that started happening
They clearly reference Yours is No Disgrace with the big organ chord and harmony vocals at 3:29. Chris‘s bass playing is far more in the The Yes Album/Fragile style than the previous few records. At the same time that they updated and hardened their sound for the 80s, they were also doing a Yes pastiche.
Lol. I remember before this came out. Saying oh no! Then being blown away when I first listened to Machine Messiah. It is great live also I really enjoyed Jon and Vangelis as well. More music. Cheers
I couldn’t wait for you to hear this album, and particularly this song. It’s so good that it males of this album a must have for Yes fans. I would have liked to hear another album with that linuep. They sound so energized.
I don't always get Yes. The early yes, the 80s yes. It's all good, but for some reason this album always resonated with me the most. They're in the pocket with this to me. Machine Messiah is a straight out banger and the rest of the album is top notch. Great playing, great song writing. It hits all the feels for me. I'm glad you really enjoyed it.
My last Yes album purchase was Tormato so I don't have this one. I did a pre-listen of this about a week ago in anticipation. I knew you would love it and be somewhat shocked lol...
Chris Squire is the key. He made the Yes sound more than anyone else...IMHO. He and Alan White had "way". I love their music. Drama is WAY underrated. Great reaction video!
This album helped lay the foundations for two great albums of the early 1980's -- ASIA's first album (two members from Drama -- Howe and Downes) and Yes's 90125 (Squire and White, brought back Tony Kaye, Jon Anderson joined in with new guitarist Trevor Rabin). Of course, you've already reacted to 90125. When the time comes, you should also listen/react to the album Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (Anderson split from the now Rabin-led version of Yes after Big Generator and joined back up with Howe, Bruford, and Wakeman, but for legal reasons they couldn't call it "Yes" because Squire still controlled the name, but it's still very much a Yes album ... oh! and Tony Levin played bass on it). That led to the Yes "Union" album and tour (eight musicians in one band!! Anderson on vocals, Howe and Rabin on guitars, Wakeman and Kaye on keyboards, Squire on bass, Bruford and White on drums and whatever you call that set-up Bruford had on that tour). Yes is a VERY convoluted story.
I am glad to hear that freaking Chris Squire thought parts of this song were too hard to play, that makes me feel so much better about my sad attempts at it!
Due to the block, I had from missing Anderson, it took me years to appreciate but this is definitely still a true YES epic regardless. Steve, Alan and Chris came back surprisingly strong and in true YES vocal harmony fashion, incorporated their traditional sound without leaning heavily on a featured lead singer. This made it assessable and acceptable to die-hard Jon fans.
Liked the same segments and aggressive attack...and Alan's fills and rolls...whoa! Mixed on the keys...loved the dives...the 80's synthwave not so much...overall killer!
When this album came out, I heard the complaints coming from Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman fans that it "wasn't YES." But the cuts they played on my favorite radio station frequently were the two monster songs on this album *Machine Messiah* and *Tempus Fugit* & I was totally enthused. I was one of those YES fans who loved the harder edge that Chris Squire & Bruford/White gave to the band more so than the flowery inspirations of Jon Anderson & Wakeman, though I thought the way they combined both 'directions' was unique & enjoyable (IF you had a taste for the complexity & density of their compositions). I personally consider Machine Messiah to be better than Going For The One (as good as it is). I even think that the Going For The One _album_ does not deserve to be ranked as better than Drama, but only maybe _as good_ as Drama, overall. Of course, to Anderson & Wakeman Uber-Fans, that's blasphemy, but that's how my ears hear it...
I very much enjoyed this album. I also liked the Buggles' album, and this one felt very much like a blending of the two bands. It wasn't quite Yes, but it wasn't Buggles either. It was a strange mixture, but the album itself is solid. This song was a great opener for the alubm!
Yanno, this is yet another one by them that I've not heard. And I'm 65 if I'm a day. Their catalog is truly amazing. I'm not worthy. My teenage friends didn't guide me in the right direction. And goes to show you again how worthless FM is anymore. Some of this sounds like a chant. Om. Bill Bruford I think is heavily jazz influenced. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Chris Squire + Steve Howe = the real Yes. So cool that they went heavier on this album. Check out Be The One and That Is That Is from their later Keys To Ascension albums where Jon returned -- those are epic too, though not quite this heavy
Let's remember, this album had one purpose and one only. To demonstrate to everyone that they didn't need Jon and Rick. The bulk of the material was heavier, denser, gloomier in places and they threw everything at it. 'More bass!' 'More guitar!' 'Bigger drums!' 'More keyboards!' To be honest they didn't really need Trevor Horn on vocals - Chris Squire could have done them justice, but there you go. Within the first 10 minutes of me listening to this back in August 1980 I thought 'Jon who?' 'Rick who?' Unfortunately the live shows suffered from Trevor Horns voice which wasn't up to a huge tour and by the time they reached London in December 1980 it was shot to pieces. However, in the instrumental passages it was a terrific version of Yes. Great times. But to also show how very good Yes always were, when Jon Anderson toured his Song of Seven album in the UK (at more or less the same time as Yes went out on the Drama tour) he needed two guitarists, a couple of keyboard players and some percussion to get a similar sound. I saw both of them - Yes and JA that year, and while both were excellent it was Yes that pipped it for me in the end
I do prefer Geoff Downes' sound a lot more on this album over Wakeman's sound on the 2 previous albums. But I do not think Wakeman would have done a better job on Relayer, Moraz was perfect for that album. Whites sounds fantastic here and the recording does him justice. Squire --- brilliant. Howe's sounded good too. I liked his take on metal, tho later in the track I found his playing sounding a little too generic, where it could have been anyone else doing it. Vocally speaking, Squire should have taken the helm on this album.-- then it would have been one of my favourites.
Drama and that particular lineup is something that I wish had endured for another 2 or even 3 albums. It’s “Yes”, but it isn’t-and such an undervalued contribution to prog rock. That said, with that many members of Yes in it, there was no way a record company was going to market it as anything else.
I think Anderson is excellent, but he is the reason why many Yes albums turn me off. I wish this lineup would have done another or two. Love Anderson w/ the 70's albums and i prefer most of the Rabin era albums when Rabin sings or adds his voice.
I saw that show here in Montréal, and it was hard to hear Horn's voice. He was struggling with all his parts in the Anderson's parts of the repertoire. They had to put lots of reverbs and compression and stuff to make up his voice. I don't understand why they did not change the keys of the songs to accommodate Horn's voice. At the end of the soirée prob. 20% of the public had left the forum. It was prob. the ending of the tour and the evidence was that it was not made for a lasting formula.
As you mentioned, Jon Anderson's absence is no big deal here because Chris Squire does a lot of vocal parts in duet with Trevor Horn (which he has also done many times with Jon), so the fact that Trevor has a lower range than Jon was not a handicap in the studio. Same with Geoff Downes who is almost a mix of Tony Kaye and Rick Wakeman (more adept at synths than the former and probably less virtuoso than the latter, but quite capable of providing convoluted keyboard parts while being inventive in his sound palette). "Machine Messiah" is the heaviest piece of the album but the other tracks (all in a different style) are not far behind! Too bad this line up didn't release another album after Drama!
I refused to listen to this album for probably a year when it came out Until my cousin gave me a shocked reaction when I told him that. He said it was an amazing record and it still has Steve & Chris so what was my hangup? Jon Anderson? Wakeman? First of all you can barely tell it's NOT Jon singing, and Rick? How many times has he come and gone again? Cousin Mark was not wrong! (Rest his soul) This is kinda the last killer YES album besides 90125. You might hit that one. And ASIA, the debut record is a one off Masterpiece, every single track. After that, Yes started to make records with a few good cuts, and the rest, truly filler that became annoying. And nowadays I'm at an age in life where I suffer from Jon Anderson burn out. I love the man but like you said, the jangly spacey peacenick hippie Tinkerbell vibe just got really tired on me. Jon actually prayed over my Niece, in utero, when we met him. My brother was ready to kick his ass cause he's on his knees with his hands all over Wifey's womb LOL. I talked my brother down from it cause I knew Jon was an ordained minister, SSSHHHH 🤫 🙏 Cheyenne was born with 2 large holes in her heart and became the first infant under a year old to undergo open heart surgery and a blood transfusion at Stanford hospital, where some of the greatest doctors in the world flew in just to join the surgical team, take notes, conduct research, and be a part of history. Cheyenne is now a healthy adult who lives and works in Yosemite, and was featured on the Blood Bank calendar that year as a 10 month old cutie pie baby. True story. I still believe Jon Anderson's consultation of the Angels, and invocation of prayers, had a little something to do with her success story 👶 Who needs an autograph? when you meet someone with that level of spiritual power and grace 😛✨
Going into this album with an open mind really helps. It's a different sound, but I think it's great. Anderson and Wakeman missed out by leaving. It's too bad they only made the one album like this. They split up afterwards and Howe and Downes went off to form Asia. It took 3 years for Yes to return and you already know about 90125. The follow up to that album, Big Generator took 4 years and was not nearly as good. It does have some great tracks on it, however. You might want to check out the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album that came out in 1989. Its pretty good. After that, there's not a much that's worthwhile. The Union album from 1991 had 8 members of yes, past and present. (Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe Kaye white Rabin and Squire) It should have been the ultimate Yes album, but it wasn't. The tour from that album was incredible though. Beyond that, I stopped listening.
What drew me into the early yes pieces was the emotional sounds of positivity in all its forms. This album for me is emotional chaos. I can’t tell what feeling they’re trying to communicate. Hard pass for me.
There is no Yes without Anderson and Squire. This is ok, but Not Yes! They should've called the band a different name. This along with the next album 90210 is an entirely different band, and don't consider it Classic Yes at all.
Drama was criminally underrated and underappreciated.
Agreed, one of my favorite Yes albums! A real masterpiece.
I say it again, Their most underrate album, the album really reminds me of The Yes Album and Fragile with multiple great tunes. Enjoy the rest of another YES masterpiece. I was expecting that great reaction. Peace.
I absolutely love Howes guitar tone on Drama. He went full overdrive on this album👍
When I heard 'Drama' for the first time, many of his guitar sounds felt familiar to me because of them also being used on the Asia debut album 🙂
No Country Steve here
OMG. Love to see the praise for this album gushing in! I always thought this was a great album but never knew that so many other Yes fans thought the same way.... Looking forward to the 2nd reaction to Tempus Fugit 😁
This is my favorite Yes album
Ladies and gentlemen Chris Squire and Yes, the greatest show on earth. Nearly pissed my pants when I saw this live, brilliant
✨️🎶👑🎶✨️
👍🎵🎼🎶😎
Such a perfect balance and blend of every musician's instrument! You can hear everybody and they're each doing something brilliant.
I really like Drama !
Great album.
Hugs from Brazil 🎉
Very cool reaction, JP! I think you're really going to love this album. Chris Squire and Alan White are absolute monsters throughout the album. As I said in my last comment, on your introduction to _Drama,_ Yes always had a lot of turmoil going on behind the scenes, especially during recording sessions, yet still managed to produce exceptional music. It's amazing, really. Most bands that went through that amount of "drama" for want of a better word, would produce garbage as a result, but Yes were not "most bands". Cheers!
👍🎵🎼🎶😎
God bless you, Justin 👏👏. You nailed it with perfect humour about YES. I've always said Squire was YES, especially after their solo album. Howe said that he loved making the album because of the FREEDOM he and Squire had to rock it up a level ✌️
👍👑😎
Best track of the album for me, amazing
It is a great opener to the album, it has great energy. The whole album is like this, you won't be disappointed by any song.
Love the reaction...can't wait for more...Todd from Ohio...thanks so much!!!
Been a Yes fan since the summer of 1973 when I first heard Roundabout. This is my favorite album by them. Go figure. "Into the lens" on this album is equally impressive...
Great song. My favorite on the album.
Welcome to metal Yes. They told Jon to leave his harp at home. This is an amazing album. An outlier in their catalog. An album many hardcore classic Yes fans reluctantly admit they love. I don’t have a problem with Trevor Horn’s voice. It’s not Jon but close enough. What I do really enjoy is that Chris Squire’s vocals are alongside Trevor’s on many tracks. I’ve always loved Chris’ voice. The rest of the album is great as well. Not a bad track on it.
Well said and totally correct IMHO 😊
There are moments when this album veers into being Chris' second solo album. And that's not a bad thing.
Back then, some were also saying "I don't miss Jon Anderson," because he had gone on to his next project: Jon & Vangelis, which was TOTALLY suited for him! Their debut album "Short Stories" (same year as "Drama") was wild, unpredictable, strange and extremely beautiful.
Yo Justin! Great reaction. I bought this album in 1980 the day it came out. I’ve seen yes live at least a dozen times. Also rehearsal sessions iwhen Billy came into the band full time after Chris died. The greatest show on earth. You’ll love the whole album. Great mixes and different sounds. Enjoying your /our YES journey.
I bought it in 80 also i was only 11 but i knew it was great
This song is 11/10.
👍☮️👑🐍🙏😎
Support Scot at The Prog Corner!!!👍😎
I love this album a lot, not a bad track on it. I do like Rick Wakeman quite a bit, but often times I find myself questioning his choice of sounds. By way of comparison, Jeff Downs playing is not quite as technical or as flashy as ricks playing, but Jeff’s choice of sounds more than makes up for the lack of super technical flash. Great album, really great song.
Justin, when you started the Yes discography one thought I had was "But will he stick with it long enough to get to 'Drama'?" Many of us had a feeling you'd like this. But yeah, what a statement of intent. Downes and Horn brought so much to this album, the cutting edge keyboard sounds (Downes had a Fairlight) and Horn's production chops, primarily. "Don't miss Jon Anderson." Yeah, but unfortunately Chris and Trevor are singing at the very top of their ranges here, which Chris did OK with on the subsequent tour, but it ended up sabotaging Trevor Horn's voice (that and songs like "And You And I"). The heaviness was much appreciated by the fans (as well as the nods to Yes classics like "Heart of the Sunrise" and "Yours Is No Disgrace"). But even though this album didn't last long in the charts, it was definitely noticed by rock musicians. Back in the 90's Dream Theater played Ronnie Scott's in London, performing a showcase of music that influenced them featuring a bunch of guest musicians. They actually covered this with Steve Howe!
I’m predicting that this will be one of your favorite Yes albums
Great reaction, I'm laughing at the "I brought jangly shells" line. I was a Yes fan for some years before I even knew about this album, found it in a dusty used CD bin in the early 90s. I felt cheated that this seemed totally lost and forgotten by that time.
What blows me away is how this album, especially Machine Messiah and Does It Really Happen, have all these amazing seeds of ideas to the 80s incarnations. Both of them; I can hear both 90125 Yes as well as ABWH here. Which is weird, I've always thought Trevor Rabin was the most integral element to 90125 Yes, and Wakeman/Anderson the most integral elements to ABWH. But none of them are part of this album.
Great album. Alan White’s finest moment in YES. Love the dual vocals with Chris and Horn throughout. Also can hear the seeds of ASIA being sewn here.
This was my introduction to YES, I was a fan instantly. I had never heard a band that had such a heavy sound and yet could also shift effortlessly into such exuberance and full vocal harmonies all the way through. I went from this to Close to the Edge and Fragile, which although a very different phase, It was obviously the same unique band and those albums had some real furiously rocking moments as well. I don't think it was the heaviness of Drama that put Jon and Rick off, as much as it was the pressure to simplify and shorten the songs and to lean into a more radio, MTV friendly sound. Even though the album didn't turn out that way, it is YES as an unapologetically hard rockin monster, and I think they needed to prove that at the time. It was something that was already lurking in their sound anyway, we can hear it on Relayer, Fragile and Close to tbe Edge. YES were always loud, fast and furious and I think those who thought they were lightweight clearly did not witness them live or listen to The Gates of Delirium or Ritual. I still consider Drama among my top 5 albums from YES.
One of their finest hours 😊
A staggeringly good track on an exceptional album
👍☮️😎
I loved this album when I first heard it and it has always been near my top ranking of Yes albums. Listening to it today, it seems like a precursor to Dream Theater.
Geoff calls the angry yes fans Yuppets😅... I'm a happy yes fan and this is yes
Yes with white and squier😊!!!!!
When I first heard this I didn’t realize it wasn’t Jon Anderson. I love the Buggles. There couple of albums are more prog than most people think based on Video Killed the Radio Star, especially their 2nd album. Buggles trivia: Hans Zimmer of movie composer fame was in the Buggles briefly and in the Video Killed the Radio Star and video playing keys.
Cool! I knew you would love this one. Dream Theater covered it live and the title of the song is mentioned in their epic "Octavarium". Definitely an influence on the prog metal scene.
I really like this album - starts and ends with bangers. Steve Howe was on top of his game. I like the singing and how they emphasized Chris Squires back-up vocals to make it sound more like traditional Yes.
Finally Justin showing emotions😮😮😮. (Not just cool .like it..its good)thanks
This opening track is so incredibly more interesting and well produced than anything on the previous 'Tomato Soup'. This lineup of Yes deserved a few more albums before it all became "Radio Adapted Elevator Music"
A fun thing to do is to watch "How It's Made" type of manufacturing videos with this playing over. Also, there is a part that always reminds me of Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine, and I wonder if that was intentional.
I also hear the resemblance to Welcome to the Machine. That is a good thing, because I love that song.
I love you mimicking Jon Anderson. Fairy Dust and Unicorns. LOL! After saying that, this is my favorite Yes album! Jon Andersons new album (Truth) is killer. You can call it a new Yes album. It has all of the ingredients of Yes. Jon is 79 years old and sound the same if not better.
First time hearing this song. Dig it!!!!!!
I actually saw Dream Theater cover this opening for Yes in 2004 in Allentown.
I had a feeling you'd dig it!
Two thumbs up from Justin, a great track. Would we have a bass cover coming.
Geoff's parts fit in very well. Reminds.me of his work 2 years later with Asia. What a fun song.
You had me cracking up with “Jangling shells”! SO TRUE! ( although Jon COULD bring some ballsy energy with Heart of the Sunrise). this tour was my second yes concert. I remember being amazed to see Jeff Downes keyboard set up, had a computer. It was the first time I had seen one involved in music.. and I absolutely love this tune! It brings me energy when I need a pick me up
It's true, King Crimson used to be really bad with the blocking, but it seems they've loosened up a lot in the last year or two, so there are a number of KC reactions on RUclips now. Would love to hear your take on "Starless" from 1974's "Red" album.
I think you're right they loosened up. I was shocked to see reactions in recent months to songs from their first album as well as Discipline without the audio being blocked. I thought Fripp would have to pass on to the next world before that started happening
Extremely underrated record! Definitely in my top 5 Yes records.
They clearly reference Yours is No Disgrace with the big organ chord and harmony vocals at 3:29. Chris‘s bass playing is far more in the The Yes Album/Fragile style than the previous few records. At the same time that they updated and hardened their sound for the 80s, they were also doing a Yes pastiche.
Lol. I remember before this came out. Saying oh no! Then being blown away when I first listened to Machine Messiah. It is great live also I really enjoyed Jon and Vangelis as well. More music. Cheers
I couldn’t wait for you to hear this album, and particularly this song. It’s so good that it males of this album a must have for Yes fans. I would have liked to hear another album with that linuep. They sound so energized.
Don't kill me Yes fans, but to me this is their best album.
Saw them last month and they opened with this. It was awesome!
😎
👑
@@lesblatnyak5947 ☮️👍😎
One of my favorites
I don't always get Yes. The early yes, the 80s yes. It's all good, but for some reason this album always resonated with me the most. They're in the pocket with this to me. Machine Messiah is a straight out banger and the rest of the album is top notch. Great playing, great song writing. It hits all the feels for me. I'm glad you really enjoyed it.
My last Yes album purchase was Tormato so I don't have this one. I did a pre-listen of this about a week ago in anticipation. I knew you would love it and be somewhat shocked lol...
Ah Fall semester freshman year of college (fall 1995) I was introduced to this album & Tormato.
Take all your dreams and throw them away.
🤩
👍🎵🎼🎶☮️😎
The song kicks so much tail.
YES! 😊 This album was actually pretty good overall. Thanks for reviewing!
Chris Squire is the key. He made the Yes sound more than anyone else...IMHO. He and Alan White had "way". I love their music. Drama is WAY underrated. Great reaction video!
This album helped lay the foundations for two great albums of the early 1980's -- ASIA's first album (two members from Drama -- Howe and Downes) and Yes's 90125 (Squire and White, brought back Tony Kaye, Jon Anderson joined in with new guitarist Trevor Rabin). Of course, you've already reacted to 90125. When the time comes, you should also listen/react to the album Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (Anderson split from the now Rabin-led version of Yes after Big Generator and joined back up with Howe, Bruford, and Wakeman, but for legal reasons they couldn't call it "Yes" because Squire still controlled the name, but it's still very much a Yes album ... oh! and Tony Levin played bass on it). That led to the Yes "Union" album and tour (eight musicians in one band!! Anderson on vocals, Howe and Rabin on guitars, Wakeman and Kaye on keyboards, Squire on bass, Bruford and White on drums and whatever you call that set-up Bruford had on that tour). Yes is a VERY convoluted story.
Very satisfying reaction!
I am glad to hear that freaking Chris Squire thought parts of this song were too hard to play, that makes me feel so much better about my sad attempts at it!
While not my favorite song on the album, (that's a compliment to the rest) is this arrangement perfect or what?
What a great song ! Bye bye "Cowboy Steve" ! Great reaction !
Although many of my friends who were Yes fans were disappointed at first most of us ended up really liking it.
Due to the block, I had from missing Anderson, it took me years to appreciate but this is definitely still a true YES epic regardless. Steve, Alan and Chris came back surprisingly strong and in true YES vocal harmony fashion, incorporated their traditional sound without leaning heavily on a featured lead singer. This made it assessable and acceptable to die-hard Jon fans.
Trevor does the vocals really well. It could of turned out messy but it does not.
Put em together.
With new composers a lot changes. Here a lot of innovation comes down to the basics. a very strong song and nice reaction from you😉
Liked the same segments and aggressive attack...and Alan's fills and rolls...whoa! Mixed on the keys...loved the dives...the 80's synthwave not so much...overall killer!
"I brought my jangly shells" 😂 I love Jon but that was on point. Yeah, this is a Yes album that stands on its own by its own terms.
Finally🎉
Yes! One of my favorite albums. Bought it in the cut ou section of the record store for a seriously reduced price $4.99:) I dig heavier YES!
When this album came out, I heard the complaints coming from Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman fans that it "wasn't YES." But the cuts they played on my favorite radio station frequently were the two monster songs on this album *Machine Messiah* and *Tempus Fugit* & I was totally enthused. I was one of those YES fans who loved the harder edge that Chris Squire & Bruford/White gave to the band more so than the flowery inspirations of Jon Anderson & Wakeman, though I thought the way they combined both 'directions' was unique & enjoyable (IF you had a taste for the complexity & density of their compositions). I personally consider Machine Messiah to be better than Going For The One (as good as it is). I even think that the Going For The One _album_ does not deserve to be ranked as better than Drama, but only maybe _as good_ as Drama, overall. Of course, to Anderson & Wakeman Uber-Fans, that's blasphemy, but that's how my ears hear it...
I very much enjoyed this album. I also liked the Buggles' album, and this one felt very much like a blending of the two bands. It wasn't quite Yes, but it wasn't Buggles either. It was a strange mixture, but the album itself is solid. This song was a great opener for the alubm!
That was Ripping.
Yanno, this is yet another one by them that I've not heard. And I'm 65 if I'm a day. Their catalog is truly amazing. I'm not worthy. My teenage friends didn't guide me in the right direction. And goes to show you again how worthless FM is anymore. Some of this sounds like a chant. Om. Bill Bruford I think is heavily jazz influenced. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Chris Squire + Steve Howe = the real Yes. So cool that they went heavier on this album. Check out Be The One and That Is That Is from their later Keys To Ascension albums where Jon returned -- those are epic too, though not quite this heavy
I think this is the best track on the album.
Let's remember, this album had one purpose and one only. To demonstrate to everyone that they didn't need Jon and Rick. The bulk of the material was heavier, denser, gloomier in places and they threw everything at it. 'More bass!' 'More guitar!' 'Bigger drums!' 'More keyboards!' To be honest they didn't really need Trevor Horn on vocals - Chris Squire could have done them justice, but there you go. Within the first 10 minutes of me listening to this back in August 1980 I thought 'Jon who?' 'Rick who?' Unfortunately the live shows suffered from Trevor Horns voice which wasn't up to a huge tour and by the time they reached London in December 1980 it was shot to pieces. However, in the instrumental passages it was a terrific version of Yes. Great times. But to also show how very good Yes always were, when Jon Anderson toured his Song of Seven album in the UK (at more or less the same time as Yes went out on the Drama tour) he needed two guitarists, a couple of keyboard players and some percussion to get a similar sound. I saw both of them - Yes and JA that year, and while both were excellent it was Yes that pipped it for me in the end
I do prefer Geoff Downes' sound a lot more on this album over Wakeman's sound on the 2 previous albums. But I do not think Wakeman would have done a better job on Relayer, Moraz was perfect for that album. Whites sounds fantastic here and the recording does him justice. Squire --- brilliant. Howe's sounded good too. I liked his take on metal, tho later in the track I found his playing sounding a little too generic, where it could have been anyone else doing it. Vocally speaking, Squire should have taken the helm on this album.-- then it would have been one of my favourites.
Drama and that particular lineup is something that I wish had endured for another 2 or even 3 albums. It’s “Yes”, but it isn’t-and such an undervalued contribution to prog rock. That said, with that many members of Yes in it, there was no way a record company was going to market it as anything else.
Jon is into heavy stuff sometimes, Gates of Delerium and Sound Chaser, etc.
Chris Squire kinda hits you in,the boo boo huh Justin 😅
I think Anderson is excellent, but he is the reason why many Yes albums turn me off. I wish this lineup would have done another or two. Love Anderson w/ the 70's albums and i prefer most of the Rabin era albums when Rabin sings or adds his voice.
I saw that show here in Montréal, and it was hard to hear Horn's voice. He was struggling with all his parts in the Anderson's parts of the repertoire. They had to put lots of reverbs and compression and stuff to make up his voice. I don't understand why they did not change the keys of the songs to accommodate Horn's voice. At the end of the soirée prob. 20% of the public had left the forum. It was prob. the ending of the tour and the evidence was that it was not made for a lasting formula.
I knew that Justin. I did. You were going to love it😅
As you mentioned, Jon Anderson's absence is no big deal here because Chris Squire does a lot of vocal parts in duet with Trevor Horn (which he has also done many times with Jon), so the fact that Trevor has a lower range than Jon was not a handicap in the studio. Same with Geoff Downes who is almost a mix of Tony Kaye and Rick Wakeman (more adept at synths than the former and probably less virtuoso than the latter, but quite capable of providing convoluted keyboard parts while being inventive in his sound palette).
"Machine Messiah" is the heaviest piece of the album but the other tracks (all in a different style) are not far behind! Too bad this line up didn't release another album after Drama!
I refused to listen to this album for probably a year when it came out
Until my cousin gave me a shocked reaction when I told him that. He said it was an amazing record and it still has Steve & Chris so what was my hangup?
Jon Anderson? Wakeman?
First of all you can barely tell it's NOT Jon singing,
and Rick? How many times has he come and gone again? Cousin Mark was not wrong! (Rest his soul)
This is kinda the last killer YES album besides 90125.
You might hit that one.
And ASIA, the debut record is a one off Masterpiece,
every single track.
After that, Yes started to make records with a few good cuts, and the rest, truly filler that became annoying.
And nowadays I'm at an age in life where I suffer from Jon Anderson burn out.
I love the man but like you said, the jangly spacey peacenick hippie Tinkerbell vibe just got really tired on me. Jon actually prayed over my Niece, in utero, when we met him. My brother was ready to kick his ass cause he's on his knees with his hands all over Wifey's womb LOL. I talked my brother down from it cause I knew Jon was an ordained minister, SSSHHHH 🤫 🙏
Cheyenne was born with 2 large holes in her heart and became the first infant under a year old to undergo open heart surgery and a blood transfusion at Stanford hospital, where some of the greatest doctors in the world flew in just to join the surgical team, take notes, conduct research, and be a part of history. Cheyenne is now a healthy adult who lives and works in Yosemite, and was featured on the Blood Bank calendar that year as a 10 month old cutie pie baby. True story. I still believe Jon Anderson's consultation of the Angels, and invocation of prayers, had a little something to do with her success story 👶
Who needs an autograph? when you meet someone with that level of spiritual power and grace 😛✨
Have you reacted to Gentle Giant? I think you'd like it. Try Freehand live
Going into this album with an open mind really helps. It's a different sound, but I think it's great. Anderson and Wakeman missed out by leaving. It's too bad they only made the one album like this. They split up afterwards and Howe and Downes went off to form Asia. It took 3 years for Yes to return and you already know about 90125. The follow up to that album, Big Generator took 4 years and was not nearly as good. It does have some great tracks on it, however. You might want to check out the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album that came out in 1989. Its pretty good. After that, there's not a much that's worthwhile. The Union album from 1991 had 8 members of yes, past and present. (Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe Kaye white Rabin and Squire) It should have been the ultimate Yes album, but it wasn't. The tour from that album was incredible though. Beyond that, I stopped listening.
ConCave Earth
What drew me into the early yes pieces was the emotional sounds of positivity in all its forms. This album for me is emotional chaos. I can’t tell what feeling they’re trying to communicate. Hard pass for me.
Tempus Fugit
There is no Yes without Anderson and Squire.
This is ok, but Not Yes!
They should've called the band a different name.
This along with the next album 90210 is an entirely different band, and don't consider it Classic Yes at all.
@@rodneygriffin7666 ill get to that first point …
Or second point i guess.
Great album. Alan White’s finest moment in YES. Love the dual vocals with Chris and Horn throughout. Also can hear the seeds of ASIA being sewn here.