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boo boo · 07-14-2006, 11:15 PM

Wakemans love/hate relationship with the other band members became well known, the diciplined and restrained but liberal and optimistic nature of the other band members (especially Andersons) clashed greatly with Wakemans excessive, cynical and unpredictable behavior and conservative views... One example is that Wakeman was the only non-vegetarian in the band at the time... Out of pure fustration, Wakeman finally left the group that same year, and he was replaced with Patrick Moraz... Wakeman would persue a long solo career, which became known for it's campiness, excessive instrumental approach and unusual interpretations of famous literary works... In the meantime he continued to collaberate with other bands, including bar buddies Black Sabbath with his work on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

Yes continued to work dispite newfound media pressure, critics claimed that the bands 15 minutes of fame were up, but Yes got the last laugh with their seventh studio album Relayer, which was a surprising commercial success, especially with the negative criticism of their previous effort... Relayer featured new sounds and influences in the band, including the highly free form, improvised style of bands like King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, resulting in a more agressive, dissonant sound and a noticable contrast to the style of music that Yes had been making up until that point... Howe began experiementing more with pedal steel guitar, and Moraz introduced the Orchestron which was a successor to the mellotron, providing a more sci-fi like feel, because this is the only Yes album that Moraz appears on, the Orchestron and Moraz's crafty synth work gives the album a unique quality as well as Squires interlocking lines and Howes more crisp sounding guitar work.

After Relayer the band took an extended break for solo activity, Anderson began a surprisingly meritable solo career and a long and rewarding partnership with keyboard master Vangelis, best known for his movie scores... Steve Howe and Chris Squire both made their first solo albums in 1975, Howe's Beginnings and Squires Fish Out Of Water, respectively... That same year, Wakeman, who was still enjoying the modest success of his own solo career, began the infamous Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table tour, complete with a theatrical performance of dancers... On ice... Easy to say that the tour was a total failure, and it is still the subject of ridicule even to this day.... Finally, Yes were back at it in 1977, and to everyones amazement, Wakeman was along for the ride, Moraz was fired over creative differences, and the band was eager to welcome the returning Wakeman with open arms... The result was Going For The One, Wakeman once again incorperating the grand classical style he was known for, but with new tonal explorations, in addition Howe's guitar tone became more distintive, while Squires bass playing was surprisingly low in the mix and quite subdued, the critical reaction was mixed at best, but it was a modest success, even in the wake of the punk movement, were Yes were a vulnerable target, some Yes fans still consider it a underrated album... Also of note is that it was the first Yes album not to feature artwork by Roger Dean, instead it was done by Hipgnosis, known for his iconic work with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, the Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and Houses Of The Holy covers are among his work.

They quickly followed suit with Tormato, the infamous cover from Hipgnosis was inspired by an inccidant involving a earlier cover design for the album, which was originally meant to be called Tor, Wakeman dispised the cover and apparantly threw his tomato sandwich at it, which resulted in the new album cover with the name to match... The album was an unusual entrie for Yes, the lyrics were less metaphorical and more specific, political and humorous, Squire incorperated a unique bass sound using custom equipment, providing a rather aquatic yet funky sound... Also on this album Wakeman used a new sampling device of his own design, called the Birotron, which featured a fancy yet overelaborate sound quality, oddly enough not even Wakeman owns one anymore... Tormato was a critical disaster, and it's considered their worst 70s album, nonetheless, Don't Kill The Whale and Arriving UFO enjoyed modest popularity.

Dispite the failure of Tormato, Anderson and Wakeman were optimistic to do a new album, the other band members were not, so Anderson and Wakeman dicided to leave the band in 1980 and continue with their solo careers. However Howe, Squire and White had a change of heart and dicided to do another album together as Yes, they enlisted former Buggles members Trevor Horn as both producer and vocalist and Geoff Downes on keys, the result was Drama, which featured a more new wave and hard rock influenced sound, Yes began sounding more like The Police and Rush than Yes, dispite this, it won the fans over and got some good reviews, but it's commercial success was poor, being the first Yes album in nearly a decade to not reach top 10 status in the US charts, Dean returned to do the album cover... That same year another live album, Yesshows, which featured recordings from earlier Yes concerts was released.

After a disapointing supporting tour, Yes officially disbanded for the first time, Squire and White were doing sessions with Jimmy Page in hopes of starting a supergroup together, it was to be called XYZ, unfortunately it never got off the ground... Nonetheless Squire and White continued to work together and they formed Cinema with guitarist Trevor Rabin, after hearing some of their material Anderson was so impressed that he decided to put old differences aside and collaberate with them on this new project, Roxy Music keyboardist Eddie Jobson was briefly in the band but was replaced by original Yes keyboardist Shortly afterwards. Yes were back, Trevor Horn returned as producer and they began work on a new album, in 1982 90125 was released, and Yes were reborn as a new wave pop group, with Owner Of A Lonely Heart and Leave It becoming their most populer singles to date, they found a brand new, younger audience in the MTV generation, many were not even aware of the bands previous incarnation, because of this many older fans accused the band of selling out, nonetheless Owner Of A Lonely Heart is still a big radio hit today.