“Keystudio”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Keystudio is a compilation album released by Yes in 2001. It is made up of the studio tracks from both Keys to Ascension and Keys to Ascension 2.

Overview

Yes is a British rock band that began in 1968. Its place in rock music history is notable as one of the most popular 1970's archetypes of what is now called progressive music. It also had later worldwide popularity playing more radio-friendly rock/pop, and it continues as a recording and touring unit into the present. Songs such as "Close To The Edge, "Starship Trooper," and "Roundabout" are typically cited as examples of high-quality early progressive rock, while a number of past radio hits are still routinely heard on modern radio.

The Yes studio canon is 22 albums (up to 2019, including ABWH). Through many personnel changes, it has been a 4, 5, 6, and 8 man act. Its latest studio work is 2014's Heaven and Earth. Yes songs typically fall in the sub-categories of either progressive or rock/pop.

After 2010, the CD Keystudio became out of print, with very limited availability. After its unavailability, a replacement release was made containing everything from Keys, titled Keys to Ascension Complete.

Background

The compilation album KeyStudio, released in 2001, is actually a delayed final result of one of the many personnel changes that occurred in the band's history and the events that followed. In 1994, two long-term members left and in the ensuing vacuum, core members Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, and Alan White, reunited with '70s alumni and prodigal talents Rick Wakeman-keyboards and Steve Howe-guitars. There was critical and fan interest in this particular lineup of Yes due to its reputation from the heyday of the progressive era of the 1970s. As a sign of union and forward movement, the band held a series of concerts in San Luis Obispo, CA in March 1996, and also recorded a small amount of new music. In November of that year, the double CD Keys To Ascension was released, containing half of the live SLO show, and the first new pieces by this classic-era lineup since 1979, "Be The One" and the nineteen minute "That, That Is," which was Yes' ninth long-form song. These two pieces are a part of 2001's Keystudio.

In late 1996, all five re-assembled in SLO to finalize more new music. The second part of the live shows were as yet unreleased. For the KTA followup, there was apparently the early intention to follow the same format of packaging live and studio music together, and the project was referred to as Keys To Ascension 2 even before the release of the first KTA.^[2]. There was a level of internal questioning about this approach or the wisdom of again pairing live and studio tracks. Rick Wakeman, for one, felt this batch of new material so superior that it deserved its own independent identity.

^[3] Wakeman had a thriving career in his own right and, in an unexpected move, exited Yes again in early 1997 for a variety of reasons.^[4] The reunion of the classical era lineup ended.

The double CD Keys To Ascension 2 was released on 3 November 1997. By that time, Yes had adapted to the sudden loss of Wakeman by adding multi-talent Billy Sherwood and recording what would be Open Your Eyes (released three weeks after KTA2).^[5] KTA2 is made up of one CD containing a mix of the rest of the SLO shows from 1996, and a second CD of five new songs spanning forty-plus minutes, including another long-form song, Mind Drive. These five comprise the second part of 2001's Keystudio.

Release

Keystudio was released 21 May 2001. It achieved no chart status in any nation, and as a compilation of past material, garnered little attention in the way of reviews.

Just before it was released, reviewer Henry Potts wrote, "it would be a shame if KTA2 was but an appendix to Yes history."^[6] He wrote this because of the general environment in which it was released, with Rick Wakeman gone, the classic lineup and new music therefore moot, and the group moving in a completely different direction. Right after his departure, Wakeman himself worried the studio tracks (for KTA2) would get lost among the live music if they were marketed together.^[3] Commenting with hindsight in 2003, guitarist Steve Howe felt this is exactly what happened with the studio music of both KTA albums^[7]

Production

Songs

Steve Howe has called the KTA2 material "quite substantial." In a 2000's interview, he commented, "The Keystudio material is challenging. It's not easy picking. These aren't tunes you just strum along to while sitting on your backside. They're very much works of craft and arrangement and were well-conceived. There's a lot of mood and dynamics in there."^[7] At a different time, he looked back and admired the "industrious" nature of the songwriting and creation that happened during KTA2.

In a pre-release review of two songs from KTA2, webmaster, blogger, and long-time Yes critic Henry Potts described opening song "Footprints" as a "very novel creature" that reminded him of earlier Yes. The a cappella beginning "my eyes see the coming revolution, my eyes see the glory of the world" were reminiscent of Dixie music, according to him.^[6]

According to prodigal bassist Chris Squire, "Be The One" was their first song to be recorded start to finish in one take since the group's second album, almost 30 years earlier.^[2]

At 18:38 "Mind Drive" is the group's tenth longer-length song. It began life in 1980 as a riff practiced by Chris Squire and Alan White along with Jimmy Page, former guitar icon of Led Zeppelin. Yes were in one of their many transitions. Led Zeppelin recently lost their drummer, so the group was on hiatus and members of both bands were considering next moves. The three played together and demo tracks were recorded (from which bootlegs have proliferated), but nothing ultimately came of the idea. If this union of two of the biggest bands of the 1970s would have occurred, the name would have been XYZ (ex-Yes & Zeppelin).^[8]

"Bring Me To The Power" is the first song credited solely to Anderson/Howe since 1977's opus "Awaken".

"Sign Language" is an evocative mood piece coming from a rare collaboration of guitarist Howe and keyboardist Wakeman.

"That, That Is" was highly anticipated by fans due to its length and because of the lineup behind it. Wakeman side-commented in an interview that Chris Squire's bass playing was better than ever on this track.^[3]

"Children of the Light" is a song whose base idea goes back to 1986. On KTA2 the title is "Children of Light". It is called "Children of the Light" on Keystudio. Other minor differences include a short keyboard introduction by Rick Wakeman that was left off the KTA2 version, and a slight difference in the verses. None of the changes materially alter the song.

Track listing

Personnel

References

1. ^{{Allmusic|class=album|id=r553295|accessdate=2009-05-05}}
2. ^¹{{Cite web|url=http://www.nfte.org/interviews/0165_Squire.html|title=Conversation With Chris Squire|last=Tiano|first=Mike|date=1 October 1996|website=Notes From The Edge|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=7 March 2019}}
3. ^¹²Tiano, Mike. "Conversation With Rick Wakeman" Notes From The Edge. 1997. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
4. ^Wakeman, April 1997. RWCC newsletter archive.
5. ^Welch, Chris (2003). Close To The Edge: The Story of Yes. London: Omnibus Press. {{ISBN|978-1-84772-132-7|978-1-84772-132-7}}. pp. 244–245.
6. ^¹Potts, Henry. "Mind Drive"/"Footprints", 5 October 1997. Pre-release review originally posted to alt.music.yes and rec.music.progressive, now archived through Potts' blog-site. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
7. ^¹Prasad, Anil. [https://www.innerviews.org/inner/howe.html "Steve Howe. Small Acts of Kindness."] Music Without Borders Innerviews. 2003. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
8. ^Welch, Chris (2003). Close To The Edge: The Story of Yes. London: Omnibus Press. {{ISBN|978-1-84772-132-7|978-1-84772-132-7}}. pp. 202–203.