Open Your Eyes (Yes album)

Occupation

• Jon Anderson - Vocals
• Steve Howe - guitar, vocals
• Billy Sherwood - guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals
• Chris Squire - bass, vocals
• Alan White - drums

With

• Steve Porcaro - Keyboards ( 2)
• Igor Khoroshev - Keyboards (1, 4, 5)

Open Your Eyes is an album by the band Yes, released in 1997. It has always had commissioned an almost continuous Yes line-up changes, before this album the keyboardist Rick Wakeman got out again. Billy Sherwood, who had been in front of Union as a substitute for Anderson in conversation and since then has been active as an official or unofficial member of Yes in the vicinity of the band ( at Talk, Keys to Ascension, Keys to Ascension 2 by Open Your Eyes on The Ladder, when Chris Squire experiment in Conspiracy and Circa :), had become by the particular history of the album for a band member. The keyboardist Igor Khoroshev, engaged for the album only as a studio musician, was during the subsequent tour to the fixed member of the band.

Formation

As once struck two Yes albums in 1997 within a few weeks, the fans responded with amazement. Since the early 80s we had gotten used to most often long distances between releases new studio material.

The background for this unusual publication policy was the change of management and record company in 1997, a process during which keyboardist Wakeman left the band once again. Had returned Due to the poor sales of the album Keys to Ascension (1996 ), the 'Yes' then- record company CMC that Yes had not gone on tour to promote the album, CMC prevented planned for spring 1997 publication of the direct successor Keys to Ascension 2 first. Then the band changed again the record company.

Yes now wanted to go on tour, but her new record company Eagle / Beyond insisted that the band should provide new material first, because she feared half-empty halls, if yes would tour without a new product. However, since almost new song material was available, it was decided, similar to 90125, the ado remodel at this time just nascent album Chemistry of Squire / Sherwood Project Conspiracy to a Yes album. Squire, Sherwood and White then began to develop a presentable album as soon as possible, Anderson came a little later to it, but Howe was lack of time to come until the end of the work, he therefore had little influence on the music. Therefore, the most guitar work comes from Billy Sherwood, which grossed well most of the keyboard parts, as the band at that time had no keyboard player. Igor Khoroshev, which should operate the keyboard during the Open Your Eyes tour, was also brought from Anderson until the end of the work into the boat. Khoroshev Anderson had sent a tape of his own compositions in the sight of this, which is why it should be during the tour at a fixed band member. He replaced some keyboard parts Sherwood, and Steve Howe did remove a guitar solo, to make room for a further contribution Khoroshevs. Khoroshev can be heard on New State of Mind, No Way We Can Lose and Fortune Sellers.

On the title song Open Your Eyes to the session musician Steve Porcaro plays ( Toto ) keyboards that can also be heard on earlier versions of the play, which were, for example, in 1992 played by Squires Hobby Band The Chris Squire Experiment.

As the appearance of the new Yes album under the name Open Your Eyes for Spring 1998 and a following tour for October was announced by Eagle / Beyond to CMC, Keys to Ascension 2 decided yet to publish or to the marketing of competitors to benefit. Although Eagle / Beyond 1997 brought forward and the band so enormous set the appearance of Open Your Eyes on November 24, under time pressure, appeared Keys to Ascension 2, three weeks before the competitor's product, November 3, 1997.

Title list

All songs were written by Anderson, Squire, Howe, White and Sherwood.

Comments

• Open Your Eyes was re-released on the album Conspiracy Conspiracy under the title Whish I knew in a different version in 2000.

• Man in the Moon is also found in another version on Conspiracy.

• The album has been attached, the sections of the Open Your Eyes songs and the ambient sounds from the beginning of Close to the Edge mixes ( from the eponymous album ), an approximately 16 -minute ambient track. This was played during the 1997 - 98s tour in North America and Europe before the start of the concerts

• The Chemistry Song Light in My Life was not used, he can be heard on the first Conspiracy AlbuM

Singles

Cover

Due to time constraints it was decided to only Roger Dean's classic Yes logo to take on the cover against black background. Given the nature of the mainstream music already inappropriate, an elaborate Roger Dean cover would have been completely out of place.

Review

The short time between the publication of the previous album Keys to Ascension 2, and Open Your Eyes surprised many fans. This was due to the change of record company and management. While the previous record label, the release of Keys to Ascension 2 also hesitated to make Open Your Eyes competition, the new management did everything in the two Keys to Ascension albums to forget - which was not exactly conducive to the record sales of the band: To was seen on the cover of Open Your Eyes, a sticker, the first studio album since Talk described the new album - an attempt though, to link directly to the successful Rabin era, at the same time but a signal among fans of the band caused some consternation, but both had included Keys to Ascension albums new studio material.

Open Your Eyes contains only short, relatively simple songs that as Conspiracy songs (and far less than Yes songs ) can be seen clearly in accordance with the genesis of the album. After the long tracks on the two Keys to Ascension albums in which Yes fans had seen a return to the style of the 70s, this was a disappointment for many. The lion's share of the material comes from Squire and Sherwood, including the title track Open Your Eyes, which was re-released in 2000 on the album under the title Conspiracy Whish I knew in a Conspiracy version. The contribution of Howe is limited to the short From the Balcony, a play that heard Anderson, to whom he wrote a text, and that the album has been added in the last days of recording sessions. Somehow Someday ..... used a melody from the song Boundaries by Jon Anderson's solo album animation ( 1982), which he had already used again shortly before the release of Open Your Eyes on The Promise Ring under the title O'er. But scored the band with these more tailored to the single market plays no significant commercial success: the album reached # 151 in the U.S. charts ( one week represented ), while it does not even appeared in the charts in their home country England. It sold a total of only about 200,000 times.

Shortly after the beginning of the corresponding tour was on the internet then the sentence "Do not expect to hear anything from" Open Your Eyes " again" to read. Yes have played on the Open Your Eyes Tour only the title song and From the Balcony regularly, No Way We Can Lose was only played twice, this was to hear New State of Mind during the sound check. Steve Howe remarked very soon extremely critical of the album, and even Billy Sherwood, who had put together with Chris Squire most of the work in the project, describes it now as a compromise. Among the fans of the band Open Your Eyes is widely regarded as their worst album. In fact, Yes have played more live since 1998, not a piece of Open Your Eyes.

In the end, makes the album well with 90125 compare: even those plate had been originally intended for a completely different project and declared at the last moment to Yes album.

Live

• Open Your Eyes was played on the tour Open Your Eyes 1997/1998 147 times live
• No Way We Can Lose was played on the tour Open Your Eyes 1997/1998 two - time live
• From The Balcony was played on the tour Open Your Eyes 1997/1998 43- time live

Swell

• Chambers, Stuart: Yes. An endless dream of '70s, '80s and '90s rock music. An unauthorized interpretative history in three phases. Burns Town, ON, General Store Publishing House, 2002. ISBN 1-894263-47-2.
• Farley, Alan: The Extraordinary World Of Yes. New York / Lincoln / Shanghai 2004. ISBN 0-595-33133-5.
• Welch, Chris: Close to the Edge. The story of Yes. London / NY / Sydney 1999. ISBN 0-7119-6930-2
• Watkinson, David: Perpetual change - 30 years of Yes. London 2001. ISBN 0-85965-297-1
• "Open your Eyes " is mentioned in the newer Yes biographies. A comprehensive bibliography of the band can be found on the sides of the Progressive Rock Bibliography ( ), an English-language website.
• English website with explanations on Yes' album covers ( version of 25 November 2005 at the Internet Archive )
• Reviews on Open Your Eyes to the Baby Blue Pages