IN THE BIG DREAM

This video has 3 promotional video clips (" Brother of Mine", "Order of the Universe", "Quartet (I'm alive)"), plus a live version of "Heart of the Sunrise" filmed in 1989 during their "An Evening of YES Music plus" tour (which was also included in the VHS concert video of the same name which was relased in 1994). This video also includes scenes of ABWH filmed while recording their studio album, and some interviews with the members of the band. I watched this video twice 6 or 7 years ago, but I remember that the ABWH members appeared in the "Brother of Mine" promotional video clip with their bodies and faces painted as natives of an Australian tribe or maybe of an North American tribe.

This is a pleasant video short, containing the singles from the ABWH disc along with a live cut. It's all fairly innocuous, but nice to have, since no-one's ever going to show these on live TV.. The singles videos are reasonably well produced, but very much of the era, and show little imagination. References to aboriginals in 'Brother of Mine' give a bit of a hint at what Jon is singing about - race memory, realtionship to the Earth, elements, etc (Each member of the band was painted to represent Earth Wind Fire and Water..). 'The Order of The Universe' is a pseudo live affair, whilst 'Quartet' is the single version (longer than the LP - it was the first time EVER that Yes had been asked to extend a song!), and employs much video tomfoolery.

Between the tracks there is footage of the band, especially Jon talking about how hip it is to all be together again. It's quite nice, with a very family feel.

As a bonus 'Heart of the Sunrise' filmed in Canada is included. It's a very pleasant rendition, and there are good shots of all of the band. To my mind this isn't the one on the 'Evening of Yes Music Plus' video - some of the shots/ angles are different, unless they re-editted it for copyright reasons, etc.

It's a nice item to have, but not essential.

I used to have tihs VHS 12 years ago or so. It shows some of the "Making of" of the ABWH album with some nice studio footage, interviews and most important of all, the three promo clips for the album: Brother of Mine, Order of the Universe and I'm Alive. The video clip of "Brother of Mine" is fantastic, bringing to memory those great Duran Duran video clips from the 80's. Similar quality is featured on the "I'm Alive" video clip and this version is longer from that of album, with a different ending. "Order of the Universe" has your regular video clip with band on stage playing in front of an audience.

The highlight of this rather short VHS (37 minutes) is the live version of "Heart of the Sunrise" taken from the same gig where "A Night of Yes Music plus" CD and video were recorded with Jeff Berlin on bass replacing Tony Levin. The performance of the track is excellent although not as powerful as how Yes played it on the Big Generator tour, of course here we have Mr. Wakeman on keyboards adding much of the original spirit of the composition. This same "Heart of the Sunrise" footage will be later available on the "A Night of Yes Music plus" live video.

I don't think many people would be much interested in owning a video comprised of promo clips and little studio footage. Nowadays it's almost impossible to get this VHS as it's out of print like most of the VHS releases.

So 2 stars, mostly for Yes "die-hard" fans. I would have given 3 stars at the time of its release when "A Night of Yes Music Plus" was still unavailable.

Four musical brothers

In The Big Dream is a collection of music videos to songs taken from the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album interspersed with studio footage and interviews from the recording sessions of that album. The four guys seem to have great fun in the studio and around and it is interesting to see how the music is coming together.

The music videos are to Brother Of Mine, Order Of The Universe, and Quartet (I'm Alive). The videos are of course dated as they come out of the 80's, but I find them nonetheless very charming, especially Brother Of Mine with the "noble savages".

The original VHS version of this apparently also contained a live recording of Heart Of The Sunrise. My version of In The Big Dream is a bonus feature on the limited edition double DVD set of An Evening Of Yes Music Plus which is highly recommended.