9012 LIVE: THE SOLOS
Yes
•Symphonic Prog
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Live, released in 1985 Songs / Tracks Listing 1. Hold On (6:57) - Jon Anderson / vocals
L.P. (U.S.): ATCO Records 90474-1-Y and to Guillermo for the last updates Edit this entry |
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YES 9012 Live: The Solos ratings distribution
(242 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(6%)
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(10%)
Good, but non-essential (32%)
Collectors/fans only (36%)
Poor. Only for completionists (15%)
YES 9012 Live: The Solos reviews
Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings
Collaborators/Experts Reviews
PROG REVIEWER

SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator

PROG REVIEWER

Why am I mentioning this in a review of 9012Live? Because, for me, a short message that says "Here I am and this is why I'm different from the other guys driving the same car" pretty much sums up the spirit of this mini-album. This album is Yes's version of a vanity license plate for each member: short, distinctive, and ultimately superficial.
The two live tracks that feature the whole band are quite good. The performance of "Hold On" is solid from start to finish, while I find the tautness of the the technically difficult parts of "Changes" enchanting.
And then we come to the solo tracks where, in the tradition Yes established way back in 1971 when they featured Howe's live solo "The Clap" on a studio album, each band member pops up to say "Here I am and here's why I am different from the other guys." The sad thing about this is that most of the solos were better live because they were presented in context with other music. Making them stand alone and work for themselves seems a cruel thing to do.
"Solly's Beard" is a short guitar solo by Rabin that is technically deft but uninspired. "Soon" proves to fans everywhere that Anderson still has the best textured falsetto in the business in a short outtake from "The Gates of Delirium." "Si" shows why Yes fans who have clamoured for the return of Wakeman time and again never really seemed to miss Kaye that much. Squire's "Amazing Grace" rendition (yes, it's the old church hymn) is an interesting novelty but doesn't showcase the talent that won him the reputation as one of the best bass players ever on "Fragile" or "Close to the Edge." Finally, "Whitefish," which is basically "The Fish" from "Fragile" featuring Squire and White with a few digressions into snippets of other songs from the Yes canon, is competent but not engrossing.
For a mini-album, two good live songs, a Squire solo with some novelty value, and decent display of Rabin's technical skills may be enough. "Here we are," it says. "This is why we're different from everybody else."
It would have been nice if the solos had also demonstrated what makes those differences so worthwhile.
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Prog Folk Researcher

This is an okay album, but it is clearly only a promotional piece and I doubt the band had much input. This is very short (only about 33 minutes long), with two full songs, four solos, and one Chris Squire/Alan White bit at the end that's kind of a collage loosely based on "The Fish". All of the pieces are pretty good, but they fail to capture the power of the live performances from this tour. I saw the band in Oklahoma on this tour, and can confirm that each of them were definitely at the top of their game. Sure, the band was riding a popularity wave based on the "Owner of a Lonely Heart" pop hit at the time, but this represented only a small part of the concert, and isn't included on this album at all.
The two sides of the album kick off with numbers with the whole band, "Hold On" on side A and "Changes" on side B. The recording quality is pretty good, the post-production excellent, and all the band members give polished performances. These two songs were recorded in Dortmund Germany in 1984, and both are on the DVD as well.
The solo performances are pretty good too, but again I have to say that they don't capture the aura of the performances that I remember seeing live. This is particularly true of Trvor Rabin's "Solly's Beard" guitar solo. In concert he did this one about halfway through the concert while the rest of the band were taking a quick break. He was wearing an all red suit, with the stage largely darkened and a yellowish spotlight forcused on him. The crowd went nuts, as can also be heard in the background on this recording, but on vinyl the performance looses a bit of its luster. Same goes for Tony kaye's solo "Si". Kaye wasn't all that animated during his solo in concert though, and it was sandwiched in between two other songs at the time, so it wasn't really a highlight of the concert even back when it was being performed.
Jon Anderson shows why he was/is the master of progressive falsetto vocals on "Soon". His voice is all over the human hearing-range register, and does not waver or falter even for one note. Crystal clear and strong. Brilliant!
I don't remember Chris Squire doing "Amazing Grace" as a bass solo in the 1984 tour. I do remember him doing a solo, all dressed in white and dancing around like a whirling dervish though. Anyway, my clearest recollection of his solo from 1984 was that a bass player isn't supposed to play his instrument like a lead guitar, but he did then, and he does here. This is really short (only two minutes), but ranks among the best renditions of this gospel classic I have ever heard.
The mini-album closes with something called "Whitefish", an extended rhythm play with Squire and White. Here again I don't remember this solo from the concert I attended, and all the solos here were actually recorded in Edmonton Canada, so perhaps the track bill had changed by the time I saw them. Anyway, it's a nice piece with snippets of a number of Yes classics intertwined in a loose framework of "The Fish", running about nine minutes and bringing the house down with applause at the end.
This is a decent collector's item of the band, if nothing else. The two full live pieces are excellent, and "Whitefish" isn't available anywhere else as far as I know. Overall this is a good piece of music, but certainly not essential. I believe it is available on CD, but which is good because I doubt if you'll find the vinyl version anywhere anymore (and I ain't selling mine). Thee stars.
peace
PROG REVIEWER

FYI, the full setlist of this tour was the following (with very few variations) : Cinema, Leave It, Our Song, Yours Is No Disgrace, Hold On, Perpetual Change, It Can Happen, I've Seen All Good People, Kaye Solo ("Si"), Solly's Beard, Changes, And You And I, Soon, Make It Easy/Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Long Distance Runaround/Whitefish/Amazing Grace City Of Love, Hearts, Starship Trooper, Roundabout.
To be complete, this 9012 tour will be played 127 times in the US, eight times in Canada and only 31 times in Europe. Two stars for this live effort.
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator

I would say this is poor as a live album and is by definition only for the more rabid Yes completionists. That would be a "thumbs down."
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator

Why is it called "The Solos"? It's basically due to the nature of music presented in this album where each individual musician (even lead vocal!) performed their individual virtuosity in their respective instrument. The album kicks off with an Allan White thing on the intro of "Hold On" which is taken from 90125 album followed with Tony Kaye's solo on SI. Trevor Rabin performed his acoustic guitar solo in "Solly's Beard". Jon performed his vocal job in "Soon" which represents the last part of The Gates of Delirium (from "Relayer"). Even though 90125 was released during the dark years of progressive rock music where the genre was about to become a legacy as many pioneers of prog (including Yes) went pop or swept away by new wave / punk era, I liked "Changes". Through this version, the band created much more dynamic live vibes compared to original studio version. In fact, this is the best song from this live album.
As far as Yes lovers concern, I think most of them would hate this live album. But I don't think it's wise to judge the band from one angle of their career.In fact, I enjoy this album because it's quite rare - not so many people own this album.Keep on proggin' ..!
Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW
PROG REVIEWER

SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

As it says on the sleeve, this live album focuses on solo performances by the band members. Taken out of the context of a complete concert and bundled together in this way, such pieces can quickly lose much of the appeal they had in that environment. A lengthy bass solo can sound wonderful when placed between a couple of classic tracks ("The fish" on "Yessongs" is a fine example), but much less so when it comes after keyboards solo, a guitar solo, and a preceding bass solo! It should also be noted that this is the "90125" line up, and as such does not feature Rick Wakeman or Steve Howe. On the plus side though, the first track on each side of the LP is actually a band performance albeit from the "90125" album.
The recordings are primarily from a gig in Edmonton, Canada which was filmed for the film of the same name. Three of the pieces though, those featuring the solo slots of Anderson, Kaye and Rabin; were recorded in Dortmund, Germany.
We open with a decent rendition of "Hold on", not one of the band's best known songs by any means, but it does feature strong harmonies, and sounds pretty good in a live environment. Quickly though, we are then into three solo spots in a row. Tony Kaye keeps his brief both in title ("Si") and substance, being little more than a synthesiser fanfare. Trevor Rabin's "Solly's beard" is an acoustic guitar flourish reminiscent of the Steve Howe's solo spots. Jon Anderson's solo is the soft vocal section from "The gates of Delirium" subtitled "Soon". It is a lovely part of the track, but sounds all the better when contrasted against the bombastic chaos which usually precedes it.
Side two has just three tracks. "Changes" is the band song on this side, and the most orthodox Yes song on the album. Trevor Rabin takes on the initial lead vocals, his voice sounding rather like John Wetton's, leading to a bit of an Asia feel. Chris Squire's turn at centre stage is a short feedback laden rendition of "Amazing grace" followed by a duet with Alan White entitled "Whitefish". The title reflects Alan's surname and Squire's Fish nickname. The track itself is not really new though, being an 8 minute variant on Squire's solo spot on "Fragile", an elongated version of which previously appeared on "Yessongs".
Not an album for anyone this one is really for the Yes faithful, and even then the absence of Wakeman and Howe will cause many to question further this album's validity. Despite all its faults though, there is enough here to make this a Yes album worth having.
At a mere 33 minutes, the album hardly offers good value for money. Surely it would have been easy enough to add a Yes classic or two to the album to break up the solo spots.
PROG REVIEWER

I hardly find any reason to anyone buy it, unless you´re into the collectors/fans/competionists categories. Other than that it´s better to look for the 9012Live video.
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Symphonic Team

This short live album (or live EP?) contains live material recorded on the 90125 Tour and as such it features Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Trevor Rabin, Alan White and Tony Kaye. The idea behind this EP is to gather together the members' respective solo spots from the tour. Si is Tony's keyboard solo spot which is short but nice. The strangely titled Solly's Beard is Rabin's acoustic solo spot and is something of an exercise in speed-guitar playing not unlike that of Yngwie J. Malmsteen. Rabin throws in a bit of Flamenco flair as well. Both Kaye's and Rabin's solo spots are very good, but not very memorable in the end. Jon gives us Soon (the final part of Gates Of Delirium from Relayer) as his solo spot. It is a lovely song, but here it sounds a little bit out of place and it is also truncated as it fades in! Chris' solo spot is a bass interpretation of the Psalm Amazing Grace. Now it is only Alan left and though it would be reasonable to expect a proper drum solo what we actually get is rather an instrumental workout featuring not just Alan by himself on the drums but Chris as well on the bass. What they give us is, of course, the famous Whitefish medley containing The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus), Tempus Fugit and Sound Chaser (the rest of the band joins in later and Jon sings 'Yes, Yes - Yes, Yes' is Tempus Fugit!). Apart from these solo performances we also get two "proper" songs, both taken from the 90125 album; Hold On and Changes. Oddly, these two were recorded in Edmonton, Canada while the sols spots were recorded Dortmund, Germany. There is also a live video (re- released on DVD in 2006) which features nine songs in total from the Edmonton show including the two ones also featured here. The solo spots and several other songs were edited out, however. This means that the present album still is the only place where you can hear these solo performances. Needless to say, a complete concert would have been strongly preferable and the solo spots would have been better presented in a running order mirroring the original set list.
As it stands, this short live album is recommended for fans and collectors only
PROG REVIEWER

The only saving grace of the album is that it bothers to put on a pair of actual songs from the tour, both performed adequately. "Hold On" is slightly weaker here than in the Millersville 1984 gig I have as a bootleg, but "Changes" is a bit more polished, so whatever. The album is still practically useless.
PROG REVIEWER

9012 Live is a whimpering example of a lost opportunity. With the Trevor Rabin era of Yes still making its first bold steps, a live album would have made a wonderful companion to the 90125 album. The anthemic sing-a-long vibe many of the songs enjoyed and refreshing energy could translate into a live setting like wildfire. It's a disappointment that 9012 Live completely falls short of delivering that intensity. It's not even a technical matter so much as the abridged approach they took here. Rather than deliver a traditional live experience, this album takes a small handful of songs and fills the rest with puzzling interlude tracks. I suppose it could have been interesting for the band to take an unconventional route for a live album, but following the success of Yessongs and Yesterdays, I'm not sure why they let this opportunity slip. What was going through their heads at the time?
9012 Live holds some minor significance to me as the first Yes album I ever owned- it was given to me on cassette by a relative. I never thought much of it then, and wouldn't become a true Yes fan until I was introduced to the classic material some years later. The cassette version was further abridged (leaving off "City of Love" and "It Can Happen", making the already-undercut feeling of the album even worse. Even in it's full apparent glory however, I'm confused as to what Yes were trying to prove here. "Hold On" is a good anthem-rocker and fitting choice of opener, but for the three songs that follow, we don't even hear Yes performing as a band. "Si" offers some faux- Wakeman organ rambling from Tony Kaye, "Solly's Beard" is a purely acoustic and relatively pleasant guitar exercise from Trevor Rabin, and "Soon" is focused exclusively on Jon Anderson's vocals. "Soon" itself is performed as an edited cut from "The Gates of Delirium", but here it's abridged even further, cutting down the beautiful piece in half.
This idea of weirdly abridging classic Yes material is reprised with "Whitefish", although the medley (built around Squire's "The Fish", among other classic Yes tunes) is probably the strongest thing the release has going for it. "Amazing Grace" is another Squire track, wrapped in fervent guitar distortion the same way Jimi Hendrix's live performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was. As for the choices of full tracks off of 90125, I'm further puzzled by the fact that they left off their #1 single "Owner of a Lonely Heart", but "Changes" is a welcome cut. "City of Love" and "It Can Happen" were two of my less favourite songs from the album, but I doubt any selection from 9012 Live's studio counterpart would have made this feel any less lopsided.
If you want to hear an interesting medley, check out "Whitefish". Otherwise, 9012 Live is more or less a throwaway. I can't seem to find any satisfying explanation as to why this album was released as it is. Can someone enlighten me on this?
Latest members reviews
This album (or EP, in its original incarnation) is perfectly described by the phrase "collectors/fans only."
The renditions of the full-band songs ("Hold On" and "Changes" on the EP and cassette, plus the CD bonus tracks "City of Love" and "It Can Happen") are the same versions featured the 9012
... (read more)
Report this review (#1789126) | Posted by patrickq | Friday, September 29, 2017 | Review Permanlink
First let me say that I love 90125, for taking Yes in to a whole new sphere. It paid them dividends,
as (most of) their subsequent output shows. Having never seen the 9012 Live video (yet) - it was
released years before we got a VHS! - I'd kind of ignored the 9012 live solos mini album.
Well, t
... (read more)
Report this review (#211514) | Posted by oldgoat | Friday, April 17, 2009 | Review Permanlink
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