SAVING MY HEART

In my opinion, the tracks that the so-called "Yes West" line-up (Rabin, Anderson, Squire, White and Kaye) recorded fot the "Union" album were the best from that controversial album. At least, they were the most melodic and accessible. And i think that it was the real intention from the record company (Arista): to add some commercial Pop Rock songs to the ABWH material to make the "Union" album a more accessible "product", and also to sell the "Yes" name with very good eight musicians listed in the album cover, even if they did not play together in any song, and even if each one of them did not appear in all tracks of their respective bands. It is very well known today that the ABWH tracks in particular lacked the presence most of the time of Wakeman and Howe, who were replaced by session musicians. The same could be said about Bruford, but in his case it is not very clear if that happened most of the time.

The record label needed hit singles, so Rabin provided them. And "Lift Me Up" and "Saving My Heart", even if they were not big hits, are very good songs for my taste.

"Saving My Heart" has some Reggae music influences, and apart from that, it is a very characteristic song composed by Rabin. It really sounds like a demo on which the other members of the "Yes" West" band added some contributions. But the song is very well produced and it deserved to be played in the radio, but I never listened to it being played here in the radio stations in my city. I like the song a lot. It is a very good Pop Rock song.

"Lift Me Up" is another very good song. Very energetic, but it sounded better played live during the "Union" tour by the eight members of the band. It seems that the version which was included in this single is the same edited version which appeared in the video clip which was shown on TV. The song is better in its original unedited form.

"America" is from the 1971-72 line-up of YES which included Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe and Squire. I don`t know if there was a deal between the record labels (Arista and Atlantic) to include this song in this single to give some money to Atlantic which let go the "Yes West" line-up to Arista, which was ABWH`s record label. I think that i saw the same song listed as the B-side of a vinyl single of "Lift Me Up" in one record shop in 1991.