WONDEROUS - A TRIBUTE TO YES [AKA: THE REVEALING SONGS OF YES]

Faithful but superfluous

This 2001 tribute album was masterminded by Adam Wakeman. The model he adopts is to put a band together to play on all the tracks, with guest vocalist being added to the individual songs. The band has Adam on keyboards (of course) accompanied by Ant Glynne on guitars, Lee Pomeroy on bass (both of whom have played in Rick Wakeman's English Rock Ensemble) and Richard Brook on drums. Father Rick pops by to play on two tracks, and more importantly to add his name to the project! The tracks selected are taken from Yes's early albums up to "91025", and thus represent some of the band's finest works.

We kick off with a brave choice in "The revealing science of God" from "Topographic oceans. This 20+ minute epic is cut down here to just 8 minutes. It therefore starts in rather jarring fashion with the synth motif which followed Anderson's soliloquy introduction. The synth sound created by Adam W. is almost identical to that used by his father on the original. Steve Overland (of FM) adds vocals which are similar enough to Anderson's while avoiding imitation. The extract is taken from the first part of the song, and therefore omits its wonderful climatic conclusion. The rendition overall is symptomatic of the album as a whole in that it is so faithful to the original as to beg the question, what is the point?

"Long distance runaround" features Nikki Squire (AKA Mrs Chris Squire) of Esquire, on vocals. Once again the instrumental backing is a facsimile of the original, but Nikki's vocals add a refreshing alternative take on the song. With "America" we have a cover of a cover, this being a rendition of Yes's glorious take on Paul Simon's composition. Eddie Hardin (Spencer Davis Group) steps up to the mike for this 10 minute epic, which repeats the Yes version pretty much note for note. Hardin's bluesy vocals are as distinguished as ever though. Backing vocals are provided by Chrissie Hammond, who has appeared on a number of Rick Wakeman albums.

The wonderful Judy Tzuke ("Stay with me till dawn") is the singer for the 8½ minute take on "Roundabout". The song does not really suit her well (but see later) although she does her best to adapt it to her style. Rick plays the organ solo here. "Going for the one" features the voice of Damian Wilson (English Rock Ensemble, Threshold etc.) The karaoke nature of the album is at its height on this track, the backing track being indistinguishable from the original. Once again, the song does not appear to suit the selected singer too well, Wilson seeming to be singing in the wrong range.

Steve Overland is the first of three artists to get a second song as he returns for a run through of "Owner of a lonely heart". Next to return is Damian Wilson, who takes on the classic "And you and I". The song suits his voice much better, and inevitably sounds wonderful, mainly because there is so little variation from the original.

Judie Tzuke is at her best on the more delicate pieces, so matching her up with "Wonderous stories" make sense. She actually sounds remarkably like Jon Anderson here! The closing track is a cut down version of "Awaken" featuring Dougie White of Mostly Autumn on vocals. The track starts about midway through the piece, at Wakeman's plink-plink section, and builds to the "farewell" vocal section. As such is rather destroys the atmosphere of the piece which needs to be heard in its entirety.

Overall, this album is typical of the entire tribute market, in that it offers a collection of artists the opportunity to enjoy performing great songs in a slightly inferior way. While the invited artists do a fine job, it is difficult to recommend this collection to anyone by the most ardent Yes collector.

This album that I was forced to listen to in order to see if it really did deserve 5 stars is simply another take on the inferior Yes and Friends saga. Furthermore this album is identical in content to another tribute album here so here is a duplicate of my review. Ho hum.

I had already purchased a number of these fake Yes albums and they are never anything more than a curio for the Yes freak who must have anything emblazoned with Roger Dean's logo. Admittedly the music is bold and close to the original Yes sound but the thin production and frustrating mediocre structures mar this project considerably. It really is a one off listen as none of the songs warrant anything more than a curious ear. It is interesting to hear the different versions, but nothing here holds a candle to the original studio takes. The vocals are very strange at times but quite intriguing. The edited versions of the songs are a mercy killing, as the band are not up to standard to play the ambitious full versions, for instance Awaken is downsized to less than 7 minutes. Adam, son of legend Rick Wakeman, cashes in on his father's legacy admirably but this is definitely an album you should only pick up if you are a completest or if you see it for a couple of dollars in a bargain bin. "The Yes Story" was another album I picked up like this but I was ripped off on that occasion, though it is better than this sorry tribute. It is a tag team of vocalists presenting their own special touch. Steve Overland sings on Revealing Science of God and Owner of a Lonely Heart; Nikki Squire, his wife, sings Long Distance Runaround; Eddie Hardin sings America; Judie Tzuke sings Roundabout and Wonderous Stories; Damian Wilson sings Going for the One and And You and I; and Dougie White sings Awaken. That is quite a lineup and I loved the versions by the lovely Judie Tzuke, definitely worth listening to enhancing the beauty of the songs. In fact she sounds uncannily like Anderson but with a more pronounced vibrato and much thinner on the high register.

The other singers are okay but Jon Anderson is a tough act to follow and always the preferred choice. It is nice to hear Rick Wakeman play Hammond on Roundabout and Wondrous Stories but it would have been better if he had played on all the tracks as the inferior keyboard work of his protégé Adam Wakeman is really not good enough. Lee Pomeroy is bassist and is okay but nothing like Chris Squire, Ant Glynne knows the material but does not have the Steve Howe magic, and Richard Brook's drums barely scratch the surface of White.

So this exists as a curio just like all the Yes and Friends albums. The relatives of Yes and others are okay to listen to on a dull afternoon as you load the dishwasher but will disappear from your memory very quickly. There are many volumes available of these cash in collaborations, and they are always a curiosity; nothing more, nothing less.

Seeing as how Adam Wakeman will have been hearing music by Yes since he learned how to listen, there is probably no-one more suitable for putting together a tribute album. Joined by Lee Pomeroy on bass, Ant Glynn on guitars, Richard Brook on drums and his dad as guest keyboard player on a few numbers, he has picked nine classic songs. Of course the trick is picking the right vocalist as Jon Anderson is not exactly as easy act to follow, yet at the same time the songs have to stand up on their own not just as shallow copies.

The first three songs were quite good, with opener "Revealing Science Of God" (Steve Overland) being probably the best. But my attention was drawn by the fourth, which is a superb version of "Roundabout" with Judie Tzuke on vocals. The music was spot on and the use of a female singer with the talents of Judie gave the song quite a special take.

However, even that didn't prepare me for the next song, "Going For The One". Musically it started fine, with some great slide guitar, but Damian Wilson struck the first note perfectly and the passion and power of that first line, "Get the idea cross around the track" as he went down the scale, was more than even the writer could manage. Damian is surely one of the greatest vocalists never to have hit the big time, maybe the time is right for a come back, and he is suited perfectly to this song.

Both Damian and Judie make appearances again (with "And You And I" and "Wonderous Stories" respectively), which are also worth hearing, but because of those two songs alone, this is an album that every Yes fan must get.

Originally appeared in Feedback #63, July 01