BIG GENERATOR

Says Chris Squire, “By the time we were making Big Generator I had moved to Los Angeles. Because of the breakdown of my marriage I left England to try a fresh approach by living in America. I wanted to see how it would work out and of course it was pretty much a big party for a couple of years. Living in Hollywood, Los Angeles in those days, someone, somewhere was having a party every night. There’d be an opening of a club or some awards ceremony, so for a couple of years there was a lot of parrying going on.”

By all accounts Chris was burning the candle at both ends. “I met a lot of interesting people but by the time it got to 1989 I realised if I was going to carry on living in Hollywood I’d have to treat it less like a party town and get down to the job of normal living. I’ve never bought a place in the States, I have always rented a house, which was a very wise move to make because ever since I moved to America the prices have been going down and down, especially when an earthquake happens, which is another big blow to house prices! I’ve been a lot better off renting. One day we might buy a house and my new wife Melissa and I debate on where that will be all the time.”

Certainly personal moods and circumstances can affect a musician’s output and creative judgement, and business pressures also play a part in moulding the eventual outcome of a project. Says Trevor Rabin, “When we did Big Generator the stuff just didn’t sound as good ‘live’. I was quite happy with some of the album. It was a weird kind of stage for the band. We’d just had this huge album 90125, the biggest YES ever had, and no one had ever experienced the kind of success we were enjoying. And so it was, ‘Okay, we’ll do the next album.’ Halfway through it the record company was saying to the world: ‘This is going to be the next Dark Side Of The Moon! There was a lot of pressure and it obviously wasn’t the next Dark Side Of The Moon. There were just two or three good moments. It’s quite funny. Billy Sherwood has told me since that it is one of his favourite albums of all time. So some people liked it and it sold pretty well. It’s platinum all over the place, although that’s not the criteria of whether it’s good or not. Trevor Horn started out producing it and although he and I have always got on really well, in the studio there were often heated arguments. But it was always for the right reasons. To our credit we are still close friends. I went to London a couple of years ago to be a session player on a Tina Turner album he was producing. So we’ve had our fun. I think he’s one of the finest producers around but on Big Generator he wasn’t too happy with working with Jon. That’s my perception of why he stepped aside. It was a pity because he had a lot of valuable input. Tony Kaye also didn’t respond to him creatively either and that led to a personal problem.

“A lot of people have ridiculed me for being a megalomaniac which couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s just because I played keyboards on the albums. And the reason I played keyboards was because Trevor Horn said, ‘I don’t want Tony Kaye playing keyboards.’ So I’ve heard it said I’m a megalomaniac. It’s not true. That’s Jon’s job. He proudly told me he used to be known as ‘Napoleon’ back in the early days. I said, ‘Well hold that thought while I’m in the band”

“Among the innovations Trevor introduced was a real brass section which many YES fans didn’t like. They claimed it was tampering with tradition. “If you don’t try and develop new ideas and take some risks, you never grow,” protests Trevor. A good example of new ideas employed during the recording was a bright yet strangely distant ambient sound – as if some of the instruments were being played in different rooms. “That’s because they are’ I had this weird idea while making Big Generator to do that. I had a friend with a studio in a castle on Lake Como near Caramati in Italy. The castle has these huge ballrooms. You could do drums in one room and guitars in another. I ended up mixing the album and producing it and I just went for shock value.”

Among the shocks are Trevor’s violent, off-the-stone-wall guitar breaks on the stomping ‘Rhythm Of Love‘ which has to be one of the finest examples of YES in dance mode. ‘Big Generator‘ too has a grindingly powetful riff broken up by stabbing brass flares which push Jon’s airy vocals into a pulsing metronomic groove; a thrusting performance by any band’s standards. Alan’s drums sound like they are breaking through the castle ramparts and enter into a battle with the guitar as Rabin and White lock together. More intergalactic guitar brings the piece to an abrupt cliffhanging conclusion. The ethereal quality of the slow paced ‘Shoot High Aim Low‘ is enhanced by some of Trevor’s most atmospheric extemporisation and Alan White’s thunderous bass drum fills could conceivably cause CDs to shatter and crack.

“Who says there’s gotta be a reason, who says there’s got to be an answer?” demands Jon over the gradually fading chorus of ‘Shoot High‘. It’s a masterful piece of production and a very clever arrangement on a piece that grows in stature with repeated plays. “That’s one of my favourite tracks on the album. We did it live for about twelve shows and then we dropped it,” says Trevor regretfully.

Says Trevor Rabin, “I actually thought in a lot of ways it was the best album I did with the band – in part. There were some parts that I thought shouldn’t have been there, like ‘Holy Lamb‘ which I thought was pretty weak. What’s a harmonic convergence? I don’t know. Ask jon. The album sold a couple of million but it certainly didn’t do as well as 90125. After that we kind of broke up for a short time and I did a solo album and tour. While I was doing that the ABWH thing started to happen.”

Excerpt from Close To The Edge: The Story of YES by Chris Welch.