Sad and Scary Yes Related Thought

[Yesspaz]

Originally Posted by kirk

February 1, 2006 - In conjunction with Asia's 25th anniversary the four original members--Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Carl Palmer, and John Wetton--plan on celebrating the 25th anniversary of the creation of Asia with a CD, DVD, and world tour.

The only Asia album I own is the first one, and it's the only one worth owning, in my opinion. If these four cats do a new album together, I'd be on it like white on rice in a glass of milk on a paper plate in a snowstorm.

Originally Posted by kirk

there's a little more to it than Jon being upset over the lack of sales.
Magnification was jon's baby all the way, and it's rumored to have
moved only a little over 20,000 units...!
translation- even many of the diehard fans didn't buy it.
"the ladder" by comparison, is said to have sold over 100,000
units, likely due to the "homeworld" game tie-in.

I have a different theory as to why The Ladder sold 100,000+ and Magnification sold only 20,000+. (First, I don't think it had much to do with "Homeworld." How much did that game sell? Anyone know?)

After the Ladder, they mounted a serious tour and played a lot of material on the new album. When you're not a radio band, you have to play new stuff live to get it exposed. Most people don't trust a new album by a classic band - there's always a disposition to say, "It can't be very good; they'll have to prove it to me before I spend my hard-earned." But after Magnification, the tour featured only three songs from it (Mag, Presence, Don't Go), two of which are the two weakest on the album (Mag and Don't Go). What did they do instead? They added orchestration to old songs. What they should have done is play the entire album start to finish, take an intermission, and then play a hour set of classics with or without the orchestra. Now THAT would have helped the album sell. See, when a band cuts a studio disc and then doesn't play it live, the message sent to the fans is, "we don't really believe in this music." If the band doesn't think it's a good album, why should I buy it?

PS: another possibility for the Ladder's success is Bruce Fairburn. He pushed those boys the way a producer should and produced the last great Yes album, barring future greatness.

As a side note, and probably having nothing to do with sales, you pointed out that Magnification was Jon's baby. In many ways, so was The Ladder. It was very verbose - lots of lyrics and little of the classic expansive instrumental sections included in all Yes classics, even as late as "The Calling," "Endless Dream" "Mind Drive," and "That, That Is." The only one on The Ladder is about a three and a half minute romp on "New Languages."

Originally Posted by kirk

a recording contract is going to be difficult to obtain from anyone large
enough to do a decent promo job, or mount a world tour,
especially w/ nothing new and amazing to "shop".

You're right there, my friend. Yes is officially a DIY band at this point. They're an indie band. No labels. That's what they were when the did "Talk" and that's what they are now. It will be difficult for them to get anything other than a distribution deal. Luckily they are pretty good engineers, so whatever they record will sound good sonically. They have connections to two great producers, Trevor Horn and Billy Sherwood, so they could easily make a great album. Then they'd have to get a distribution deal and a promotional deal. There's always the outside possibility Ahmet will do them a solid favor for old time's sake (an Atlantic Yes album would be strong, if not earth-shattering). Most likely, it'll be some smaller label who'd jump at the chance to push Yes, the way Victory! did with "Talk." So Yes will have to produce an album on their own and then distribute it, just like indie bands.