Extra Scenes: Yes' "Ocean" (May 1975 - June 1976)

May 1975 - January 1976

Yes during their Relayer tour, 1975.

JON ANDERSON: "By the time we had finished up the Relayer tour, we were feeling, I dunno, pretty burnt out. By then, Alan [White] had recorded some some bits and bobs for a planned solo record, and Steve and I appeared on one of the tracks, 'Song of Innocence'. Somehow, that had gotten through to someone at Atlantic Records, and when they heard it, they insisted that we put out another album." (2014)

STEVE HOWE: "Man, we were scared out of our fucking shitless when we we told to get back into the studio once the tour was over. We tried to fight our way out of it, but the executives at Atlantic refused to budge. Something in my gut told me that this would only lead to clashing egos and creative differences, which wouldn't have been so bad if we were given solo albums to work with." (1995)

PATRICK MORAZ: "What I wanted to work on was a romantic story of this massive tower in the midst of a jungle, and people from all over the world would go there but were forbidden to fall in love with each other. Two people, however, break this rule and plan on escaping as the tower also served as a prison where the inhabitants were slaves to their own desires. Jon wanted to tell the story of an alien race traveling to a new world after their home planet was destroyed following a volcanic apocalypse. Chris [Squire], Steve and Alan just wanted to do their own thing." (2001, translated from a Swiss interview)

CHRIS SQUIRE: "We must've done, I dunno, about three hours' worth of material overall, maybe even four. A whopping forty-something songs, and some went on for as long as at least eight minutes total. We wanted to put out a quadruple album, but Atlantic was worried that it would've been too expensive, and so we were forced to whittle it down to a double album, our second overall, which meant a shit-ton of material ended up on the cutting room floor. Patrick was cross about this, which was one of the reasons he left and Rick [Wakeman] came back." (2003)

ALAN WHITE: "Jon and Steve weren't too pleased with how much of their material had been left off of the album; I think they were jealous of Chris stealing their thunder. *chuckles* Most of what I'd written for my solo record wasn't that great anyway, so I'm kinda glad it never got released. Perhaps between the double album by Yes and five solo records by each member individually, the band effort was the lesser of two evils?" (1985)

18 June 1976

Yes - Ocean

Released: 18 June 1976

Recorded: May 1975 - January 1976

Producer: Yes, Bob Potter and Eddie Offord

Track listing[1]

Side A

Ocean Song
You by My Side
Spring Song of Innocence
Ram
Best Years of Our Lives

Side B

Hold Out Your Hand
Meeting (Garden of Geda)/Sound Out the Galleon
One Way Rag
Dancing Now
Break Away from It All

Side C
Beginnings
Lucky Seven
Cachaça (Baião)
Flight of the Moorglade

Side D
Oooh Baby (Goin' to Pieces)
Lost Symphony
Silently Falling

Upon its initial 1976 release, Yes' eighth album Ocean - named for the opening track, "Ocean Song", written and performed by Jon Anderson - received many mixed reviews from critics, more so than the previous effort, Relayer. Among the many criticisms Ocean received was the lack of focus, especially towards the tracks by Anderson and Patrick Moraz, saying they were "leftovers" from their respective planned concept albums before they became part of the Yes album instead. Ocean reached #47 in the United States and #22 in the United Kingdom, but the sole single, "Lucky Seven"/"Best Years of Our Lives", failed to chart in the former country. Over time, however, Ocean would go on to become a critical favorite, being cited as one of Yes' greatest works.

Footnotes

1. Tracks are sourced from Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow, Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water, Alan White's Ramshackled, Steve Howe's Beginnings, and Patrick Moraz's The Story of I.

Author's Comments

Has it been a few weeks since I last posted here? Wow! Despite the fact that the world's essentially on lockdown due to COVID-19, I haven't been working much on the Strawberry Peppers story, mostly due to focusing on other projects for the time being and feeling a little burned out after writing the last few chapters of Phase Two. I've decided to post it as a way of telling you all that I'm not dead, just taking a break. I don't know when I'll come back to it full time, but we'll see.

Anyway, as for the extra scene itself, like I said, it was planned to be part of chapter 48, but I decided that the sole focus on the Beatles was strong enough on its own. Which was probably a good thing as I really didn't know what to do with that scene anyway, but I am considering giving Yes their own storyline for Phase Three, depending on what I can think of for them.

The album itself was interesting to try out; Albums Back from the Dead did a 1976 Yes album called Harmonium that featured solo tracks by Jon, Chris, Alan, Steve and Patrick and later posted about a sampler disc called Yes Solos that contained two of the same tracks - "Hold Our Your Hand" and "Spring Song of Innocence". Then there's Albums I Wish Existed that did a triple album called Works, with many of the tracks different from my selections. (Interestingly, "Spring Song of Innocence" seems to be a popular selection when it comes to a hypothetical Yes album from 1976.) I went with the double album as a middle ground and stuck with the tracks used on Harmonium and Yes Solos and tried to evenly spread the tracks as best as I could. It could still work as two albums with one being sort of a symphony and the other more self-contained, though lacking in Jon Anderson's vocals.

I could try a triple album version, but I don't even want to think about trying to whittle down over three hours' worth of music to just two hours; I think a double album is easier to handle, especially since overall, there were three songs each from Jon, Alan and Patrick and four each from Chris (almost his entire Fish Out of Water!) and Steve, which is fairly even. Could Yes have attempted an album between Relayer and Going for the One? Who knows? I guess we can only dream.