Customer Reviews

Beginnings

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The best thing about the first batch of Yes "Solo Albums" was that they allowed the fans to finally see into the Yes compositional process. We could glimpse each of Yes' primary composers all by themselves - almost like a prism separates light into colors, the solo albums gave us insight into the elements each Yes-man brought to the band.

[These albums are BEGINNINGS, by Steve Howe, FISH OUT OF WATER, by Chris Squire, i, by Patrick Moraz, RAMSHACKLED, by Alan White, and OLIAS OF SUNHILLOW, by Jon Anderson. (In all fairness, Moraz's i was not his first solo effort.)]

Steve's first album is really quite good, and it does hold up over time. There is an energy and brashness here that is rather stunning. One would have thought that Mr. Howe was the iconoclastic confounder of the Yes Stable. But he shows us here that he is a traditional songsmith.

However, his voice is appallingly bad, and his decision to sing is really a bad move (he was to repeat that move time and time again, never learning from his initial mistake). I had to give this excellent album 4 stars solely because it is marred by Steve's Larynx.

One could only imagine how perfect this album would have been had Jon sung on it - it would have almost become "The Lost Yes Album".

After Relayer was released, all the Yes members decided to release solo albums. Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water and Steve Howe's Beginnings were the first to come out. The Chris Squire album is said to be the best solo album from a Yes member (I hadn't heard that one). Then Jon Anderson released Olias of Sunhillow, Alan White released Ramshackled, and Patrick Moraz released "i" (aka "The Story of i"). That's the big reason why Yes released no albums between Relayer and Going For the One (except for the Yesterdays compilation). Steve Howe's Beginnings could've been a great album. He's credited to playing all different guitars, acoustic and electric. He has various Yes members helping, Patrick Moraz, Alan White, Bill Bruford, as well as members of the Raindance-era Gryphon (Gryphon did tour with Yes around the time Red Queen to Gryphon Three and Raindance were released). Plus the album features some truly great Roger Dean cover artwork. But I'm afraid to say what really ruins Beginnings is Steve Howe decided he should sing. I can only think of the likes of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy's attempt to "sing" more embarassing than what Steve Howe was trying to do. His singing really sticks out like a sore thumb. It's weak, it's nasal, he often had to use reverb to make up for his lack of vocal abilities. He should've found someone who could actually sing to handle the vocals, or actually make the album all instrumental (Rick Wakeman had the sense to hire actual vocalists on his solo efforts, like Ashley Holt and ex-Wild Turkey member Garry Pickford-Hopkins, even if they weren't the most appealing vocalists, at least they could sing). Beginnings shows that Steve Howe is quite a talented guitarist, but in the end, it's really painful to have to hear him sing.

An odd little solo debut for Mr. Howe. I love it, but probably for the wrong reasons. There isn't much that sounds much like Yes, which is okay by me- -not because I don't like Yes but because it demonstrates Howe's desire to do something different from his contributions to the band unlike, say, Chris Squire. It also, a little surprisingly, is not really a 'guitar' album. Of course Howe plays guitar, but clearly his intention is not to demonstrate what a hot shot he is on his instrument unlike, say, Peter Banks. By the time this was released in 1975, Howe had already done all that, seemingly without effort. So why does the album fail so gloriously? To put it simply, it's the material. You know, the songs. They're mostly pretty boring and aren't much helped by windy arrangements (with the exception of 'Pleasure Stole The Night', which is more breezy than windy). It isn't even Howe's clunky singing, which a lot of people complain about and which is passable at best- -it recalls that of the Floyd's Richard Wright with a cold, and Wright's no great singer himself. But it really wouldn't matter who sang (unless it was the guy from Flash, but more on him later and elsewhere). The longer instrumentals, 'Nature Of The Sea' and especially the title track, aren't really helped by the lack of Howe's singing. 'Nature Of The Sea' gets the edge, though, because the orchestral 'Beginnings' just sort of noodles along going nowhere for seven-plus minutes. It's quasi-ambitious; it's pretty; it's light; and it is very, very fluffy. The brief 'Ram' sounds like a rehearsal for 'The Clap', four years after the fact. No matter where you go in the album, it's like that. Okay. Now, having said all that, I find it pretty cool that the album has held up in its own way very well over the many years since its release. The artless singing and windy arrangements have become its strong points after all this time, saving what was in 1975 a mediocre effort and preserving it as a quirky pleasure. Heck, there are bands who shall remain for the moment nameless running around these days wearing pseudo-artlessness as a badge. And look how hard they have to try. Let's make the argument that Howe is their major influence and maybe they'll shut up and go away. I'm not gonna complain about Howe too loudly. Still, the songs. . .

If you're a Yes fan, thinking about buying this album, but worried about all the reviews that rip Steve's singing -- just buy the doggone album.

You will probably squirm in your seat the first several times you hear him reach the chorus of "Australia." And that won't be the only part that makes you question his ability to self-assess.

BUT ...

What's unique about this album is that Steve is so clearly making a sincere attempt to sing exactly what is in his head. On other albums, he keeps most of the lyrics more closely in his vocal range, so you only hear the odd tonal quality of his voice, not an actual inability to hit the pitches. But on this album, he clearly just doesn't care about his own limitations. He knows where he wants the melody to go, and come hell or high water, he's going to get his vocal cords to go there -- or at least to get in the neighborhood.

The result is a very honest, sometimes raw, and always impassioned set of performances. And to make matters easier for the listener, a great deal of the vocals are layered, so that the harmonies blend out many of the imperfections that are more obvious in the solo lines.

Beyond this, the songs are simply terrific. "The Nature of the Sea" is captivating from its first bar -- and I'll guarantee that even if you didn't know the title, you'd hear the ocean in the instrumentation. The horns on "The Lost Symphony" are fabulous; the orchestra on "Beginnings" mops the floor with anything on "Magnification"; and "Ram" makes you wish for more songs with a washboard in them.

Yes albums tend to be awash in mysticism and metaphor; this album has a beautiful real-world foundation to it. It is music of this Earth -- vast in variation, full of struggles, and, yes, not without its flaws.

To echo another reviewer, I would rather hear Steve straining for glory and missing on this album than listen to Jon playing it safe and staying in key on everything since the late '80s.

I am so sick and tired of people criticizing Steve Howe's vocals!
Sure, when this album first came out in 1975, it took me a little while to get used to the vocals. Steve Howe does have an unusual voice. And I was only sixteen at the time.

But I have long since come to appreciate this album and Steve Howe's vocals on it. In fact, I think his voice is haunting. And the song writing on this album is brilliant.

I would much rather hear Steve Howe sing the sophisticated music that appears on this album than hear Jon Anderson sing the primitive music that appears on recent Yes albums such as "Magnification".

I know, I must be a freak, but I have grown to love Steve's off key warbling. I love to sing along in the car (but get in big trouble if someone is in the car with me...) These are all well crafted songs, not just showing off his guitar talents.

The only song on this record that I can't stomach is Willo the Wisp, everything else more than cuts the mustard by the sheer level of musicianship on evidence, even if Steve's singing sometimes sounds like a toothless old woman warbling. The two best tracks are 'Lost Symphony,' which fuses everything from R & B to Country to Classical to Hard Rock all into one awesome 5 minute presentation that just whips; and 'The Nature of the Sea' another exercise in mixed salad artistry, done as always with the underlying broadminded gentle hippie attitude Steve was able to use as gluing cement in those days which he can't quite make work anymore because it seems to have long since advanced into the New Age stage(a fatal disease for true musicians, though perfectly agreeable to John Tesh and Yanni). This slightly rough but risk taking record is an absolute must for all Yes fans and ten times better than anything the members of Yes (Bruford excluded) have done in the past ten years (mostly embarras themselves).

Steve Howe was not placed on this earth to stand in front of a microphone. It's a pity this brilliant guitarist could not recognise that his lack of vocal ability would so detract from this otherwise fine recording. As one would expect the musicianship is terrific, the compositions strong, and of all the Howe solo efforts this is perhaps the most Yes-like in sound and composition. Bruford, Moraz and White all guest here. In spite of the weak vocals it is still quite an enjoyable recording and worth obtaining, just not essential...Simon

I love Steve Howe's guitar playing, and arranging. I like his song-writing, to a certain extent. But, man, does his singing stink. How can such an obviously great musician allow such bad vocals all over his album? It isn't even "charming bad", it's just bad.

That being said, if you treasure great guitar playing, this album might be for you. Here, we have one of the great rock guitarists at the height of his creativity, and approaching the height of his technical skill. He really puts on a clinic, displaying the cross-genre blending that made him so important. He somehow manages to throw rock, bluegrass, classical, country and jazz into a blender and come out with a distinct and cohesive sound.

So, to sum up, if he didn't sing, I'd give it four stars. If you don't really, really love great guitar playing, enough to put up with other faults, this won't be the CD for you.

I'm a big Steve Howe fan, too. The music is killer and the sound heavier than some of the Yes music. Although it had too much steel guitar on everything for me. I like the crunch, twang and speed of the sound of Steve. But not always turned on by the slippery steel. The vocals are a weak point for me as well. I'm tempted to turn down the songs when the singing starts and turn it up for the solos, intros and exits. The singing has gotten better on later efforts.