“We had a good run and did some great things. That wasn’t one of them”: Abandoned songs, a broken foot and footballer-size egos destroyed a Yes album
Yes’s attempt to make a tenth studio album in Paris in 1979 collapsed amid serious tensions within the band, leaving the recordings unreleased at the time. Producer Roy Thomas Baker found the five members deeply divided during sessions intended to follow the troubled Tormato, and the failure marked the end of the classic line-up for another 16 years.
The abandoned material was later scattered across solo albums, expanded Yes reissues and the 2002 In A Word box set rather than becoming a finished record. The Paris sessions also preceded the departures of singer Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman, after which a new Yes line-up released Drama in 1980.
- Yes abandoned its 1979 album sessions amid internal conflict.
- The collapse ended the classic line-up for 16 years.
- Unreleased tracks later appeared in other Yes-related releases.
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Yes were an English progressive rock band known for complex, ambitious music and changing line-ups. By the late 1970s, the group’s best-known members included singer Jon Anderson, guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire, drummer Alan White and keyboardist Rick Wakeman.
The band had recently made Tormato, an album whose recording had been difficult and which received a mixed response. They then went to Paris to work on new material, but disagreements over the music and the group’s direction made cooperation increasingly hard.
The failed sessions mattered because they ended a particularly successful version of Yes. Anderson and Wakeman soon left, and the remaining members recruited new musicians for Drama, while parts of the unfinished Paris recordings later appeared in other releases.
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