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Rating: Yes - Drama (1980)
August 1980 sees Drama released by Atlantic Records. Forget Fragile and Close to the Edge, all you who enter: this is the most beautiful Yes album of the 70s, made accessible to the precious ears of the scholarly youth of the time, guess by whom? By the Buggles!
Yes, yes, them exactly, the techno-pop duo that was all the rage with their videos, the ones with the planetary hit - and maybe even beyond the solar system - of Videomar - no pardon Video killed the radio star. Why this review, you'll ask me, what does the national Valerio have to do with prog? It connects because finally, you can listen to Yes for an hour without getting worn out by the virtuosity. Because with the magical touch of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of The Buggles, you don't miss Rick Wakeman and the frocio-plastik voice of Jon Anderson, who departed for solo careers, so much.
It connects because speaking of Video killed... this morning, I found and then took my Brionvega Tesi 4 from the late 70s to my old-school technician, to bring it back to life: it has a side fracture - a Drama!! And of course, it weighs a ton - and when we turned it on, it was still alive, so a little tear of emotion came to my eye seeing the wild photons on the screen without images: I projected inside all the broadcasts and musical videos of that time. And among these, raise your finger, without making rude gestures, who does not remember the legendary Does it really happen? That totally killer bass line by Squire and the video jingle of Discoring from back then. What a piece, poignant, epic, martial, unforgettable.
Ah, those were the days. Among the songs all of very high level, we like to highlight the suite Machine Messiah, with an almost Sabbath-like intro, born from the technological nightmares of Trevor Horn, Into the Lens, Run through the Light.
In short, a 12-inch that, as the good Elio from Storie Tese would say, you could even give as a gift at a party without fear of being considered intellectual reactionary late rockers. Of the second millennium.
Memories how they hide so fast...I'm a camera.
P.S. don't throw away your old tellies, they'll be worth money soon, because LCDs and plasmas are expensive and break quickly.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Machine Messiah (10:26)
PART 1
Run down a street where the glass shows that summer has gone
Age in the doorways, resenting the pace of the dawn.
All of them standing in line
All of them waiting for time.
From time, the great helaer,
The machine messiah is born.
Cables that carry the life to the cities we build
Threads that link diamonds of light to the satanic mills
Ah, to see in every way
That, we feel it every day, and know that
Maybe we'll change
Offered the chance
To finally unlearn our lessons and alter our stance.
PART 2
Friends make their way into systems of chance
Friends make their way of escape into systems of chance
Escape to freedom, I need to be there
Waiting and watching, the tables are turning
I'm waiting and watching
I need to be there.
I care to see them walk away
And, to be there when they say
They will return.
Machine, machine messiah
The mindless search for a higher controller
Take me to the fire and hold me
Show me the strength of your singular eye.
PART 3
History dictating symptoms of ruling romance
Claws at the shores of the water upon which we dance
All of us standing in line
All of us waiting for time
To feel it all the way
And to be there when they say they know that
Maybe we'll change
Offered the chance
To finally unlearn our lessons and alter our stance.
Machine, machine messiah
Take me into the fire.
Hold me, machine messiah
And show me
The strength of your singular eye.
02 White Car (01:23)
I see a man in a white car
Move like a ghost on the skyline
Take all your dreams
And you throw them away
Man in a white car.
04 Into the Lens (08:35)
Memories, how they fade so fast
Look back, that is no escape
Tied down, now you see too late.
Lovers, they will never wait.
I am a camera
Take heart, I could never let you go
And you, always let the feeling show
Love us all, how you never broke your heart
You lose them
If you feel the feeling start.
I am a camera, camera, camera
And you, may find time will blind you
This to just remind you
All is meant to be.
Here, by the waterside
There, where the lens is wide
You and me
By the sea
Taken in tranquility.
Taken, taken so easily
To pass into glass reality
Transform, to transfer, to energy.
Taken, taken, so easily
To pass into glass reality
Transformer, transferring energy.
05 Run Through the Light (04:44)
I asked my love to give me shelter
And all she offered me were dreams
Of all the moments spent together
That move like never ending streams.
Run to the light
Everything is alright
Run thro' the light of day
You run to the light of night
And every movement made together
Till every thought was just the same
And all the pieces fit forever
In the game.
Welcome to the light
Now everything is okay
Run thro' the light of night
You run to the light of day.
06 Tempus Fugit (05:16)
(Yes, yes)
(Yes, yes)
(Yes, yes)
Born in the night, she would run like a leopard
That freaks at the sight of a mind close beside herself
And the nearer I came, how the country would change
She was using the landscape to hide herself
More in the mind than the body this feeling
A sense at the end like a circular line
That is drawn at an angle I see when I'm with you
To navigate waters and finally answer to yes
If you were there you would want to be near me
Innocence, you could hold the materials
And though nothing would really be living
It would shock your fall into landing light
In the north sky, time flies fast to the morning
The cold of the dawn, it meant nothing to us
You were keeping your best situation, an answer to yes
(Yes, yes) And the moment I see you
(Yes, yes) It's so good to be near you
(Yes, yes) And the feeling you give me
(Yes, yes) Makes me want to be with you
(Yes, yes) From the moment you tell me yes
If you could see all the roads I have travelled
Towards some unusable last equilibrium
Run like an athlete and die like a dead beaten speed freak
An answer to all of your answers to yes
In the north sky, time flies faster than morning
The cold of the dawn it meant nothing to us
You were keeping your best situation, an answer to yes
(Yes, yes) And the moment I see you
(Yes, yes) It's so good to be near you
(Yes, yes) And the feeling you give me
(Yes, yes) Makes me want to be with you
(Yes, yes) If we wait for an answer
(Yes, yes) Will the silence be broken
(Yes, yes) Should we wait for an answer
(Yes, yes) Do we leave it unspoken
(Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes . . .)
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Other reviews
By London
Yes really needed them. The previous album, Tormato, was now old and chaotic.
Drama's goal is not to erase the old sound but to renew and make it more contemporary.
By Ilovemusic
‘Drama’ captures a bold new direction for Yes without losing the band’s creative spark.
A landmark moment that proved Yes could reinvent themselves and thrive.
