# I Miss Rick Wakeman.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 8, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016 "2001-06-08T04:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016/1 "2001-06-08T04:09:46Z")
…and his musical treatments of _Journey To The Center of The Earth, King Arthur, The 6 Wives of Henry the Eighth, etc_. What’s he done lately? Thanks Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2001, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016/2 "2001-06-08T09:45:27Z")
Don’t quote me, but I seem to remember an advertisement showing him on a current tour with the once-again reconstructed but now painfully elderly **Yes**. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2001, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016/3 "2001-06-08T10:17:39Z")
He’s pretty much into cricket and having a quiet pint down his local pub. Still making music but it’s not quite the preoccupation of old. Don’t know if he’s back touring - seems unlikely (to me) given the all-important Ashes cricket series against Australia is about to start in England. From the impressions I’ve got (on teevee), he seems to be a very nice bloke. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2001, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016/4 "2001-06-08T10:34:52Z")
Yes may be a bunch of old lads by now, but their latest album “The Ladder” kicks absolute ASS. Highly recommended, even fro the “old time” fans. Trust me, give it a try. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2001, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016/5 "2001-06-08T11:57:12Z")
Glad to see there are other RW fans out there. Look him up on [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) to see what’s available – I hardly see anything onm the shelves at the local record stores. There’s a LOT of stuff I don’t have, but I really liked **Return to the Center of the Earth** , a 25-year-later revisit to **Journey to the Center of the Earth** , this time with narration by Patrick Stewart! ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2001, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016/6 "2001-06-08T12:28:37Z")
He did get together with his old Yes pals and put out an album as Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe, which had several quite decent songs reminiscent of the _Fragile_ era. They also released a live double album from the tour to promote it (called _An Evening of Yes Music Plus_), featuring Yes music, music from the ABWH album, and even some of Wakeman’s solo work (Merlin the Magician and Catherine Parr). Then they got together with the new, Trevor Rabin version of Yes (that did _90125_) and put out an album called _Union_, but then parted ways, and the same lineup from _90125_ put out _Talk_, which I quite like. This was all a while ago though. Personally, Steve Howe has always been the one I’ve missed the most, especially since it seems Roger Dean does the cover art for albums he’s on (_Union_, various Asia albums, and the ABWH albums all feature his artwork, but _90125_ and _Talk_ don’t). That and the end of Starship Trooper. ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2001, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016/7 "2001-06-08T13:46:17Z")
Rick Wakeman is alive and well in the evangelical Christian music circuit in the UK. He’s released approximately a googleplex’s worth of solo albums (I know, I was in a binge to _get them all_ a few years ago, I gave up at 35) and all but two or three are crap. Yes presently is without a keyboard player. They will be doing a “symphonic” tour this summer with local orchestras filling in for keyboards. Wakeman last performed with Yes in the mid-1990s, check out the _Keys to Ascension_ live albums for classic Yes tracks, as well as some fair-to-middlin’ new songs. As my esteemed friend in prog, **Coldfire** , stated, _The Ladder_ is pretty good. It’s miles better than ANYTHING released under the “Yes” name since 1977 or so. Steve Howe is still in Yes, and just released a new solo album this week, I believe. Check out [The Official Yes Site](http://www.yesworld.com) as well as a better [fan-run site](http://www.nfte.org) for all the information you ever wanted to know about Yes, but were afraid to ask. We Have Heaven, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2001, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016/8 "2001-06-08T14:14:22Z")
Yeah, I was looking a bit into the history of Yes, and noticed that Steve Howe is back, Rick Wakeman returned and left for a fourth time, and Tony Kaye and Trevor Rabin are gone. Apparently, after _Talk_ I never noticed anything they did. Well, with Steve Howe back, I figure I might have to check out the new stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2001, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-rick-wakeman/68016/9 "2001-06-08T14:18:24Z")
Do **not** get _Open Your Eyes_. Steve Howe was only nominally a member of Yes then (1997, I believe), and Billy “I am the Second Coming of Trevor Rabin” Sherwood did most of the guitars on that album, which was originally meant to be the second Chris Squire solo album (check out the first, _Fish Out of Water_, it’s probably the best of the Yes-related solo albums, and that says a lot). _The Ladder_ is worth getting, as are the _Keys to Ascension_ discs. I think last year’s _House of Blues_ live album is better than Keys, but that’s just because I don’t particularly like the new stuff on Keys all that much. But, **do not buy _Open Your Eyes_**. It’s the _Big Generator_ and _Tormato_ of the 1990s.