Yes- Into the Lens (First Listen)

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[joelliebler]

Even though I am forever a Jon Anderson for life fan, this album is in my top five YES works of all time!

[unicyclepeon]

I love this song and this album. Drama is my 3rd fave Yes album.

[adktowerboyadk]

JustJP, I really appreciate your musical knowledge and perceptions. I first heard this song coming home from a community college and almost drove off the road with the sound change around 5:40 into the song. I had to pull over before I lost it. I am totally convinced that this song and the album is Chris Squire's bass at his very best. I am glad you've learned to appreciate their music. You may find time will blind you, this to just remind youm that all is meant to be. Keep the faith.

[jml-rjre]

Incredibly overlooked album and song. Some of Yes' finest stuff. LOVE this performance. In many ways I think it's the best material and arrangements Yes ever did. Everyone in the band is really listening to each other. Which gives the music strength and an organic nature.

[Partyschreck-kqrm]

Into the lens is one of my favorites, such a masterpiece. I also like the Yes video clip of this very much.

[delllittle]

This is one of my favorite recordings EVER. Like you said the balance of transition from prog to pop with a heavy sound is perfection. Their take on the Buggles version is the next tier, and I really like the Buggles version (interested in hearing your take on that one). The sync of Squire, Downes, White & Howe during the fast rhythmic riffs is incredible. Howe uses lap steel on the intro and related sections. That's the "violin". It's pronounced Buggles as in bugs. Their "Video Killed the Radio Star" is the first video ever played on MTV. Anyways. THIS track is a masterpiece.

[jcx]

One really cool thing about Chris Squire I always liked besides his bass playing …His background vocals blend so good with Trevor H. just as well as he did with Jon Anderson. So well that you almost don’t notice when they’re singing together how tight the singing is with each other. It makes the lead vocals that much better. This song is a great example of that.

[markjohnson]

I loved this song more when I really listened to Steve How's lead work. This was written by Trevor Horn, and the accessible Pop vibe is apparent, BUT they turned it into an epic, and again, Steve is the star of the show.

[craigfazekas]

I came into Yes when this was current. This album & Yesshows were the current offerings at that time. 1980. I was 12 then. Yes was HUGE to me. They still are. Yes, King Crimson, ELP, Genesis ? I was obsessed with them....still am in a way. This & Yesshows started it all for me.

[mjarrala]

This song was the one that got me into Yes and prog rock overall! I was 13 (around 2007) and had some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket. I went to the local record store and got the two CDs with the coolest band names and album covers I could find. I landed on Weather Report's Black Market and Drama by Yes, neither of which I had ever heard of.
So being the picky bastard I was, I also chose the most interesting song title to play first, which was this particular one. The bouncy piano, soaring pedal steel, aggressive bass, beautiful melodies and Buggles-esque vocoder go me hooked in an instant.

It actually took me years to get into seriously listening other yes albums than this, since Trevor's voice was the one I had grown accustomed to, along with the overall sound of the band on this release. Nowadays I prefer Relayer, GftO and Topographic from Yes's catalogue, but Drama still has a very special place in my heart.

[osilivni]

Alan White's phrasing is so interesting. I just dig his drumming. He in my mind is so original. To this day I can't find one drummer he copied from or one drummer that sounds like him!

[joemaurone]

Re: the line "I am a camera": Yeah, I can hear it as potentially being cheesy...BUT...

I was this many days old when I learned the source of the line "I am a camera" : "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed." - from the film GOODBYE TO BERLIN.

[ComeOnIsSuchAJoy]

Interestingly enough, Gentle Giant had a song on their _Civilian_ album (which turned out to be their last) - also released in 1980 - called "I Am a Camera."

[spongo]

Howe is ridiculously on point with his pedal steel playing on this one.

[stevemd]

My recollection is most Yes fans didn't care for this incarnation of Yes, but I liked this album.

[Echoes_AJ]

Look up "The Buggles - I Am a Camera" and get a glimpse of how Yes transformed it!

[porflepopnecker]

To me it's the highlight of a great album. I hope someday you'll explore Horn and Downes' incredible Buggles album "Adventures In Modern Recording", especially such songs as "Beatnik", "Vermillion Sands", and their own version of "Into the Lens" entitled "I Am A Camera."

[meistergedanken]

Howe and Trevor Horn are almost doing a blues "call and response", with a vocal line, then an electric guitar reply.

[sgtBelson]

The Buggles had the first video played on MTV, “Video Killed the Radio Star”. Horn and Downes definitely brought the pop to this record.

This one will grow on you. Now I can’t wait for the reaction to ‘Tempus Fugit’.

[RickBenbow]

This song is the most like The Buggles. I would definitely ask you to check out Buggles’ Age of Plastic: great pop beautifully produced and every track a gem with proggy leanings from Downes now and then. I love Drama because it leans to heavy and pop but not in a way which compromises their creativity and impact. This is my 2nd fav track after Machine Messiah.