More from my scrapbook:

Billboard, December 21, 1974:
(Photo of the band on a tree)
YES-Relayer, Atlantic SD18122.  Another nearly flawless effort from one of the 
pioneer groups of the futuristic school of rock, who have learned the secret of connecting 
their electronic adventures with some exceptionally commercial, AM-oriented material.  
New keyboard man Patrick Moraz takes on a formidable task following Rick Wakeman, 
but fits in perfectly, guitarist Steve Howe comes up with his usual tastefully fast and 
skillful guitar, working it as a solo instrument or as a buffer for the keyboards and Jon 
Anderson still fills his difficult task well- being a vocalist in a group in which the voices 
often seem to fill the space between the instrumentals rather than vise versa.  Though the 
LP is divided into only three titles, Atlantic has had the sense to band the set into six cuts 
to make for easier radio play.  Several cuts here should be AM possibilities with the help 
of a little editing and the rest are ideal for FM.  One of the simpler, yet at the same time, 
one of the most workable sets the band has come up with.
Best cuts: "The Gates Of Delirium Part III," "Sound Chaser (Instrumental)," "To Be Over."
Dealers:  This British supergroup has just wrapped up another tour.

The Charts
Billboard, February 15, 1975:
#1 Elton John's Greatest Hits
#2 Fire - Ohio Players
#3 Miles of Aisles - Joni Mitchell
#4 Dark Horse - George Harrison
#5 Average White Band - AWB
#6 Heart Like A Wheel - Linda Ronstadt
#7 Relayer - Yes
#8 War Child - Jethro Tull

Rolling Stone, April 10, 1975:
...Rick Wakeman  may stage his latest opus, The Myths and Legends of King Arthur, in 
an ice-show format...

Rolling Stone, May 8, 1975:
Rick Wakeman and Procol Harum aren't talking these days.  Procol was set to appear with 
headliner Wakeman and  Gentle Giant  recently in Cincinnati.  The Procol members made 
it but their equipment truck didn't, breaking down somewhere in West Virginia.  Gentle Giant 
came to the rescue -- seemingly -- when they agreed to let Procol use their instruments.  
But then, just before show time, Wakeman vetoed the loan.  "Wakeman's people thought that 
Procol playing with Gentle Giant's instruments would somehow hamper the show, mess up the 
vibes," said promoter Cal Levy.  Levy said a "pretty ridiculous scene" ensued backstage as the 
Procol members and Wakeman's road crew argued.
	According to a spokesperson for Procol's management firm, lead singer Keith Reid attempted to 
take the stage after Gentle Giant's set to explain what was happening -- only to be turned back by 
Wakeman's crew.  Then, according to Levy, the Procol members "got real pissed, cleaned out the 
wine and split."  Their nonappearance wasn't announced until Wakeman had performed.
	But our story doesn't end here.   Reid and Piano player Gary Brooker drove directly to WEBN 
radio, where they lambasted Wakeman for his "egotistical and unreasonable" behavior.  Wakeman, 
riding back to his hotel at the time, had the station tuned in; he became incensed.  Upon entering 
his room, he rang up WEBN and demanded equal time.  He, in turn, blasted Procol's "lies."
	Procol Harum returned to Britain shortly afterward and were unavailable for comment; a 
Wakeman aide refused to talk, imploring, "It's over with, let's forget it."

Rolling Stone, June 19, 1975:
[Three (4) Album Reviews]

The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
Rick Wakeman
A&M SP-4515
by Ed Ward
Hey, I saw  Camelot  on Broadway with Robert Goulet and everything and I don't remember 
a one of these songs being in it.
	Seriously, though, folks, it looks like Rick Wakeman is developing into a composer of at 
least the magnitude of Dmitri Tiomkin.  King Arthur, unlike either of its predecessors, 
actually contains a couple of memorable melodies ("Arthur" and "Sir Galahad," significantly 
enough) and a couple of attempts to write some real music.  These attempts -- two ersatz [=bogus] 
madrigals -- fail but show that Wakeman's heart is in the right place.
	One of the things I find rather unusual about this album, in fact, is that Wakeman, formerly 
allied with Yes, a band of pseudomystics who never fail to exploit the spiritual dimensions of 
any situation, has stayed away from all but the most mundane storybook angles of the Arthurian 
mysteries.  Gone are the wood spirits, Morgan le Fay and her evil machinations against the throne, 
the entire magickal overlay of the story.  Does Wakeman have any idea what the rose in the middle 
of the picture on the lyric booklet's cover means?  Does he know what the writing on the veiled 
chair on the booklet's back cover says?  Does he care?
	The stage production that goes with this album is most likely on the intellectual level of the lyrics 
to "The Last Battle":  "Gone are the days of the knights/ Of the Round Table and fights."  Pure Malory, 
that.
	The sixth century A.D., when Arthur supposedly reigned, is not well documented by music, but 
Wakeman's score here is more reminiscent of mid-Fifties cinematic excess than the brilliant 
12th-century school of polyphonists who were England's first composers of note.  
(If you're interested in them, Nonesuch has just released an album of The Worcester Fragments, vocal 
music from some laboriously reconstructed manuscripts found decaying in the cathedral there.)
	It is wrong for me to criticize Wakeman too heavily, though.  He is writing ultra-light entertainments, 
not without their cynical edge, methinks.  These entertainments are popular with a group of people who 
I suspect are afraid of real classical music and they keep Wakeman in beer.  Still, the lure of the 
Arthurian legend to somebody with a genuine scholarly interest and a rock background must remain 
and I suspect something a bit heavier than this could be made of it.  Jimmy Page, are you reading me?

Relayer
Atlantic SD 18122
Yesterdays
Atlantic SD 18103
Yes
by Ken Barnes
With their last five albums (including Relayer) reaching Top Five status, Yes are central to the 
new British Invasion.  They combine complex, extended instrumental passages with weighty, 
quasi-mystical [-Vision: Bootleg by the same name?] lyrics.  The group is far removed from the 
monolithic theatrics of ELP or the cynical conundrums of Jethro Tull and much more deeply into 
the mystic than the mellowed mind balm of the Moody Blues.
	At first Yes redressed mid-Sixties tunes in progressive rock trappings, along with elaborate but 
still melodic compositions of their own.  By their third and fourth albums (The Yes Album and Fragile), 
the cover versions had vanished and the originals lengthened.
	Yesterdays serves as an illustration of the band's earlier phase.  It consists of two tracks from their 
first album and four from their second, plus an obscure B-side to a 1970 single and a ten-minute 
version of Paul Simon's "America" (previously available only on a British sampler album 
[(an album which YESMAN fortunately has) which also contains Led Zep's - Hey, Hey, What Can 
I Do?, a single of similar album rarity] and, in a considerably shortened version, as a 1972 
American single).
	Yes reworked Simon & Garfunkel's "America" entirely, with a long and basically unrelated intro 
(complete with implied snatches of the West Side Story "America") and an alien, elaborate vocal 
structure which gives the impression that the song is being sung phonetically by a foreign vocalist.
	The most interesting track is "Dear Father," previously unavailable on LP and apparently a plea 
from a doubtful and confused Jesus.  It's a relatively straight pop-rock song, with a recurring chorus 
full of harmonies and some impressive melodic fragments, and it's literally smothered in an 
overwhelming orchestral arrangement.  An atypical number.
	Of all the material on Yesterdays, "America" is most important as a transition point.  Later songs 
became even more intricate, bordering on the unfathomable while the lyrics meandered into murkier 
mystic modes.  Yes's last album, Tales from Topographic Oceans, was four sides' worth of hopelessly 
dense complexity that left many observers recoiling in utter dismay and taxed even the group's most 
ardent supporters.
	Relayer may exhaust even the devoted.  Singer Jon Anderson's words plumb new depths of turgidity.  
Side one of Relayer is taken up by a 22-minute track called "The Gates of Delirium," a titanic
battle-of-the-mind-forces allegory of sorts.  A sample stanza:

		Choose and renounce throwing chains to the floor
		Kill or be killing faster sins correct the flow
		Casting giant shadows off vast penetrating force
		To alter via the war that seen
		As friction spans the spirits wrath ascending (slowly) to redeem

Pretentious balderdash no matter how you stack it and the remaining lyrics are only marginally 
clearer.
	The music seems equally chaotic.  Opening with sheets of cascading guitars and wheeling 
Mellotrons, it breaks off into a fairly melodic vocal segment.  This is followed by a seemingly 
endless frenzy of clattering, discordant guitar work and demoniacal synthesized electronics.  
Finally an infusion of lyrical guitar and soaring Mellotron signals battle's end, with a strangely 
MOR-oriented vocal section closing the piece.
	On the other side, "Sound Chaser" brims with jagged, randomized riffs and discordant fragments, 
quite intricate, with no identifying structural links.  "To Be Over," however, has a pretty (though 
ponderously structured) melody and some tasteful guitar work.
	Relayer, despite occasional enjoyable interludes, is an excessive, pretentious and ill-conceived 
album.  The folly of Yes's extreme approach is becoming only too apparent.

Fish Out of Water
Chris Squire
Atlantic SD18159
by Alan Niester
Fish Out of Water's strongest moments point out Chris Squire's contribution to Yes's ornately crafted 
rock more clearly than any Yes album.  When he sticks to what he knows best -- "Hold Out Your Hand," 
for instance, where Squire's unique bass playing and mock Jon Anderson falsetto play against the 
group's ex-drummer Bill Bruford and its current keyboard player, Patrick Moraz -- Squire's 
record is a Yes fan's delight.

?Rolling Stone, Unknown date, 1975:
...I was in L.A. to interview Rick Wakeman, then of Yes.  Photographer Neal Preston, my best 
friend, and I were playing pool in the Beverly Hilton bar and waiting for Rick to join us. ...

Rolling Stone, November 20, 1975:
Rick Wakeman, beer can at the ready, belched his way through a New York press conference in which 
he snorted at the mention of the Bay City Rollers.  "That's perambulator [baby carriage] music, music 
to knit by," said Rick, who's trimmed his blond locks to King Arthurish shoulder length.  Wakeman, 
in town for a Madison Square Garden date, then turned to the subject of his eight-piece band, mentioning 
that he'd picked them on the basis of drinking prowess.  Percussionist John Hodgson, for instance, 
rates an A minus.  Added Rick: "I'm the only A plus so far"

Rolling Stone, December 18, 1975:
...Roger Daltrey and Ken Russell meantime, are working on Russell's film bio of Franz Liszt, along 
with Ringo Starr, who plays the Pope, and Rick Wakeman, who is musical director and has a cameo 
spot as the comic strip hero Thor.