What
a marvelous idea. You take one seasoned
musical genius, put him in a room with
a tape deck with all his archive material,
and ask him to play a selection of his
hidden treasures from the dark and murky
past. This is exactly what happened here.
Peter Banks, the original and best guitarist
from the band Yes, has trawled his back
catalogue for some juicy rare and often
unreleased back catalogue material. He
was first asked to concentrate on his
pre-Yes days from the sixties, when we
were all reeling and a-rocking, quaking,
and a-shaking, making and breaking, faking
and mistaking, joking and smoking - everybody
was loco from those years. This collection
of songs is basically collected from Peter's
early years 1964-1968, and gives a fascinating
insight into a musician’s formative
years.
From his first tentative steps as a young
seventeen year old guitarist with Devil's
Disciples (after which the guitarist admits
in the wonderful booklet that comes with
this collection, that he found the whole
experience so terrifying, he doubted he
would ever pluck up the courage again
to enter a recording studio. During that
2-hour session, both the tracks here from
the Devil's Disciples were recorded) to
Peter's solo spot with Yes on one of their
first gigs, Peter Banks musical birth
is laid bare. It certainly isn't all pretty,
and to keep the listener's attention,
neither is it in chronological order.
As well as the two Devil's Disciples
tracks (quite honestly, their take on
'For Your Love' does not hold a light
to the Yardbirds’ version), you
also get five cuts from Syn, where Peter
Banks first teamed up with bassist Chris
Squire. You get to hear 'Flowerman', the
single from Syn's own Rock Opera, in which
the band used to dress up as flowers for
the stage production, and then finish
the set with a huge fight featuring gardening
implements. The Flowerman also sounds
like very early 'Spinal Tap', and is made
all the more galling as you get two versions
of it back to back. Obviously, Peter Banks
is proud of it all.
The bulk of the material here though
comes from the second band that Banks
and Squire formed after 'Syn' and were
turned into compost. The magically monikered
'Mabel Greer's Toyshop' the music takes
a cosmic leap forward with versions of
'Beyond and Before' written by Mabel Greer's
Toyshop vocalist Clive Bailey with Chris
Squire, which in a slightly amended version
was to go on to be track one on side one
of the debut vinyl recording of Yes.
The almost telepathic understanding between
Squire and Banks is a wonder to listen
to as you can hear them establishing the
sound that was to become Yes' trademark,
and still is today even though Peter Banks
has not been in the ranks for over 34
years (mind you, just about every other
jobbing musician has been through Yes'
ranks with each guitarist having to copy
Banks’ original guitar template).
To kick start the proceedings, Peter Banks
has included a version of Peter Gunn from
his jamming band in 1980. Perhaps breaking
the rules a little, but it is well worth
the effort as it literally knocks heads
together. A wonderful place to start.
Then to finish off this collection, there
are nearly nine minutes of Peter's solo
section of the Yes set, which used to
come during Yes' cover of the Byrds 'I
See You', where the other musicians would
depart the stage (at that time Yes had
Chris Squire on bass, Jon Anderson on
vocals, and Tony Kaye on keyboards), leaving
our intrepid guitarist backed only by
Bill Bruford on drums, to, in the vernacular
of the day, completely freak out on the
guitar. You will either love it or find
it totally boring and pretentious. (This
Dog loves it.)
All the songs are linked together by
more sound bites from Peter Bank's musical
library. The 12-page booklet of this collection
is crammed full of informative facts and
funny anecdotes written in the guitarist's
own hand, with a wonderful Peter Banks
Rock family tree from the era and the
necessary embarrassing era photos. Although
this collection does have its weak moments,
they are made up for by the highs that
are contained here. For another insight
into this very underrated musician, read
his autobiography "Beyond and Before''
or, to hear Peter Banks at the peak of
his powers, try the debut album from Flash
(1972), the band Peter formed after he
was unceremoniously dumped from Yes, or
Peter's second solo album Instinct (1993).
Pawed
by Mott The Dog
Re-chewed by Ella Crew
E-mail: review@mott-the-dog.com
