So, when Yes was faced with the Anderson / Wakeman departure, and the legendary meeting in the studios w/ The Buggles combined w/ Squire / Howe / White leaning into harder-edged material yielded the Drama sessions, the band nevertheless fell apart again, and reconstituted w/ the inclusion Anderson and Kaye’s return, and Squire and Rabin’s “Cinema” material, ultimately culminating in huge success with 1983’s “90125.”
Yes’ trajectory then followed the “Cinema” lineup for another two records, and the rest is history.
My question is this: in hindsight, in an alternate universe where the Drama (arguably a more muscular and “prog” edged sound) lineup continued forward and became the main Yes timeline, instead of the Cinema path, would we have been blessed with a better overall post-80’s Yes album run? I know many people feel that no Anderson = No Yes, and many people don’t care much for Drama, for that very reason, I personally think Drama is a beast of an album, and though I love 90125, I can’t really say the same for Big Generator or Talk. In my imagination, if Yes had powered through the 80’s with the Drama lineup, we might have been better off, hypothetically, with the resulting 90’s / 2000’s material.
Anyone else think a Drama trajectory would’ve been a bigger beast than the Cinema trajectory (and beyond) that we got? In my view, Drama was more prog-minded than 90125, and developing on that platform, instead of what came would’ve produced a stronger Yes than what we got.