Owner of a Lonely Heart / Kool's Back

TheeeCasualMaleTheeeCasualMale 2,564 Posts
edited May 2005 in Strut Central
Anyone know the story of how Yes ended up using the Funk Inc. break in the middle of "Owner of a Lonely Heart?" This was several years before sampling had blown up and seemed like a pretty raer move for a group like Yes.Is there a cool story to it?

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  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I would be interested to know that as well, and I was thinking about shit like this the other day, cause I got this LP by Holger Czukay of CAN from 1981, and one track is a whole side, and uses sampling in a real proto-hip-hop style, he mixes in Terry Stafford's "Suspicion" to the beat...not that I thought this was the "first" sample by any means, but it made me wonder about the genesis of the style, breaks being isolated from records for dancing is the most obvious, but usually there are many different genres experimenting with the same form that come together to create a new style...

    Someone posted this "visualization of thebreaks.com" website here the other day, called "The History of Sampling" and before I looked at it I was all psyched thinking it would be this sort of info...no dice...

  • I know Art of Noise had something to do with this...

  • The way it's cut up and played like on a keyboard (with the notes starting low then moving up higher in a sequence) sounds very Art of Noisy. The same way they were freaking those noises / samples in "Close to the Edit."

    The plot thickens.

  • Yeah, Trevor Horn (the main dude behind Art of Noise) was in Yes at one point in the early 80's. He split with the band but went on to produce 90125 with them and was using with the Fairlight CMI.



    "The Fairlight was the first commercial synth which could sample audio into its 128k memory and huge 8 inch disks. The most famous sample that came on the factory disks was ORCH5, the orchestral stab that was all over 80s records like ???Owner of a Lonely Heart??? and anything by the Art of Noise. The stab was originally sampled by arty British musician David Vorhaus."

    So Trevor was probably messing around sampling drums into the Fairlight and was like "OH SHIT" and ran with it and thus The Art of Noise was born.

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts


    YO! If I just owned one of those (not even know how to use it), I could start the Disco Punk Band??? to end all[/b] Disco Punk Band???'s!!!

    New Wave Forever!



  • New Wave Ken indeed.

    Thanks for the info RG!

  • Word. all you'd have to do is stand there like a robot and occasionally press a key. Just make sure the green-on-black display is facing the audience and isn't being blocked by the agogo player.

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    Word. all you'd have to do is stand there like a robot and occasionally press a key. Just make sure the green-on-black display is facing the audience and isn't being blocked by the agogo player.

    The only response I can think of to that is THIS


    The audition went very well and Matt was hired. Rehearsing, touring and looking for the right image was next. After trying a paratrooper jumpsuit, a gold satin tuxedo and a striped jail suit, Matt and Prince found the right clothes: a surgical outfit (complete with mask and stethoscope).

  • johmbolayajohmbolaya 4,472 Posts
    Yeah, Trevor Horn (the main dude behind Art of Noise) was in Yes at one point in the early 80's. He split with the band but went on to produce 90125 with them and was using with the Fairlight CMI.

    Slightly technical, but he did not split with Yes per se, the group had pretty much exhausted itself and they split up, with the only original member being bassist Chris Squire. It seems odd to give the boot to the man (Jon Anderson) who is THE voice behind Yes. But Horn and Geoff Downes were already together as The Buggles, and they basically moved in with the band.

    When Yes split up, that allowed Horn to start producing on his own, and Downes hooked up with guitarist Steve Howe and formed Asia. At the same time, a new network called MTV decided to play an old Buggles video as their first video, which brought a bit of renewed awareness to the group, even though Downes was long gone.

    When Asia blew up with "Heat Of The Moment", Horn was already doing a new Buggles album, Adventures In Modern Recording[/b], which was by all means a solo project. At the same time he was producing ABC, and in time all of this would lead to the creation of Zang Tuum Tumb Records, and eventually the Art Of Noise.

    The moment in question (the break in "Owner Of A Lonely Heart") is considered an AoN moment. Judging from what sounds he used, I would say that it was Jonathan "J.J." Jeczalik that was responsible for putting "Kool's Back" in the song (although to your credit, I never knew the source of that until just now). Horn had used Jeczalik and Anne Dudley during the recording of Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock[/b], which also featured engineer Gary Langan (who would also become an essential member of AoN) and Thomas Dolby. Dolby, as well know, was already doing his own thing with The Golden Age Of Wireless[/b], so his career was going that way. Horn decided to make Jeczalik, Dudley, and Langan part of his production team, and that would lead to what we know as Art Of Noise.

  • kojackkojack 42 Posts
    An aside, the Owner of a Lonely Heart 12" features an extended Trever Horn remix that's full of dubbed-out Fairlight flavor.

  • THE RETURN OF KOJACK!!!

  • BsidesBsides 4,244 Posts
    THE RETURN OF KOJACK!!!


    oh shit!


  • kojackkojack 42 Posts
    steady lurkin'.
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