Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (1989) is an album by four members of the progressive rock group Yes.

The project began in 1988 when Yes was in its 1980’s line-up featuring Trevor Rabin. At that time vocalist Jon Anderson began to feel artistically limited in the bands current format. He then left to regroup with Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford of Yes’ “classic” line-up, while Chris Squire and the other three members of the 1980’s Yes continued on as a quartet. Bruford, who had been a member of King Crimson since 1973, recruited band-mate Tony Levin as the group’s bassist. ABWH originally intended to share the name Yes but after a brief legal dispute, it was decided that Chris Squire as the only consistent member of the band held exclusive rights to its name.

The group rehearsed and composed thier materiel in Paris and then flew directly to the island of Montserrat to record. Many of the tracks on the album (specifically “Teakbois”) carry Latin and Caribbean influences. “Lets Pretend” was co-composed by Vangelis in 1986, and was a previously unreleased piece by the group Jon & Vangelis.

The artwork for the album was created by classic Yes artist Roger Dean. It features two paintings, the front titled “Blue Desert” and the back titled “Red Desert”. These are the two largest paintings ever painted by Roger Dean, both measuring 9’ x 6’. Most releases of this album represent only a truncated version of “Blue Desert”. There was, however, a special release with a full panoramic version of “Blue Desert” which was horizontally reversed.

Track listing

1. ”Themes” - 5:58
   1. ”Sound”
   2. ”Second Attention”
   3. ”Soul Warrior”
2. ”Fist of Fire” - 3:27
3. ”Brother of Mine” - 10:18
   1. ”The Big Dream”
   2. ”Nothing can Come Between Us”
   3. ”Long Lost Brother of Mine”
4. ”Birthright” - 6:02
5. ”The Meeting” - 4:21
6. ”Quartet” - 9:22
   1. ”I Wanna Learn”
   2. ”She Gives Me Love”
   3. ”Who Was the First”
   4. ”I’M Alive”
7. ”Teakbois” - 7:39
8. ”Order of the Universe” - 9:02
   1. ”Order Theme”
   2. ”Rock Gives Courage”
   3. ”It’s So Hard to Grow”
   4. ”The Universe”
9. ”Let’s Pretend” - 2:56

Personnel

• Jon Anderson - lead vocals, backing vocals,
• Bill Bruford - drums
• Rick Wakeman - keyboards
• Steve Howe - guitar
• Tony Levin - bass, Chapman stick, vocals
• Matt Clifford - keyboards, programming, orchestration, vocals
• Milton McDonald - rhythm guitar
• Deborah Anderson - backing vocals
• Tessa Niles - backing vocals
• Carol Kenyon - backing vocals
• Frank Dunnery - backing vocals
• Chris Kimsey - backing vocals
• Emerald Community Singers, Montserrat - backing vocals

Produced by Jon Anderson and Chris Kimsey

See also

• Progressive rock
• Yes