Keys to Ascension 2
| Keys to Ascension 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Live album / studio album by Yes | ||||
| Released | 3 November 1997 | |||
| Recorded | March 4-6, 1996 at the Fremont Theatre, San Luis Obispo, CA (live) March – November 1996 (studio) |
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| Studio | The Office, Van Nuys, CA | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 101:51 | |||
| Label | Essential Records | |||
| Producer | Yes and Billy Sherwood | |||
| Yes chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Vox | |
Keys to Ascension 2 is the fifth live album and sixteenth studio album by the English rock band Yes, released as a double album in November 1997 by Essential Records. It is the successor to the critically acclaimed Keys to Ascension 2-CD set from 1996.
It is the fifth and the last studio album with the line-up consisting of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Alan White, Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman the first being 1973's Tales From Topographic Oceans. The album reached No. 62 in the UK.
Like the first seven tracks on the previous album, the first six tracks on Keys to Ascension 2 were recorded live in San Luis Obispo, California in March 1996. The second disc features studio recordings made in November 1996. Rick Wakeman wanted these studio tracks to be released with Jon Anderson's working title Know, with the disc of live tracks thrown in as a bonus. Wakeman's preference was not honoured and by the time Keys to Ascension 2 was released, he was no longer in the band. [1]
"Mind Drive" would be Yes' eighth and last song over 18 minutes until "Fly from Here" in 2011. The song was originally a concept that the band XYZ, which featured Chris Squire, Alan White and Jimmy Page, wrote and demoed in 1981. It was later incorporated in a drum duet between Alan White and Bill Bruford on the 1991–1992 Union tour.
"Bring Me to the Power" references the original title of Talk, History of the Future.
"Children of Light" was originally written by Jon and Vangelis in 1986 as "Distant Thunder". "Distant Thunder" was later demoed by Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe during the recording of their self-titled album, later appearing as a hidden track on the 2011 limited edition of the album. The lyrics to "Distant Thunder" ended up in Yes' Union tourbook in April 1991. On 8 May 1994, Jon Anderson performed the song via radio on the Tommy Vance show. During a Mother's Day concert on 12 May 1996, Jon Anderson performed "Children of Light" and said he hoped it would appear on a Yes album, which it did.
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