‘Don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you’: Yes is in the studio with Roy Thomas Baker

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Roy Thomas Baker, best known for producing Queen and Journey, is collaborating with Yes on its new studio album. Members of the group have uploaded photographs from the sessions — and a neon-shoed Baker appears in several.

Baker previously worked with Yes during an aborted session in 1979, the results of which were later excerpted in an expanded reissue of 1980’s Drama. It’s unclear if Yes is returning to those songs — which included “Dancing Through the Light,” “Friend of a Friend,” “Golden Age,” and “In the Tower” — as they did with 2011’s Fly From Here, which was built around leftover material from the same period. Baker later produced former Yes singer Jon Anderson’s 1985 solo effort 3 Ships.

Jon Davison, who has fronted Yes since 2012, previously mentioned Baker as a possible replacement for Trevor Horn on this new album — the band’s first since the Horn-helmed Fly From Here: “I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you, but I will anyway,” Davison said, laughing. Horn also worked as producer on Drama, 90125 and Big Generator for Yes between 1980-87.

Baker is credited with creating the classic layered vocal sound of early Queen. He worked with the group for five albums, beginning with its 1973 debut — a period that included the legendary “Bohemian Rhapsody.” He also produced the first two albums by Journey to feature Steve Perry, and the first three studio projects from the Cars, among many others.

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