"Beginnings" is the title of Yes guitarist Steve Howe's first solo album. It was released in 1975. After "Relayer" was released, all the Yes members decided to release solo albums.
Steve Howe's Beginnings could've been a great album. He's credited to playing all different guitars, acoustic and electric. He has various Yes members helping, Patrick Moraz, Alan White, Bill Bruford, as well as members of the Raindance-era Gryphon. Plus the album features some truly great Roger Dean cover artwork. But I'm afraid to say what really ruins "Beginnings" is Steve Howe decided he should sing. His singing really sticks out like a sore thumb. It's weak, it's nasal, he often had to use reverb to make up for his lack of vocal abilities. He should've found someone who could actually sing to handle the vocals, or actually make the album all instrumental. "Beginnings" shows that Steve Howe is quite a talented guitarist, but in the end, it's really painful to have to hear him sing. It also, a little surprisingly, is not really a 'guitar' album. Of course Howe plays guitar, but clearly his intention is not to demonstrate what a hot shot he is on his instrument unlike, say, Peter Banks. By the time this was released in 1975, Howe had already done all that, seemingly without effort. To put it simply, it's the material. You know, the songs. They're mostly pretty boring and aren't much helped by windy arrangements (with the exception of 'Pleasure Stole The Night', which is more breezy than windy). It isn't even Howe's clunky singing, which a lot of people complain about and which is passable at best- -it recalls that of the Floyd's Richard Wright with a cold, and Wright's no great singer himself. But it really wouldn't matter who sang (unless it was the guy from Flash, but more on him later and elsewhere). The longer instrumentals, 'Nature Of The Sea' and especially the title track, aren't really helped by the lack of Howe's singing. 'Nature Of The Sea' gets the edge, though, because the orchestral 'Beginnings' just sort of noodles along going nowhere for seven-plus minutes. It's quasi-ambitious; it's pretty; it's light; and it is very, very fluffy. The brief 'Ram' sounds like a rehearsal for 'The Clap', four years after the fact. No matter where you go in the album, it's like that. Okay. Now, having said all that, I find it pretty cool that the album has held up in its own way very well over the many years since its release. The artless singing and windy arrangements have become its strong points after all this time, saving what was in 1975 a mediocre effort and preserving it as a quirky pleasure.
01. "Doors of Sleep" (Steve Howe, Alice Meynell) - 4:08
02. "Australia
03. "The Nature of the Sea" (Steve Howe) - 3:57
04. "Lost Symphony" (Steve Howe) - 4:41
05. "Beginnings" (Steve Howe, orchestrated by Patrick Moraz) - 7:31
06. "Will o' the Wisp" (Steve Howe) - 6:00
07. "Ram" (Steve Howe) - 1:53
08. "Pleasure Stole the Night" (Steve Howe) - 2:57
09. "Break Away From It All" (Steve Howe) - 4:19
Released: October 31, 1975
Recorded at: Morgan & Advision studios
Genre: Progressive rock
Length: 39:51
Label: Atlantic
Producer: Steve Howe, Eddie Offord
Personnel
Steve Howe - guitars, bass, steel, vocals, mandolin, Moog, organ
Alan White - drums
Graeme Taylor - guitar
Malcolm Bennet - bass, flute
Dave Oberlé - drums
Colin Gibson - bass
Patrick Moraz - piano, harpsichord, Moog, Mellotron
Bud Beadle - saxophone
Mick Eve - saxophone
Patrick Halling - violin
William Reid - violin
John Meek - viola
Peter Halling - cello
Chris Laurence - double bass
James Gregory - flute, piccolo
Sidney Sutcliffe - oboe
Gwyd Brooke - bassoon
Bill Bruford - drums
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