Trevor Rabin - 90124 (1981)

Trevor Charles Rabin was born on 13 January 1954 in Johannesburg, South Africa, into a family of musicians. His mother, Joy, was a painter, ballet dancer, actress, and classical pianist, and his father, Godfrey, was a lawyer, musician, conductor, and the lead violinist in the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. With this background it's no wonder he took up the piano at the age of 6, and at twelve he started to teach himself the guitar using piano exercise books, never having had a formal lesson in the instrument. A year later he played in The Other, before forming Conglomeration, and later joining Freedom's Children for a one-year stint until 1973. At sixteen, he was discovered by a local record producer and became a session musician, playing a variety of styles including jazz, fusion, country, classical, conga, and kwela. In 1972, Rabin reunited with his bandmates in Conglomeration to form the rock band Rabbitt, with drummer Neil Cloud, bassist Ronnie Robot, and singer, keyboardist, and guitarist Duncan Faure, releasing their debut album 'Boys Will Be Boys' in 1975. This included a re-recording of the band's 1972 single, a cover of Jethro Tull's 'Locomotive Breath', and Rabin won an award for his orchestral arrangements. Rabbitt's second album, 'A Croak And A Grunt In The Night', was released in 1977, while Rabin was still pursuing a career as a session musician, and he released two albums under the pseudonym Trevor Terblanche. 

In 1977, Rabin recorded and released his first solo album, 'Beginnings', for RPM Records, playing all the instruments except the drums, for which he used session player Kevin Kruger. Also in 1977 Rabbitt agreed to a distribution deal with the US label Capricorn Records, but they were unable to tour abroad due to the international disapproval of South Africa's apartheid policies, and restrictions on South Africans obtaining visas. The situation became a catalyst for Rabin to leave the country, and in 1978 he arrived in London to continue his solo career. By July he'd struck a recording deal with Chrysalis Records, and in September 1978 they reissued a remixed and re-ordered version of his debut solo album under the name 'Trevor Rabin'. In 1979, he released his second solo album, 'Face To Face', promoting the album with a UK tour as an opening act for guitarist Steve Hillage. Rabin's third solo album for Chrysalis was 'Wolf', released in 1980 and co-produced with Ray Davies at his Konk Studios in London, with Rabin providing lead vocals, guitars, and keyboards, and using other musicians for the parts he didn't play, including drummer Simon Phillips, bassists Jack Bruce and Mo Foster, keyboardists Manfred Mann and John Bundrick, and Chris Thompson and Noel McCalla on additional vocals. Following its release, Rabin severed ties with Chrysalis as he felt the label did little to promote the album, and he moved to Los Angeles in 1981 to begin to develop material for a fourth solo album for his new label Geffen. 

During this time David Geffen also put him in contact with musicians that went on to form the supergroup Asia, but at an early rehearsal he felt his songs were not suitable for the group, which led to the label dropping him. Rabin then sent a tape of his new songs to various labels, including Clive Davis at Arista Records, who praised his vocals but deemed his songs unsuitable for the Top 40 format. RCA Records executive Ron Fair was impressed enough to offer Rabin a solo deal, which was declined after Rabin decided to work with bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White, formerly of the progressive rock band Yes, after his demos were discovered by producer Mutt Lange and Phil Carson of Atlantic Records. In late 1982, Rabin, Squire and White formed Cinema, which included original Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye, and they recorded '90125' with former Yes singer Trevor Horn as producer. Based mostly on Rabin's demos, the album displayed a more commercial and pop-oriented direction, much different than their progressive rock-themed albums in the 1970's, but during the mixing stages in mid-1983, former Yes singer Jon Anderson returned to sing on the album, which led to the group becoming a reformed line-up of Yes. 

Rabin was uncomfortable with the decision, feeling the new music did not represent what the band had become popular for, and wished for the album to be judged on its own merits as by the band Cinema. '90125' was released in 1983, and remains the band's highest selling album, with three million copies sold in the US alone, helped by its Rabin-penned lead single 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart', which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Before Anderson returned to the fold and Cinema became a Yes reunion, Rabin was very much in charge of the recording, with half the songs being his own, augmented by other members of the band. In fact, the demos that Lange and Carson heard could easily have been polished into an extremely good rock album under his own name, and as one of his demos has since appeared on a re-issue of '90125', and others on his own 2003 compilation, then we can now hear what a Rabin-helmed version of '90125' could have sounded like. This album includes his demos of four songs that Yes took on, as well as 'Fools' which was a precursor to 'Hearts', while 'I'm With You' was developed by Yes, but along with 'Would You Feel My Love' were both left off the final track-listing. Other tracks were demos for Cinema that remained unreleased, and so I've salvaged them from the vaults to make up Rabin's own version of '90125', which as it's essentially a preview of that album, is titled '90124'. 

Track listing

01 Owner Of A Lonely Heart  
02 Hold On  
03 It Can Happen           
04 Changes  
05 It's Over  
06 Would You Feel My Love   

07 Fools             
08 I'm With You
09 Don't Give In