YES – Owner of a Lonely Heart

“Owner of a Lonely Heart” Single by Yes from the album 90125
B-side “Our Song”
Released 24 October 1983
Recorded 1983
Label Atco
Songwriters Trevor Rabin, Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Trevor Horn
Producer Trevor Horn
Charted No.1 in US, No.28 in UK, No.12 in Italy, No.2 in Netherlands, No.2 in Canada, No.10 in West Germany.

This song describes the paradox of loneliness. Once you’ve been hurt, loneliness is better than a broken heart.

This is the first single from 90125, and was the group’s one and only #1 charting hit. The album was a drastic departure from Yes’ progressive sound in the ’70s, containing distorted guitar and synthesizers that were popular at the time. With help from MTV, Yes suddenly found a new audience, who were sometimes shocked to learn that much of their back catalog consisted of complex pieces that would often run well over 10 minutes.

The song originated in 1979 from South African musician, singer-songwriter, and producer Trevor Rabin; while going to the toilet, he wrote “the whole thing, from beginning to end”. Rabin then put down his ideas onto tape using his home equipment which included a 4-track tape machine. One of the recordings consisted of the main verse and chorus riff played on an acoustic guitar with some vocals. A developed version with drums, keyboards, and a complete set of lyrics was completed in 1980. Both recordings were released on Rabin’s demo compilation album 90124, in 2003. For the full version, Rabin used the first and second tracks to record the instruments and vocals before mixing the song onto the third. He added: “You would be making decisions based on what was coming, and sometimes those decisions would be wrong – but you couldn’t undo them. One of the things, a happy accident, was that all of the brass stabs and those weird things that happen on the record – they were just a product of what happened with the demo”.

The song’s music video was shown frequently on MTV, introducing the revamped Yes lineup and sound to a new generation of fans largely unfamiliar with the band’s earlier progressive rock style. The music video was directed by graphic designer Storm Thorgerson[34] who, as part of Hipgnosis, had previously designed the covers for the band’s albums Going for the One and Tormato.

Keyboardist Tony Kaye does not appear in the video as at the time of the video shoot, Eddie Jobson was standing in as the band’s keyboardist. Jobson can be seen briefly in a few quick shots in the beginning band scene and from behind during the rooftop scene, but he was not part of the video’s “animal transformation” scene in which the other four band members take part; the video was edited to remove as much of his appearance as possible. Ultimately, Kaye returned to the lineup and Jobson never recorded any material with the band.

The video was filmed in London, with some scenes filmed on top of various buildings. Scenes of the band playing are also present. It features a high-concept storyline involving a man arrested by implied to be secret police and taken in for interrogation. The protagonist was played by actor Danny Webb. He is plucked from the street and led steadily deeper into a building filled with other unfortunate victims. During his ordeal he experiences mental flashes of various animals. Eventually he arrives in the basement full of industrial machinery where he escapes after fighting an opponent. After climbing to freedom at the top of the tower he is confronted by several men (played by the band) and eventually leaps off the building, transforming to a bird of prey. The scene returns to him marching to work with thousands of others, revealing the scenes to be his imagination. He turns round and heads back from where he had been going.

YES
Jon Anderson – lead and backing vocals
Trevor Rabin – co-lead and backing vocals, electric guitars, Synclavier and Fairlight CMI synthesizers
Chris Squire – bass guitar, backing vocals
Alan White – drums, Fairlight CMI programming
Tony Kaye – piano

RIP
Peter Banks (July 15, 1947 – March 7, 2013), aged 65
Chris Squire (March 4, 1948 – June 27, 2015), aged 67
Alan White (June 14, 1949 – May 26, 2022), aged 72