Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist and composer best known for his multiple tenures in the progressive rock band Yes and for his prolific solo career, which has spanned six decades. His most successful and acclaimed albums are his first three progressive rock concept albums – The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1973), the UK number-one Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974), and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975). AllMusic describes Wakeman as a “classically trained keyboardist extraordinaire who plied his trade with Yes and developed his own brand of live spectacular in a solo act.” Born and raised in West London, Wakeman intended to become a concert pianist but quit the Royal College of Music in 1969 and became a sought-after session musician. Among the estimated 2,000 sessions he did, he played on “Space Oddity” and “Life on Mars?” for David Bowie, “Morning Has Broken” by Cat Stevens, and on tracks for Elton John, Marc Bolan, and Lou Reed. After a brief stint in the folk rock group Strawbs, during which he received national press attention, he joined Yes in 1971, playing on seminal albums such as Fragile (1971), Close to the Edge (1972), and Tales From Topographic Oceans (1973). His technical virtuosity on keyboards such as the Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, and Mellotron, combined with his flamboyant stage presence and trademark capes, made him an iconic figure in 1970s progressive rock. In 1974, he formed his touring and recording band, the English Rock Ensemble, and in the following year expanded into soundtrack work for Ken Russell’s feature film Lisztomania (1975).
See for more.
Recording The Red Planet (Part 5)
And Jon Lord on Sunflower Jam 2011
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Recording The Red Planet (Part 7)
Recording The Red Planet (Part 4)
Tribute To David Bowie – Life On Mars
Space Oddity
Paint it Black
Beatles Tribute
Help & Eleanor Rigby
Stairway to Heaven
Catherine Parr (1988)
Eleanor Rigby
King Arthur
Close to the edge
Six wives Of Henry The 8Th
And you and i
Jane Seymour
Journey To The Center Of The Earth
This page contains text from Wikipedia. The content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution‑ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY‑SA 4.0). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
This text is based on the original Wikipedia article.