Let’s get one thing out of the way right now; Yes is my all-time favorite band. And it’s my blog, and I’m going to write a really long appreciation of them. And here it is. So thank you very much for your time, it’s been nice to see you, and I’ll write about something interesting real soon, I promise.
Are they gone?
Good. Not that I wanted them to leave, but I did want them to know what they were in for. The rest of us, the small little clutch of us, can now get down to some Yes.
Yes is the name of a British progressive-rock, or art-rock, band whose heyday was the 1970’s. They are, amazingly, still around. You don’t get to hear much about them these days. Classic-rock radio doesn’t play much of their stuff, except their one big hit single, 1984’s “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” But if you’re a fan of prog-rock, you know of them and either love them or hate them. Either way, they are the center of the Prog universe.
Yes, The Band
Vocals – Jon Anderson, Trevor Horne
Guitar – Peter Banks, Steve Howe, Trevor Rabin, Billy Sherwood
Keyboards – Tony Kaye, Rick Wakeman, Patrick Moraz, Geoff Downes, Igor Khorishov
Drums – Bill Bruford, Alan White
Bass – Chris Squire
In the now more than 40 years of the band’s existence, the two names always associated with the band are Jon Anderson and Chris Squire. Jon is on all but one album and Chris did not participate on the two released under the ABWH name. Other than that, the band has always included both of them.
Jon has one of those unique voices. He’s not a high tenor, he’s a soprano. He’s also the chief lyricist for the group, although the others all get their turns. Especially Squire. Trevor Horne was brought in for 1980’s “Drama” after Jon and Rick Wakeman left. He went on to be a top-flight producer.
“Drama” is also the one album that Geoff Downes plays on. He and Horne were The Buggles, now most famous for having the first video ever played on MTV; Video Killed the Radio Star. Kaye and Wakeman are the only keyboardists to each be on more than one Yes album. Moraz, Downes, and Khorishov got one each. Moraz went on to play for the Moody Blues in the ‘80’s and also has many solo works. Downes went with Howe in ’82 and formed Asia, and is still leading that band. Don’t know where Khorishov is.
Peter Banks played guitar on the first two albums, but Steve Howe is the man everybody thinks of as Yes’ guitar man. The band more or less broke up around ’80 or ’81. When it reformed, Trevor Rabin took over the guitar chores. Billy Sherwood co-produced their ’96 live set, “Keys to Ascension,” and because co-guitarist with Howe for two albums following.
Bill Bruford was the original drummer, and returned for ABWH. He is widely regarded as the superior of the two, but Alan White is no slouch. Bruford went on to play for King Crimson and do a number of solo and session projects. White is an alumnus of John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, and also recorded and performed with George Harrison.
That leaves Squire. He has a reputation as being a bit of a flake. He’s the guy who’s always late for rehearsals and sound checks. But he is also one of the most influential bassists in the history of rock music. He’s a virtuoso musician, a dynamic performer, and a very good songwriter.
Yes, Periodically
- The Beginning (1968-1969)
Yes (1968)
Time and a Word (1969)
(Anderson, Banks, Kaye, Squire, Bruford)
Their first two albums, and their most forgettable. From the early ‘70’s to the present day, the only song from these albums that ever gets played live is the second album’s title track. It’s a pretty little tune, but most of the rest is experiments that needed a lot of help, or attempted radio songs.
- Classic Yes (1970-1980)
The Yes Album (1970)
- minus Banks, plus Howe
Fragile (1971)
- minus Kaye, plus Wakeman
Close to the Edge (1972)
YesSongs (1973)
- minus Bruford, plus White
Tales of Topographic Oceans (1973)
Relayer (1974)
- minus Wakeman, plus Moraz
Going For the One (1977)
- minus Moraz, plus Wakeman
Tormato (1978)
Drama (1980)
- minus Anderson and Wakeman, plus Horne and Downes
This is the Yes that older fans remember. The music was experimental and bombastic. Steve Howe flew his guitar over the top of everything like a hummingbird on steroids. Wakeman ruled over the world of the recently invented synthesizer like Bach on acid, and if anything Moraz was even wilder. They were four virtuoso musicians playing their asses off all the time, all in support of Anderson’s keening vocals.
With no hit singles and little if any radio airplay they packed stadiums and sold millions of records. Their compositions became longer and more daring all the time. The album cover artwork of Roger Dean became iconic, and the Dean-designed logo was everywhere. The critics hated them as much as the fans loved them.
And then, with Tormato, they stumbled. The follow-up, recorded in Paris under the working title of “The Golden Age” fell apart completely and was never finished. Squire brought in the Buggles, and mixing some of Golden Age with some of what was supposed to be the next Buggles album, Drama was put together. The revamped band was well received in Britain, but the American tour not so much. After that, they called it quits.
- The In-Between Years (1981-1983)
Classic Yes (1981)
YesShows (1982)
It’s said that Squire put together Classic Yes, a compilation that even included songs from the first two albums, and YesShows, culled from live tapes that include performances by Moraz. Wakeman embarked on a solo career that he’d begun after Fragile. Howe did some solo albums, but his real highlight was being a founding member of Asia, which became very big indeed.
Squire also teamed up with White on an abortive project that came to be known as XYZ. The ex-Yes bassist and drummer did some sessions and rehearsals with Led Zeppelin’s guitarist and vocalist, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. This was after the breakup of that band following the death of drummer John Bonham. EX Yes and Zeppelin; get it?
The band all did their own solo albums between Relayer and Going For the One, and Anderson jumped headfirst into his new solo career. Besides recording under his own name, he teamed up with the man who was his alternative choice to Moraz for Relayer; a Greek keyboard virtuoso named Vangelis. There are a number of Jon And Vangelis albums out there, all very interesting.
- YesWest (1984-1994)
90215 (1984)
9012 Live (1985)
Big Generator (1987)
Talk (1994)
- all Anderson, Rabin, Kaye, Squire, White
Around 1983 Squire and White started working on a project they called Cinema with Trevor Rabin. Yes has always been quintessentially British, but Rabin was South African and Cinema’s base of operations was California. Squire suggested bringing in Tony Kaye to play keys, reuniting two of the original Yesmen. Kaye hardly played on the sessions, leaving most of the keyboard work to Rabin, but happily joined them on the road and cashed his checks.
The sessions were going well, but Rabin was doing most of the lead vocals and even he realized they needed someone better. Chris Squire made a cassette of the rough mixes and took them to Jon Anderson. Jon liked them and agreed to join the band, on one condition . . . that they change the name to Yes. He added some lyrics and re-recorded most of the lead vocals. The title came from the album’s Atlantic Records catalog number. The only number-1 single of the group’s career, “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, led it off.
- ABWH (1989-1991)
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe (1989)
Union – (1991)
An Evening of Yes Music, Plus – (1994)
You will note the overlap in these two periods. At some point after Big Generator, somebody realized that there was a whole ‘nother band’s worth of ex-Yes people not playing Yes music. YesWest’s second studio album wasn’t received as well as its first and it also raised lingering tensions within the group. Anderson rang up Bruford, Wakeman and Howe and suggested they get together. Bruford allegedly only came on the condition that he receive equal credit without having to contribute any writing.
They were originally going to record and tour under the name Yes, but Squire sued, saying that he should own the name as he was the only member who’d been on every album. YesWest were horrified at the prospect of two Yes’s touring at the same time. The courts eventually ruled in favor of Anderson, essentially giving him ownership of the name.
Unfortunately for him, they had to deliver an album and book a tour faster than the courts could make their decision. So eschewing their long-standing relationship with Atlantic records, they signed with Arista as ABWH. The album and tour tickets sold well, actually outstripping those by YesWest’s Big Generator.
Further problems developed when both bands returned to the studio. It began to look like neither new album was going to be finished, so Anderson, who was singing on both, suggested they combine forces. The result was Union, with Yes swollen to 8 members. The album and subsequent tour were a big hit.
“An Evening” was released by Arista to fulfill ABWH’s contract obligations.
- The End (1995-Present)
Keys to Ascension, vol. 1 and 2 (1996)
- Anderson, Howe, Wakeman, Squire, White
Open Your Eyes (1997)
- Anderson, Howe, Sherwood, Squire, White
The Ladder (1999)
- Anderson, Howe, Sherwood, Khorishov, Squire, White
KeyStudio (2001)
- Anderson, Howe, Wakeman, Squire, White
Magnification (2002)
- Anderson, Howe, Squire, White
and various compilations, live albums, and boxed sets.
A-a-and . . . that’s about it. Yes left Atlantic after “Union” to sign with a succession of independent labels and haven’t made the album charts since. Their concerts still sell out, and most of their back catalogue is still in print, but they’re not a force any more. Plus, the members are all in their sixties now. Anderson and Wakeman have health issues that keep them from touring. The last trip of the classic lineup was in 2002, and they were great.
But Wakeman’s son, Oliver, took Dad’s place for the last trip to the states, and the leader of a British Yes tribute band took Anderson’s place. Even their website is suffering from neglect. It’s a shame that they’re just going to fade away, but there are worse things.
Yes, Categorically
The One – YesSongs
This is a live set from the tour in support of “Close To the Edge.” Bill Bruford quit the group between the recording sessions and the beginning of the tour, but still appears on a couple cuts. Alan White reportedly took the job on two days’ notice, and did a phenomenal job. It is a collection of excellent recordings of great performances of some of their best music. In most cases, better than the studio versions. If you’re going to have only one Yes album, this is the one.
The Important Ones –
The Yes Album – The one where Steve Howe joined. Peter Banks was forced out shortly after the sessions for “Time and a Word,” which upset a lot of the group’s fans. When they heard “The Yes Album,” they got over it real quick. Howe’s contributions to the songwriting are as striking as his guitar playing.
Fragile – Tony Kaye preferred organ and piano to synthesizers, which still had a lot of bugs and limitations. But the sounds were popular, and so he, too was forced out. His replacement was a former member of the Strawbs named Rick Wakeman. “Fragile” was as gigantic a leap as “The Yes Album” had been before it. Songs like “Roundabout” and “Heart of the Sunrise” are still great, but most striking were the little vignettes each member contributed. It’s like they were playing with their new toys, seeing what they could do with them.
Tales of Topographic Oceans – The first studio set with new drummer Alan White. Their compositions had been getting more and more sophisticated. With Topo, they took this to the extreme with four compositions each taking up a full album side, all turning on a central theme. The whole thing is based on an extended footnote from a Yoga book. Deep, baby, deep. This is the lynchpin of a sub-period known as The Topo Years, which ties together “Close to the Edge,” “Relayer,” and the song “Awaken” from “Going for the One.” Pilloried in the press, but at the time their best seller.
Going for the One – The return of Wakeman! It was a hugely hyped event, both as a recording and a tour. Nobody really disliked what Patrick Moraz brought to the group on “Relayer,” but Wakeman is an icon. He had fallen out with the rest of the band as much over lifestyle as music. Wakeman is a working class Brit into beef and beer, while the rest experimented with vegetarianism and drugs. He didn’t like Topo, and on that tour the rest of the band insisted on playing only the new album. So when it was over, he left. When Anderson played him rough demos of “Going,” he came back. Listen, and you’ll see why. The Squire-penned “Parallels” and Topo-inspired “Awaken” are highlights.
90125 – The first YesWest. The group was dead and gone, and then this! It came right at the peak of the ‘80’s hair-band craze, but still stood out from the pack. It sounded so different from any other Yes album, but still had Jon Anderson’s vocals on top. It was more sophisticated than anything Ratt or Poison or Def Leppard did, but tapped into that vibe. Rabin may have been a small step behind in the shred department, but had more imagination than any of his contemporaries. Their best selling album, and one of their best.
Union – The last Yes album to sell in significant numbers. A lot of serious Yes fans hate it now, but it’s really pretty good. If you know them, you can tell which songs were ABWH and which were YesWest. Even so, various players went to great lengths to play on the other group’s songs and it comes together pretty well. The tour also drew well, and there’s supposed to be a DVD that’s excellent. Now you know what to get me for Christmas.
The Other Best Albums –
Close to the Edge – The follow up to “Fragile,” this takes the promise of the former and explores it. The title track takes up all of one side, and the other side is two great tunes, “Siberian Khatru” and “And You And I.” Great stuff, and still one of my favorite albums. Anderson said at the time that the inspiration for the title track was a dream he’d had about carrying an amplifier in his arms through a forest and walking into a pool of quicksand. All three songs get excellent live treatments on “YesSongs.”
Relayer – This follows the same format as CTTE; long piece on one side (Gates of Delirium) and two shorter-but-still-long songs on the other. “Gates of Delirium” is based on Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” in case you were wondering. Patrick Moraz proves that Rick Wakeman isn’t the only person who could play synth like a sumbich. My favorite moment is a point about ¾ of the way through “Gates,” where they’ve been soloing, then stop and Alan White takes the beat onto the snare. He pounds away and drags the beat down, and then with no apparent cue the rest of the band jumps back in. Brilliant! Take that, Bill Bruford!
The Hidden Gems –
Drama – This album, and the accompanying tour, were not as well received in the US as in England. Plus, time has softened the hearts of many a Yes fan. It’s a really good album, even if it is one of their darker ones. Up to now, the group dynamic had been that Anderson always, eventually, got his way. That, and the virtuoso competition between Howe and Wakeman had driven the music. With them gone, Squire and Howe had the chance to assert themselves. Geoff Downes proved to be a brilliant musician, even though his style is much more subtle than Wakeman’s. And while no one, Horne included, believed the former Buggle to be the superior singer, Trevor Horne stepped up to the plate and gave it his best shot. He went on to produce 90125.
ABWH – It’s striking to listen to this back to back with its immediate predecessor, YesWest’s “Big Generator.” While Generator is a fine album in its own right, it sounds heavy and cumbersome next to ABWH. The latter is light and springy, with a wide dynamic range. It’s like comparing a bulldozer to a race car. Even the much-maligned “Teakbois,” a calypso-inspired Anderson song, gets you moving.
Talk – Proof that the bulldozer could really tear it up. The last YesWest album, almost as good – and in some ways, better – than 90125. This was the product of one really great idea and one really bad one. The great one was to give Trevor Rabin free rein to do pretty much whatever he wanted. He crafted a set of really good, inventive, imaginative songs. The bad idea was to leave Atlantic records and sign with a small, independent label. I don’t know if Atlantic dropped them or if they left on their own, but Talk became one of the best albums that nobody ever heard. After the commercial success of “Union” it’s a shame that this, so much better, got ignored.
The Ladder – The story of this begins with the reunion in 1996 of the Classic Yes lineup; Anderson, Squire, Howe, White, and Wakeman. They recorded the massive 4-CD “Keys Of Ascension” project in California with producer Billy Sherwood. Most of it was live, but there were also studio sessions. More on this later.
For whatever reason, they then bid Wakeman goodbye. Sherwood had already been working on a project with Squire and White, and they invited Anderson and Howe to help finish it up. That became “Open Your Eyes.” More on THAT later.
After this, with two guitarists and no regular keyboard man, they hired a young fellow named Igor Khorishov who had worked on the “OYE” studio sessions, making the band now a 6-piece. This group went into the studio with producer Bruce Fairbrother to record “The Ladder.”
The Worst –
(These are the albums you should wait to add to your collection until you have all the others.)
“Yes” and “Time and a Word” – The first two. I’ve only got the second one currently, and have only listened to it a couple times. The first one, I’ve heard a couple times as well. They’re all right, I suppose. To be honest, if you like Yes even the worst stuff is pretty darned good. With these two, there is the promise of things to come. Their songwriting and vocal harmonies improved dramatically in the following albums. And while Peter Banks is really a fine guitarist, I’m yet to hear anyone suggest that they should have kept him and not hired Steve Howe.
Tormato – Some very good songs on this follow-up to “Going For the One. Unfortunately, the relationship between Howe and Wakeman had devolved into them trying to one-up each other, and it hurt the songs. The middle break on “Release, Release” was so weak they felt they needed to dub in crowd noise to pump it up. And yet, the album contains pieces like “Onward” and “On the Silent Wings of Freedom.” It’s really a pretty good album, unless you compare it to all the rest.
KeyStudio – The 1996 sessions for Keys to Ascension were eventually released as two two-disc sets, mostly live and each ending with a few studio pieces. These were later put together on one disc called KeyStudio. It should be a masterpiece, seeing that it’s a reunion of the Classic Yes lineup. And, among most die-hard Yes fans, it is received as such. But it’s not. It’s funny how the same group of people can hate ABWH and love this lead turkey. This might be the worst album ever released under the Yes name.
Open Your Eyes – The follow-up to Keys, this might be the most controversial album in their entire catalog. Have you ever had one of those snacks that you didn’t really care for, but kept going back for? Yeah, it wasn’t bad, maybe I’ll have one more, and the next thing you know the bowl’s empty. This album is like that.
The engineer and co-producer of Keys was a California gentleman named Billy Sherwood. He hooked up with Chris Squire and Alan White for a side project named Conspiracy, much as Trevor Rabin had for Cinema more than a decade before. The feel of the whole album is leaden, even the quiet acoustic bits. And yet there are some good melodies and fine performances. It’s just that most of the good ideas wind up in songs that feel unfinished.
The most striking thing is how simple and dead Alan White’s drum parts are. It’s hard to believe the man who recorded “Gates of Delirium” on Relayer also played on this. There’s nothing for him to do, fer cryin’ out loud!
Most fans hate this record, because it compares so badly to the rest of the catalog. But a few love it, thinking it represented a bold new direction for the band.
Magnification – So far, this is the last Yes studio album, recorded in 2001. They were without a keyboard player at this time because Igor Khorishov insisted on misbehaving on the Ladder tour. So they hooked up with an arranger they knew and tried a new idea; integrating a symphony orchestra with a rock band. Yeah, I know, not exactly a new idea, but one that arguably had never been done really well. You can trace the roots all the way back to Phil Spector. The Moody Blues’ “Days of Futures Past” and Deep Purple’s “Concerto” are probably the best-known examples.
Yes wanted to see if the seams connecting the two could be made a little smoother. Musically, it actually works pretty well. The orchestra isn’t just playing what the keyboard player would have; they actually tried to create arrangements that combined all the instruments into one unit. The tour worked out pretty well also. The charts were sent to a number of symphony orchestras around the world, and then Yes rolled into town, did a rehearsal, and then the concert. It’s captured on DVD if you’re interested.
The biggest problem is that the album is kind of sleepy. Not heavy and cumbersome like “Open Your Eyes” or “Big Generator,” but just slow. There are a few great songs, but most of it is pretty forgettable.
And this is the note that they seem to be ending on. As mentioned before, Anderson and Wakeman’s health keeps them from touring with the band. Yes is on the road as I write this, but with Howe, Squire, and White supplemented by Benoit David on vocals and Rick Wakeman’s son, Oliver on keys. They’re also playing smaller and smaller venues. In 2002 they played the Whittemore Center in Durham. This time they’re at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, a hall about half as big.
Since “Magnification,” there have been a pile of live albums, DVDs, and compilations released. It’s as if they’re tying up all the loose ends before shutting off life support. There is creative output, but only as individual members. It’s like a well-skipped rock that goes and goes and goes, and will finally one day simply go ‘schlick’ and slip beneath the surface.
I’ve seen Yes live four times in all. The first was the day after my 22nd birthday, Aug. 14, 1977, at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine. As you might have guessed, it was a memorable evening. They were touring in support of “Going For the One,” which I consider one of their two or three best albums. It's also the tour in which Rick Wakeman returned.
A year later I saw them again, this time at the old Boston Garden. “Tormato” tour. This was the tour when they started playing in the round. They had a rotating stage that revolved once every minute. The PA was suspended over the stage, and it is the only band that ever managed to sound good in Boston Garden. This iteration is captured on the DVD, “Philadelphia 1979.”
I also saw them in 1980 in Springfield, Mass. It was the Drama tour, with Trevor Horne and Geoff Downes filling in for Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman. Yeah, it wasn’t the same, but it was still damned good.
In 2002 my wife got me a ticket – one ticket; she wasn’t interested – to see them at the Whittemore Center. Wakeman had returned yet again, and there was talk of an album, but it’s never materialized. I went with no small bit of apprehension. We had seen the Moody Blues a couple years earlier, and while it was a very good show it was also obvious that the remaining members of the band couldn’t have done it without four or five ‘professional’ musicians supporting them.
This was not the case with Yes. There is something powerful about a band of excellent musicians at the top of their game. That power filled the hall that night. No compromises were made whatsoever. On the contrary, they breathed new life into songs that in some cases hadn’t been played live in twenty years or more. They even dug out “South Side of the Sky” from Fragile, which was impossible to perform live when it was new, and “Gates of Delirium” which Wakeman didn’t record. They played for over three hours, and it was a triumph.
I wished I had made the effort to take somebody with me. It was a glorious evening. I was struck by how many parents my age and younger were bringing their kids. They say it’s a bad sign when most of the cars in the parking lot are Volvos, but I didn’t care.
The most heart-breaking thing to me is how little respect they get outside of their own fan base these days. They are regarded as the worst offenders of an offensive era. In the ‘70’s there were hundreds of art-rock bands who dressed like Merlin the Magician and sang incomprehensible quasi-mystical words over complex music that probably owed more to Wagner and Beethoven than Bill Haley or the Beatles. If it hadn’t been for the success of YesWest, they’d probably be a trivia question now.
The fact remains that the words DID mean something, and the musicianship was without parallel in rock music. They, Yes and the others, pushed the envelope, and Yes’ music succeeded more than anybody else’s. And yet, in spite of their popularity and influence, they are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They seem to be as despised and derided outside of their fan base as they are worshipped within it. To me, it is the Hall’s loss.
If you’ve gotten this far, you probably deserve even more punishment. Here’s a link to a very good bio of the band on allmusic.com.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:difoxqr5ldfe~T1
It contradicts some of the things I’ve said, but it’s also got a couple of small inaccuracies. For instance, Jon Anderson doesn’t sing in falsetto. He doesn’t have to. His voice is really that high. Trevor Horne had to go falsetto a few times doing the older Yes material live, but he’s only human. Frankie Valli sings falsetto; Jon Anderson sings.
