When Did Yes Jump The Shark? (And Jump It They Have)

I have been trying to pinpoint when, in my opinion, the band Yes jumped the shark. Among the last remaining Yes fanatics, this is a topic of great discussion. Any post about the most minor Yes tidbit on the Facebook fan page Notes from the Edge is met with comment after comment about the value of what keyboard player, which era, when the band should have wrapped it up etc.

Soaking up all of this noise started to influence my memory and respect for the band, so I thought I’d do my own research and listening. I had not really listened to Yes at a good clip for a few years. I was certainly disillusioned by the replacement (twice) of Jon Anderson due to his continued respiratory failure clashing with the band’s desire to continue to tour. And at the risk of alienating readers and crucifying my credibility, despite my disillusionment about HOW Anderson was dismissed, I am not an Anderson snob: I love the 1980 first Anderson-less album Drama, and I quite enjoy 75 percent of the recent Anderson-less Fly From Here.

But after delving back into the catalog from pre-Close to The Edge to the present, my opinion is that the band was past its prime when it embarked on its 35^th anniversary tour.

Let’s go back a bit. I discovered Yes in high school in the mid 1980s. I knew of the 90125 album but didn’t own it. No, my first Yes album was Tales from Topographic Oceans, the double album with four songs on it. My friend Tom turned me onto it and I listened to it non-stop, fascinated. I was already a Rush fan but this music made Hemispheres sound like the Go Go’s. I branched out from there, to Going for the One, Close to the Edge, Drama, Tormato, The Yes Album and then Relayer. Hell, anything with a song 20 minutes long, I’d buy. I even had the Yesshows album, which I think is long out of print.

I was only able to see Yes live once they hit the road on the Big Generator tour, which to this day gives me goosebumps thinking about the live rendering of Shoot High Aim Low. But I long missed live Yes in its heyday for sure. I caught Union. I saw Anderson Bruford, Wakeman and Howe at the show they recorded for the live album and DVD. I had a major boner when the classic version of the band (Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman, White) finally got back together and put out the live Keys to Ascension CDs. I loved the Ladder album and tour, and thought the Masterworks/Magnification tour was a gift, finally hearing Gates of Delirium and Ritual live.

But from there, I think the band should have packed it in. I mean, they had played ALL of their cards – get together with members of all eras (Union tour and shit album), do a record with a symphony (and check out the awesome DVD that came from that effort), do a tour playing all the 20 minute epics. Not much left up the sleeve for the 35^th anniversary except to FINALLY play South Side of the Sky (great idea) and do an acoustic bossa-nova version of Roundabout (not a great idea).

On paper the 35^th anniversary tour was groovy – really deep set list, Roger Dean era stage, classic lineup. But somewhere along the line, the band stopped giving a shit. I saw the first night on the tour and they were rusty as hell. The Roger Dean stuff was lame balloons painted and illuminated. Steve Howe’s tone was weak and brittle (and has been for the last few years). The tempos were ungodly slow and the band was not engaged (and the Key Arena was about half full). They were under rehearsed and made errors. It was frankly embarrassing.

Listening to the live DVD they put out from that tour confirms it. By the recording they were much tighter but still, slow tempos, uninspired playing, and yeah Anderson’s voice was really raggy. They didn’t even bother to fix that in the studio. Or maybe like Paul Stanley, Anderson just needed a long break that he was unable or unwilling to take.

So for me, the band surely had its ups and downs, good periods and so-so periods, and there are probably as many opinions about which were best as there were yes keyboardists. But for me, the band was done by the 35^th anniversary tour. It should have been a farewell tour.

Fortunately the band has left a long legacy of albums and live recordings, DVDs and bootlegs that will continue to freak out music fans for generations. But based on the YouTube's I have seen from the last two years, the band is now shitting on its legacy. Wrap it up boys. You shouldn’t make your 50^th anniversary, even if you can.

Behold this version of (the Anderson-less) Tempus Fugit from last year. Poor Alan White has slowed this song down to an intolerable level and can still barely keep up:

Compare with the (the Anderson-less) original:

Prog Fans Rejoice As Steve Hackett and Chris Squire Partner in the Aptly Named 'Squackett'

Next Monday, fans of old school Yes and Genesis will have boners as the long-anticipated album from Yes bassist Chris Squire and Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett will hit the stands.

Much like the names Hoobastank and Chickenfoot, the band name started as a joke and sadly stuck. The group is called Squackett. Gah!

But the two songs available today on iTunes sound pretty cool. Or at least the 1:30 samples sound good - I am too cheap to buy them today and again next week.

I have to say I have always liked Chris Squire's songs. To me, he is the Ace Frehley of Yes. Meaning, he does not take the mic frequently but when he does, I usually like what comes out of his head.

His one solo album, Fish Out Of Water, is a prog rock classic must-have. Songs like Can You Imagine from Yes' Magnification, The More We Live/Let Go from Yes Union (the only good song on that piece of crap) and The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be from the new Fly From Here by the Anderson-less Yes are all great songs.

Also, dig Squire's first take at It Can Happen on the 90125 bonus tracks before Jon Anderson added his parts - very cool stuff indeed.

So finally another album of stuff piloted by Chris Squire - it got my interest right away.

Steve Hackett is another story. I love-love LOVE his work in Genesis. Some of the best, most tasteful and innovative playing from that era. But sadly I also have every one of his solo albums and there are A LOT of them. But aside from some stuff on Spectral Mornings, I can't Hack (cough) any of them.

Well, his last two releases are actually pretty good. One is a solo nylon string guitar album called Metamorpheus that is like a whole album of songs like the gorgeous Horizons from Foxtrot (waaaay early Genesis).

I also really dug his playing on the GTR album and have always been a fan of his style.

So maybe this will be the prog version of peanut butter and chocolate. Come Monday, we'll find out! For now, dig these short previews from Prog Magazine:

Yes Signs Up Another New Singer - Jon Davison from Glass Hammer

Word buzzing around the Yes camp was that Jon Anderson's replacement Benoit David was ill, the band had to cancel a few shows, and there was going to be a temporary replacement for an upcoming tour of Australia -- another Yes tribute band singer, Jon Davison

But now Chris Squire has broken the news to Noise11 that Benoit is out for good. I am sure Yes' PR people are going apeshit with this:

“Jon Davison is coming in because of Benoit’s departure. I always hope that when there is a member change in the band that it will be a permanent thing. Only time will tell really”, founding member Chris Squire told Noise11.com this morning.

“I don’t know if I’m meant to be telling you this yet, so I guess you’ve got a scoop.”

Like Benoit David, Jon Davison was discovered fronting a Yes covers band. Benoit had joined Yes after the departure of original singer Jon Anderson. He has been suffering from respiratory failure this year and could not continue on for the Australia tour in April. However, his departure is permanent.

“Yes, he has officially left Yes,” Chris says.

Benoit David joined Yes in 2008. He sings lead on the latest yes album ‘Fly From Here’.

“People have left to go off to do various projects and solo projects over the years,” Chris says. “Some like Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman have left and come back. In Rick’s case, four times. It’s always been a fairly flexible in and out door for some members of the band. At the last count, including Jon Davison, he is the 18th member of the band. It has never been personal problems. It’s just things that happen at certain times”.

Ugh - this is really too bad. I mean, I hate to say this but I have been listening to Fly From Here a lot and started to really enjoy Benoit David's vocals! If you forget that it is supposed to be a Yes album, it helps. It's just mostly very good music - heavily influenced by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. Now that lineup is ditched. Whatever!

But for the record, Davison sounds pretty damn good in the below video, and his other band Glass Hammer is a true prog outfit. I always thought Benoit David was fairly passionless and didn't seem to be a big Yes fan - until I got into Fly From Here of course. So, who knows, maybe this will be a good pairing overall. I'll be watching YouTube for fan videos from Australia in April.

Chris Squire and Some Yes Tidbits - On the Fence

I have been on the fence. Should I go see the pseudo-Yes tour with the clone lead singer? It will never be the same without Jon Anderson but they are playing a tiny place in Portland (for them) and are doing stuff off of one of my favorite albums, Drama (see videos below).

Will it kill me if I miss this? No. But if Chris Squire dies this summer and I was not able to see these guys play again, would I be bummed? Yes.

Decisions, decisions.

In my quest for an answer, I stumbled across some interesting nuggets. Squire in November quietly posted a pretty enlightening interview on his official Web site. He answers some of the hard questions fired at him from online fan sites, such as, what is he thinking by replacing Anderson and what happens after this tour? Here are a couple of things that stood out:

RS: You’ve referred to Benoit as an understudy on the Internet. Are you being ‘p.c.’, so as not to ruffle any feathers, or could Benoit be the new voice of Yes?

Chris: The fact is that Jon Anderson had a series of health problems, and he’s not out of the woods yet. I really don’t know what his prognosis will be – if he’ll be able to do any lengthy tours. Although I did mention that Benoit was the understudy originally, which is the fair way of saying it. You know, a stand in. I can’t really tell. Obviously I’m not really a doctor and I can’t tell how Jon will be in the future, but I imagine it will be more limited to doing maybe some individual shows here and there with him. I don’t know if he’ll ever want to do a full-scale tour again. But once again, until he’s recovered, and of course we wish him a full recovery, we won’t know any of those things. So meanwhile we’re getting along all right with Benoit.

RS: Are there any plans to record a new album with this current line-up?

Chris: Yes. Absolutely. We’re looking at doing some new recording. And obviously we’ll be working with the guys on that. Although there are no definite plans or dates yet, because obviously we’re working on this tour. But, we’ll be introducing new ideas. I know Steve Howe has new ideas and I know I have, as I mentioned earlier, have written quite a lot of material when I was in London that I want to use for that purpose.

Another thing Squire talked about in November was the coming birth of his new baby, due in March. But on the Yesworld site, Squire posted on Christmas that his daughter had been born - that's almost four months premature. Here is the post:

December 25, 2008 - Message from Chris & Scotty Squire
We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We are pleased to announce the very early arrival of our daughter, Xilan Squire, born on Dec. 19th

Everyone is happy and healthy and doing as well as can be at this time. Xilan weighs in at 1 pound 13 ounces and is being a very brave little starship trooper/pooper.

Best wishes to all and Happy Holidays.

There is a photo here. That is a very small preemie and I hope she is doing OK! Wow.

And to further help me make my decision, I did some YouTube trolling and found these fan videos of Machine Messiah from the first leg of the tour. Hmm. Sounds pretty damn good. I will never see that song again live. Decisions, decisions.

Machine Messiah Part 1


Machine Messiah Part 2

Get Ready for a Heavy Metal X-Mas

As recently reported by LimeWire and now on sale at Amazon.com (be the first to write a review!), a handful of heavy metal luminaries have recorded rocking versions of classic Christmas songs for the CD We Wish You A Metal Xmas And A Headbanging New Year.

The compilation involves the members of Foo Fighters, Heaven and Hell (Dio and Iommi) Queensrÿche, The Cult, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, Dokken, KISS, L.A. Guns, Marilyn Manson, Motörhead, Testament, King’s X, Judas Priest, Anthrax, Ratt, Styx, and Toto.

Toto? Yeah, I wondered about that too.

The LimeWire story reports that Dio’s manager wife Wendy put the project together with Bob Kulick (ex-KISS) and some dude named Brett Chassen. Dio and Iommi for some reason do a remake of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and there are nine other tunes.

Dio reportedly said, “The Metal Xmas album was a great opportunity to pay homage to my least favorite holiday.”

This will go on my wish list right next to Chris Squire's album from last year, Chris Squire’s Swiss Choir.

Ah yes, and here is the ad:

Chris Squire and Steve Hackett to team Up?

Since Yes' Jon Anderson griped on his Web site about being kept out of the loop on his bandmates replacing him with tribute band singer Benoit David, the Yes camp has been in spin mode.

Guitarist Steve Howe is begging tour attendees to not commit 'musical terrorism' by booing the band, and bassist Chris Squire has reiterated that as soon as Jon is all better, he is welcome to re-join.

Anderson removed his gripey post and it's even gone from the news archives on his site. Of course I re-printed the whole thing here.

But buried in one of those articles is this little nugget:

Squire reports that he's also started a new venture with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett -- "We may call it Squackett," the bassist quips -- that will be released in early 2009, with European dates in the spring.

"We're nearly 75 percent done," Squire says. "It's real good. Steve Hackett is a very underrated writer and actually a very good singer. We're doing a lot of harmonizing, and some of it is almost in the Crosby, Stills & Nash vein."

Not so interested in hearing Squire and Hackett sing harmonies. But it could be musically very compelling as long as they are not trying to craft pop tunes a la GTR.

I have posted a version of this solo before but this is still one of my all time favorite musical passages. I think that is John Wetton on bass but imagine what Chris Squire might do with the part. Please excuse the hairstyles and keyboard player. This must be late 80s/early 90s!

Chris Squire Joins Foo Fighters In Vegas

Add members of Yes to the long list of rockers who have jammed in the last year or so with the Foo Fighters.

For those of you with short memories, that list includes Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen, Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee from Rush, and Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones (Zeppelin, if you didn't know that. Ha ha). Geez - what it is with the Foos? They have rock star magnets all over them.

Anyway, I guess ole Fishy joined the Foos over the weekend in Vegas to jam on the Foo song "Cold Day In The Sun" at the Hard Rock Las Vegas. Maybe Squire was auditioning drummers or something.

Thanks to MSTai for the tip, as she was there in person! Of course somebody posted a video of the event on YouTube:

Chris Squire's Swiss Choir

Yes’ Chris Squire has issued a Christmas CD called “Chris Squire’s Swiss Choir.” Say that ten times fast!

You can get it from Squire’s Web site, and Amazon and probably iTunes. It’s basically a modern take on some old English classic holiday songs (no Jingle Bells thank God) and from the couple of very quick audio previews, it does not sound half bad (or all bad)! Very nice choir, fairly rocking. I would have been more interested in this just before Christmas, however.

In an interview with Notes From The Edge, Squire talks about how he lined up Steve Hackett to play guitar on the project. Seems that before Hackett, he hoped to line up Jeff Beck or Brian May for the project because he “keeps running into them at awards shows.”

It reminded me of a recent post by Ross Halfin where Ross says that at a recent awards event, a very drunk Squire kept trying to corner Jimmy Page into working on some project with him and kept trying to stick his business card into Page’s front short pocket. Except that Page didn’t have a pocket on his shirt…