No Chump Love Sucker

When I was seven years old I found Fragile in my dad’s record collection. It was so colorful, vibrant, and warm, I would put the record on and watch the living room turn into a womblike, cozy place. Their music was so magical and seemed almost unreal. The photos in the book that came with Fragile just heightened that sense. My wonderment concerning the creation of that music (though I have learned most of it) has never gone away.

When I was 13 Steve Howe was my favorite guitarist for a time. His advanced playing draws from so many different types of music. I think that at 13 and 14 I could play bits and pieces of things, but I did not really have the skill to learn the whole songs and understand why the different notes were chosen until I was older.  A couple of months ago I learned all the keyboard, bass and guitar parts on “Siberian Khatru.” As a kid I just knew the intro and the riff. I didn’t master “Mood For A Day” until I was 21. It’s music I think I will always learn from.

I think Close To The Edge is one of the top 5 greatest-sounding records of all time. Eddie Offord (who I believe also did their live sound) was on fire then. The guitar and bass tones, the drum sounds, and the keyboards are so lovely, rich, and majestic – everything one wants music to be.  A few other records are in the same league, but none is better.

The Wakeman-Bruford lineup was one of those rare groups of equals. Every member was as musically strong as the next.  Each person’s style was so individualistic and extreme, yet perfectly balanced the others.  It is one of those groups where one just thanks fate for bringing them together, for they could not have been any better. Which is not to take anything away from Allan White. He did a great job playing Bruford’s stuff on Yessongs and Tales From Topographic Oceans stands up as some of the band’s best work.  From a guitar-playing standpoint Tales may be Steve Howe’s masterpiece; his work is constantly inventive and unique. Jon Anderson was one of the few singers who didn’t draw attention to his identity; rather, the words he sang inspired the imagination of the listener and triggered subconscious stimulation. He used his voice in a textural way, becoming one of the instruments.

So few groups celebrate musical freedom the way Yes did. The depth of their music is still as shocking to me today as it was to me as a little kid. The format of a record seemed limitless to them at the time of Close To The Edge or Tales From Topographic Oceans. They were putting feelings on records that no one had ever come close to. And no one has since.

he has mentioned being so in some sa-era interviews, yep!

“(…) I was listening to singers like Beyonce, Aaliyah and Brandy and rappers like Wu-Tang Clan, Eminem and Eric B and Ramkin. I would translate the rhythmic phrasing and bluesy kind of things that they do to the guitar and it would come out sounding like Jimi Hendrix.” (Total Guitar 7/2006) 

“A lot of the blues things in my playing were coming more from singers like her and Beyonce than from guitar players.” (Spin (USA) May 2006) (”her” being Brandy :)

“We haven’t always been perfect, we haven’t always been nice, and we haven’t always been smart, but we are honest to who we are.”