Yes - Heaven and Earth (2014)

Even before getting unceremoniously replaced, Anderson had grown disillusioned with Yes. The group toured relentlessly in the early 2000s, even as Anderson's health declined. "I was coughing so much that the only time I wasn't coughing was onstage," he says. "I just needed a break, but the guys were upset about that."

Anderson travelled on a bus with keyboardist Rick Wakeman, while the other three Yes members (Chris Squire, Alan White and Steve Howe) travelled on another one. "We had the happy car," says Anderson. "They were in the grumpy car."

Anderson keeps a much lighter tour schedule than Yes, who often do five or six shows a week. "I would never do that kind of tour," says Anderson. "It's stupid. Some people haven't got a life I suppose. They want to be on the road all the time." Guitarist Steve Howe performs with ASIA when Yes are off, which means maintaining a punishing schedule. "He hasn't got a home," says Anderson. "He's a journeyman, like Willie Nelson."

Despite all the turmoil, Anderson doesn't completely rule performing with Yes again someday. "If we ever get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame we'll all get together," he says. "We'll give each other a hug and let bygones be bygones." How about a reunion tour? "You never know," he says. "It would have to be two or three shows a week, though."

-- Rolling Stone, 2011

it's grueling to sing those songs. anderson's replacement, benoit david, couldn't manage either, hence davison

anyways good for yes for getting syd arthur to open some shows. sound mirror is nice

Anderson had COPD or lung failure or something too. I can see the band's point. And I don't think they're necessarily sunk without him. He's the most annoying member anyway. There is a snippet of another new song up. It's alright.

Not saying that Yes can't make good music without Jon but I really feel he is a big part of the band's soul and approach.

There been a lot of talk of band members being very unpleasant but aside from them probably not letting Peter Banks play the Union gig
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130613004441AAv0Zci
I haven't heard anything substantial. Jon Anderson being a bit bossy doesn't really cover raging asshole territory. I heard Squire is a bad man, but again, no stories to back it up.
There were some tabloidy news reports that Jon's spiritual adviser convinced him not to play a charity gig but it didn't seem reliable.

I'm really curious about the revolving door policy they were so frank about, that they were all willing to replace a member if they found a better substitute. This only seems to have happened with Kaye/Wakeman and Banks/Howe. Anderson was replaced because of his physical problem, others were replaced because they left or had other commitments.
I doubt anyone dared talk about replacing Anderson(before his problems) or Squire to get a better member.

doesn't have any edges at all though, where FFH had them all over the place.

What constitutes an "edge?" I don't remember FFH being any more jarring.

I think what happens in "Believe Again" is that it's mostly developmental within verse/chorus standards. Two instrumental breaks, but they happen at classic points in the structure (middle and end).

But hey, that's over six minutes of song development if you subtract the instrumental breaks. A lot of play with antecedent/consequent phrasing. Verses that start in the middle and don't end the same way as the last one. Choruses with new words.

Middle instrumental break is poignant to me because it's so classic.

this is a band that shed founding members album after album after the debut, until finally, with 'fragile', they supposedly got their 'classic line-up' right, with david bowie's piano player . . . only for their original drummer to jump ship for king crimson after they recorded only one more album ('close to the edge') together. i think squire's the only one who's played on every album. he's like their dwayne wade

xpost

Yeah, Squire is the only constant I believe.

rumor: anderson gave a lot of his songwriting royalties to his young ex-wife in his divorce and that's why they are all pissed at him.

squire isn't on ABWH which is the only thing keeping it from being accepted as a Yes album, although, they include it in the Yes discography on the official site now.

My grasp on Yes lore faded away a long while back, but isn't ABWH when Yes split into two camps and Squire went off with Rabin(?) and others as "Yes"?

yes. I'm just saying that if you go to the Yes official site now and look at the discography, it's right there (along with Symphonic Music of Yes by ABWH) along with all the other yes albums.

lol I wasn't challenging you. I was just remembering in public.

Anderson may be the most "annoying" member to some but I agree with Robert Adam Gilmour : he's integral to the band's spirit. I love "Drama" and - hell - I even like "Fly from Here" but
Yes without just...isn't. And I will say the same about ABWH. Their stuff was ok but sonically Tony Levin couldn't fill that missing piece.

"Yes without Jon just...isnt."

Oh man this heat is melting my brain.
I meant to write "And I will say the same about Squire missing in ABWH".

but you have to admit both Fly from Here and Drama are leagues better than ABWH.

Their stuff was ok but sonically Tony Levin couldn't fill that missing piece.

I disagree with this, Levin is an excellent bass player but I think ABWH's big problem was in the arrangements - you hear a LOT of Jon and a lot of Wakeman's big New Age 'boards but you almost can't tell the bass is there, nor the drums, the mix is so weak that it doesn't matter if they had Bruford or Levin or two monkeys.

yeah ABWH pretty much blows. the arrangements have this bizarre tropical feel that really grates against the booming production on wakeman's keybs. bottom of the barrel along with 'open your eyes'. "long lost brother of mine" is just what? you guys did "heart of the sunrise" -- what the fuck is this?

'drama' slays, even "i am a camera". trevor horn could do no wrong in the studio for a really long time imho. the rehashed stuff on 'fly from here' hits some heights and i'm hoping RTB's coaxed at least one jam jam like "into the storm" from them on the new one. fingers crossed

I think Levin is a fantastic bass player but Squire's tone - his sound - and his vocals are integral to what makes Yes YES.

And yeah I will admit FFH and Drama are much better overall than ABWH but Anderson isn't the weak link here.

you guys did "heart of the sunrise" -- what the fuck is this?

LOL yeah but I think we can ask this about a good chunk of their output post-1980

+1

I will rep for the two Rabin-era records in the 80s but ABWH was an excuse to tour the old stuff, not much else.

yeah ABWH pretty much blows. the arrangements have this bizarre tropical feel that really grates against the booming production on wakeman's keybs.

One word: Teakbois

The production on ABWH has this El Lay slickness about it that sounds like it was peeled off a Toto record. And the mix is all upper midrange and in-yer-face. Just an unpleasant record to listen to on all counts.

y'all are making me think i'd really love abwh

some of it is alright but it's not any better than the ladder or keys to ascension.

Well, that's too harsh actually. I think "The Meeting" is lovely and there are little flashes of beauty - especially between Howe and Wakeman. But it sounds like a record that wants to embrace that classic 70s Yes vibe while still wearing the shiny 90125 gear.

Which is pretty much "beurk".

(I meant my original assessment of it being all around unpleasant was too harsh)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXocjFQ-erw#t=1661

I jumped 20 min in to get a feel for it and see that Bruford plays electronic drums through the whole thing... woof.

Eddie Jobson posted a story about the very brief time he was a member of Yes during the 90215 recording. Never knew he was approached to join after Wakeman's first departure.

Later that year, with the Green Album finally completed, I happened to be visiting London as part of a promotional tour when I received a message (in the U.S.) that ‘Cinema’ was now ‘Yes,’ Jon Anderson had joined the band again, and that the album had come out really well. Oh, and they still needed a keyboard player... When they found out I was actually in London, new boy Trevor Rabin arranged to come round to play me the finished album. Trevor Horn (my favourite producer at the time) had done a fantastic job. All in all, though musically a little superficial, it was a fresh and contemporary recording, and with the ‘Yes’ name, a potential hit song (“Owner of a Lonely Heart”), Atlantic Records, and a well-funded support team behind it, it was clearly destined for considerably more commercial success than my struggling Green Album. With unlimited amounts of money flying around, my living in Connecticut was no problem; Jon was living in France, and Rabin and the new manager were living in Los Angeles. After all these years, maybe it was time for me to finally join Yes?

A couple of days later, we got together in a rehearsal room and thrashed through a few tunes, including ‘Roundabout’ (actually not knowing the song too well, I had to figure out Rick’s tricky keyboard parts on the spot – no easy task). But everyone seemed happy, so I returned to the U.S. as a full member of Yes and with a world tour only two or three months away. There was virtually no contact with anyone for several weeks as I learned all the Yes material in my home studio, although I did attend the mastering of the album with Rabin in New York. In fact, now I think about it, not one single band member ever called me, for any reason, during my entire stint with the group (or since).

The illusion of ‘equal membership’ soon became apparently false, especially once the filming of the “Owner of a Lonely Heart” video took place. Lord Squire’s indulgences (and the ubiquitous Bentley) were back in my face, and money was being squandered at an alarming rate. It was time-warp back to the 1970s. Roadies followed you around making sure you never had to lift even the smallest bag, and Chris was insisting on a private Boeing 707 for the tour! The grand lifestyle was being funded once again and egos were newly inflated. Despite my considerable experiences with Roxy, Zappa, UK, and Tull (a wonderful group of guys who treated me with considerable respect), and with more than 30 albums and a self-managed solo career under my belt, no one was interested in any wisdom I may have been able to impart, on any subject… even on the keyboard rig design which had already been decided upon. It was an inflated ‘Spinal Tap’ on so many levels, and I had unwittingly been sucked back into almost the same world of disregard that I had rejected so many years earlier. But I had made a commitment and I wanted to see it through.

Several weeks later, back in the U.S. where I continued to work on the considerable Yes repertoire, I did finally receive a phone call from someone—it was the manager who had been given the unceremonious task of informing me that Tony Kaye was re-joining the group and would be sharing keyboard duties with me. No discussion, no conferring… a done deal. And the reason? They needed three original members to put to rest a dispute with Brian Lane (their old manager), Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman regarding the legitimacy of the new band using the ‘Yes’ name. My youthful instincts were reawakened, there were red flags waving, and sirens going off... why was I doing this exactly? Still no call from anyone in the band, no discussions of alternate remedies, no apologies, just take it or leave it… so I hearkened to the words of their own song and chose to ‘leave it.’

Of course, the album and world tour went on to enormous success; Tony Kaye’s playing was supplemented by another player hidden off-stage; and the embarrassingly lame video had to be edited at the insistence of the BBC (to remove the disgusting ‘maggot’ scene), during which time they also removed as many of my scenes as possible.

Thanks, guys. All in all, the most disrespectful and unpleasant of all my band experiences (as brief as it was), and, with the occasional derisive remark from Squire or Allan White still showing up on the internet, one that still causes me undeserved anguish, embarrassment, and regret.

Post-script 1: The above description of the smug coterie that made up much of the British music-business elite in the ‘70s and ‘80s also serves the purpose of explaining much of the ill-feeling left percolating in the memories of more than a few of us more music-focused professionals. It also explains, in some part, the continuingly rude behaviour of some of that scene’s most indulgent subscribers (not mentioning any particular Arschlock by name, of course). It is ironic that those most included in that most exclusionary clique, now seem to be the most embittered and malicious.

Post-script 2: Some might ask why I would have a Yes page on the website. My answer is that I don’t have a category for ‘Bands I Didn’t Join and Should Have’ or for ‘Bands I Did Join and Shouldn’t Have.’ It was not a Guest Appearance; I was a member; there is a long history of connectivity (from Bruford to Asia); I am still in the video; I have pictures; it is part of my story.

Post-script 3: Jon Anderson has always been friendly, welcoming and respectful. His only culpability in this hurtful episode was in being so passive.

That is quite the commentary on the prog scene. Yikes.

Thanks for that, I've heard that Dave Stewart (Egg and many other bands) and Bruford have plenty of dirt to tell. I've always wanted to read Bruford's autobiography, apparently lots of fights with Squire.

Just looking up lots of members and what they are doing now, I'd never heard of Prog Collective? Anyone?

It's not good.

Even watching Squire, White and sometimes Howe speaking in recent interviews you get a strong whiff of not-very-nice. Too bad for Jobson - getting yanked around like that.

you can guess more why anderson might not want to spend his 60s/70s on tour with them, for sure. there's probably lots of bizarre overachiever jedi mind games going on backstage about this and that, i bet

I always found Howe immensely charming from watching interviews. Whenever I watch one of those Yes or general prog documentaries, I always want him to get more screen time.

I think there are some serious class and North-South issues in Yes and there always have been.

anderson delivered milk as a boy in lancashire iirc

I find it funny when Anderson talked about the class divide because he just seems like a guy from another planet. Wakeman has always had that affable bloke thing. Bruford in old footage sounds astonishingly posh, he seems to have lost that a bit.

Not that there's anything wrong with posh mannerisms.

wiat tony kaye didn't play on 90125? I didn't realize that. He only joined after the album was done?

oh just read up on it. what a mess.

Another clip up this morning.

whole album leaked

so far it just sounds kind of wimpy and generic.

this is not a good album

I'm not gonna seek out a DL - I'll wait for it to hit Spotify/Rdio.

you aren't missing anything. believe again is the best track on here. imagine a whole album of. . . 'the man you always wanted me to be' or 'it will be a good day'. a little of that is fine, 60 minutes is really , really dull. this reminds me of what I imagine a new Styx or Kansas album sounds like.

subway walls is also alright but it's no Into the Storm

I think there are some serious class and North-South issues in Yes and there always have been.

― Three Word Username, Friday, June 20, 2014 12:34 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If somebody could enlighten a yank on this I'm curious.