Yes: revitalizing progressive rock

By Heather Olson     3/10/11 6:00pm

There aren't too many bands still around that can claim they have affected generations with their live performances. Seminal progressive rock group Yes is among the longest-lived bands in the history of popular music. I have a personal connection to the band's staying power: In 1976, when my mom was 16, she saw Yes play in Fresno, CA for a packed house. I saw the same band (with some alterations to the original line-up) last spring at the House of Blues here in Houston. While the average age of the crowd has certainly increased, there was no mistaking the same energy and devotion of the Yes fans that had left my mom's ears ringing for three days after the Fresno performance that she is still complaining about 30 years later. While I appreciated the kinder acoustics of the House of Blues, I found myself yearning for the raw sound that I imagined numbing my mom's eardrums back in the day and signaled the beginnings of the progressive rock movement. Yes' seasoned performers are some of rock 'n' roll's most accomplished musicians, and had their start in the same incubator as legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Jethro Tull, King Crimson and the Moody Blues at the Marquee Club in London. Happily, because the group was in town to kick off their Rite of Spring mini-tour of North America in Houston last Sunday, I had the privilege of speaking with the preeminent bassist Chris Squire over spring break about Yes' long performance career and their newest album, set to be released this coming summer.

"It was a great time to be young," said Squire of Yes' residency at the Marquee Club in the late '60s where they got their start. With then band mates Jon Anderson (vocals), Peter Banks (guitar), Tony Kaye (keyboard) and Bill Bruford (drums), Squire said the young band was fortunate to be in the position to absorb the talent of innovators such as Hendrix, whom he cites as a strong influence in the development of his own aggressive, dynamic style. During the same period in the late '60s, it is a lesser known fact that Texas had established its own psychedelic rock culture and the beginnings of progressive rock with bands such as the 13th Floor Elevators (who were the first band to use the word "psychedelic" on an album cover), the Red Krayola and Bubble Puppy, whose song "Hot Smoke and Sassafras" sounds strikingly similar to some of Yes' earlier work. Squire said that he has most likely heard this Texas music and absorbed elements of it over his career and holds southern rock, such as that of ZZ Top, in high esteem. Squire's unique bass guitar sound has been exalted by rock aficionados for its unique high/mid tone, which allowed him to add to the group's compositions with independent melodic bass lines that make for a complicated and nuanced listening experience that is now characteristic of progressive rock in general.

Since 1964, the year it was first introduced to Britain from the United States, Squire has used an original Rickenbacker bass as his primary instrument. He claims to have rewired the bass from monophonic to stereo by feeding the bass and treble pick-ups into different amplifiers, one for bass and one for lead guitar. This is credited in a 1973 interview with Guitar Player magazine for creating the overdrive effect heard in songs from the time such as one of the group's biggest hits in the United States, "Roundabout." Squire's bassline in this song has become one of the most famous in the world.

---

---

In a previous interview for Guitar World, Squire commented on the way his unique method on the bass guitar provided impetus for Yes.

"I couldn't get session work because most musicians hated my style. They wanted me to play something a lot more basic. We started Yes as a vehicle to develop everyone's individual styles," he said. Throughout the years, Yes has comprised over 10 revolving musicians of which Squire has been the only constant member. Yes has given rise to the distinctive styles of Steve Howe on lead guitar, who went on to play in super group GTR with Steve Hackett of Genesis and play with other progressive rock greats in Asia but has since returned to Yes, Rick Wakeman, a pioneer in the use of electronic keyboards, and Anderson, with his trademark alto-tenor vocal range.

When asked how the band's outlook has evolved over the decades, Squire credited advancements in technology and changes in the viewpoints of the band members for the transformations to the band's sound. Interestingly, Yes was recently forced to search for a new lead vocalist when Jon Anderson fell ill; Squire found Benoit David, a former lead singer for the Canadian Yes cover band Close to the Edge, purportedly via YouTube. The integration of a Yes devotee into the official line-up is a striking instance of a band that goes to its fans when it needs a fresh perspective and is a true testament to the band's legacy. According to Squire, this is precisely the motivation for the mini-tour that will take them through Texas, the South and the Midwest in the coming weeks.

Squire said, "It's good to flex our muscles on the stage so we can sound sharp in the studio."

With an ear to the fans, Yes will finish its North American tour in early April and then return to the stage in Europe come November after the completion of their forthcoming album. Squire said that he and the rest of the members are very excited about the new material, and happy to be working again with Trevor Horn, who has a history with the band as a singer on 1980s album Drama and the producer of the 1983s 90215.

Given Yes' far-reaching influence as one of the original purveyors of progressive rock and their stature amidst the rock and roll hall of fame inductees they played alongside in London, it is puzzling to many music fans why they and other progressive rock artists have been overlooked in the rock 'n' roll hall of fame. Squire admitted that he finds it to be a mystery and questioned the objectivity of founding director Jann Wenner, citing the bias of Rolling Stone magazine, for which he is publisher, against progressive rock. However, with the induction of Genesis last year, it appears there is hope yet that progressive rock's luminaries will join the ranks, though Squire emphasized the thought isn't keeping him up at night.

---