Roundabout the Universe: Jon Anderson Turns 80

Grateful Web ^ | 10/25/24 | gratefulweb

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Yes wound itself through genres and expectations, sprouting into a tree of impossible harmonies, soaring falsettos, and rhythmic complexities that few dared imagine.

Anderson himself rarely sang falsetto. He generally sang with full chest voice, though in a high tenor/alto range. Chris Squire - who had a fine voice of his own - sang falsetto occasionally when singing backup. Steve Howe sang...well, pretty badly, lol.

[dfwgator]

Squire’s backing vocals are a crucial part of the Yes sound.

That’s why Drama still sounded like Yes, even with Trevor Horn’s vocals.

[21twelve]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn-kFz5ibGA

Above is a song from Jon’s recent (months ago?) album. “Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks”. They are on tour this year as well. At 80 years old his voice is really amazing still. Hard to believe really - although the live versions sound good too. (Except on cell phones - so the official video above is better. I’m guessing it is dubbed though.)

[Rocco DiPippo]

I played “Roundabout” so many times that the needle ended up poking through the record. Great tune, and Fragile was a great album.

[mitch5501]

Happy birthday Mr Anderson.

[mitch5501]

They came close to topping it with ‘Going for the one’ with the mighty ‘Awaken’.. a masterpiece if ever there was one!

[Political Junkie Too]

I have that album on vinyl, packed away somewhere.

-PJ

[Pollard]

Yes ~ Close to the Edge Part 1 ~ Symphonic Live [2001]

This concert was recorded at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam on November 22, 2001, with the European Festival Orchestra conducted by Wilheilm Keitel. It was first released on DVD in 2002 and on CD in 2003 (single disc version) and 2009 (two disc version) by Eagle Rock Entertainment.

Keyboardist Rick Wakeman was invited by the band to perform at this concert, but this did not happen because of scheduling conflicts. In his place on the tour was Tom Brislin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SGVPi5J2Nw&list=PLbdsUe_HvsSAHTsUwR1X6mAioqYAadOm6

The European Festival Orchestra are teenagers. They all get up and dance to the final song, Roundabout.

[AppyPappy]

The early Yes stuff was basically led by Tony Kaye’s keyboard work. I can’t help but think that led to Anderson’s obsession with synthesizers and Mellotrons.

[Pollard]

The quintessential Jon Anderson song, Holy Lamb — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tno-uymF-9c

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Squire's own album Fish out of Water was pretty good. Very solid voice.

Also had Steve Howe's 'Beginnings". The best I can say is that as a singer, Steve Howe is a fantastic guitar player/composer.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

The early Yes stuff was basically led by Tony Kaye’s keyboard work. I can’t help but think that led to Anderson’s obsession with synthesizers and Mellotrons.

It's interesting - Anderson and Kaye butted heads because Anderson really wanted to use more varied keyboards, but Kaye wanted to stick to the Hammond B-3/Leslie sound. That why he left Yes.:

There was a sort of new ideology that keyboards could actually bring more to the band than just the organ and the piano," Anderson said in the 1997 Rock Family Trees documentary The Prog Rock Years. "There were string sounds; there were choirs and various other sounds. There were the sort of colors that I started to feel very strongly that Yes could reinterpret through rock and roll, put it onstage and actually perform mini-symphonies."

But Kaye wasn't too interested — at least in the early '70s — in expanding his keyboard arsenal. "It was the beginning of the Moog synthesizer and the mellotron, instruments I didn’t particularly like," he told Rolling Stone in 2021.

"It was not that pleasant to my Hammond ears, so to say. I was not particularly happy in doing that. … Jon [Anderson] and Chris, but particularly Jon, wanted to create this orchestral thing. And obviously, Rick [Wakeman] fit perfectly because that’s what he was playing. And so it was a split that had to happen."

Read More: 50 Years Ago: Tony Kaye Leaves Yes for the First Time | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/tony-kaye-leaves-yes/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

[AppyPappy]

The odd thing was that the synthesizers ended up just being an extension of Kaye’s Hammond music. It never became orchestral. Wakeman’s keys never reached the 6 Wives level with Yes.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

True - Wakeman didn’t get as baroque as he did with his solo work, but a song like Close to the Edge couldn’t have been made just sticking to a Hammond and piano. I think Kaye changed his mind somewhat later on, but by then it was too late.