http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0HnIr6jYWU
Guitar Player magazine I think had readers vote in their magazine yearly poll. Howe won for at least a decade.
When I was a kid the local movie theater would have surfing films or concerts. They were great because it was so big. Only Das Boot and Alien at a huge auditorium with concert speakers beat it.
Anyway they had Yes from Close to the Edge and it was the concert. The playing was peerless with Rick Wakeman, Bill Bruford on drum (drumming god) and Steve Howe. Chris Squire is a very good bass player as well. It was fantastic on screen cause it was huge.
The funny thing was they were sort of vegitarian hippies, not so sure of Bruford. Wakeman’s father was a baptist minister and he played the church organ. Wakeman was also a beer drinker, liked his steak pies, possibly a smoker plus he is a pretty devout Christian.
Side story: Rick Wakeman essentially wrote all of Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens but never got credit. it was based on a hymm. Cat real name was Steve something. Cypriot greek who became a Muslim. Wakeman was a session muscian for bowie and many others. Nice bloke.
That sounds about right. It took Eddie Van Halen to finally knock Steve Howe off his perch in the Guitar Player poll. :)
Interesting story about Wakeman: He was hired to play piano on T.Rex’s “Get It On”, but when he heard the song he told the producer that the song didn’t really need any piano. The producer suggested he just add a few glissandos here and there, to which Wakeman said, “But you could do that yourself?”
The producer responded with, “Do you want to pay your rent or not?”