Posted on 05/26/2022 11:09:42 AM PDT by chuck allen
Drummer Alan White, the longest-tenured member of Yes, died at age 72 following a "brief illness."
White's family announced the news on Facebook, noting the drummer died at his Seattle-area home on May 26. "Throughout his life and six-decade career, Alan was many things to many people: a certified rock star to fans around the world; bandmate to a select few, and gentleman and friend to all who met him," they wrote.
On Twitter, Yes expressed their "deep sadness."
White, who also performed with John Lennon, George Harrison, Ginger Baker’s Air Force and Joe Cocker early in his career, had suffered from health problems in recent years. He was forced to sit out of Yes in 2016 due to back surgery, and he guested as the second drummer (alongside Jay Schellen) in 2018 while recovering from a bacterial infection. White then sat out of the band’s 50th anniversary U.K. tour due to what Yes described as "current health issues."
White was born on June 14, 1949, in Pelton, England, and took piano lessons as a child. His interests later moved to the drum kit, and throughout the '60s he played with several smaller bands, including Griffin — a gig that ultimately changed his life. Lennon and Yoko Ono happened to attend one of that group’s club gigs in London, and the next night White received a surprising phone call at home.
“A voice announced, ‘Hello, this is John Lennon,’” White told The Seattle Times in 2021. “I thought it was a mate pulling my leg, put the receiver down and went back to the kitchen. Luckily, the caller rang back. This time I listened and thought: Hang on. Maybe it is John Lennon.”
Lennon, impressed with White’s drumming, invited him to play with his Plastic Ono Band — featuring Ono, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann — the following night at the Toronto Rock and Roll Festival. That set led to further session work, including performance on Lennon’s 1970 single "Instant Karma!" and 1971 LP, Imagine, along with Harrison’s 1970 triple album, All Things Must Pass.
After a couple of years of hopping around, White found a permanent home in the world of prog: In 1972, after losing cofounding drummer Bill Bruford to King Crimson, Yes recruited White to join the lineup — and, in a mind-boggling feat, he learned the band’s complex repertoire in just three days ahead of their Close to the Edge tour.
"I got to know Eddy Offord, who was the producer for their first few albums," White told Rolling Stone in 2019. "I was sitting in a pub with him in London. We got to be very good friends. One day [Yes singer] Jon [Anderson] and [Yes bassist] Chris [Squire] came around and he said, 'Yes want you to join the band.' I think Chris Squire saw me play with Joe Cocker previous to that. I was just finishing a Joe Cocker tour when Yes asked me. I agreed and said, 'When are we rehearsing?' They said, 'We don’t really have any rehearsals and we’ve got a gig on Monday. Can you learn the repertoire between now and Monday?’ It was a Friday. I said, 'Well, I’ll give it a shot, but it’s a long shot.'"
That long shot paid off for everyone. White gave Yes a powerful rock edge and sonic consistency, the latter a rare commodity for a band that routinely switched members. He played on dozens of concert and studio albums, starting with the divisive 1973 double-LP Tales From Topographic Oceans.
"I was very impressed by the different time signatures and just creating new and adventurous music," he told UCR of that record in 2013. "I thought it was just exciting the whole time, and I think that's what you hear: a bunch of musicians trying to find an alleyway into progressive music. I think it worked, personally, and I think a lot of people appreciate it. And like I said, people would say, "I can't believe you did the whole thing [live]!"
His Yes run lasted more than a half-century, up through 2021’s The Quest, making White the band’s longest-remaining member. And the drummer's versatility anchored the band's numerous shifts in style, from the jazz-fusion pummel of 1974’s Relayer to the sleek, arena-friendly stylings of 1983’s 90125.
White, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Yes in 2017, released one solo album, 1976’s Ramshackled. He also collaborated with several other bands, including the Yes offshoot supergroup Circa; famously, he and Squire briefly worked on ideas with Jimmy Page for an aborted supergroup named XYZ (Ex Yes-Zeppelin) in 1981.
Yes, though, became his home.
"Every album is different in its own way," he told Examiner in 2013. "Relayer was a great album that I enjoyed playing on. 90215 had a lot of memorable songs on it. After that, it would be Talk, which is a great underestimated album. The Ladder is another. There’s a lot of them, they’re all different and parts of the band’s life. I enjoyed all of them."
I was always turned off by Jon Anderson’s wimpy voice.
Good call, although I got sick of Genesis when Phil Collins (EXCELLENT voice, EXCELLENT drums) took center stage with his Godless preachiness. But I know you’re probably referring more to Abacab, Invisible Touch, and Genesis, etc. than to We Can’t Dance.
(I know there are a few albums before Duke but after Gabriel left that I shamefully am rather unfamiliar with, but perhaps you also meant to praise.)
I presume you mean the fact he often sang in falsetto?
>> Seems like drumming takes a heavy toll over the years. <<
Cost Def Leppard’s drummer an arm and a leg. (Sorry, I’ll leave now...)
Hi.
In the fwiw department, I hope I live longer than Keith Richards.
I know, a stretch.
I hope I live longer than Jane Fonda.
So I can...
5.56mm
JA’s falsetto just sounded whiney to me. Ditto Roger Hodgson from Supertramp.
Extra sad - about 2 or 3 months ago, the drum kit he played whilst in The Plastic Ono Band was stolen from a storage unit while he and his wife were away on holiday.
Ferals squatted in their house and found the particulars to the Seattle area storage unit.
Some memorabilia has been recovered, but not that drum kit. And perhaps his broken 💔 heart.
The work Alan White did on “Tales From Topographic Oceans” was absolutely surreal. Still my favorite Yes album.
“I’m probably one of the few that thinks “Drama” was one of the best Yes albums.”
I agree...and I also loved Going for the One.
Roger Hodgson’s lyrics may open him up for mockery the way culture has turned on it’s head (”they’ll be calling you a radical, Liberal...”) but of the three, holy cow! he was the best singer. (IMHO)
Oh no, Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode just passed.
Hodgson is a helluva guitar player, though.
Many people think drummers are not true musicians. Accomplished drummers play their kits with an ear for the notes to each drum, cymbal, high-hat, floor bass and tune them for a particular song. The best know how to fill or pause against or with the rhythm of the other instruments. Easy example: Bonham on Zepplin's "Good Times, Bad Times"
“White was an excellent drummer. Maybe not as good as Bill Bruford but who is.”
White was a better classic rock drummer IMO with great feel. Yessongs Yours is no Disgrace is a good example. His use of the ride cymbal in particular.
The first time he played with Yes was in a small rehearsal room where Yes was rehearsing Siberian Khatru. Bruford had left and Alan volunteered to sit in so they could keep rehearsing the song.
A few weeks later they asked White if he would tour with them with the tour starting in three days. Alan had heard the band but not sure how familiar he was with all the songs. He had 3 days to rehearse material including Close to the Edge.
Bruford was a different animal all together. Great technical drummer. More eclectric.
He left Yes for King Crimson. When asked to contrast Yes and King Crimson he said Yes talked and argued all the time about fine details on parts, arrangements etc. He said with King Crimson there wasn’t much talking and that you were just supposed to know what to do.
I liked his collaborations with Alan Holdsworth and his solo work.
Cost Def Leppard’s drummer an arm and a leg. (Sorry, I’ll leave now...)
______________________________________________________________
What has nine arms and sucks? 😁
Both were truly great drummers no doubt. As l recall Jon Anderson thought Bruford’s work was so good on “Heart of the Sunrise” that he gave him a writing credit and he deserved it in my view.
“Read more”
No
“RIP. Always sad to see a fellow drummer pass.”
Amen to that .. . I am a 70-year old rock drummer who just wants to be able to play drums on, “Stairway to Heaven” without making a mistake before I die.
I notice with great sadness at all the familiar drum icons who have passed recently. Poetically, recently my wife and I saw Ginger Baker’s son, Koffi, in concert. I like to think Ginger would have been proud of his son that evening .. .
Incidentally, if I had the chops that John Bonham had I’d play FILLS the entire song ! What contributed to John’s greatness was the fact he did NOT over utilize fills in a song ( paging Mr Keith Moon .. . ), making the times he DID employ a fill all the MORE powerful .. .
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