Happy Birthday, Jon!
One of my favorite Christmas albums: “Three Ships”.
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there. One mile over we’ll be there and we’ll see you.
I had this song on my 8-track set
“Superstars of the 70’s”
Ordered it off the TV phone number about 1973
Progressive rock music star - and independent candidate for President in 1980. Got 6% of the vote!
What a career!
I voted for him in 1980.
Should have voted for Reagan.
RIP Chris Squire.
When Rush announced Yes’s induction into the R&R Hall of Fame, Geddy Lee played bass with Yes, and played Chris’s bass part perfectly, as very few bassists could.
I loved Yes growing up.
One of more favorite things of late has been watching on youtube younger generations react to music of the 70’s and 80’s. And one of my favorites is watching their heads explode as they listen to Yes’s “Roundabout”.
It starts as incredulity and ends in them being speechless at the sonic tapestry of it all. Happy birthday Mr. Anderson, and thanks again for the music.
CC
Close to the Edge is just out of this world.
Another fan here! (YES and Prog Rock in general)— DH went to Jon’s concert a month or so ago, he still has his voice, great setlist, super memories.
Listened to Fragile on cassette in our track at Graf. Miss those days and the great music..
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.
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.)
I played “Roundabout” so many times that the needle ended up poking through the record. Great tune, and Fragile was a great album.
Happy birthday Mr Anderson.
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.
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.
The quintessential Jon Anderson song, Holy Lamb — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tno-uymF-9c