-------------------------------------------------------
FEBRUARY 23, 1980
-------------------------------------------------------
Source: Musicians Only
Contributed by Tom O'Toole
Yes, The Basement Tapes
By Chris Welch
Packed into a small hot basement studio, the group were rehearsing. They
could have been any one of a thousand bands. But as they laboriously
suffered the birth pangs of an idea, with an accompaniment of grunts,
gestures, winks and nods, familiar to all musicians in the throes of
creativity, it was evident their particular brand of telepathy was born of
long association
For this was Yes, hard at work, creating new music for the 80's and facing
up to the challenge of a second decade together. Jon Anderson sat on a
high stool clutching his acoustic guitar and repeatedly playing back
sections of the rehearsal on a cassette machine, forever by his side.
In the far corner, Steve Howe, bending over a slide guitar and obviously
extracting great pleasure from a series of ascending notes that sounded
like a Grand Prix racing car tackling some of the more torturous bends at
Brands Hatch.
Chris Squire loomed large beside me, swaying slightly with his massive bass
guitar, producing an array of tones and effects courtesy of the latest in
Microchip technology, and exchanging encouraging glances with drummer Alan
White, his alter ego in the Yes rhythm section. Alan, in dazzling white
John Travolta-style waistcoat, was emersed in his trusty Ludwig drum kit,
attacking them with that mixture of hard-rock violence and jazz
independence peculiarly his own.
The music roared, shuddered, flared up and faded, leaving a curious silence
in a room overcrowded with equipment. 'What was that called?' asked a
voice. My own. The tension relaxed into smiles. 'No 3, I think', said
Steve. Yes never like to be tied down until that final moment when they
are on stage and have one real commitment, their audience.
Yes still have a devoted worldwide following, unbowed by the howling wind
of change that swept through rock during the last couple of years. They
expect to sell two million albums a year on back catalogue alone. And from
the evidence of the rehearsal I saw in London last week, they haven't lost
their creative drive.
Yet they will be the first to admit there have been doubts fears and
torments. Nobody likes to appear out of date, least of all a group who
have been accustomed to setting the pace.
At the end of last year, they tried the experiment of recording in Paris
with producer Roy Thomas Baker, most famous for his work with groups like
Queen. The music was good apparently, but it wasn't quite Yes and the work
got binned leaving the group to face 1980 without an album in the
can. With Rick Wakeman in exile in Switzerland, the rumours began to grow
that Yes were finally on the verge of chucking in the towel. But the group
insisted, when they talked exclusively to Musicians Only, that they'd never
let Yes fade away on a negative note after all the hard work and past
battles fought and won.
And in many ways, now is a singularly positive time for the much loved
band. They realise that music, like art and life, is made up of a series
of compromises, and that the pursuit of perfection is always doomed. It
was that pursuit that drove them onwards throughout the greater part of the
Seventies.
What now is their motivation? Steve Howe explained there is a desire to
recreate some of the happiness that characterised their first five years
together. And part of that desire involves a search for roots and the
reasons why they started creating music together in the first place. Hence
the return to London as home-base, and the blowing together on songs
instead of putting albums together in patchwork-quilt fashion in the oft
dehumanising processes of the recording studio.
Jon Anderson is enjoying the delights of a hit single, 'I Hear You Now'
with Vangelis, and more Yes singles are on the way, including the
unexpected teaming of Chris Squire and Phil Lynott, and the vocal debut of
Mr Rick Wakeman whose 'I'm So Straight I'm Weird' threatens to be very
silly indeed. All this is building up towards the full blown return of Yes
next summer, when they will release their follow up album to TORMATO and
embark on a world tour that will include Great Britain -- or UK as it is
now known.
Despite all this outward activity, are Yes inwardly happy? I got the
feeling they had been unnerved by the rapid pace of events in their home
country, over-stretched by constant touring, and were yearning to find
their old togetherness and special Yes chemistry. Whether it is working
for them again, we won't know fully until they release their next album and
start touring again. But from conversations with Jon, Alan, Steve and
Chris it was evident they were still as dedicated to the idea of Yes. The
absence of Rick Wakeman was explained by his limited number of days off
from exile in Switzerland. He was due to rejoin the group for recording
within a few days. And Jon's apparent tiredness was understandable after
long hours of singing and going through arrangements.
As I arrived, they were picking their way carefully through a difficult
piece involving a section with Alan battering out a phrase in 6/8 time in
unison with the bass and guitar which returned to a typical Yes loping
backing beat, Jon singing high wordless vocals over the top, which suddenly
reminded me of The Police. Except that Yes had been doing that kind of
thing for rather a long time!
Soft discussion followed the hot blasts of music. 'We go back to A when
Steve starts the slide, right?...' 'Gosh that guitar sounds horrible'...
'What's that bit? O, it's all come flooding back...'
And none of it was written down. Every twist and turn, every change of
rhythmic emphasis and spiralling sweeps of chords had to be memorised and
honed by constant repetition. But once the phrases had dovetailed
together, even in a room smaller than most offices, without windows,
air-conditioning or audience, they sounded a helluva band.
When did they start work again, I asked Jon?
'We've been back in town since last year, and we started rehearsing in
January. We hope to record in March or April in England -- at Virgin's
Town House Studio. The LP will be out in June, and it's our first in two
years. After our last tour of America the group was exhausted. But it was
a great tour -- one of our best. Now we want to have a rethink for the new
decade. We're into the Eighties now, and what we are doing now is to look
ahead to the next few years and redefine the group. All of us face a
challenge. There are so many good things going on now and the music scene
has blossomed after the doldrums of the Seventies. The last couple of
years have been confusing as regards what is important -- what mattered to
people. With our group it has to stem from a musical appreciation, and
that has not been the focal point -- has it? It's been an image time.'
Did Jon find it unsettling -- a time to question their beliefs? 'In a way
we do that all the time. But now there have been additional pressures on
us. We have always tried to battle against the danger of resting on our
laurels. Now we want to do a good tour of England -- that's very important
to us. Many of the older bands seem to be thinking the same way.'
Was he excited about his single success with his keyboard-playing buddy
Vangelis? 'It's nice to hear the single getting played. It's from the
album SHORT STORIES we did together in three weeks. We've been close for
years as you know.'
Another important facet of the Yes return was the reappearance of Eddie
Offord, the engineer who worked on many of the classic albums and now lives
in America. 'Eddie's coming in March, and we don't know how it will work
out, but he's coming over to see if he can produce us again. We have high
hopes.'
Alan White explained that when he saw him in Woodstock, New York, Eddie had
been recording groups by putting himself in the middle of the studio and
placing the musicians all around him, a technique he may try on Yes. 'He's
totally into it,' said Alan. 'He's got a lot of new ideas about how he
wants to record Yes.'
How was the new album shaping up so far?
'We've done ten numbers,' said Steve, 'and the music is now being
structured. Basically it's Yes instrumentals and songs with more precise
interplay between the structures. We're not rushing things though; we need
time before we go into the studios.'
It was time for a break in rehearsals and Chris and I repaired to the
studio lounge to talk about his solo plans and his view about the current
state of Yes.
I was intrigued to hear that Chris was planning to release a solo single
with Phil Lynott and said I didn't realise he know Phil. 'Well I
didn't. We met in a traffic jam on the M4. I invited him over to my house
for a jam and we got some songs down. He had a go on guitar, and we
actually just did it in a jam situation. We didn't set out to write songs
as such. It came about in the space of a couple of hours. Phil is one of
the most spontaneous people I have ever come across with lyrics. It's his
kind of song really -- I just put some harmony vocals on it. In fact the
song _might_ be called -- "Call My Bluff" -- I'm not sure actually. That's
one of the lines in the chorus. It's the first time I've recorded with
anybody outside the group, although I did some stuff while we were on tour,
in Los Angeles, with Toto and Greg Lake, believe it or not. We did the old
Tamla number "You Keep Me Hanging On". But I had to leave to carry on
touring and to this date it hasn't appeared. But the backing tracks were
great! Jeff Pocaro was on drums. All these guys in Toto are LA session
men. Greg was around because he was in the process of recording a solo
album in LA and was using those guys to play on it. He may have postponed
his plans for that album.'
It was interesting that a lot of Britain's best players, including Carl
Palmer, seem to be moving back to England. Said Chris: 'Well obviously the
tax thing got a bit easier but I think it goes further than that. A lot of
English musicians are remembering how much easier it is to work here. They
feel more committed and convinced about what they are doing. The home
feeling spreads into the music. Definitely that's true for me and the rest
of the band. We started to do this album in Paris, which was a lot of fun
but didn't quite have that feeling. I feel much more confident about what
we are doing back in England.
'It must have something to do with where we come from in the first
place. I'm quite pleased everyone is getting back here. Rick is still in
Switzerland which is where I lived for seven months in '77. And before
that we lived in LA. After we did GOING FOR THE ONE in Switzerland, we
went on a series of world tours, so we were away from England for twenty
months, and of course everything was changing here. We came back then and
did TORMATO which wasn't an entirely successful attempt to get back to roots.
'We will be playing England this year probably in a mixture of ways and I
don't know if we'll be using the revolving stage this time. It depends on
the venues. There's a lot to be gained from playing in a smaller
environment. We've yet to talk to Michael Tait, our stage manager, about
plans. I don't know how much longer we'll carry on with the round
stage. We might give it another year. We may do some dates in August and
then some more in November and December.'
What actually happened in Paris last year? 'Half the album came out really
good... Alan broke his foot. Did you know that? No, I'm not going to
tell you how! That's up to him. But that's what happened and we had to
stop recording because he'd broken his bass drum foot. Also we had been
recording with Roy Thomas Baker who is a lovely chap, but Yes work in a
particular kind of way, and we weren't getting that into the
music.' Although Yes now rate as one of the longest serving British rock
bands, their audience, especially in America, seem to be getting younger
and not older with the band. 'If you want to know my theory' said Chris,
'all the younger brothers and sisters of the kids who bought our original
records are listening to them. You find kids now who would have been ten
years old when FRAGILE was released, knowing everything about the
album. They've grown up with the records.'
Did Chris think the next album would appeal to the whole new audience that
has grown up for rock? 'I hope so -- it's a fact of life there is a
certain age for record buying. Later on it's all on to nappies and
prams. Obviously our next album has got to be as fresh as THE YES ALBUM
was in 1971. We're trying to recapture that same kind of enthusiasm.
'We've been through the phases of long, drawn out, Yes, orchestral-type
pieces. The crux of the matter is not whether we do a three minute pop
song or something twenty minutes long. It's the amount of energy that's in
the music. That's what we captured in those early albums and was less
evident in later albums. The band should be a band, all committed to the
same end. That's how it was. We have to make sure, that's how it is
now. Obviously when you're struggling, you're gonna go for it, necessity
is driving you. You have to put yourself in that same psychological
position and go for that commitment.'
Did Chris think they had managed to regenerate that feeling?
'Yeah! It's all part of coming back here and rehearsing in Bayswater. You
don't have to force it and talk about it. Somehow it's naturally coming
back. We feel more free to take chances as well.'
Did he get tired of people's tendency (among the ill-informed) of
bracketing Yes with other groups like Genesis and ELP? Chris grinned. 'As
long as people still talk about us! I don't care what bracket they put us
in. Our music is quite different but they still identify us with that era
don't they? Obviously all three bands are different. It's a shame ELP
split up.'
While Chris was rehearsing he had proudly shown me his bass guitar, which
seemed to produce a baffling array of effects. 'The St Louis Music Company
had the basic idea. Instead of a guitarist needing pedals in front of him,
how much nicer to make a guitar with all the effects built in. They tried
it before unsuccessfully, but they really worked hard at it to make sure
all the effects really sounded good. They came to me for advice on the
shape of the guitar and its appearance. So I helped them to develop the
idea and I have the prototype. You can exchange modules which fit into the
back of the guitar, which give you the effects. There are fourteen
varieties - fuzz, envelope shaper, flanger, octave dropper, all quite well
known effects. But they are all damn good and close to the guitar. You
don't have to go through lots of leads and lose quality. They are all
perfectly matched to the guitar. That's why a lot of guitars don't sound good.
'People have to find an effect that sounds good with their instrument
because of the different strengths of the signal. Their idea was to build
something that matched the guitar and you'd buy it all as a package. You
can use two effects together of swap them around. The modules are filled
with micro-chips and are about two inches square.
'It's amazing. The flanger is one of the best I've ever heard and it's
very small for such a complex effect. WIth another effect you can plug in
a pair of headphones and listen to yourself playing. The rest are wah-wah
sounds and bubbling noises. The octave box and flanger together is a
particularly good combination, which you heard me using. The guitar itself
is called an MPC but don't ask me what that stands for! My bass is a
one-off, but it's now going into production. It won't be that cheap,
probably between the cost of a Rickenbacker and an Alembic. It has a
standard long scale neck. The reason the company came to me in the first
place was because they saw me using a lot of pedals with my Rickenbacker
and other guitars to get certain effects. They came to me and Said "Well
Chris, just throw all this away and buy our new invention!" I guess it's
full of micro-chips, because they are very cunning about it and keep it
sealed inside a plastic blob so you can't find out what's in it. I know,
they spent a year working on the flanger alone.'
Chris planned to use the bass during recording and if it proved
satisfactory he'd use it on stage as well. 'But I'll never forsake my
Rickenbacker because it's a lovely guitar to play. I don't have to look at
it. I've had it since 1965, and it's the guitar I've used throughout Yes'
career. The relationship between me and that guitar has given me an identity.'
Steve Howe feels much the same fondness and affection for his massive
collection of guitars, although he was restricting his use of them on this
stripped-for-action day of rehearsal. 'I was using a double necked slide
guitar this afternoon,' he explained. 'I'm limiting myself quite a lot,
and just brought down one Les Paul and a couple of Fenders. Most of the
tracks will be done with those guitars and perhaps some others will come
into it eventually.'
Steve explained how they were working out the arrangements and new
material. 'Jon or Chris will play something and then I think of another
way of doing it, like the whining sound on the slide guitar, going up and
up. We are interacting as opposed to developing ideas that had already
been sketched out. It seems to be working and bringing out the best in the
group. We've had twelve years to try out the other way! It's definitely
the way we're doing it now and brought about a very happy feeling. We've
got nothing to moan about anymore.'
When the band started touring, would they incorporate any of their
individual material? 'Who knows? It hasn't worked for us before. We
didn't feel we could stick at it, at the expense of an audience. And to an
extent, it's not what you play, it's how you play. Getting it across is
crucial and the main priority is Yes music. Because we've got something
going on quite urgent with us I don't think we'll be able to get the solo
things in as well. When we take a break we can work on solo projects but
right now it's eyes down.'
How did Steve think Yes would sound in the eighties? He rolled his eyes
heavenwards and smiled at the prospect of such a daunting
prediction. 'Over the last few years we have been more song orientated
although they've had instrumental sections. The main changes will come in
the arrangements... I can hear the changes but to describe it in words is
very difficult. I think we've got rid of the Yes doldrums -- those long,
sustained doomy chords. You know, we'd reach a high and then switch to a
cold abstract mood. We are re-organising lots of things like that,
including our environment. There's a lot of bands coming up and for us
it's time to spring clean. We've been perfectionists to a certain extent
and after a while you get despondent because -- where is perfection? The
only way we can reach perfection I guess is understand what everyone else
wants. When you see a young group playing in a pub, well they've got an
idea. That is their reason for existence. Well older groups have ideas
too, and we've got one going right now. It's a real thing, not created by
record companies or management.'
Looking back, if there were faults in Yes music, what would Steve say they
were? 'As I said, the search for perfection is an impossibility. A lot of
happiness was created by Yes music in the first five years of the
seventies, and to some extent, less happiness was created universally in
the last five years.
'And without realising it we directed our energies to America and let
Britain drift which caused a certain amount of unreality. We'd get back
from a tour and see what had changed here in just a few months. We want to
be much more part of that, than what is happening in America. We've all
got our ambitions but we want to see the group go on.'
Could Steve imagine a life without Yes, if it all ground to a halt? How
would it leave him feeling?
'The way it happened would be a primary factor. I can believe it
happening. Obviously I don't want it to happen, but one could accept it if
the situation was -- "we have come to our end, let's cool it there." But
we've been through lots of hard times, and you know that, and we've
actually managed to come out of them again! So we feel, if we can't get
through a problem after all these years, then we would have really failed
in a very big sense.'
Alan White was in a similarly determined mood. We adjourned to a nearby
pub with sections of the Yes road crew and Alan talked about the spirit of
the band. 'The last American tour was tremendous. We were number one in
Billboard for the highest attendances of the year and we did something like
fifty gigs which was a lot of work. And our album sales were between one
and two million in America alone. The point is we're happy and creating
music we want to create. We've never copped out or let down our ardent
fans. And we're playing a kind of music that nobody else is
playing. That's the whole idea of the band -- the whole concept. It's
what makes us different. And now we're playing together again there is so
much enthusiasm -- a big burst of energy that we can create among
ourselves. It's what it's all about.'
How did Alan see his function within Yes? 'I like to kick the band and
make it heavy. But I also like to play jazz-oriented rhythms. I guess I
play American orthodox style and the way I play feels comfortable to
me. That's the main thing for any drummer, to feel comfortable.'
Before Yes, Alan played in many different kinds of groups and with all
kinds of artists. Many were involved in the heyday of Apple when he played
on the legendary Peace in Toronto gig with John Lennon and on such classic
songs as "Imagine" and "All Things Must Pass" with George Harrison. 'I
miss playing along with other artists to a certain extent, but I get enough
pleasure out of Yes and their music is always a challenge. It's never too
easy.'
Alan also plays guitar and has been writing a lot.
'Some of it is not necessarily for Yes and will be developed for my next
solo LP. I like to get the songs down on an 8-track, playing guitar and
keyboards which I've been studying for a year. I use a drum machine first
then add my own drums on after. Basically, I do the whole thing
myself. I'd like to record with Jeff Berlin or Phillip Chen who are great
bass players. But the solo LP is just in my head at the moment, I'm still
planning it.'
I had to tell Alan that I never liked the title of his last solo album
RAMSHACKLED -- it seemed to cast a downer on proceedings. 'I believed in
that project and was creatively involved in it for a long time. But the
title wasn't my idea -- it was the guitarist's! I really believed in the
music. People didn't understand what it was all about back in 1976. But
I'm more interested in the future now. It's a very positive time for us.'
Did Yes have a role in the eighties?
'Absolutely! The eighties have given us a boost and I'm very enthusiastic
about what's going to happen. There's a big world out there we're going to
play to.'
Why wasn't Rick on hand to get involved?
'Rick can work things out really quickly and he doesn't like to spend a
long time working through the arrangements. He can realise his keyboard
role quickly, and he's working on a new solo LP and single right
now. Being at home again will make us all feel much closer and recreate
the English atmosphere of Yes.
'The most important thing for me is touring and playing to the public. A
drummer needs that more than most.'
Footnote: Alan White's drum kit comprises: Ludwig drums including 6, 8, 10,
13, 14, 15, 16 and 18 inch tom toms, arranged in triangular groups; Black
Beauty 400 engraved snare drum; 22 inch bass drum; Avedis Zildjian cymbals
including two old China types. And he uses custom-made Alan White sticks.
Close Window
YesInThePress.com
For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com
|
|