------------------------------------------------------- MAY 7, 2004 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: New Jersey Star-Ledger Yes at 35: The seminal proggressive rock band celebrates its history on tour By Jay Lustig The progressive rock group Yes has more than greatest hits on its mind on its 35th-anniversary tour. The band is performing "Show Me," a new song from its recent three-CD anthology, "The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection." It is reaching deep into its catalog for near-forgotten songs like "Sweet Dreams" (from the 1970 album "Time and a Word") and its 1969 Beatles cover "Every Little Thing." The tour also marks the live debut of "Mind Drive" from the band's 1997 album, "Keys to Ascension, Vol. 2." "It's a good exercise to perform music that we recorded but never played on stage, because Yes is a performing band," singer Jon Anderson said. "We try to make good albums, but the music we record is really to take on stage and try to make it better." Yes, which appears at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, has gone through non-stop lineup shifts over the years. It currently features Anderson, 59, bassist Chris Squire, 56, keyboardist Rick Wakeman, 54, guitarist Steve Howe, 57, and drummer Alan White, 54. Only Anderson and Squire are original members, though all five musicians have a big part in Yes history. "The band has been sort of like an ameba," Anderson said. "It keeps changing its shape, but continues to play our music -- which is our own style of music, if you like." That style is marked by instrumental virtuosity, imaginative arrangements and Anderson's philosophical, cryptic lyrics. There aren't a lot of three-minute ditties in the Yes catalog. Songs typically stretch from six to 20 minutes, with lots of surprising musical detours. Still, Yes has occasionally come up with hits, such as "Your Move" (1971), "Roundabout" (1972) and "Owner of a Lonely Heart" (1983). The band has not released an album of new studio material since "Magnification" (2001). Its most recent project, the "Ultimate Yes" collection, combines two discs of career highlights with a third, 20-minute CD of previously unreleased tracks (including an acoustic "Roundabout" and the new "Show Me"). "The Ultimate Yes" came out just two years after another Yes compilation, the five-CD boxed set "In a Word." "I think the idea was to celebrate the history of the band in as concise a way as possible," Anderson said. "This is just a couple of CDs with an additional (bonus CD). It's not like you have to plow through five or six hours of music. You can actually understand Yes' music in a couple of hours." Other recent Yes projects have included reissues of past studio albums (with remastered sound and bonus tracks) and "Yesspeak," a DVD documenting the band's history and a recent European tour. Anderson says the group will continue to write songs, but may never release another studio album. "None of us feel that's what the business end is all about now," he said, adding that the "Yesspeak" DVD offers a better idea about where the band is heading. "I think DVDs are really the next level. When we started, LPs weren't the big thing. Singles were the big things -- and then albums. If you got a hit single, you could make an album. "We did the opposite, along with (Led) Zeppelin, and Genesis, and King Crimson. We made albums. We didn't think about singles, because we felt we were a little too old to be pop stars. We're still thinking along the same lines. We're obviously too old to be pop stars, but we're not too old to make great music." Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com