------------------------------------------------------- SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: San Jose Mercury News http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/music/9680393.htm/?1c Contributed by Juerg Reimann Singer reflects on 36 years of Yes: Jon Anderson fights exhaustion, illness as tour nears end By Brad Kava Jon Anderson, singer for the band Yes, says he's more than exhausted after six months on the road. ``I'm being held together with Super Glue,'' he says, from a hotel in Albuquerque. ``I just have to get through one more week. The stress of touring and the traveling is adding up.'' Yes played San Jose at the beginning of its tour in April, and it returns to the Bay Area to play in Concord tonight. That's the penultimate show in the United States, and then there's only one in Monterrey, Mexico, before the start of what Anderson hopes will be a long, long break. Anderson, though wheezing and hacking his way through the interview, says his voice is still fine, but he is suffering from asthma, bronchitis and exhaustion. Still, it's been a remarkable U.S. swing, he says, as well as a lengthy two years of world touring to celebrate the band's 35th and 36th years performing. ``More than ever, this band has played with such obvious maturity,'' he says. ``We've seen a lot of young fans this year, in their 20s and 30s, who have embraced us. They know the words and the music. We're getting good reviews from people who have seen us two or three times on this tour. We are realizing that we have been around for more than half a lifetime.'' The band has shortened its show, sadly, dropping the extended version of ``Tales From Topographic Oceans'' but keeping an ambitious acoustic set. Anderson, 59, says he wants to spend the next year on a solo project and a spring storyteller-style solo tour, in which he will take audience questions, play songs and reflect on his career. (It's becoming almost a genre, after Ray Davies' successful similarly structured shows. Pianist Joe Sample is doing it; so is guitarist Jim Messina.) Yes' best tour? ``When we first started coming to America, it was amazing,'' Anderson says. ``America really strengthened our resolve to become better people and better musicians. We really wanted to come back. You can't come over and think you've made it. You have to pay your dues. It took a few tours to catch on. The `Close to the Edge' show (1972), with very long pieces of music, was the one.'' When the band got started -- with its classical overtones, its choice of Stravinsky's ``Firebird'' Suite to open shows and its songs that rarely clocked in at less than 20 minutes -- fans assumed these were classical musicians who had switched to rock. Not so. Anderson and crew -- Rick Wakeman on keyboards, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White and bassist Chris Squire -- don't use sheet music for their complex compositions, and most haven't received formal training. Watching them rehearse in San Luis Obispo in the mid-1990s was a revelation. After playing the long ``Close to the Edge,'' they would sing each other's parts to critique the work. The conversations were like: Howe to Wakeman: ``You know that part when you go doo doo doo doo? Well, I'd like to try a dah dah there.'' Anderson, a native of England who has lived in Hawaii and Los Angeles, moved just south of San Luis Obispo after falling in love with the town. He gives workshops in schools where, among other things, he was shocked to find how little was taught about American Indian culture. ``One time, I asked the students why we were alive,'' he says. ``One voice popped up and said, `To find God.' That's a big part of the Yes idea. It was Chief Seattle who said the only reason we live is to find the creator. My serious belief is that everything is an illusion, and love is the only real thing.'' So, are the guys in Yes living this blissful family life after all these years? ``When you are successful, everyone is happy and high, literally. When you are not, everyone is bitching like hell. I can't say I get on with everyone, but I love them. These days, the only time we agree is halfway through `And You and I,' because we get along when we are playing.'' Anderson, ever playful, sums up the band's differences this way: ``Chris and I are poles apart on our ideals. He would say that I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi and he is Darth Vader.'' This band, which has broken up and re-formed three times, even differs on wanting to take a break. Anderson is ready to stop Yes for a couple of years. Other members want to keep touring. ``Maybe we'll come back and try an acoustic tour,'' says the singer. Yes With Dream Theater Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com