Chris Squire, bassist for "Yes," dead at 67

yeah.....totally no oomph. But finesse without the bottom dropping out. And they were so tight....he could get away with it. I never heard the likes of his playing before or since in “rock” music. And man, the recording and mastering were top notch. They were all just so amazing! I remember in the 70’s when alla sudden every bass guy had a Rick and tremolo trying to dupe Squire’s thing. But the sound of the axe was hardly a fraction of what made his playing move me.

This is how tight they were. In the 69 concert, I think the song is “Starship Troopers” where, as a band, they did a synchopated “da-da-ta-da.” Well, they got off and Squire and Wakeman were on beat and Bruford and Howe were on the off beat and you could just see them look in horror at each other and they just STOPPED . . . then immediately came back in together. I’ve never seen anything like it in a live performance. It wasn’t rehearsed. You could tell they had screwed up, yet fixed it in seconds.

Yeah! And you touch on another shade of genus I heard in that groups arrangements: the free-flowing time with its unusual beat and measure counts never seemed forced or contrived....as in ‘Trooper’. They composed and arranged as a team, using ears and instinct; unbound by convention that existed in pop at the time. You could pretty much tell which member composed which section of a tune, and they mixed up their themes in a work, which result was a classical construction of mini-movements. Always interesting!

I was introduced to the band by an alarm clock radio which got me up for school. My older brother had it set to a pioneering FM album rock station. The opening riff to “Trooper” played. I fell outta the top bunk! Previously a devotee of Zep and Jimi...I was floored by what I heard Yes play.

And Steve Howe became my new ‘tutor’ for a lot of years... I sweat over ever note he played for months and months. A bedroom hermit with an SG and a Marshall....on 11, of course.

I’d have loved finding guys for a band who could have duped Yes’s parts, Not much luck, lol. I’ve adapted Trooper and Roundabout for acoustic solo; and I’ve carried, faithfully, a few of Howe’s solo pieces in my quiver for decades. Great schoolin’.

Yes was a perfect storm fer sherrrr. And Squire and the fellas were just amazing. Never saw them live, but years later I worked with a guy who was part of the opening act for their first west coast tour in....’71?

At the after gig parties, said he, Howe would drink strong tea, and go practice in some corner for the duration of the soiree. Dedicated. Obsessed. I guess the other guys were trashin’ the hotel?

Interesting stories. I was never jazzy, and couldn't play Bruford (or, really, Alan White). So all my bands were more Cream, Hendrix, Vanilla Fudge, Doors, etc. But there was one competitor band in PHX that did have a great, jazzy drummer and an excellent singer with a high voice and they did a lot of Yes covers.

We did have one band that loved "Heart of the Sunrise" and and "Perpetual Change" and we learned those. Our singers could sing them, but we were really too heavy for those songs.

I know Mark Stein, keyboard player/singer of Vanilla Fudge, who I think is the best rock B-3 player ever, and I told him that the two greatest Hammond B-3 solos were his on "The Break Song" and Wakeman's on "Close to the Edge."

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