RIP Yes' Chris Squire

[Gerry Cassidy]

In my earliest days as a budding bassist he was one of the keystones of my playing style. Him, McCartney, Geddy Lee, Jamerson. I learned from the best. Guys that made the bass part an integral part of the song. Bruford says Squire's bass lines are just as hummable as the main melody lines of the song. Not too many venues where I can get away with playing a bass line like that these days. Again, Bruford calls today's bass lines "Immovable, and monotonic". I agree, and that's why I do my best not to play them. I may have lost gigs over the years because I was too busy, but I never really cared. I still don't. I think Squire had something to do with that part of my attitude. Many, too many have been leaving us as of late. This one hit me pretty hard

[DavidKOS]

Absolutely one of the best live shows I've ever seen, way back in the late 70s. Astounding musicianship by every member of the band. Sad news. I need to go listen to some Yes again.

The whole "see the past through the eyes of punk" rock world needs to go listen to some Yes.

And remember they sold out STADIUMS in the 70's.

In my earliest days as a budding bassist he was one of the keystones of my playing style. Him, McCartney, Geddy Lee, Jamerson. I learned from the best. Guys that made the bass part an integral part of the song. Bruford says Squire's bass lines are just as hummable as the main melody lines of the song. Not too many venues where I can get away with playing a bass line like that these days. Again, Bruford calls today's bass lines "Immovable, and monotonic". I agree, and that's why I do my best not to play them. I may have lost gigs over the years because I was too busy, but I never really cared. I still don't. I think Squire had something to do with that part of my attitude. Many, too many have been leaving us as of late. This one hit me pretty hard

I'm with you - unapologetic for playing electric bass and for playing moving lines, not "thump-thumpa-thumpa" on one note.

Unless that part of the song needs "thumpa"...but the next part of the song, and the next song, need other bass lines.

I once got a note in my tip jar saying that I had good bass chops but was "too busy" - but we were playing bebop and to solo over those fast moving changes, well, you have to be a bit busy!

[Gerry Cassidy]

I'm with you - unapologetic for playing electric bass and for playing moving lines, not "thump-thumpa-thumpa" on one note.

Unless that part of the song needs "thumpa"...but the next part of the song, and the next song, need other bass lines.

I once got a note in my tip jar saying that I had good bass chops but was "too busy" - but we were playing bebop and to solo over those fast moving changes, well, you have to be a bit busy!

Oh yes, of course we all must play to the intention of the song, but my version of what that is and the ears of others haven't always meshed. This is certainly okay, but I would usually suggest that a different bassist be brought in on the project rather than dummy-ing down my creativity.

I don't argue with fellow musicians when they view this as arrogance. I guess that is what it is, but I can live with it.

This is why I feel Squire had an influence on me. I had always wondered what it was like when they (members of Yes) were hashing out these amazing songs they recorded over the years. I have heard tell of many not-so-cooperative occurrences. I would imagine it was this creative tension, call it arrogance if you must, was the source behind many of these occurrences.

[eadg145]

When I read the obituary on the Rolling Stone web site, I read a bit further and took in some comments. This one, by a poster named Ilya Kuryakinovich, really resonated with me and my own experience around Chris Squire:

"Chris Squire was far more than "just" a musician, but that's because he revealed how much a musician could really be. His inventive, virtuoso lines expanded our sense of what music could be, of what ideas could be, of what reality could be. In a superficial way, I could credit Squire with leading me, like many others, to become a bassist, but that isn't really the story here. He led me to see the larger importance of music and art, to see the world as a place where artistry is the real point, with all the other concerns just contributing to it. He helped me see that I also had some of that ability, much more than I knew, at least. And he did all that simply by how he created music himself. We've lost one of the most important figures of the last 50 years. I do believe that."

Electric bass players will understand this comment.

[Don Grieser]

I listened to Fragile and Close to the Edge today. It's as fresh and amazing as it was 40 years ago. And no one played bass like Chris--no one. And his tone is perfect for the music. It's crazy good.

I'd love to have heard Chris Squire on a mandocello.

[DavidKOS]

I listened to Fragile and Close to the Edge today. It's as fresh and amazing as it was 40 years ago.

That's because those recordings were a high musical point in rock - and we've been REGRESSING musically ever since punk and disco killed prog rock.

Something's been lost in the stylistic return to rootsy, blues and early rock and roll music.

[journeybear]

Well, disco killed everything. Then punk killed disco, with some help from country. Then rap killed everything, except pop. Can't seem to get rid of that.

OK, nothing really killed anything, but tastes change.

Meanwhile, saw this on the interweb. Chris Squire in his best rock god pose.

[k0k0peli]

... those recordings were a high musical point in rock - and we've been REGRESSING musically ever since punk and disco killed prog rock.

Something's been lost in the stylistic return to rootsy, blues and early rock and roll music.

If we don't have easy access to the globe's total output of music, we must invent our own. A roots movement (starting as the 1950's folk revival) was already active in the 1970s, and prog musicians built on that, AND classical, AND jazz, AND various funky world / pop musics, to develop scores of wondrous complexity. But the music biz don't like complexity. The music biz has sh!tcanned classical, and prog, and jazz, and anything more subtle than a sledgehammer.

Well, disco killed everything. Then punk killed disco, with some help from country. Then rap killed everything, except pop. Can't seem to get rid of that.

OK, nothing really killed anything, but tastes change.

Yes, tastes change, helped immensely by intensive marketing. What is actively sold? If crap is all that's being served up, nothing but sh!t on a shingle, you get your choice of shingles. How kewl...

[DavidKOS]

.... A roots movement (starting as the 1950's folk revival) was already active in the 1970s, and prog musicians built on that, AND classical, AND jazz, AND various funky world / pop musics, to develop scores of wondrous complexity. But the music biz don't like complexity. The music biz has sh!tcanned classical, and prog, and jazz, and anything more subtle than a sledgehammer.

Yes, tastes change, helped immensely by intensive marketing. What is actively sold? If crap is all that's being served up, nothing but sh!t on a shingle, you get your choice of shingles. How kewl...

classical, and prog, and jazz - three of my favorite musics.

I'm from New Orleans - jazz is my folk music

I love prog rock and jazz fusion

I have a Master's in Music Theory and Comp

What you say about the music being marketed - for decades now - is so sadly true.

"intensive marketing" - did rap and hip-hop get that popular, even among suburban white kids, because it's good music, or was it pushed aggressively as the "cool thing"?

[journeybear]

It was cheap and easy to produce. And it aggressively promoted itself as being cool and hip. Plus there was the cult of personality that swirled around so many of its practitioners. Pretty alluring stuff, in so many ways - other than musical.

The music industry has long been a front-runner's game. Someone has a hit - even a fluke hit - and companies scramble to find the next whatever that is just the same to replicate that success. The only time that wasn't the case was the second half of the Sixties, when the music being produced was so unpredictable the companies couldn't figure out what was going to sell. So they signed and produced a dizzying array of bands, hoping they would strike gold with one of them. A lot of silly stuff got recorded because of this - The Strawberry Alarm Clock had a hit, so of course The Chocolate Wrist Band had to get signed - but also so much crazy wonderful magical music got recorded as well. I'm forever grateful.

[DavidKOS]

The only time that wasn't the case was the second half of the Sixties, when the music being produced was so unpredictable the companies couldn't figure out what was going to sell. So they signed and produced a dizzying array of bands, hoping they would strike gold with one of them.

Frank Zappa said that he could not have gotten a record deal 5 years earlier or 5 years later - the window you mention was when the "suits" had no idea what the kids would buy. Hence Zappa and other interesting music got recorded and sold.

Zappa of course made money be having an image of "no commercial potential" - quite a cool trick.

[Chris W.]

So I found a backtrack to Heart of the Sunrise that is the actual studio recording with the guitars removed. After practicing many hours over a couple of days, this is what I've got. I've been learning solo Bach violin and cello movements on mando and I'm feeling that learning this Yes song feels more like learning and studying a classical piece. Not your everyday rock music!
No mando content, just some guitars. I absolutely love the bass and drum interplay after the intro.