RIP Yes' Chris Squire

[DavidKOS]

No one's posted on this forum yet.

RIP Chris Squire.

If you don't know how he is, look it up, and he rarely played mandolin.

Bassist for Yes......

[Michael Bridges]

One of the best. A tremendous influence on me in my bassist days. I will miss him a ton. R.I.P. Chris.

[tkdboyd]

Sad news...dare I say the first progressive rock bass player? One of the few bassists that used a plectrum that I truly respect. I find it rather cool that his bass solo's were always tied to melody and rhythm.

[David Lewis]

Sad news...dare I say the first progressive rock bass player? One of the few bassists that used a plectrum that I truly respect. I find it rather cool that his bass solo's were always tied to melody and rhythm.

I'd argue gently the late great Jack Bruce as the first progressive rock bass player. But Squire is vitally important.

[Chris W.]

Dang. I got into all of those English prog bands way back when. Yes was one of them. I always admired his bass paying as well as his brilliant harmony singing. Saw them live in the late 80s (90125 tour) and was also surprised to see how physically large of a human he was. I'll miss him but I'll always have the music.

RIP Fish

[journeybear]

So sad. Truly one of the greats. What a sound - or variety of sounds - he created. His work on "The Yes Album," "Fragile," and "Tales" - truly classic. Their music played a big part of my cultural enlightenment during college. Yes, Supertramp, Be Bop Deluxe, Gentle Giant, to a lesser extent King Crimson and Genesis (when Peter Gabriel was still with them), and even Fleetwood Mac, particularly "Future Games." A lot of this served as the soundtracks for some pretty deep interior explorations via psychedelics.

I think of progressive rock as coming about ever so slightly later than blues rock (eg, Cream), and Jack Bruce's musical style being more blues-oriented anyway. But I'm not really interested in splitting hairs right now.

[Chris W.]

Just dusted off Close to the Edge and I'm listening to it for the first time in a long while. If I set aside my obvious nostalgia, the music sounds fresh, like it could have been made recently.

[zedmando]

Sad news indeed--I had heard he was sick--but this still seems quick.
Certainly condolences to his family & friends.

Fragile, Close to the Edge, so many others...
Have to go listen to some Yes.

[DavidKOS]

Nice to see Yes fans here.

Another prog bassist - Greg Lake, of King Crimson and ELP.

Squire got a lot of inspiration from John Entwhistle, including the short time Ox used a rick 4001 and a pick.

[DavidKOS]

surprised to see how physically large of a human he was.
RIP Fish

I met Squire and Howe after a 1977 show - Squire indeed was quite tall - supposedly a buddy suggested he learn bass as his hands were so big.

[Dagger Gordon]

Seeking a very roundabout mandolin connection (which doesn't actually involve Chris Squire):

The first bassist in Yes was a fellow called Dave Foster - who I understand was on (and I think wrote some of ) Time And A Word.
After he left he came to live in the Scottish Highlands where his wife comes from, and set up a wee studio where he recorded my own first album 'Highland Mandolin''. He was also a founder member of the Celtic rock band Wolfstone.

Sad news.

[journeybear]

Yes, I forgot "Close To The Edge" in my list. These things are subject to the old memory vs time dynamic. This is often fragile, yes, when one gets close to the edge of long tales. Which reminds me - I meant CTTE and not TFTO. That was about as far as I went with them. The songs - if you want to call them that - were getting too long and meandering, and the live album "Yessongs" was a fitting summation to my journey through time and space with them.

[Chris W.]

deleted

[Chris W.]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wij9N7QcgCI[YOUTUBE]www.youtube.com/watch?v=wij9N7QcgCI/[YOUTUBE]


Help. how in the hell do I embed a video???

[Chris W.]

@!$$&@@!!!!! I can't figure this out!!

[Francis J]

Chris, go advanced, click the Youtube icon and insert the bit of the youtube address after the = into the box.

[journeybear]

Thanks for this. A very charming rendition from a much-respected, even revered, former member, dearly missed by many. It seems oddly appropriate in these circumstances. (Even with no bass content.)



BTW, FWIW. & ICYWW ... From the wiki, about the use of a double-string instrument in another acoustic portion of their oeuvre: "I've Seen All Good People" is a suite of two tunes. Anderson wanted the piece to start quietly and develop, leading into a large church organ sound, before moving into the funky second movement. The band had difficulty recording the initial "Your Move" section, which was resolved by making a tape loop of bass and drums, over which Howe overdubbed a Portuguese 12-string guitar, miscrediting it as a "vachalia" on the album's credits. Gnidrolog's Colin Goldring played recorder on the track. I mention this partly because that instrument is similar in shape and size to what John McGann is playing there.

[DavidKOS]

The band had difficulty recording the initial "Your Move" section, which was resolved by making a tape loop of bass and drums, over which Howe overdubbed a Portuguese 12-string guitar, miscrediting it as a "vachalia" on the album's credits. Gnidrolog's Colin Goldring played recorder on the track.[/I] I mention this partly because that instrument is similar in shape and size to what John McGann is playing there.

So let's see it!



nifty guitar work, too. great bass line......

[spufman]

A genuinely unique bass player and musician, one of my primary influences starting on bass way back then. Thanks, Chris.

[DavidKOS]

A genuinely unique bass player and musician, one of my primary influences starting on bass way back then. Thanks, Chris.

The key word - bands like Yes and musicians like Squire were not just rock players. There were....musicians.

[journeybear]

So let's see it!

I would if I could! Ok, it's just a short jaunt over to youtube ...

Speaking of great bass lines what Chris does on this one is phenomenal, both in the snappy intro/intermezzo section and in the herky-jerky verses. I still am amazed by it, not just the notes but the tone. And perhaps even more amazing is this was on the single. It's one of the craziest singles of all time, really - "Roundabout" b/w "Long Distance Runaround." My recollection (possibly hazy) is that I first heard this on a jukebox sitting in a booth at a diner in this small town in PA where I lived for a few months. Remember those little jukeboxes, individual ones at each booth? What a strange yet wonderful way to hear this song for the first time!

[DavidKOS]

Great music - the guitar and keyboard riffs are pretty cool too.

[journeybear]

Yes, and the way they get layered, and then interrelate - really clever stuff. Not your run-of-the-mill rock band riffing.

[DavidKOS]

Yes, and the way they get layered, and then interrelate - really clever stuff. Not your run-of-the-mill rock band riffing.

That's why I liked the music so much, so much more content than usual.

[Don Grieser]

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.