MGK’s Top 20 Classic Rock Singers: 16. Jon Anderson

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We don’t really think of Yes as a band that specializes in interpretations of other artists’ songs, but in their early days, that was one of their specialties; their repertoire included songs by the Buffalo Springfield, Richie Havens and even Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim (they covered “Something’s Coming” from ‘West Side Story’). They took a lot of liberties with their covers, especially on this Beatles hit… even including a bit of “Day Tripper” into the extended introduction. The band was playing psychedelic garage rock, but you can hear the seeds of progressive rock starting to take root here.

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“Show Me” can be considered the final “classic Yes” jam: it’s surely going to be the last one to feature both Anderson and Squire (Howe, White and Wakeman also played on this song). Jon Anderson found a cassette labeled “1972” with his demo of this song in the early 2000s and decided to finish it with the band. Yes included it on their 2003 career-spanning collection; a year later, Anderson would be out of Yes, and this time, it seemed like it was for good. Benoît David replaced him in 2008, leaving in 2012. Jon Davidson has been the singer ever since.

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‘90125’ was always going to be a tough album to follow up; it pulled off the rare feat of introducing a “legacy band” to a much younger audience. But if ‘Big Generator’ didn’t quite reach the commercial heights of ‘90125,’ it still contained a number of great jams that fit right in on rock radio. This one, co-written by Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye and Chris Squire, opened with a Beach Boys homage, before evolving into a very modern-sounding mid-tempo rocker.

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“On drums, Mr. Alan White! It’s great to be with you tonight!” Yes’s studio records are so pristine, so we didn’t delve too deeply into their considerable live output for this list. But, powered by the aforementioned Mr. White’s heavy drumming, this performance shows the band’s newfound extra swagger. Yes had a decade and a half of history under their belts, and in the early ‘80s, they were playing new music that sounded like nothing in their past catalog to an audience who were there to hear it.

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By the mid-’90s, it looked like Yes might be history. After the against-all-odds 1991 “reunion tour” of eight former members (some of which had never been in the band at the same time) Yes stripped back down to their ‘90125’ lineup for the ‘Talk’ album. But times had changed and ‘Talk’ was mostly ignored. Guitarist/singer/songwriter Trevor Rabin and founding keyboardist Tony Kaye lost interest after the tour and left the band. Jon Anderson, Chris Squire and Alan White regrouped, and invited guitarist Steve Howe and keyboardist Rick Wakeman to return for a few live gigs at a small theater in Anderson’s home of San Luis Obispo, California. They also hit the studio to see if they could return to their sprawling, progressive rock form of the ‘70s. “That, That Is” showed that they still had lots of new ideas. The 19-minute epic was their longest song in decades.

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One of their creepier and more foreboding songs, mostly thanks to Chris Squire’s chugging bass riff. Jon Anderson has said that his lyrics were inspired by something he read, which claimed that "sleep is death's little sister." But in true Anderson style, he frames this as something that isn’t necessarily negative. “The warmth when you die,” he sang, asking, “Were we ever warmer on that day?” The song features some of Rick Wakeman’s sweetest grand piano playing.

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From the same sessions that yielded the 19-minute long “That, That Is,” “Mind Drive” clocks in at just under 19 minutes. The band was clearly past their MTV era and were back to creating the lengthy epics that their fans adored. The song was a welcome new addition to their sets during this era.

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The band’s best cover. As with their take on the Beatles’ “Every Little Thing,” Yes took a lot of liberties with the Simon and Garfunkel classic (even dropping in a bit of “America” from ‘West Side Story’ into the extended jam). They also tripled the original song’s length; the folk duo’s was 3:23, while Yes’ full version extended past ten minutes. Yes recorded this in 1970 after Steve Howe replaced founding guitarist Peter Banks, but they kept it in the vaults for a few years.

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Co-written by guitarist/singer Trevor Rabin and bassist Chris Squire before Jon Anderson had even rejoined the band; at the time, they weren’t even going to be called “Yes.” Which explains why it really sounds nothing like Yes. The vocals were so well arranged that an acapella version was released, and was often heard on jukeboxes at the time. But the music made it into one of the band’s funkiest jams.

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Co-written by guitarist/singer Trevor Rabin and bassist Chris Squire before Jon Anderson had even rejoined the band; at the time, they weren’t even going to be called “Yes.” Which explains why it really sounds nothing like Yes. The vocals were so well arranged that an acapella version was released, and was often heard on jukeboxes at the time. But the music made it into one of the band’s funkiest jams.

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After two albums that included a total of just seven songs, Yes decided to tighten up a bit and (mostly) stick with shorter jams. “Parallels” is less than six minutes, and is powered by Wakeman’s keyboard playing. He actually recorded his parts on a church organ at St. Martin's Church, in the town of Vevey, four miles away from where the band was recording, in Montreux, Switzerland. The extra effort definitely paid off; the churchy sound gives the song a completely different vibe than a normal keyboard rig would have.

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The first song on the first Yes album, it was co-written by Chris Squire with his former bandmate Clive Bailey; they were in a band called Mabel Greer’s Toyshop. This song established that bass would be a lead instrument in Yes… which makes sense, as Squire was a big fan of John Entwistle and Jack Bruce.

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Co-written by guitarist/singer Trevor Rabin and bassist Chris Squire before Jon Anderson had even rejoined the band; at the time, they weren’t even going to be called “Yes.” Which explains why it really sounds nothing like Yes. The vocals were so well arranged that an acapella version was released, and was often heard on jukeboxes at the time. But the music made it into one of the band’s funkiest jams.

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We’re of the mind that a classic Yes song needs to have both Jon Anderson and Chris Squire. Here’s an exception. Jon Anderson (and Rick Wakeman) quit the band after ‘Tormato,’ and Yes went on without them, by recruiting both members of the new-wave duo the Buggles -- yes, the “Video Killed The Radio Star” guys. On ‘Drama,’ Trevor Horn was the singer and Geoff Downes (who rejoined Yes a few years ago) played keyboards. The album is actually pretty solid, but this song is a clear standout. Anderson didn’t seem interested in singing this song after he rejoined, although Horn’s performance sounds like a tribute to his predecessor.

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One of the band’s most direct, and political, songs. Clearly not a fan of whale hunts, Jon Anderson sang with urgency, “Rejoice they sing/They worship their own space/In a moment of love, they will die for their grace!”

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The one epic on the otherwise svelte ‘Going For The One,’ “Awaken” is fifteen and a half minutes long and it’s wild. It features some of Steve Howe and Chris Squire’s most aggressive playing. But it’s also chill: there’s an interlude featuring Jon Anderson’s harp playing. We don’t mean harmonica. He actually plays a harp.

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The longest song on a double album, which features just four songs. There was just one song per side. “Ritual” clocks in at twenty-one and a half minutes, and has the most commercial melodies on the album. If whittled down, there might have been a radio hit there. Alas, that wasn’t what most of the band had in mind at the time. Rick Wakeman, however, wasn’t into it; he was so bored with the performances of the album live, that he famously had his roadie deliver him food on stage during the show. He left the band after the tour, and has come and gone a number of times since then. That’s fine, there are plenty of fans who love this album, even if “Grumpy Rick” didn’t dig it.

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Rick Wakeman’s departure didn’t turn the band off from long songs; this one stretches to almost 22 minutes. Here, though, they decided to do an edit for radio (called “Soon”), which distilled the song to less than five minutes. It was cool to hear such an ambitious piece on the radio, but alas, “Soon” didn’t make it to the airwaves too often. So, we’re happy to chill out and listen to the original… that is, when we have the time.

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It’s really just a solo Steve Howe piece (and the first of two on this list). A simply gorgeous classically-influenced nylon string guitar jam by one of the greatest players of the era.

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After Yes broke up in 1980, Chris Squire and Alan White stuck together and decided to form a new band (they were originally working with Jimmy Page on a band called XYZ that never went anywhere). But they soon hooked up with South African guitarist/singer/songwriter Trevor Rabin and this was one of the first songs they wrote as Cinema. When they invited Jon Anderson to join the band, they decided to relaunch Yes, and Jon helped them to rework this song into a huge radio hit; it reached #5 on the mainstream radio rock charts.

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The second and last live song to make this list. It was the band’s opening song during this era. This recording is powered by Alan White’s more straight-ahead drumming; he joined the band right as this tour started, replacing the much jazzier Bill Bruford.

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A song that features Steve Howe’s steel guitar playing; the instrument is most closely associated with country music, but Howe bent it to his own will. No one is confusing this song for something conceived in Nashville...

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… not that there’s anything wrong with Nashville and country music. This solo acoustic Steve Howe piece is a 3 minute 17 second slab of glory that you can line dance to. By the way, the title is “Clap,” not “The Clap.” But the recording on the album comes from a concert where Jon Anderson is heard introducing the song as “The Clap,” leading to confusion that probably irked Howe for years.

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Most Yes fans will agree that ‘Close To The Edge’ and ‘Fragile’ had the band’s definitive lineup: Chris Squire on bass, Jon Anderson on vocals, guitarist Steve Howe, keyboardist Rick Wakeman, and drummer Bill Bruford. The quintet was at the peak of their powers on all three songs on ‘Close To The Edge.’ “And You And I” started as a folky song that became much more epic in the hands of these maestros. Anderson does a lovely version at his solo shows, but there’s nothing like hearing him play it with Howe, Squire, Bruford and Wakeman at the peak of their considerable powers.

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The best Yes song from the pre-Steve Howe era. Jon Anderson co-wrote the poppy ballad “Time And A Word” with David Foster, his former bandmate from the Warriors. The orchestra used on the song and the album annoyed guitarist Peter Banks, who left the band (in part) because of that. He was soon to be replaced by Steve Howe. In fact, Howe joined by the time the album was released, which is why he, not Banks, is on the album’s cover, despite the fact that he didn’t play on it.

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Trevor Rabin started writing this one in 1979, before Yes even broke up, much less got back together. (You can hear Trevor’s early version on his ‘90124’ collection, which came out in 2003). Of course, as mentioned, when Rabin started working with Chris Squire and Alan White, it was to form a new band called Cinema. But after Yes founders Tony Kaye and, later, Jon Anderson joined, it was clear that this was a new iteration of Yes. And “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” definitely ushered in a new era for the band: it was their first (and probably only) #1 hit, ever. MTV’s crowd and top 40 listeners didn’t know the band’s history, they just loved this new hit (and even the dance remixes). It’s the greatest moment from their comeback, which was one of the least likely and most unusual in rock history.

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Yes, we’re smooshing two songs together as one. Like Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker” and “Livin’ Lovin’ Maid (She’s Just A Woman)” they just feel like one song. And anyone who saw the Anderson/Bruford/Wakman/Howe tour in 1989 and 1990 knows how weird it sounded when they played “Lost Distance Runaround” without following it with Chris Squire’s bass masterpiece, “The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus).” Together, the two songs are still a pretty quick 6 minutes.

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The ten-minute opening track from the first album with Steve Howe was something like a mission statement: Yes was no longer a garage band. This is where they started creating their identity with longer, more complex songs. Steve Howe also stretched out a lot here, ensuring that he would forge his own identity in the band. Yes was never outwardly political, but this song was said to be inspired by the Vietnam War; regardless of what anyone thought of the war, the soldiers fought because they had to; Anderson was telling them, whatever the circumstances of the war, “yours is no disgrace.”

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This four-part, 18 and a half minute epic inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien was like exhibit A for people who like to dunk on Yes and progressive rock. But really, who cares what people who don’t like Yes think? This might be the classic lineup’s most ambitious piece. And yet, thousands of fans have memorized all eighteen and a half minutes.

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This might be Bill Bruford’s finest moment with Yes. The song went from a proto-metal breakneck riff to slower movements throughout the song, but Bruford’s stellar drumming remained the anchor throughout the entire 11 and a half minutes.

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The first part (“Your Move”) was so folky, it recalled Crosby Stills and Nash, with its acoustic strumming and Chris Squire and Steve Howe’s harmony vocals. By the way, let’s take a moment to recognize how great of harmony vocals Squire and Howe were; it’s easy to forget that, due to their mind blowing abilities on bass and guitar, respectively. “Your Move” got its own radio edit and was a top 40 hit. But “All Good People” turned it into an anthem. It reminded fans that although Yes was stretching out into more complex terrain, they could still rock out when they choose to.

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Arguably the band’s most well-known song (along with “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”). This might be Chris Squire’s most distinctive bass line, and it also features some of Steve Howe’s coolest guitar work on electric and nylon string guitar. It was also the fans’ introduction to new keyboardist Rick Wakeman, who had a more diverse armory of keyboard instruments (including synthesizers) than his predecessor, Tony Kaye.

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The song starts with “Life Seeker,” which sets the scene: it’s a grand sci-fi epic. But then it takes a hard left turn, morphing into a country-influenced acoustic hoe-down (“Disillusion”) which again spotlights Anderson, Howe and Squire’s abilities as harmonizers. It ends with “Wurm,” one of Howe’s greatest moments. And even though they wouldn’t admit it, it probably influenced at least some of the members of Radiohead. Yes wasn’t really part of the hippie movement, but Anderson definitely had a patchouli vibe, notably on this song. The title was inspired by the 1959 Robert A. Heinlein novel ‘Starship Troopers,’ but the influence ended there. Anderson told Songfacts, "I just like the idea of Starship Trooper being another guardian angel and Mother Earth.. I was writing about my search for truth and search for an understanding of what God truly is.” He noted that it was influenced by the ‘60s and the energy around the Beatles. “There was always that feeling you would sit down with friends down by the lake. You sit together and you would say how beautiful life truly is, and that love is all we need.” Yes was a very popular band, and you might wonder why they didn’t get ripped off more often. Other than the fact that mimicking musicians like Howe, Squire, Wakeman, Bruford, White, et al, would be very difficult, there’s also the fact that no one other than Jon Anderson could pull off lyrics like this. It’s one of the many things that we love about this band. And even if we’ll never get the classic version of Yes together again -- Squire, alas, is gone -- it would be great to see Anderson with Howe and White, performing “Starship Trooper” (and many of the other songs on this list) one more time.