|
The
2nd time I met YES was outrageously cool. A very unreal night.
Jon had signed the above page of the Tour Program with his interesting
scrawl as we sat in the Pfister Hotel in Downtown Milwaukee drinking
a Michalob and talking in a sweetly lit section of the plush
hotel piano bar. Here's the full
story as it happened...
Steve Howe's autograph
from the same tour program.
This was the
last communication I received from Steve Howe and it was a wild
one.
I had only heard rumors
as to changes in the band but never thought that Anderson would
really leave. But after Tormato, I must confess that I knew it
was to be over. Tormato has its few fleeting moments but pales
in a faded aura compared to what happened musically on Going
For The One and all preceding work. How can you follow up Awaken?
Which even Anderson admits was an incredible and unique peak
in the bands life. Yes carried on and was still entertaining
to a large degree. I totally enjoyed when they came back big
time with 90125. I had to billow a loud "Hell Yeah!"
But at the time of this message, I was hurt and sent a stinging
letter of disapproval ...like it was somehow possible to make
it all come back together as it once was again. (stupid kid!)
The new music had grown away from the essence of what caught
my ear in the beginning with Close to the Edge and my personal
favorite Yes song 'And You And I' ...I was playing guitar in
a rock band by then and working on my own music so it all passed
kind of easily as the new Yes told me that they were a "camera".
Until I found all this
old YESSTUFF buried away in closet boxes, I forgot how very cool
the band was to me as perhaps their youngest fan and how inspired
they made me feel with there communications. NO matter how I
try, I can't seem to escape the impression that YES music made
on my own passions and musical adventures. I see their colours
draped across some of my own works. But somehow ...it still feels
like it's mine ...it feels right! I believe it has progressed
quite nicely.
What I have
realized in reflection of my YES experience here is this (violins
fade in) ...The ultimate positive power of human to human communication
is not within efforts that influence but in those that inspire.
As it is in that moment of inspiration, that the true spirit
in us is summoned to the surface. This is where we find and share
the very best in us all; When it is real and true.
...The end
of a beautiful saga in progressive music history.
\;/
In closing, I've included
the below album cover put together several years ago by me at
the urging of a net guy from Japan to make available the Milwaukee
April 26, 1979 bootleg tapes. A bit before that, I had been playing
around in Photoshop and after twisting and flipping some computer
generated images, I sat stunned when I realized that this strange
elongated orb I had just created looked exactly like the First
YES concert I ever saw. WOW! Perhaps Roger Dean thought with
the power of modern computers when he made his designs for the
Yes Shows of '74-'76. I had
once entertained the thought of Roger Dean doing an album cover
for me and contacted him. To finish off the cover below,
I added the final touch of the lasers and was amazed to feel
that beautiful vibe flow once again. (strains of Firebird Suite
fade into mind) A pleasant accident that made me smile! I later
added the logo and background to round it out for a cover. I
never did release it to the guy from Japan though -we lost touch
...so here it is as an image to share with those of you who might
care.
|