Christopher Russell Edward "Chris" Squire was both the quintessential rock star and the consummate musician--and not necessarily in that order. He died of leukemia on June 27, at age 67. It was a staggering blow that reverberated around the world, and rightly so.

Chris was a major inspiration to both Yes fans and rock musicians as he was one of the true innovators. Drawing upon the styles of Paul McCartney and John Entwistle he extended the boundaries of the bass even farther than those two incredible musicians. He played lines that were more melodic than one would have expected, which his few detractors condescendingly characterized as "lead bass". It was a label that didn't take into account that Chris had the musical acuity to know when to lay back, and when to go for it. He didn't "shred" just to be fancy or show off--whatever he played was appropriate for the song at that particular moment.

Fortunately in Yes he had a playing field that he helped to create where his busier-than-usual style was right at home. In less expert hands trying to overplay over the likes of Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman might have resulted in cacophony, but Chris had the artistry to know what worked for a particular passage. His chunky, trebly bass lines would sometimes act as rhythm guitarist, an approach that wasn't lost on the likes of Geddy Lee of Rush.

While Chris' bass playing alone is reason enough to place him amongst the rock greats one cannot forget his distinct vocal harmonies. While his singing voice lacked the character needed to be a dedicated lead singer, his voice was a perfect compliment to that of Jon Anderson. In an era where singing in a high range was done sparingly in Yes it was front and center. Chris's range sometimes eclipsed even Jon's--listen to the two at the top of the "...Solid Time of Change" movement from "Close to the Edge" ("A season's witch can can call you..."), where Chris is singing higher than Jon. It was practically heroic of Chris to sometimes have to play complex bass lines while singing lyrics that could be polysyllabic. 

It bears a mention that Chris would get his day singing lead and playing bass solos on his first solo album FISH OUT OF WATER. The album featured then-current band mate Patrick Moraz, and a reunion with Bill Bruford, whose work here is exemplary despite the riffs he had with Chris before he left Yes.

In addition to his spectacular playing and singing Chris contributed to many of Yes' best songs. One that will be played by countless fans during this difficult time is one credited solely to Chris: "Onward", one of the high points of the much maligned TORMATO  (though this author doesn't share the disdain that other Yes fans have for the album). Ironically another song from Chris--and one that originated in the XYZ sessions with Alan and Jimmy Page and later recorded with Yes on MAGNIFICATION--was "Can You Imagine", where the lyrics continues the question, "seeing life from the other side". I'm sure many thought of this song upon learning of Chris's passing.

As mentioned earlier Chris was a natural when it came to playing the role of rock god. His fashion sense, his hair stylings, his excesses in living the life was somewhat unusual for a band that back in the day was singled out for being vegetarian and health conscious. I don't know for sure but I suspect that Chris became a party animal when Alan White took over for Bill Bruford, as the two could be seen after many a show in the hotel bar yukking it up with family, friends, and fans.

I have some great memories of Chris. (To be perfectly candid I'm not going to purport to being his best friend or anything remotely close to that, or suggest that every encounter was a wonderful experience, but in respect am focusing on the positive experiences here.) When Yes were rehearsing in Seattle before one tour I spent some time with Chris and his second wife Melissa, and that was when Chris introduced me to Pinot Noir--I wasn't much of a wine maven prior to that but have been since, particularly those Pinots. During that time I drove them to Chandler's Crab House at Lake Union, where we met up with Reek Havok and his then-wife, enjoying the delicious fare there.

We spent time at their fabulous Kirkland hotel overlooking Lake Washington (true to rock star form they eschewed staying at the bland Embassy Suites in nearby Bellevue where the other Yes members were housed) where we discussed the setlist, and I'll never forget how I was trying to get him to see the pros of performing "On the Silent Wings of Freedom" and all he could see was the cons: while he agreed its intro was promising he made a distasteful "dingadingadinga" sound for the rest of the song--it was clear I wasn't going to convince him.

I have been fortunate in having interviewed Chris Squire a number of times for Notes From the Edge. In this memorial I wanted to share one of my best conversations with Chris, and this one from 1998 seemed to fill that bill. One of the hallmarks of my Yes interviews was that I didn't fail to pull punches when there was information I thought the fans wanted to hear. In bringing the band into the Internet age by creating their web site YesWorld I essentially began working for them. However I was fortunate here in having my cake and eating it too, as from the NFTE side I always felt I was a fan advocate. In the interview below I wanted to know the same thing fans were asking on the pre-Facebook forums, including the NFTE journals and Usenet groups including alt.music.yes: with KEYS TO ASCENSION 2 being released at about the same time as OPEN YOUR EYES, why was the band promoting the latter when the former was more in the classic Yes mold?

In addition there are other gems in this particular conversation. I believe this was the first time Chris told the story of his interacting with Jimi Hendrix. Another great story was how he pretended to share John Lennon's outrage at a listening party for the Beatles' ABBEY ROAD. The conclusion--where we discuss his impending 50th birthday--is bittersweet.

In any event there isn't much more to say beyond RIP, Chris. You made an enormous impact on the lives of listener and musician alike. Say hi to Pete.

MOT

All performance photos are © Robin Kauffman unless otherwise noted.
All rights reserved.

MIKE TIANO: Many fans are a little confused by the fact that OPEN YOUR EYES doesn't fit what they consider is the classic Yes mold, whereas, say, the new tracks from KEYS TO ASCENSION 2 does. What are your own thoughts on this, and what would you say to those fans?

CHRIS SQUIRE: Well, it's all music to me. I think Yes can exercise the right to go into whatever levels or layers of musical expression it chooses to. I don't hold up one as being better than the other, just different. Part of the reason why this band has survived for so many years is because we have had the ability to move in and out of various different fields but it's still obviously having a Yes umbrella over the whole thing, but we move around within those parameters.

MOT: I think what a lot of fans liked about KTA2 is the fact that the songs seem more expansive whereas they consider OPEN YOUR EYES maybe an attempt to gain a commercial footing.

CS: Who knows about that really. Obviously, how many tracks from KEYS TO ASCENSION have you heard played on the radio up to this point in time? Personally, zero. How many times have I heard OPEN YOUR EYES? Quite a few. If it means that these Yes fans would prefer us not to share our music with the other population but keep it to themselves then that's a very selfish point of view and I think we should be able to try and expand our audience by any means possible.

MOT: And along with that goes your own musical expression, being able to convey what you feel at the time.

CS: Exactly, the whole OPEN YOUR EYES album is more of a guitar kind of album really with some keyboard flavors, it's definitely more of rock based sort of album and although there's a hell of a lot of vocals on it, a lot more vocals than there are on KEYS, so I don't know. I suppose it's just down to taste. Some people like keyboards, some don't...I don't know what more to say.

MOT: Where does the band stand with Rick at this point; is he totally out or is there a possibility of him coming back?

CS: Yeah [he's out], as far as I can tell. We don't have any arrangement to continue with him at any point at the moment so at this time there's no talk of getting together.

MOT: Igor's doing a marvelous job.

CS: Yeah, he is, he's doing a great job. Some people say better. He's a great player and he certainly seems to be more reliable than Rick.

MOT: Do you find some of his reactions to being on the road amusing? Because here you are, the veteran who's been in the business for many years and here's Igor kind of getting his feet wet.

CS: He seems to be handling it pretty well, actually. No one really knew how he would take to being on the road, whether he'd become a crazy man or something, but he seems to handle it pretty well.

MOT: Yeah, and you guys are sounding really good.

CS: Yeah, I think that's the main thing. I've heard that from quite a few people, that the band is sounding real good at this time.

MOT: And that's what's going to propel Yes at this point...

CS: I think so, yeah.

MOT: It seems that changing the songs that you play live will also keep the band fresh. With Yes actively playing again do you personally have the desire to explore your back catalog beyond the old songs you're playing now?

CS: Yeah, we definitely should. As you know we're going to Europe next and we are probably going to pretty much do the same show and make a couple of changes, and then we'll be back here in the summer and we'll definitely have a change of material for that show. There may be more of the OPEN YOUR EYES album if by that time there's been more visibility radio play-wise, or whatever--or, God forbid, it should become a hit. I think the old songs, we'll probably do some different classic material.

MOT: Which songs from OPEN YOUR EYES would you particularly like to play?

CS: "Universal Garden", I'd like to play, and I think we're going to do "New State of Mind" and "No Way We Can Lose" in Europe, because those two songs are going to be promoted over there, on the radio. So I think we're going to add those two in Europe.

MOT: How about "Mind Drive", there was talk of doing that.

CS: "Mind Drive" is a good idea. Maybe in the summer that might make a very good longer piece for us to play. I know we won't be doing TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS when we come back here in the summer, so I think that might make a good alternative. There again on the other hand, maybe here that would be good...yeah, I'll think about that, I'll pass that on.

MOT: I think the fans would definitely like to hear "Mind Drive".

CS: I don't have any objections to playing that at all. In fact I think it would be better than doing "Close to the Edge" or something.

MOT: Fans are always hungry for new music and that's not just a new song, it's also a great new song, one of the best long pieces that Yes has really created in a long time.

CS: Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I like KEYS TO ASCENSION 2 very much; I think it's better than KEYS TO ASCENSION 1, the new material that is...

MOT: I agree.

CS: ...and I think there's a lot of very good stuff on there.

MOT: As far as the older material which songs would you personally like to play in the future, that you're not playing now?

CS: Hmmm....

MOT: While you're pondering that I'll tell you that when I spoke to both Billy and Steve they both went all the way back to YES and TIME AND A WORD.

CS: "Time and a Word" [the song], well we did that at the San Luis Obispo show. It was kind of quaint but I didn't really think it was fantastic...

MOT: Actually they were referring to songs from the first two albums...

CS: Steve and Billy were?!?

MOT: Yeah, yeah!

CS: That's particular because Billy wasn't on it and neither was Steve! [Both laugh] So I find that strange.

MOT: So are there any songs from the first two albums you'd like to play.

CS: Not particularly [laughs]....well, yeah, I guess.

MOT: How about "Something's Coming".

CS: Wow, that's so much Peter Banks' kind of stamp on that, I don't know. [Chuckles] That could be funny to do that.

MOT: Those two albums aside, are there any other compositions you'd like to look at again, over the last thirty years, over any era?

CS: I'm sure there are, but off the top of my head right now I can't tell you.

MOT: Fans have been trading tapes of the shows. How do you feel about having a taper's section, where fans can they can tape songs from the show?

CS: If they're doing it anyway I guess that's fine. The versions of different songs from different venues, are they that different? I guess they are...[chuckles]

MOT: It's nice to compare the shows, and the performances for the shows. The reason I asked about the tapers' section is so fans can set up mic equipment. Does that bother you that fans taping the shows?

CS: No, not really. As I said, if they're doing it anyway it's a bit late to be bothered by it. I wouldn't object to them having a tape-swapping system.

MOT: I noticed in your performances that Billy is handling some of the harmonies that you originally sang, like on "Long Distance Runaround". One of the joys of Yes is hearing you sing, so can you tell me why you decided to this.

CS: Because quite honestly some of those earlier things are a little high for my voice these days, especially when we're playing five or six nights in a row, like we were just doing in a fairly winter tour type of environment. Actually my voice tends to go a little bit on the high notes. So as Billy's very capable of singing those notes easier than me, and also to give him a bit of a presence, so I don't see anything wrong with that, so people can hear what he sounds like singing...

MOT: I figured it might have been the latter, to give him a little bit of a presence.

CS: Yeah, both things, I'm happy to see him do that and I think it sounds just as good as if I did it.

MOT: It seems over the years that you could sometimes sing even higher.

CS: A lot of those things I used to sing higher than him, yeah...a lot of the harmonies on "Close to the Edge" is higher than Jon.

MOT: But Jon's not having that problem, is he...

CS: No, I think that anything Jon's ever sung he can still sing fine...he never complains about it, so I guess it's fine

MOT: Jon is really in fine form, he's singing really good, and Billy's sounds really good too, don't misunderstand me...

CS: No, no, I'm following you.

MOT: The release of your solo album kind of derailed by OPEN YOUR EYES--

CS: Yeah, a little bit.

MOT: --so how about an update on what your potential plans are for the Chris Squire Experiment album.

CS: You know what, I'm going back to L.A. next week and I'm probably going to look at that to see what to do with it. It's possible that I might just put it out minus the couple of tracks that were on it which were "Open Your Eyes" and "Man in the Moon", they were on that album already and they got transferred. I can either come up with a couple of new tracks or just put out the remainder of the album as it stands which I think there's about nine, ten finished tracks or something, and maybe I'll just put it out like that.

MOT: Were the versions of "Man in the Moon" and "Open Your Eyes" any different on your album...?

CS: Yeah, they were different in as much as obviously Steve wasn't playing on them and Jon wasn't singing on them [laughs]. That's the major difference.

MOT: Structurally they were the same...?

CS: You know what...we lengthened the end of "Man in the Moon" on the Yes album, it's much longer than it was on the Experiment album. But that's because we were making more room for Steve to play guitar solos, et cetera, so we lengthened the end of that. But the basic...now let's see, was Alan playing on "Man in the Moon"? No, he wasn't. Alan wasn't, Alan wasn't playing on the Experiment version, it was a different drummer too. So there was quite a difference. Certainly the only thing the same was the fact that Billy and I were doing the same things as we did on the Yes thing.

MOT: The reason I asked was because if they were different you may even consider just leaving them on the album.

CS: Yeah, maybe I could, maybe could just do that.

MOT: Many people enjoy hearing different versions of the songs...

CS: Yeah, actually that's good, I hadn't thought about that before, thanks for suggesting it.

MOT: Steve's done the same thing, songs that appeared on Yes albums were on his solo albums in a markedly different form.

CS: What songs are they?

MOT: On TURBULENCE he had a couple of things that metamorphosed into songs on UNION...there was a riff in one of the songs that turned into "Give and Take", and another that turned into "I Would Have Waited Forever". So if you find your album short without them you might consider leaving them on, and I think it'd be a pretty cool thing, personally.

CS: You know what, that's not a bad idea. Thanks for suggesting it, I'll talk to Billy about it.

MOT: Let's talk about your famous Rickenbacker. It sure has held up over the years. It's seems it's still your main instrument.

CS: Yeah.

MOT: Have you had any accidents or major repairs to it over the years?

CS: Yeah, quite a few, actually. In fact it's in the shop right now [laughs]. It's being refretted right now...the truss rods are actually unadjustable on that guitar at the moment because at one point somebody reglued the head. The head got broken once and Mike Tobias fixed it. But somehow or other he got too much glue on the truss rods or something so they're unadjustable so at some point that's going to have to be dealt with.

MOT: How long ago did that happen?

CS: Oh, God, Richard Davis would be better at remembering the exact dates and times. But that was about ten years ago, I guess, that he did that, that he repaired it. But it had been broken for about five years but it wasn't totally broken, it had a crack in it and when you took the strings off of it you could move the head around a bit, it was in a precarious position for quite a while but it was still fine when you put the strings back on, so eventually we got it repaired by Mike Tobias.

MOT: Once you strung it, it was playable.

CS: Exactly, once the strings were on it it pulled the thing into place and everything was solid, it was a weird kind of fracture that when you took the strings off you could move the head around a little bit. It looked worse than it was, I guess, but eventually we got it fixed.

MOT: I have to say that bass is definitely a valuable part of rock 'n' roll history. Have you considered arranging to put it in a museum or something when you pass on?

CS: We could do that, exactly. It's funny because my original triple neck is in the hard rock café here in New York, near [here], so it's freaky seeing that up, when I go in there for something to eat...it's funny...

MOT: The same triple neck that you've played "Awaken" for many years?

CS: The original one, yeah.

MOT: You have more than one?

CS: Yeah, the one I used on the last tour and on the KEYS recording, is actually a Japanese copy, actually much better than the original.

MOT: Does the specific bass you play determine the type of lines you'll play for a given song? On the Rickenbacker you seem to play more melodic lines and higher up on the neck. Is that a given?

CS: You know why, because it tends to perform better on that part of the neck. Not better, but it performs on that part of the neck whereas on some guitars the sound gets thinner as it goes up whereas the Rickenbacker has a certain characteristic where it has a very full sound on the higher strings, you see, and the higher notes on the higher strings.

MOT: Would you say you play the Rickenbacker on those songs that are a little more expansive and allows you to be more melodic, and use other basses to keep the bottom end, more than anything?

CS: I don't know...you were mentioning that you liked "Mind Drive" and that was played on my green Meridian bass, and that has quite a lot stuff in it that's fairly melodic, I think, so there is no general rule.

MOT: How do you determine which bass you want to use on a particular song, then?

CS: That is a good question. You know it's more just a question of not really trial and error but just, "I think I'll have a go with this bass on here." You do get a little bit of a suggestion sometimes from the music. It's more a question of, if I've got some new bass or something like that, I want to try that out and see how that works on a song, but I don't think it's like I listen to a particular sort of song and think, that'll suit that bass particularly. But to an extent I do as well, though--it's a very good question and I'm not sure I can give you too clear an answer, is my answer [laughs].

MOT: I take it to some extent it's driven by the type of sound rather than the playablility.

CS: Yes, that's right. Although most of my basses I tend to go for the same sort of sound but of course they all sound a little bit different because they all are a little bit different.

MOT: You use a pick and not too many bass players, most use their fingers as the norm. I was curious how that came about, that you started using a pick rather than your fingers.

CS: I'm not really sure. I always did use a pick as far as I can remember. I think when I very first started playing I used one of those little plastic things that warp around your thumb too, for a while, in my very early days, but that didn't last very long. So I have always pretty much used a pick; I mean I have done some things using my fingers. But I've sort of developed a style over the years where the pick hits the string but a fraction of, I don't know how many milliseconds but very soon afterwards, like I also hit the side of my thumb against the string at the same time on the same stroke. So you get the hardness of the pick for the attack but then it's immediately softened by my thumb actually hitting the string as well...it sort of rounds off the sustain. So in actual fact I think it's a pretty unique style and it's taken a lot of years of just playing that certain way to develop that.

MOT: Is that generally how you play? In other words it's not just a special technique you use.

CS: Yes, I think it is generally how I play most of the time, it's a style that I've sort of developed that is a part of playing.

MOT: Can you think of any songs that you recorded with Yes where you were using just your fingers?

CS: Usually it was quieter things, quieter passages, I've done that, and on FISH OUT OF WATER actually, even though it was quite a hard sort of sound I used my fingers quite a lot on that album for some reason or other. Especially "Silently Falling" I used my fingers a lot on that, and not a pick. So I distinctly remember that. But from time to time I'll just use my fingers if it's a quiet passage or something.

MOT: One of the new releases is of the original broadcasts of Yes on the BBC called SOMETHING'S COMING. I was wondering if you'd heard it.

CS: I know of it but I haven't heard it yet.

MOT: You've got to get a copy, it's pretty awesome.

CS: It is?

MOT: Although I have to admit though, Chris, it's a little light on the bass side as far as the mix goes.

CS: Probably, from what I remember of those sessions they were just done very quickly, they were one off takes, and they were just live; a couple of rehearsals and then I believe the shows actually were live when they went out too. So there was no mixing after the event, it was all pretty much live mixing.

MOT: I seem to remember from the liner notes that some of the songs were actually recorded at the BBC in the advance...

CS: I'm not really sure which tapes these are, I remember doing it different ways. Are these from the John Peel Show?

MOT: Yeah, I believe those were some of the sessions.

CS: Well, those were definitely played live, it was going out live when they recorded the broadcast. So in that case there wouldn't have been any time to do any overdubs. But maybe we did some for radio where we did record them first. The John Peel Shows have a live audience, so maybe if it was just us--I'm really too familiar with where the material came from, it's obviously we disclaimed years ago and they obviously own it.

MOT: Peter Banks was instrumental in actually getting it together and even wrote the liner notes for it.

CS: Yes, I pretty much understand slags and runs off on the liner notes...

MOT: Yes, especially Steve.

CS: Does he?

MOT: Oh, man...

CS: [Laughs]

MOT: He says something to the effect of that someone told him that Steve Howe doesn't shake hands with people and that's a very good rule for Steve to have.

CS: [Laughs] What does that mean!

MOT: I think he was trying to convey that as little contact that you have with Steve as possible is--

CS: [Laughs] Oh dear! It's amazing, really, that the BBC people got him to write such cynical liner notes!

MOT: It's a great CD. It does repeat a lot of songs because it has songs from different sessions.

CS: It has some of the same songs on it, a few different recordings of...?

MOT: Yes.

CS: That seems a bit stupid...

MOT: It's a two CD set, I think "Then" has two versions...

CS: That seems a little redundant, to put an album out with all those different versions of the same songs.

Yes - "For Everyone" abridged version

MOT: You do hear slight differences between them. But one of my favorite songs on there is "For Everyone"; I remember hearing that a long time ago on a bootleg. Unfortunately it's not the complete song [on the BBC]; on the original song you go into this lengthy bass solo. It sounds like Peter Banks is singing the part that became "Disillusion" on "Starship Trooper", which is credited to you...did he sing that, or was it actually you? Or do you remember?

CS: My God...you know it's very possible that we may have used that in something else before we put it into "Starship Trooper". Wow, that's amazing, it must have been part of another song we never recorded and we shifted it into "Starship Trooper" as it was released.

MOT: Exactly.

CS: So that was in part of which song?

MOT: "For Everyone".

CS: Mmmm, my God.

MOT: Do you remember that song?

CS: Very vaguely. And the bass solo's been cut out or something?

MOT: Yeah, it goes on for like ten minutes and also has this big organ solo, and you're just going nuts on the bass.

CS: Oh, wow! [laughs]

Yes - "For Everyone" full version

MOT: Unfortunately that's not in the BBC version, it ends after the "Disillusion" portion.

CS: And there's only one cut of that song.

MOT: Yes, unfortunately. It's funny you vaguely remember it.

CS: No, I do I vaguely remember...I was thinking about that the other day. I guess we did that in those days, we used bits of songs and maybe the whole song didn't work so we'd take a bit and then build another song around it or something, or start another song and then take a bit from a song that we decided hadn't previously worked but thought that that bit was good. So I guess that's what happened to "Disillusion", actually. But you asked me if Peter Bank's singing it, I doubt it.

MOT: It sure sounds like him, Chris, it doesn't sound like you.

CS: Then maybe it is but he didn't write it. I'm pretty sure he didn't [laughing] it says I did on "Starship Trooper" but wow, it's a long way back to pinpoint those moments. But once I hear it I'll know. So now I'm more intrigued to get ahold of a copy. I know Led Zeppelin has made more of a deal out of the release of these things, right?

MOT: Zeppelin did the same thing though, they have repeats of songs on there.

CS: But they didn't get a hold of the tapes and then released them or anything...?

MOT: Actually Jimmy Page is credited with production on it. As we're talking about that era I understand during TIME AND A WORD that the band had some performances with a full orchestra. Is that correct?

CS: Yeah we did, at Festival Hall...Queen Elizabeth Hall, which is one of the halls in the Festival Hall.

MOT: What was that like?

CS: Trippy. I remember it to this day. I'm not quite sure how it really sounded but we had this big P.A., and I think it was the first time anyone's really attempted to mic an orchestra properly and some it was good and some of it wasn't. That's all I can say actually...

MOT: I take it there's no recordings of that...

CS: There should have been, shouldn't there, but I guess there's not...no, no I didn't think so. But I remember the event though.

MOT: I have a question on "Your Move", particularly that the fact that there's two John Lennon references on there. Was that a coincidence?

CS: Apart from "Give peace a chance"?

MOT: Yeah, and "Send an instant karma to me".

CS: Oh, that's right, there is, isn't there? Ha! I guess he [Jon] grabbed that from Johnny Lennon.

MOT: Do you know how the "Give peace a chance" part came about?

CS: No, but that happened later, I think, didn't it?...You know I do know how that came about. We developed that because we were playing at Wembley Stadium for some big event where there were lots of bands playing and I think we did "Your Move" and "I've Seen All Good People", and because it was like those days it was a stadium gig we decided to just add "Give peace a chance" onto the end of the song, and that's how that happened, I'm pretty sure.

MOT: Are you saying you did it when you played the song live and it just carried to when you actually recorded the song.

CS: That's the best I remember it. I might not be right but I think that's what happened.

MOT: Have you noticed that the audiences are singing along with that part?

CS: Do they?

MOT: Yeah.

CS: Yeah, I think I got that sense of them doing that.

MOT: Speaking of Lennon I remember that at one time you indicated to me that you were at the listening party for ABBEY ROAD and you were sitting next to him. Can you describe the scene with the Beatles at that time, and tell me what happened?

CS: I remembered sitting there--we'd gone to the Apple offices to watch the TV half hour short premiere that was going along with the ABBEY ROAD release, and I was just there with the Beatles' publicist, I think it was guy named Tony Breensbury, I think, and I was with Tony Kaye as well. We were just there and we had a couple of drinks and we went there to watch this thing on TV. And just before it started John Lennon came in with Yoko and a couple of different hippie friends, and he sat down next to me and said hi, and the thing came on and we just started watching it. And then [chuckling] I think the second or third song was "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", and he turned round to the publicist guy and he says, "Oh, Paul swore blues this fucking song wouldn't go in here!" [Laughs] And I was sitting next to him and I kind of had to show a sympathetic disgruntled look like, "Yeah, what the hell's that doing in there?" [Laughs] "I know what you mean, John!"...he had a kind of disgusted look on his face and I kind of had to sympathetically look disgusted as I was sitting there. That was about the about the height of my conversation ever with him. Then we watched the rest of the show, it finished, and he said goodbye and left.

MOT: Wasn't there a rumor that Paul was going to produce Yes at some point?

CS: I don't know where that came from. I don't think it ever amounted to anything. In the very early days?

MOT: Yes, exactly.

CS: Yeah, I remember, I think it was more of a rumor than anything.

MOT: Do you think that Yes is carrying on the tradition of the Beatles? There aren't too many bands that play melodic songs with great harmonies and good instrumentals.

CS: I hope so, I hope that's what we're doing. That's always been the blueprint of the band, to have good instrumentals and good vocals, and I guess the that Beatles had those same basic qualities too, so thank you for suggesting that, I hope we are.

MOT: Back then to be an effective musician you used to have to require certain technical skills to operate your equipment in addition to just being able to play, and that lended a style to the music.

CS: There is a larger degree of blandness, I think, now. Yeah, any kid who goes out and buy a GX7, or whatever, is going to pretty much sound like the next guy with one...obviously everything that comes out or a factory nowadays is much more uniform than is used to be. In the name of quality I suppose that was the right way to go but those flaws that were found in the early stuff contributed to character as well. All amplifiers used to be different, you could go to a music store in London and if you wanted to buy an amplifier you could plug in fifteen of the same model but they'd all sound different, so there was a lot more room for the possibility of creativity then, I guess.

MOT: Also back then it wasn't a sin to be adept at playing your instrument. Being proficient at it was just as important as the songs you were writing, they kind of went hand in hand back then.

CS: Yeah, I'd agree with that.

MOT: Did you every interact with Jimi Hendrix?

CS: Yes, I met Jimi Hendrix back then, but that's kind of  a long story...I don't know if I'd like to just tell that later on!

MOT: Aw, come on! [Laughs]

CS: It was a long time ago, that was when I was in the Syn, which was the band I was in before Yes, and we had been touring around England and it was kind of a miserable time of the year; it was wet and cold and a lot of the shows we'd been doing were in the north of England where it was particularly bad weather, it hadn't been very well attended and we didn't get our percentages and we were kind of looking forward to coming down to playing at the Marquee Club. Because that was in London usually that was well attended because we had the regular Tuesday night support band spot, and that usually meant there'd be a major band playing on the Tuesday night and we'd be the support band but we also got a cut of the profits, and so we were looking forward to that. When we got down there we unloaded our equipment out of the van and there was this band rehearsing on the stage, and the bass player was trying to learn the riff to what we later knew would be "Purple Haze". And being an English rock musician this was one of my very early encounters of actually--apart from Muddy Waters and things like that, I'd never really met any black players in rock 'n' roll so it was quite a novelty watching this band rehearsing, and also it was kind of frustrating because the bass player didn't seem to be able to learn to play the riff very well, and I kept thinking I'd go and grab the bass and show him exactly what the notes were that the black guy was telling him, how he could do it. That was Noel Redding, of course; not the greatest bass player of all time.

However, what happened then was that I wandered around to the front because I got bored with listening to this sort of rehearsal and I was wondering how long they'd been renting the place out in the afternoons for people to just go in and rehearse! And the assistant manager came in and I said to him, "Wow, is this band going to stop rehearsing soon? Because you've got to get Cliff Bennett in," who was going to be the main band that week; they had covered the Beatles' "Got to Get You Into My Life" and had a hit with it in England. So we were expecting a lot of people to come and they were pretty high in the charts for that song. The assistant manager said to me, "Yeah, I just got a phone call from the office and they told me the band that rehearsing, they're the main band tonight," and I kind of said [laughs], "You're kidding, aren't you!? They can't even learn to play five notes! I listened to them painfully rehearse for half an hour." He said "Well, that's what I've been told."

So of course we were all kind of pretty upset about that, so they finished rehearsing and we set our equipment up in front of theirs, as we would do being the first band on, and we kind of counted out our last spare change, and we decided to go down and grab the cheapest possible something or other to eat at this café that was pretty local to the Marquee, just down the street. So as was customary to me I went off the stage after we did our little sound check and I was changing strings on my Rickenbaker in this small dressing room at the Marquee Club, and Jimi came in and started talking to me, which I found was quite surprising because guitarists didn't usually talk to bass players much in those days, let alone this black guitar player, so I ended up kind of having about a thirty minute conversation with him about bass guitars, and how his friend in Seattle used to have a Rickenbaker, and various stuff.

And so I left the dressing room after this rap thinking, "Well, he's a real nice guy, it's a shame that the band can't play and no one's going to come and see us tonight," because we'd been away and we weren't really aware of what had been going on in town. So I went down to the café to eat and we all had the cheapest thing on the menu, and as we were sitting there the line for the Marquee Club started to pass the window of the café and we thought, wow, that's amazing, there's actually a line for the show tonight. We thought that's good, for some reason people are just coming out. We all ordered dessert because we figured we'd be able to afford the gas money to get home, then we went back to the Marquee Club and we could hardly get through the doors; and there was the same assistant manager just taking money hand over fist from people and it was just crazy, and of course I had no idea that during the week we'd been away that Hendrix had played a couple of late night clubs and jammed with Mick Jagger or somebody at this late night club, and there was this whole buzz around town, and this was his first ever gig to the public.

We went to the dressing room and we got changed and we went on stage and the place was really packed. And then they had a few chairs in the front there, about the first, I don't know, four rows, and there's about sixteen chairs in each row and the rest was standing room, and then as we were beginning to start our first song I looked down at the front rows and realized that all my rock heroes of all times, like the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, everyone was sitting in the chairs in the front row!

We went through our set and we got really good applause after each song, and later on I asked Pete Townsend, who was one of the guys sitting there, I said, "God, did anyone like us or were they just applauding us so that we'd get off?", the politely "Thank you very much," because they were obviously all waiting to see Hendrix, and there was Eric Clapton, and all these people sitting there. And Townsend said, "Oh no, no, I've always liked the band, I thought you were really good that night," because we'd supported the Who a couple of times. We finished our set, Hendrix came on, and that was his first ever show in England, of course he completely brought the place down and it was amazing. So that's my little story of meeting Jimi Hendrix and actually it was so packed in the place I couldn't even leave the dressing room, so I just decided to hang on the stage while he played his set.

There was this piano at the back of the stage, this grand piano, I just wanted to kind of lay on top of it and watch the Hendrix set from behind the drums, so I obviously got a real closeup view of the whole thing. The amazing thing was that after that show every chick who'd never, ever really wanted to talk to me before, down at the clubs and late night clubs [laughing] all suddenly became my best friend, wanted to know how Jimi was, and of course I played that one up and said, "When Jimi and I were rapping before the show..." That was the funny twist to it, that all of a suddenly all these chicks who hadn't been interested in talking to me before became real friendly.

MOT: [Laughs] "Come back to my place and I'll tell you more," huh?

CS: [Laughs] Exactly!

MOT: That's an amazing story, Chris!

CS: It is, yeah! And that's the only time I was ever with him, it's amazing that obviously I just didn't know who he was or what the band were capable of or anything during that half hour conversation, so it was a completely untainted conversation I suppose, in terms of me being in awe or anything like that, it's just a natural thing. So I'll always remember that.

MOT: I take it they were together by show time!

CS: They didn't do "Purple Haze", I'll tell you that [laughs], they did the songs they did know. At the time he was teaching "Purple Haze" to Noel Redding because it was a new song and they were just learning it, because they didn't do it at the show.

MOT: Were you intimidated looking down and seeing the Beatles, and--

CS: Oh, well, kind of, yeah [laughs]! We just kind of gritted our teeth and played the best we could! Of course that was the Syn, that was prior to Yes... But it was definitely an interesting night.

MOT: Did you see Hendrix at all after that? Did he ever come see Yes at all?

CS: I don't know if he ever came to see Yes. I suspect not. I went to see him play after that at a couple of different shows he did in London, but by then of course he was the darling of the music industry.

MOT: That is an amazing story. Thank you for telling it to me.

CS: OK...now you've just blown chapter two of my book, but still, let everyone know that [laughs]!

MOT: Thanks for giving that to me, that is very nice of you!

CS: That's all right!

MOT: Next month is going to be a major milestone for you...hope you don't mind me bringing it up...[laughs]

CS: What's that?

MOT: Your 50th birthday!

CS: Oh, yeah! I don't look upon it as that but I guess it's something that we'll celebrate, yeah...

MOT: Great. You look really healthy. Have you been working out?

CS: Yeah, I do, quite a lot. In fact I actually do quite a lot of stuff before I go on stage. I do about thirty minutes on the treadmill because it makes me get already warmed up to do the show, which I found has been a good thing to do.

MOT: The first fifty were pretty amazing from this Yes fan's standpoint, what are you goals for the next fifty? [Both laugh]

CS: More of the same old shit probably, who knows with modern medical developments how long any of us are going to live to now, it's unbelievable, like I never thought I'd be still doing this at 50, and that's an amazing thing in itself. So let's just hope, let's just at least look at Yes going into the year 2000 and beyond and see where we end up.

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From Notes From the Edge #200

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