Chris Squire 1948-2015 RIP

Chris Boyd · Post by **Chris Boyd** » 29 Jun 2015 9:19 am

World renowned bassist Chris Squire from YES has passed at 67 in Arizona... a remarkable bassist/songwriter.....

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theday ... =175178463

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 29 Jun 2015 11:49 am

Sad. What a great bass player and singer he was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39BZwn9tmTk

Paul Hoaglin · Post by **Paul Hoaglin** » 29 Jun 2015 2:41 pm

He was my hero when I played bass. I spent a lot of time trying to approximate his trebly Rickenbacker tone (with very mixed results). Godspeed Mr Squire....

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 29 Jun 2015 3:43 pm

I did get to hear him on the Tormato (?) tour.
Best show I ever saw and heard, very transcendent.
He was a dynamic player, big sound, big presence.
My age, seems awfully young.

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 30 Jun 2015 12:35 am

Godspeed sir Squire.

What I liked about Chris' playing was the extended bass lines he added for counterpoint.

We all know where we were when we heard Roundabout.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 30 Jun 2015 3:12 am

Godfrey Arthur wrote: We all know where we were when we heard Roundabout.

"In and around the lake...."

I don't know what magic there was, but wherever I was, I was transported to the lake, could see it... I was there.

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 30 Jun 2015 4:54 am

Charlie McDonald wrote:

"In and around the lake...."

I don't know what magic there was, but wherever I was, I was transported to the lake, could see it... I was there.

To conjure up visions of Nessie..

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 30 Jun 2015 5:38 am

Exactly. The images persist; to recall, I'm there again.
I owe a lot to Yes and Chris Squire. They have stimulated me more than any other band.
They knew how to do this and did it intentionally. His bass sound is stirring.
Thank you for posting this and stimulating me once again.

Tuning Wakeman's piano, seeing the very high technology at the time, seeing them up close in front of the revolving stage,
being transported by the sound and lights.... I can never forget, and the memory of being present grows rather than wanes.
That's really something for a band. They were an electric orchestra.

Jeff Harbour · Post by **Jeff Harbour** » 30 Jun 2015 7:01 am

Yes also utilized a pedal steel at one time... played by Steve Howe on the 'Relayer' album. There should be some concert footage with it somewhere on Youtube. The steel's role in the music is quite abstract, but it's really interesting to see.

Chris Squire I believe was the only original Yes member to continue in all the lineup changes, until now (he had taken a hiatus from the current tour).

Jeff H.

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 30 Jun 2015 7:28 am

Jeff Harbour wrote:Yes also utilized a pedal steel at one time...

Going For The One

Paul Hoaglin · Post by **Paul Hoaglin** » 30 Jun 2015 4:37 pm

Both - Steve Howe played a Sho-Bud rather prominently on "To Be Over" from Relayer, and somewhat more obscurely in the intro and outro of "Awaken" from Going For The One, with heavy phasing and echo for a very atmospheric effect. Not to mention his heavy use of non-pedal steel from Close To The Edge onwards - notably on the song "Going For The One". (So Chris counts as a steel "friend" fairly well, I'd think.)

(And live, Howe used the front - normally C6 - neck of his Sho-Bud Pro II to cover his non-pedal parts at one point - he does this on the song "Sound Chaser" from Relayer, which can be found on the YooToobs....)

Jeff Harbour · Post by **Jeff Harbour** » 1 Jul 2015 7:38 am

Wow, thanks! I wasn't aware of the others... I'll have to give them a listen.

Francois Lebrun · Post by **Francois Lebrun** » 2 Jul 2015 4:53 pm

YES have been in my life since 1971, their logo is tatooed on my right shoulder.
Chris sound and bass lines, his voice and harmonies were unique.
Their music helped me through hard moments so many times, just like the pedal steel sound and harmonies make me appreciate life again and again.
I'll miss him ...

Ollin Landers · Post by **Ollin Landers** » 6 Jul 2015 3:14 am

I saw Yes in Columbia SC at USC way back in 1974. It got off to a rocky start due to issues with Wakeman's Mellotron. They started the show and then stopped. There was about an hour delay while they fixed it.

Then they put on a fantastic show. What was unique were the floor seats. They had Quad speakers set up out on the floor (does anyone remember Quadraphonic?). I think the tickets for floor seating were $50.00. That was a lot of money back then.

For me and several of my friends it was Wakeman and Squire we really went to see.

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 15 Jul 2015 6:23 am

Here's Howe on steel at a 2003 Yes concert.

For as long as this Youtube link remains, the TPP, TPA and Jade Helm notwithstanding, here is the concert performance for the one song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iTUv4K ... e=youtu.be

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 15 Jul 2015 8:27 am

Ollin Landers wrote:They had Quad speakers set up out on the floor (does anyone remember Quadraphonic?).

I sat right in front of those speakers, and there were flyers around the stage in the round.
It was the cleanest sound I'd ever heard for sound so loud.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 15 Jul 2015 8:51 am

Interesting interview with Peter Banks, who is also no longer with us, about the beginnings of Yes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sjxnnx-jqU

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 15 Jul 2015 10:00 pm

The first bass parts I ever learned were Heart of the Sunrise and Long Distance Runaround. I saw Yes more than any band in the 70's, and bought 3rd row seats for my oldest son and I several years ago when the classic lineup (Squire/Anderson/Howe/Wakeman/White) played the Universal...now Gibson...Amphitheater. We were 20' from Chris an Rick. Best show I'd ever seen.

Squire was the only member to appear on every studio album Yes recorded. he was the continuity (for several years he was sole owner of the name - now there are two "Yes" companies, one involved with the music end and one marketing - Squire ('s estate), Howe & Anderson, and Squire, Howe and White.

On the spring tour, when Chris became ill (it was a very sudden, virulent form of Leukemia) Billy Sherwood filled in and did a great job - he's ben a member of the band in the past and played bass in a Yes offshoot tribute band.

I hope they do one more tour at least. Chris didn't want them to stop when he knew he was dying. His take was that Yes was an orchestra, with a large, rotating group of musicians.

He'd be tough to replace - mostly from a songwriting/backing vocal standpoint (something he was given little credit for). But folks thought Jon Anderson was irreplaceable - well, they were kinda right with Trevor Horn (who agrees) and Benoit David, but Jon Davison is eerily so like Jon it's scary - looks, the "Space Hippie" on-stage persona and songwriting, and his vocals are a near perfect match.

Maybe Chris' "orchestra" concept was prescient and Yes will be a Never-Ending Story.......

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 16 Jul 2015 1:03 am

Joachim Kettner wrote:Interesting interview with Peter Banks, who is also no longer with us, about the beginnings of Yes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sjxnnx-jqU

Thanks for posting this Joachim. Great interview hearing the stories. Peter for all his tough luck, seemed to land on his feet with bumping into some heavy class musos.

And coincidentally, I know who his wife was in Empire whom Peter declined to mention by name, as she was a singer in my band in the 80's for a spell making some extra money. She, Sydney Foxx aka Sidonie Jordan from Australia had mentioned Peter to me. Statuesque, stunning in person. She was also an Ikette with Ike and Tina Turner, for a while, r&b voice. Bob Gaudio of the Four Seasons had produced a song for her during my time with her, I attended the recording in Los Angeles at the Four Seasons studio which featured the drummer and keyboard player for Toni Basil's Mickey track.

Wonder what she's doing now?

Here's a Yes inspired track with Sidney.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHeMAjI6guI

Apologies for the topic drift.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 16 Jul 2015 2:30 am

Thanks Godfrey, what an interesting experience this must have been for you!

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 16 Jul 2015 4:50 am

Joachim Kettner wrote:Thanks Godfrey, what an interesting experience this must have been for you!

Joachim, yes especially with being in Bob's studio. He'd remarked that he hadn't a hit for a while and after all the ones he did have. It was enlightening then to see how a hit studio tracks. Bob as a producer, it was mind opening to watch him and his crew work. People were there, other artists, writing lyrics for the song Sydney was to sing that day.

The engineers were going for a Tom Petty drum sound as I heard them mention. Listening to the drum kit in the studio, it sounded thin, but in the control room, it was big and fat using special eq's they kept under the mixer.

Got my first look at a Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 which back in that day was hard to come by being a $10k instrument. One of the more successful first wave of polyphonic synthesizers. A grand per voice to make only 10 notes. That particular one was used on Basil's Hey Mickey to get that transistor organ tone. I still have the single note monophonic synthesizer Sequential Circuits Pro One that was out during that time and it was $1000 back then.

I find myself listening to Peter's work on Empire even if he was dismayed at the whole project.

Perhaps Chris and he have picked up where they left off.