In 1972 Yes’ record label released their 8:29 song Roundabout as a 3:27 single without telling the band. At first they were horrified. Then it reached Number 13 in the US chart and went on to win a BMI songwriting award. Reflecting on his career to date after being named as Prog God 2016 at the Prog Awards, singer Jon Anderson said the Roundabout release was the best thing to happen to a band whose future was unclear at the time.
“I was in a dream world for 10 years – it was truly magical. I was learning about structure. I’d work out a thematic piece, then a new section, then how to come back to the first themes. Like classical music, but based on a new energy. Not just verse-chorus-verse-chorus, which was what I grew up with – and don’t get me wrong, I loved that – but something new and powerful in a different way.
Of course, it helped that I was working with Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Chris Squire – people who understood all this and made it possible. I was there in the middle of it all, throwing out ideas all the time – and I mean all the time. And I still tend to do that every single day! For me, the idea of progressive music is always there. It’s never stopped. It’s my life.
It’s your challenge to make music that’s an adventure, a musical journey. It’s not so much about the business any more. The last thing I think now is whether that’ll sound good on the radio. I mean, Roundabout was eight minutes long as we envisaged it, with its midsection. And that was like a template to all the Yes music that was coming.
Atlantic took out the scissors and cut it into a hit record… thankfully! We were shocked at first, but now I think it was a gift. I remember we were driving through Pennsylvania and it came on the radio, and none of us knew it had been edited. We all sat up and said: ‘Wait a minute! What’s going on?’ But of course it became a big breakthrough record for us, so thank you! Without that hit, Yes might not have stayed around very much longer.
Fragile had all these extended tracks – Heart Of The Sunrise, South Side Of The Sky – and the idea was to extend the music for live performance onstage. Our audiences then were willing to sit through 10 minutes of our music without a sound; you could hear a pin drop. We wanted to please and inspire them. They came to our shows to listen then, not to dance. It was a unique period for music.
So we were able to do even longer-form music like Close To The Edge and Tales From Topographic Oceans. Thirty years later we went on and those audiences were still there at the beginning of the 21st century. Yes survived!
The 80s was such a successful time – the 90125 album went Top 10 all around the known world. No matter where we went, there were 10,000 or 20,000 people going bananas! It was very exciting. Being up there onstage and the audience getting so energised meant we got more excited, and so it fed into each other.
But I’d say to the guys back then: ‘We mustn’t lose our momentum. Musically, we’ve got to be very, very good.’ I was quite the taskmaster, wanting us to be healthy and everything! Being on the road a long time can drain you; you can finish up being a wreck. But you’re always a musician, and my ongoing dream is to be always evolving as one. And that carried me forward into new pastures.
All the music you ever do, it’s like a stepping stone to a bigger, better, brighter state of consciousness. Everything is perception; it’s all about how you perceive things. Life is like the ocean – it goes up, it goes down.”
