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Chris Squire

#41
I love CS. In the 70's I was in Prog Rock band and modeled all my playing on him. We were successful, but I got done in my late twenties. Started playing again awhile ago and realised that I had to unlearn so much of that style. I had a teacher back in the late 70's who kept telling me to forget all that flashy stuff. She said, "it's the groove baby". Advice I didn't understand at the time. CS is a innovative genius, but that teacher was Carol Kaye and maybe she was right. The art of underplaying is a beautiful thing. Just sayin.
 
#42
Twodogs said:
I love CS. In the 70's I was in Prog Rock band and modeled all my playing on him. We were successful, but I got done in my late twenties. Started playing again awhile ago and realised that I had to unlearn so much of that style. I had a teacher back in the late 70's who kept telling me to forget all that flashy stuff. She said, "it's the groove baby". Advice I didn't understand at the time. CS is a innovative genius, but that teacher was Carol Kaye and maybe she was right. The art of underplaying is a beautiful thing. Just sayin.
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I think Squire has a great groove. His time is impeccable. I also don't see his style as flashy at all. He is a master at voice leading.
 
#43
hrodbert696 said:
Oops you're right - on the almighty authority of Wikipedia, Tom Brislin played keys on tour only in 2001. Then Rick Wakeman came back for a while. Brislin's playing is apparently on the Symphonic Live album they put out in 2002 (which I haven't heard), but he never did a studio album with them.
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I knew Tom from leading his band Invalid Link Removed. He's a great player, a pretty good songwriter, and just a generally cool guy. IIRC, with the Yes gig he was pretty much a hired gun for them. And these days he's working out of Nashville.
 
#47
Twodogs said:
I love CS. In the 70's I was in Prog Rock band and modeled all my playing on him. We were successful, but I got done in my late twenties. Started playing again awhile ago and realised that I had to unlearn so much of that style. I had a teacher back in the late 70's who kept telling me to forget all that flashy stuff. She said, "it's the groove baby". Advice I didn't understand at the time. CS is a innovative genius, but that teacher was Carol Kaye and maybe she was right. The art of underplaying is a beautiful thing. Just sayin.
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But is Carol Kaye into Yes/ prog rock / Squire?
I find Squire very groovy and not flashy at all. He is kind of the ultimate McCartney! :)
 
#49
Twodogs said:
I love CS. In the 70's I was in Prog Rock band and modeled all my playing on him. We were successful, but I got done in my late twenties. Started playing again awhile ago and realised that I had to unlearn so much of that style. I had a teacher back in the late 70's who kept telling me to forget all that flashy stuff. She said, "it's the groove baby". Advice I didn't understand at the time. CS is a innovative genius, but that teacher was Carol Kaye and maybe she was right. The art of underplaying is a beautiful thing. Just sayin.
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Carol Kaye is good ... but I'd much rather listen to Chris Squire.
 
#50
To the OP,glad you enjoyed the recent concert,and that the current line-up is doing a good job! As for BB,and his memoir,well he can be a bit elitist and more than a bit opinionated and condescending,i think Chris is even bewildered about where the animosity is coming from,so take that with a grain of salt. I love BB and his work with Yes,KC,Bruford,UK,and his 2 albums with Patrick Moraz,after that his music absolutely left me cold.....he finally got to play the jazz he claimed to want to play all those years he was in rock bands...and i don't dislike jazz by any means. I wish i were in the position to see Yes on this summer's tour,but i won't make this one.
 
#51
woodyng said:
As for BB,and his memoir,well he can be a bit elitist and more than a bit opinionated and condescending,i think Chris is even bewildered about where the animosity is coming from,so take that with a grain of salt.
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I've got the BB 2009 book, and I didn't think there was a lot of animosity towards CS in it; the characterization of CS was more as just slow to do anything, which didn't seem to mesh well with BB's impatience. I did think BB's characterization of UK having John Wetton and Eddie Jobson as "craftsmen" to BB and Holdsworth as "artists" was a bit on the condescending side. He also described Tony Levin as likely to talk about almost anything other than playing bass. The book in general was a good read; some aspects reflected an interesting (although perhaps not unusual in musicians)combination of arrogance and insecurity. He certainly has played with some of my favorite bass players.
 
#52
Vinnyboonbots said:
I think Squire has a great groove. His time is impeccable. I also don't see his style as flashy at all. He is a master at voice leading.
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I second this. Actually, something about Squire's style that doesn't get mentioned much is where he puts rests. He actually underplays a lot and puts very interestingly placed rests in his bass lines, it something that I think is very unique about him. An immediate example of him placing notes in interesting spots is the bass line for "Wonderous Stories".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNx4Y6z1rAg
 
#53
Rickengeezer said:
I did think BB's characterization of UK having John Wetton and Eddie Jobson as "craftsmen" to BB and Holdsworth as "artists" was a bit on the condescending side.
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I read a BB interview circa 1980 or '81 in which he characterized that same issue as "the problem with UK was that the jazz guys could play rock, but the rock guys couldn't play jazz."


Rickengeezer said:
He also described Tony Levin as likely to talk about almost anything other than playing bass.
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I've heard Tony admit that almost verbatim.
 
#54
Chris Squire is my machine messiah. Anyone who hasn't should check out 'Fish out of Water', his only true solo album.

Bit of Yes a trivia pop quiz... Chris Squire is the only Yes member to appear on and perform on every Yes album, but he is not the only bass player to player on a Yes album.

Q: Who were the other bassists, what tracks and albums did they play on?
 

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