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Prog Yes’ 1969 debut unveiled the band’s ambitions, powered by the seemingly rocket-fuelled bass playing of the 21-year-old Squire. sets out the band template: sugar-sweet vocal, lead guitar and keyboards playing tag, and Squire’s thunderous Rickenbacker running rings around the lot of them. In 1969, America landed a man on the Moon – but it sounds like Yes were following close behind.
Arguably their first big anthem, is the perfect mix of starry-eyed wonder and pure bombast. Squire’s spacebound bassline seems to float over the whole thing, like the titular astronaut in a gravity-free environment. Squire’s nickname was The Fish, after his habit of taking long baths in the band’s shared house.
It was also the name he gave to his solo showcase on Yes’ 1971 album, . With each band member allowed a solo spot, the potential for musical masturbation is vast – but Squire keeps it in his pants. This is simply a great track, with funk-rock bass lines weaving around ’s almost motorik drumming.
’s lead-off song was almost a hit single, combining as it does head-spinning time signatures and a perfect pop melody. Squire’s elastic bassline is the glue that holds everything together. And despite his bandmates falling over each other to display their virtuoso skills, he still finds time to show off.
Sample the fancy little run at 4:34. Yes’ salute to the elemental power of nature was another standout on . Squire’s jousting bass slogging it out with ’s keys on the opening section alone suggests tectonic plates shifting and whole continents being swallowed.
Later used in the soundtrack to Vincent Gallo’s indie-noir drama . Side One of was given over to this : an exercise in stirring melody and controlled mayhem. Squire’s restless, thrumming bass almost threatens to up-end the introduction, until the three-minute mark, when he backs off and lets the tune take over.
Sign up below to get the latest from Prog, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! Supposedly inspired by , Tolstoy’s epic tale of 19th-century Russia, the signature track on Yes’ album has the same scope and grandeur. Squire’s bass is both the star of show and a much-needed anchor as the band plunge headlong into atonal jazz-rock territory in a mid-section interlude. It includes the sound of scrap metal chunks being banged together to recreate the chaos of war.
In 1975 the members of Yes each took time off to make a solo album. Squire’s is arguably better than anything the band produced between and 1977’s . This monumental 11:27 musical odyssey has an almost filmic quality, and finds room for what sounds like a full orchestra alongside Squire’s ubiquitous rumbling bass.
Most of Yes’ 1978 release is as messy and over-ripe as the vegetables depicted on its sleeve. But its closing track is a rare burst of inspiration and energy; a song propelled by Squire’s lithe bassline, which soars, swoops and divebombs his bandmates; two of whom – Anderson and Wakeman – quit shortly after. listeners gasped as one in 1980 when Tommy Vance broke the news that had joined Yes.
Yet the subsequent album, , was the work of a rejuvenated band. Squire runs the show here, sparring with ’s chopping guitar on a pomp-pop odyssey that sounds, at times, like gone prog. "I love programming all of the pre-show house music": Listen to the audience playlist Mike Portnoy has compiled for the Dream Theater tour "We were just looking for a hit.
And we heard the beginnings of a new kind of sound": Inspired by Australian pubs and riding a wave of optimism, Simple Minds made the album that sent them soaring "Paul was read the riot act, and given the chance to put things right. But he didn't put things right": The story of Iron Maiden - the Paul Di'Anno years Mark Blake is a music journalist and author. His work has appeared in The Times and The Daily Telegraph, and the magazines Q, Mojo, Classic Rock, Music Week and Prog.
He is the author of Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd, Is This the Real Life: The Untold Story of Queen, Magnifico! The A–Z Of Queen, Peter Grant, The Story Of Rock's Greatest Manager and Pretend You're in a War: The Who & The Sixties..
