Some thoughts on "The Fish"

[just_bassics]

Back in 1996, when I had more time to record music, I was working on the bass track to a song titled “Flashback”. It’s an instrumental song that really served as a long intro into another song, so I had a lot of freedom. It ended in the key of A minor, which gave me the opportunity to write a tremolando bass run (classical guitarists know exactly what I mean, but basically a finger style where all fingers of the right hand arpeggiate a chord form). This was to run up the bass neck in four chord positions.

I had the part composed and rehearsed, but when I attempted to record and mix the tune, it was clear that there was simply too much happening with the bass line and my experiment failed – I had to rewrite that section. So many bass notes flying around under the other instruments left no room for anything else in the mix.

A year or two later, I was listening to FRAGILE, probably for the millionth time since it came out, but when “The Fish” came on, I suddenly began to hear it differently. My experience with one busy bass part got me to thinking more about this track and how it came to be.

In concert, of course, The Fish is Chris Squire’s solo section and (along with Alan White) his time to shine. This he does with complete authority, while also usually having fun with his audience. He breaks the tune apart and plays out the various parts on his Rickenbacker, embellishing as needed and also including parts from other Yes tracks that fit. I don’t ever tire of it!

But on Fragile it is a different story, more of a straight composition with orchestrated parts that, along with Bill Bruford’s excellent contributions, comprise Chris’s contribution to the solo pieces presented on the LP. Now when I listen to the studio version, I have great respect for Chris’s ability to compose such a piece for bass guitar, getting all of the voices down without conflict, as well as Eddie Offord’s expertise in getting the mix correct without conflict in the limited frequency ranges offered by the bass guitar.

I was wondering if anyone else has tried to compose a piece for multiple or complicated bass lines and ran into the same problem I did at the mixing stage. Also, we know that Chris’s favorite bass has always been his RM 1999, but how many other bass guitars were used on the track? He is pictured in the insert with his 21 fret MG and Telecaster bass, so it is possible that, besides multiple bass tracks, multiple bass guitars were used as well.

In years of interviews, I’ve never seen or heard these details discussed about his signature piece and I intend at some point to ask the master bassist himself; for now I thought it might make for an interesting discussion as Chris once again picks up his bass and takes it across the land. Good luck to all of them as they wrap up the summer tour this weekend.

I’m looking forward to all of your thoughts and opinions!

[ajish4]

I can only DREAM of having the ability of mastering this piece. Over the years, I've managed to get bits and pieces down, but NEVER the entire piece.
I realized he used some multiple tracks, but never knew how it was done. For some reason, I always worked off the YESSONGS album, and not the studio version. I don't know why, but I wore YESONGS out multiple times. I can only guess that it was the FIRST TIME I saw CHRIS and wanted to reproduce that sound.

I remember a friend of mine, my bass mentor, would tell me that they would either NOT show Chris playing a lot or they slowed down the vidoe so the playing wouln't match his playing so people couldn't figure out his bass lines! I really belived it for YEARS. SO many video's hardly show Chris playing....it makes me NUTS when they do that!

I've tried on and off for more years than I care to remember. When I see Chris play it live, it makes me insane because he makes it look so easy.

I've said this many times before, I don't have a good "ear". I've always had troubles picking out details. ONLY recently, since I purchased a Pandora's Box, have I made some real progress. THAT and with the help of Minguel's videos, some of the pieces of many YES songs are coming together.

I wish Chris would do some more solo work, it sounds to me that on many YES songs, much of what Chris plays could be broken out into a solo.

Lastly, and I've said this for Y E A R S.....PLEASE, PLEASE can we SOMEHOW get the ENTIRE YES CATALOG in all written form, THE COMPLETE SCORE in tab and BY PARTS? BETTER YET, a VIDEO along the line of what Steve did YEARS ago.......

This music will be lost forever to MOST people, and HAS to be preserved. At a recent YES show, I was AMAZED at how many YOUNG kids were there.

[woodyng]

i think chris' experience with choral music at a young age gave him the idea of multiple melodic parts,contrapuntal lines,etc in general,and he applied it to the bass guitar. plus the concept for the fragile album had rick wakeman and jon anderson contributing similar multi tracked solo pieces. i don't believe there was anything like "the fish" done previously for bass,altho eno had a song called third uncle with 2 bassists playing overlapping parts. i love the way this talent comes to chris,his versions of amazing grace,and especially new world symphony are just great.

[cjj]

I think it's the cape...

[ajish4]

I agree Woody,

I heard a number of times that Chris plays bass as if he was singing the parts, and that seems to fit more times than not.

What I need is an "Idiot's Guide to Playing Chris Squire" book & video.

I have to go back and dig out all the older stuff and give them a fresh listen again.

I know Woody knows about this, but have you guys given a listen to Rick Wakeman's CRIMINAL RECORD? Side one..........um sorry.................showing my age again.........the first 3 songs have Chris & Alan playing on it. This recording just BLOWS ME AWAY.

Chris does some amazing stuff that I've never heard him do before or since. Talk about solo material. I can't find much of anything written about this recording. It seems to go overlooked by so many YES fans. I'd love to know what Chris' thoughts about this recording.

Ok, sorry for the minor drift, back to the topic at hand.

[ram]

I think the coolest thing about the Fish is that on Fragile it is a neat little tune. Compact and very neat, the layering is a testament to the composer and the engineer. But each part can be pulled out and stands on its own when played as Chris does live. The studio seems very controlled but live the emotion that comes thru is incredible!! Like so much he does elsewhere, a real original!

[Becky]

I know Woody knows about this, but have you guys given a listen to Rick Wakeman's CRIMINAL RECORD? Side one ... the first 3 songs have Chris & Alan playing on it. This recording just BLOWS ME AWAY.Chris does some amazing stuff that I've never heard him do before or since. Talk about solo material. I can't find much of anything written about this recording. It seems to go overlooked by so many YES fans.

I have a copy of Criminal Record on vinyl, and I think it's a great album (even the screaming girl from the pub bit!). Totally agree about Chris's parts on side 1, and along with his trademark descending runs there's a bit more of the counterpoint stuff going on. I'm always up for a bit of counterpoint.

[woodyng]

hello,'becca! where ya been keepin' y'self!? after "6 wives",i think criminal record is rick's best solo lp,and it seems like i read somewhere ages ago,that chris and alan had to record their parts in a very short time period,with just a cursory rehearsal,which is just amazing if true.....

[just_bassics]

I love Criminal Record. I bought it in the late 1980ies just because of the cover. I mean, Rick Wakeman in a tux sitting next to a concert grand... how could that not be good?

[miguelbass]

Great topic, already with very interesting responses!

There are some important issues when building a multi-track bass piece. While recording my BEBE arrangements I bumped with the fact that when you impose many bass tracks it's very easy for the sound to get muddy.

Problems need to be solved really before the actual recording. If when we start harmonizing a composition of ours we must take care with how notes from the several instruments go together, if you're going to use bass instruments then you have to be even more careful because the energy distribution of your spectrum will be concentrated on a smaller frequency range. If our bass(es) are "disputing" the same aural territory we need to take extra care. Furthermore, we all know that bass instruments in particular generate a whole lot of significant harmonics, so playing a lot of bass instruments will rapidly fill your meters with a lot of decibels.

Tuning and/or intonation of the instruments is also a critical factor. It's true the subjective human ear tolerates better a bass slightly out of tune than for example a guitar, violin or singer. You can hear an excellent jazz double-bassist, yet you don't bother about slight intonation imperfections. This is a cultural issue too, I guess.

However if several basses play, mis-intonations generate strong beatings (two or more frequencies slightly apart) which are normally quite unpleasant to the human ear. Hence the joke - what are two double-bassists playing together? A minor second. So, tuning becomes really something to take care with.

Other aspect that it's worth thinking about is that when you play multiple bass parts on a track you are not "being the bassist" - as the bass role in a band. At best one of the tracks will have that function, so you don't have to make your sound settings like if you were doing it on your regular band, on the bass playing role. Not only you don't have but, for what I have written on the previous paragraphs, you better don't.

On my BEBE first arrangement (Svatba) I played IIRC 3 different melodies, doubled, and yet another pair of Rics doubling one of them an octave lower. I was soon starting to get desperate cause there was too much "boomness". There were too many low freqs sounding there. The solution I found was to EQ all tracks (high-pass). Initially I analysed for each line where were the freqs I was playing on each instrument and rejected what was lower than that, anyway you can always quickly make slight changes and experiment how it will sound. You can remove a whole lot of power on the very low freqs (and of course DC components) that are apparently not heard but, when summed up, can take away a lot of your space and consume your dynamic range before you know it! Compressing a bit (without overdoing it) can also help improving your dynamic range by eliminating exaggerated peaks. On the second BEBE arrangement (Pilence Pee) I already knew what to do and it worked well.

So, on "The Fish" there is to me equal credit to be given - to Chris, on his composition and adventureness, taking his freedom and imagination to part from the standard bass role (well Chris' bass role was never "standard" anyway but you know what I mean), and Eddie Offord's capability of ... really following and understanding Chris' ideas and being able to technically deliver the final result. I think this was really a team work between them and that was extended to the whole concept of Fragile when all the members had a track to explore their ideas taking off from the "band" format. Adding to that the compositions they put together... that's one of the reasons why Fragile is perhaps the album that impressed me the most.

Jim, thank you very much for starting another great discussion!

Miguel

[just_bassics]

Great topic, already with very interesting responses!...

...So, on "The Fish" there is to me equal credit to be given - to Chris, on his composition and adventureness, taking his freedom and imagination to part from the standard bass role (well Chris' bass role was never "standard" anyway but you know what I mean), and Eddie Offord's capability of ... really following and understanding Chris' ideas and being able to technically deliver the final result. I think this was really a team work between them and that was extended to the whole concept of Fragile when all the members had a track to explore their ideas taking off from the "band" format. Adding to that the compositions they put together... that's one of the reasons why Fragile is perhaps the album that impressed me the most....

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is precisely what I was going for... Thanks again to Miguel and his unique talent for analyzing and explaining Chris Squire's work. Miguel, your input here is priceless.

For those of you wanting all of Miguel's work available from one site, he has answered my request by providing all of his recording links on a single page. Here's the link: http://miguelbass.com/

I've been busy lately but want to spend a few hours there myself to get the full grasp of Miguel's work. I know I'll be able to learn a lot more about Chris and his bass lines through these excellent renditions.

[seyesbass]

Yes used to do a song called "Its Love" and I think Chris used to do a section they called "bass odessey" during that song.
Bits of it ended up in the early stage version of The Fish I think.
I have a version of Long Distance Runaround/The Fish on cassette from a Yes concert my brother and I recorded at Manchester Free Trade Hall on October 1st 1971. I think the band were still recording Fragile at the time or were in the final mixes and they went into lengthy explanations of what the new tracks were all about.
Chris introduced the song and explained that the final section of the song was a multi track of various basses which he couldnt re-produce on stage and he got a bit of stick from the audience for saying that but they did a failrly close version to the album on that night when we compared it to the finished track.

I dont know how true this is but someone told me back in 71 that for the "lyrics" Chris needed the name of a fish to fit the tune and when he asked for help someone came up with Schindleria Praematurus.

[just_bassics]

Great post, Pete. I heard that same story and the "someone" who got the name was Eddie Offord.

[ram]

That's the way I have always heard the tale... cool story, glad there is some validity to it!

[henry5]

I agree Woody,

I heard a number of times that Chris plays bass as if he was singing the parts, and that seems to fit more times than not.

You know, I never knew that other people didn't do this. I usually sing the parts I write before I ever touch my bass; I've been doing it all my playing life.