"Sounding Out" 1971 Yes Documentary

[rickboy88]

I looked around, but I didn't see where this had been posted. Maybe 1 1/2 years ago there was a Crown Jewels program on VH1 with this "Sounding Out" program, which is a documentary of Yes from 1971.

Each band member is interviewed. Chris Squire's interview is in the 2nd part.

Someone looks to have put the whole thing up there in parts. This is part 1 (which shows Chris doing a solo around 5/6 of the way through):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEu9MLdk7F4

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYf4S2hWfFY

Part 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd0Tg5Xf0HU

I'll figure out how to embed the youtube stuff someday.

[just_bassics]

Hopefully someday that video will make it to DVD. That was YES in their prime!

[ajish4]

WOW,

SWEET!

I wonder how any other jems like that are tucked away somewhere?

"Chrristoper SquireS"... is listed on the rolling credits ine the beginning.

THANK YOU for posting!

[rickenbrother]

WOW,

SWEET!

I wonder how any other jems like that are tucked away somewhere?

THANK YOU for posting!

+1

[woodyng]

this was shown on vh1 a while back,(half an hour of it,anyway) check your listings for possible repeats.....

[seyesbass]

That was a series originally shown on BBC2 featuring various bands at that time.
However none but the super rich and MI5 had video recorders in 1971.
Note the "original" live version of the Fish which follows the album more closely.
I have an even older recording that we did at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester some weeks before the Fragile album came out.
I expect BBC4 might show that series again in the future.

Look out for "Progrock Britannia" at 10pm on Jan 2nd on BBC 4.
It is preceeded by "Prog at the BBC" at 9pm.
Both PROGrammes are part of a BBC 4 prog rock at the BBC season.

Enjoy.

[johnallg]

That was a series originally shown on BBC2 featuring various bands at that time.
However none but the super rich and MI5 had video recorders in 1971.
Note the "original" live version of the Fish which follows the album more closely.
I have an even older recording that we did at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester some weeks before the Fragile album came out.
I expect BBC4 might show that series again in the future.

Look out for "Progrock Britannia" at 10pm on Jan 2nd on BBC 4.
It is preceeded by "Prog at the BBC" at 9pm.
Both PROGrammes are part of a BBC 4 prog rock at the BBC season.

Enjoy.

And XM killed their MusicLabs prog station first on satt then off the internet.... a$$holes.

[johnallg]

David - thanks so much! I now have these to watch whenever I want.

[leftybass]

This is very cool.....loved what I've watched so far......

[tim4003]

Hopefully someday that video will make it to DVD. That was YES in their prime!

I have it on DVD. It's a little grainy when viewing full screen, but when I shrink it down to the size of the YouTube screen it looks the same.

[ram]

David, thanks for the link(s)... cool stuff. Will need to watch when I can fully absorb.

[rickboy88]

From what I remember of watching the broadcast on VH1 "Crown Jewels," this version is a bit longer. For instance, the Bill Bruford interview seems a bit longer. I've re-watched it a few times myself. I've read since that Steve Howe had a big influence on guitarists in the 1970's - in addition to the effect Chris Squire had on all of us bass players.

[just_bassics]

...I've read since that Steve Howe had a big influence on guitarists in the 1970's...

I think I can vouch for that!

[wayang]

This footage brings back an unbelieveable amount of memories...not just about Yes, but about that time. A lot of younger folks who got into the band at some later point may not realize that "Yours Is No Disgrace" was prompted by the Vietnam war, which was still raging along at the time this video aired. A lot of us young 'rockers' were blown away at the very idea that a band could play this well live...then, over the next few years, we discovered other 'prog' bands, all of whom could play this well. At some point, I began to revisit my dad's jazz record collection and to realize that musicians had indeed been playing this well (and better) live for many years. When I finally discovered Balinese music, it became apparent that this level of ensemble playing had been going on for centuries. Still, I have to say it was Yes that first got me thinking there was a higher level of achievement possible for a player like myself than playing ****** three-chord 'cheeze' in stinking beer-soaked dives ("not that there's anything wrong with that")...not to mention it might otherwise have been years before I knew who Stravinsky was...

My favorite moment in this program has to be Bruford smoking while playing at a rehearsal. I was very much into these guys collectively at the time, but since then it's been Bill who has exemplified (for me, at least) the drive to improve as a musician and explore new territory...even if that came with a smaller paycheck. A couple of years after this aired, I snuck backstage at a big four-band show in Arizona just after King Crimson's set. The drunken crowd had just booed them off the stage after a short 45 minutes, being impatient to hear Ten Years After. At that stage in my development, I couldn't give a flying f*ck about Alvin and Co., and was ready to leave the scene when I got a 'wild hair' to try to meet Bill...which I did, and had one of the greatest five minute conversations of my life (while Fripp stood at the limo door a few dozen feet away, waiting impatiently and looking extremely ******-off...who could blame him: among the other atrocities just visited on them, Wetton had actually had to dodge a beer bottle in the middle of one song). Bill was as cordial and friendly as any star-struck eighteen-year-old could have asked for, a wonderfully decent human being. I asked him, in the enthusiastic manner of youngsters who don't know better, how it felt to have left Yes and now be playing with KC. He smiled and replied that he was much happier, although he did feel 'a bit stretched'...

Bill's comments in his interview portion of this BBC show are as perceptive and intelligent as that short conversation I had with him...in particular, his accurate characterization of the crowds Yes was attracting on tour: young, affluent white males. While he doesn't come right out and say it, it's implicit in his tone that there's something lacking in repeatedly having that experience night after night. Many years later, when I went to see his band (with Dave Stewart, Jeff Berlin and John Clarke) at the Paradise in Boston, he came out on the tiny stage (I was at a table about six feet from the kick drum), played 'Hell's Bells', wiped his face with a towel, leaned into the hi-hat mic and said: "Good evening, consumers..."

Hot damn, I said to myself, here's someone who understands what the hell's going on around him...

[just_bassics]

Great story, Dane, and Bill hasn't changed a bit. I met him two years ago at a drum clinic he held up the street from my house and he was as fresh and honest with his views as he was back in the day. When someone asked the inevitable question about leaving Yes, he got that "look", then responded with a fantastic analysis of what being an entertainer was really about and how true he stays to his own values. It wasn't about the money, never was for him.

The past few years, whenever I listen to FRAGILE, I find myself understanding more and more about his decision. Bill's contribution to that album was almost perfection, IMO, the percussion work is so clean and tight, or, as Jon Anderson stated once, "Immaculate". He must have felt that he had achieved all he could with Yes and had to find a new direction. There were some personality issues, as various documentaries and interviews have revealed, but his main decision was based on musical, not personal or financial reasons. Bill stayed for the CTTE sessions but left immediately on it's conclusion because he felt he had not grown musically from Fragile. An opportunity was available with King Crimson and he took it. As for how Chris feels about it, just check out the narration track on the FOOW DVD. It is clear that Chris still has a massive amount of respect for Bill's abilities.

On your other points - I used to have a job as a sound engineer at a place in Orlando called Church Street Station / Rosie O'Grady's - Now long gone, but the place was for real; we had several showrooms with classic rock, country and Dixieland jazz bands that did 3-4 shows per night. Those old jazz cats were amazing to work with, they could read anything and play it almost instantly. The bandleaders threw in changes almost nightly, there were changes in lineups with singers, musicians, you name it, it was all in a night's work and it was all live. I still have a lot of tapes made at those shows. You never knew what would happen on any given night, Too bad corporate greed ran the place into the ground. Some of those guys were as talented as anyone in the business and nobody even really knew their names.

Yours is no disgrace was about the Vietnam war, and even Long Distance Runaround, cleverly disguised, was inspired by the Kent State shooting. Anderson always had a very clever way with words. He should write a book at some point and provide more insight into his unique lyrical style. They were more than just "sound poems" as some have suggested. Pretty deep stuff!