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Sunlight Caller
04-08-2001, 12:21 AM
Well-after extensive listening to all the catalog recently,I have now come up with the Chris Squire-plays-fretless bass-on-these tunes-list. Now this may be a bit boring for non-bass players and I apologize for that-but I did this because I think there are at least 4 bass players on here, so it's for Tim E.-Lizzie-and ???? that i did this.
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the first song I heard it used was a surprise until I watched QPR-1975 and saw him bring out the Fender Jazz Bass-Fretless for:

Sweet Dreams-a bass player's delight to be sure-esp. on the bridge.

Maybe Then has it too-because in one of the 3 videos made for that-they all play each other's instruments on a beach in England-and Tony Kaye is playing the Fender-while Chris is on Electric Wurlitzer piano. So, that is not proof either.

The Yes Album seems to be all Rickenbacker 4001.

Fragile Too.

Close To The Edge-well this is interesting because I believe he changed to fretless after the church Organ solo-and remains committed to the fretless all the way until the end. My clue(proof?) is in the long smooth slides in the last verses-way different than the beginning. esp. that long one down from the 12th fretline-he does not play that way any other place in the song-or on stage for that matter.

And You And I/Siberian Khatru seem like a normal Rick.

Tales From Topographic Oceans-The Remembering is all fretless and according to Chris he plays a-nobody-has-ever-seen-a-pic-of-it-Guild Fretless.He does an excellent performance on it too.

Relayer=simply put-the entire cd is all-fretless on the Jazz bass. Sound Chaser is as you all know a tour-de-force of technical brilliance unequaled by anyone imho-i love this song as it ties for first place along with South Side of The Sky(come to think of it-the la la la section after the Piano solo may be fretless also.
Anyway i have the prized HDCD version of Relayer-and the bass is very pronounced on it. I have listened to Relayer a lot lately, I sometimes try my luck @ this incredibly complex tune-once it is broken down it is not that hard-Steve Howe and Moraz' parts are actually more difficult to play.

Gates of Delirium is all fretless even though Chris uses the Rick on Masterworks 2000-I remember in 1975,76 he played all the Relayer material on the Fender-i used to think it was for a change of tone only-but now I'm not so sure.

To Be Over-this is played fretless on QPR. So is Your's Is No Disgrace also-but more out of convenience i think. Because he uses it for Sweet Dreams-To Be Over-so he just doesn't play the Rick then.

Fish Out Of Water-You By My Side and Lucky Seven-are fretless withou a doubt.

Going For The One-he used the Fender, so I think that is fretless.

Parallels-for sure is fretless. Squire wrote it by himself too.

Awaken-yep the 3-neck-and the bottom neck is fretless-he uses it until the circle of 4ths progression-E>A>D>G>C>F>A#>D#>G#>C#>F#>B>E--and no more fretless after he changes necks-man that thing looks heavy.

Tormato-i think is all regular Rickenbacker.

Drama-the only fretless is on Run Through The Light-but......played by Trevor Horn-this bass can be seen in the Buggles video: Video Killed The Radio Star.

90125-no fretless at all

Big Generator-none

Union-maybe Saving My Heart with the slow reggae feel-not sure tho.

Talk-Walls only i saw it on the Letterman show. Boring tune though.

Keys 1 and 2-i don't hear any fretless on the studio stuff.

Open Your Eyes-New State Of Mind sounds like a 5-string fretless to me-not much info on this one. actually enjoy this cd myself.

The Ladder-Face To face-is most definitely fretless-and can be seen very well in the House Of Yes video-Fender Jazz Fretless Bass.

well, that's what i have so far-and thank you for your patience.

Yes is the most awesome band along with my other fave The Beatles.

Yessymphonic 2001, expect it to bring down the Saucers this Summer.

Peace, Rand Kelly-since 1971.

haroldthebarrel
04-18-2001, 03:51 PM
Tales From Topographic Oceans-The Remembering is all fretless and according to Chris he plays a-nobody-has-ever-seen-a-pic-of-it-Guild Fretless.He does an excellent performance on it too.

I've heard somewhere that the bass is different throughout each track on Tales...

I have heard that the Fretless is used on at least a part of all four songs.

I wish I remembered where I heard it though. Check into that to complete you list to the fullet!

joe c:cheers:

Sunlight Caller
04-18-2001, 04:24 PM
Hey Joe! - I think you are right about that on Tales because I was listening the other night to it on my headphones and I heard fretless in the beginning of Ritual for the first time and now I believe it appears on The Revealing Science Of God in the very beginning-but I am not sure where it changes yet-This Squire guy is quite sneaky about his fretless playing for sure.

The one tell-tale sign and can be heard very clearly in the last section of close to the edge-is that long slow slide down-so smooth there is no way to duplicate it on my fretted bass.

thanks for your input and enthusiasm,

Rand Kelly

haroldthebarrel
05-09-2001, 05:44 PM
Hey, No Problem!
I wish I remembered exacly where and when I read that he played Fretless on every song but I did read it. I bet it was in Tim Morse's yestories, which I read once and have quoted, but never gone back to gewt the actual wording. Keep it up though!

Sunlight Caller
05-10-2001, 11:56 AM
O.K.- YesWorld.Com has new pics from the Santa Barbara sessions and on the very bottom-left you can click on a pic of a beautiful fretless bass-Steve Sullivan says it is a Warwick-I think it may be a Zon. I will do some checking on the manufacturing sites today.

Anyway-regardless of how much Chris has been playing down the fretless talk-he is still using one along with a hot-shot Fender P-bass copy a Lak(e)land-which is supposed to be a way better than a Fender replacement and with the trusty 4001 as well.

So-he seems to have a need to play some fretless on the "new" album-which is really cool.

take care everyone-and keep Yes alive.

peace, Rand Kelly.

Mike Park
05-11-2001, 01:17 AM
Hey, SC -
How did you acquire the QPR video and how much? I've heard Sweet Dreams from that concert and it's enough of a tease that I want to get this..

mp

Sunlight Caller
05-11-2001, 10:45 AM
hi mike, i have had a boot-leg copy of QPR since Progfest 95-L.A.---now then-this video is not authorized by Yes. So, even though the thing costs over $100.00 in the official version-Yes does not see a dime. I recommend you find a copy like I did-if you need help I may have a source.

take care,

Rand Kelly

wolfehollow
05-13-2001, 09:49 AM
I want to say that bass is a warwick streamer stage 1. It is not a Zon. I own 2 Zons and a Warwick, plus a ric of course (resume for knowledge).

Dragonfly
05-17-2001, 10:18 AM
:not: !!!WARNING!!!:not:

QPR video is not mixed (even close to) properly. This is a soundboard mix with most of the band muffled and either the keyboards or guitar (alternately) WAY forward. The switches between these two instruments is very abrupt.

The only things that seem to work are the solos (piano, guitar) and the acoustic opening sequence to Long Distance Runaround (as seen on the YesYears rockumentary.) And even this song is out of whack as you will only hear Jon's rhythm guitar strumming and none of Steve's work.

I hated it when I first bought it (on laserdisc - which I dubbed for archiving and returned to the shop for a full refund!) and only played it once or twice. After a few years I had read enough reviews of it where people said that the sound problems were only at the beginning (1st 1/2) and that the sound improved toward the end of the show. So I went back and played the whole thing again. THEY WERE WRONG! The whole thing is garbage!

I have seen it listed on a trader's site with an "A" rating. I questioned him about it and he flew into a rage like I didn't know what I was talking about. "What, too grainy for you?!" No the visuals are fine. It's the audio that SUCKS. Clearly this trader is not giving you all of the data by only grading the visual quality of his library and ignoring possible disasters in the audio quality.

YesWorld (et al) posted, a few years ago, that some master tapes were found that might be for that show and that it could be put together for later, official release. Only then should you spend real $$$ on it.

(In an effort to pretend to at least be mildly part of this thread let me say that Squire's work on fretless is brilliant!):)

:yesbird:

Kevin Deenik
05-26-2001, 07:01 PM
Yessymphonic 2001, expect it to bring down the Saucers this Summer.


Yeah buddy!!! I'll have one eye on the stage and the other eye on the sky!
Kevin