MttS : a Heartfelt Post from Billy

[Gilly Goodness]

With the release today of the new YES record “Mirror To The Sky” I can’t help but to be thinking of my dear friend and musical partner in so many ways… Chris Squire. Chris was my inspiration growning up and had a huge impact on my career. After seeing him play live, my first ever YES concert having been the Going For The One tour, I knew exactly what I wanted to do in my musical career. Fate would have it so that we would meet and become very close over the decades that passed. In all my wildest dreams of the things I wanted to do in my career I never in a million years ever imagined the position I would inherit from the man himself. There was no way I would say no to his wishes, that being take on the bass department in his stead. My love for the music and the man was such that I said “yes” and vowed to keep it going forward in the most positive manner possible, along with the guys in the band. To that end here we are now, on this most special and emotional day, releasing a new YES record. Hard to fathom my last few conversations with Chris were 8 years ago now but life moves forward fast and so here we are. It’s my hope and desire that the Squire spirit is felt on this new record. I was thinking of Chris as I pondered, recording the bass parts. I wanted to make sure it had that spirit of exploration with the bass compositions. With all the above said, I’m going to wrap around to the very reason for this post, that being Chris Squire and the day I got the news he had left this earth. I’m posting this track in loving memory of my friend, mentor. It was a difficult song to write and sing but I felt I needed to capture the moment, which was a cloudy Sunday morning. RIP my friend and I only hope I’m doing you proud as we go forward into YES future, love you always, this one’s for you

https://youtu.be/ozSz7XapDRk

(From his FB page)





__________________________________________________ __________________________


THE OVAL BLOTS OF SCARLET FOAM

[luvyesmusic]

Thanks, Gilly. Don’t do FB and banned from Twatter.

Billy is a great, and gracious guy, and honestly keeper of the flame for many years, while doing his own things. He introduced me to a few folks, got me into a sound check, and perhaps the nicest moments I had with him was he, me, and his late brother Michael, just hanging out, and talking about their family history. He told me many years later, that is his son pictured on one of the Circa: albums.

I was thinking about Alan today as I was driving home from work, listening to a Circa: album. He played in probably one of the smallest venues in years when he came out my way. He was so strong and powerful playing that night. He was like a strong bear behind the drums. You could literally see the mussels in his shoulders and back. A far cry from him in his later years. That is the way I will always remember Alan.

As far as Chris, one of the true rockstars. He had the greatest laugh. It was really good to interact/see and hear the boys in their best element after years of conflict with Jon. Chris had one of the greatest laughs of anyone, ever. The last brief conversation I had with him, started fun as usual, but he became deeply serious when he told me how much he loved all his children. A flawed man like most of us, a great musician, and a proud, proud dad, just like Billy, and me.

The new album, after reading many, many comments here and elsewhere doesn’t really seem like a gift, but rather a celebration. Indeed it is!

[soundchaser09]

nice to see. I haven't heard from Billy in any recent interviews which is strange given how good he is on this record!

[Mr. Holland]

Very touching. I think we as fans sometimes tend to forget what the current outfit had to overcome in recent years, the loss, the personal grief, getting to know new people/colleagues/musicians, adjusting to new band dynamics etc. It took time to find a new way forward and to shrug off uncertainties and while The Quest and Mirror to the Sky aren't my favourite Yes albums I have the utmost respect for the band that they were able to take and overcome all that loss and grief and turn into a positive way forward and a new future.

[Sharp On Attack]

My favourite instrument as performed on the Mirror album is undoubtedly the bass, perfect on all tracks...Bravo to you Billy !

[Gilly Goodness]

MORE SHERWOOD NEWS

Dan Roth from Progears has revealed a new Billy post about rehearsin' for the next tour. He's spent 7 days on the one song. Playin' along to the studio track. A song he has never played with YES. So. What song? I'm guessin' The Remembering. 😯



___________________________________________



WE ADVANCE WE RETRACE OUR STORIES

[Grey Wolf]

more sherwood news

dan roth from progears has revealed a new billy post about rehearsin' for the next tour. He's spent 7 days on the one song. Playin' along to the studio track. A song he has never played with yes. So. What song? I'm guessin' the remembering. 😯



___________________________________________



we advance we retrace our stories

Teakbois!

[soundchaser09]

I hope it's a great tour regardless of the setlist, with good representation from the two latest albums. Exciting news all the same! Billy has played many tracks with Yes already after all, it must be somewhat of a deep cut

[pianozach]

MORE SHERWOOD NEWS

Dan Roth from Progears has revealed a new Billy post about rehearsin' for the next tour. He's spent 7 days on the one song. Playin' along to the studio track. A song he has never played with YES. So. What song? I'm guessin' The Remembering. 😯

Heat of the Moment

[soundchaser09]

it would be great if it were the more we live, they've never done that live have they?

[Mr. Holland]

MORE SHERWOOD NEWS

Dan Roth from Progears has revealed a new Billy post about rehearsin' for the next tour. He's spent 7 days on the one song. Playin' along to the studio track. A song he has never played with YES. So. What song? I'm guessin' The Remembering. 😯



___________________________________________



WE ADVANCE WE RETRACE OUR STORIES

To Be Over.

As Jon Davison has said in an interview they would do a Relayer song the coming tour for sure and they already did Gates in 2019.

[Gtkgasman]

To Be Over.

As Jon Davison has said in an interview they would do a Relayer song the coming tour for sure and they already did Gates in 2019.

Well you got a 50/50 shot then right. 😆

[JMKUSA]

To Be Over.

As Jon Davison has said in an interview they would do a Relayer song the coming tour for sure and they already did Gates in 2019.

I think that’s a good guess, but he already practiced To Be Over back in 2020 before the Relayer album tour was postponed. He also referenced three epics: Ritual, Gates and Awaken. It sounds to me like he’s talking about a song he’s never even practiced before this, and we know they will be doing something from Tales. So my vote is for The Remembering.

[Mr. Holland]

I think that’s a good guess, but he already practiced To Be Over back in 2020 before the Relayer album tour was postponed. He also referenced three epics: Ritual, Gates and Awaken. It sounds to me like he’s talking about a song he’s never even practiced before this, and we know they will be doing something from Tales. So my vote is for The Remembering.

You make a compelling point.

[downbyariver]

it would be great if it were the more we live

Absolutely. I think that was the first Billy Sherwood song to make it onto an official Yes album- and it's a good one.

they've never done that live have they?

To my knowledge, Yes has never done it live. The wording of what Sherwood said is interesting, because instead of saying that he'd never performed it live full stop, he said he'd never performed it live with Yes. That would still allow for Yes songs that he may have done live with any of his other bands- like "The More We Live" (Performed live with Tony Kaye in Japan at minimum- that's off a formal live Sherwood/Kaye live album release- but that wasn't with Yes), as well as songs he had never performed live in general.

Another interesting part of how he phrased things is that he said he had never performed the song he was rehearsing with Yes, not that Yes itself had never done it live without him. So, even if Yes had performed "The More We Live" on the Union tour or some other tour where Billy Sherwood wasn't present (I don't think they did, but I'm not 100% sure), it could still be what he is rehearsing. It definitely hasn't been performed since Sherwood became the official Yes bass player in 2015.

That said, as cool as it might be to hear it, it doesn't seem like a song that would necessarily all the hard rehearsal work he's been putting into it as it's a relatively short song and the bass lines are very much in his ballpark. He might need to work hard at the vocal parts, though, because he'd have more live parts than on most Yes songs, but my guess is that it isn't the song).

The hard work makes me think epics, and since he has already performed "Close to the Edge", "The Revealing Science of God", "Ritual", and "Gates of Delirium" live (All of which have made it to live Yes albums that he's played bass on, with the exception of Gates, which he definitely went around playing with Yes, but was left off the live album based on that tour), that would leave "The Remembering", "The Ancient", "Mind Drive", and, if you consider it all one song, the Fly From Here suite (Though he has performed "We Can Fly", the sort of core song in that suite, with Yes).

I don't think he's referring to the Fly From Here suite, because of the combination of it not really being one song and him having played "We Can Fly" with the band. "Mind Drive" is a possibility, but is kind of the least well regarded of the candidates, so probably not that either. "The Ancient" is a possibility as well. I tend to think if it's an epic, it's "The Remembering", though. That's just a guess, but I could see them doing it- especially given that the word "Tales" is in the tour name- it'd be the one song on Tales from the Topographic Oceans that they haven't done any of from 2008-2023 AFAIK.

Another tough one that seems like it'd require a lot of rehearsal time (Though not an epic or from TFTO) that he hasn't done with Yes before is "Sound Chaser". I could see them pulling that or "To Be Over" out to kind of toss people who originally bought tickets to the tour, which was delayed years because of Covid, when it was going to feature Relayer in it's entirety.

Anything from 90125, Big Generator, or Talk might require rehearsal time just because it hasn't been done in a long time in general, and Steve might want to alter the arrangements for a live performance. That said, Sherwood has at minimum played "Owner of a Lonely Heart", "Rhythm of Love", and "Hearts" with Yes- all from his first official tenure as a member of the band in the 90s (and Owner again in 2015 as part of his second tenure). Also, he played a lot more songs from that era as a touring musician on stage with Yes (Which he hadn't yet officially ben invited to join) on the Talk tour in 1994 ("Changes", "Hold On", "City of Love", and various Talk songs, at minimum, in addition to songs already mentioned.).

So, the main candidates I can think of from that era would be "Leave It" and "It Can Happen", both of which I don't think have been played by Yes since the 1980s, but were hit songs. "Leave It" almost requires three (or more) strong vocalists (or a lot of use of a backing track/new arrangement), so "It Can Happen" seems the most likely from that era. However, Steve Howe isn't likely to check off on it, but you never know. It could happen. I'd love to hear it. I've always wondered if there might be something Steve could find from that era that he likes.

Of course, it's extremely likely that they'll at least play one song from Mirror to the Sky, none of which any of the guys, Billy included, have played live. So, while I'm not sure one of them is the song he's referencing, I am fairly sure that at least one of them will be played, and they do all match the criteria, even if he's been rehearsing a different song from a different album that he hasn't done with Yes live.