A little theory on Steve and rock...

[Ceasar’s Palace]

Steve, power chords and falling out of love with rock

Steve’s attempts to rock on The Quest, mostly The Ice Bridge and Leave Well Alone set me pondering on his love/hate relationship with rock (and roll).

Throughout the main sequence (and beyond) rock has been a very important part of Yes music. And, however much supported by the others, it was Steve who set the tone. It was the sound, with a bite, with an edge. But is was also his playing, loose, playful, unpredictable.

Then things changed.

So what changed and also when did this happen?

It was a very gradual process. I think I can trace it all the way back to Drama.
The opening Black Sabbath chords of MM, the power chords that start Tempus Fugit. And that’s about it. Just a few moments of rock as a statement of its own, rather than serving the song. Nothing to worry about.

Then comes Asia. Plenty of classic Steve solos and such. But.... from the start of Heat Of The Moment on, it seems to me, he has taken those bits from Drama as the template to follow. Was it a (late) reaction to punk? Or the dictates of the new decade that things should be as catchy, and radio friendly as possible?

From then on, whenever the song says rock, Steve says power chords. Played 4 or 8 times in exactly the same way. And it becomes more and more that way.
Like on ABWH, for instance The Order Of The Universe.

But hey, weren’t there many great Steve solos throughout the 80s?

Yes. And that’s why it took so long for me to notice his toning down on the rhythm guitar parts. Plus: even when the solos were fine, all inventive playing was restricted to only the solos.
Take any rocking song from classic Yes, and listen to Steve’s rhythm guitar parts. There are so many things going on there. Little and big variations.
Up to the point where he’s more or less soloing in those rhythm bits!

Then listen to his post 1980 output. There’s a very slow, but steady decline there.
If you had never heard 70s Yes, you wouldn’t miss it. But we all have, and I’m surprised no one seems to care that Steve’s palet has become so much paler.
(I’m getting way to cute here...)

I don’t know if all of this is deliberate (“less=more”) or just happening. But IMO Steve has gradually lost his interest in rock and sees it as a chore, something that has to be done and is expected of him. His true interest lies in jazzy and acoustic stuff. And that’s where you find him noodling about much more.
And since I happen to love that noodling, that’s what I’d like to hear more of!

Comments on my theorizing? Counter arguments?

[ragtime]

... even when the solos were fine, all inventive playing was restricted to only the solos.
Take any rocking song from classic Yes, and listen to Steve’s rhythm guitar parts. There are so many things going on there. Little and big variations.
Up to the point where he’s more or less soloing in those rhythm bits!

One of the reasons I first fell in love with TYA was the way Steve plays lead lines throughout the tracks. The guitar is like another voice doing a counterpoint commentary within the song. I also noticed that he had more or less stopped doing this after the classic period. I assumed this was because (unlike Eddi Offord) producers thought that it was not the 'proper' way to do things: guitarists should just play chords for rhythm with maybe a few fills between the vocals and all the twiddly stuff and fireworks should be in one or maybe two designated guitar 'solo' slots. That's the conventional rock way of recording, but it's not what made Yes so unique and great IMO. It may be Steve's choice to do that too, but I'm not sure, although playing in Asia and GTR does seem to have steered him towards a more conventional approach to arrangement. I think the gradual softening of his sound towards exclusively clean, jazzy tones rather than the bite of his early work has been very much his choice (Line 6 amps and guitars do make for a slightly sterile sound in my view). His taste for rocking it up, together with his jazz sensibilities, as on the Yessongs version of YiND seems to have waned more and more over time. However, I hear a bit of a return to warmth and variety of tone in his work on TQ.

[Davy]

The Yes Album is unique in the Yes canon, or at least when Steve was in the band - lots of lead guitar and rhythm parts. I agree with you, but maybe it's two separate issues, Steve's style of playing and the type of music he enjoys playing?

For instance, The Quest might be the most guitar dominated Yes album since Talk, and for Steve's tenure, maybe even Relayer or Fragile. But it isn't really a rock album.

[Gilly Goodness]

Inspired by a post on the forum, listened to the Wilson remix without vocals of RSOG. Astonishing how much Howe plays under Jon's vocals. He doesn't stop. Bending notes quietly in the background constantly as well as obviously solos and riffing.

Now he does it all. Rock. Country and jazz. My fave approach is the Awaken solo for it's ferocity and energy. And the metallic tones of GOD. Prefer the jazzy feel. Especially his 2 guest appearances on /ASIA\ 's AURA.

Also his sprung sound playing SoS from Mag.

In his mind he likes clean tones. Wish he would dirty it up sometimes. But can't complain. His decisions on TQ were gorgeous. DTK. The acoustic flourishes on ALI.

[Chrisklenox]

I think it’s just down to the fact that as he gets older and has done so many things that he doesn’t want to repeat himself. To be a musician, you need to keep growing and evolving to stay interested. I don’t think it’s so much that he is not into rock anymore, rather I think he’s covered that ground pretty well already and he has put his spin on it as much as one man with a guitar can.

That said, when I was growing up and listening to Yes albums for the first time as a kid, it took me a minute to get into Howe’s playing from 1991 and on. I knew nothing at all about Asia, so I heard Howe on Drama, and then again on Keys and the following albums and wondered what happened to him in the 80’s because he was not the same guy at all. (Leaving out Union because I now know that it literally is not the same Howe) Different tones, more laid back. His playing was so different that I asked my guitar teacher if Howe had gotten into heroin or suffered some kind of tragedy in the 80’s because it felt to me like his playing had become labored and rather flat. Like that spark of life force was gone.

Over time with more context and with more understanding of how musicians change and evolve, I just realized that he grew up and his playing changed due to new experiences or new ideas or whatever. I like his playing 1991 - present a lot now, and I appreciate it. He IS a different guy, and really he should be. We aren’t all the same person that we were at 24 forever, and it would be kind of bizarre and dull if we were. It does feel like he became a different musician, and I guess he is, and I am cool with that. He has offered us a ton of amazing stuff in the past 30 years.

[Ceasar’s Palace]

I think it’s just down to the fact that as he gets older and has done so many things that he doesn’t want to repeat himself. To be a musician, you need to keep growing and evolving to stay interested. I don’t think it’s so much that he is not into rock anymore, rather I think he’s covered that ground pretty well already and he has put his spin on it as much as one man with a guitar can.

That said, when I was growing up and listening to Yes albums for the first time as a kid, it took me a minute to get into Howe’s playing from 1991 and on. I knew nothing at all about Asia, so I heard Howe on Drama, and then again on Keys and the following albums and wondered what happened to him in the 80’s because he was not the same guy at all. (Leaving out Union because I now know that it literally is not the same Howe) Different tones, more laid back. His playing was so different that I asked my guitar teacher if Howe had gotten into heroin or suffered some kind of tragedy in the 80’s because it felt to me like his playing had become labored and rather flat. Like that spark of life force was gone.

Over time with more context and with more understanding of how musicians change and evolve, I just realized that he grew up and his playing changed due to new experiences or new ideas or whatever. I like his playing 1991 - present a lot now, and I appreciate it. He IS a different guy, and really he should be. We aren’t all the same person that we were at 24 forever, and it would be kind of bizarre and dull if we were. It does feel like he became a different musician, and I guess he is, and I am cool with that. He has offered us a ton of amazing stuff in the past 30 years.

I get what you mean, but it’s still strange that he’s now literally repeating himself more than ever...