Theoretical Yes Album

[John Vehadija]

So I was thinking ever since 2004, which solo Jon songs do you think would've made it onto a new Yes album?

My list

Music Is God
Unbroken Spirit
We Are Truth
New New World
I See You Messenger
Circle Of Life
First Born Leaders
I Found Myself
House Of Freedom
Garden Of Eden (rumoured)

[rePete]

I would love to have heard We Are Truth given the Yes treatment.

[Sharp On Attack]

Time Has Come
Whalewatching
EarthMotherEarth

All of Invention of Knowledge

[Roundabob]

I hate to say it, but I haven’t heard anything from Jon Anderson over the last twenty plus years that has interested me. I still love to hear him sing, and he had a big hand in creating the music I love most in the seventies, and early eighties. I think that during that era, Steve, Chris, and others were able to develop Jon’s ideas into something fantastic. I don’t know if Jon’s well of ideas ran dry, or if the other guys no longer made the effort to “grow” his songs, but the magic ended somewhere along the line (to my ears). I’m glad that others have enjoyed his recent work more than I have.

[madbear]

I hate to say it, but I haven’t heard anything from Jon Anderson over the last twenty plus years that has interested me. I still love to hear him sing, and he had a big hand in creating the music I love most in the seventies, and early eighties. I think that during that era, Steve, Chris, and others were able to develop Jon’s ideas into something fantastic. I don’t know if Jon’s well of ideas ran dry, or if the other guys no longer made the effort to “grow” his songs, but the magic ended somewhere along the line (to my ears). I’m glad that others have enjoyed his recent work more than I have.

What he said. The magic has gone.

[Ceasar’s Palace]

The only thing I can think of is Open. The first four minutes of that could have been the basis of a great 8 minute Yes song.

[soundchaser09]

The only thing I can think of is Open. The first four minutes of that could have been the basis of a great 8 minute Yes song.

even that used New Language

[Soundwaveseeker]

Actually I would love a 22-minute epic made from 'Scraggle Cat & Puss Cat Willum' from 1997's Earthmotherearth album.

[Gilly Goodness]

Actually I would love a 22-minute epic made from 'Scraggle Cat & Puss Cat Willum' from 1997's Earthmotherearth album.

Both on crack. One of their kittens gets shot! Why? Why does God let this happen? Cue. Screechin' Wakeman solo like stranglin' a cat. Big black cats run on cover. Tour sponsored by Whiskers 🐱







# givedbaranadvancecopy

[josuev80]

I think Howe would love to have go at Go Screw Yourself.

[Ceasar’s Palace]

even that used New Language

Not in the first part.

[Mr. Holland]

So I was thinking ever since 2004, which solo Jon songs do you think would've made it onto a new Yes album?

My list

Music Is God
Unbroken Spirit
We Are Truth
New New World
I See You Messenger
Circle Of Life
First Born Leaders
I Found Myself
House Of Freedom
Garden Of Eden (rumoured)

In all honesty? None. It has been documented that Jon brought songs to the band in 2008 and the band rejected all of them.

Steve Howe said this in a 2012 interview:

Jon Anderson said he was working on new long-form music for Yes in 2008 that the band didn’t take an interest in. What can you tell me about those songs?

I don’t know professionally what is right to say here. What Jon did was drip-feed us a few songs and we basically turned him down and said “No, we don’t want to do those.” Then there was another time for another song and we said “No, no, no.” He then presented one other song and we said “No, no, not that one either.”

We didn’t find a song we leapt on that made us feel we must rush around and suddenly record. We didn’t hear anything we thought had enough material to make us start moving. When you listen to a Yes album, you expected grounded, developed, thought-about lyrics. That’s how we look at it. We found the lyrical content of these songs to be rather ad-libbed. I don’t want to deride Jon, because this is his music. I don’t want you to think I am saying it was bad music. All I’m saying is we didn’t pick up on any of the songs or notice that there was a trilogy of songs coming at us that was part of some epic. We definitely didn’t see them like that. We saw them as demos of songs that were very loose and we didn’t know where they were going. It’s not dissimilar to when we were preparing Drama, when we thought Jon and Rick were going to come to the party, which of course they didn’t do. Jon eventually came down and played us his songs and we said “We can’t relate to that.” So, this is another version of that, really.

I wish Jon luck with his music. I seriously and truthfully feel that way. But I’m not sure our mutual desire to achieve the same thing exists anymore. I think we burned it out a bit. We crossed paths and we’re not together anymore. I think there has to be some element of moving on.

[yamishogun]

We didn’t find a song we leapt on that made us feel we must rush around and suddenly record. We didn’t hear anything we thought had enough material to make us start moving. When you listen to a Yes album, you expected grounded, developed, thought-about lyrics. That’s how we look at it. We found the lyrical content of these songs to be rather ad-libbed.

Howe then lowered the bar and out popped H&E and The Quest...

[pjt]

Howe then lowered the bar and out popped H&E and The Quest...

When H&E came out, it was still fresh when we were driving to the seaside and I listened to the album a lot. It was kind of appropriate for the season and the vacation we had. Especially It Was All We Knew, which is just summer and nostalgia packed into 4+ minutes.

Two years later we were driving again towards the seaside but this time it was Invention on Knowledge, and The Valley of the Windmill. Only the latter was considered on the road back. Invention was interesting at the first couple of listens, but when I've got to learn what followed what, I just lost interest. And compared to H&E it didn't have the atmosphere to compensate for the lack of original musical ideas.

H&E and IoK are very much similar in their low energy, taker no risks approach, but at least H&E has a couple tracks that actually sound like Yes.

[Yesed]

Time Has Come
Whalewatching
EarthMotherEarth

All of Invention of Knowledge

Definitely EME. I’ve always thought it would make a great mini Yes epic, at least. It’s structured as if Jon wanted to expand and flesh it out more. Though it works nice as is, in its simplicity.
The whole album has interesting moments, though at first listen comes off as underwhelming. I like to play it through as background to some activity.