All's a Chord 10: 1998

From:  Marion McGavock

On Page 27 of your guitar collection book you wrote that "The Revealing Science of God" was originally 28 minutes long. What did the cut segment(s) sound like? Where in RSOG were they to have been?

"The segments that aren’t on ‘The Revealing Science of God’ that made up the extra six or seven minutes were basically a considerably longer introduction to the song itself, a very long an meandering empty spacious sort of thing, and then the song evolved into ‘Dawn of Light’. Then the structure goes on quite the same for a while except that there are longer sections in the music and the ending’s longer, so generally it just was longer.

"Your second question, I don’t read sheet music and I did often want to and I did often try to but I'm quite happy that I didn’t because I’ve got along fine without it. And I'm glad you enjoy my work so much, thanks."

From: Glen Paul

How do you find it to play along with another guitarist in a group? I know you have experienced this before, with Steve Hackett in GTR...I guess [Billy] Sherwood coming into Yes, covering most of the Rabin stuff live, gives you freedom to concentrate on your own stuff on stage?

"Playing with other guitarists isn’t the easiest thing and yet on the other hand it is actually the easiest thing in the world if you put two guitarists together, those two people together can make some great music and more or less any combination can. But put the electric the guitar, put the group, put the lead singer, put the whole group around the guitarist and you have quite a different experience. I find it much easier working in a one guitarist situation because I like the spaces I leave so much that I don’t want another guitar to fill them in because I think space is what I leave for keyboard work and leaves an interplay. Finding two guitars to interplay with a keyboard is not so easy, and also would comment that I'm never likely, unless it’s with Steve Morse, that I’ll get into that kind of double guitar thing because that double guitar thing is a very stylized, wonderful opportunity that I think just has to be done right, otherwise it kind of makes my flesh crawl a little bit when it’s done without being necessary to be done."

Having said all that it’s challenging working with other guitarists as you point out, it can give me the freedom to get on with what I do and I ‘m quite happy working with Billy. There isn’t an internal problem with that two guitar role at the moment and it seems that it can be very complimentary and just basically you take a group the way it’s feeling at the moment and this is the way it’s feeling at the moment."

From: Mike Moroney

I saw you and Martin Taylor play at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC on 1/28/98. You guys were great! In regards to the 21 Blue Guitars that were commissioned by the Chinery Commision, did you and Martin get time to play with all of these guitars before recording the album? Did you have musical ideas before recording, or did the new guitars inspire any new music from either of you?

"Mike, I'm glad you enjoyed the Smithsonian show. Martin and I did play all of the guitars that were made and finished in time for the recording. The book I believe is about to come out which totally defines not only how many blue guitars there were but how beautiful, and documents more about their craft and design, and puts the whole thing in perspective, basically.

"Before Martin and I recorded the piece for the blue guitars we had many discussions about the kind of piece that we would need or what it would be that we can demonstrate such a big array of guitars. In his experience he’d dealt a lot with time and the need to have a rough concept about time and he’s got various equations about that, bars, equal time, etc. And this was very useful and after kicking various tunes around Martin called me and enthusiastically to say he sure ‘Blue Bossa’ is the piece that we should use. I then got to hear the tune. We then plotted out a six and a half minute version of ‘Blue Bossa’ which would giver every guitar a featured solo spot. Of course the sound of these guitars was allowed to have some effect the way that ‘Blue Bossa’ was recorded and it’s going to be clearly defined on the CD that’s going to be available and I hope also in the Blue Guitar book.

"It was based on a very careful selection of how to introduce the sound of the F-hole solo guitar, how to show peaks and rises and crescendos in it, and then finish up using the Benedetto last, because in a way that was the guitar we really both believed we couldn’t follow. Many of the others were hard to follow. It’s not we think the first one’s very good and last one’s great not, it’s on a scale of, here’s a tremendously good guitar, here’s a guitar that’s different from that, maybe spotted in there are guitars that we think are weaker and therefore Martin and I basically took care of the music so that he would decrescendo maybe a little into a guitar that we felt, well it was a nice guitar but I wasn’t altogether as bold or as colorful as other guitars were. And regarding the rest of the material I did select most of the standards that we used on that recording and then Martin and I searched through some of our material that we thought were fun, we put some collaborations in there and we put a few solo tracks that he and I had written."

From:  Estevão Kalaany

One of the great reasons that I ever liked your style of playing is the great lyricism and feeling in your music, and many times has moved me emotionally. In Spain they call "duende" the spirit that the musician brings out in a solo climax; we can call it "fire" as well. As a great guitarist who spreads all this energy through your music, what you care [sic] when you're doing a solo? "To Be Over" solo break is a good example to illustrate what I'm trying to say: your solos bring an extraordinary energy that never sounds like a simple classical arrangement, but ever with improvisational feeling; is it from your jazz influence? [From São Paulo, Brazil]

"Thanks Estevao for writing from Brazil, and thanks for your comments.

"I was interested in your description of the ‘duende’ in the spirit that the musician brings out. That partly comes from an extra emphasis that I found I like to put into music, which may just be feeling and drive and somewhat searching for expression, so I'm pleased that you like my work on ‘To Be Over’ as well. I suppose I’ve had a lot of experience at playing guitar solos and it’s a kind of craft I guess; I learned from Scottie Moore, and James Burton with Elvis and Rick Nelson somewhat about lyricism in it. But improvisation is leaning very heavily towards jazz because that’s the main experience we have from greater improvisation than what we call improvisation or solos in rock, right simplistic really in use and general concepts about it. I’ve tried to widen out a little bit and it seems like I'm doing a little bit of that. But whether it’s classical or jazz those are influences that are just buzzing around the world and you just pick up on them."

From: John Hudson

My question deals with the song "To Be Over". I'm curious as to the genesis of the song. The guitar solo in the middle is really beautiful and passionate, and if I'm not mistaken seems to be the inspiration for the whole song. That is to say it seems like you came up with that part and the rest of the song was written around it, is that accurate?

"John, thanks for your interesting question about ‘To Be Over’. The way a song like that was constructed by Jon and I overlaps a lot of eras and the song that Jon sings first of all about ‘We’ll go down floating down the river’ was actually written in the ‘60s by me, which sounds really too weird to be true but it was a tune in the song that I’d written back in the late ‘60s, and at that time we were just looking across material and we’d had some ideas going and I brought this up, and Jon felt as I did very sure that this had an ingredient we liked.

"So then we combined it with other ideas, current ideas, and there’s even a reference to the group I was in, Tomorrow, in the riff that goes around the song which I don’t think I did on purpose but it now appears to me that the crossover between eras of Yes music never ceases to amaze me because I keep remembering different abstract times when music was written and much later Jon and I would put it together. But that’s because I kind of carry a repertoire of unused music along with me so when I'm writing with somebody I can say, I’ve got a thing that’s like this, and play it to them, and if they say, not really what we’re looking for, is it, we just move on, and that’s how some things are constructed. I love my new music; I’ve got lots of current ideas and current riffs and new songs and all sorts of things, but nevertheless I like some of older music as well. So I hope you do too."

From: Jaomedina

I'm very happy to know that you won a Portuguese guitar and actually play it on stage. I'd like to know the songs where you use it and tell something about the instrument to all your fans.

P.S. Tell me if you have any recordings of the Portuguese guitarist Carlos Paredes. Why does Yes insist on not coming to Portugal? We abandoned cannibalism years ago.

"This Portuguese guitar came to me via my sister Stella who bought it for me in the ‘60s. She went to Spain and found that little guitar and brought it back and she said, ‘I bought you’re a Spanish guitar,’ and I saw the case and said I don’t think so. And she said, ‘No, it’s a Spanish guitar, I bought it in Spain for you,’ and pulled it out, and not wishing to diffuse my joy at seeing the guitar my only dilemma was that this wasn’t a Spanish guitar, it was later I’d discovered it’s actually a Portuguese guitar, and yes, I play it on a lot of songs, on more songs than I use on stage, but I use it on stage for ‘Your Move’ and ‘Wonderous Stories’. It’s also on TOPOGRAPHIC and ‘And You And I’, it’s coloring and jangling along with other guitars in numerous other occasions, even on some of my solo projects.

"Your P.S. about Carlos, no, I haven’t got his guitar records, I’d like to know a little about that. Your humorous comment about our visit to Portugal seems curious to me as well. Let me explain that this year we didn’t even go to Spain when we were in Europe which I would like to say to anybody from Spain made me very cross. Apparently though it wasn’t our fault or the agent’s fault, that in fact promoters were not able to come up with compatible arrangements for us. I hope that changes now that we’ve shown our strength in Europe again and now the Spanish promoters will all seriously consider bringing Yes or Steve Howe to Spain.

"And of course cannibalism did die out a very long time ago, that’s assuring, isn’t it? So there you are."

From: Krzysztof Kopec

I just wondered about the Yes name. Who came out with this idea and what were the circumstances of it?

"I’ve been told, though I’ve heard many contradictions, that Peter Banks thought of the idea. It’s a positive short word, short names for groups are quite good and a common word. I don’t know what’s behind it really but it certainly added a certain positive quality to our title, enhanced of course by Roger Dean and his use of the bubble logo and various other logos that Yes use occasionally."

At what age did you know for sure that all you want to do in the future is playing the guitar? I'm kind of stuck with this because I'm in college and years are flowing really fast; however my love is playing the guitar (my record is fourteen hours non-stop). I don't know which way I should go 'cause there are so many starving musicians out there.

"I believe that it was two years before I had a guitar that I really made up my mind I was going to be a guitarist. It sounds kind of strange but at the age of 10 I wanted a guitar and I think I wanted it more than anybody really knew. But also because I was not all that forthcoming in shouting for what I wanted maybe I had to prove my determination by going on for two years that I wanted a guitar. My parents then responded kindly and then nurtured my interest with the guitar two years later by helping me to buy the Gibson 175 that I still play. I note that your 14 hour nonstop guitar is somewhat of a record, I think that might be above mine. I remember one smoky night in Chelsea, in London, in 1967, I did sit down and play all night, and loved all of it.

"But what took me by surprise was your quite realistic mentioning of there being so many starving musicians out there. I know a few musicians who wouldn’t recommend that their children go into music. My children have, two of them at least, and they’re learning also that it’s not a money earning proposition until such time as you become hardworking and able to communicate with the industry so that you get paid, basically. So there are some hazardous routes, it’s not like a job that anybody guarantee you money. Usually when people guarantee you money you don’t get it. You might get some of it, but there again I'm not really painting a pessimistic view because I’ve seen money come in at different levels all my life and when I was in Tomorrow we were getting 75 pounds a week: that was a small fortune in 1967. In the ‘70s Yes had some very good money and similarly in the ‘80s but what’s difficult about being a successful musician is doing the right thing with any money that you get because usually what you do with it is is spend it and there’s no end to what you think you can buy even if you aren’t really relatively extravagant.

"But be that as it may, whatever you do will take another toll that the money does quickly and it doesn’t come easily although it always sounds good on paper. The other thing is that you’ll have to make sacrifices as an individual therefore on other people: the people around you, the people you love not always being there but there are many jobs that involve that but one of them is playing the guitar—or the bass, or the drums, or being a singer or any sort of musician or entertainer or lorry driver or milk man, there’s all sorts of versions and levels of being away but being a musician does demand dedication to your art and being very, very good, and being capable of sustaining that also. So I think really get it together, get going on it, and find out what you can do, and take up every opportunity you can, don’t turn down something because it’s a bit cheesy, or a bit off, or a bit sideways, just do it and find out how you dealt with it because before you know it that could be your big thing."

From:  Richard Jay Baruch

A few years ago I discovered the beauty of hearing Lester Young. I've always thought you sounded a lot like him on the guitar solos you played for "Close to the Edge" and "Siberian Khatru" during a concert I saw on the TOPOGRAPHIC tour. You do change your style of playing from tour to tour and I just wanted to know your take on this. By the way, it was incredible.

"Rick, I'm touched that you found some comparison between Lester Young and some of my work around the CLOSE TO THE EDGE time on the TOPOGRAPHIC tour you mentioned. I do enjoy each tour having a different position for the solo so I kind of reinvent things like ‘Siberian Khatru’ and ‘Close to the Edge’ a little bit and ‘Yours is No Disgrace’, ‘Starship Trooper’, those longish sort of solos I tend to redesign every year that I'm playing them, partly because I can’t remember what I played last year! I all honesty what I do is that I look at the original record and decide how much this year I'm going to take from it, and before the tour I was looking at ‘Close to the Edge’ and not really wanting to expand it very much because I like the way that’s so concise on the record, but I’ll hopefully make up for that by stretching out another solo. I like to make it feel fresh by bringing something current to it. Of course I have a record of these solos and I do go back, and I relearned the ‘Siberian Khatru’ solo a little further into the grooves so that I knew more of the original solo then I usually have played, and that gave me a lot of pleasure playing that.

"I’ll tell you a story abut recording that particular solo, at the end of ‘Siberian Khatru’. I tried lots of solos in the studio and none of them seemed to really have any particular style about them. So I said, I know what, turn me off in the track, don’t let me hear what I'm playing. Let me just play from a feel point of view of what I think I’d like to hear. So they said, that’s different, we’d not done that before, so they switched me off, and they put the tape on, and it came to that moment and we heard nothing, I just played, and only I had a sense of what I played, only I had any idea of what I was doing because nobody else could hear it. And they all sat there and they said, we’ll have to play it back to you, what’s that’s like, and I said, yeah, and we played it back, and it was the solo that you hear now…so there’s a story."

Also, I heard somewhere that you were writing another book. Is this true? And if so, what will it be about and do you have any guess when it would be completed?

"There are a couple of book projects in progress and neither really are at a stage to announce them other than to say that there is some progress made primarily on one book that’s a collaboration not dissimilar to how I collaborated with Tony Bacon on my first book, ‘The Steve Howe Guitar Collection’, this time I collaborate with a couple of guys and we investigate mainly one period of time in music. Another book that I have is a highly personal book about advice and views and peculiar insight into the working mind of yours truly insofar as the way I work and the techniques, the experiences I’ve had that have taught me to do things in a certain way so I'm considering passing that on as a sort of handbook to musician’s survival, mainly to help them survive mentally and also to help them to use time very, very carefully and not actually ever waste time, and maybe the book will end up being more about how not to waste time. Obviously I would say in the near future as a completion date for initially the main book I told you about and some time in the near future for my handbook."