“The flukey part of it is, back in the early days, I had that guitar decorated with all kinds of crap wallpaper, ‘Flower Power’ – then that got all shaved off. And during the course of cleaning the bass up again, some of the wood got shaved down, and it probably became a lighter body than the stock factory model.”
― Chris Squire
“I think the first three Rickenbacker basses were imported around 1964. Pete Quaife, the bassist for The Kinks, bought one. Then John Entwistle from The Who bought one. As for the third one, I asked the manager of the store if I could get an employee discount. He said I could, and so I picked up that one.”
― Chris Squire
“You’re only as big as your last hit.”
― Chris Squire
“I know I always worked hard on making sure we came out with the best possible product and of course we were working with four other people, you have to balance that as well.”
― Chris Squire
“A nightmare is two bassists on stage.”
― Chris Squire
“Pull the good out of it and not worry about the drawbacks.”
― Chris Squire
“The other guys and myself have agreed that Billy Sherwood will do an excellent job of covering my parts, and the show as a whole will deliver the same Yes experience that our fans have come to expect over the years.”
― Chris Squire
“In a way, that’s always been Yes’ history to a large extent! Quite a few occasions when we’ve had a new band member or change in members, then we’ve done a new album with new chops and refreshed the musical approach.”
― Chris Squire
“I think it was ‘Tales of Topographic Oceans’ on 8-track that was the funniest thing because it would fade out in the middle of a song and fade back in again, and when the tracks change, it was quite amusing.”
― Chris Squire
“’Close To The Edge,’ we actually had played it from beginning to end before we recorded it in the studio. So we knew how long it was, and we knew it would fit on the album fine, so we didn’t do any editing.”
― Chris Squire
“We did do the whole of the live suite from ‘Fly From Here,’ and that was very enjoyable to do. In fact, that is actually our longest piece of music, I think, that we’d ever done.”
― Chris Squire
“It depends on various things like if the promoters want to have a break so they can sell more T-shirts and booze, then they ask if we can do an interval. I personally prefer not to do that. Once you get onstage, I like to stay there.”
― Chris Squire
“All movies, when they’re about the music business, tend to have a bit of a wide latitude in terms of how things really were.”
― Chris Squire
“’90125′ was our biggest-selling album worldwide.”
― Chris Squire
“With how huge Yes was, especially in the ’70s and ’80s, as a touring band and actually playing at the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia to 130,000 people, which is the biggest-paying show ever in rock history, you would think we’d done enough for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
― Chris Squire
“The way Yes works is when we have a new member come in, as in Jon Davison, it’s appropriate that we see what differences we can get out of a new contributing member in order to keep Yes interesting.”
― Chris Squire
“I’ve always been a great believer that you have to keep producing new things in order to keep life interesting – not only for ourselves, but for the audience as well. That’s really always been our principle and way of working.”
― Chris Squire
“Being called a ‘music legend’ is a very funny thing. It’s nice to know that my work has been appreciated and that people have given me that status. On a personal level, however, I can’t think about it too much. It means a lot… but then it doesn’t.”
― Chris Squire
“’Drama’ was put together quickly; there were a lot of intense, 16-hour days. Despite the pressure, it was a lot of fun, and the end result was an album I’m very proud of.”
― Chris Squire
“I was working in a music store in London, and this particular place happened to be the importers for Rickenbacker guitars into England. So I started seeing these basses coming in.”
― Chris Squire
“People are used to us being onstage for a while.”
― Chris Squire
“Over the years, Yes actually made 20 albums of original studio material.”
― Chris Squire
“I guess the idea of doing albums in their entirety, in sequence, appeals to people. I guess it’s the memory of being able to hear the music in the way it was originally presented.”
― Chris Squire
“The Seventies were just an interesting time for us because we were building the brand of the name but also varying the style of the music on each of the albums we did. Very creative time of us.”
― Chris Squire
“I couldn’t get session work because most musicians hated my style.”
― Chris Squire
“We started Yes as a vehicle to develop everyone’s individual styles.”
― Chris Squire
“Of course, Paul McCartney’s sound is different from mine, but it’s the way you hear things, really.”
― Chris Squire
“I’ve had to replace parts in the basses when they’ve gotten old or worn out, so everything isn’t absolutely original.”
― Chris Squire
“I guess I’ve become very accustomed to playing in the 7/4, which is something we’ve done quite a lot.”
― Chris Squire
“I’ve been called the journeyman. It’s really more by default than it is by design.”
― Chris Squire
“The band will be going along, and somebody or another will say, ‘I want to go off and do a solo career.’… They come back, and other people come in.”
― Chris Squire
“We’ve done very different Yes albums – 11 bars, 13. I think we had something that had 17/4 in it. It’s just like anything – the more you do it, the more you have to do it.”
― Chris Squire
“Touring is a tough business.”
― Chris Squire
“The idea of ‘Yes on Broadway’ has come up. It would reflect the history of Yes.”
― Chris Squire
“I have never played anything live – except for a few special occasions – from ‘Fish Out of Water.’”
― Chris Squire
“In many ways, I think about the possibility that there could still be a Yes in 100 or 200 years from now, just like a live symphony orchestra.”
― Chris Squire
“In many ways I think ‘Fly From Here’ is a return to classic Yes; people seem to have been really enjoying it, integrated into the set along with the old material.”
― Chris Squire
“I like the Foo Fighters a lot – apart from them being friends of mine as well. They’re definitely a fantastic live act to see: so much energy and possibly even bigger in Europe than they are in the U.S., and that’s great.”
― Chris Squire
“We’ve never been to Israel. I’d like to play in Israel.”
― Chris Squire
“Usually, when we go out, it’s because we made a new studio album, and that becomes the focus of the tour throughout the world for a year or so.”
― Chris Squire
“On our studio album ‘Fly From Here’ in 2011, we spent a year and a half promoting that around the world.”
― Chris Squire
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been out there playing new material, and we have really enjoyed that. Of course we still enjoy playing the Yes standards as well, but it’s great to have a bit of a challenge and pull off new material.”
― Chris Squire
“I really believe that the aliens are us from the future. It seems to me a very plausible reason that explains a lot of phenomena as opposed to green men with one eye from outer space.”
― Chris Squire
“Look how far the human race has come in terms of air and space travel in the last hundred years. So in the next couple of thousand years, you’ve got to believe that we’re going to be able to do all kinds of amazing things.”
― Chris Squire
“It’s not beyond the possibility that there still could be a YES in 200 years’ time… of course with different members, unless the medical profession comes up with something extraordinary.”
― Chris Squire
“There’s been talk of YES possibly doing something on Broadway in New York. People have approached me with that idea, and there are discussions about that.”
― Chris Squire
“I wouldn’t object to working with any former member of Yes, really.”
― Chris Squire
“Because of all the various people who’ve come in and out and brought along ideas, I’ve been on a learning curve throughout all these years. Of course, everyone that’s been involved has influenced me as well. And I’m grateful for that.”
― Chris Squire
“I thought, ‘Wow, if we could have a career that was five or six years long, that would be fantastic.’ And, of course, never even thinking it would still be something I’d be doing in 45 years.”
― Chris Squire
“I think what the story of Yes has been is we’ve wandered in and out of different styles over the years.”
― Chris Squire
“The Beatles had a six-year career, from 1963 to 1969, which – to me, in my early 20s – seemed like a phenomenally long time.”
― Chris Squire
“The fact I’ve been in every lineup of Yes has been more by default than design.”
― Chris Squire
“I hope, after I’m gone, there will still be a Yes.”
― Chris Squire
“I think partly the problem with Yes – and I’ve had this discussion with people from the Hall of Fame in the past – is that it’s going to be difficult to decide how many of the members of Yes you’re gonna put in it and how many you’re not because of the extensive membership of the band through the years.”
― Chris Squire
“Not many people know this, but when Yes first started doing club dates back in 1968, ’69, we did a few tracks from ‘The Magic Garden’ album in our set. We just loved the harmonies that the 5th Dimension had as well.”
― Chris Squire
“Steve Howe met Paul Simon and said that Paul was very approving of our version of ‘America.’”
― Chris Squire
“I was a big Who fan when I was 15, 16 years old, and I used to go watch them play at the Marquee Club in London as often as I could.”
― Chris Squire
“I do have a vague recollection of reviving the cover of The Beatles’ ‘Every Little Thing,’ but I don’t know if that was just our riffing on it in rehearsal. I don’t think we ever did it actually in the show.”
― Chris Squire
“Jon Anderson and I, we really liked a lot of classical music, and we wanted to get some orchestral arrangements going on ‘Time And A Word.’”
― Chris Squire
“Strangely enough, ‘I’ve Seen All Good People’ is, I think, the second most played Yes song on American radio after ‘Owner Of A Lonely Heart.’ And then I think ‘Roundabout’ is third.”
― Chris Squire
“’Onward’ was a song I wrote in Montreux, in Switzerland, when we were there camping out for the whole winter. In the summer, Montreux is a really, really big summertime-touristy, full-of-life kind of place. In the winter, it closes down.”
― Chris Squire
“Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson have rejoined and gone off again and rejoined, but I’ve been there the whole time, and even though Alan White is the ‘new’ drummer, he has been there since 1972, so he also deserves the credit for being around for 20 years.”
― Chris Squire
“I like working with modern sounds in the studio as much as I’m happy to work with a basic rock n’ roll format.”
― Chris Squire
“I think I’ll not attempt to do a ‘Fish Out Of Water 2.’”
― Chris Squire
“Persistence is a pretty important part of making it in this business, which, in retrospect, is the easy part. Maintaining a profile is the difficult part of the job. Somehow or another, I muddled through that system and somehow am around to still enjoy playing for people.”
― Chris Squire
“’The Yes Album,’ of course, was the album that put Yes’ name on the worldwide stage.”
― Chris Squire
“’Fragile,’ of course, was a very successful album for us, especially here in the States. It had a lot of solo pieces on it, though.”
― Chris Squire
“’Close to the Edge’ is the album where we first attempted to do the extra-long-form piece of music, having one song taking up the whole side of a piece of vinyl.”
― Chris Squire
“I learned to do a few tricks that other people hadn’t done before. I developed that trebly bass thing a little further.”
― Chris Squire
“Most popular records are action-packed to the last semi-quaver.”
― Chris Squire
“It’s always a little more difficult after taking a few years off, which we did from 2004 through 2008. It’s more difficult to get the machine in gear again, but when you become used to it, then it becomes easier.”
― Chris Squire
“Everyone enjoys downtime at home, I’m sure, for various reasons, but I find the whole system of being out there and doing shows for people – the more of it you do, in fact the more energizing it is, for me individually.”
― Chris Squire
“Back in the day, the album was king in many ways. And, of course, we were very tied in with the birth of FM/college radio in the States, and what we were doing suited the format of those young radio stations.”
― Chris Squire
“Yes is what I like doing more than anything else. Somewhere along the way, as people came and went, it fell to me to kind of keep it going and oversee the spirit of the enterprise, as it were.”
― Chris Squire
“After awhile, you start realizing that change is good for you. It’s healthy.”
― Chris Squire
“The great thing about Yes is that it has always been flexible.”
― Chris Squire
“Over the years, there have been challenges about who can use our name. It’s quite simple: A majority of people left in the band at a certain time own the name. It’s not like I’m the guy who has the name under my own contract.”
― Chris Squire
“Philly has always been one of our favorite towns to play in, and the fans have been very loyal and very supportive over the years.”
― Chris Squire
“Yes’s whole career was never really planned in any sort of way. It’s always sad when a member leaves, but it’s exciting when someone new comes in, and that regenerates the freshness of the band.”
― Chris Squire
“I would work with Trevor Horn any day of the week. I have a great relationship with him.”
― Chris Squire
“There’s always the joy of the performance and fine-tuning new interpretations. Over the years, we’ve all grown as musicians, so obviously there is a lot of subtlety that wasn’t there in the first place.”
― Chris Squire
“Steve Hackett is a very underrated writer and actually a very good singer.”
― Chris Squire
“You can’t ever really replace Jon Anderson because he’s been such a force in the music business.”
― Chris Squire
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