Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/26/83; site ihtnt.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!ihldt!ihtnt!brandx
From: brandx@ihtnt.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Read This If You're Hip
Message-ID: <2110@ihtnt.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Jan-84 09:51:26 EST
Article-I.D.: ihtnt.2110
Posted: Mon Jan 23 09:51:26 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jan-84 05:09:42 EST
Organization: BTL Naperville, Il.
Lines: 28

Has anyone seen the new downbeat magazine?  It's got Bill Bruford on
the cover.  For those of you who are too young to remember, Bruford
was a founding member of Yes.  He played with them until shortly after
Close to the Edge (arguably their best; I prefer Relayer).

Bruford has some interesting things to say about Yes.  With attitudes
such as theirs, it's very surprising they got as far as they did.
	1)  Bruford claims that during his entire tenure with Yes,
	    they never played an informal (read: improvised) note.
	    For one thing, he notes that they just weren't very good
	    musicians (he thought he was joining a jazz group).
	    He says they would discuss whether the bass player would
	    play an F and after that would he play a G.
	2)  He also says that because Jon Anderson came from the club
	    scene, Yes was overly interested in entertainment.
	    This is the shocker; he says that Yes was modeled after
	    the Fifth Dimension.
	3)  Yes would spend hours deciding what to do to sound different.
	    Apparently the goal was not musical creativity.  They wanted
	    to sound different so that they would get noticed and become
	    famous.

While I still enjoy Yes' music (I even like some of the new stuff), it's
now apparent what motivated them to go from the high of Relayer, to the
depths of Tormato and Drama.

Wouldn't it be nice if every band that was interested in "becoming famous"
were as creative as Yes?