Originally Posted by
Ken Baird
Yup, he's being a bit of a dick in most recent interviews. He seems to ignore the fact that Yes also included Chris, and still includes Alan even though they had to get Jay to do the recent tour. And of course part of Chris' last wishes were for the band to continue with Billy Sherwood taking his place which is now successfully happening.
For me, the current Yes is part of the Yes timeline and from a logical sequence of events, which Jon and Rick recently don't seem to respect or even acknowledge exists. Jon "sold his shares" in Yes in 2004, and although there were a couple of chances to come back since his willing departure from the group, he effectively stopped the band from doing anything from 2004 to 2007 because he wasn't really ready to come back (and he had legitimate reasons to cancel as his health wasn't fully back) The band nearly toured as "Howe/Squire/White" which is an approach that might have pleased more of the die-hard fans, but less likely to please tour promoters.
But, the band did finally continue with a different singer as "Yes". I don't think it was an easy decision for them to do this, and I'm sure they would have rather had Jon there if possible, but had waited for too long for him at that point.
I don't know if that's all 100 percent true, but it's at least maybe 80 percent true and certainly how I read the story over the last few years, so it's weird to now have Jon, and Rick and the promoters for the ARW tour ignoring what Yes have been up to.
Rabin hasn't really commented one way or another and I think he's probably got the best attitude out of the three of them in ARW at this point. He's "just happy to be there" so that's great, and I hope they all get on with that feeling.
I still love Jon and Rick, but in my opinion even if they don't like the albums, they should at least acknowledge what Howe and White (and not so long ago, Squire too) have been doing. They keep mentioning how important Squire was to them naturally enough, but they don't like what he did in his final years along with Howe and White. I think it's comparable to how they both acted and responded to the Drama album in 1980; Wakeman and Anderson both said "it wasn't a Yes album", even though they'd both just left the band, and therefore had "left the keys" with the remaining members. A very similar situation.
Anyway, I guess I pretty much ignore what they're saying and will likely very much enjoy what they do musically when I hear it. I also continue to follow Howe and White's band. I loved the Tales from Topographic/Drama tour they did this summer, and even though White wasn't there, I think they played with more energy with Jay Schellen so had no issue with it. Sherwood certainly continues the legacy of Squire's playing and Jon and Geoff were really good too.
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