OK - just realized that this is a few years old. Jon posted it yesterday so I initially thought it was new, but after listening (it is a good listen imho), I realized that is a few years old.
OK - just realized that this is a few years old. Jon posted it yesterday so I initially thought it was new, but after listening (it is a good listen imho), I realized that is a few years old.
Last edited by Dan Roth; 11-09-2019 at 03:56 PM.
I think it is fantastic that the 1972 and 1981 King Crimsons have merged in Jon's mind...
I just read the comment below the video and before that was thinking I swear I had heard this before.
This is a good interview, includes an 'interesting' take on why Moraz was ejected, Jon seems to be saying because he wasn't there, he was in South America...?
I listened to it last night. A really good interview, if you ignore the Crimson gaffe.
Moraz was spending much of his time in Brazil in the mid-70's and eventually moved there in 1977 (apparently after he was let go by Yes) and recorded much of his first three albums there and in Switzerland. This is the first time that I have heard that as being used as a reason for why he was no longer in the band. The way Moraz tells it in this interview (and many others), he was in Switzerland with the band at the time of his firing:
DMME: "Were you forced to leave or parting company was friendly?"
Moraz: "Unfortunately, I was forced to leave. And even though, at the time, the split “was not made to appear acrimonious”, I suffered extremely and extensively. To be “asked to leave” so suddenly put me in a lot of turmoil and disturbance. The fact is, I was never compensated for anything. I never ever got paid for any of my tour participation in the extremely successful and extensive YES Tour of 1976, which comprised about 65 concerts, many of them in front of sold-out audiences of more than 100,000 people. After all, as a member of the band, I was entitled to a 20% cut from what the band was getting.
I don’t like to dwell into negatives, however, I can tell you that I had absolutely no desire to want to leave YES, at the time, in November of 1976. We had just finished the biggest tour YES had ever done, the “Bicentennial Tour”, a huge, extremely successful tour for YES. Somehow, it had been decided that we would go and record, in my own country, Switzerland, what became the album “Going for the One”, which we had extensively composed, developed and rehearsed during the course of 1976 (and even before that). There was no reason in the world for me to want to leave the band! Also, I understood, much later, that Rick was already in town, with his own crew, when I was still in the group, and I was still part of YES.
In addition, it was an extremely complicated and difficult situation for me to be stranded, on the street, with my baby daughter who was only one-month old and her mother, without any transport or money, in the cold winter of Switzerland. Then the fight for survival to stay alive, it all became surreal."
Yeah Jon's memory is a bit cloudy at times.. (but hey mine is as well..) I don't buy for one second the bit about how the keyboards were getting "dusty".. Pat has stated as have other band members how Pat was intimately involved with the writing process for several songs in the works that would end up on GFTO. And here you have in Pat's words how he was let go right in the middle of the recording sessions.. how does this all tie in with Chris, Jon's and Ricks story about sending the tape with some songs they were working on.. (I believe one was Wonderous Stories.. not sure what the others would have been) and Rick saying that this was where he saw Yes heading after TFTO vs the Relayer material the band played to him at the end of the Tales tour and he emphatically stated... "I have nothing to contribute to this material".. as sketchy part of Yes' history for sure.. The bit on Yesyears where Chris' puts Patrick down by stating "how many Swiss rock musicians do you know? Not too many.. I suppose they keep good time"..then to realize he brought Patrick into the mix for his solo album.. doesn't make a lot of sense does it?
Maybe they just wanted Rick back in the band and threw Patrick under the bus and no one will admit it. So they come up with stories.
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No It doesn’t. Aside from the fact that, being a smaller country, the number of musicians in Switzerland may well have been less than in the UK. But the truth is” how many Swiss rock musicians do you know?” All you need know is one, if he/she is what you are looking for. And, of course, time has ultimately shown Switzerland to have a pretty nice group of musicians who can do far more than “keep good time,” especially since Moraz was far more than a timekeeper in Yes (and on Squire’s solo album).
Frankly, that kind of rude, arrogant comment is one reason why, over the years and barring its glory days, I’ve fallen largely out of love with Yes. The egos and in-fighting were an embarrassment for a group that broke so much new musical ground during their best years. And that there were TWO Yes bands touring for the last couple years was as embarrassing as Wishbone Ash’s two versions (Wishbone Ash, run by Andy Powell, and Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash). That, to me, was an embarrassment to both, though more to the Howe-led version, because I still maintain that it has none of the hunger, passion or fire of Yes in its heyday. ARW, at least, had some energy.
I’m sorry to dis on Yes....as I’ve said, it brings me no pleasure. But damn, can’t these guys get over it and work together? Even Robert Fripp apologized to Mel Collins for how he treated him back in the day, and worked out the conflict with Belew. He may not be working with Belew, but he did what he could to smooth things out.
That Yes, with their history, cannot get past whatever ego crap pushed them apart, is, to me, simply childish. Especially since they lost Squire. Yes, with Anderson, Howe, Wakeman, White (insofar as he can play, find another drummer to help) and, ok, Sherwood, would have way more potential to be better, I think, than either band that toured over the past couple years.
Just my opinion, but it is what it is.
John Kelman
Senior Contributor, All About Jazz since 2004
Freelance writer/photographer
"Keep good time" was a smart-ass reference to Swiss watches, something the country is known for.
Best I can tell, the reason why Yes stopped working with Moraz is because he's very difficult to work with, and even they were able to see the irony in that.
Henry
Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/
My progressive music site: https://pienemmatpurot.com/ Reviews in English: https://pienemmatpurot.com/in-english/
I wonder what Baldwin felt like, being in the presence of such greatness. I mean, did the hairs on his arms stand up, or anything like that?
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