40th Anniversary of Bill Bruford leaving Yes

Why want him there if he wanted to leave. He is an artist, not a sparepart. 

Edited by tamijo - July 20 2012 at 17:52

I can't imagine Jon Anderson singing Schizoid Man or songs like Exiles or Starless.

And I DEFINITELY can't imagine John Wetton singing songs like Close To The Edge or Roundabout!

Would have been interesting to see what King Yes would have come up with though....

The line up that made CTTE and Fragile was pretty much untouchable. In a way Bruford leaving because Yes had reached its peak was a self fulfilling prophecy. For me Yes were never as good again although they made several more excellent albums after his departure with various different line ups.

Damn! Talk about some people here feeling old.

I'm not so sure, really, if I prefer his leaving Yes or not... I guess I'll never truly know. What he achieved with King Crimson was great, and indeed his playing in King Crimson was even more amazing than in Yes. But then, some of my favourite albums ever are Fragile and Close to the Edge, and I might wonder if they might have come closer to that again if he had stayed... or at least if the next 2 or 3 albums might have had much better drumming (imagine Relayer with Bruford on Drums). Still, perhaps Bruford was right when he said Yes had reached their height with CttE, and he couldn't achieve much more by staying in the band. However, we must enjoy what we do have, and that's a bunch of really awsome albums, both by King Crimson and Yes, with and without Bruford.

Smartest decision he made.