https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjOqcDpsdLxAhWHWc0KHaN2CPsQ0PADegQIBhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Fmusic%2Fmusic-news%2Fyes-new-album-the-quest-1193560%2F&usg=AOvVaw29pOS9XujNwFuL5RWUysUW" rel="nofollow - .Yes Announce New Album ‘The Quest’.11 hours ago

I started wondering... the current lineup of Yes is pretty short on classic era members, not to mention lacking originals now that Squire has passed. According to this article Alan White barely plays live anymore (which I didn't know) and is even supplemented by their other live drummer on this new album. That pretty much just leaves Steve Howe, who is certainly a classic and unimpeachable member of Yes, but does that make the rest of the band Yes? Especially when Anderson and Wakeman are still out there? I'm on the fence.

A very easy no for me, lol.

They weren't the same for a bit even w Squire still thumping, and they certainly lost any of the original spirit of the band with his passing.

We have some golden era recordings that I'm more than happy with.

Simple! No Squire No Yes

Not even maybe!

No. You need Chris and Jon in the lineup, at the very least. Rick is also preferable.

With just one "core"  player on board, it's hard to think of them as Yes really. (Some would argue about White but I was always indifferent about him)

The quality of Yes material post-Magnification - it's goddamn 20 years already - drives the point home.

Of course they are Yes! Yes is a band that has always transcended any one particular individual. No individual is essential for Yes to be Yes. The members have always kept changing, new people joined, old ones returned, etc., but the band continued.

When we're talking about the music, it's no. When we're talking about business, it's Yes...

Voted no.

Geoff Downes was in the band briefly for Drama and came back 30 years later. 

Obviously they can call themselves whatever they want, it's a matter of credibility. Sherwood's presence should be worrying. 

TBH I find it naive for some people having high hopes for a new Yes album. 

I consider Drama to be part of the classic era of the band, and Downes is part of Yes history even if he was there for only one album the first time around.

Sherwood has been very prolific, they probably couldn't have written a new album without him.

I do have high hopes that The Quest will be better than Heaven & Earth

If Alan White were fully there and if Geoff Downes had stuck around for even 90125, that would feel more like Yes to me. As it stands, Sherwood and Davidson are standing in place of Squire and Anderson, Downes had more impact on Asia's career than Yes', and White is being supplemented by the extra drummer they take on tour with them, leaving only Howe both fully there and having Yes as his main gig. Someone above said they've seen both Yes and ARW recently and ARW felt more like Yes. I haven't seen either, but Anderson and Wakeman don't need defending, and Rabin was there for many years during the most commercially successful part of Yes' career as an influential part of the band. I can see how that would feel more like Yes than Steve Howe and three and a half guys who've more or less jumped on the bandwagon.

Not setting your hopes too high then! 

I'm sure there are bands around that have no original members but still go around with the same name. I guess it depends on who has legal rights to the name but you do get some stupid situations like Wishbone Ash when there are 2 bands with the same name knocking around.

I have no problems if they call themselves Yes but I reserve the right to not buy their CDs now.

So I have this car I bought in the 70's. It was a very reliable vehicle...until it wasn't. I started to replace the parts that weren't working anymore. After almost 50 years of replacing parts, sometimes with cheaper knockoffs, can I say it's the same car? Sure it has the same name, but not much else that truly ties it to that classic vehicle I once had.

(It's a metaphor by the way)

It's a band called Yes...but it is NOT Yes.

If they're so confident in their efforts they should rebrand and relaunch.

Yeah, it's Trigger's Broom, but at what point did stop becoming the original car you bought?

It all depends on the material. I finally got around to hearing Open Your Eyes a while back. Anderson present for that precursor to Heaven And Earth where he wasn't.

Things is classic Yes is involving and not particularly accessible but destination is worth the journey.

Usually.

So from time to time things don't go so well. I hope they do this time. But they need that combo of inspiring imagination and excitement not make me wonder what Journey are doing.

I think Yes is required to be an effective creative force or a tribute band releasing albums of the recent past in concert. I know Squire wanted yes to be the like the Berlin Philly but this is different. With the recording era the old records become the new records to new listeners.

Emotional energy not brain dead lethargy.

I

yeah he has --problem is none of it high quality---he's been with the band forever and all the albums he had anything to do with are not memorable. Cant make great Yes with lots of mediocrity.

I did see ARW live, and I do consider them to be Yes as well. With such a long and complex band history, there can be more than one Yes at the same time. The more Yes-es the better Sadly, ARW never got around to recording a studio album.

No, not really. But it is a brand new studio Yes album, so of course I will buy it

I have all of their albums, and will not hesitate to add this new one to my collection as soon as it is out.

The one that comes to mind is Foreigner.......We saw them in summer 2019 (I also saw Foreigner back in '82), although it was a great show because it was a setlist of hit song after hit song, not a single musician is from the original lineup. Mick Jones only shows up for the big shows, everyone else in the current band joined in the early 2000s. Essentially it is a cover band now.......You are going to see a bunch of great musicians playing songs they had nothing to do with originally.......so yea I voted NO. 

Agreed

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe was Yes in all but name, and the album they did sounds totally like Yes to me. Yet they did that without Squire.

Wait I thought it was the other way around, where Mick Jones only didn't show up like a couple of times and otherwise he's usually there... that's dang embarrassing. That's not Foreigner.

I think that proves that it doesn't really come down to any one member. The combination of players has to be good enough. I'd say at the time ABWH was a thing, both bands had a lineup I'd say is probably good enough to be Yes (hence Union). What one group lacked in Jon Anderson the other lacked in Chris Squire, and both featured mostly members from the classic run. 

Not sure I agree with this. It's not like they are in a bar on the ship somewhere playing Yes songs & disco covers. Yes IS the central point of the cruse, not some side show. I don't know how many prog bands from that era could still fill a stadium. Genesis, Floyd & Rush,  if they were still touring? That's about it I think. 

There are none that can do what those mentioned. At least none can do "An Evening With....." Many will do festivals but that does not count in my book. The closest I think would be some prog-related like Iron Maiden that can fill a stadium and put on a massive show like they do. I can't think of a single prog band that can do what Rush did recently with their massive productions.....

So maybe a bowling alley is appropriate....... Heck Neil Morse here in Seattle has been playing at a dinner theater. I won't go to those as you buy a seat at a dinner table with other people.....so wrong.

Toto released their INCREDIBLY GOOD Toto XIV album.  Chris Squire just passed away and this was a tour for Heaven & Earth (I believe).  

Toto played a MIND BLOWING incredible show and the songs from the XIV album were AMAZING.  Their show ended and Yes came out and did the solemn tribute to the late great Chris Squire with his bass on the stage in the spotlight.  Then "Yes" took the stage and it was TERRIBLE.  Couldn't hear the keyboards at all and Jon Davison sounded like a flat Mickey Mouse.  The energy just got sucked out of the venue.  I got up and left completely disappointed. There were a lot of lifelong Yes fans walking out behind me muttering, "This is not Yes".  I never knew seeing Yes live could ruin everything.  This edition of Yes is not Yes.  To me it seems like an ego-vehicle for Steve Howe.  Jon Anderson and his ARW whatever is probably a much better show.

Oh yeah, and I feel that anything Billy Sherwood touches is boring.  He DOES suck the life out of everything.

The new line-up is the furthest it's ever felt, disregarding the above. 

White and Howe are the only two alumni remaining IIRC?

Does it really happen (pun intended)? Yes.

The Foghat of prog. 

Would you say it's been a Slow Ride for Yes, as of late? 

Well, they keep on chugging out the records!  (BTW, I loved the original Foghat, Rod Price was the best slide guitarist of his era)

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/yes-new-album-the-quest-1193560/" rel="nofollow - https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/yes-new-album-the-quest-1193560/

cstack3 wrote: Just another rock tribute band

It would have been fair to call them a tribute band if they just had continued to tour and record live albums, but now that they are finally recording new, original material that's a different story.

There are no founding members in Yes now.

Why put emphasis on the original line-up? That line-up only did two albums, and most fans agree that the band's best albums were made by later configurations of the band. Few could deny that Howe, Wakeman, and White are at least as important Yes members as Peter Banks, Tony Kaye, and Bill Bruford.

I'm not denying the importance of any of the members, I was just pointing out an error, Howe is not a founding member. It's possible he meant to say "without" anyway.

I checked 'I Don't Know'.   I saw Yes in Las Vegas around 2017 (a week after attending the 'Psycho Las Vegas' festival, and seeing the most incredible Magma performance on the same stage at the Hard Rock Cafe).

It was a decent concert; they went thru tunes from all the past albums.  I thought Howe took the reins nicely, and I don't mind the singer.   Still, it wasn't nearly the same as past Yes concerts.  Would be nice if Wakeman and Anderson could have just been there.  Plus, poor White looked terrible, could barely play and had to leave the stage a couple times to be replaced.  

The "openers" at this concert were at least just as good (though they got less time on stage).  Carl Palmer was amazing, and Todd Rundgren was cool to watch on stage with his dancing ladies, even though he didn't play anything really 'proggy'.

I've posted about this before, but I also saw them in 2017. In Reno, NV actually, on a whim while I was visiting my grandma, so we probably saw them within a few days of each other! I wasn't too impressed. Howe could barely play Yours is No Disgrace even while they dragged. I saw ARW the next year at The Greek Theatre in LA, and it was MUCH more fun.

ARW was obviously much better, I can't listen to any Yes live performances post about 2001 and when I last saw them about 2004/5 they were very creaky even then. band got old. End of story.

I think a friend of mine went to the Reno concert that year, and said it was so-so. I think they did better in Vegas.

I think most on here are saying Yes isn't Yes anymore because Chris Squire isn't in the band and not so much because Jon Anderson isn't. Am I right? 

Well in a sense it's because Chris Squire is gone, but it's more because with him gone and with Alan White barely there that just leaves Steve Howe as someone in the band who makes sense to me as a band member. It's about having the right combination of players.

Thanks, well said!  Maybe they will surprise us and churn out a decent LP, but I rather doubt it.

 

they should change their name to "Maybe We're Yes, Maybe We're not" and do a post rock album. 

As long as Annie Haslam sings for them, I'd classify them as "amazing!"

Maybe we could call it something corny like  http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=11666" rel="nofollow - Arc of Life  .  Oh wait a minute........

Yes isn't Yes without Peter Banks

There are bands where the original members matter a lot, but Yes is not like that. The truth is that they have always evolved, including the line-up. The original line-up only made two albums, and most fans don't even think those are the band's best.

Why do you say Genesis stopped being Genesis after ATTWT? Why not when Peter left? Or why not when Hackett left? You've included ATTWT but not Duke despite the fact there were no lineup changes between those two albums, just a change in style and popularity. Does that affect whether or not a band is still a band to you?

Some "fans" just won't allow bands to change.

For me it's about having the right combination of players. Take Judas Priest for example. Obviously it would be preferable for KK and Glenn to both still be in the band full time, but given the bad break up between KK and the rest of them, and given Glenn's health issues, that's not going to happen. On the other hand, Ian Hill has been there through the entire band's career, Halford only missed two albums and has been back for about 20 years now, and they always had a hard time keeping drummers (even in the classic days) so having a drummer who played on at least one classic album and has been with the band ever since also makes sense. On top of that, KK's replacement (Ritchie Faulkner) has been nothing but kind and dazzling in the role, also helping to write some incredible new music on Firepower, and Glenn's part time replacement happens to also be one of Priest's most classic producers, Andy Sneap. So even though only two band members are original, all of them seem to have earned their place on stage in my eyes, not to mention Glenn isn't fully gone and still writes new material and plays on new albums.

I get it but it's not like there aren't long time members in Yes now. I would say a better case would be for Tangerine Dream to change their name. After Edgar Froese passed away they shouldn't have continued calling themselves TD but in this case(unlike with Yes) no member was in the band in the 20th century.

Well hang on, Geoff Downes is in the band, how about rebranding as The Buggles?

Perfect, but they could be the Yuggles instead

Or since Steve Howe is there too, what about Basia?

iluvmarillion wrote: When you stop producing new music you lose your relevancy as a band ...

I agree 100%, and now Yes are finally producing new music again.

However, I was not a fan of bringing in tribute-band players, as it seems to be a rather "cheap" ploy to keep the original sound.  I liked Benoit David as a person, but did not think his stage demeanor (twirling all over the place) was a very dignified look for Yes.  I liked Jon Davidson with Glass Hammer, but he doesn't impress me with Yes. 

A far more "progressive" approach would have been for the band to bring in a different type of singer...I always thought that a woman vocalist would be a nice change of pace for Yes, and considering how lovely the Yes songs sung by Annie Haslam ("Turn of the Century") and Christina Booth ("Wondrous Stories") turned out, it could have invigorated a new generation of Yes fans that would be more inclusive of ladies. 

This is what might have been.  Alas, I fear that Yes is dead. 

It is on The Word Is Live box set.

Steve Howe joined the band some 50 years ago, and participated on all of the classic albums from The Yes Album to Drama, and then again in the 90's and beyond. Alan White has been on all Yes albums since he joined in 1972. Geoff Downes goes back to the Drama album in 1980, and the upcoming album will be his fourth studio release with the band. Billy Sherwood has been contributing on and off for 30 years, as song-writer, session man, extra live guitarist, producer/mixer/engineer, and now full-time bassist, etc.

Yet, some people here claim that this line-up doesn't have the right to the band name! Come on, people! How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? Aren't you setting the requirements a little high?

Fair point, the main problem for most people is that lack of the "big hitters" Squire, Anderson and RW. Whilst I do miss Anderson, I'm happy to give this album a chance and not pre-judge it.

Nobody said they do not have the right to call themselves "Yes", just that the current line-up lacks credibility for many. That's all. 

I'm surprised the band is not called "Steve Howe's Yes".