Customer Reviews

Yesstories: Yes In Their Own Words

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Just a friendly review of Tim Morse's book "Yes - In Their Own Words". As a very dedicated and devote Yes fan, I found parts of the book very enlightening - especially detailing the early day as Yes began to come into their own during the early to mid 70's. I did find member's passages wanting for more explanation. Case in point... Alan White's quotes throughout the book always implied his need or desire to validate his contribution and worth to the band. Core narrative centered on him telling us that he wrote this lyric or that lyric, or that a musical idea of his was the basis of whole Yes piece. Perhaps Mr. Morse saw a pattern emerging and felt compelled to indulge Mr. White and center of this stream of thought.

Bruford's quotes are filled with cynicism and sarcasm. If you've ever heard him speak when talking about his stint with Yes you get a sense that there was more pain than joy being in the band. As for the more lucid and insightful passages, Howe, Rabin and Wakeman were as direct and forthright as they could be. For Anderson, his train of thought is similar to the style and tone of his lyrics...your sometimes left with ` what did he just say, or mean with that comment.'

The book gets tedious at times, but it does make for quick reading. A "worth-it buy" if you hankering for Yes members words of wisdom.

This is probably the best book written about a rock band. It's a very enjoyable and entertaining read, but it's also very
informative. The book goes through every track from every album,
with comments from different band members. One also gets a very
good insight into each band member's personality; it does it so
well that by the end of the book you feel like you know every
band member. Peter Banks, not surprisingly, comments on most of
the songs from YES and TIME AND A WORD, and comes across, also
not surprisingly, as very angry and resentful.Tony Kaye has very
little to say and his ex-band members have little to say about him. Alan White comes across as a very personable and likable
down to earth guy, not being afraid to point out his contribu-
tions to the songs. Bill Bruford probably has the best quotes of
all the band members, especially in his detailing of all the
frustrations in making CLOSE TO THE EDGE and his putdowns of the
UNION album. Rick Wakeman comes across as the joker of the bunch.
I also like what the band members say about each other, particu-
larly when Wakeman quotes Jon Anderson's description of himself.
I enjoyed hearing about how the albums were made and how the band
came up with and made the songs,especially Anderson's account of
how he wrote the lyrics for Roundabout. It's fun hearing about the stories of Chris Squire's ongoing tardiness.
THERE IS SO MUCH TO LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK! No YES fan should be
without this!

Are the members of this 34-year-old progressive rock band quotable? For the most part, yes -- especially when you consult about a hundred sources. That's what author and fan Tim Morse did for the first bui (of sorts) in 15 years of a group that created such rock classics as Owner Of A Lonely Heart and Roundabout.

Of course, while all this was happening the band went through enough members (12 by the time this was published, two more since then) to fill a bus. And it was the pretentious, convoluted sound of groups like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer that spawned the punk rock movement. But never mind that. Yes is still together and now fans can find out what members thought of successful albums like Fragile and 90125, as well a such stinkers as Union and Tormato.

To his credit, Morse managed to interview all but four members as well as long-time producer Eddie Offord. Magazines, videos, radio shows and the Internet filled in for the rest. And he's conveniently organized the book by album, adding chapters of quotes about life on the road as well as members assessing each other. This makes it easy to skip around and read small chunks at a time.

You'll find yourself gravitating toward the Morse interviews rather than earlier quotes, since by 1996 (when Yesstories was published) members had the gift of hindsight and weren't so interested in promoting their albums or each other. Indeed, that's how we find out that drummer Bill Bruford was glad he didn't have to work with bassist Christ Squire on the 1989 Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe project, and actually hated the 1991 Union album.

Then there's the fun of members contradicting each other. For example, the classic Roundabout is credited to vocalist Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe. But in a Morse interview, ousted guitarist Peter Banks claimed to be responsible for the song's main riff.

There are some truly banal quotes in Yesstories too, but you'll find so much good stuff you'll barely notice them. Buy this and Chris Welch's Close To The Edge: The Story of Yes and you pretty much have the band's history covered.

The title of Tim Morse's _Yesstories: Yes In Their Own Words_ says it all - this is a collection of quotes and accounts from band members and associates detailing every phase of Yes' career up until SLO. There's not much to say about this book other than the fact that it is ESSENTIAL for any fan of Yes that is interested about how certain songs came about, how band members met one another, what band members think about each other, and many other insights into what it means to be Yes. I have several books about Yes, and this is by far the most enjoyable to read. Five years after I first read it, I often find myself going back to it. Fan of Yes? Then buy it. Now.

Tim Morse provides a good structure of history here, coordinated with interview material collected from the past. Good insight into the song creation process etc. I enjoyed reading Steve Howe, and Bill Bruford's accounts. Both are very honest with their answers. I've often wondered if Steve Howe or any other bandmember or former band member would write an account specifically for their own biography of YES apart from Rick Wakemans book which was more of an autobiography just on himself. It would be nice to know more just how each member contributed ideas, difficulties, and of post production. Some of this was covered in Chris Welch's biography of Yes, but seen through his own experience with some bits of interview material. Jon could write a book on his lyrics of Yes. Steve could write a detailed studio account of the recording accounts from being in Yes. Chris Squire could write on the different musical infulences that changed with the members who had left or re-joined Yes etc. Many Possibilities here. Yes had almost reached some incredible musical complexity but they still have much to deliver.
Dave Carlin, Philadelphia

For the serious Yes fan, Morse presents an amalgam of quotes from the dozen-odd guys who were at one time or another members of the seminal progressive rock band. The book is heavily slanted towards discussion of the recorded legacy, up through and including the then-current release, "Talk". All in all it's a fast, easy read, but it's clearly more for hard-core fans than for casual listeners.

The biggest shortcoming of this book is the band-mates' unwillingness to talk about themselves and each other, and the fact that Morse does nothing to fill in those gaps. For example, the band starts getting together on page 8. That means each of the musicians gets about 2 paragraphs to give us his life story up to the point where he joins the band, and with that trace some of his musical influences. Later in the book, there's a chapter that describes life "On The Road": 12 pages. There's almost no mention of their families or their relationships or their interests outside of music, political concerns, religious beliefs, sexual exploits, etc... This is the sanitized version of Yes - perhaps this book was primarily directed towards young teens. Certainly they're not saying anything they wouldn't want their own kids to know. In any case, don't expect to come away from this book feeling you know these guys personally.

What they are willing to talk about is the recorded legacy of the band, and that's where this book really shines. Every single album is commented on by all of its participants, and some non-participants as well, usually track by track, providing a set of differing and often conflicting viewpoints on each recording in the catalogue. Of course that doesn't mean that all will now be revealed. Nobody ever discusses the lyrics except Jon Anderson, and what he has to say about them is frequently no less cryptic than the lines themselves. So if you were hoping for a line by line analysis of the song lyrics, this book will give you very little. No, the most common topic for discussion is: who wrote which parts of each of the songs. In fact, Patrick Moraz warns readers not to believe the credits on the albums - certainly there's a greater difference of opinion about this single topic than any other. But soon enough this petty squabbling gets tiresome, and ultimately meaningless, since we can never know the truth. Meanwhile, we do get a pretty fair view of the kaleidoscopic personnel changes that were this band's hallmark, and a pretty good feel for how difficult, and indeed how unpleasant it must have been to be a part of this exceptional band.

If you like to sit around with your friends and discuss which Yes album is your favorite, this will be an invaluable source book, but if you're looking for a literary treatment, or musicological analysis, or details of the band members' private lives, you should look elsewhere. A band this good deserves better.

What a great idea - allowing the band members to tell their own story without the author getting in the way! Tim is to be commended both for his maturity in allowing his own ideas to step back and allow the band to speak, and for his excellent interviewing technique - a technique that resulted in some remarkable statements from band members.

This is without a doubt the best book on Yes since Dan Hedges' excellent YES (1979). It belongs in your collection.

After reading this book I found out the ins and outs on how this super group thought, rehersed, and worked. The music they made over the years has inspired many and will continue to do so for years to come. This book will help set the record straight on many questions that the less than knowledgable Yes fans might have. It is a must for Yes fans around the world and goes hand in hand with the YesStories video from 1991. This book will tell you all you need to know about each album and how it came about and each member who contributed to it, their likes and dislikes about the recording sessions, and their favorite tracks, as well as their musical history. It was a pleasure to read.

I bought and read this book quite a while ago, but I came out knowing more about this band like no other. It really brought to light a lot of things I didn't know about Yes. Recommended.

After reading this, I now understand what Yes is all about! They are the quintessential band of all time! I seriously believe nobody can over top them! They are pure geniuses!

Tim Morse has a lot to be proud of for this book, from every last page to the meeting of the band members! Great job!