Celebrating its 35th anniversary, Yes has been around long enough that its style, once so forward-looking that it was dubbed "progressive rock," has become old-fashioned. "We had a few changes along the way," guitarist Steve Howe notes. Of course, Howe, whose remarkable guitar playing defined the classic Yes sound, never expected the band he joined in 1970 to still be a going concern.
"The life span of a band in my experience was only a few years. We were happy to get through the '70s, and I was happy to get through that, really. I had no idea it was going to go on beyond that."
In fact, the band seemed woefully unprepared for the '80s, though it turned out to be among its most commercially successful incarnations. They had spent the previous decade mixing unparalleled ambition, impossibly dexterous musicianship, and mystically obtuse lyrics delivered in John Anderson's otherworldly falsetto, creating the double concept album Tales From the Topographic Ocean and discs like Close to the Edge, written with classical complexity and working more as song suites than pop songs. Then, seemingly overnight, Yes became the dinosaur rock the punks were laughing at.
It was probably Steve Howe's famously large and extravagant guitar collection that was parodied by Nigel Tufnel in Spinal Tap. "It used to be 155 when it peaked somewhere in the mid '80s," Howe says. "Then I gave a few away. I traded a few and I sold a few. I wanted to get it smaller because it wasn't manageable. It was colossal. These days I am more realistic. These days I've got around 90 pieces."
Not surprisingly, Yes seemed adrift as the '80s dawned, with declining sales, numerous lineup changes and music too long and complex for an MTV video. Even worse, court cases over the use of the band's name eventually found Howe himself gone for a stretch, performing with other major Yes alumni in Anderson-Bruford-Wakeman-Howe. However, Yes survived and even prospered, thanks to being transformed by hired label hacks into a synthesizer-backed arena-rock band, churning out Top 40 fare like "Owner of a Lonely Heart," which MTV was only too happy to place in rotation. Asked if he misses those days, Howe laughs, "You wouldn't expect me to and I don't."
By the '90s, Howe was back in Yes, and slowly, over the decade, the rest of the classic lineup of the '70s began to reform, member by member.
"I've had a different views of Yes. The seasons of Yes have meant more or less to me. It has meant a lot of different things," Howe says. "In the '70s, we all became successful together. Then we all went through change in the '80s. Then the '90s were not very sure-footed: Yes morphed a few times. But then, before you know it, things settled down again. So, I guess I am relieved that we've come back to that '70s lineup, where there aren't any pseudo-people in Yes."
The final element arrived last year, when keyboard player Rick Wakeman returned to the fold. It was the perfect gift for the 35th anniversary tour. "At last it's the lineup," Howe says. "This lineup is the hardest working lineup in the '70s that we had. We made a lot of albums together. This is really closer in my heart to what Yes should be doing."
Asked if this tour will end with a new studio album, Howe equivocates. "We should get there. Maybe next year it will be more of a realistic focus. We've had it planned before but other plans have swept it away. The ingredients will get there."