Interview with Jon Anderson from 2018

This is the quintessential coffee table book. That’s particularly true for those who love guitars.

I remember when the original version of this came out wondering why a full live album wasn’t done.

The whole “do an album of covers” concept is a popular approach these days.

Lately I’ve been breaking our old rule at Music Street Journal.

The first thing to mention here is that this is a collaborative effort between former Yes singer Jon Anderson and former Counting Crows bassist Matt Malley.

I bought this on vinyl when it first came out. Since the onset of the CD era this has been in and out of print for a while. This is the first time I’ve owned it on CD.

This is an unusual album for Asia.

Jon Anderson and Jean-Luc Ponty have talked about doing a project together for a long time.

I’ve put this EP in the prog section of Music Street Journal. I suppose you could say that it’s more of a folk release.

This is a newly remastered version of the Jon Anderson Change We Must album.

A contender for best of the year, this is arguably Sherwood’s best solo album ever.

Yes seldom do anything in a small way when it can be done in an epic manner. 

This is a review of the special edition audiophile release of Close to the Edge. This is a great limited edition, numbered CD release.

This is a new release of Rick Wakeman's 1984 soundtrack album. There are two songs here with vocals (one is a bonus track) serving as book-ends to the release.

Our old rule at Music Street Journal was, if it’s out of print, we don’t review it.

This is a good, but not great, live album from King Crimson. The first thing holding it from the “great” title is the sound quality.

This is quite a cool set. The main man behind this is Billy Sherwood, and I always like the stuff he does.

This remastered version just came out now. 

Only the second album in the history of Yes to be recorded without Jon Anderson, this one, particularly since it’s the only other Yes disc with Geoff Downes on keyboards, is obviously compared to Drama.

Cleopatra Records loves doing these tribute albums, typically with Billy Sherwood in charge.

This 1980 release from Bruford features Bill Bruford (obvious, right?), Dave Stewart, Jeff Berlin and The Unknown John Clark. It has a number of instrumentals along with some songs with vocals.

I remember when I got this album originally, I was unimpressed with it. I think part of that was expectations.

Where do I begin on this review? I guess I should start by saying that I’m a Yes fanatic and I have been since I was twelve years old – and for those keeping track, that’s a long time ago.

This collection is a lot of literally “homebrewed” pieces by Steve Howe.

I’ve been going through some of my old vinyl and getting things reviewed.

This box set is a class act. The whole thing comes in something that resembles a book. 

This live album from Rick Wakeman is a powerful disc.

This is a brand new “Remastered Edition” of this live Rick Wakeman album.

While any Yes album is better than the music of a lot of other bands, this is probably the group’s weakest live album.

Lately we’ve been moving away from our long-held rule that in order to reviewed an item had to be in print.

Although this is out of print, I’ve decided to review it at Music Street Journal.

Certainly fans of Yes and specifically Jon Anderson will be drawn to this disc.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Doors.

This new live album from Yes is quite good.

Yes recently did a couple of tours where they performed some of their studio albums in their entirety. This live recording comes from one of those shows.

It seems that a common occurrence these days is for different factions within a classic band to form versions of the band and go out and tour. Well, it has now become a thing with Yes.

I drove to The Symphony Hall and bought a ticket for the night's Yes show at the last minute (literally!). It was a long shot, but it really paid off, as I got a good seat in the stalls.

There was something ominous about the date of this concert -11.11.11 so it was very much a case of going for the one on the night.

There seem to be some Yes fans deriding the recent incarnations of Yes.

This is my first time seeing Yes with the Benoit David and Oliver Wakeman line-up.

Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman might be best known for their work in Yes, but that’s just part of the picture.

Don’t go to a Jon Anderson concert expecting a Yes concert.

 I knew it would be hard to see Yes without Chris Squire! As "Onward" played, with a white Rickenbacker on stage with a spotlight, I felt myself tearing up.

Featuring a guest list that includes Jon Anderson, this is a great piece of modern progressive rock with plenty of nods to the old school variety.

This is a massive set. It’s also quite an interesting one.

Fans of Rick Wakeman don’t often get to see him performing solo live.

I really love this album.

This is Steve Howe’s first fully acoustic studio album.

I reviewed the original release of this album before, and the songs are unchanged here.

At Music Street Journal we’ve joined a number of publications in a ban on reviews of digital only products.

This is a reissue of the Yes album Open Your Eyes on 180 gram vinyl.

This is a newly remastered version of a Rick Wakeman live album. 

It used to be that at Music Street Journal we didn’t cover things that were out of print.

Going back and catching up on some vinyl releases, this one should be pretty easy to find online.

The last couple albums from William Shatner have landed in my “best of” lists for those two years.

This is a new, massive box set from Yes. It includes seven complete concerts from 1972.

The old rule at Music Street Journal was that we didn’t cover items that weren’t in print.

What an interesting ride I’ve had leading into this album.

It used to be a rule at MSJ that if something was out of print we didn’t cover it.

Let me just start this review to say that I like this album a lot.

This is just getting released on BluRay and with an extra concert.

This DVD is one of the best from Yes.

I am a big fan of pretty much anything Billy Sherwood is involved with and I love Supertramp, so when I heard Sherwood was in charge of assembling an all star tribute to Supertramp, I was excited.

I don't think I had heard of Alan Simon until recently. This double disc set captures a lot of his previous work.

This new Rick Wakeman album is actually a compilation. That said, it features a couple tracks that have never before been released.

I really enjoyed the Steve Howe’s Remedy album.

First off, this is arguably a jazz rather than progressive rock release

This album, featuring collaborations Jon Anderson made with various independent musicians, was originally released last year, in a very limited release. 

Since we’ve already reviewed the DVD version of this set, this review will focus on the difference between this new BluRay release and that original one.

Here is another compilation of Yes music. It is the first two CDs from The Ultimate Yes, repackaged.

What an amazing set this is.

This newest set from Leon Alvarado is quite a tasty one. It has a number of nearly vocal only spoken bits that tell the story of the album.

There are only a few musical instruments that have changed music and defined a sound.

Going into this album it’s pretty easy to know what you are going to get.

Whenever a live album (or any album from that matter) comes out featuring two of the most charismatic and popular former members of a band like Yes comparisons to that group are obvious.

For hardcore Yes fans, this is a real treasure.

This 35th Anniversary collection of Yes shares a lot of material with other compilations of theirs.

The third album from Yes, The Yes Album was a transitional disc. 

When King Crimson reformed after the 80s period, there were definitely elements of that period still present in their sound. 

There have been a few books written about the band, Yes but this one really includes the involvement of many of the members of the group through extensive interviews. 

This brand new live album from Yes is cool stuff. For one thing, it's great to get live recordings of all the Drama songs. There are also two epics from Tales from Topographic Oceans and the "Leaves of Green" part from "The Ancient" on that album. They round the section out with a few other Yes classics. The live sound is great.

I've seen Yes close to twenty times (more times than I've seen any other band), and I can tell you that despite the technicality of their music and instrumental prowess, no two Yes shows are the same. That's true even when you see them on multiple nights in a row. Each performance is a little different because the music tends to take on a life of its own in live gigs. So, don't expect to hear the studio versions exactly covered here. For one thing, the line-up is different. For another thing, I don't think I've ever heard a live Yes song sound exactly like the studio version. I mean, why would you want that? You can listen to the studio version any time. I think these renditions are very faithful, and bring a new life to the songs at times. I highly recommend this, especially for those (like myself) who really love Drama.

Like last year, there is a new Yes picture disc released for Record Store Day. Last year it was 90125. This year they turned their attention to Tormato.

Although this album is strictly instrumental, it’s one of the most “Yes-like” of Steve Howe’s solo catalog.

Considered by many to be one of the greatest prog albums of all time, it is a shame that the line-up lasted only one album and tour.  

I remember seeing Yes on the Union tour. It was an amazing show.

This album is fully instrumental. It’s a great disc, too. Some of the music here has appeared elsewhere (although most of the time in different arrangements)

I like The Who quite a bit. I mean, they aren’t one of my favorite bands, but I do really like them.

I’m sure some would make the argument that we don’t need another Yes compilation album.

Asia return with their classic line-up for an out of this world album.

This is a new reissue of the original Yes concert film. While the main film remains unchanged from older editions, there is quite a bit of added material here.