What The Kids Don’t Know: R.I.P. Chris Squire of Yes

These kids today, with their Oontz Oontz Oontz music and their Smartphones and their minute attention spans. Bah. Even you hiptser twenty-somethings, with your beards and Spotify playlists stuffed with Pitchfork-approved bands, YOU DON'T KNOW! The band Yes climbed heights your Tame Impalas and your White Jeans could never even dream of. And behind it all, was Chris Squire. READ ON! 

Yes could and would fill up an entire side of an album with one song, said tune kitted out with eighteen time signature changes, ten chord changes and pretty much incomprehensible lyrics about stars, light, time and clouds sung by a guy who sounded like Zontar, the Cosmic Elf. And, oh my God, it was fantastic. The musicianship was impeccable, right from the first album, and they could shift from pinpoint tumbling rock to something jazzed out and light as a herd of cats at midnight ON A $@#@! DIME.

And the thing that held down to Earth this giant multi-colored explosion was bass player Chris Squire, who was there from beginning to his sad passing this weekend. Nobody played bass like him or had a sound like Squire.

Even if Yes were busy twirling crazily around a Maypole on planet Flower, Squire was threading through all of it with his serrated, growly nimble bass lines. If Yes was a grand tea party, Squire was a the knife fight at the heart of it. In the eighties, after a fallow period, yes staged a massive comeback with the album 90125. Huge pop hits followed, all anchored and driven by that amazing bass playing. Check out Squire's chops on this track, "Cinema":

Pretentious? A little show offey? Yup. Sure, it's music with a high falutin' factor so intense you can practically see the capes everybody should be wearing. However, damn, it's fun stuff. And Chris Squire had an amazing sense of melody, Check this out:

Goodbye, Chris Squire. You brought a dangerous edge to a great band and kept them grounded when all dials started flipping into pretension and frippery. R.I.P. You kids go get you some headphones, a dark room and a Yes album. And then you'll know.

Bandmate Jon Anderson posted a touching tribute. Read more about that by clicking through the pic below: