With Chris Squire sadly
no longer with us, attention has turned to what music he may have
left behind, particularly with a report that Yes may be considering
using some unfinished studio recordings for a new album. This raises
the question of what recordings with Squire exist unreleased, and
what could be done with these.
We should remember that
we don't know what we don't know. Numerous releases continue to throw
up recordings we never knew existed, with examples in 2015 including
the wonderful extra tracks on the Panegyric Fragile
and, of course, the Progeny
box. I've heard whispers of future projects just as exciting. So I
expect what we don't know about is probably more significant than
what we do know about, but there is still much that we do know about.
Almost any time there
is a studio recording, there is the potential for alternative
versions, different takes and mixes, although these are often close
to the released version and, presumably, the released version is
meant to be the best. So I'm also taking it as read that there are
alternative versions of everything from "Everydays" to
"Cathedral of Love".
Those caveats aside,
here's what we do know about:
Live Yes
For nearly all of
Squire's career, his main live work was in Yes. I won't try to list
every possible live Yes recording here. There are vast numbers of
unofficial Yes recordings online. I am glad that Squire lived to see
the success of the Progeny
boxset and we know that band and label want to do more, although
Brian Kehew warned that he doesn't think there is anything quite like
the recordings that led to Progeny.
One way or another, I expect to see more archival live Yes released
over the coming years.
That
said, I don't hold out hope that we will hear many songs not
otherwise previously released. We know the very early band played
numerous covers of which we have no record yet (including Fifth
Dimension's "Paper Cup", Traffic's "Heaven is in Your
Mind" and The Beatles' "I'm Only Sleeping"), but these
were in their very early years and none has even emerged on boots.
There is a bootlegged recording of the band doing "Eleanor
Rigby", although the sound quality is so poor that it may
preclude release.
Another
mysterious early Yes piece that has never emerged is "Adventures",
described as a Howe/Squire bass duet pre-dating The Yes
Album but seemingly an early if
very different version of "A Venture".
The Syn, Mabel Greer's
Toyshop, Narsquijack etc.
Before Yes was The Syn
and Mabel Greer's Toyshop. The Original Syn
collection seemed to sweep up all the archival Syn and Selfs material
there was to be released, while Pete Banks' Can I Play You
Something? covered Mabel
Greer's Toyshop. But is there more? Banks, before he passed, talked
of some 1960s live Syn recordings that could be released, although I
don't know what has happened to those.
Original
Syn included two demos by Narsquijack, Nardelli, Squire and
Jackman working together after The Syn split up, but the liner notes
say there were seven recordings. What of the other five?
Mabel
Greer's Toyshop had already talked about releasing their John Peel
session from the time.
Yes
in the studio: up to Tales
A
long set of Yes studio recordings was bootlegged as 1969-1972
Studio Outtakes Collection,
apparently material compiled for the Rhino expanded releases. Most of
this consists of alternative versions of known songs that are not
markedly different from officially released material. However, among
all this, labelled "Unknown acoustic song fragment", is a
demo seemingly recorded just by Squire, singing and playing guitar,
seemingly around the time of Close to the Edge,
of a song with the refrain "Can I Come Home with You Tonight?"
I understand this was passed over for release as being too rough, but
there is a full song mapped out here.
What
about other earlier Yes studio recordings? We don't know of any
further lost songs through to Tales from Topographic Oceans or
other interesting lost recordings, but we didn't know about "All
Fighters Past" until it was released. We could speculate whether
The Yes Album writing sessions left anything else, or if there
might be early Fragile demos, possibly from when Kaye was
still in the band.
And
there's the Coca-Cola advert, although uncertainty remains over
whether this is (all of) Yes.
Yes
in the studio: the Moraz period
Could
there be early demos for Relayer? The recent Panegyric release
didn't throw up anything. However, Moraz's tenure in the band may
yield more. Moraz has pointed towards extensive jam sessions when
they were developing material. Are there also earlier demos for Going
for the One with Moraz? The exact provenance of "Turn of the
Century (rehearsal)" (on the Rhino Going for the One) and
"Everybody's Song" (an early "Does It Really Happen?"
on the Rhino Tormato) are unclear, but both seem actually to
date from when Moraz was in the band. So what might else might there
be?
Yes
in the studio: the late '70s
The
Rhino Tormato and Drama releases produced a bunch of
songs with the Anderson/Squire/Howe/Wakeman/White line-up. Does that
mean that well is now exhausted, or does that mean this is a rich
seam and there's more not yet released? "Rail 14", a 1978
track, a sort of early version of "Arriving UFO", is one
piece known from boots but not yet officially available.
It
is reported that Anderson/Squire/Howe/White were working on material
in late January 1980 (after the Paris sessions): could any recordings
emerge from that?
Yes
and others in the studio: Drama to 90125
Most of the Drama-era
recordings seem now to have surfaced. Several have been released and
there are some additional alternative versions on bootlegs. There's a
much longer version of "Satellite" notably including the
bass riff that later became "I'm Running".
After
Drama was XYZ, long the Holy Grail. Four songs eventually
surfaced on boots, but there may have been other recordings. Other
song ideas seem to date to this period than can be heard on the four
bootlegged tracks, including possibly "Run with the Fox".
Page was talking about releasing the XYZ sessions before Squire
passed.
I
once heard a rumour that there was more material from the Squire &
White sessions that saw "Run with the Fox" recorded.
After
Drama, Squire and White met Rabin and the trio began working
on XYZ ideas and a set of demos for Rabin. Having briefly considered
the idea of having Horn on lead vocals, the band evolved into Cinema
with Kaye on keys and Horn stuck to producing. An album by the
quartet was more or less completed before the idea came to have
Anderson join.
There
was a lot of time spent working on this album and Horn was all about
trying out multiple ideas. It seems likely there is a wealth of
material here in terms of alternate versions of known songs. We've
had some of those released (the Cinema version of "It Can
Happen" on YesYears and
an extended remix of "Owner" on the Rhino 90125,
as well numerous remixes as contemporary b-sides), plus a few songs
that didn't make it to the album ("Make It Easy" on
YesYears and "It's
Over" on the Rhino 90125).
We know more exists. The 2:08 instrumental "Cinema" is
actually just the introduction to a piece entitled "Time"
of around 20 minutes length. We know, because Art of Noise sampled
it, of a piece entitled "Red Light, Green Light". There's
what seems to be an early set of Cinema sessions that has been
bootlegged, including pieces like "You Know Something I
Don't Know", "Open the Door", "Sorry",
"Baby" (riff recycled into "Our Song") and
"Telephone Lines" (an XYZ leftover). Why all this wasn't
packaged up for a multi-disc 30th anniversary release of
90125, I don't know, but
plenty here that could be used in one way or another.
Yes
in the studio: Big Generator to 2008
The
Big Generator
sessions don't appear to have produced any additional songs, but
we've heard boots of alternative versions of what's on the album.
The
remaining YesWest quarter, with and without Sherwood, were working on
ideas before Union,
although most of these appear to have been used.
Likewise,
pickings appear poor in terms of unreleased material for subsequent
Yes albums through to The Ladder,
with the exception of a song considered for Keys to
Ascension 2, "Axis of
Love" (which we can date back to an Anderson demo for ABWH, now
released on Watching the Flags that Fly),
although whether anything was recorded, we don't know.
Howe
has talked about presenting a version of Magnification
without the orchestra.
Anderson
appears to have presented a number of ideas to the band for The
Ultimate Yes bonus disc and
then in 2007/8 when he was going to re-join the band (e.g.
"Many", developed with Tom Curiano),
but it doesn't appear as if the others developed these any.
Yes
in the studio: since 2008
The
band made two albums with Squire since re-emerging in 2008, Fly
from Here and Heaven & Earth. We know there are
leftovers from both of these.
The
band began Fly from Here
with Oliver Wakeman on keys and Tim Weidner mostly producing
recording sessions in Oct/Nov 2010. Part way through, they changed
course, Horn came in to produce everything and Downes replaced
Wakeman for sessions Jan/Feb 2011. These later sessions then brought
in more material written by Horn/Downes many years before.
The
sessions with Horn were then longer than planned. Shortly before
recording final overdubs for the album, Benoît David
was interviewed by Progression
magazine, saying, "At the end of the day we recorded so many
tracks that we could do almost two albums. So the tracks are there,
we just need to see what Trevor puts on the final disc." It is
unclear whether David means "tracks" in the sense of songs,
or in the sense of multiple takes of the same basic material. But
could there be additional material worked on with Horn?
The
2010 sessions involved recording "We Can Fly" with Horn and
(at least) "Into the Storm", "The Man You Always
Wanted Me to Be" and "Hour of Need" with Weidner. The
2011 sessions then involved doing some songs from scratch, implying
at least alternative recordings exist. We also know that the pieces
making up the "Fly from Here" suite were tried out in
standalone form, so again some alternative versions done with Horn
must exist. But alternative versions are not as exciting as songs not
used.
We
know that a song entitled "Corner of the World" was being
worked on in 2011; it appears this evolved into "In a Word of
Our Own". And it appears there were other songs left over from
the 2011 sessions.
But
in switching to work with Horn/Downes, there were also songs left
over from either the 2010 recording sessions with Weidner, or
preparatory work for the album in 2010 and 2009. Oliver Wakeman has
talked about re-using material he wrote for the album elsewhere and
one song he wrote during the 2010 recording sessions, "From the
Turn of a Card", got included on his album with Gordon Giltrap,
Ravens & Lullabies,
although one report suggested that the band were not interested in
the piece, so no band recording with Squire may exist. Wakeman
wrote a nice piece on his website after Squire's death, which
contained the following about Fly from Here:
"I
remember picking up Chris and Scotty on a trip they made down to
Devon to Steve Howe's house where we discussed all the plans for the
new album we wanted to write (it didn't happen in it's intended form
- the album eventually become the Fly From Here album).
"Anyway - another
piece we were working on was a Yes reworking of a classical piece - I
forget which now - but it was a great idea and would have been a lot
of fun. We also listened to a few of Chris' pieces which I really
enjoyed and spent quite a bit of time working on arrangements with
him. [...]
"We had lots of great material which never
saw the light of day - some of which I have here with Chris's parts
on. One particular track we co-wrote which I was very proud of is
called Gift of Love and I've just found it in my library and it's
currently playing. I'd forgotten about how good that one was - and
I've just found a completely different arrangement of The Man You See
in Me which we recorded in Pheonix during the writing sessions and a
few of the other demo sessions we recorded which were never used."
"Gift
of Love" was based on the same Chris Squire/Gerard Johnson demo
as "The Game", but is very different otherwise.
A
2012 Facebook exchange had more, with Wakeman saying: "There
were a few tracks [that he co-wrote] that started to get recorded in
the studio. Others that were written in preparation of the album and
others written whilst staying in LA. A few have ended up on the
forthcoming Cultural Vandals album [still to appear] and a couple
will be on the album I'm writing with Gordon Giltrap [although that
appears to have gone down to just one]. Nothing goes to waste! None
of them will feature the Yes guys performances though."
And on 2 January 2016,
Wakeman tweeted: "Just found a recording of another track I
wrote for the unfinished '09 @yesofficial cd with Steve, Alan, Benoit
& Chris (on acoustic bass!)"
One 2009/10 piece,
possibly called "Lines on a Page", evolved into "To
Ascend".
There were various
rumours of material being worked on in the run-up to Heaven &
Earth. Quite how reliable these
all were and quite how they all relate to each other, I don't know,
but we do know of at least some ideas that were not used. Rumours
from mid-2012 talked of 8 songs under development: the 5 songs
written by Squire/Davison or Squire/Davison/White, a group
composition, a piece from Howe, and another piece from Squire
originating in the 2006/7 writing sessions with Johnson. The last of
those presumably was "The Game" and the Howe song was
probably "It was All We Knew", but what about the rest? "In
a World of Our Own" would fit as a Squire/Davison song and those
5 songs might have included "To Ascend" (Davison/White) and
"Light of the Ages" (Davison), but nothing obviously fits
the other two Squire/Davison(/White) songs or a group composition,
although maybe the former includes "Believe Again"
(credited Davison/Howe, but mostly Davison's) and the latter ended up
as "Subway Walls"? We would still be short one
Squire/Davison(/White) song, but we do know of a song seemingly by
Squire/Davison called "Breaking Down on Easy Street" that
was not used.
Famously,
Davison has talked about another long piece he was working on with
Downes that wasn't used on Heaven & Earth
that began in pre-album sessions with Squire and White in Phoenix,
possibly called "Horizons" and reportedly around 18 minutes
in length.
Reports
point to further songs not used on Heaven & Earth:
"From the Moment" or "To the Moment" (possibly by
Howe); "Midnight" (possibly originally from Squire/White);
"Don't Take No for an Answer"; a Howe/Davison piece
possibly called "Zenith"; and another Squire/Downes/Davison
piece (unless that's "Horizons"). Squire, Davison and
possibly White reputedly met in Squire's studio in March 2015 to go
through ideas for a next Yes album.
Outside
Yes
Away
from Yes, Squire was involved in other projects. The most notable in
recent years was his Conspiracy collaboration with Sherwood. But it
appears there aren't any Squire/Sherwood ideas unused, according to
Sherwood:
anything Squire/Sherwood was formulated and released, so ‘Conspiracy
One’, ‘Conspiracy Two’, ‘The Unknown’, that’s where
you’ll find all that stuff. There are no tracks lying around that I
did with Chris that we have not found a home for.
Either they ended up
on a YES album as was the case with ‘The More We Live’ being on
‘Union’ and as was the case with ‘Love Conquers All’ being on
the ‘Yesyears’ Box Set.
And then all the music
that we wrote from that point forward kind of sat in a can for a long
time and then we decided “OK, let’s put this out as the first
Conspiracy record” and so there you have the first Conspiracy
record and then the second one and that’s all the music. There’s
no hidden music anywhere. Chris and I, everything we wrote, we put
somewhere on a record and so it’s all out there to be had. You’ve
just got to find it.
That
said, we've never had a live release from the initial Chris Squire
Experiment tour, which had some notably different arrangements.
One
piece on Conspiracy
had a rather different origin. "Violet Purple Rose"
began in a session with Squire, Steve
Stevens on guitar and Michael Bland on drums. Sherwood then
overdubbed this to create the released piece. But we don't know
whether those Squire/Stevens/Bland sessions produced anything else.
The
2006/7 Squire/Johnson writing sessions seem to have been mostly used
one way or another (mostly on the Squackett album), but there may be
more.
In
an August 2014 interview, Davison revealed that Squire and Taylor
Hawkins had "done some demo work. Chris has played bass on some
of Taylor's stuff [...] And Chris has done some stuff that actually
hasn't been released." He went on to say, "we always talk
about the three of us, plus another member, doing some kind of side
project."
Going
further back, there's the mysterious Royal Family project. While
without Jon Anderosn, YesWest invited Roger Hodgson to join the band.
While he said no to that, Hodgson/Rabin/Squire/White/Kaye did work
together and it appears an album was more or less completed, but the
only thing definitely to have emerged from this was "Walls"
getting re-done for Talk. Hodgson's solo album Open the
Door also included one track with Rabin, but early reports of
that album also talked of Squire appearing, which is presumably related.
Who
knows what else is out there? For example, Squire told an anecdote about writing
a song with Thin Lizzy's bassit Phil Lynott (who died in 1986), but
said he'd long lost the tape.
Any
additions to that list, let me know in comments or by email.
What can you do with
all this material?
There are three basic
approaches.
1. You can release it
as is (or with just minor fixes). That's what happens with live
recordings and I expect we will get more of those.
Some studio work may be
finished enough that it can simply be released in this form. Plenty
of unifnished Yes material has come out that way, if often as bonus
tracks where consumer expectations are reduced. There is certainly
some demo work that could be released in the same way.
2. Use the existing
recording, chop it up, overdub and build something around it, a
part-new, part-old hybrid. A number of acts have taken this approach:
like The Beatles with "Free as a Bird" and "Real
Love", built around late 1970s Lennon solo demos; and The Doors'
American Prayer, where the
remaining band members put music to some Jim Morrison poetry
readings.
One of the most
successful attempts was Queen's Made in Heaven,
where the band built an album around a variety of recordings of
Freddie Mercury. Some of these were piano and vocal tracks recorded
by Mercury in his final months knowing he might not see the album be
completed. Others, however, where recordings by Mercury not intended
for this purpose but from a variety of sources.
It
seems likely that there is Squire material that could be used in this
manner. Any studio recordings of individual bass or vocal tracks
would be more readily used and these probably exist in some cases (as
with recordings not used on 90125
or Fly from Here).
However, something can still be done with single track mixed
recordings.
Indeed,
we can already note "Violet Purple Rose" as an example of
where one recording session was used as the base to construct
something more.
3.
The band could use the ideas rather than specific recordings. If
Squire had an idea for a composition, but any existing recordings are
not suitable for the Made in Heaven
approach, one could still use the composition or the riff. This is
done less frequently in rock, although the classical music world is
full of examples of unfinished symphonies getting finished.
