A MUSICAL INTERVIEW WITH JON ANDERSON

VOCALIST JON ANDERSON HAS BEEN AT THE CENTER OF THE FABLED ROCK BAND YES SINCE ITS FOUNDING IN 1968 AND HAS COLLABORATED WITH OTHER NOTABLE ARTISTS INCLUDING VANGELIS, MIKE OLDFIELD, JEAN-LUC PONTY, AND THE CONTEMPORARY YOUTH ORCHESTRA. A TIRELESS AND PROLIFIC MUSICIAN, COMPOSER, AND MULTIINSTRUMENTALIST, HE HAS ALSO RELEASED MORE THAN A DOZEN SOLO ALBUMS.

Almost exactly 50 years after the July 1969 release of the first Yes album, Anderson visited my house for an afternoon of talk and listening to music. We listened to some old Yes tracks, some favorites from other artists, and several from his most recent album, 1000 Hands: Chapter One, which was 30 years in the making. This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity. It is presented in a manner that lets Anderson speak for himself. So, from the beginning …

“Rebel Rouser” and Elvis

The first song, the first record that I actually bought was “Rebel Rouser” from Duane Eddy—a great record. I don’t have it anymore except in my brain. And then around that time my brother bought Elvis’s first album, while we were on holiday in the south of England. That’s what we listened to all the way through the summer—Elvis Presley. This was ’58 or ’59, and we would listen on a Dansette record player outside on the steps.

It was only a few years later that my brother Tony started a band called the Warriors, where he sang with this tall guy. I can’t remember this fellow’s name, but he didn’t want to be a singer anymore, he wanted to be a hairdresser! So I joined the band and the first song I sang was Eddie Cochran:

A-look-a-there
Here she comes
Here comes that girl again…
She’s sure fine lookin’ man
She’s somethin’ else

My brother and I did The Everly Brothers really well—I was the high harmony to his lower voice. We lived near a farm, so we delivered milk and sang all the time. It was kinda cool—he did his Elvis Presley impersonations and I’d do Roy Orbison. This would be ’62, ’63.

And then that wonderful day arrived, sometime in April of ’63, when Tony said, “Let’s go see the Beatles.” “Love Me Do” had been on the radio quite a lot, and they were playing at Southport, which is about 15 miles north of Liverpool, so we got on his motorbike and went to see the Beatles!

And it was amazing—they had probably 500 people there, mostly guys, with some girls in front, but everybody listened. That’s one of the great things, they] and things like that. And everybody listened. At the end the girls would scream like crazy, but they’d be quiet during the song.