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Yes & Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson of Rush, 2017

Yes & Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson of Rush, 2017

Released Friday, 30th July 2021
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Yes & Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson of Rush, 2017

Yes & Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson of Rush, 2017

Yes & Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson of Rush, 2017

Yes & Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson of Rush, 2017

Friday, 30th July 2021
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0:00

M M.

0:06

Welcome to Induction Vault, a production

0:08

of I Heart Radio and the Rock and Roll Hall

0:10

of Fame m

0:19

M. The

0:30

band Yes pushed the boundaries of rock,

0:33

expanding the musical experience on

0:35

record and in concert. They

0:37

created complex, progressive and virtuosic

0:40

rock streets built on influences ranging

0:42

from psychedelic rock to classical

0:44

music. In they

0:47

were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Getty

0:49

Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush, who

0:51

were themselves inducted a few years earlier.

0:54

This is a special moment as one

0:56

prog rock band gets to induct one of their prog

0:58

rock heroes. Both Jetty

1:01

and Alex share personal stories about the power

1:03

of Yes music, the impact it's

1:05

had on generations of fans, and

1:07

how through Yes they were tuned

1:10

into a wider world of possibilities.

1:13

Each member of Yes, John Anderson,

1:15

Trevor Raydon, Allan White, Bill Bruford,

1:18

Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman all share

1:20

remarks in remembrance of their bass player

1:22

Chris Squire, who passed away in the

1:25

only number of the band to have played on

1:27

every album, Chriss Widow

1:29

Scotland. Squire is there to accept on his behalf.

1:33

Rick Wakeman closes things out on a lighter

1:35

note, keeping the audience laughing and

1:37

groaning with his cheeky British pub humor.

1:51

Well, hello, and

2:00

we thought where you waited a long time to get

2:03

in the Hall of Fame. Hello,

2:07

ladies and gentlemen, it

2:11

is our great, great honor to

2:14

be with you and Yes this evening,

2:16

Alex, thanks

2:19

getting I

2:21

want an honor to be here tonight doing this. It's

2:23

really really great. We all start

2:25

somewhere, And for me, my journey with Yes

2:28

began when I was a teenager, gently

2:30

fishing out the Yes album out of the sleeve, being

2:33

just a bit freaked by the disembodied

2:35

head on the cover, placing the needle

2:37

in the groove, sitting back letting the music

2:39

wash over me. I may

2:42

have smoked a cigarette or

2:44

something, but pretty

2:47

sure he did. But Yes for my gateway

2:49

band. In so many ways, there's

2:52

nothing so fleeting yet

2:55

enduring about the way music feels

2:57

when you're seventeen years old. As Yes

3:00

played in my room, I played two.

3:02

I spent hours picking my way through

3:04

songs like Starship Trooper

3:07

and Yours is no disgrace, how

3:10

well, how wonderful was that swirling outro

3:12

and Starship Trooper. I must have played

3:14

that a million times. But

3:17

I love their music even

3:21

more once I learned

3:23

to master them, and not that

3:25

I really did. I never did them

3:27

justice, but I love them still.

3:30

Yes helped give me the gift of music,

3:33

which is everything, as you know, and

3:35

made me want to be a better musician, and

3:38

that provided some of the determination to

3:40

one day stand on this stage

3:43

giving tribute to this amazing band. I'll

3:52

leave you with this. The musical

3:54

choices we make in our youth helped

3:56

mold who we become. Choose

3:59

the guitar trop for going

4:01

for the one Yeah.

4:04

Choose learning to play Starship Trooper

4:06

on a cheap secondhand guitar Not

4:08

so easy. Choose

4:10

Chris Squire's amazing bass tone

4:13

right head. Choose

4:18

John Anderson's ethereal vocals.

4:21

Choose Fragile. Choose

4:24

wearing a cape before Rick Wakeman did

4:26

this guy right here Choose

4:31

staying out all night to see your favorite

4:33

band. Choose Roundabout.

4:39

Choose the glorious guitar work in Honorable

4:41

Lonely Heart So Beautiful.

4:45

Choose the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and

4:49

definitely choose Yes, block

4:59

blob blah like

5:03

he can play Starship Trooper. I

5:06

don't think so.

5:09

So I'd like to ask if the Rock and Roll

5:11

Hall of Fame would indulge me for a few

5:13

moments to share some personal experiences

5:16

of Yes the band. So

5:19

picture this. In the early

5:21

seventies, I spent up

5:24

from one to three years in grade

5:26

ten in high school seated

5:28

at the back of the class with my new pal,

5:30

Oscar. He was sat just

5:32

across from me, and the teacher's words were bouncing

5:35

aimlessly off us as Oscar rifts

5:37

on some of our favorite Monty Python skits.

5:40

He had me at the Dead Parrot gag for sure.

5:43

How could we not become friends? But

5:46

it wasn't just the ministry of silly walks

5:48

that we bonded over. I can still

5:50

recall one of the days that we opted

5:52

out of school and we're sitting

5:54

cross legged on the floor of Oscar's room

5:57

as he introduced me to an album called

5:59

Time and a War heard by a band called

6:01

Yes that I had never heard of. Right,

6:07

I still thrilled to the base part and no

6:09

opportunity necessary, no experience

6:11

needed, the way

6:14

I did the first time I heard it that day

6:16

for years people asked me why I played a Rickenbacker

6:19

bass, and I have. All I have to do is

6:21

point to that album, that song,

6:24

and Chris Squire's incredibly

6:26

original playing to provide

6:28

the answer. Later,

6:34

still Oscar played me, yours, there's no disgrace.

6:37

Then I've seen all good people. And

6:40

we both sat there open mouthed as

6:42

the songs rose up around us and our musical

6:44

world shifted and fell from its axis.

6:47

I might have been a young musician jamming in

6:49

basement rooms of Toronto, but through

6:52

Yes, I was tuning into a wider world

6:54

of possibilities, one

6:56

where music seemed to have no limitations.

6:59

It was a risp night in V two,

7:01

and Oscar, myself and this guy

7:04

Alex Lifestin lined

7:06

up overnight around the block that

7:08

was then Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens

7:10

to finally witness Yes live for

7:13

ourselves. The sky

7:15

was a high dome of stars, and as I recall,

7:17

Alex kept going, kept us going by

7:19

nipping to the store and bringing

7:21

back honey dew drinks. Really,

7:26

I can close my eyes now and I'm back

7:28

there intellectually, visually,

7:31

viscerally, sitting in Row ten. It

7:33

was like nothing I'd ever seen or experienced

7:35

before. It was actually profound,

7:38

and it's not overstating things to say that

7:40

it changed the way I played and listened to music

7:42

forever. And so here we

7:44

are decades later, and

7:47

the music of Yes is still echoing down

7:49

through the years, showing me that music

7:51

truly is a continuum.

7:54

So on behalf of Oscar, my

7:56

good friend, and Alex's Neil's not here

7:59

tonight, Alex and myself,

8:02

I say, thank you. Yes. It's

8:04

our great, great clear vilege and

8:07

our great honor to right a terrible

8:09

wrong. And so finally welcome

8:12

Yes into the rock and roll pul

8:14

of Fame. After

8:23

the break, we'll hear from members of the

8:25

band Yes on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

8:27

induction. Boult, Hello,

8:33

everybody, truly,

8:42

this is for the Yes bounds everywhere.

8:45

Really, it's

8:53

kind of interesting. I went to the Home of Fame about

8:55

four years ago with my beautiful wife Janey.

8:58

There she is, and

9:00

I walked around the whole of Fame and all

9:02

my heroes were there, every

9:04

one of them. From

9:07

Little Richard. I

9:11

can't believe you guys, You're so beautiful. Look

9:13

at you. You're all

9:16

so beautiful. Are

9:22

Bill Haley Bill Haley and the

9:24

comments. Stevie

9:28

wondered, all these great

9:30

people and we're gonna join them.

9:33

I can't believe it. It's truly

9:35

amazing. I

9:41

was very lucky. You know. It's

9:44

actually forty nine years ago tonight

9:46

that I met Chris Squire at

9:48

a bar the

9:50

seventh of April. Seventh

9:56

of April. There's a magic moment

9:58

when I met Chris. I remember

10:00

going to him to say, Hi, Chris, how are

10:02

you? He was so tall. I can't

10:05

believe it. Anyway,

10:07

we got a bank going. We had a

10:10

guitar player called Peter Banks.

10:14

Really we had

10:16

a drummer called Bill Bruford. He's there,

10:21

Mr Bill Bruford, he's

10:25

behind me. But

10:30

Chris is in heaven now, and Peter

10:32

Banks he's in heaven. And the spirit of them

10:35

they're there tonight. They're here with us tonight. That's

10:37

for sure. I

10:44

don't know what to say anymore. I just love being

10:46

here. You guys are beautiful. You

10:49

are beautiful.

10:54

I say a big shout for my my son,

10:56

Damien, and Deborah and Jeed, okay

11:00

it, Bodie and India,

11:03

my grandchildren. I can't believe I've got

11:05

grandchildren. It's amazing. Life

11:07

has passed me by so fast. I can't believe.

11:09

I'm so glad we're in. Yes. Yes

11:12

means a lot to me. Yes,

11:15

missus Trevor Rayburn, Hi

11:22

there. Bill

11:25

just said to me, make sure your flies up when

11:27

you get up. M h.

11:29

I gotta thank you so much. This is a

11:31

incredible honor, and it's

11:34

great to be inducted with my friends

11:36

out there and like

11:38

Needle and Jonathan and everybody,

11:42

and along with everyone that's

11:45

being inducted, I want to thank you all, and

11:47

my beautiful wife Shelly, and

11:49

my extremely talented son Ryan, Brian

11:53

Lane, Larry Maggot, thank you so much

11:55

for everything. And I passed on to who

11:58

is it Rick white in Oh

12:01

sorry call a wife. Thanks

12:05

not heavy,

12:11

it's too heavy. Um,

12:14

Hi everyone, thank you. It's

12:17

great to see everybody. This

12:20

has been a long journey. I'd like to thank

12:22

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

12:25

for this induction, and secondly,

12:29

I like the you know, really

12:31

thank my wife and family for being here

12:33

tonight with me, and and

12:37

I'm also all of our great fans

12:39

from all over the world. They've

12:42

been absolutely wonderful through

12:45

this band's career. And

12:48

um, I'd like that acknowledge. Chris

12:51

Squire, I

12:53

worked with him for forty three years and

12:56

he was one of my best friends ever and

12:58

we had a relationship. It really cold

13:01

and thank

13:05

you all. Look for this. Thank

13:07

you. Okay,

13:14

I'm Steve how I'm

13:24

only going to take a minute now. But of course

13:26

we love to thank all our fans for

13:28

believing all these years that we deserve and

13:31

need to be inducted into the rock and roll of fame.

13:33

Anyway, Fames

13:37

different for many people, and

13:39

some may long for basking it's glory,

13:42

others merely accepting their notoriety

13:44

for their musical endeavors. And since

13:46

music speaks long after its creation,

13:49

the services as a payment for

13:51

those with the respect for those

13:53

who are no longer with us today,

13:56

allowing those to remain

13:59

to shine in a light on all those contributors

14:02

to those such great ideas and melodies

14:04

and lyrics and arrangements and direction

14:06

of this yes music. Nothing

14:09

can take away the response we've gotten from our

14:11

fans, who obviously have a different

14:13

ear from the general music lovers. Fortunately

14:16

for us, they're able to distinguish

14:19

the textures and the harmonies and

14:22

the discords and the dynamics

14:24

of the dramatic and the humble and the soft

14:27

and the low and the quiet. And as

14:29

Bill used to say, when asked, what is

14:31

Yes music? Bill would

14:33

say, simply, some of it's fast and

14:36

some of its slow. I'd

14:39

just like to take a minute now just to thank my wonderful

14:42

wife and a wonderful family who

14:44

have been behind us through the highs

14:47

and the lows. And it's Georgia

14:49

and Dylan and Zoe and

14:53

zoomneath Georgia, Drew and Diego

14:56

and we love you are very very much and Stephan,

14:58

Adam through

15:00

the last nine years, Adam Allan and I

15:03

am with Chris Quire through its final

15:05

years with along with Jeff Downs

15:07

and John Davidson, Billy Sherwood and

15:09

myself, we've all been working together to staying

15:11

the standards set by the very idea

15:14

of Yes. We look forward to continuing

15:16

to on earth more great works of

15:18

Yes. Thank you very much. I

15:26

did, uh

15:30

consisting go up the

15:33

story of my life, and I said, um,

15:38

all right, I have to go

15:40

like the um I'd

15:44

like to. Obviously, I'm very happy

15:46

here for a couple of reasons to be in Brooklyn.

15:48

One is the fact, obviously of being

15:51

part of Yes and getting inducted

15:53

into the Rock Roll Hall of Fame. And the other

15:55

is something I really probably shouldn't tell you is that

15:58

less than half a mile away from it's very

16:00

building was where I had my very

16:02

first meaningful sexual experience.

16:06

No no, no, no, no, no please,

16:09

no no, it

16:13

wasn't very good. Huh.

16:16

It never is when you are your own um.

16:21

Anyway, as

16:23

Steve said, I thank you to his wife, I want to say

16:26

thank you to mine. Unfortunately she's not here

16:28

tonight. When I left her this morning, I

16:31

think she was in a coma. Actually, well

16:33

I think she was in a coma. Sex

16:36

was still the same, but the washing was piling up

16:39

and I but,

16:48

uh, I would like to

16:50

thank apart from all the guys in

16:52

yes that I worked with, my father, who

16:55

played a massive part in my In

16:58

Michael musical career, and my family were

17:00

all in the edge turn of business. Were

17:02

genuinely were very very poor. My

17:05

father was an Elvis impersonator. Uh

17:08

and well there wasn't much call for that in and

17:15

but he was. He

17:19

taught me a lot. I remember

17:22

he sat me down once and said, Sony

17:24

said, don't go to any of those really cheap,

17:26

dirty, nasty sleazy strip clubs,

17:29

because if you do, you'll see something you

17:31

shouldn't. So of course I went and

17:35

I saw my dad. They

17:37

are yeah,

17:43

well a lot. I'd

17:46

like to thank the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

17:49

very much, friend Darting, I

17:51

said. The only thing I would say, I'm

17:54

glad that we were actually out third because

17:57

as you get older, you know, the old things

17:59

like the prostates started acting up a bit and

18:03

the distance between comfort breaks gets less

18:06

and less. Um. But I would

18:08

like to say quite seriously how important it is to

18:10

have have the old examination, which

18:12

I had indeed on Monday. And

18:16

for you you ladies who don't know, it's

18:18

really tough. You have to get in the old fetal position.

18:21

You hear the old plastic glove

18:23

go on the rubber glove, and

18:27

then it's like a gopher going on holiday.

18:29

Insider ranks them and no.

18:35

While I was having my Whilst

18:38

I was having my examination, the

18:41

doctor said to me, said, Mr Wakeman. He

18:43

said, there's no need to be embarrassed. It's not

18:45

unusual to get any erection to this kind of

18:47

procedure. And

18:50

I I said, I haven't

18:52

got an erection. He said, I know, but I have. They

18:56

Thank you very much, God bless you. How do I like?

19:00

Please Rollcome Scotty

19:02

Square. Thanks

19:21

for joining us on this week's episode of Rock

19:23

and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Vault. For

19:25

more on your favorite inductees, to shop

19:27

inductee merch or to plan your trip to

19:29

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, visit rock hall

19:32

dot com plus vie Rock

19:35

and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Special on demand

19:37

on HBO Max. Our

19:39

executive producers are Noel Brown, Shelby

19:42

Morrison, and Esa Gurkey. Supervising

19:45

producer is Taylor Shakoin. Research

19:47

and archival assistants from Isabelle Keeper

19:49

and Shannon Herb. Thanks again for joining

19:51

us on this week's episode of Rock and Roll Hall of

19:54

Fame Induction Vault. Induction Ball

19:56

is a production of I Heart Radio in the Rock

19:58

and Roll Hall of Fame m M.

20:06

For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the

20:08

I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

20:10

or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

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