It’s completely rare to see such an outpouring of praise and sadness such as we have seen following the unfortunate cancer-related death of Chris Squire, the bassist extraordinaire for the legendary band, YES. And while YES has been somewhat splintered over the years with what I would call ill-advised replacements for Jon Anderson, the band itself maintained a strong following, and continued to release good music.
I remember my entry to YES as a young kid. I had heard “I’ve Seen All Good People”, and “Yours Is No Disgrace” on FM radio, and was immediately taken with the kind of music that I was hearing. There was an incredible amount of depth to the music I was hearing. Of special note was the forefront use of bass as more than an rhythm set to a song. It was as distinctive as a lead guitar. Chris Squire was behind that. When Fragile came out, I was mesmerized by the symphonic and progressive directions.
When Close To The Edge followed Fragile, I was aware that I was enjoying a band that was going to become legendary. Of course, they release several more albums that sit firmly in the essential library of YES music. Chris Squire was one of the architects of that sound.
Chris Squire announced a need to take a short step away from YES to help him battle with Leukemia. Little did many of us realize the seriousness of that need. Shortly afterwards, Chris Squire was gone from us.
He can never be replaced.
Chris Squire
1948-2015
RIP