Chris Squire, the only bass player Yes ever had and the only member to appear in all the different incarnations of Yes just died of cancer. He was only 67. I didn’t realize he was younger than I am. He was always my least favorite member of Yes but I’m not all that big on bass players. I remember reading of a former member of Yes say that he was a pain in the ass and took forever to tune his bass guitar. It could have been Bill Bruford, the best drummer Yes ever had who left the band for two reasons: He didn’t like the structured playing and preferred improvisation so he left the band and joined up with Robert Fripp in King Crimson and kissed his commercial success good-bye. The second reason was he said the rest of the band were a bunch of “carrot chompers” (vegetarians) and he preferred a big old slab of beef for dinner. There have been a lot of really good bass players in rock like Jack Bruce, Geddy Lee, John Entwhistle, Tim Bogert and John Paul Jones who was overshadowed by the other three members of Led Zeppelin and like Geddy Lee also played keyboard. Jones was a really good blues bass player. Listen to him on The Lemon Song.

Yes gave all of their instrumentalists a chance to shine. Squire got a nice bass part on the intro to Heart of the Sunrise as well as playing fast with Howe and Wakeman on that song. I didn’t realize that his bass was a large part of the instrumental at the end of Starship Trooper. I thought the bass part on the studio version was an overdub of Howe on guitar. Here’s a live version with his bass at the end of the song. This was just last year. Howe looks in worse shape that Squire does.

I remember smoking a joint, putting my headphones on, and listening to Starship Trooper. I loved the way they kept adding instruments at the end. At the very end Howe did overdub guitar parts as he played a part through one channel and before it would finish there would be a guitar part on the other channel. This went on and the song faded out. I currently have three Yes CDs: The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge. The Fragile CD has a bonus track of their version of Paul Simon’s America I don’t think very much of the rest of their work.

Anyone know who the dude playing keyboards is?

This band has been around for over 45 years and is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? WTF? Squire once said about that what members would they choose out of the 18 who have played with the band over the years? I would pick the lineup on their best two albums, Fragile and Close to the Edge which would be Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman, and Bruford. Maybe Alan White since he has been their drummer since Bruford left. Bet he’s glad Bruford quit.

I’ll bet I’ve seen these guys live at least six times and it has always been a great show with great sounds even in places that did not have the best acoustics. I would love to go back in time and attend just one of their shows again with their best lineup.

Goodbye Chris. You had a great 45+ year career.

Saturday night on TCM they showed the 1945 movie The Picture of Dorian Gray. In it they had a very young Angela Lansbury who played the naive Sibyl Vane (nominated as Best Supporting Actress for the Academy Awards) and also a very young Donna Reed. George Saunders played the hedonistic Lord Henry Wotton who had the best lines in the movie. My favorite was as follows:

I apologize for the intelligence of my remarks. I forgot that you were a member of Parliament.

Hmmmm. I can use that.

I apologize for the intelligence of my remarks Justice Roberts. I forgot that you were Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

I apologize for the intelligence of my remarks Speaker Boner. I forgot that you were a member of Congress.

I apologize for the intelligence of my remarks Senator McConnell. I forgot that you were a member of the Senate.

The closest I ever came to that was when I was a systems programmer and I apologized to one of my users for his incompetence. He didn’t take it well and went crying to my CDSM©.

Yannow, I’m getting sick and tired of hearing this “97% of scientists agree that we have man made global warming” BS. At least once a week someone writes a letter to the editor of the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation parroting that line. One night on Al Tawana Brawley Crown Heights Riots Frededie’s Fashion Mart Arson “Greek homos” Sharpton’s TV show, he wore a white lab coat and quoted that 97% of scientists line. It just proves that old adage that if you tell a lie often enough every one will agree that it is a fact. It isn’t a fact. It’s a lie and it is shoddy science. Hey Brian Williams, how does it feel to be on the same network as Rev. Al? How the mighty have fallen.

“85% of statistics are made up on the spot.” – Larry the Cable Guy.

Don Surber debunked that statistic a long tine ago in one of his blog posts. It turns out that some global warming climate change dude sent out a survey to a bunch of climate scientists about global warming climate change. Over half of the respondents said they didn’t know or had no opinion. The dude threw all of those responses out. Of the less than half of the respondents who did have an opinion, 97% of them did believe in global warming climate change. So, lets be charitable and say 50% of them responded with an opinion, although it was less than that, 97% of that 50% gives us 48.5%. So the proper statistic would be 48.5% of scientists believe in global warming climate change. And they call us science challenged. And don’t get me started on GMO, vaccinations, or organic foods all three which show how scientifically illiterate liberals are.

So, the next time you hear or read that 97% statistic know that it is a lie.

Mike sent me this.

or if you see a larger flag like the one Rayko sent me.

I finally agree with the perpetually offended race and it is time to remove the flag.

From my friend Richard.

A man took a job in the city. Each day, he faced a long commute that included a congested tunnel. So, he started a carpool. Things went well initially. But after a few weeks, he started experiencing wrist pain. This only happened in the tunnel. He went to his doctor. The doctor diagnosed the problem as (more…)