{"id":30839,"date":"2026-03-27T05:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=30839"},"modified":"2026-02-25T10:12:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:12:37","slug":"five-mid-70s-solo-turns-from-the-members-of-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/five-mid-70s-solo-turns-from-the-members-of-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Mid \u201870s Solo Turns from the Members of Yes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1975, progressive rock heroes Yes were on top of the world. Buoyed by the critical and commercial runaway success of a succession of albums \u2013 1971\u2019s <em>Fragile<\/em>, 1972\u2019s <em>Close to the Edge<\/em> and the 3LP live set <em>Yessongs<\/em> from 1973 \u2013 the British group found itself on what must have seemed like an endless world tour. Their 1973 double LP <em>Tales from Topographic Oceans<\/em> seemed to slow things down a bit, but <em>Relayer<\/em> (1974) was another smash success requiring yet another tour. The group clearly needed \u2013 and deserved \u2013 a bit of a break.<\/p>\n<p>That break manifested itself as a kind of busman\u2019s holiday. Each of Yes\u2019 five members \u2013 singer Jon Anderson, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, new keyboardist Patrick Moraz and bassist Chris Squire \u2013 set about making a solo album. Those creative excursions afforded each musician the opportunity to make music outside the context of Yes. The most critically-acclaimed releases of the bunch would be Patrick Moraz\u2019s conceptual <em>The Story of I<\/em> and Squire\u2019s <em>Fish Out of Water<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In mid 1976, Yes regrouped to begin their Solo Albums tour, a 56-date schedule of shows in North America; those shows would feature selections from each of the members\u2019 solo records. And nearly as soon as the tour ended, the band commenced work on <em>Going for the One<\/em>, which would be released in 1977 (with yet another tour to follow).<\/p>\n<p>In celebration of the recent 50th anniversary of the release of Chris Squire\u2019s <em>Fish Out of Water<\/em>, here \u2013 in chronological order \u2013 are five highlights from Yes\u2019 mid \u201870s solo albums.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Steve Howe \u2013 \u201cDoors of Sleep\u201d from <em>Beginnings<\/em> (October 1975)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe first of the group to release an album during the break, guitarist Steve Howe played a wide variety of instruments on Beginnings. He also brought in an assortment of friends to play on various tracks, including band mates Patrick Moraz and Alan White, and White\u2019s predecessor on the Yes drum throne, Bill Bruford. The album\u2019s most popular track, \u201cDoors of Sleep\u201d is also its first.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pNtR6mcpFH0?si=nY2-_TAjrgWzzp_e\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Chris Squire \u2013 \u201cLucky Seven\u201d from <em>Fish Out of Water<\/em> (November 1975)<\/strong><br \/>\nGenerally regarded among the best of the band\u2019s mid \u201870s solo efforts, <em>Fish Out of Water<\/em> reminded Yes fans \u2013 if they didn\u2019t already know \u2013 that Chris Squire\u2019s vocals were an integral component of Yes\u2019 appeal. His muscular and exemplary bass work is showcased on <em>Fish Out of Water<\/em>, too. With its funk and jazz flourishes and saxophone breaks, \u201cLucky Seven\u201d might have sounded out of place on a Yes LP, but it\u2019s a high point of Squire\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OzKqn5ehdSg?si=QTdZ1vkGP_TLpo9y\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alan White \u2013 \u201cOne Way Rag\u201d from <em>Ramshackled<\/em> (March 1976)<\/strong><br \/>\nAs fine a drummer (and keyboardist) as Alan White was, when it came time to make a solo record, he didn\u2019t compose any material for his own <em>Ramshackled<\/em>. Instead, he enlisted the help of musician and songwriter Kenny Craddock and others. \u201cOne Way Rag\u201d is a breezy, catchy tune, but it won\u2019t remind many listeners of the trademark Yes sound. For his part, White didn\u2019t sing on any of the album\u2019s tracks either, content to simply play drums.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XFGWIyusJ9s?si=MuYm3XNWvcTiPvmr\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Patrick Moraz \u2013 \u201cCacha\u00e7a (Bai\u00e3o)\u201d from <em>The Story of I<\/em> (April 1976)<\/strong><br \/>\nAn ambitious, conceptually-oriented album, <em>The Story of I<\/em> is a single piece of music built around Patrick Moraz\u2019s romantic fable. The record reflected both Moraz\u2019s love of Brazilian and African musical traditions (especially percussion) as well as his fascination with music technology. Dr. Robert A. Moog\u2019s new Polymoog synthesizer is featured prominently on the album, and Moog himself was a key figure in the album\u2019s creation. The spirited \u201cCacha\u00e7a (Bai\u00e3o)\u201d is a centerpiece of the record.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0Rj8j57hLcg?si=3mW2Z4mhpYWmDfHX\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Jon Anderson \u2013 \u201cOcean Song\u201d from <em>Olias of Sunhillow<\/em> (July 1976)<\/strong><br \/>\nYes lead vocalist Jon Anderson had big ideas on his mind as well when he created his solo debut, the concept album <em>Olias of Sunhillow<\/em>. Listeners who had held the mistaken impression that Anderson was a non-instrumentalist would have been impressed to learn that on this record, he played each and every instrument himself. The record\u2019s majestic featured track, \u201cOcean Song\u201d was featured on Yes\u2019 Solo Albums tour.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hXo0h107LTo?si=_tzhbZ4eftM7PbbN\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1975, progressive rock heroes Yes were on top of the world. Buoyed by the critical and commercial runaway success of a succession of albums \u2013 1971\u2019s Fragile, 1972\u2019s Close [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2413],"class_list":["post-30839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-yes","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30841,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30839\/revisions\/30841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}