This year, Every Sunday Evening, Album Rock WXYG, The GOAT will feature a full album at 8:00 PM from the halcyon musical days of 1975. 1975 was one of the top Years in Album Rock history. Another year of tough choices every week. So many great ones to choose from.
We hope you’ll tune in at 8:00 PM, Sunday, December 7th for “Fish Out Of Water” the best solo album of all the individual solo albums written and recorded by any of the members of the definitive Progressive Rock Band “Yes”, CHRIS SQUIRE.
Fish Out of Water is the debut studio album by YES bassist and songwriter Chris Squire, released in November 1975 by Atlantic Records. The album was recorded during a period in which each band member of Yes had taken downtime to produce a solo album. Some of the musicians Squire hired for the project were former Yes drummer Bill Bruford, then-Yes keyboardist Patrick Moraz, King Crimson saxophonist Mel Collins and Canterbury scene flautist Jimmy Hastings. Squire's former bandmate in the Syn, Andrew Pryce Jackman, played piano and orchestrated the material.
Squire would not record another solo album until 2007, releasing an album which consists of traditional Christmas music entitled Chris Squire's Swiss Choir, so that this is Squire's only solo album to feature original material.
Chris Squire delivered the no-questions-asked best of the solo albums assorted Yesmen cut during 1975-76.
Squire doesn't shy from the kind of extensions that became Yes trademarks, but he harnesses them with a lot more effectiveness than Yes had been doing up to and including "The Relayer." The two epics on "Fish Out of Water" alone ("Silently Falling" and "Safe [Canon Song]") alone are worth the price. Squire inadvertently showed his Yes bandmates that you could craft suites without becoming ponderous, pretentious, or porous, and without neglecting the kind of ethereal passages that made his and the band's name in the first place
He also inadvertently proved that one individual member---ok, two, since he had a lot of help from erstwhile Yes drummer Bill Bruford---could cut a credible Yes album without the rest of Yes; if you doubt, listen to Squire's vocal overdubs and a few of the orchestral-sounding passages. He surely wasn't out to out-Yes Yes, of course, but Squire also almost out-Crimsoned the first version of King Crimson for which Bruford held the drum chair with "Lucky Seven," which has a few grooves and a soprano saxophone improvisation that could have come from a less abrasive version of Crimson's "Larks Tongues in Aspic" album. Once you hear Squire's vocals, of course, not to mention his highly individual bass lines (and surprisingly credible guitar playing), you know better.
And once you heard the album then---even when you hear it now---you couldn't help the feeling that Yes needed Squire a little bit more than he really needed them.
The musicianship of the band and orchestra that backed him up is of such a high level that leaves you wanting more (Shall we call it addictive?). The keyboards, played by Swiss musician Patrick Moraz, who had previously worked with Squire on the Yes album “Relayer” is also a stand out.Also on this album is drummer Bill Bruford, Squire´s former bandmate in Yes, who collaborated on this solo effort. Incidentally, Squire did not only prove that he was such a good bassist, but also an extremely good vocalist. The album consists of 6 tracks, all of them showing a prime quality in terms of performance and sound. Hold On Your Heart, You By My Side, Silent Falling, Lucky Seven and the fully orchestral Safe are the albums major highlights. So, no matter if Chris Squire was with Yes or without them. He was a highly supreme bass player that we are missing so much, these days. If you love Yes, you will certainly want to hear this one.
Tune In and Turn On Sunday, December 7th, and every Sunday evening at 8:00 PM for The GOAT'S "The Long Play with Al Neff”.
