My Favorite Band (YES) ~!

"YES."
"What's the name of the band?"
"YES."
"Now whats the name of the band?"
"YES."
"No, what's the name of the band?"
"It's YES! YES is the name of the band."
According to Jon Anderson (from video) this is how it first started, over the phone.

I liked rock sure, but the songs were too short for me. I just started to get into a song and by then it was over. I needed more than three or four minutes of enjoyment. More than just a short and sweet little poem. After getting into the development in a symphonic way of a song, it left me hanging and hunger for more. As to why I liked Jazz and Classical so much.

I could put a Jazz album on and sit down and enjoy this progression for at least twenty minutes or so without the band starting a new song for me to start over and get into, or to have to get up and out of my chair, a bean-bag chair, and start the song over again. Or without standing and hovering over it and moving the stylus back to hear it again. I dug the progression and the improvisation. I certainly found this with Jazz and certainly found this with classical music.

There were a few bands that broke this mold of mine later on, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Iron Butterfly, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tangerine Dream, but when I first heard YES it blew me away. Tears rose in my eyes. This was the best of both worlds. Yes YES was for me and nothing ever came close, unless it was jazz. But Jazz and Classical were some how 'dated' for me. YES will always sound 'now' or 'futuristic' to my ears, even after all the members die off. And no band has ever wrote a song called, 'Arriving UFO.' And when 'they' do arrive, out in the open, what band would you think would be to their liking?

Mind you, there was no other band that I played, except for Floyd, that my parents came into the room and said, "who's that," with enthusiasm on their faces. "Play that again." Before this it was a, "would you turn that down." Or even just a shaking of the head and closing of the door nice and tight. And YES is the only band my parents wanted concert tickets to. The atmosphere wasn't that conducive to their liking, but they certainly didn't want to leave until it was over. Still, like everybody else, they were there on their feet for an encore, twice. Or was it three times. And they told me to always let them know when these guys came back to town.

http://johnwindbell.hubpages.com/hub/My-Favorite-Band-YES