Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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When he performed that last one, it involved 14 ice-skaters zooming around a stage decorated like a castle.
(He makes a return to the United Statesthis October.)
Hes sober now and keeps his social-media presence focused mostly on animal rights.
When performing a rock show, however, he still straps on a cape.
I love the capes, he says with a devilish smile.
My father used to say, Be yourself offstage, but be the persona onstage.
I love melodies, I love pomp, I love huge … bigness.
If I could only have written one thing in my life, it probably would be that Arthur theme.
I wrote most of it in hospital.
I was having heart problems and was there for nine weeks.
But I had some manuscript paper and pencils and nothing else to do.
It was interesting to come home to the piano and hear what Id actually written.
The BBC has used that theme for most of the electionssince 1979, I believe.
That made me feel quite proud.
Id say, Its not election music, itsKing Arthur!
Favorite Henry VIII wife
Catherine Howard.
In Tudor times, they didnt keep good records.
Its suggested that Catherine may have only been 18 when he killed her.
And she was a fun time.
I tried to make the piece I wrote about her fun when I recorded it.
I enjoy playing all of those pieces still, but my favorite does change from time to time.
Catherine Howard has a lot of different sections and fun elements to it.
Jane Seymour is lovely to play, too, because of the church organ.
It does last a long time.
It was also way ahead of its time.
Only the Swiss had high-enough fidelity telephone lines.
We simply rented the line from beneath the church nine miles to the studio in Montreux.
We recorded the choir part, which I wrote as well, in a similar way.
This can be done easily now, but in 1977?
Way ahead of its time.
The record company should have done more with this in the press.
I enjoy playing a lot of the material I wasnt on.
Ive Seen All Good People is one I like an awful lot.
Its a clever and fun piece.
Yours Is No Disgrace, also, and Starship Trooper is a great deal of fun.
In fact, I play Starship Trooper in my own band.
I really dont mind playing the songs I wasnt on at all.
He did90125andBig Generator, and I was on a lot of the other stuff.
So we played all the parts that were necessary but threw in what we would have thrown in.
Most baffling Yes lyrics
If Im fair: all of them.
All of them have baffling lyrics.
But Jon is a wordsmith.
He writes things that are meaningful to him and also to other people.
I thought,Right, thisll be interesting.
Jon says, Brilliant!
and off he went.
I asked, Is that really what its all about?
and he said, No, its about a chess game.
But if thats whathethinks its about, thats fantastic.
I dont mind it.
I met Jeffrey many years later.
The funniest was when somebody asked for an autograph in the middle of a show.
This guy was a bit worse for wear, staggering on the stage, Sign this for me!
So we had a little chat.
He had no idea where he was.
He was drunk as the Lord.
Now, I had my microphone, so I asked, What do you want me to write?
But before he did, the manager asked the guy if he got his autograph.
He said, Yes, hes got the loudest voice youveEVERHEARD!
Album the critics were wrong about
In the early days, critics were terrible to me.
They pannedNo Earthly Collection.
Where are the vocals?
Where are the songs?
Whats this all about?
Well, its a keyboard album.
Because I play the keyboards.
Nobody does keyboard albums.
Well, Ive just done one!
I defended myself quite a lot in the early days.
And I was happy to, because I believed in what I did.
I was the guinea pig for a lot of them.
The Minimoog finally gave keyboard players a chance.
But the Moog and Minimoog could cut through concrete.
Not only could you be heard, you could belouderthan the guitarists.
I said to Bob Moog, Youve finally put guitarists in your place!
For Siberian Khatru, when there was room for a keyboard solo, I used aharpsichord.
Everyone thought I was nuts.
I said, Its a progressive-rock album.
He said hed do it if he could come along.
Other engineers from other studios, they all came by and made notes on how to record it.
We used harpsichord again on a Yes track called Madrigal.
I dont like to categorize instruments as old or new.
People ask about my keyboards, whats old, whats new.
They arent a statement of their time; its what sounds good now.
My big rig has keyboards going back to 1970 right through today.
It all works together.
Lesser known, however, is the Al Stewart albumOrange, specifically the track The News From Spain.
I love this one.
When we recorded Spain, it didnt have an ending.
Al just said, Its going to be a fade-out, and told me to do some Rachmaninoff-like things.
I didnt know how much of the ending they would keep until I bought the album.
I havent seen Al Stewart for years, and Im going to see him in America this October.
Most visionary collaborator
David Bowie.
I had the pleasure of spending time at his house forHunky Dory, with this battered old 12-string.
He had the Prokofiev knack.
You listen to Romeo and Juliet, and musically you suddenly are somewhere else.
David was the same way.
has chord sequences you simply dont expect them to go where they go.
At first, it is standard, the same chords as My Way, for example.
Then, suddenly, its a complete tangent but it works.
I was quite influenced by it in a lot of the weird stuff Ive done.
Trickiest part of nailing the mellotron in Space Oddity
Keeping the damn thing in tune.
Thats the problem with all mellotrons.
The more notes you press, the slower the motor got, and then it gets out of tune.
We became good mates and I came back forHunky Dory.
I owe a lot to Space Oddity.
Its such a great and clever track.
David came from the folk roots.
All his songs told stories with melody.
We talked about it a lot.
When I later moved to Switzerland, he was a neighbor, and we met frequently.
I learned more from him about how to work in a studio than anybody.
He never treated me as just a session guy.
I was part of the project.
Favorite cape
The one thats missing.
It went missing during my first divorce … Ive had almost as many divorces as albums.
Ive got all the others locked away.
But for the rock shows, I cant do without them.
I dont feel dressed.
Its like if you are doingHenry V,you dont wear jeans you better put the gear on.
The capes mean a lot to me.
And you get a lot of people dressing up at the shows in the audience, which is wonderful.
It was really cool.
People sometimes say progs too serious.
No, its not!
Some of the music is serious, but the way we are is fun.
I want people to leave one of my concerts with a smile on their face.
