re: YES

>>Most of the segments were recorded before any conception of how they would
>>be linked together had been arrived at. I find it remarkable that such a
>>coherently structured, extended piece came about "bottom-up" rather than
>>"top-down."
>
>My recollection of the Bruford interview was that they
>sat and discussed the music right down to what note
>and chord went next. Close to the Edge in particular.
>If I can figure out where I read this I'll look for the interview,
>but not now - I'm trying to wrap a bunch of stuff before
>the end of the month.

You're both right. I believe the interview David refers to appears on the
YesStory (or something) video, which I once borrowed from a friend.

While The YES Album and Fragile featured jam-derived compositions, Close to
the Edge and Tales featured this method where Steve and Jon (and sometimes
Chris) would come up with fragments, and then the band would piece them
together. For Tales the piecing process was a little less democratic than
some members liked, as Jon and Steve had worked more closely together in
the fragment-making process and already agreed on a lot of things by the
time they got to the studio.

Relayer was the first and only album for which a piece was completely
composed before entering the studio. That was The Gates of Delirium, by
Anderson. The other two cuts on Relayer returned more to the jam-oriented
style, owing much to the influence of Patrick Moraz.

There are guys out there who know the origin of every fragment. For
example, the "What happened to this song" section of The Revealing Science
of God (Tales) was written by Steve Howe in the 60's, years before he
joined YES. A recording Steve made of it appears on Homebrew, which is a
complete artistic disaster.

I never subscribed to Notes, but I tried to read them (nfte.org) for a
while. At the time ('96) there was a serious lack of intelligent
discussion, and I gave up.

-Carl