27 years, 8 months and 28 days ago

Tuesday, March 5, 1996

San Luis Obispo, California

Edward's Fremont Theater

800 capacity

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. Welcome to the show. I remember while we..uh..put that piece of music together and..uh decided to call it 'Close To The Edge' and..uh at that time, I was reading a lot of Herman Hess - A Journey To The East and understanding and I remember when the reviews came out, they said 'close to the edge of disaster' for Yes and I thought 'no no no, it's close to the edge of realization'. That's what it happens to mean. So thankfully we never followed the critics, that's why we're are here tonight.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. I think..uh..just before that song was made, I was sitting around writing a very very simple song. I wasn't quite sure why I was writing this song and..uh..as the years progressed, I realized why I wrote that song. Because everytime I sing it, I feel the same way about the lyrics. They've very simple and..uh..your going to have a wonderful, wonderful introduction by Mr. Rick Wakeman.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. Oh, lets sing happy birthday to Chris again and [???]

Chris Squire:
It's going to be a long birthday. I can tell.

Jon Anderson:
When we started to rehearse this next song, uh..Steve..as it would happen, Mr Steve Howe on guitar. So we're playing it just like it we recorded and I can remember, or remembered what happened, it was basically tuning up to start the track. Then feedback came and of course we..we said, 'engineer, turn that down please' at least, we were telling the engineer turn that down please, because...here it comes. Just like the real thing

Jon Anderson:
Uh..it doesn't seem so long ago that..uh..I was first brought to this part of the world. We call it San Luis Obispo. I was brought here by my wonderful lady Jane. Remarkable the feeling I got, was that, everywhere I looked, it look like Roger Dean is here. There's so much power in the mountains. So I was on the phone to Chris 'come on let's try and get together and work together' and..uh..deep feeling of wonder they all came, it's fantastic. And one of the first things, one of the first things we talked about was doing this next song, and this piece of music shall we call it and..uh..as I keep thinking before I start this song I gotta take a thousand breaths to get ready for it. It's..uh..a very special piece of music for all of us, I think all of us here tonight because I think you understood a lot of things of our time that we are learning now, in many ways. It's..uh..something to do. So here we go.

Jon Anderson:
Woo! Its a hope and dream that we would like to continue making this type of music into the 21st century. There was a wonderful time were we started making music in very different place than England, we went to Switzerland for about a year..and..uh..I never learned to ski. Okay. We made some really nice music and one of these songs was..uh..a crazy crazy wild rock 'n roll song. We're all crazy crazy wild now and doing it, okay. Here we go. And titled, and titled, Going For The One

Jon Anderson:
It’s just some crazy rock. At the same time, I remember sitting down with Alan, he had a chalet up in the mountains there, it was so far away from anywhere. Nobody knew where he was half the time. "Is Alan there?" You could hear him yodeling up in the mountains. Yodeling! That’s all he did was practice yodeling. He had this thing about it. There’s a song we started together which turned into, I don’t know, just sort of a song, a story at the same time. And a..What’s that? I’m trying to do my speech! It’s always, I got to tell you, it’s the quiet ones that are the worst. And the quietest guy on stage by far is Rick Wakeman! And these little comments come over, floating over the stage. He’s writing a joke book, I know that. So here's..a..basicly the song we finished up doing and it's very..uh..a sorta romantic kind of song. About a scupter creating a real life human. It's kinda a greek thing going, here we go, it's called 'Turn Of The Century' and we're nearly there, okay?.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. Thanks so much. This..uh..song we're going to do now goes sorta way, way, way, way zillion years ago and..uh..all I can remember is..uh..really the first time..that I met this guy. This guy was in this bar. Your always in a bar aren't you. It's like when you meet somebody it usually a UFO experience. Maybe it was. Maybe it happend, I don't know, but this..uh..friend of mine said 'you go on..go on talk to this guy at the end of this bar. He's a bass player. Get on with the guy, he's a nice guy. You can start a band'. So I wondered along the bar and to this guy and I said like 'Hello Chris'. He said 'Hello little boy'. I was cleaning up the glasses, c'mon you know, I swear I was doing at the time, you see. The first thing that we said was like 'Say what kind of music do you like?' He said 'Simon and Garfunkle' I said 'Me, me I, I like that too, lets get a band together'. So it's been nearly 30 years ago, this is what I'm talking about, so I think it, it definately must be love, me and Christopher. Chris Squire on bass guitar. [??] is a..one, one of the ti..first times were ever toured America and we started to realize really what America really is and it's sorta melting pot of so many different kinds of people and all over the world and we're all looking for America. That's why we're going to do this song for you right now. Here we go, here we go.

Jon Anderson:
Steve Howe on guitar. [???] Here's a song which..uh..again kinda need a thousand breaths to start singing. The reason, is because is such a very very simple song and some people have written to me over the years. They've used this song as their wedding song and it's a song that..uh..Chris brought into the world...in Switzerland, in Switzerland. It's 'Onward Through The Night' and I won't say anymore. I must say that I've since learned to ski.

Man In Audience:
California?

Jon Anderson:
Here we come.

Jon Anderson:
Again, one of the great, great reasons to be able to get together. This is the first time we really played in front of an audience in 16 years it seems. I wrote a piece of music that is always very special for the occasion which we play together is this next one..and..uh..yet again, on keyboards, Mr Rick Wakeup.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. Isn't this a beautiful theater isn't it? Guy was definately on acid when he did this. I'm just waiting for the reverbial, reverbial, I think it's like that, it goes like, sorta a backwards piano thing..it's like.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. We got one more song for you. We like this time thank you for joining us this evening in San Luis Obispo. It only seems like yesterday we were in row 21 whatever watching 'Hard Days Night' and thinking, 'Why don't we play here?'. It turned out real well. So last but not least. The gentleman is going to count in this song. The one and only Mr Alan White on drums.