27 years, 9 months and 4 days ago

Wednesday, March 6, 1996

San Luis Obispo, California

Edward's Fremont Theater

800 capacity

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much thank you, thank you. Thank you very very much. It's great to be with you this evening here at this majestic theater here in San Luis Obispo. Welcome! We are going to take you on a journey through maybe a zillion notes and as many lyrics. I still get so excited singing that song. It's amazing, a little carried away. When we first released 'Close to the Edge'..um in the sorta local music papers in London especially said it was close to the edge of disaster, I must tell you that and here we are twenty years later, still close to the edge of disaster, but I don't think so! It was always in our hearts; it was always close to the edge of realization. It's very simple. They just didn't get it because, hey, what do they know? Here's a song about everyone here.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you, thank you so much, thank you. Thank you. Woo! Sometimes..uh writing a lyric. Sometimes it just comes very easy and then you reflect why you wrote that lyric many years later. And that's the sorta quandaries of 'hey! does this really mean something to me know?' The more I sing this next song the more I realize it was a simple, simple message to myself and..uh to introduce it. That remarkable, remarkable man Mr. Rick Wakeman.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much thank you. I think it was about, about the 3rd time that we toured America we started to realize that we really had a career. It's kinda crazy. We started making an albums, we put out albums and started touring America, what's going on, you know? You start to realize that you gotta..compounded by working harder on the craft of the idea and the realization of what we're doing musically and I realize and why we really spend hours and hours together, you know and it only one reason and that's for music and this..uh..it's true. I mean we like each other but come on, you know. So this next..uh, work, song. That's why we're together. We're together into the 21st century. So this is the beginning of the song and I remember vividly..uh..Steve starting the song and..uh..we just finished rolling the biggest joint.

Steve Howe:
It's not true. It's not true.

Jon Anderson:
Well we definitely tasted natures pollen. Okay and this is what, this is how it started on the record, just like that. Do you hear that? I put down the joint.

Steve Howe:
No.

Man In Audience:
Ritual!

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. We'll probably do 'Ritual' ten past two tomorrow afternoon. But for now, for now. I'm going to take a thousand breaths, breaths. It's quite a lot to really get ready for this next piece of music and..uh in so many ways this was..uh a sorta very big changing point in all of our lives and so we must have waited all our lives for that moment. It certainly changed our life when we got together and made this music and..uh okay. Just trying to think of something to say. My head is spinning, I just got done doing 'And You And I' my brain is still up there. Really. Nine-hundred and ninety-four.

Steve Howe:
Thank you, thank you very much.

Jon Anderson:
..on a remote place called Montroux, that was it, Montroux. We decided to..uh 'da da da da da da'. We decided to do some real serious noisy rock and roll so here it comes. Hold on to your seat. Going.. introduced by Mr. Alan White on drums.

Jon Anderson:
That's not nice. There we were, near Switzerland. Didn't even learn to ski. But actually Switzerland is..Switzerland, c'mon it's a very strange place, very strange place. It's pretty strange, in fact, everything in the world goes through sorta Switzerland, thought the gnomes of Zurich. What about those guys? The gnomes of Zurich. C'mon, serious, strange people. Anyway it's all going to shift to the Hong Kong next year so we will all be free, okay? That's when China coming to them all, I mean God bless China, cause I believe in China because we're all indiguous people. Did you know that? We're all indiguous people. Alright? During the time that..uh we were writing the songs and I think that was the first time that I sat down with Alan and wrote a song together and it turned out the be quite uh..an event. Quite good yes. It was quite good. It turned out to be okay and funny enough here we are performing it close to the turn of the century. So it's happening and..uh from humble beginnings they say. Acorns, oak trees do grow remember. So here's a song that eventually became 'Turn Of The Century' so here we go with it and..uh as it would happen, me and Alan are writing more music together than ever, so.

Jon Anderson:
Mr Steve Howe on guitar.

Steve Howe:
Thank you very much.

Jon Anderson:
During the course of touring America. I remember it vividly. That we sorta fell in love with the idea of America. It's kinda of a cool place. A mixture of so many people. All different kinds of people like a melting pot of [???] you see? And..uh it takes me back to a time long, long, long long time ago when I used to work in a bar. Okay, you work in a bar and you clean the glasses and you drink the beer. Fortunately for me, I was more into the whiskey. My father being Scottish and my mother Irish I was more into well anything really. At the end of the night you don't really care when your cleaning a bar and looking for a gig and one night..uh the bartender, who's a good friend, said 'Why don't you go and speak to this guy on the other end of the bar'. It's a little story and I won't take too long. I wandered over to the other side of the bar and I said 'Look at that little guy, Chris, what's your name?' 'Christopher Squire' and he looked up at me and said 'Gaw, Jon Anderson!' Can't believe it, it was amazing and I know that the first, the first question we asked each other sorta simultaneously 'Who do you like?' 'What kind of music do you like?' and the first thing we really said was 'Simon and Garfunkle'. So here's a song to commemorate that moment in time from the wonderful, wonderful pen of Paul Simon. This song is called 'America'.

Steve Howe:
Thank you very much.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. Kinda a hoe-down, hoe-down, hoe-down. I'd like to really thank all the people over here in San Luis Obispo for welcoming, welcoming us here and..uh. I'm very, very fortunate to live here and..uh a great view every morning. This whole beautiful valley is an amazing, amazing place to live and..uh Here's a song which takes about a hundred and thirty-three breaths. So I'm up to about one-hundred and twenty-one, little tiny one's. It's for my love and..uh this is a song..we were in Switzerland and Chris said 'I've got a song' 'What's the name, Switzerland?'. [???] I forgot, I forget.

Chris Squire:
A very long time.

Jon Anderson:
That's very true. Hundred and thirty one.

Man In Audience:
Happy Birthday!

Chris Squire:
Not again!

Jon Anderson:
Not a chance, yeah c'mon, yeah. just one more time. Happy Birthday. All together, it's Chris' birthday.

Chris Squire:
Thank you again.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. The new material is coming. Don't worry, don't worry. We felt that we still want to play the new music a little more before we present them to you. But believe me, it's incredibly, stupendously wonderful. I'm being very humble there, okay? I still can't believe we're making music still, it's like a dream into reality of the dream. One of the most..uh wonderful experiences for me is to be able to do this next song with these gentleman and I'd like to introduce again, a great tap dancer, a juggler, a joke teller. He would love to tell you a joke! Have we got time for a little joke?

Chris Squire:
He says he doesn't have a clean one.

Jon Anderson:
As I'm always proud to call him Mr. Rick Wake-Up!

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. As you will hear very shortly, we have gone to great expense to hire a backward piano player. So they can play this first note backwards way. You hear it, it comes like. It cost a lot of money but what's money. This energy of paid performed. Okay! C'mon then. Where's that joke? Where's that Rick Wakeman?

Jon Anderson:
This is a song that started..uh like 'Sister bluebird, flying high above', I think I just had breakfast that's all. 'Shine your wings, forward to the sun' Anyway it turned out just like this. Mr Alan White on drums.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much.