20 years, 4 months and 22 days ago

Friday, August 27, 2004

Holmdel, New Jersey

PNC Bank Arts Center At Garden State

10,802 capacity

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. It’s great to be with you again tonight. Thank you for coming out. Thank you. Let’s sing a song. I want you all to sing along, please. Here we go.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. This is, this is such a great time for America. This is a great song by Paul Simon about it. We’re all looking for the true America.

Jon Anderson:
Wooh! Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. So many, so many times, so many years. So many years ago we started singing that song and you are still here to listen and we thank you. Let’s hear it for Steve Howe on guitar, here!

Steve Howe:
Thank you very much. Thank you.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. Sometimes, sometimes we spent ahh, many hours in, in, in the studio, writing a song, recording it. Many times, many days, recording and working on a song. But this next song actually just happened one morning, ahh, I got to the studio early. I just wrote this song and everybody came in and ahh, we were in Switzerland, so it must have been the cheese! It’s a song, which I’m sure you know and if you’d like to sing on the chorus, please sing along, in Swiss only.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. It’s another, other big night tonight, another big night tonight. Alan is wearing his kilt. Wow. Anyone know what that means? He’s forgotten his trousers. Over to Chris Squire, for the latest news from CNN.

Chris Squire:
Good evening.

Jon Anderson:
Good evening.

Jon Anderson:
Good evening. Good evening. I’m going to tell you a little story about ahh, about us recording ahh, acoustic ahh, version of ‘Roundabout’ for the ‘Utimate Yes’ collection. Ahh, but ahh, a couple of people have mentioned to me that ahh, you know that ahh, that maybe sometimes I shouldn’t use any profanity, ahh, making these announcements because, especially in a very sensitive state like New Jersey where you people are, you know alone. It could be a bit much, so ahh, anyway. So Alan and I ha ha ha, Alan and I were in a hotel in Tokyo, discussing ahh, in Tokyo discussing, discussing what kind of a groove, what kind of rhythm we could do to the acoustic version of ‘Roundabout’, which you know, we were going to go and record when we got back from the tour from the Far East. And we ended up, ahh, actually Alan first of all, he said to me, he said “How about we try a real like American blues, like shuffle groove”. And I said “yeah, that sounds good, that’s a pretty good idea, Alan.” So we got to the studio in L.A. and I said to Rick, he is our, you know resident, most brilliant guy at providing a good blues riff, so. So he came up, he came up with that. And I said “Rick, that’s fucking brilliant!”

Jon Anderson:
Wooh! Okay. I think you know this next one, in the arena, most of you know this but I’ll tell one or two people that don’t know it. Alan White started playing the drums when he was twelve years old, in a strip club! (Rick plays 'The Stripper'). Bloody heck. That’s very good. That’s where, that’s okay, it doesn’t matter. That’s, that’s where he learned, he learned to do a paradiddle. A paradiddle is something you do on the drums, not anything else. A paradiddle, Alan. Paradiddle, there it is. It wasn’t invented by Alan, when Alan learnt it in his youth, along with many other things, of course. But, enough of this banter. We need you, we need you very much to turn the PA down a little bit. Can you hear me okay? That’s okay. Thank you so much. Please sing along with the chorus. Here we go with three paradiddles and two drum beats from Alan White.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you very much, as we say goodbye from Yes working man’s club [??]. Two hundred and fifty pounds, as you can see, the very ultimate [??] on this stage, Rick Wakeman, the ultimate [??]. A wonderful sight to behold. Spotlight on these guys, please. Keep playing, keep playing, keep playing [??] ending, ending, the ending. Yeah! Thank you so much. Thank you. One of the ahh, one of the undeniable truths about being on tour, people say “How do you keep going, on tour? What makes you want to get up there and sing every night?” And I say, most of all, it’s because we still want to get all of the music right, that’s one of the things. And then we have so many wonderful fans that want to come and see us play, so. And we truly, truly, truly, truly, thank you all for supporting the band over these many, many years. We really do. Thank you so much. Here we go. Here we go.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. It’s so wonderful, this time, this time, this time, this time of the year to travel around and ahh, travel around the world with Jane, my wife. We travel, we drive all over the place these days. It’s so wonderful to travel up from Washington, go back to New Jersey and see the place, all around. It’s such a great time. I’m so blessed. The love of my life to support and to love. Very powerful, love is everything, love is everything! Feel free. As we slowly go through this experience together over the years, many years together, in a sort of awakening time. To wake up to the powers that we have inside. These powers are there inside, just waiting to wake up every day. Shine, shine, shine the light. Awakening time.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much for coming out tonight. Great to be with you one more time!