Jimmy Page’s opinion on Yes and Chris Squire

As in the 1960s, the British Rock scene continued to be extremely prolific in the following decades, with many incredible musicians emerging, including Jimmy Page, one of the driving forces behind Led Zeppelin. A wide variety of bands appeared, especially in London, showcasing the different styles rock could encompass, including Progressive Rock. Page was familiar with these different styles and has shared his opinions on the band Yes and their late legendary bassist Chris Squire.

What is Jimmy Page’s opinion on Yes and Chris Squire

Jimmy Page is a fan of Yes and, besides admiring Chris Squire as a musician, also had the chance to play with him. They even nearly formed a supergroup called XYZ, short for “Ex-Yes and Zeppelin.”. “What I did after Led Zeppelin was: I actually played with, I don’t know whether you know this, Alan White and Chris Squire from Yes. Because I had my own studio at that point, and it was suggested to play with them.”

“And I thought: ‘That’s really going to be testy.’ Because Yes’ music is really good. I know they’re really fine, I love them. So that was the first thing that I actually did after, after we lost John (Bonham), and that sort of period where I didn’t play for… It doesn’t actually amount to that much time that I wasn’t playing or making music if you like, but I certainly made music then with them, and I really enjoyed that,” he told Static Multimedia in 2012.

At the time, Yes had also broken up, and Page even tried to get Robert Plant involved in the project. However, besides still grieving Bonham’s death, according to the late Alan White, the singer felt that the time signatures were too complicated. “Jimmy kept calling Robert saying how great it was and he should get involved, but Robert thought was too complicated. There’s one thing that we did that was kind of a lick that I wrote at home one day.”

Jimmy Page continued:

“It was like, almost like a military type thing put in an odd time signature that built up into this really orchestrated kind of piece of mu sic. It was all in 7/4 time. So I think when Robert heard 7/4 it was like, ‘What am I getting myself into here?'” he said in an interview in 1993. Although those recordings were never officially released, demos are available on YouTube. Jimmy Page told Rolling Stone in 2020 that he would like to see the recordings released in good quality one day. Were also part of the sessions the keyboardist Dave Lawson, a member of the British Prog Rock band Greenslade.

“If you know the precision of Yes, you know how technically brilliant they were. So I was in there with Chris Squire, the extraordinary bass player, and Alan White, the drummer. They had suggested that we go it together. Why not do that?’ (…) Because these guys are so good. I’d heard the guitar playing Steve Howe would do and I thought, ‘Well, let’s see how it works.'”

He continued:

“(…) Unfortunately, we’ve lost Chris now. It was something that I always hoped to do (to release that music), as some sort of project, to get hold of him and Alan. It’s not even worth talking about, because it’s all speculation. I haven’t had a chance to really listen to the stuff and see just exactly what we do have, and what we don’t have. I don’t have any mixdowns of it. If I did, I’m not quite sure where they are now,” he said.

Although the songs were not officially released, Jimmy reused the idea from one of them for the instrumental “Fortune Hunter,” released by the supergroup The Firm, formed by Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers, Chris Slade, and Tony Franklin. It was included on their second and final studio album, Mean Business (1986). The track “Mind Drive” ended up on Yes album “The Keys to Ascension” (1996). “Can You See” became “Can You Imagine” on their “Magnification” album released in 2001.

“I hope it does. There is a cassette version of it that is terrible quality, and it’s out there on the internet. Nevertheless, it’s fascinating to listen to,” Page said. Chris Squire died at the age of 67 back in 2015 and at the time, Page said “That was really sad. He was a phenomenal bass player. It’s really sad that we’ve lost him.” The drummer Alan White died two seven years later, in 2022 at the age of 72.

Jimmy Page once joined Yes on stage to cover The Beatles “I’m Down”

Jimmy and Chris lived near each other in Surrey, England in the ’80s and first met at a Christmas party. “(…) Surrey and Berkshire are right next to each other Southwest of London – I met him at a Christmas party. He said he’d like to start playing again, pull himself out of the depression after John’s death. So we got together, we did some music. Most of which was some music I’d written,” Chris Squire told Mass Live in 2010.

A few years after those sessions, in 1984, Jimmy joined Yes on stage in Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany. They played a cover of The Beatles “I’m Down”, at the time they were promoting their hit record “90125” (1983). That album had had tracks like “Owner of a Lonely Heart” and “Changes”. One year later they performed again, this time at Sun Power Festival in Ibiza, Spain. Jimmy and Chris Squire were on a holiday together there. With Jason Bonham (John’s son) on drums they jammed with the band Opus.