Jon Anderson

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Yes co-founder Jon Anderson

Jon Anderson (born October 25, 1944) is an English musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes. He is also an accomplished solo artist, and collaborated for a number of years with the Greek musician Vangelis, creating the duo "Jon & Vangelis".

Early Life and Childhood

He was born as John Roy Anderson in the town of Accrington, Lancashire, England, in a family of Irish ancestry, his parents being Albert and Kathleen Anderson. He was later to drop the "h" from his first name, as he had a dream where he was given the name "Jonathan".

He attended St. John's Infants School in Accrington, and made a tentative start to his musical career at an early age by playing the washboard in "Little John's Skiffle Group", which played songs by Lonnie Donegan among others.

Anderson left school at the age of fifteen, and went through a series of jobs including working as a farm hand, a lorry driver, and a milkman.

He also tried to pursue a football career in the club he is still a fan of, Accrington Stanley F.C., but he was eventually turned down because of his frail constitution.

Early Musical Career

In 1962, Anderson joined The Warriors (also known as The Electric Warriors), where he and his brother Tony shared the role of lead vocalist. He quit this band in 1967, released two solo singles in 1968 under the pseudonym Hans Christian Anderson, and then briefly sang for the bands The Gun and The Open Mind.

In the summer of 1968, Anderson met bassist Chris Squire and joined him in a group called Mabel Greer's Toyshop, which had previously included guitarist Peter Banks. Anderson fronted this band, but ended up leaving again before the summer was over. He remarks on his website that his time with the band consisted of "too many drugs, not enough fun!".

Forming Yes

Anderson, Squire, and Banks went on to form Yes, with drummer Bill Bruford and keyboardist Tony Kaye. Their debut album was released in 1969. He stayed with the group until 1979, and this period is now known as the classic period of Yes. Jon was a major creative force and band leader throughout the period (describing himself as the 'team captain') and is recognised as the main instigator of the series of epics produced by Yes at the time. His role in creating such complex pieces as Close to the Edge and Awaken is central despite his limited intrumental abilities.

He rejoined a reformed Yes in 1983, and departed again in 1988 over the band's continued pursuit of major commercial success and mainstream radio play. In 1989, Anderson and other former Yes members formed the group Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe (ABWH), augmented by bassist Tony Levin who had played with drummer Bill Bruford in King Crimson. After the successful first ABWH album, a bizarre series of business deals caused ABWH to reunite with the then-current members of Yes, who had been out of the public eye while searching for a new lead singer. The resulting eight-man band assumed the name Yes, and the album "Union" was assembled from various pieces of an in-progress second ABWH album as well as recordings that "Yes proper" had been working on without Anderson. A spectacular tour followed, but the eight-man lineup of Yes never recorded a complete album together before splintering in 1992. Many more personnel changes followed, but Anderson has been with the band ever since. He appears on all Yes albums except their 1980 album Drama.

Nicknamed "Napoleon" by his bandmates for his diminutive stature and leadership of Yes, Anderson was fond of experimenting within the band, also adding to the conflict. He originally wanted to record the album Tales From Topographic Oceans in the middle of the woods, and instead decided to put hay and animal cut-outs all over the recording studio, causing lice to infest one of Rick Wakeman's keyboards. In another incident, Anderson had tiles installed in the studio, to simulate the echo effect of one's vocals in a bathroom.

Vocal and Lyrical style

Anderson's voice is often described as angelic. Though he considers himself an alto tenor vocalist, Jon's performance on "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is an example of what is known by singers as "the blend voice": a technique where both the head voice (falsetto) and chest voice (speaking voice) are gradually blended allowing a smooth breakless transition to the male countertenor (soprano) register. The higher the voice gets, the more falsetto and less chest voice. The lower the voice gets, the reverse occurs. At the highest limit, (the high "yeeows" before the guitar solo) full falsetto is used.

Other practitioners of blended singing include Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Sting (Police) and Hugh Wilson (Vertigo).

Anderson is also responsible for most of the mystically-themed lyrics and concepts which are part of many Yes releases. These elements are crucial components of the classic Yes sound, but have occasionally alienated some members of the band (most notably Bruford and Rick Wakeman), causing them to leave the group. The lyrics are frequently inspired by various books Anderson has enjoyed, from Tolstoy's "War And Peace" to footnotes of the Shastric Scriptures. Recurring themes include environmentalism, pacifism and sun-worship.

In 1999 Anderson's vocal was featured on the song "The Only Thing I Need" by the Contemporary Christian music band 4Him.

Notes

Anderson was a smoker in the 1960s and 70s, preferring Benson & Hedges cigarettes. Before live performances he often meditates in a tent with crystals and dreamcatchers, a practice he started in the 1980s. Anderson is also a vegetarian, as were most members of Yes during the mid-seventies.

Jon Anderson's children include daughter Deborah Anderson (who has done work singing for the French Electronica band, Telepopmusik on the album "Angel Milk" released in summer 2005), Jade Anderson (who has released a solo album in Japan) and Damion Anderson (also a musician).

Discography

• Solo:
• *Olias of Sunhillow (1976)
• *Song of Seven (1980)
• *Animation (1982)
• *3 Ships (1985)
• *In The City of Angels (1988)
• *The Best of South America (1994)
• *Deseo (1994)
• *Change We Must (1994)
• *Angels Embrace (1995)
• *Toltec (1996)
• *Lost Tapes of Opio (1996)
• *The Promise Ring (1997)
• *Earth Mother Earth (1997)
• *The More You Know (1998)

• With Vangelis (Jon & Vangelis):
• *Short Stories (1980)
• *The Friends of Mr. Cairo (1981)
• *Private Collection (1983)
• *The Best of Jon & Vangelis (1984)
• *Page of Life (1991)
• *Chronicles (1994)
• *Page Of Life (1998) - alternate version not approved by Vangelis

• With Kitaro:
• *Dream (1992)

External links

• [Jon Anderson online]
• [Jon Anderson's biography]
• [Jon Anderson discography]

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