ABWH - Starship Trooper (Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA 1989)
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
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This week’s is a timely video, with the imminent re-release of ABWH’s ‘An Evening of Yes Music Plus’ 2CD/2DVD remastered box set in early 2025. I’ve already written too much on this channel about ABWH, and the newcomer here may wish to google ‘An Evening of Yes Music Plus’, or the group ‘Yes’, to find out who we are, or were, or may have been! Please do check out my descriptions on the other ABWH tracks you’ll find here on this channel. Meanwhile, listening to this track has stirred some thoughts.
We don’t make music like this any more. I think that’s probably a good thing, not because there was anything lacking when this stuff was written way back when, but because all things evolve, and music must evolve to be relevant. At least one of ABWH has gone 80 years old now, and from what I hear, is performing well and evolving nicely.
I feel empathy with Jon ‘J.A’ Anderson, the octogenarian singer on this video. We both had time-out, away from the concert stage, for a long stretch. His was occasioned by an illness which led to a parting of the ways with the band he formed, loved and sustained. Mine was a voluntary departure from another area of the music scene; exhausted, burned out, and, in my head, unlikely to play again. But after 13 years my batteries unexpectedly re-charged themselves, almost against my will, and no-one was more surprised than I to find myself back behind a drum kit in someone else’s band - the Pete Roth Trio - and under very different circumstances. It seems to me that J.A. also could no longer resist the idea of sitting on the sidelines, and had to be up there with the best, most willing compatriots he could find. I could no longer resist the violent urge to find some sticks and, like J.A., start again.
It’s unwise to assume that everyone knows what you’re talking about, especially in that twilight world with a silly name - retirement. It’s a word I’ve always found particularly meaningless, based on a false dichotomy between two apparent opposites, work and play. When the pensions industry was growing, a clear division existed between the two. You had ‘work’, assumed to range from unpleasant to insufferable. On retirement day, that was to be surrendered for a life of ‘play’ on the golf course, ranging from pleasant to tons of fun, assuming you had health and money.
The distinction between work (unpleasant) and ‘not work’ (very pleasant) is not at all sharp. Many of us are fortunate enough to spend our days navigating between activities that generate sufficient income. The activities that generate sufficient income, like performing Starship Trooper, may in fact be very pleasant, even life-affirming. Conversely, life on the golf course as a retired silver-head can be, I’m told, extremely tedious.
Musicians seldom participated in this. They were held to be so enamoured of their ‘work’ that they would go on forever and keel over in a hotel room in El Paso. Moreover, should you be in a financial position to retire, you weren’t a musician, you were an 'entertainer' of some sort; deeply suspicious. I seemed to be that rare creature who wanted to surrender the stuff I found difficult - the travel, the business and the music-generation - but continue to make a contribution in a closely related field; in my case, by pushing words around as an academic author. Another drummer might have opened a teaching studio or a retail outlet, same difference.
So Jon and I both have un-retired and look forward to many more years of music-making. Strangely, we share a more common purpose than some might think.
#billbruford #kingcrimson #drummer #progressiverock #billbrufordsearthworks #jazz #progressiverockband #livemusic #abwh #jonanderson #stevehowe #electronicdrumkit
The fact that Steve Howe is generally absent from all of these ‘Best Guitarists’ lists is a sacrilege.
That's for sure--there's a real problem with the concept "best of" with regard to art of any media, but Steve's certainly one of the best-ever rock guitarists, along with many other under-recognized players (too many to list--Terry Kath, Paul Kossoff, and Frampton jump to mind, although Pete at least got widespread recognition).
Travesty is what it is IMO!
Steve is in my Top 5!!! One of the best for sure!
Today, perhaps. But he did win Guitar Player Magazine's poll so many times in the 70's that they had to create a special category to put him in, just so he would give other guitar players a chance.
Agree. And Steve Hackett. I've played for 70 years and those are the two best even... Keith richards? Fro
Yes is the pinnacle of Progressive Rock, so beautiful! Unreal performance
Steve Howe + Bill Bruford +.... Jeff Berlin, not Chris Squire
Bill, this is absolutely incredible news! Your work with Yes, King Crimson, and your jazz explorations have been endlessly inspiring, and knowing you’re returning to music-making is beyond exciting. The world has missed your creativity and artistry-welcome back!
Absolutely. Who wants to be a professor with padded elbows and a fuzzy sweater anyway?
Thank you Bill Bruford and all of Yes for the music!!❤
Thanks Bill for reminding me just how good you guys were
Stadium-level ridicolous masters of the universe
Jon dropping fanservice and the guys having a blast just playing their instruments... Yes at its finest.
"We don’t make music like this any more. I think that’s probably a good thing": I think it's a bad thing.
Thanks for the music!
It's always about the journey, and I'm enjoying the postcards from yours.
Me too!
Yours is no disgrace🤷🏻♂️ nice little poem
Really great!! Rick doesn't sound like he is at the top of a mountain, but riding a star. Steve does a two way mirror aiming at the gentle echo of the original while shooting for the glory of the galaxies. But then there is Mr. Bill, what Starship Trooper ever got that kind of blistering thunder in the homestretch?! Outstanding in every way, including the humble bows at the end. Like you were there. A definitive account of what a Yes concert is like at the frequently appalling conclusion.... (Did they ever look that nice on stage, what fine threads!) Moooooooooooooooore...........yeaah
So beautiful it made me cry! Thank you so much for sharing this with us all. Wish Levin had been there, but Berlin sounds great. Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe- best ever to grace the stage, our ears, the world and the Universe!
☮️❤️🎼😎
Bill, you and Jon and Steve and Rick seem to have taken a special delight in this concert, and the performance was full of energy -- it made me so happy to see this! Yes is such a gift to this world!
Danke für deine erklärenden Worte, ich bin Physiotherapeut und mir geht es ähnlich mit dem Arbeitsbegriff/ich bin 70 Jahre alt und arbeite noch gerne, auch wenn ich nicht mehr so fit bin wie vor 20 Jahren.
Deine Art , "Drummer" zu sein, deine Art zu spielen, begeistert mich seit Jahren.
Du bist ein sehr inspirierter Musiker, der, für mich persönlich, verschiedene Musikstile in unterschiedlichsten Gruppen, Collaborationen und Genres
erlebbar gemacht hat. Ich habe große Hochachtung vor deiner Lebensleistung. Vielen, vielen Dank für die Musik
Norbert
I've attended a couple thousand concert performances in my life and this one will always be among the most amazing experiences I've had. What a night.
Thanks Mr. Bruford for the regular reminders of that great time. I'm a little bummed right now as I've spent all year looking forward to seeing the Beat tour last week and the show in my city was cancelled due to weather. This helps sooth the sting of that pain.
🤟🧙♂🤟
I have tickets 4 best Dec. 4th. Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania. It doesn't get much better. mick
I was there in Switzerland in 1989; my best live experience ever!
I saw this tour in Atlanta in 1989.
Tony Levin played bass! ABWH!
Are you sure not Jeff Berlin ?
@@xanaxddu71 he played on the album ABWH tour video shows Tony
@@souldavidthompson4854 Yes but Jeff Berlin had to fill in for some of the American dates. That's who is featured in the above video.
Can't go wrong with either
Tony Levin got sick on the tour and Jeff Berlin had to fill in for him. It came down to him or Jon Camp from Renaissance.
BEAUTIFUL AND BLISTERING AT THE SAME TIME
Yeahhh. Great archive. The great musicians in the Rock World🔥
Love you Bill!! 🥁🥁🥁💙💙🎵🎶🎶
love all this as a kid......now that I actually know something about music and composition the complexity of these Yes tunes blows my mind
Awesome!!! I love the joy on all your faces, great song and connection 👏👏👏
The middle section of this song, the one with the acoustic guitar, is one of the most beautiful things made by yes, really really great. And Bill´s drumming is absolutely clean and precise.
The soundtrack of my youth, and inception of my musicianship. Saw this tour in Santa Barbara. They were playing to tracks, broadcast in the venue over radio waves. We had "Walkman" on.
Thanks for this reminder that Steve Howe actually used to look like he enjoyed what he was doing! Been a long time since I saw him put out that vibe.
Masters of the craft.
Yes, that normally austere face was really fighting to resist a smile.
Love the description for this clip, seemingly written from Mr. Bruford himself. So glad everyone is still making music!
Well, that was mind-blowingly awesome. Thanks so much for posting this!
Saw ABWH in Copenhagen 1989. Still my number 1 concert. Big band on stage, fun to see Bill Bruford and Tony Levin goof around etc, the band as a unit performed magic.
Es una de mis canciones favoritas de Yes ❤
I reallly enjoyed ABWH. I remember the summer as a teenager playing the album on my cassette Walkman! Wonderful days!
I think we have the amazing Jeff Berlin on bass here! What a master of the four strings!
Ans Tony levin on another days
Berlin is an incredible player.
I wish they’d show him at least once…
I remember having a session with Jeff Berlin shortly after this tour, which I was unaware of. He made me go through a litany of bands when he said guess who I just came off tour with? He had to finally tell me after I guessed the Knack just to get on his nerves.
I know. They never show Jeff Berlin as if the bass was magically playing on its own. Of course, you feature the four main players, but still... and is Julian Colbeck the backup keyboardist next to Berlin for the half-second you see them??
Those pads were unforgiving of lack of accuracy. Much love and respect to Bill, a true Master.
Been a fan since I was a kid 8n 75 . Still am now
Amazing video, would have loved to seen this show. Thanks Bill
These concerts were so interesting. From Bill (and his electronic drums) meeting Brian Lane and the rest of the band at the airport under the assumption it was for an Anderson solo album, to Rick’s interesting keyboard sounds.
Blimey! What a great version…
Stellar! I saw the tour in Memphis at Mud Island. Dont remember what year, but I do remember it being JUST this good. Thanks, Mr. Bruford!!
Bill, thank you for your thoughts on retirement. Since becoming a fan as a young person I’ve looked to you and other drummers that I admire as I’ve grown up, not just for musical inspiration but as models of professionalism: how to approach professional life with a reverent eye for craft and as a vocation. Reading your comments is really affirming. You’re still blazing a trail for younger (always aging) folks!
I love this band. ❤
Gracias Yes por darnos la .mejor musica..y letras de la galaxia!!! Los amo❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
It’s hard to imagine more talent being gathered together in one place.
Easy -- bring back Chris Squire.😪
Every time I open a random video from the ABWH tour, I take a “Levin or Berlin” guess. There’s no wrong answer, cool to see Jeff here… though neither the camera nor the lighting spends much time on the bassist in ABWH footage. 😂
Unforgettable. I saw ABWH at Wembley on this tour, it was fantastic. I feel very privileged to have seen Bill Bruford play with these guys. I also saw the Onion tour but that’s another story
Thanks for sharing this. Best wishes in your current and future endeavors.
I saw YES in Rome in the early '70..is still one of best concert in my life! A band where all musicians were at top level...
Amazing. Brings tears to my eyes.
I saw this tour the day before of after in Sacramento. I remember thinking that I couldn't believe I was seeing "Close to the Edge" being performed by most of the band that had recorded it. But it's great to have such a high quality video and audio recording of the Mountain View show. Bill finally got to play Yes music in front of Roger Dean stage props!
Amazing mix, near definitive - and Jeff Berlin! Wow. This is a great find.
What I read in description is going to make many people very happy.
I wished about a year ago on this channel you retired from your retirement and I'm so glad to see it come true. I also recall Vinnie Colaiuta wondering why do that. Your playing resonates with people and if Roy Haynes could continue up to his last days then surely there's no necessity to retire
I've seen it live, it's amazing. Where are the next "experiences"? Musically, live, Yes is difficult to eclipse. Great video.
An iconic rock band... globally respected in any and all of their many iterations and rightly so.
We had ninth row, seen YES. Many times, I was pregnant, Jon acknowledged this. Love you forever
Jeff Berlin is a killer bassist! Love his work with Bruford band! Also, this Starship Trooper is the greatest rendition ever made and with the original band's drummer! 🙂
Beautifully said Bill! I too have enjoyed a career in music. I have been primarily on the "business" side. And when people as what I do for work I say I "Play" in the music business (as my work IS play), which confuses EVERYONE. They next ask what band I "play" in. Ha! I hope that people realize (or come to realize) that they can choose to "play" in many worlds of "making/earning" a living, and therefore, live a primarily joyful life. PS: 1979 Madison Square Garden (you were not there 😞) was my first concert and, yes, it was YES! I have now seen over 10,000 concerts, and that was a great way to start. Thank You Bill for you amazing contributions to all the bands you "played" with.
That would be a performance from the tour that I attended. Fabulous memories.
WERE?
@@rlpd5218 Assuming you meant "where"... Houston.
I am just basing that on the year, and that the performance shown was in the USA.
Happy Thanksgiving Bill!!!!
Saw you Bill play with YES one day so satisfied I saw you play...
Thanks Bill for that kind deference to JA, the ? of Yes. You and Jon made some exquisite music.
Hey, these guys are pretty good!
Tremenda nave musical con cada piloto en sus controles,impresionante!
Saw this show at Jones Beach. It was great!! Only missing Chris, which would have been the icing on the cake!!
While I like garage band rock and roll also its such a pleasure to watch and hear true Musicians.
Muchisimas Gracias Bill y ABWH por otra entrega y demostracion excelente de su Virtuocismo en el arte de ejecutar su musica, recordandonos siempre a nuestro querido YES!!! Starship Trooper es otra obra maestra que nunca nos hemos de cansar de escuchar!!! Muchas Gracias ATTE: Daniel Claudio Miller From Buenos Aires Argentina!!!
Prog Rock Bollocks, I love it.
The fashions and the haircuts date it badly, but the music is always brilliant.
Yikes. That is the best version of Starship Trooper I've heard yet. Thought I'd heard them all. More than once.
Close, but I think the 2004 (Lugano or any other show) was better. The conversation between Rick and Steve at the end of the song is ... I don't know the right words
I also like the version from Wembley 1978. Steve Howe and Rick both bring the house down on that one
Jon's and your common purpose has delighted so many! Thanks for the uncommon greatness~
I heard Roundabout on American radio shortly after it's release. I was immediately hooked. A wonderful lifelong addiction to Yes. Thanks for this, Bill. Superb.
It was certainly a piece of music that marked a large part of my life, in the bands of that style in which I participated, but beyond the stylistic nature of each one of them, with their influences of course from English Rock, the way of approaching the drums and their expression by you, my dear Bill, has been a "School" for me as a drummer. I am now 66 years old and I still sometimes record drumless with songs by King Crimson, for example, and I still love them!! Thank you for your love and collaboration with music and drums! Greetings from BuenosAires, Argentina!!
Yo también! I'm also 66 and Bill was one of my biggest influences. I saw Yes and KC multiple times and had a nice conversation with Bill after a show on the Discipline tour that "inspired" me to get electronic drums (although I ended up getting a Roland V-Session kit, which I still play--great to have volume control!).
8:09 Player 1 has entered the game!
Simply magical!
They were on fire that night wouaaaa ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
OMG. I was there! My friend got us tickets. Awesome night. Musically enlightening and mind expanding. And the shrooms helped 😎⚜️✨⚡️🌈🍺🍄
I never got to see ABWH live except for in video. The album that precipitated this tour was my daughter's favourite when she was 4 years old.
Thanks for your efforts!
I was at this concert. Shoreline is a good venue for Bay Area folks. Been there a bunch of times, especially for Neil Young concerts. Ahhh the memories! 👍
Icons / legends / pioneers.
Bic lighter @ 5:18 and 6:59. Pre-cell phone era. The Band. The Music. The Audience. United as one, in the moment, with No distractions. Saudade.
Gli Dei dell'Olimpo erano fantasia, questi qui sono esistiti, ragazzi! ADORATELI. Nessuno ha avuto più creatività, capacità tecniche, coesione, innovazione, ispirazione, spettacolarità di loro! Non osate citarmi altri, se qualcun altro si è avvicinato, rispolverate album buoni hanno creato e poi confrontateli con i loro.... NON C'È STORIA!
The Olympian Gods were fantasy, these here existed, guys! LOVE THEM. No one had more creativity, technical ability, cohesion, innovation, inspiration, spectacularity than them! Don't you dare quote me, if someone else has come close, dust off the good albums they created and then compare them with theirs.... THERE IS NO STORY!
Lost my mind when this came out! The performance of all the guys was just off the charts, absolutely top of their game. Interesting note: Tony Levin was playing bass on this tour, and got sick right before the shows that were filmed, so Jeff Berlin had to step in....and he nailed it!! Of course YES needs Squire, but love Tony Levin sooooo much! This was my first exposure to Jeff Berlin (Bruford solo band) and hats off to him, he did a Fantastic job! Cheers!
Jeff only had about two days to learn the parts. Luckily, as an admirer of Chris, he already knew Close to the Edge. But he had to quickly learn the rest of the set…
@@ksbhsi51 hello, if you on here you must be YES Geek like me....I love it all, but the ABWH show, then the UNION tour, then KEYS TO ASCENSION for mr, are the pinnacle....I have a bootleg tour of the UNION tour, it is must see, Cheers!
@ I agree! Also saw the Union tour three times. 😊
Excellent and excellent commentary too! I'm seni retired now too and yes, we must continue to find things to do and especially what we are gifted in ✨
i feel so many in your words 😢love this and thank you…
This is amazing!
YES❣️❣️❣️The greatest band on this or any other planet❗️❗️❗️🛸🪐🚀👍😎
What a way to go out! Ecstatic! Bruford bringing the absolute thunderous groove!
YYYYYYIIIIIIPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
Can't wait to hear you at Wavendon. Thanks for this.
This was a great show. I was about 20 rows back from the stage just left of center (left if you are facing the stage).
You sir are in the top one (1) of bands.
thanks for the music Bill
Espectacular 😮😮😮😮 From El Salvador ❤❤
Steve seems to have the time of his life. I never so him so excited playing Wurm---
Definitely watch this one til the end wow!
I wish you played the snare hihat like you did on the album, the part where Jon sings and you fiddle underneath. It’s so beautiful. At the beginning of the song that is
Hell of a Band.
Excellentissime avec mon batteur préféré de tout les temps
This was a PPC event in the United States and I’m pretty sure I made my dad pay for it (o was a junior in HS). Might have been $20 or so. Great show!
incredible ever and ever again if e guitar or classic … if much bass or muchooo synthy …. incredible thxxx YES
Bravo!
I was lucky enough to catch this tour out of doors under a summer moon in Weedsport, NY (near Syracuse) with the in comparable Tony Levin on bass. 🤯
I saw this lineup/show only at Concord Pavilion. Not that far from Shoreline. I vividly remember this song with Steve Howe leaving a lasting impression. So underrated.
I caught this show in Birmingham uk, it was great.
I went too London’s Wembley arena show exactly 35 years ago today, how crazy is that!
I was there too! it really feels much more recent than that. I remember they put out a message over the PA to ask Mrs Wakeman to come to the dressing room because she had Rick's underpants in her handbag! She was sitting right in front of me and she totally panicked, while the whole audience laughed 🤣
Awesome!!!! I miss Chris playing the wurm .....but Jeff always delivers.