Jeff Burgess Motivational Business Manager
Author

How 1960s Music Shaped my Life and a Generation

For as long as I can remember, starting in 1964 as a seven-year-old, music filled the void in my psyche. Of course, that all started with The Beatles for me and millions of others around the world.

I started taking guitar lessons two weeks later, and to this day, I am still the unofficial king of three-chord rock and roll. Those three chords are E, D, and A. As I got a bit older, I would pop into music stores and look through their artists’ songbooks, if only to find songs with those three chords. In time, I would extend my reach and bring the G and A^7th chords into my repertoire.

Soon, I would gravitate to The Monkees. True, they had that goofy show on TV, but I was always more into the Monkees on the radio, now Spotify. I still contend that Mickey Dolenz remains one of the most underappreciated vocalists from that 1960s/1970s era. Likely, I just gave you a WTF moment, but before you call me out on it, go play “Sometime in the Morning” on your AirPods.

Six decades later, I remain a fan of 1960s music. 60s Gold on SiriusXM is a saved station for all our cars. Back then, the singers were crooners. Their voice was the lead instrument. Not that I did not appreciate the great guitar riffs. But it was the voices of Herman’s Hermits (Peter Noone), Jay and the Americans, Tommy James, and on and on. Then, later in the decade came The Byrds, The Beach Boys, and so many others with great lead vocalists, as well as deeper, more complex compositions.

Mick Jagger came around and changed all that. He sang with a raspy edge to his emotion. However, nothing had a greater influence on the music industry than The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967.

Music became experimental. Songs were now produced with multiple tracks and overlays.

The Genius of Yes: Music That Redefined Rock

In 1971/1972, we were boldly introduced to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Yes. For me, it was especially Yes.

While I still listen to music from the 1960s and 1970s, something about Yes was deeply embedded in my brain and heart. Even without the vocals, which are magnificent, the music on its own is epic. The chord and riff changes are grandiose, as if it were Leonard Bernstein leading an orchestra of world-class musicians, which they were.

Founding member and bassist Chris Squire spent his youth singing in the choir at the Church of England in Kingsbury, UK. Considered among the elite rock bassists, he learned his craft by watching and listening to John Entwhistle of the Who, Jack Bruce of Cream, and, of course, Paul McCartney. Squire played his bass as if it were a lead guitar. Adding in his church-quality harmonies made it complete.

Then, layer in lead vocalist Jon Anderson’s alto tenor voice. Without question, people either loved Jon’s voice or hated it. I love it. It’s a musical instrument on its own. Yet, another magnificent layer of sound in a band full of virtuoso musicians.

What drew me most to Yes was both the harmonies and the back-up vocals, especially Squire’s. Obviously, the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” was a big influence on them as well! Yes’s background vocals were stunning on their own.

Next time you have twenty minutes to spare, listen to Yes’ Close to the Edge in your AirPods or, even better, with headphones. The last five or so minutes feature Rick Wakeman’s incredible keyboard/harpsichord solo, which always takes me back to being a seven-year-old at Easter Sunday church with my granny, five months before The Beatles were on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Listening to the music of Yes is truly an emotional musical rollercoaster for me, as were movies like To Sir, with Love. Just some gene I inherited, likely from my father.

As luck would have it, my best friend, Gary, was also addicted to the band. That occurred around 1974, a year after we met in high school detention.

By then, we had a lot of catching up to do. Roundabout had been released four years prior, and we all heard it on the radio, even though it was the edited version due to time constraints. By 1974, Gary and I were finally catching up to the rest of the Fragile album and the Close to the Edge album.

For most, Yes is an acquired taste, if only because of the length of their songs. Fragile ended with an eleven-minute song, Heart of the Sunrise. It is a staple concert for them, as well as a fan favorite. I put it in the top three.

I can just imagine them sitting around, enjoying the accolades from Fragile, and the band talking out loud to each other and saying, “WTF, we pulled off an eleven-minute song, let’s do a twenty-minute one next!” It WAS the seventies, after all.

And they did! Side one of that next album was both the album title and the song, “Close to the Edge.” I likely have forty live versions of that epic tune. It’s an acquired taste for most, if only because of the length. To me, it is the greatest piece of music ever written. And I love live music!

Chopin or Beethoven could have composed it, had the technology been available in the early 1800s. It’s that beautiful of a musical piece – the complexity of the notes, time changes, and the vocal harmonies. The perfect mesh. The harmonies still make my knees buckle at the eight-and-a-half-minute mark when the “I Get Up, I Get Down” section begins.

Live Concerts, Lifelong Memories

In 1977, Gary and I went to a Yes concert. Seeing Yes perform live is an out-of-body experience for me. I say this some seventy-two live Yes shows later: after the one I attended last week in St. Charles, IL.

However, it was the first Yes concert I saw, at Chicago’s International Amphitheater in September 1977, that started it all for me. Back then, the band would come out through the darkened venue to Igor Stravinsky’s “Opening Excerpts from Firebird Suite.” Talk about ballsy.

They toured again in 1978 at the same venue, this time in the round, in the middle of the venue. The circular stage would rotate. Gary and I had front row seats, thanks to waiting overnight at the box office months earlier in February and freezing our asses off. Fifty years later, we can afford front row seats!

Gary and I have attended over sixty Yes shows together. If Jon was singing Yes songs, it counted as a Yes show. Even back in 2017, when he toured with Trevor Rabin (author of “Owner of a Lonely Heart”) and knighted keyboard virtuoso Rick Wakeman, as ARW (Anderson, Rabin, and Wakeman), that counted as a Yes concert, as they played Yes songs, sung by Jon.

That also counted as Gary’s sixtieth birthday. So, I booked two tickets to their Miami final show of the tour and flew us down to Florida for the event, and some October pool time. The backstage meet-and-greet was also pretty righteous. Just a bunch of normal guys with more talent than I would ever have. Wakeman was always a character. A Chicago Cubs fan, too!

Chris Squire died of leukemia in 2019. That was an incredible loss for me. Our seats were always in front of Chris, on the right side of the stage. He was a magnificent bassist and vocalist, with a beautiful stage presence. It was obvious that he loved being a rock and roller. Chris and I always had a connection.

As I look back on these past five decades as the Yes version of a “Deadhead,” you know, following the Grateful Dead around the country, I wonder if Yes influenced my life and business career as well. It’s likely a reach, but there was never an opportunity that I was afraid to say “Yes” to, whether it was new experiences, new customers, or especially, new opportunities.

They literally were the soundtrack to my business day.

In addition, and probably yet another reach, the complexity of their music, the building blocks of sounds, and the way they mirror constructing something of substance, is somewhat what I did in building my company, thankfully, yet only needing to rely on those three basic chords, E, D, and A.

#RIPChrisSquire

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To learn about this entire journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Also available now in audiobook format!

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