Yes' Jon Anderson "Disappointed" That Band Recruited Replacement

Tweet

spoken out about his band's decision to recruit a singer off a YouTube rather than wait until Anderson fully recovers from an illness that will shelve him until 2009. On his website, Anderson says he's "disappointed that, with the exception of one phone call from Alan, none of the guys have been in touch since my illness, just to find out how I am doing, and how we will foresee the future for Yes. And disappointed that they were not willing to wait till 2009 when I'm fully recovered." The band had scheduled a 40th anniversary tour for this year, but rather than wait for Anderson, they hired Benoit David, the singer in a Yes cover band, to take over the microphone. "Of course I wish the guys all the best in their 'solo' work, but I just wish this could have been done in a more gentlemanly fashion. After all Yes is a precious musical band." Anderson says in conclusion, "This is not Yes on tour."

Related Stories:
• With Singer Ailing, Yes Recruit Cover Band Frontman
• Yes Hit The Road For 40th Anniversary, Rick Wakeman Quits For The Fifth Time
• Yes Cancel Anniversary Tour After Singer's Respiratory Failure

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'This Is the End' Brings the Goods
• 
  TV The Women of 'Mad Men'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Fishbone | 1985

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter