Related - Jon Anderson

Jon Anderson

"Everywhere you look you release parts of your senses
And everywhere there's purpose in answer to all your dreams..."
(Jon Anderson 'Song Of Seven')

Jon Anderson performed of Mike Oldfield songs: "In High Places" (from "Crises" 1983) and "Shine" (single from 1986). These songs owe to Jon not only his amazingly bright and high voice, but also beautiful and heartfelt lyrics.
    Jon is one of the most talented singers on our planet. He very often uses his voice as an instrument. He puts all the sung sounds together and turns it into wonderful music. The vocal solo coming before Mike's guitar solo in "Shine" is very good example.
    Mike Oldfield reminded in an interview, that working together with Jon was unusual easy. Mike sang the melody of "Shine" by the telephone, when Jon was on his holidays on Barbados in Latin America. After some time Jon arrived to London and came into Mike's recording studio with the ready lyrics for the song in his pocket and with his soul singing: "Shine, shine, she's my light"...
    In 1999 Mike told, that collaboration with Jon Anderson was different than with other artists. "He just came into studio, did his part and that was it. He didn't even need one overdub." - said Mike.

These two songs are really pretty nice, but Jon has created lots of really great and very important music full of beautiful and wise words. We think, that the most precious work by Jon Anderson includes classic albums recorded together with Yes, the wonderful albums with Vanelis and the album written and recorded together with Kitaro. It's also worth to listen to some of the solo albums ("Change We Must" above all).

Discography.

Solo albums:

Olias Of Sunhillow (1976);
Song Of Seven (1980);
Animation (1982) - only on vinyl;
3 Ships (1985) - Christmas music;
In The City Of Angels (1988) - pop songs recorded together with the members of Toto;
Deseo (1994) - Latin music;
Change We Must (1994) - with the full orchestra and choir;
Angels Embrace (1995) - new age music;
Toltec (1996);
The Lost Tapes Of Opio (limited edition) (1996) - instrumental music;
The Promise Ring (1997) - Irish music;
Earthmotherearth (1997) - acoustic music;
The More You Know (1998).

On "Song Of Seven" and "Animation" Simon Philips was a session drummer. He is also known from a couple of Mike Oldfield albums.

Jon Anderson recorded four charming albums together with Vangelis. They signed Jon & Vangelis (Anderson - music, lyrics and vocals; Vangelis - music and instrumentation):

Short Stories (1979) - with "I Hear You Now";
The Friends Of Mr Cairo (1981) - with "I'll Find My Way Home" and "State Of Independence";
Private Collection (1983) - with "Italian Song" and "He Is Sailing";
Page Of Life (1991) - with "Is It Love";
Page Of Life (1998 - American edition) - with previously unreleased version of "Change We Must".

Albums with Yes:

Yes (1969);
Time And A Word (1970);
The Yes Album (1971);
Fragile (1971);
Close To The Edge (1972);
Tales From Topographic Oceans (1973);
Relayer (1974);
Going For The One (1977);
Tormato (1978);
90125 (1983);
Big Generator (1987);
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe (1989);
Union (1991);
Talk (1994);
Keys to Ascension (1996);
Keys To Ascension 2 (1997);
Open Your Eyes (1997);
The Ladder (1999).

The Yes line-up has changed several times. The most important members of the group:

Jon Anderson (vocals),
Chris Squire (bass and vocals),
Alana White (drums and vocals),
Steve Howe (guitars and vocals) - the co-founder of GTR with Max Bacon as lead vocalist,
Rick Wakeman (keyboards),
Patrick Moraz (keyboards) in 1974,
Bill Bruford (drums) - played also in King Crimson together with Adrian Belew,
Trevor Rabin (guitars and vocals) - in 1983-1994,
Billy Sherwood and Igor Koloshev are playing in Yes since 1997,
on "Drama" in 1980 Trevor Horn (he co-produced "Tubular Bells 2") took the place of Jon Anderson in Yes, and Geoffrey Downes (he co-produced "Islands") replaced Rick Wakeman.

Some of the most important guest appearances of Jon Anderson:

King Crimson "Lizard" (1970) - in "Prince Rupert Awakes";
Vangelis "Heaven And Hell" (1975) - in "So Long Ago So Clear";
Vangelis "See You Later" (1980) - in "Suffocation" and "See You Later";
Rick Wakeman "1984" (1981) - in "Hymn";
"Metropolis - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" (1984) - in "Cage of Freedom";
John Paul Jones "Scream For Help" (1985) - in "Night Train" and "Christie";
"St. Elmo's Fire - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" (1985) - in "This Time It Was Really Right";
Tangerine Dream "Legend" (1986) - in "Loved By The Sun";
Gowan "Great Dirty World" (1987) - in "Moonlight Desires";
Toto "The Seventh One" (1988) - in "Stop Loving You";
Jonathan Elias "Requiem For The Americas - Songs From The Lost World" (1989);
Kitaro "Dream" (1992) - in "Lady Of Dreams", "Dream Of Chant", "Agreement" and "Island Of Life";
Charlie Bisharat "Along The Amazon" (1993) - in the title track;
Tadamitsu Saito "It's About Time" (1994 );
Milton Nascimento "Angelus" (1994) - in "Estrelada";
Cielo y Tierra "Heaven And Earth" (1996) - in "La Segunda Oracion" and "El Dia";
Steve Howe "Portraits Of Bob Dylan" (1999) - in "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands".

"I can hear you saying: what a dreamer what a fool to life
Isn't it a pity that he won't come back to earth..."
(Jon Anderson 'Song Of Seven')