Chris Squire Bass Transcription: On the Silent Wings of Freedom

Never quite sure what to make of this track; Rick Wakeman's keyboards are intensely irritating. A Squire tour-de-force, however, really flanging the sound and, as always, not afraid of using the top of the bass's range throughout. Compromise on the upper range in terms of scoring - too much else was happening at a lower register for me to bother with 8ve passages, however crazy all those ledger lines look.
Timing in bars 234-237 (07:00) is an approximation.
Astute listeners will hear that I've missed some semiquavers around bar 115 (03:11).
Please support Miguel Falcao, the originator of these audio covers:
miguelbass.com/
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[@andrjiable]

I've just read all the negative comments below, about the tempo and the keyboards and the flanging and...
I respect every opinion but tbh couldn't agree less on any of those points.
True, Chris indulges very much on flangin on the whole album, but as already said by others, it didn't keep on with it afterword.
And let me tell that on this album, I found that effect really awesome.
The keyboards... bah... they do the job, in my VERY HUMBLE opinion, limiting the otherwise excessive overall pomposity.
The key changes, holds and tempo changings... it's what every time I listen to this song makes me madly goosebumping.
I admit it, I'm not that much of a musician to be entitled to a technical analysis, I'm just a very modest amateur bassist that would dearly love to be able to play this song.

[@donnavorce8856]

holy crap

[@juliankohler5086]

The tempo "tickles" something in my mind. The asynchronicity between drums and bass at the beginning of the intro especially. Sadly, the keyboards are way too annoying... This song deserved so much better.

[@yes_head]

Great job. Yeah, Wakeman's Casio keyboards are super annoying, but seeing this score gave me insight into another couple reasons it doesn't quite hit the mark as a Yes classic. For starters, too many key changes, even for a Yes song. Since this is supposed to be more of a straight up rocker it would have served them well to keep the harmonic envelope more consistent. Secondly -- too many hold, pauses, etc. It's really hard to establish a groove if you're constantly messing with tempos. It opens with a great grooving riff, but you don't really get that vibe again until the end. I think I get what they were after -- they saw this song as a chance to indulge in some old time Yes-y prog. I just think this song would have succeeded better had it gotten the "Parallels" treatment instead.

[@sigil5772]

Thanks for the comment! Totally agree with you on all points. The Birotron is just one of a long list of things that Rick has burnt money on - man, just wait a year for Korg/Roland to bring something out which you'll be using onstage anyway, right? The key changes (dropping to G and then F from about 4:20 😏) seem pointless, other than the prettiness of the cadence back into A at 4:48, And the pauses! - like in To Be Over, for the love of BILL will you stop STOPPING all the time? Lastly (as I've said elsewhere) Chris's Mu-Tron flangey pedal thing *does* give a particular foregrounding value to the bass on the album as a whole, but which tends to make you listen to that instrument rather than the songs in themselves, like Lars Ulrich's snare on St Anger. i think someone (or maybe AI, haha) should redo Tormato with the sound palette and players from The Yes Album.

[@yes_head]

@@sigil5772 I don't mind the flange-y bass sound since it was a relatively brief phase Squire went through. He does lean on it a bit too much on this album, but like I said -- it's over soon enough and then he moved on (mostly! 😉)

[@onehipdad]

I would dearly appreciate an iso and/or transcription of the keyboards for this. It would be great if there an app to accomplish this!

[@eddielee7152]

You don't happen to have the bass tablature for this?

[@sigil5772]

Hi Eddie,.sorry, no. Can I suggest you visit miguelbass's channel and watch how he frets it? My version of Sibelius defaults tab fretting closer to the head, however awkward it would be to play

[@eddielee7152]

@@sigil5772 I'll do that eventually, there is another cover which is equally as good as Miguel's: ruclips.net/video/5TVCBV5dezc/видео.html

[@samkimble6359]

@@eddielee7152 I tabbed this out if you want it www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/yes-on-the-silent-wings-of-freedom-bass-tab-s487545t0

[@eddielee7152]

@@samkimble6359 That’s awesome! Thanks!!

[@samkimble6359]

@@eddielee7152 You’re welcome. I’m going to do some other songs on this channel like Does it Really Happen? and Awaken so be on the lookout for that