Scott's Thoughts #4: I'm Just a Guy With an Opinion...or...What's in a Name?

 Greetings.  It’s time for another sporadic episode of “Scott’s Thoughts”.  

I’m just a guy with an opinion.  Really, that’s the crux of the matter.  This blog, and many of my Facebook posts are just full of my opinions.  But while my blog may be full of my opinions, I am not full of myself.  My opinions are not declarations that I believe everyone else must share.  And I certainly am not under the delusion that my opinions carry so much weight that an artist will change their chosen course of action.  Regardless of what I think, they are gonna do what they are gonna do.  However, I do believe that I should be able to share my displeasure over something without the whole circle of Facebook friends around me losing their collective shit!  My opinion isn’t any more or less important than theirs.  

I’m sure that at least a few of you know of what is precipitating this post.  It has to do with two similar things that I said regarding my two favorite bands– Yes and Rush.  First, a couple of weeks ago, I had made a decision that I had been weighing for a couple of weeks prior to that.  The current line-up of Yes is playing in Memphis this month (October 25, 2025).  This is really the first time since we moved to Greenville, Mississippi in Nov. of 2011 that they have played close enough to here to reasonably attend the show.  I publicly stated that I was considering going to the show (on Facebook) and asked some questions of others who have seen them recently.  Many of the replies I got were along the lines of “well, if you think of it as a tribute band, it’s not too bad”.  Or things like “you can’t expect them to sound as good as they did back in the day, but it’s still a fun experience”.  Additionally, I have heard many officially and unofficially released live recordings since Jon Davison became the lead vocalist of Yes, and the results are a mixed bag at best.  Now let me be clear here, Jon Davison is a talented vocalist and musician and seems a great guy by all accounts.  I enjoy his vocals on Arc of Life’s albums, and even on the new original Yes material.  Also, I’m not a “No Jon Anderson, no Yes” kind of guy.  I LOVE “Drama” with Trevor Horn’s vocals. The albums released since 2011 which have Benoit David, Trevor Horn or Jon Davison on them have good vocal performances.  Now, the songs themselves have varied in quality.  I do think that the most recent Yes release, “Mirror to the Sky” was an improvement over the previous two.  Billy Sherwood, Geoff Downes and Jay Schellen are all talented musicians as well.  Sherwood in particular gets about as close as humanly possible to pulling off the late great Chris Squire’s bass playing; Squire was Sherwood’s friend and mentor.   But back to the point, when I hear this line-up perform the classic Yes material, it just falls flat for me.  In the past the sum was greater than the parts, IMHO, but now, for me, it’s less.  So when I saw the advertisement posts that this tour was being called the “Fragile” tour, with only one person (Steve Howe) who played on that album, and much of which were solo spots for the then members, I expressed my disappointment, and said that maybe if they had called it something like “Steve Howe’s Yes Revisited”, it might be better received, or at least it would have made it easier for me to wrap my head around.  That led to a firestorm of comments, including from Billy Sherwood himself.  I do believe that Mr. Sherwood and I reached a resolution in the comments of that post, but some people are still clearly upset with me over my opinion.  I made the decision not to go and leave the last Yes show that I saw in 2004 be my last Yes show, as it was spectacular.  Going to this tour, for me, would only be a disappointing footnote.  I have also been clear that if other people enjoy the shows and think this line up is great, then I have no issue with that.

Now onto Rush.  When Geddy and Alex announced that they’d be touring in 2026, with drummer Anika Nilles in the late-great Neal Peart’s place, I made the comment “I really just wish they weren’t calling it Rush”.  The bombs immediately began to fall.  One person, who I won’t name here, but who I have known in cyber-space for more than 20 years, said something like “Jeez, what else are you going to complain about?”  Once again, let me be clear, it has NOTHING to do with Anika Nilles drumming abilities, or certainly not that she is female. I know that Geddy and Alex wouldn’t have chosen her if they didn’t think she could pull it off.  I wish her well, as that is a TOUGH drum throne to fill!  Honestly, I was just mildly disappointed, but you would have thought that I insulted each of their mothers’ good names!  Why was this a disappointment?  Because I really thought that after Neal Peart’s tragic passing in 2020, that Geddy and Alex had retired the Rush name for good, and I thought that was the right decision.  Yes, I know that John Rutsey was the original drummer and was really something of a bandleader in the early years of the band. However, after Peart replaced him in 1974 for health reasons, the trio really built a legacy together that few, if any, bands can match.  I fully support the two surviving members' desire to honor that legacy and the memory of Neil Peart by performing in his honor, and that Neil’s late wife and daughter gave their blessings, but I really had hoped that they would have called it something like “A Tribute to Neal Peart/Rush featuring Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson”. They didn’t, hence my opinion.  But they are going to do what they are going to do, and I know there are good reasons for using the name.  I also never said they didn’t have the right to use the name; they most certainly do.  I, again, was mildly disappointed in the choice, and committed the cardinal sin of stating that.

So that brings me to the other part of the title I have given this blog post; “What’s in a Name?”  For some, a name, particularly a band name, is a brand name.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Just like say, Oreo cookies.  It’s not the same people making Oreos now as it was 100 years ago, so what’s the big deal? OK, that’s fine, I suppose.  I saw a quote attributed to Robert Fripp that “A band is simply a way of doing things”.  OK, maybe there is some truth to that.  But in the last few days, I realized that there are two key factors that shape my opinion on this matter.

How much I care about the band in question.

How well the current line-up performs the classic material of said band.

Let me elaborate on each.

For point #1.  I care deeply about the music that both Yes and Rush have done over the decades.  Therefore, it means something to me as to who is performing it.  So, when Yes calls the current line-up the Fragile tour, and there is only one guy currently in the line-up that played on that album, it just personally feels wrong to me.  When Geddy and Alex decided to call themselves Rush on the upcoming tour, I felt let down because, for me, Rush should be forevermore Geddy, Alex and Neil.  Even though I logically know they can do whatever they want, emotionally it touched a nerve.  In contrast, I really don’t care all that much about who was in the original line up of A Flock of Seagulls, even though “I Ran” was a perfectly fine bit of 80’s new wave.  There could be an all-new line-up out there and I wouldn’t know one way or another if it was the original members.  But here’s the thing– someone would.  For all I know, there is controversy on AFOS Facebook groups.  (AFOS was just a random example that came to mind.)  

Now point #2.  As I said, my disappointment in Yes lately is in their delivery of the classic material.  It just doesn't touch my soul in the same way that other line-ups have done when they have performed those songs.  I even felt like the YesWest line up of the 80s and 90s did a great job playing those songs.  The jury is still out on whether Rush will pull it off, and I hope that they do.  However, there are two other bands that immediately come to my mind who have several non-classic members, who I think pull off the band’s classic era songs remarkably well when they play them live– Kansas and Styx.  Somehow, these line-ups really pull it off convincingly.  Some may not agree, but again, these are my opinions, and anyone can have their own.  

So, is there an inconsistency between points one and two?  Perhaps there is.  But maybe it comes down to if they pull off point #2, then they overcome point #1.  Who knows?  Maybe I am just a hypocrite.  But, in the end, does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? As I said at the beginning of this rambling essay, I’m just a guy with an opinion.

(Bless you if you made it all the way through this…lol)