When Jimi Hendrix grabbed a bass and jammed with Tomorrow in 1967, a young Steve Howe was right there. Decades later, he is still chasing fresh sounds. Steve talks about the near miss that could have seen him play in Pink Floyd, the acoustic ideas that shaped his solo work, and what lies ahead for YES. He also digs into his reworking of Bob Dylan’s songs and the return of two essential solo albums, Portraits of Bob Dylan and Natural Timbre.
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Podcasts also available: Steve Howe (2023), Steve Howe (2019), Allan Clarke (2023), PP Arnold, Annie Haslam, Bill Bruford, Alan White, Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes, Tony Kaye, Rick Wakeman
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I’m familiar with both Portraits B.D. and Natural Timbre from their first issue. As Steve mentioned, he was very busy around that period they were released, doing a lot of solo show touring in the U.S., and the YES roller-coaster between the two times that Rick was back in the band. (BTW, the 2003 tour may have been YES’s best, aside from Union, which was a very special tour, of sorts.)
They are both very good albums. Really no comparing the two, though. Natural Timbre is nice in the fact it has a few songs with the classical feel of Beginnings. It’s an essential Steve Howe solo album. Not mentioned from Portraits is Jon Anderson singing on the extended opener Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. It’s a bit of the magic that Jon and Steve seem to have when working together.
It’s funny that Steve mentions the Hollies albums and their consistency. I agree. For me, the Hollies don’t become great until Graham Nash leaves. That’s not meant to knock Graham, but his songwriting was going in a direction that wasn’t suitable for a tight-knit pop group. CS&N was his destination, of course. But from the album that Marigold was on (called He Ain’t Heavy in the U.S.), the Hollies pulled together, not really realizing with each album they were getting better and better. Hollies ’74 and Another Night far surpass anything that came before from the Hollies.