#20: Your Move by Yes

City: London, ON
Radio Station: CJOE
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in London ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #40
YouTube: “Your Move”
Lyrics: “Your Move”

Yes is a band formed in the UK in 1968. The founding members comprised of Jon Anderson on lead and backing vocals, and percussion. He was born in Lancashire, England, in 1944. Chris Squire was born in London, England, and born in 1948. He was on bass guitar, backing and lead vocals. Bill Bruford was born in Kent, England, in 1949, and played on drums and percussion. On organ, piano and keyboards was Tony Kaye, born in 1946, from Leicester, England. A few other members who started with the band soon left. The band released the self-titled Yes album in 1969. It received positive reviews and was followed by Time and a Word in 1970. After the album, Peter Banks left the band and was replaced by guitarist Steve Howe, who was born in London in 1947.

At fifteen, Jon Anderson left school after his father became ill and took up work on a farm, as a lorry driver transporting bricks, and as a milkman to help support the family. He also played in skiffle bands. In 1962 he joined The Warriors who were a cover band that included Beatles songs. The band played in West Germany as often as England. He was in a subsequent band in West Germany, and returned to England in 1967 before forming Yes the following year.

Chris Squire learned guitar in the early sixties. He was in a band called the Syn in 1965. He began to use LSD and after a bad trip in 1967 ceased to use the drug.

Tony Kaye learned classical piano from the age of four. Later, he also played clarinet in a big band in high school. He turned to rock ‘n roll after he left school. Kaye was with The Federals who opened for Roy Orbison when the singer toured England in 1965. Kaye was with several bands after that, and toured with an opening band with French pop start Johnny Hallyday.

Bill Bruford learned to play drums at the age of 13. He was with several bands before he joined Yes.

Steve Howe got his first guitar at the age of 12. He was in a band called the Syndicats at the age of 17. In 1965, he joined a soul and covers band named The In Crowd. Howe stayed with that band as it morphed into Tomorrow, a psychedelic rock band. In 1967, he played guitar on the Keith West single “Excerpt from ‘A Teenage Opera'”. The single topped the Dutch pop charts, reached #2 in Belgium, the UK and West Germany, #3 in Ireland, #10 in New Zealand and #11 in Austria. After Tomorrow split, Howe was a session and touring musician until he joined Yes in 1970.

In February 1971, Yes released their third studio album, The Yes Album. It reached #4 on the UK pop album chart and #7 in the Netherlands. A track from the album, “Your Move”, was released as a single.

Jon Anderson wrote “Your Move”. In the game of chess, two players take turns each making a move to advance their pieces forward into the other players territory. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a square board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to as “White” and “Black”, each control sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks (variously also named castles, earls, towers or counts), two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. Each type of piece has a different pattern of movement. An enemy piece may be captured – removed from the board – by moving one’s own piece onto the square it occupies. The object of the game is to “checkmate” – threaten with inescapable capture – the enemy king.

The lyrics to “Your Move” instruct you to “Take a straight and stronger course, to the corner of your Life.” ‘Straight and stronger’ may be in reference to the ‘rook’ (or castle), which begins in the corner square of each of the four corners of the chess board. In the song ‘the corner’ is a “corner of your life.”

Next, the song’s lyrics instruct the player to “make the White queen run so fast she hasn’t got time to make you a wife.” In the game of chess, the player with the black pieces would be making moves that hamper the white queens’ movement. Making the “white queen run so fast,” could result from the black player moving pieces – especially a rook/castle, a bishop, knight or black queen – with successive moves that threaten the white queen. It would require the white queen to move each time after each move made by one of the black pieces. In addition, the lyrics invite listeners to view the pieces on the chess board as possible objects of romantic conquest (“make you a wife.”)

Jon Anderson has remarked that with “Your Move” he was using the game of chess as a metaphor for life’s spiritual challenges. When he wrote “don’t surround yourself with yourself,” he is cautioning against self-righteous behavior. When he writes “move on back two squares,” this is a chess term meaning to retreat and rethink your position. The lyrics also refer to the queen, which is the most versatile and powerful chess piece. It talks about how news is captured for use by the queen, which uses forces to take control and manipulate troops against the enemy. The game of chess is like war. Anderson told the Songfacts website “The song is about initiation of yourself into the idea that there is more to life than war and fighting within religions and things like that.”

With the line, “Send an Instant Karma to me, initial it with loving care,” this song references John Lennon’s 1970 hit “Instant Karma!”. Lennon’s lyrics focus on a concept in which the consequences of one’s actions are immediate, rather than borne out over a lifetime. In “Instant Karma!” Lennon asks “Why in the world are we here?  Surely not to live in pain and fear” as an example of Lennon asking what purpose our lives on earth are meant to serve. The anthem of Lennon’s song encouraged a vision of unity and harmony: “We all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun.” In Yes’ “Your Move” the ‘Instant Karma’ that is sent is initialed with loving care, in the spirit of what John Lennon was driving at in his earlier song.

On The Yes Album “Your Move” appears in a medley with “I’ve Seen All Good People”. The latter song invites the listener to perceive everyone in the audience, the crowd, to be ‘good people.’ This includes others we may name as ‘enemy.’ Jon Anderson invites listeners to see beyond us and them, white and black (thinking).

“Your Move” peaked at #1 in Syracuse (NY), and Endicott (NY), #3 in Seattle, Wausau (WI), Rochester (NY), and Tucson (AZ), #4 in Pittsburgh (PA), and Chicago, #5 in Olympia (WA), and Saskatoon (SK), #6 in London (ON), and New Orleans, #7 in Spokane (WA), Fort Lauderdale, and Lewisburg (PA), #9 in Philadelphia, and Cleveland, #10 in Nashville, and Waterbury (CT), #11 in Harrisburg (PA), and #13 in Boston, Buffalo, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Denver. Internationally, the single reached #32 in Australia and #40 on the Billboard Hot 100.

After The Yes Album was released, Rick Wakeman joined the band in 1971. He was Middlesex and born in 1949. He played keyboards. This was after Tony Kaye was fired from the band. Later in 1971, Yes released the album Fragile. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, and made the Top Ten album charts in Canada, the Netherlands, and the UK. A single from the album, “Roundabout”, reached the Top Ten in Canada and the USA.

In 1972, Close To the Edge was released and the track “And You And I” as a single. The album topped the Dutch pop album chart, reached #3 in the USA, #4 in the UK, and the Top Ten in Canada. It also was a Top 20 album in Finland, Italy and Japan. In 1972, Bill Bruford quit Yes to join King Crimson. Alan White joined Yes and replaced Bruford drums, as well as percussion and piano.

In 1973, the live album Yessongs reached the Top Ten in Australia, Canada and the UK. In December 1973, the band released Tales from Topographic Oceans. It topped the pop album chart in the UK, and was a Top Ten album in Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and the USA. Their seventh studio album, Relayer, was also commercially successful as it landed in the Top 5 of pop album charts in the UK and USA, and Top Ten in France and the Netherlands.

In 1977, the band’s eighth studio album, Going for the One, reached number-one in the UK, and the Top Ten in Canada, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the USA. It was also a strong seller in Australia, Finland, Japan and New Zealand. A single from the album, “Wonderous Stories”, reached the Top Ten in both Ireland and the UK. In 1978, Yes released Tormato. It became the fourth album to earn over a million sales alone in the USA, a feat previously achieved with The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge. 

After an underwhelming response to the 1980 album, Drama, the band took a hiatus. Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman left the band that year. Yes returned in 1983 to release the single “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”. It coaxed Anderson to return and provide lead vocals. As well, the album 90125 was released. The album went triple platinum in America, double-platinum in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and platinum in Italy, Japan and West Germany. While “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” reached number-one in Bolivia, and the United States. It was also a Top Ten hit in Belgium, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay. It stalled at #11 in both South Africa and Switzerland, and #12 in Italy.

Another track from 90125 was “Leave It” which reached #3 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. A third track released as a single, “It Can Happen”, climbed to #5 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Joining the band for 90125 was South African musician Trevor Rabin who would remain with the band until 1995. Chris Squire, Alan White, Tony Kaye, and Jon Anderson were with Yes from 1983 to 2004 (though Anderson took a break in 1989). Steve Howe, who left Yes in 1981, was back in 1990 to 2004 (except from 1993-94).

In 1987, the album Big Generator featured the song “Love Will Find A Way”. The single topped the US Mainstream Rock chart, though it stalled at #30 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album reached platinum sales in both Canada and the USA. Another track from the album, “Rhythm of Love”, peaked at #9 on the pop chart in Italy, and #2 on the US Mainstream Rock chart.

In 1989, as a separate effort a band was formed named Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. They released a self-titled albumAnderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. 

In 1991, the single “Lift Me Up” topped the Billboard US Mainstream Rock chart. While the album Union was a modest commercial success. And in 1994, “The Calling” was a #3 Mainstream Rock hit from the album Talk.

After Yes released their ninteenth studio album, Magnification, the band went on another hiatus in 2004. In 2009, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White and a few new musicians re-formed Yes. The band released Fly From Here in 2011.

In 2023, Yes released their twenty-third studio album Mirror to the Sky, with Steve Howe the only remaining original member classic Yes lineup.

Since 1975, Steve Howe has released seventeen studio albums. His latest, Guitarscape, was released in 2024. In 1994, Howe published The Steve Howe Guitar Collection, a book detailing photographs of his collection of guitars, lutes, lyres, mandolins and pedal steel guitars.

Chris Squires released two solo albums. He died in 2015 at the age of 67 of leukemia.

In the late 70s and early 80s, Tony Kaye toured with Badfinger. In 2021, Tony Kaye released his debut solo album titled End of Innocence.

After departing from Yes, Bill Bruford released four studio albums and one live album. He had been with King Crimson for the release of 14 albums between 1972 and 2001. Bruford has also authored two books: Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More (2009) and Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer in 2018.

Jon Anderson has released 16 solo albums since 1976. His latest is True which was released in 2024.

December 13, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Mesfin Fekadu, “Chris Squire, bassist with prog rock band Yes, dies of leukemia,” Toronto Star, June 28, 2015.
Andy Greene, “Yes’ Steve Howe on Rock Hall Honor: ‘I Don’t Regret the Wait’, Rolling Stone, December 21, 2016.
Jerry Ewing, “Bill Bruford comes out of retirement to join Pete Roth Trio,” Louder Sound, September 18, 2024.
Nick Deriso, “Tony Kaye remembers Yes, Badger and Badfinger: Gimme Five,” Something Else Reviews, November 9, 2009.
John Walters, “Getting to Yes: An Ode to Guitar Wizard Steve Howe,” Newsweek, August 26, 2015.

CJOE 1290-AM London (ON) Top Ten | December 10, 1971