As the classically trained musicians in Yes  hold down a cubed time signature while guitarist Steve Howe‘s wild runs through the Pixarlodian scale, focus on singer Jon Anderson. He shakes a single maraca, holding it close enough to the mic to be heard clearly. We’ve studied before the things singers need to do during long solos,  but Anderson’s single-maraca shake takes the cake.

Jon Anderson had brass balls, if for no other reason for singing the way he did. I listened to the awesome late-period Yes song “Going for the One” at the gym this morning. Anderson sings so high that he could have sung the song an octave lower and still cut through the fury of advanced chordings. Maybe that’s the range God intended his voice to occupy, and if that’s the case, He is a good god, for He gave Jon Anderson the brassiest balls in rock.

Battle Royale: Does anyone in rock have brassier balls than Jon Anderson?