Chris Squire — The Supergroups

29-June-2015

When Chris Squire died on 27 June 2015, I was apparently not connected to the internet for some reason (probably a long nap); however, when I found out about his death on the 29th I was seized with a vision of alternative realities where the history of music had progressed a little differently. This turned into a series of memorial Facebook posts which I have, at long last, gathered up here. SO without further ado, I present you with:

The Chris Squire bands that never were...

Crossing Over

Imagine the complex landscapes produced by BB & LM with the unparallelled lyricism of CS & PM duetting over the top. This is one where I would not only have bought the record, but I would also make sure to see the show - and I go to *very* few of them anymore.

More Aquatic Mammals

This group only ever release one record, but the tour was epic and the bootlegs of it have been circulating the internet for years. As this alternate-dimension story goes, Trey and Page met Chris Squire while they were tripping in a bar in Vermont before Phish got big. They kept in touch over the years, but everybody was so busy that nothing much happened until the night where Mickey and Trey were idly speculating about who they'd really like to play with sometime, and the lineup seemed obvious. To this day, none of the instrumentalists know how they figured on bringing in Chris Barron, but his vocal phrasing rounded out some of the most spectacularly fluid jamming ever to happen live...

King Crimson

King Crimson is, as always, more a way of doing things. When there is nothing to be done, nothing is done: Crimson disappears. When there is music to be played, Crimson reappears.

— Robert Fripp

This KC line up only played a limited run of shows in LA, NYC, and London, but if you managed to go to any of them, you were very lucky indeed. Chris and Adrian trading licks through a 20-minute Elephant Talk utterly redefined what could be done with a Rickenbacker bass. Also notable were The Sheltering Sky, which took on a whole new dimension with Squire and Fripp layering melodies like a nuclear sunset; and Indiscipline showing beyond a doubt that Terry Bozzio had at least as much crazy in him as Bill Bruford ever did. In addition to several brand-new compositions driven by the interplay of Tony Levin's subterranean Stick work with Squire's ultra-bright Rickenbacker attack (Tuna in Chisolm Creek being my personal favorite), the surprise appearance of another installment os Lark's Tongue in Aspic for the London shows made them unforgettable.

Robert Fripp is promising a CD box set of the live recording to be released sometime during the 21st century...

Cuntry Joe and the Fish

The first gig Chris plays in heaven is with

But alas, I have no story to tell, because no-one on this side of the line has a clue how it happens on that side. Nevertheless, I do have an email from an old lady dead head in France that says that once these guys started playing together (and once Frank and Buddy were done rehearsing) that Heaven actually shut down for a week to just soak in the jams. They were rapidly voted "Best Power Trio Ever", at which Frank split up the band until he managed to chill out a bit. Rumour has it they still get together to play the club circuit incognito under the somewhat inexplicable name "Cuntry Joe and the Fish" You can't get recordings of their gigs, either. You just have to get lucky and be there...