Yes was a key band of in my Classic Rock education when I lived in Houston. You could often hear “Roundabout,” “I’ve Seen All Good People” and “Starship Trooper” on a regular basis through KLOL. The material Chris performed on is bashed these days since it’s popular and relatively easy to rip on Prog Rock. Sure, few people have much patience for a 10-12 minute song which also explains why Classical is a hard sell. However, he participated in a genre trying to push out new boundaries created by technology which became ubiquitous by the late Sixties: LPs, multi-track studios, FM radio and Moog organs (yes, I know he was a bass player). Popular music had been locked into the orthodoxy of the three-minute single. It had been pushed out to as long as five yet sometimes a longer form is needed. Jazz take this route and Academics defend that.
Anyway, Chris’ participation on 90125 is what I remember the most as a teenager in the early Eighties. His very distinctive bass line is something you can easily on the lead single “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” It demonstrated how Chris and his bandmates were capable of making a solid hit for the Eighties and weren’t exclusively self-indulgent jammers.