Yes -- band name origin?

I was wondering if Yes got their name from the affirmations by Molly Bloom in James Joyce's ULYSSES. The book has a lot to say on consciousness and spirituality and I wouldn't say it's totally implausible that members of the band are familiar with the novel. After all, the book contains probably the most famous "Yes"s in all of english literature and represent an affirmation of humanity and life.

Prog bands have a tendency to know Joyce anyway: Jefferson Airplane's "rejoyce", King Crimson's "Islands", Syd Barrett's "Golden Hair" and Dream Theater's "6:00" to name a few.

Am I reaching here? Does anyone know the story of the band name's origin?

Yep that pretty much sums it up right there.

Another one i heared was the pulled names out of a hat and they pulled up Yes.

But the one where they were sitting around talking about names and he said Yes is the corret one.

Well there goes my theory!

Actually, I heard yet another "story."

Have any of you seen the film "Yellow Submarine?"  If so, you may remember that there is a rather long scene during "It's Only a Northern Song" where the word "Yes" is multiples on the screen for quite some time in big bold block letters, sometimes with exclamation points.

I heard that Anderson et al had gone to see Yellow Submarine (probably tripping their brains out) and got the name from that.  After all, it seems awfully coincidental that the movie came out in 1968, and Yes put out their first album in 1969 - and were not only admittedly Beatle-influenced, but did a Beatle cover on the their first album (Every Little Thing).  It is also not a little coincidental that the abbreviation for Yellow Submarine is...YS.

It may sound "iffy," but I believe this is as possible as any other story.

Peace.

maani wrote: Actually, I heard yet another "story." Have any of you seen the film "Yellow Submarine?"  If so, you may remember that there is a rather long scene during "It's Only a Northern Song" where the word "Yes" is multiples on the screen for quite some time in big bold block letters, sometimes with exclamation points. I heard that Anderson et al had gone to see Yellow Submarine (probably tripping their brains out) and got the name from that.  After all, it seems awfully coincidental that the movie came out in 1968, and Yes put out their first album in 1969 - and were not only admittedly Beatle-influenced, but did a Beatle cover on the their first album (Every Little Thing).  It is also not a little coincidental that the abbreviation for Yellow Submarine is...YS. It may sound "iffy," but I believe this is as possible as any other story. Peace.

It could be a combination of several of those options. considering they were discussing a name for a band. several possibilities were mentioned, one of them was Yes, inspired by the beatles movie. All mentioned names were done in a hat, and the one that came out of the hat was Yes.

A friend of mine has a book about how certain bands got their names (the name of the book has escaped me). According to this book, the band opened a random page of the dictionary and came across the name "Yes". Somewhere along those lines.

I could be wrong, though.

iguana wrote: another good one i overheard was the apparent art exhibition of john and yoko's works, where you had to climb a ladder to spy through a magnifying glass to read the enlarged word "YES". a bit far-fetched IMHO since that exhibition was from the 70s and YES formed on march 22nd in 1968, when the beatles were still operating. anway, YES' 1999 album was "the ladder" and it's follow-up was called "magnification" so what do i know... >currently playing: mr. bungle – "disco volante"<

I think you got you're stories mixed up. This is how the album The Ladder got it's name.