Fish Out of Water (Chris Squire album)

In August 1975, the progressive rock band Yes ended their tour in support of Relayer (1974) and began a nine-month period of inactivity after they agreed to take time off for each member to produce a solo album. When the time was right for Squire to start work on his, he collaborated with Andrew Pryce Jackman, a childhood friend and former keyboardist and songwriter in their 1960s rock band The Syn, who assisted with the album's concept and arrangement of the music.[1] Over the course of sketching out the album Jackman also contributed some ideas to its composition. Because of this, Squire offered to give him some co-writing credits, but Jackman declined.[1]

Fish Out of Water was recorded in the spring and summer of 1975 in two studios: New Pipers, Chris Squire's home studio, Surrey, and Morgan Studios in London.[3] The title refers to his nickname "Fish", and being "...Out of Water" due to being away from the Yes context.

The introduction to "Hold Out Your Hand" features an organ passage played on the church organ at St Paul's Cathedral, London by the cathedral organist Barry Rose. The organ continues throughout the song creating an original sound and revealing Squire and Jackman's experience together, as church choristers, in their boyhood. The title of "Lucky Seven" refers to the song being in 7/8 time signature.[1] Musically, a melodic passage from Yes' song "Close to the Edge" re-appears in the finale of "Safe (Canon Song)". The closing passage on "Safe (Canon Song)" was played on the 4-string bass section of a double-neck guitar using only the pickups of the 6-string section.[1]

In a 2004 interview, Squire said that he wished to produce a 5.1 surround sound mix of the album using the master tapes, but declared the recordings had disappeared from Atlantic's archives.[8] On 28 February 2006, it was reissued in the US by Wounded Bird Records.[9] This was followed in August 2007 by a two-disc Deluxe Expanded Edition released on Squire's own label, Stone Ghost Records, distributed by Castle/Sanctuary Records. The set included a remastered stereo mix and featured, as bonus material, a single edit of "Lucky Seven", the promotional film for "Hold Out Your Hand" and "You by My Side", track-by-track commentary, and a 40-minute interview with Squire conducted in November 2006.[10][5][11]

Following the album's release, Squire did not record a follow-up album although said he was frequently asked about such a project.[12] He had hoped to reunite with Jackman and work on one together, but such plans ended following Jackman's death in 2003. The bassist still expressed a wish to produce one.[13] In 2012, he reasoned much of the album's vibe, appeal and the strength of its music was down to his collaboration with Jackman. Though Squire wished to make another album following Jackman's death and had started to prepare material, he found himself using his songs for other projects, including those with Yes and Squackett, his collaboration with guitarist Steve Hackett.[12] [2]