“That was a message of hope, and just making a way through the world looking for the good route – the one that suits you and leads on to better things. That’s generally what that song’s about.”Chris Squire (477)

“To me, Big Generator is the planet, the rock business, [arms dealer – Ed] Kashoggi. He’s the real big generator. He sells arms to kill people then invites rock stars to come sit on his yacht and drink champagne. The guy deals in death and the people are partying with him, man. Bizarre…”Jon Anderson (912)

“If I want to sing about the harmonic convergence, that’s up to me. And if people want to listen and enjoy it, that’s up to them. All I’m doing is letting you know I wrote a song called ‘Holy Lamb’ which I want to sing onstage to everybody because it is part of what I believe life is all about. The future is a friend of yours and mine. It is nothing to be afraid of. If we try to work in harmony with nature, we will succeed in transforming what we feel as our powerless state into a common thread that goes through every member of this planet. I believe we need love and that love conquers all. We had to go through that psychedelic period so we could see. If we hadn’t experienced that other world, we would think that this is all there is, which is the biggest load of self-indulgent rubbish. It is ignorant to think we are the center of the universe…”Jon Anderson (912)

“It’s a war song, a battle scene, but it’s not to explain war or denounce it, really. It’s an emotional description with the slight feeling at the end of ‘do we have to go through this forever?’ There’s a prelude, a charge, a victory tune, and peace at the end, with hope for the future.”Jon Anderson (913)

“It’s about how you should look after yourself when things go wrong.”Jon Anderson (913)

“I don’t want to delve too deeply into the religious aspects of the music, because it becomes too pretentious. I don’t know that much about God or religion to put that kind of a tag on it. I’ve been watching Professor Bronowski’s The Ascent Of Man (BBC 2’s Saturday night series), and that’s really given me a lot to think about. Bronowksi said that the planets are on an ever decreasing orbit into the sun. The earth has to pass through various stages before it is right material for the sun to turn it into a star. We are going through the oxygen period at the moment, and it is possible that later the insects will inherit the earth as their metabolism can change more quickly. When we get through the oxygen period, man will leave behind his knowledge and truth. It’s what we are writing about in our music. The third movement of the album will be in worship of the sun. The ancients used to worship the sun – after-all, at least they could see it as a tangible power. Maybe in the past we have been moving from planet to planet, nearer to the sun.”Jon Anderson (914)