Bill Bruford played with Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and U.K., but a Bill Bruford drum solo on record takes some finding. The solos that exist are scattered across a Yes live album, a reunion concert and a few short pieces, and much of his most celebrated playing is inside the music of King Crimson and his own bands. This guide goes through the recordings one by one, with album, year and line-up.

The player, in brief

Bruford co-founded Yes in 1968 and recorded five albums with them, among them The Yes Album and Fragile (both 1971) and Close to the Edge (1972). He left in 1972 to join King Crimson, and was its drummer in three different eras. In between he played with U.K. and Roy Harper, toured with Genesis in 1976, and led his own band, Bruford, and later the jazz group Earthworks, in which he used Simmons electronic drums as a melodic instrument. He retired from public performance in 2009.

“Perpetual Change” — Yessongs (1973)

The first Bruford solo on an official live album. Yessongs is mostly drawn from the 1972–73 tour with Alan White, but three tracks were recorded earlier, on the Fragile tour of 1971–72, with Bruford on drums: “Perpetual Change” and “Long Distance Runaround” leading into “The Fish”. These versions have extended solos from Howe, Squire and Bruford compared with the studio originals; “Perpetual Change”, first heard on The Yes Album, is the one that carries Bruford’s. Line-up on these tracks: Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford.

“Five Per Cent for Nothing” — Fragile (1971)

Not a solo, but Bruford’s own showcase on Fragile, where each member contributed a short piece. It lasts 35 seconds, the shortest track Yes ever recorded and the only one credited to Bruford alone. Its original title was “Suddenly It’s Wednesday”; the band renamed it as a jab at a former manager who had kept a five per cent share of their earnings. Short as it is, Steve Howe has called it the most challenging piece on the album to play live, and the band did not perform it until 2014, when they played Fragile in full. Bruford himself describes it as a naive first attempt at writing.

“Bill Bruford Solo” — An Evening of Yes Music Plus (1993)

In 1989 Bruford rejoined three of his old Yes bandmates in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, and the live album from that tour, An Evening of Yes Music Plus, gives each of the four a solo spot. His is paired with “Long Distance Runaround” as a single seven-minute track, and on that tour he played the solo largely on electronic drums, the side of his playing he had developed in the 1980s. Line-up: Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe, with Tony Levin on bass.

King Crimson and the electronic kit

With King Crimson, Bruford’s best-known playing is not a solo at all. In the 1973–74 band he played on Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red; the long instrumental section of “Starless” is built on a riff he wrote. In the 1981 line-up, with Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew and Tony Levin, he moved to a kit that combined acoustic and electronic drums on Discipline, Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair. Those albums, more than any single solo, document his King Crimson work.

Where to start

For a solo in the strict sense, go to “Perpetual Change” on Yessongs, then to the electronic solo on An Evening of Yes Music Plus to hear how his approach changed over the years. For the thirty-five seconds that show his writing, play “Five Per Cent for Nothing”. And for his King Crimson work, put on Red or Discipline. His 2009 autobiography tells the story in his own words.

Go deeper

For drum solos across the genre, see the best prog rock drum solos of all time and the countdown of the best prog drummers of all time. His bandmates have guides of their own: the best Robert Fripp solos and Chris Squire’s bass solos. For the bands, start with the King Crimson band guide, the best King Crimson albums and the best King Crimson songs, or the Yes band guide and the best Yes albums, and browse the prog musicians hub. The full story of British progressive rock, Yes and King Crimson included, is told in Beyond the Thames, the second book in my Beyond the Sound series.

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