G.K. Chesterton Inspired the Lyrics for “Hold On” by “Yes?” UPDATED

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never been a fan of  Yes. Their sound sort of grated against my nerves. But I got a little more interested for at least one song when I learned that Jon Anderson was reading G.K. Chesterton around the time the group recorded Hold On in 1983.

A friend of mine said Anderson revealed the following information to her in a letter. She was talking about Dorothy Day and how Anderson’s letter set her on the path towards discovering the works of G.K. Chesterton.

I found (C.S.)Lewis’ serious work in my high school library as a sophomore, but the only brush with G.K. I’d had was a letter exchange with Jon Anderson from the band, “Yes,” regarding the meaning of lyrics and the importance of a particular song to me. The library didn’t own any Chesterton, so I was impoverished.

I wrote him in the 9th grade because I couldn’t figure out what the lyrics to “Hold On” meant. His response was actually my introduction to social justice.

So I asked her what it was that Chesterton wrote that inspired Anderson. She retrieved the letter and said it was these lines from “The Speaker”

“In the struggle for existence, it is only on those who hang on for ten minutes after all is hopeless, that hope begins to dawn.”

I asked her what else did Anderson say about the song and it’s meaning?

He told me that the song was about pressing forward into a new world–like moving from black and white into technicolor. We could either accept the end of the world, war, corruption, the extermination of mankind, or we could work toward a bright, peaceful world based on “common sense.”

He wrote–and this is why I’ve always remembered it–that “hang on” doesn’t sound as pleasing when sung as “hold on.”

And there you have it. Something written by Chesterton in 1901 worked it’s way into the chorus of this song 82 years later.

What’s Jon Anderson reading these days? I have no idea.

UPDATE:

An interview with Jon after his illness in 2011.