Yes - Yessongs
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Music CD Cover
Artist: YesBrand: YES
Edition: Music CD
Format: Live, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1994-09-27
Music Label: East/West Records
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Opening [Excerpt from "Firebird Suite"]
- Siberian Khatru
- Heart of the Sunrise
- Perpetual Change
- And You and I: Cord of Life/Eclipse/The Preacher the Teacher/The ...
- Mood for a Day
- Excerpts from "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" [Excerpt]
- Roundabout
- I've Seen All Good People: Your Move/All Good People
- Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
- Close to the Edge: The Solid Time of Change/Total Mass Retain/I Get Up
- Yours Is No Disgrace
- Starship Trooper: Life Seeker/Disillusion/W?rm
Free Music Notes for Yessongs
Free Music Review: The best progressive rock live album ever
Hit: 5 Stars
I have been into Yes and progressive rock since about 2006, but hadn't gotten many Yes albums since I had inherited my father's 4 CD Yesyears, a box set encompassing Yes's work from 1969-1991. But I decided to get Yessongs now, since my favorite period of Yes was their work in 1972 (with Fragile and Close to the Edge), and this album encompasses both of those albums, and also The Yes Album.
It should be noted that there are two drummers on this album, Bill Bruford and Alan White. Bill Bruford plays on "Long Distance Runaround", "The Fish", and "Perpetual Change" on this album (which were the songs from the "Fragile" tour that are featured on this album). He quit after the recording of the album "Close to the Edge" to play with King Crimson, due to him believing that Yes had peaked with "Close to the Edge", and Yes would forever be in the shadow of it. Alan White, formally of The Plastic Ono Band, joined in for the "Close to the Edge" tour. He amazingly managed to learn all of the complex drum parts of some of Yes's most complicated songs (like "Close to the Edge") within three days, before the band went on tour. He picked up the rest of the songs later. But back to "Yessongs" now.
The first song is an introduction for the band, the "Finale" section of Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird Suite" (which is from Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; The Firebird Suite (1919) an absolutely excellent classical album, of which I highly recommend). Then Yes comes... more like smashes in, with "Siberian Khatru", which works very well live. Personally, I think this is the best song on the album, but I would not be surprised if someone disagreed with me, the album is full of great renditions of Yes songs.
Next comes "Heart of the Sunrise", which does not lose the energy and the raise-the-hair-on-the back-of-your-neck vocals of the studio album.
Then there is my third favorite song from this album, "Perpetual Change", which is extended by 5 minutes to a much better version. The song also includes a drum solo from Bill Bruford, my favorite drummer.
Although the next song "And You and I" does not sound as good as on the studio album, it is still the best live version I have heard of the song.
"Mood for a Day" turns out amazing, with Steve Howe able to prove that he can play the highly difficult song outside of the studio. Really, it's just amazing to hear such a complex song played perfectly live.
Next is a song that appears on none of the Yes album. "Excerpts from The Six Wives of Henry VIII" are, well, excerpts from Rick Wakeman's solo album The Six Wives of Henry VIII, recorded the same year as Yessongs (1972). This shows Wakeman's astounding abilities on his keyboards. You'll notice when you listen to the excerpts that there are multiple keyboards playing. None of these are overdubbed, they are all played by Wakeman at once.
"Roundabaout", for many Yes's most noticeable tune, is next. I think it sounds alright, but the live rendition featured on the album Classic Yes is much better, in my opinion.
"I've Seen All Good People" also suffers the same fate as "Roundabout on this album, and I would also recommend the live version of this song on Classic Yes.
The often joined songs "Long Distance Runaround" and "The Fish" are up next, and these are noticeably longer, nearly 7 minutes longer than on "Fragile". This is because "The Fish" (a collection of bass guitars played by Chris Squire on "Fragile) turns into an improvised jam between Squire and Bruford. Overall with these two songs, "Long Distance Runaround is faster than the studio version, but the jam on "The Fish" can seem like an eternity.
Then there is "Close to the Edge". This is my favorite Yes song in the studio, and is a very ambitious progressive rock masterpiece. Sadly, but not necessarily unexpectedly, it doesn't work as well live. It's just too big to play live. But Yes did an alright performance, just know that the studio version is much better.
"Yours is no Disgrace" is next, and is my second favorite from the album. The live version turns into a much more guitar song, which works out great. There is also an improvised guitar solo in the song, which sound good.
"Starship Trooper" ends the album, on an overall good note.
Overall, the album is absolutely great. There are some songs that don't sound quite as well as they did in the studio, but these are more than made up for by other songs, like "Siberian Khatru" or "Perpetual Change". If you are a Yes fan, a progressive rock fan, or just a fan of classic rock, I highly recommend you buy this album, which shows a great live band at the pinnacle of their greatness.
Yessongs Poster
No Description AvailableNo Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: YES
Title: YESSONGS
Street Release Date: 09/20/1994
Genre: ROCK/POP
Opening with a few bars of Stravinsky to set the adoring crowd on its feet, this once-three-LP set is Yes at their finest. This was, after all, probably the most mainstream act that had even provisional "prog rock" status, and their tunes show it. While "Heart of the Sunrise" may be one of the more modestly titled Yes songs (compare it with "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" or "The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)" or even "Total Mass Retain"), it also bears marks of the band playing at its most frenetic pace around Jon Anderson's soaring near-falsetto. Rick Wakeman's grand synthesizer flashes are more than textural, finding visual meshes aplenty with Roger Dean's cryptic cover art--most of which is shrunken or absent on this two-CD reissue. When Yessongs was cut, Marshall stacks were in their heyday, and Yes happily engaged in harmonic and melodic excessiveness as well as carefully planned layers of complexity. "Roundabout" was the band's biggest hit to this point. It appears here faithfully reproduced. As for the rest, it's entertaining in a 1970s way--full of light shows, staged visuals, and more. It took a few years for prog rock to dwindle and for punk-colored art rock to swerve toward songs about buildings and food. On Yessongs, the band was peaking, singing songs with far grander purpose (Siberia, the Apocalypse, etc.). By any account, this is one of the classic live albums of its generation, and as the soundtrack to the hip 1998 film Buffalo 66 hinted, at least one manic Yes song ("Heart of the Sunrise") passed muster for drama in the 1990s. --Andrew Bartlett
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