EXTENDED VERSIONS - THE ENCORE COLLECTION

First off, I have very little information on this album; I found it in a bargain rack, and it has no booklet telling me anything about it. Anyone who has found more on this album feel free to update the album information on this site.

"Extended Versions" contains 6 live versions of Yes songs. The highlight is a 13 minute version of "Starship Trooper" with some of the wildest keyboarding I've ever heard, and I recommend this album to Yes fans if only for that one song. The rest, however, is fairly lackluster, and the choice of songs is not the best. Though songs like "America", "Onward" and "Awaken" are good, they are hardly the songs one would choose to showcase Yes. Also included are versions of "Siberian Khatru" and "Roundabout" that are not much different from the studio recordings.

I recommend this to Yes fans only, not to the casual listener or newcomer to progressive rock or Yes.

This album is simply the exact same thing as Keys To Ascension. However, some of the songs are gone, with a different artwork, and no studio album. Its also very cheap.

Soooo.....

if you want to check out Yes, but you'd like to pay a minimal price, this is great for you. It good live versions of some of their best material to date, and its cheap cheap cheap. If you're a diehard Yes fan, avoid this and buy KTA live.

Very little to say about this record. It is purely made of tracks from Keys To Ascension I. It only contains six live tracks (recorded at San Luis Obispo - California) and there are of course no reason to get this one instead of the full blown original double CD. Unless you can grab it for free, I can only recommend you to stick on Keys. The track listing of this selection and the rendering is gorgeous : it belongs to the best of the YesLive repertoire.

But, again, their commercial approach is very suspectful.Alas, they will go on like this for the years to come (till now). The title of this effort is quite misleading for the fan and it is only when you've listened to it that you figure out you've been fooled !

Four stars for the music (one star for their marketing strategy).

I actually liked this live album, and typically I don't like live albums of even some of my favorite bands. Extended Versions tends to mean exactly what it says, the tracks are extended, and some in interesting ways, sometimes sort of jamming at the end of the song over a certain part repeated, or something of the sort. But some tracks are interesting to hear just because you haven't heard the extended parts, especially Starship Trooper. I had definitely not heard America in the way it was played on the live track... quite different from the album reissue versions. I came to really appreciate Awaken through this CD, as I have yet to actually get Going for the One, though now I'm quite prompted to purchase it. I quite enjoyed this not so well known Yes live album, from start to finish, though I'm sure Keys to Ascension would be a bit of a better buy for your money, as it has the same tracks plus, and a more interesting cover. Though not bad live album I thought, not bad at all.

Another live tracks compilation, in this case with tracks from the first volume of their "Keys to Ascension" album. The only recorded live track from that first volume not included in this compilation is "The Revealing Science of God". It has good songs, but like other compilations of songs taken from live albums, I can`t see a very good reason to buy it, more if you have the two volumes of "Keys of Ascension" which have all the songs which were played in those three concerts they played in March 1996 in San Luis Obispo, California. This compilation is more like a "bargain compilation" released by a record label which also has released similar packages under the "Extended Versions" title from different bands, Prog and not Prog Rock bands. Good more for the casual listener or the record collector.

What a scam! Extended Versions simply plucks a few songs from the first Keys to Ascension set and slaps them into this cut-price package. Quite simply, there's no reason to own this unless you absolutely must have every Yes release out there; if you're already into Yes enough to want to own their live albums, you'll almost certainly have already picked up Keys to Ascension before you even notice this shabby, cheap-looking thing. Such releases are the very definition of "for completists only", so I want to stress that the 1-star rating I give to this album has nothing to do with the performances on here and everything to do with this album being an incredibly sleazy attempt to dupe Yes fans into buying material they almost certainly already own.