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SteveG 
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 Topic: Yessongs: Yes
Posted: February 05 2015 at 16:15 |
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Yes' three LP live set that many feel contains better versions than a lot of studio songs. What's your opinion of Yessongs?
Edited by SteveG - February 05 2015 at 16:18
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Meltdowner
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 16:34 |
I'll tell you later, I bought the triple LP last week and still haven't heard it 
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LearsFool
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 17:37 |
Everything done here live is better than the often still great studio work except "Close To The Edge". It just didn't sound quite the same, so not quite right.
The smashing opening "Firebird Suite Excerpt/Siberian Khatru" really salvaged "Khatru" for me, but in the process forced the studio version of the track into greater infamy for me. The studio version is too slow and lacks energy. Live, this is rectified.
The first three sides, which on CD are all packaged together, is a perfect mini-concert that I spin regularly.
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cstack3
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 19:10 |
 SteveG wrote:
Yes' three LP live set that many feel contains better versions than a lot of studio songs. What's your opinion of Yessongs?
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I heard the CD of it recently, it was the first time I'd heard Yessongs in many years. I was surprised at the quality of the sound (is it remastered?), and the strength of the performance, so yes, I agree that many of the songs are at least the equals to the studio versions.
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Jdenkevitz
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 19:19 |
My favorite live album, and possibly my favorite Yes album.
It represents the pinnacle of them firing on all cylinders. Incredible raw energy.
Howe was really fantastic!
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Chris S
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 19:22 |
Jdenkevitz wrote:
My favorite live album, and possibly my favorite Yes album.
It represents the pinnacle of them firing on all cylinders. Incredible raw energy.
Howe was really fantastic!
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Dellinger
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 22:10 |
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Yeah, I like it, though I wish there was more Bruford on it. I'm not really sure if I'd consider the songs here superior to the studio ones, though... usually I prefer to listen to the studio versions of Fragile and CttE because for me that's the very best line-up Yes ever had (or almost any other prog band, actually), and I prefer to have Bruford drumming than White. However, as far as live albums go from Yes, my holy grail is Keys to Ascension and Symphonic Live... those two albums have many of my favourite versions of many of my favourite songs from the band.
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Epignosis
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Posted: February 05 2015 at 22:22 |
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It contains the best version of "Siberian Khatru," but the overall quality is rough as hell. My first bought Yes though, and I love it.
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RockHound
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Posted: February 06 2015 at 21:44 |
Yessongs was a huge release. At the time, it was considered a real high-water mark for live albums. The movie also was huge - theaters were packed with people watching Yes on the big screen.
The performances are wonderful, but I do find the addition of guitar during the organ passage at the end of "I Get Up, I Get Down" to be irritating.
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bhikkhu
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Posted: February 06 2015 at 22:01 |
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It is a great live album and also serves as the best compilation collection for that period of the band.
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richardh
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Posted: February 07 2015 at 03:17 |
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The version of Yours Is No Disgrace smokes the studio version and I like Rick's solo section a lot but the rest I can take or leave. Like Dellinger I prefer to watch Yes Symphonic Live or Keys if I want my fix of Yes live. BTW the DVD of Yessongs is crap imo. Did they do it in a dungeon?
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dwill123
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Posted: February 07 2015 at 07:47 |
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Overall I like Yessongs but in my opinion Yes lost a step or two (performance wise) when Bruford left the group. Nothing makes that more evident than listening to "Perpetual Change" on this album. Alan White is a solid drummer, I mean he keeps the beat but Yes sounds like a different band with Bruford.
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Tapfret
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Posted: February 07 2015 at 11:53 |
Yessongs probably has more to do with my love for prog than any other album.I heard it first and was terribly disappointed when I eventually heard the studio versions of the songs.Most of the studio work seems listless by comparison. The energy overshadows any recording fidelity issues the album is often bashed for. The guy in the crowd that maniacally screams "LOUDER!" between Khaatru and HotS is a perfect embodiement of the difference the live performance has to the restrained studio works.
It's the only album that has never left my top 5 favorites.
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Star_Song_Age_Less
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Posted: February 07 2015 at 23:55 |
Tapfret wrote:
Yessongs probably has more to do with my love for prog than any other album.I heard it first and was terribly disappointed when I eventually heard the studio versions of the songs.Most of the studio work seems listless by comparison. The energy overshadows any recording fidelity issues the album is often bashed for. The guy in the crowd that maniacally screams "LOUDER!" between Khaatru and HotS is a perfect embodiement of the difference the live performance has to the restrained studio works.
It's the only album that has never left my top 5 favorites. |
Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. I always giggle when I hear that guy yell. I prefer everything on Yessongs to the studio versions. The studio ones are slower, and too clean. There's far too little in the way of reverb. Sometimes I feel like I'm listening to a guy playing a ukelele in a closet when Steve Howe is playing on their early studio stuff. Great playing, disappointing sound. This improved with them in later years, though. (I have the same issue with Renaissance's "Scheherazade" studio vs. live). Anyway, Yessongs all the way! And Symphonic Live, too.
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richardh
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Posted: February 08 2015 at 03:29 |
dwill123 wrote:
Overall I like Yessongs but in my opinion Yes lost a step or two (performance wise) when Bruford left the group. Nothing makes that more evident than listening to "Perpetual Change" on this album. Alan White is a solid drummer, I mean he keeps the beat but Yes sounds like a different band with Bruford. |
umm.. I thought Bruford actually was on that track? Hence why the drum solo is so dull.
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dwill123
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Posted: February 08 2015 at 11:01 |
richardh wrote:
dwill123 wrote:
Overall I like Yessongs but in my opinion Yes lost a step or two (performance wise) when Bruford left the group. Nothing makes that more evident than listening to "Perpetual Change" on this album. Alan White is a solid drummer, I mean he keeps the beat but Yes sounds like a different band with Bruford. |
umm.. I thought Bruford actually was on that track? Hence why the drum solo is so dull. |
He is on this track and I agree, to me his solos never seemed to be his strong point but what he contributes to a song overall towers over the vanilla playing of White.
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chopper
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Posted: February 08 2015 at 11:10 |
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Perpetual Change is about the only track I regularly listen to from Yessongs.
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Dellinger
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Posted: February 08 2015 at 22:34 |
richardh wrote:
The version of Yours Is No Disgrace smokes the studio version and I like Rick's solo section a lot but the rest I can take or leave. Like Dellinger I prefer to watch Yes Symphonic Live or Keys if I want my fix of Yes live. BTW the DVD of Yessongs is crap imo. Did they do it in a dungeon? |
Yeah, it's really disapointing. However, I still like to see it from time to time, since it's the only video I have from the band playing in the 70's. I think there are some other 2 DVD's around, but I haven't bought them because they are rather expesive (if they are even still available, I'm not sure), and I understand the video/sound quality is even worse on those ones.
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cstack3
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Posted: February 08 2015 at 23:06 |
RockHound wrote:
Yessongs was a huge release. At the time, it was considered a real high-water mark for live albums. The movie also was huge - theaters were packed with people watching Yes on the big screen.
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I was certainly one of those packed into the theater seats!
Considering the success of Yessongs as a movie, I'm really miffed that other bands didn't do the same. A concert movie of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" would have been brilliant, I don't think there's any film from that tour.
Likewise, a movie of "Tales" would have been stunning!
TAAB, Passion Play, I could go on & on. Put some LTIA in there also! What a pity!
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Ivan_Melgar_M
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Posted: February 08 2015 at 23:17 |
IMO, the definitive Yes album of the early years
It has the most notable songs and some versions are even better than the ones in studio.
Mainly Your Move / All Good People....Instead of the annoying seconds of silence between songs in The Yes Album, the Yessongs version has a drum solo that joins both tracks making it more dynamic and of course the vibrant version of "Your's is no Disgrace"
Love that album, now I have my first vinyl cover (I listened the first one so much, that was all scratched), framed into a couple of nice paintings.
Cstack3 wrote:
Considering the success of Yessongs as a movie, I'm really miffed that other bands didn't do the same. A concert movie of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" would have been brilliant, I don't think there's any film from that tour. |
I read that the show was going to be filmed somewhere in France during the last two orv three shows, but those concerts were cancelled because lack of interest
Iván
Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - February 08 2015 at 23:20
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