YESYEARS

I didn`t buy this 4 CD Boxed Set. It was expensive! I don`t know if it is still available for buying. But I was lucky that a FM Radio station in my country (now defunct and missed!) in 1992 broadcasted a series of programmes about YES and their discography, excluding compilations, with the exception of the songs "America" (full lenght version) and "Dear Father" from the album "Yesterdays" and the previously unreleased songs from this Box Set, which I recorded in a cassette. So, I first comment about these previously unreleased tracks:1. "Something`s Coming": a song from Leonard Bernstein`s musical "West Side Story", which has a very good arrangement by YES, and it was released as the "B" side of the single "Sweetness" in 1969. This is the Stereo version; 2. "Then" and 3. "Everydays": previously unreleased BBC sessions, recorded in 1969-1970. This same version of "Then" was also released in the albums "Beyond and Before-The BBC sessions 1969-70" (U.S.) and "Something`s Coming" (U.K.). Both songs show the original line-up of the band in their early days, still playing with some mistakes; 4. The single edits of "America" (1972) and 5. "Soon" (1974): "America" doesn`t sound good in this edit, but the edit of "Soon" is good; 5. "Amazing Grace": a solo bass piece by Chris Squire (1977), not very interesting for me; 7. "Abilene":the B- side of the "Don`t Kill the Whale" single (1978), a song composed by Steve Howe played with the band, not too bad; 8. "Vevey part I" and 9. "Vevey Part II": church organ and harp duets by Wakeman and Anderson recorded during the "Going for the one" album sessions (1977), very brief and not very interesting for me; 10. "Montreaux Theme": a good instrumental song recorded during the "Going for the one" album sessions (1977); 11. "Money": a previously unreleased song from the "Tormato" sessions (1978), a good rocker song, with very good bass by Squire and an humorous speech by Wakeman in the background; 12. "I`m Down": a cover of The Beatles`s song recorded live in 1976 with Patrick Moraz on keyboards, and Howe playing a guitar solo similar to George Harrison`s solo in the original version; 13. "Run with the Fox":a Christmas single released by Chris Squire and Alan White in 1981 (with lyrics written by Peter Sinfield), with a good orchestral and choral arrangement for a Christmas-style song ; 14. "It Can Happen": a Demo version of this song from the "90125" album, recorded by Chris Squire/Alan White/Tony Kaye/Trevor Rabin (the "Cinema" band, before Jon Anderson`s arrival), with Squire on lead vocals, with different lyrics and an different arrangement; 15. "Make It Easy": another Demo recorded by the "Cinema" band of a very good song which wasn`t released in the "90125" album, with lead vocals by Rabin. YES played the introduction of this song as the introduction of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in several tours with Rabin and Kaye, and even in the "Union" tour ; 16. "And You and I",17. "Heart of the Sunrise" and 18. "Changes": live recordings from the "Big Generator" tour (1988). "And You and I" is played in a different style by Rabin in the electric guitar, with a good lead guitar replacing Howe`s pedal steel guitar, and good keyboards by Kaye. "Heart of the Sunrise" is a "lazy" live version as the band (mainly Alan White and Chris Squire) sounds "tired of touring".Why they didn`t include a live version with the Anderson/Bruford/Howe/Squire/Wakeman 1971 line-up instead of this 1988 version? It could have been more interesting than this 1988 version. "Changes" is a good live version, but not better than the live version released in the "9012Live-The Solos" album. These 1988 live versions were recorded in the same concert (Houston, 19-February-1988), and I also recorded parts of this concert in a cassette as it was broadcasted partially in early 1989 in another FM Radio station in my country . 19. "Love Conquers All": a Demo of a song composed by Chris Squire and Billy Sherwood with Trevor Rabin singing lead vocals and without Jon Anderson (who left YES in 1988 to form ABWH). It is a good Pop song. About the rest of the songs: compilations are not always "perfect" , but they included several "Classic" YES songs. About other previously unreleased tracks: it could have been very interesting to listen to the unreleased songs played by the "Drama" line-up in the "Drama" tour ("Go Through This" and "We can fly from here") and other live versions of songs not released in previous live albums and videos ("Hearts", "Our Song", "South Side of the Sky", "To Be over", etc.).