YESSPEAK

In early 2004 I drove down to Philadelphia to see a special premier of this film in a theater. I believe a local rock station was sponsoring it (at least partly) and there was even a little trvia station where I won a t shirt (which I eventually gave to my sister-in- law). The film was hosted by the late legendary Philadelphia dj Ed Sciaky ( a big champion of Yes and one of the reasons they broke big when they did- I chatted with him briefly after the film but unfortunately he passed away three days later). Anyway, for whatever reason they didn't show the entire film since it is about 3 1/2 hours long but they showed most of it. Some guy sitting near me was making loud whooping sounds every so often so I eventually changed my seat (too bad the guy wasn't thrown out since it was so disruptive). This was my first experience with this film. I even picked up a bunch of free posters too. There was a really big deal made about it there maybe because it was used as a promotional device for Yes's upcoming tour (I saw them twice in 2004). About a year ago I was able to buy this online for a good price and finally see this again.

Yesspeak is basically a behind the scenes kind of documentary and as such I think it's really geared towards those who are already big fans of the band. Those who are brand new or who are only casual fans would probably be better off with something like Yesyears or one of their other dvds (concert or otherwise). This film is narrated by legendary singer for the Who, Roger Daltrey. If you ask me he is sort of an odd choice for narrator and I couldn't help but wonder half the time if he actually believes most of what he is saying on here. He tends to go on and on about how huge Yes were (or are) and while I do think Yes were a major band at one point, these days most younger folks probably have no clue who they are. Many older music fans have probably forgotten about them too. It's really only those who stuck with the band or progressive rock fans who know them now which you could say qualifies them as a cult band. I don't deny that in the 70s they were probably well beyond cult status but to be honest I can't remember the last time I saw someone wearing a Yes t shirt.

Other than Roger kind of acting like a cheerleader for the band he doesn't do a half bad job as narrator as odd as it is hearing his voice on this. The main focus of course is on the band themselves. However, for the purposes of this film, they focus almost exclusively on Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Steve Howe and Alan White and each of them gets their own little segment. I suppose that's understandable since this was released to coincide with their 35th anniversary tour which featured that lineup. However, I do think they made a mistake by not mentioning other members a bit more. I don't remember Trevor Rabing being mentioned and I think Jon only mentioned Pete Banks because he came up with the Yes name. Bill Bruford was only mentioned once also (I think just to say that Alan White replaced him though). Because of all of this this doesn't represent a very good history of the band (other Yes documentaries are better for that especially the aforementioned Yesyears).

Another thing that I find annoying is that much of the time when one of the band members is speaking, the music in the background is usually too loud and I can barely hear what Jon or Rick, or whoever, is saying; at least it's Yes music but I still find this to be rather distracting. Also, most of them are often talking about things that are mostly inconsequential to all but the most ardent Yes fan. I found Steve's discussion about his guitars to be especially boring but there were other moments where I sort of lost interest as well and I'm someone who considers himself to be a pretty big Yes fan. I guess I just don't need to know that Steve slept with his guitar or some of the other trivial stuff on here that sometimes comes across as rambling (at least to me).

Overall, this was still a pretty good film/dvd and there are plenty of clips of the band playing their classics. Most of it centers on the material that Alan White didn't even originally play on but being that it makes up a good portion of what they played live at this point in time it's understandable it would be represented here in such large quantities. A good addition to your prog dvd collection if you are already a big Yes fan. Otherwise, start with Yesyears.