It’s been some time since we reviewed Yes, but I have this
\nfeeling that anytime I dare to take on one of the fathers of
\nprogressive rock, some people out there cringe. You see, back in
\n1997, I reamed the album
\nTales From Topographic Oceans<\/i>, and people have yet to
\nforgive me for that. It’s almost as if any time I dare to review
\nsomething from Jon Anderson and crew, I’m going to piss on it worse
\nthan a drunk in the john of his favorite corner bar.<\/p>\n
So, it’s kind of reassuring that reader Jeffrey Mewbourn
\nsuggested that we review
\nYessongs<\/i>, the three-record live set from 1973. Why not? It
\nhad been some time since I dug this one out of the Pierce Memorial
\nArchives, and I was up for spending a couple of hours in front of
\nthe stereo.<\/p>\n
Now, I know I’m gonna take heat for some of the things I have to
\nsay; after all, I’m not going to gush over every single note on
\nthis album. But, for the most part,
\nYessongs<\/i> is a worthwhile journey that might seem to be a bit
\nof overkill to the newcomers, but is actually a quick listen.<\/p>\n
First, let’s get the complaints out of the way, so those who
\nblindly follow the band can get their flame e-mails out of the way.
\nFirst, I question why the band chose to feature material from only
\nthree of their albums, all of them their most popular works. (They
\nhad five albums’ worth of material by this time, but neither
\nYes<\/i> nor
\nTime And A Word<\/i> are represented on this collection.) Second,
\nit takes some time for the sound levels on this album to really get
\nto a good level; at the start, it seems like forever until you hear
\nany crowd noise or the opening notes of the excerpt from “Firebird
\nSuite”.<\/p>\n
The only other negative I’ll touch on at this time is that
\nYessongs<\/i> is not an album geared towards the incoming fan.
\nRather, this was an album for those who had been listening from the
\nbeginning and who knew what to expect from Yes. If this is your
\nfirst taste of the group (and I find it hard to believe there’s
\nsomeone out there who hasn’t heard songs like “Roundabout” or “I’ve
\nSeen All Good People”), you might walk away from this album a
\nlittle confused.<\/p>\n
Okay, now that I’ve really stirred up some people’s blood, let’s
\ntalk about what Yes does right on this album – and there is a lot.
\nYessongs<\/i> is a very good portrait of what this band was like
\nat the progressive peak of their career (popularity-wise, they
\nweren’t even there yet;
\n90125<\/i> was over a decade away). The band constantly proves
\nhow tight they were as a musical unit; the complexities of songs
\nlike “Close To The Edge” and “Heart Of The Sunrise” are nailed like
\nclockwork.<\/p>\n
Anderson is in fine voice, while Steve Howe often shows why he
\nwas considered to be one of the greatest guitar players ever. I do
\nwish, however, that they had included the guitar solo that was
\nfeatured in the video of
\nYessongs<\/i> instead of “Mood For A Day”; it just seemed to
\ncapture his amazing playing better. (While I’m on the subject of
\nthe video: Can anyone out there tell me what the hell the video at
\nthe start of the tape — which is
\ndefinitely<\/i> not Yes — had to do with anything?)<\/p>\n
The solo break from keyboardist Rick Wakeman (who had recently
\nreleased
\nThe Six Wives Of Henry VIII<\/i> at that time) showed that he
\ndidn’t always take the music seriously, and dared to have some fun
\nwith it. And frankly, that was a refreshing thing to hear on
\nYessongs<\/i>; while I’m not claiming this album is heavy-starch
\nserious, a break like Wakeman’s was an enjoyable interlude.<\/p>\n
But it is interesting to note that the solos from bassist Chris
\nSquire and drummer Alan White (who splits time with Bill Bruford on
\nthis set) almost suggest a more rock edge to the music — making me
\nwonder if Yes, at this time, was at a crossroad between rock and
\nprogressive music. (The path they’d eventually choose would become
\nobvious on
\nTales From Topographic Oceans<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
Some of my critics might note that I haven’t said a word about
\nsong length — mainly because it isn’t an issue on
\nYessongs<\/i>. All the tracks — except for “Perpetual Change,”
\nwhich I just couldn’t get into, despite repeated listens — seem to
\nfly by, meaning that Yes was doing something very right.<\/p>\n
If you’re just getting into Yes, you might want to hold off on
\nYessongs<\/i> until you’ve developed an appreciation for what
\nthey were out to accomplish in the early ’70s; after that, this
\nalbum will make a lot of sense. I made the mistake of listening to
\nit before I had developed some knowledge of the band, which might
\nexplain why I didn’t fall in love with the set on first listen back
\nin 1987. For the long-time fans of Yes, this will be a slice of the
\nband’s history that you’re sure to enjoy. I don’t know if
\ntechnology makes this sound better on CD, but I can tell you —
\nwith the exception of the volume levels from time to time — there
\nisn’t a problem on my old vinyl copy.<\/p>\n
So, Jeffrey, if you’re still wondering if
\nYessongs<\/i> is worth picking up, I’d say yes — assuming you’re
\nsomewhat familiar with
\nFragile<\/i>,
\nThe Yes Album<\/i> and
\nClose To The Edge<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5713],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36226","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-yes","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36226"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36226"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}