Yessongs

Yessongs
Live album by Yes
Released	18 May 1973
Recorded	February - December 1972
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	2:09:55
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Yes, Eddie Offord

Yessongs is the first live album from the English progressive rock band Yes, released on Atlantic Records. The album is formed of recordings from their supporting world tours for their studio albums, Fragile and Close to the Edge, between February and December 1972. A concert film of the same name was released in 1975 that documents the band's performances at London's Rainbow Theatre on 15 and 16 December 1972.

Yessongs was released on 18 May 1973 as a triple vinyl set. It reached number 7 on the UK Albums Chart and number 12 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. The album was certified gold in 1973 and platinum in 1998 by the Recording Industry Association of America. It is now available as a double CD.

Production

Background

The Fragile tour tracks "Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)" and "Perpetual Change" are the only tracks on the album to feature Yes's original drummer, Bill Bruford, who left the group after recording Close to the Edge. For that album's tour, Yes were joined by drummer Alan White, who had only days to learn the material. White was only three years into his career as a session drummer, but had already worked with such acts as The Plastic Ono Band and Joe Cocker.

Composition

The album opens with an excerpt from Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, which has been a standard opening Yes concerts ever since. Later in the album, vocalist Jon Anderson sings a passage from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring before the medley from keyboardist Rick Wakeman.

All band members except Anderson and White are given extended solo space. The track "Mood for a Day" is an unaccompanied guitar performance by Steve Howe, who also takes extended solos during "Yours Is No Disgrace" and at the end of "Starship Trooper". The Yessongs version of "The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)" is considerably longer than the studio version, with bassist Chris Squire taking an extended solo (and jamming with Bruford). Bill Bruford performs a drum solo on "Perpetual Change," which is preceded by an extended guitar performance by Howe accompanied by Bruford and Squire. The album also contains a medley of excerpts from keyboardist Rick Wakeman's solo album The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

Some songs are extended to almost double the length of their studio counterparts as well as given a more high-octane performance.

Sources of live recordings

The album featured no detailed recording credits. Two songs, "Close To The Edge" and "Starship Trooper", can be established by audio comparison to be sourced from the same London Rainbow Theatre concert as the Yessongs film (15 December 1972). "Roundabout" is assumed to come from the Ottawa, ON show (1 November 1972) and "Yours Is No Disgrace" from the Athens, GA show (14 November 1972) (both of these dates are purely anecdotal). The two tracks from the Fragile tour featuring Bill Bruford are generally assumed to come from the NYC Academy of Music shows on 19 and 23 February 1972 (based on text in the 1973 Australian Tour programme).

Cover design

The album was initially released on three discs in a fold-out package featuring artwork by Roger Dean. Inside are four individual panels by Dean which continue a theme that began with Fragile in 1971. On the back cover of Fragile is an image of a small planet breaking apart into several large pieces with a giant sailing spacecraft nearby. The first panel in Yessongs, titled "Escape", shows the craft apparently leading the planetary fragment through space. The second panel ("Arrival") depicts these fragments landing in the waters of a new world. In the third image ("Awakening") this new landscape becomes the habitat for various plant and animal species. The final image ("Pathways") depicts the emergence of civilization (Dean's cat walked across this piece whilst still wet and its paw prints can be clearly seen). This theme is also the basis of the film Floating Islands. The sailing craft was used as a small logo on many of the band's subsequent albums, and the image sequence inspired Yes vocalist Jon Anderson's first solo album Olias of Sunhillow in 1976, although Roger Dean was not involved with that album's artwork.

The original Bob White plot for the RPG Ultima IX: Ascension compared the original ending of the game to Dean's artwork on Yessongs.

• 

  Escape

• 

  Arrival

• 

  Awakening

• 

  Pathways

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Rolling Stone	(not rated)

Track listing

CD 1
Side one

1. "Opening (Excerpt from Firebird Suite)" (Igor Stravinsky) – 3:47
2. "Siberian Khatru" (Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman) – 9:03
3. "Heart of the Sunrise" (Anderson, Bill Bruford, Chris Squire) – 11:33

Side two

4. "Perpetual Change" (Anderson, Squire) – 14:11
5. "And You and I" (Anderson, Bruford, Howe, Squire) – 9:33
   1. "Cord of Life"
   2. "Eclipse" (Anderson, Bruford, Squire)
   3. "The Preacher the Teacher"
   4. "Apocalypse"

Side three

6. "Mood for a Day" (Howe) – 2:53
7. "Excerpts from The Six Wives of Henry VIII" (Wakeman) – 6:37
8. ”Roundabout" (Anderson, Howe) – 8:33

CD 2
Side four

1. "I've Seen All Good People" (Anderson, Squire) – 7:09
   1. "Your Move" (Anderson)
   2. "All Good People" (Squire)
2. "Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)" (Anderson, Squire) – 13:37

Side five

3. "Close to the Edge" (Anderson, Howe) – 18:13
   1. "The Solid Time of Change"
   2. "Total Mass Retain"
   3. "I Get Up I Get Down" (Anderson, Squire)
   4. "Seasons of Man"

Side six

4. "Yours Is No Disgrace" (Anderson, Bruford, Howe, Tony Kaye, Squire) – 14:23
5. "Starship Trooper" (Anderson, Squire, Howe) – 10:08
   1. "Life Seeker" (Anderson)
   2. "Disillusion" (Squire)
   3. "Würm" (Howe)

Concert film

Yessongs
Directed by	Peter Neal
Produced by	Brian Lane, David Speechley
Starring	Jon Anderson Chris Squire Steve Howe Rick Wakeman Alan White
Music by	Yes
Editing by	Philip Howe
Release date(s)	1973 (1973)
Running time	76 minutes

A film, also titled Yessongs, was released in 1975. It documents their concerts at London's Rainbow Theatre on 15 and 16 December 1972. The only performances that are the same on the album and the film are "Close to the Edge" and "Würm".

1. "Overture"
2. "I've Seen All Good People"
3. "Clap"
4. "And You and I"
5. "Close to the Edge"
6. "Excerpts from The Six Wives of Henry VIII"
7. "Roundabout"
8. "Yours Is No Disgrace"
9. "Würm" (excerpt from "Starship Trooper")

On 17 December 1997, the film was released on DVD with Dolby.

Personnel

• Jon Anderson - lead vocals
• Chris Squire - bass guitar, backup vocals
• Steve Howe - electric and acoustic guitars, backup vocals
• Rick Wakeman - keyboards, synthesiser, organ
• Bill Bruford - drums on "Perpetual Change" and "The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)"
• Alan White - drums (everything else)

Chart performance

Year	Chart	Position
1973	UK Albums Chart	7
	Billboard Pop Albums	12

Certifications

Organization	Level	Date
RIAA – USA	Gold	March 17, 1973
CRIAA – Canada	Gold	December 1, 1976
RIAA – USA	Platinum	April 10, 1998

Reissues

18 February 1987 - Original CD Issue - Atlantic Records (CD)
27 September 1994 - 2-CD Remaster - Atlantic Records (CD)
25 July 2001 - 3-CD HDCD Remaster by Isao Kikuchi - US "accordion" style cover - Warner Japan AMCY-6293 (CD)
22 July 2009 - 2-CD SHM-CD Remaster by Isao Kikuchi - original UK booklet style cover - Warner Music Japan WPCR-13517/8 (CD)

Missing from the Yes "expanded and remastered" 2003/2004 series by Rhino/Warner, (like Yesshows, 9012Live and Big Generator) Yessongs was most recently remastered in 2009 by Isao Kikuchi. The album was published by Warner Music Japan as part of their "Yes SHM-CD Papersleeve" series. Yessongs is the sole album from this series not to have bonus tracks.

Sources

• Allmusic
• "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c. 2002
• http://www.minilps.net/yes/yessongs-amcy-6293
• http://www.minilps.net/yes/yessongs-wpcr-13517

External links

• Yesworld: The Official Yes website