The word is live yes

Astral Traveller (Live in Gothenburg, 1971)

7:24

Everydays (Live in Gothenburg 1971)

10:58

Yours Is No Disgrace (London 1971)

11:30

I’ve Seen All Good People: a. Your Move, b. All Good People

7:52

America (Live in London, 1971)

16:21

Siberian Khatru (Detroit 1976)

10:10

Sound Chaser (Live in Detroit, 1976)

11:17

Sweet Dreams (Detroit 1976)

6:19

Future Times / Rejoice (Live in Oakland 1978)

6:59

Circus of Heaven (Live in Oakland, 1978)

4:52

Roundabout (Chicago 1979)

8:42

Heart of the Sunrise (Live in Oakland, 1978)

10:56

Awaken (Live in Chicago, 1979)

17:52

Tempus Fugit (Live in New York, 1980)

5:51

Rhythm of Love (Houston 1988)

6:42

Hold On (Live in Houston, 1988)

7:24

Shoot High, Aim Low (Houston 1988)

8:27

Yes — this are YES-Songs

Compared to ‘Yessongs’ from 1973 this selection of live tracks is disappointing.

CD 1 contains tracks from the early 70s which have a bad sound quality — for hardcore collectors only!

OK — CD 2 and 3 are better and also the packaging/booklet is very interesting. But if you want to get an excellent live performance of YES then buy ‘Yessongs’!

The least I can say is that I thought this set would be a DVD. I had seen the track list
and was incredibly blown away by the fact that such stuff could exist on film. Alas this
was no DVD but just a box-set of Cds presenting archives from throughout their
career. Yes, I got completely fooled by the format of this «thing»: instead of having the
usual CD box-set, this collection is in the DVD format, and furthermore misplaced in the
library’s collection, apparently I was not the only one fooled. So after pulling out the CD
from my DVD player, I decided to get as much as I could from this missed selection.
Apart from the unusual size, the object is actually gorgeous boasting the usual great
Dean artwork, but also a lush booklet full of great pictures (even one of Jon playing
electric guitar if you can believe it, but also Wakeman’s incredibly tacky and kitsch
stardust-sprinkled cape and a good art of Squire’s incredible wardrobe of stage
costumes) and associated texts, which is likely to get most Yesheads drooling and
wetting their pants in anticipation.

The first disc is obviously the older sessions or concert excerpts ranging from their first
two albums to the year where Yes moved up to the big leagues with their Yesalbum. To
tell you that the general quality of the recordings are flawless would be lying, but in
general they are acceptable. The first four tracks actually show an interesting side of
their first line-up, but the next four are rather more surprising: what a raw powerhouse
they were with Howe’s guitars answering Tony Kaye’s organs. Is included here a live
version of the S&G America and a rather unexpected RnR cover.

The second disc concentrates on the second part of the 70’s and there are a few
surprises here as well: medleys and rather rare tracks are on the main menu. Given
that most of the track selection is rather unusual because not played many times, the
choice of tapes was probably limited and again the recording quality is at times a bit
shoddy. Actually I was always a bit shocked at the 80’s Genesis doing medleys of their
older material, feeling it lack the respect for their old classics, but they took the idea
from Yes as plainly shown in that «Big Medley» from the 78 tour, although the linking
bridges between the track excerpts are rather interesting for the Yeshead.

As you might guess the third disc is dedicated partly to later 80’s stuff but also there
are some of more recording from exactly the same nights as on the second disc.
Personally I would’ve chosen to include all of 78’s Oakland tracks on the same disc and
regroup the 79’s Chicago tracks on the third disc. Just a question of respect for fans.
The later two sessions (one with the Buggles in the fold) are both much less interesting
for everyone but the unconditional fans.

A lot of these tracks are really for hardcore yes fans, but if you are a casual fan, you
might want to pass on this, and a newbie would probably abandon the group should he
start with this set. No matter how beautiful the package, it is rather hard to give much
more than 3 stars though.

This gets 3 stars. Good, but not essential. There are better live Yes albums out there.

The hook for this release is the live material that Yes fans have either never heard or never heard live. Tracks like We Can Fly From
Here and Going Through This were never officially released. Live versions of things like Astral Traveller or Everydays are hard to
come by. So the set list is definitely slanted towards people who are more than casual fans. It’s a solid set list with lots of
interesting little things on it (I’m listening to the extended guitar soloing on Sweet Dreams right now, and it sure is good) but nothing
that’s amazingly special.

The other thing we need to talk about is sound quality. The sound quality isn’t great for the older tracks, but it is listenable. We are
talking a sound quality that is poorer than Yessongs (which, despite being the best live album Yes ever released, doesn’t have
exceptional sound quality by any means) but not nearly as bad as King Crimson’s Earthbound (which isn’t worth the purchase price.)
Sound quality generally improves as the tracks get more modern, but never gets quite as good as you would hope.

So three stars for this one. It’s a live album slanted towards fans who aren’t satisfied with Yessongs and Yesshows and KTA I and
II, but it’s good enough that it’s not JUST for jaded fans.

WELL WORTH BUYING — AS LONG AS YOU CAN PUT UP WITH THE SOUND…

THE WORD IS LIVE has received a drubbing from the critics, which I think is somewhat unfair. Most of the performances are
excellent, and if you’re into 1970s Yes I recommend them unreservedly. It’s true that recording quality is passable at best,
and awful most of the time. Just play this album on that small portable CD-player you’ve got in your kitchen, and such things won’t
bother you too much. Provided you can buy THE WORD at a reduced price, I don’t think you’ll ever regret acquiring a copy.

A feeling of opportunities missed crept up with the very first two tracks (BBC recordings), which had been available for quite a
while. Why waste space on such stuff, Rhino, if you could have given us «Starship Trooper» from 1971? But from track 3 onwards, it’s,
er, «jingle all the way»! On both «Astral Traveller» and «Everydays», the lead guitar solos from Steve Howe (not Peter Banks) are astonishing. Howe’s
solo turn on «Yours is no Disgrace» (featuring BB on drums) is equally exhilerating. «America» suffers from some unnecessary
repetition (apparently the band, at that stage, still needed to edit and trim their epic interpretation), but «It’s Love» (a track I didn’t
know; is it an old Motown number?) is great, innocent fun: it features Chris Squire playing bass and singing scat at the same
time, neatly prefiguring Mr. Stanley Clarke.

On the second disc, «Future Times/Rejoice» (from TORMATO) still doesn’t sound convincing, but the much-maligned «Circus of
Heaven» brought a smile to my face. On «Siberian Khatru», Patrick Moraz replaces Rick Wakeman’s harpsichord with electric piano
(an unforgivable sin, in my view) but this strange performance is immediately followed by a blistering version of «Sound Chaser»
(also from Detroit 1976), which really makes me wonder why Rhino didn’t include «To Be Over» as well.

I used to be an admirer of YESSONGS (it was the first Yes album I ever bought) but nowadays I play the set very little, as I
generally prefer the studio originals. It came as a pleasant surprise that I really enjoyed the versions of «Long Distance
Runaround», «The Fish», «Roundabout» and «Heart of the Sunrise» on THE WORD IS LIVE. To my feeling, these tunes all sound
crisper, leaner and more exciting than on the earlier live album. One of the reasons is that you can now hear Rick Wakeman’s
keyboards more clearly, and Rick plays with admirable fluency. The same is true about «Awaken», where Rick sounds, once
again, superb — although on this particular track, Steve’s fast, electric solo really sounds too dry, not aggressive enough.

I can’t complain about Steve’s playing in general: on the three pieces by the Buggles-dominated Yes (Disc Three, tracks 3-5), you
can tell he’s «reaching for the stars», and when he does so, you know he’ll sound rather cacophonic at times, but at least you could never
say he’s just going through the motions… To tell you the truth, this entire collection gave me such a thrill I even enjoyed the
performances of the Trevor Rabin-dominated band (Disc Three, tracks 6-9). Just seeing those photographs (on p. 34 and 39 in the
booklet) of Jon Anderson in the late 1980s, holding his toy microphone, reminded me how I used to despise this incarnation (a
betrayal of all I once held dear) but if you judge their music on its own terms, it sounds just fine: it is melodious, performed
with conviction and (I never thought I’d write this!) even Trevor Rabin’s solos are fun.

RATING: Three and a half stars.

I do not believe there is much point in berrating the sound quality because even like Yessongs it was not
great. But most people did not care about sound quality much then as long as the vinyl did not jump or get
stuck. The beauty of CD’s is that it captures releases that would have otherwise not seen the light of day
on vinyl. So viewing or listening to this as a latter day release, yes the quality is poor, but I fail to see the
relevance.

The CD’s ( note not DVD! I was another one tricked into believing there were DVD’s in here) offer an
excellent gammut of sounds from the early 70’s thru to the Drama and Big Generator era and some great
tracks off Tormato as well. Over three and a half hours of great live moments in the Yes travels that many
enthusiasts will have in their collections already. ‘ Tempus Fugit’ and ‘ We Can Fly From Here’ from the
Drama era the highlights ,for obvious reasons this album’s exposure received the least publicity in
retrospect. Anyhow a great collective of music. Good to hear the party atmosphere on Rhythm of Love at the
Houston show.

Pretty much, if you are a Yes fan, there is something in this collection for you. It contains live
music from various different era’s of Yes’ career, including many rarities and some songs that
were only ever performed live and never recorded.

For fans of Yes who do not appreciate the first two albums enough to buy Something’s
Coming/Beyond and Before (the two disc «BBC Sessions» album), this album will help scratch
that itch, with four tracks from the same era, including «For Everyone», which eventually evolved
into a section of Starship Trooper on The Yes Album. It also includes a 16 minute, more jam-
oriented version of America, which, while not as tight as the version on «Keys to Ascension», is
definitely a gem for any hardcore Yes fan. The first disc ends with It’s Love, another song that
was not ever released on a studio album, a cover of a song by «The Rascals». It’s a nice rock
track, if not the same sound as their classic era.

Speaking of the classic era, this gets more coverage on the second disc, which starts with
Apocalypse (a section from «And You And I») and Siberian Khatru. What is interesting to fans
about these tracks is they were versions recorded in ’76 — meaning that Patrick Moraz was
behind the keys instead of Wakeman. (In fact, Wakeman’s presence from Fragile to Tales from
Topgraphic Oceans is ignored on this album, due to that period being covered by Yessongs).
This gives the songs a bit of a different feel than their album counterparts, making these versions
unique among Yes live albums. Another track notable for fans of the band off this disc is Sound
Chaser, which is as hard rocking and eclectic here as it was on Relayer, if not perhaps slightly
better because of the live setting.

The gem off of disc 2 is «The Big Medley», a 25 minute track that Yes performed after the release
of Tormato to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. It includes music from most of Yes’ albums to
that point, and is an excellent medley. It is also one of the only live recordings of Survival (off of
Yes’ debut), which is played here in conjunction with «The Fish». It also includes «Perpetual
Change», another under-appreciated Yes classic off of The Yes Album. Disc 2 also includes
Hello Chicago, a quick little rock piece where Jon Anderson sings to the audience.

Other than including yet another version of Heart of the Sunrise and Awaken — great tracks but
otherwise well covered in other live Yes albums — Disc 3 contains two gems: We Can Fly From
Here and Have We Really Got To Go Through With This?, tracks that were written during the
Drama era but that Yes never recorded due to time constraints. (Which is too bad, I would have
rather have had one of these on Drama then White Car!) They are both great tracks. Also of
note from that era is a live version of Tempus Fugit.

Unfortunately, Disc 3 is probably the «Black Sheep» of the set, as other than the first two
redundant tracks, the music is all from «Drama» and «Big Generator» era, which are not Yes’ most
popular albums. As such, the second Disc will likely get the most play from the most people.

The album does skip a few eras (Fragile to Tales, 90125), but these are eras of Yes’
discography that are well represented by other live albums. Unfortunately, Rhino (who did this
release) did not have any music from after Big Generator that they could publish, which is a
shame because, while Yes has released plenty of live releases post 2000 that cover a lot of
their later career, there still aren’t any official releases that cover the Union tour, and I know that
many Yes fans would love to hear music from that era.

Nonetheless, for Yes fans who want to hear more, this album truly delivers, with interesting takes
on existing songs, many unreleased tracks that weren’t released on studio albums, etc. For
those who aren’t strong fans of Yes, this album will probably have less appeal, especially the first
and third disc which don’t cover the classic era.

Final rating: For yes fans, 4/5 stars. For everyone else, 2/5.

In the early 2000’s, rumors floated around for a good while that Yes was thinking about
releasing a boxset of previously unreleased live material, but after a while I started to think
(like I’m sure many fans did) that, given how much Yes was dragging their heels on actually
doing this, this would never happen. So imagine my surprise when I found out that it would
be released in 2005, and that there ended up being only one significant delay from the
initial target release date. ‘Twas a modern miracle, to be sure, given Yes’ habitual tardiness
with such releases in the latter part of their career …

So anyway, this 3-CD boxset is a nice addition to the band’s catalogue, and it justifies its
existence by (mostly) focusing on periods in the band’s history that haven’t been adequately
covered by Yessongs, Yesshows and the like. The all-music guide actually complains
about the fact that the band’s ’72-’75 peak is ignored on here, but that seems rather silly to
me; if this set focused on that period, it would be redundant, whereas in its current state it’s
largely essential for hardcore fans. It’s even nice enough to have some tracks on it that are
the exact same versions as ones I already owned («Sweet Dreams» is from the Electric
Freedom/QPR ’75 show, the three 1980 tracks are from the Complete Dramatized
Tour show), and it covers some material from some tours where I have bootlegs of other shows, so it’s at
least a partial solution to hunting down tracks from bootlegs that are no longer easy to find.

The set starts off slightly redundant, presenting cleaned up versions of «Then» and «For
Everyone» done in BBC sessions while Banks was in the band, but quickly moves into
Steve Howe’s initial period with the band, giving us our first chance to hear the TYA lineup
live. We start with solid runthroughs of «Astral Traveller» and «Everydays» from 1970, which
prove that Steve had his style and technique down from day one, as he mostly reinvents
Banks’ guitar lines and makes the songs distinctly his. Then it’s off to 1971 and nice
performances of «Yours is No Disgrace» and «I’ve Seen All Good People,» giving us a
chance to hear what this material was like when it was completely fresh and had no stench
of overfamiliarity. One thing that particularly stands out in «YIND» is just how aggressive
Howe would get when it was his turn to shine; the band actually sounds a little cautious
and unsure when playing the main parts of the song, but as soon as Howe can break out
those wah-wah licks, it’s like watching a leopard pounce.

From this show, we also get to hear the young, jammy cover-band Yes, the one that would
make Paul Simon’s «America» last 16 minutes and «It’s Love» by The Young Rascals last
11. I’ll admit that 16 minutes is a little excessive, but it’s just so intriguing to hear the band
making songs so long not because they’d written them as such, but because they needed
to fill space in their shows from not having much of a back catalogue yet, and the ideas that
they pull out to try and make it work are neat to hear. Just as it would be later at the SLO
shows, «America» is a great showcase for Steve’s prog-country licks, and in this case even
Kaye’s organ gets some of the spotlight. As for «It’s Love,» I’m betting this cover would
infuriate fans of the original (if I knew the original I’d be able to make a surer guess), but as
far as I’m concerned, it has a great combination of groove (Bruford is bashing about but
also holding the fort well) and great instrumental sounds, so that’s enough for me. Chris’
bass solo (with attempt to sing along to it) could be a little shorter, but I still like it a lot.

Disc 2 begins (after having the band walk out on stage to Moraz and Howe
playing «Apocalypse» from «And You And I») with FABULOUS runthroughs of «Siberian
Khatru» and «Sound Chaser» from 1976 (followed by «Sweet Dreams» from the already
mentioned 1975 show). «Sound Chaser,» in particular, sounds way way better here than it
did as the Electric Freedom opener, and I don’t think it’s just a matter of sound quality. The
band toys with the introduction, making it loads more atmospheric, and the song itself
becomes a rocking monster that I think could (potentially) be enjoyed even by somebody
who didn’t really like the original.

The rest of disc 2 (and the start of disc 3) focuses on the Tormato tour. «Big Medley»
is there in all its glory, and the renditions of «Heart of the Sunrise,» «Awaken»
and «Roundabout» are all some of the best you can get from Yes (I’m not thrilled about
having these songs on here taking up space, but I guess you have to have a good %
of «standards» for a set like this). Of course, I wish that «Circus of Heaven» and «Future
Times/Rejoice» weren’t also taking up space (the Wembly version of «On the Silent Wings
of Freedom,» by far the best rendition of the track I’ve heard, would have been preferable),
but whatever. Next up are «Go Through This,» «We Can Fly From Here» and «Tempus Fugit»
from the Complete Dramatized Tour show, and the biggest thing I can say here is
that I finally learned to really enjoy «Go Through This»; it’s a fine piece of New Wave
rock’n’roll, go figure.

Unfortunately, the set ends on a slightly down note, as the last four tracks are from the
Big Generator tour, generally regarded as one of the worst tours the band ever did.
The songs and performances themselves are fine (except for «Hold On,» which still blows),
but I can’t help but be irritated that, of all the remaining possibilities, the band decided that
the world needed to have seven officially released tracks from one of its worst tours
(remember, Yesyears contains «Heart of the Sunrise,» «And You And I»
and «Changes» from that tour). Ah well.

In the end, I might have been able to do a better job of selecting tracks (it would have been
better, for instance, to have «Awaken» from the Union tour) to go on here, but I’m
pleased with what I have. I don’t recommend it for anybody but big fans like me, but for big
fans like me, it’s definitely a necessity.

A Box Set with mostly previously unreleased live recordings of diverse quality that YES released in
2005. It covers recordings done between 1970 and 1988, the years on which YES was signed to
Atlantic / Atco Records. The tracks «Then» and «For Everyone» were previously. released in
the «Something`s Coming» and «Beyond and Before -The BBC Recordings 1969-70» albums from
1997-98. The rest of the tracks, as long as I know, were officially released for the first time in this
Box Set. Most of the tracks are interesting for my taste, but, as I mentioned before, the quality of
the recordings varies. I have to say that until the late eighties-nineties the quality of the recordings
of most official live albums released by YES left a bit to be desired. Not only the recordings were
not very good but the mixings were not very good too. The same happens with most of these live
recordings, with the exception of the live recordings done in 1988 (which I previously recorded from
the radio in 1989; in fact, these recordings complete some of the live recordings from 1988 done in
Houston which were previously released in the «Yesyears» (1991) Boxset, but still leaving as
unreleased tracks some other songs from the same concert). I think that the recordings from 1970
and 1971, despite sounding well, are Mono recordings. The rest of the songs are Stereo recordings.

There are several line-ups of the band included in the recordings used in this Box Set: the original
line-up (Anderson, Banks, Bruford, Kaye and Squire), «The Yes Album» line-up (Anderson, Bruford,
Howe, Kaye and Squire), the «Relayer» album line-up (Anderson, Howe, Moraz, Squire and White),
the «Going for the One» and «Tormato» albums line-up (Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman and
White), the «Drama» album line-up (Downes, Horn, Howe, Squire and White), and the «90125» and
Big Generator» albums line-up (Anderson, Kaye, Rabin, Squire and White). As the «Fragile»
and «Close to the Edge» albums line-up (Anderson, Bruford, Howe,Squire and Wakeman) was
previously presented in three tracks in the «Yessongs» album, I think that it was the reason it was
left out of this Box Set, but I think that it could have been very interesting to listen to live versions of
songs like «Heart of the Sunrise» and «Rondabout» done live by this line-up.

One really can listen to some differences in the playing of some live tracks by different line-ups. For
example, the live versions of «Astral Traveller» and «Everydays» are played with Steve Howe on
guitar and I really prefer the live versions with Peter Banks on guitar from the BBC
albums. «Siberian Khatru» is played with Patrick Moraz on keyboards, but I prefer the live versions
recorded with Rick Wakeman.»Soon» (from «The Gates of Delirium») was played with Rick
Wakeman in the «Big Medley» from 1979, but I prefer the live recordings done with Patrick Moraz.

Fortunately, they only included live recordings of the «Drama » album line-up playing songs which
originally were only played by that line-up (with «We Can Fly from Here» and «Go Through This» being songs that they only played live during that tour and they did not include studio versionsof them in the «Drama » album), because now it is very known that Trevor Horn did not sing old songs from YES
very well. The live version of «Awaken» from 1979 included in this Box Set is very good, in my
opinion, and the live tracks from Houston 1988 done during the «Big Generator» tour are very
good. The same could be said of «Sweet Dreams» done by the «Relayer» album line-up in 1975.

So, while not being a «perfect» live Box Set in the general quality of the performances and of the
recordings, this Box Set it is a very enjoyable listening experience.It also could be a very good Box
Set for the most die-hard fans of the band.

Go Through This

This four disc set is considered the live companion to the In A Word box set. The Word Is Live features live
recordings from the early 70’s to the late 80’s and thus features material taken from a wide range of
different sources with many different line-ups involved. The sound quality ranges from good to weak. The
tracks are ordered in roughly chronological order starting out with some early BBC recordings from 1971
and ending with four songs recorded in 1988. Along the way we get to meet (in multiple configurations)
guitarists Peter Banks, Steve Howe, and Trevor Rabin; keyboard players Tony Kaye, Rick Wakeman,
Patrick Moraz, and Geoff Downes; drummers Bill Bruford, and Alan White; vocalists Jon Anderson and
Trevor Horn; and bass player Chris Squire who remains the only constant throughout.

With the sole exception of Tales From Topographic Oceans, every studio album up to 1987’s Big Generator
is represented. There is thus nothing from the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album or Union or from
any subsequent album. However, there is a 1980 live recording of We Can Fly From Here which many
years later became the title track of Fly From Here (2011). Go Through This is another track from the same
1980 live recording featuring the line-up that recorded Drama that like We Can Fly From Here was not
included on that (or any other) album (at the time). There are also a few other non-album tracks featured
here, the most prominent example being It’s Love — a cover song that was played live by the band in their
early days.

Now that this box set can be heard on Spotify, being a huge fan of the band, I certainly find it worth
hearing. However, with so many fine «proper» live albums (and videos) from the band, this massive
compilation of independent live tracks is less than essential. If you have some or all of the band’s official
live albums (Yessongs, Yesshows, Keys to Ascension, House Of Yes, Symphonic Live, etc.) then you
don’t really need this box set unless you are a serious fan and collector. The listening value of these discs
is a lot lower in virtue of the material being taken from such a wide range of sources, and I generally
strongly prefer live albums that are taken from a single concert.

Recommended for fans and collectors

Отображены все записи

Диски, входящие в бокс-сет