In May 1973, after touring for the albums Fragile And close to the edge British group Yes released an ambitious concert work spread across three vinyls. An album entitled Yes songs who just turned 50 and is one of the classics from Yes.
Featuring a majestic Roger Dean cover, the triple album, released May 18, was recorded in New York, Greensboro, North Carolina, Knoxville, Tennessee, Uniondale, London and Ottawa. Yes, in the federal capital.
The aim of this live album was to silence those who believed that Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, Bill Bruford and Alan White were unable to master the skill of Fragile and Close to the Edge to repeat live.
Manager Brian Lane and the band members agreed to reduce copyright returns so they could sell this imposing piece at a reasonable price.
We find several tracks on this album that have become classics of the British formation. The titles are Siberian Khatru, Heart of the Sunrise, Perpetual Change, And You and I, Mood for a Day, Roundabout, I’ve Seen All Good People, Long Distance Runaround, Close to the Edge, Yours Is No Disgrace and Starship Trooper can be found on this album, which comprises a total of 130 minutes of music.
Yessongs begins with an excerpt from Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, the introductory piece to all Yes concerts.
Bassist Chris Squire and flamboyant man in the cloak Rick Wakeman offer solo segments with The Fish and excerpts from English keyboardist’s opus The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
Photo from Amazon website
Yessongs live album art by Yes
The roundabout was recorded on September 1, 1972 at Ottawa’s Civic Center. The group had performed a concert at the St-Denis Theater in Montreal during the Close to the Edge tour.
The film
After drummer Bill Bruford left Yes to join King Crimson, Alan White had three days to learn Yes’s repertoire for the Close to the Edge tour, which started July 30, 1972.
“In the first three months of the tour I got to know Yes’s music. I thought it was a bit unfair but they told me it sounded good and not to worry about it,” the drummer, who died on May 26, 2022, said in an interview published on the website Classic Rock Revisited.
White is featured on most titles, with the exception of the tracks Perpetual Change and the Double Long Distance Runaround / The Fish, which was recorded while the Opus Fragile was touring.
The recording quality is certainly the album’s biggest flaw. Sound engineer Eddie Offord was responsible for the live sound and concert recording. A huge task for a man back then.
Yessongs was number 7 in the UK, number 8 in Australia and Canada, number 9 in Italy and number 12 in the United States.
Two years later, Yes released a film consisting of two concerts recorded on September 15th and 16th at the Rainbow Theater in London. A film that was released in theaters in North America and is available in DVD and Blu-ray format.