Yes - In a Word Yes 1969 (55 tracks) +Album Reviews

YESFLEECE: Don't bother!

Ben B | Hummelstown, PA USA | 01/09/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Yes..In a Word.....What's wrong with this picture, Box set number two released approximately 10 years after the first, including 55 tracks of which 5 are previously unreleased, one is an alternate mix (not far removed from the original) and one song with the original extended beginning re-attached. Besides the seven tracks mentioned are 40 odd songs that if you have all, if not most of the catalog, and the three Greatest Hits packages (Including Yesterdays) you HAVE them all?!?!?! Were they even re-mastered?Now fast forward a few months and the announcement of re-released albums with EXTRA CUTS! Talk about fleecing the fans and collectors!The opportunity to include these cuts in the box was missed! As well as the 3 live cuts from the Magnification releases that were conveniently distributed amongst three separate releases (that were in different stores to share the wealth!) Also missing in action is the NOT YET SEEN ON CD acapella version of Leave It (not to mention the "dance-mix versions" which were extremely popular in the 80's, BUT part of the 90125 "mystique") The alternate (and much better) mix of Quartet: I'm Alive from the In The Big Dream Video and Vultures which was an extra cut off of the ABWH album that surfaced on a cd single (which is long out of print)
ALSO missing in action are the cuts from the proposed Dialogue album, and the "XYZ" session material from when Jimmy Page worked with Chris Squire and Alan White to form the "eX Yes Zeppelin" project!As a collector of rarities and oddities, (i.e. bootlegs and recordings of indeterminate origin) I know that these recordings exist in one form or another, and should have been released in this box as opposed to the 48 studio cuts that most people that would be interested in this set would want!Who is this box set for, you may ask? People that do NOT own any more than one Yes album, People wanting an EXTREME greatest hits package, "Complete-ists" that need it to complete their collection, or people that are going to buy it, copy the rare tracks, and sell the set to a used CD outlet. (which would be the best way to obtain this) Is it a must have? NO! Just like the KeysStudio disc which puts all of the studio cuts from the two Keys to Ascension releases on one CD. (easier to copy and burn them off of the discs you already own)"

Perpetual Change

Mike King | Taunton, MA United States | 10/15/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rhino Records has released the definitive Yes boxed set. Each of the five discs is filled with over 70 minutes of music. In addition to another excellent Roger Dean cover, there is a large booklet containing informative liner notes, interesting essays and lots of photos. The compilation opens with the Yes cover version of the Beatles' song "Every Little Thing." It was a bold move for a young, unknown group to reshape a song by the Beatles, but Yes pulled it off magnificently. When Steve Howe replaced original guitarist Peter Banks, the Yes sound really solidified. The first album with him contained their first American hit, "I've Seen All Good People." Shortly after that album, original keyboardist Tony Kaye left. Thus, THE classic lineup of Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Rick Wakeman recorded the next several Yes albums. "Roundabout" kicks off disc 2, being their best known song from the album "Fragile." "South Side Of The Sky," "Heart Of The Sunrise," and "Long Distance Runaround" are also included, although the last song appears out of chronological order in disc 3. "Close To The Edge" contains the entire title suite of songs, as well as the classic "Siberian Khatru." Some have complained that the "And You And I" suite of songs were left off the boxed set, but that would have duplicated the entire "Close To The Edge" album and kept other songs off this collection. Worse yet, it may have forced them to include edited versions of such epic songs as "The Revealing Science Of God: Dance Of The Dawn" and "The Gates Of Delirium," instead of the full length versions contained in this boxed set.Disc 4 contains three of the five previously unreleased songs, the most unusual one being the instrumental "Crossfire." The album "Drama" is represented with two songs, even though lead singer Jon Anderson and keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman had left the group at that time. That's fine, since "Tempus Fugit" fits in well among other Yes classics. Jon Anderson rejoined the group, only to have Steve Howe depart. This ushered in the Trevor Rabin era of the group, their most commercially successful period. That era is well represented, including the massive hit "Owner Of A Lonely Heart," as well as "It Can Happen," "Rhythm Of Love" and "Love Will Find A Way."Disc 5 continues where their previous boxed set ended. Highlights include the epic "Mind Drive" and two songs which should have been hits, "Open Your Eyes" and "Homeworld (The Ladder)." "Last Train" (an outtake) and the "In The Presence Of" suite of songs from their 2001 album "Magnification" close out this collection. Would I recommend that all fans of great music buy this boxed set? In a word, YES!"

In A Word Great Introduction To New Fans

J. E FELL | Carterville, Illinois United States | 08/11/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yes formed in the late sixties, became one of the most important practitioners of progressive or art rock. While the band at times has been both acclaimed and disparaged. They have however, continued to produce albums and stick to their musical ideals. This set is a 5 disk set with 5 unissued tracks and an alternate take. It also contains the full length version on their 1972 cover of Paul Simon's "America". The set features material from 1969-2002. This set is meant as more of an introduction to casual Yes fans. It provides remastered versions of some of their best songs. This is especially helpful to those upgrading from lp and who can not afford to convert every lp to cd. The "classic" line up of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford/Alan White is well represented. Classic cuts include "Starship Trooper", "I've Seen All Good People", "Roundabout", "Long Distance Runaround", "Close To The Edge" and "Wonderous Stories". The set also includes more commercial material like "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", "Hold On", "Leave It" and "The Calling" from later editions of the band. In addition it contains forgotten favorites like "Sweet Dreams", "Time And A Word", "Perpetual Change", "South Side Of The Sky", "Siberian Khatru" and "Don't Kill The Whale". The music has an ethereal quality due to Jon Anderson's vocals and the mixture of acoustic and electric guitars from Steve Howe while keyboardists Wakeman, Kaye and Moraz provide interesting textures. Along with Emerson Lake and Palmer the use of keyboards by Yes became somewhat standard among progressive bands. Chris Squire was the bass hero of many a player while the complex time changes never seem to bother Bill Bruford and Alan White. I have some Yes albums but not all of them so this provides a means of aquiring some great cuts from some otherwise mediocre albums.However, the set despite its length and remastering is still not perfect. It omits such tracks as "The Fish", "And You And I", "Ritual", "Sound Chaser", "Parallels", "Awaken", and "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom". It might have been interesting to include a live disk or two of material from throughout their career to trace the development and personnel changes within the band. These criticisms aside the set does provide a great sounding introduction to one the most influential progressive bands in rock music."

For The Most Part, I'm Happy With It

TOL | Long Island, NY | 08/02/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The first reason for buying a box set is to have a collection of music from your favorite band, all in one place. From this particular box set, I was expecting to get a well thought-out, chronologically ordered collection of my favorite Yes songs from 1969 up to the present. In that respect, it really delivers. I have to say that I am a bit dissapointed in the exclusion of such masterpieces as "And You And I" and "Awaken". But this is MORE than made up for by including ABWH and Keys To Ascension material. A sampling from literally every Yes line-up is included. We get Anderson, Squire, Banks, Kaye, Bruford, Howe, Wakeman, Moraz, Horn, Downes, Rabin, Sherwood, Khoroshev, and even Groupe. How can we complain about that?The second reason for buying a box set like this is to have a great colorful book on the band. In this respect, this collection really delivers as well. The book is authored, in two distinctly separate sections, by two classic Yes authors. The first section is by Chris Welch who is famous for his excellent Yes biography entitled "Close To The Edge". The second section is authored by Bill Martin who is known for his philosophical analysis of Yes music entitled "Music of Yes: Structure and Vision in Progressive Rock". Both authors do an excellent job with the text, providing two very different perspectives - one which is more biographical, and the other which is more analytical. The book summarizes the history of the band and includes a very nice discography of the albums from which the box set songs were taken. We also get an excellent introduction from Cameron Crowe who references his film "Almost Famous" and tempts us into watching for the scene which was based on his experiences with Yes.The third reason that people buy a box set is for new material. In this respect, "In a Word..." is a little weak. We are presented with 6 previously unreleased songs. Four of these (Tango, Never Done Before, Crossfire, and Last Train) are little more than uncoordinated jam sessions which, in my opinion, should have remained unreleased. These only bring the band down. Also included is a remixed version of "Fist of Fire" from the ABWH album. All that has been done is that the guitar was brought up in the mix (undoubtedly at the hand of Steve Howe). I personally think this is a better mix than the original, but hardly worth calling a "new" song. The last bit of new material is, by far, the best. It is entitled "Richard" and is apparently an outake from the Tormato sessions. This song is, in a word, fantastic. It suffers from a bad mix, but I can only hope that this song will, someday, be re-made by the now re-united core group of Anderson, Squire, Howe, Wakeman, and White. It is literally that good.Any complaints? Well, I have a few. The first is that the packaging, although beautifully designed, is very stiff. That is to say, the book is very difficult to get out of its designated storage pouch, and the CD's are very hard to remove as well. This is a small, but annoying pet peeve. Secondly, the origin of the new material is not intuitively obvious. For example, I could not easily discern the year or line-up of the new songs because the information was not presented in an obvious place. After much searching, I finally found what I was looking for in the discography section. But it is truly hidden in the notes. The last flaw that I can see is that no live material is inlcluded. Live performance albums have been so much a part of the history of this band that I would have liked to have seen a sixth disc with a compilation of live material. But, this is a very minor point and might be best left for a future collection.Comparing this set to YesYears is pointless because it is meant to cover a different range of songs and appeal to a new generation of fans. With that said, this set is, for the most part, well-done. And it should be purchased and enjoyed as an accurate representation of a truly unique and amazing band."

No doubt it contains some great music, but...

E. Bukowski | New Castle, PA United States | 12/10/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It's over the top. Like other reviewers mentioned I'm wondering which kind of fan this boxed set is geared towards. I can't see one of the uninitiated wanting to spend 70 dollars just to check out a band, yet I also can't see a hardcore wanting to shell out 70 bucks for the few rarities that are included. I own all the studio albums, most of the live ones, and many videos and DVD's yet I didn't see the point in paying such a high price for the few bits of material on here I didn't have. "Last Train" is so bad that it sounds like they threw it together just so they could have an outtake from the new album to include, and the tracks from the Paris sessions are nothing special, but there are a few highlights in the form of the Abbey Road style rocker "Never Done Before" and "Tango." However, it doesn't even include my favorite track from the sessions, an early version of the Drama track "Run Through The Light" (titled "Dancing Thru Lights" on bootlegs) which is a curious full-on new wave track with Jon's voice processed through a vocoder throughout. It's not necessarily a great piece of music but interesting when you consider the musicians involved. One major plus, if you're looking for decent sounding versions of these songs this is the set for you, as all of the bootleg versions sound awful.As for the rest of the set, the music they DID include was great but there are many curious ommissions. "Beyond And Before" and "Harold Land" were the strongest tracks on the first release, yet not included. Although Going For The One is a consistant, strong album start to finish they once again didn't include either of the two best tracks, which are the rocking-as-only-a-church-organ-driven-song-can-rock rocker "Parallels" and the magestic 15 minute + epic "Awaken" which is considered by many fans to be the pinnacle of their recording career. The middle period of albums are also not served well by a compilation since Relayer, Close To The Edge, and Tales... contained 3, 3, and 4 lengthy tracks respectively there's bound to be some favorites left off. On a positive note, all of the best tracks from The Yes Album and Fragile are represented.The hardcore will also notice that gems such as "Does It Really Happen?" (one of the best of the rockin' Jon/Rick-less Yes), "Hearts," "Changes," and many others weren't included. It's also funny that the one song that actually got them a grammy nomination (the intense instrumental "Cinema") wasn't included at least for historical purposes. Why they chose to include tracks from the awful Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe album is beyond me. You would also think they would include Trevor Rabins one nod to progressive rock from his era with Yes on here to give him a little cred with the 70's fans which would have been his and Jon's multi-part suite "Endless Dream" but they didn't. Bottom line, Yes has way too much good music to be served well by any kind of compilation, especially one that focuses mostly on previously released studio material. If you are interested in the booklet and are a hardcore that wants decent recordings of the Paris sessions and doesn't mind shelling out a large wad of cash then this set is for you. If you're new to the band you are much better off picking up the new Rhino remasters of their catalog, all of which contain interesting outtakes and studio run-throughs of the epic pieces. Totally investigate the 1969-1983 era of the band, starting with Fragile, The Yes Album, and Close To The Edge, and go wherever you like from there. Yes always were an album oriented band whose magic can't be confined to any kind of compilation, not even one that fills up 5 CD's.If you're interested in a Yes boxed set, the first one, "YesYears" was light years better."

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