Collecting Live Yes

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by BillyMacQ, Nov 4, 2018.

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  1. You should see how collection happy we Duane Allman fans are (at least those who grew up with him) about getting every show/performance we can/could. :)
     
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  2. paste

    paste Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    During the Rabin years, they used some sort of tapes/tracks for some of the vocals on "Leave It" on the 90125 tour and for the intro to "The Calling" on the Talk tour.
     
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  3. BillyMacQ

    BillyMacQ Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    Right, but the implication is that Yes was basically "playing along" to backing tracks which is quite frankly a ridiculous claim and likely the result of false memory than anything else.

    Love,
    Billy
     
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  4. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    Yeah, and also "Walls" on the Talk tour. I'm sure it was a last resort, between Anderson, Squire, Rabin and Sherwood, they had more than enough vocal firepower, maybe there were just too many layered Anderson high notes on the record to convincingly pull it off live. And whereas something like "Rhythm Of Love" has a similar huge vocal part, it's not as completely exposed like it is during the intro of "The Calling." I don't know if I agree with the decision to do it, but I can see why they did.

    "Leave It" is sort of another beast entirely. The instrumentation of the song is actually Rabin playing vocal samples on some kind of sampler, so there was no way to perform that song "live," really. The first 90125 show is kind of interesting, though: they attempted the intro without any help, and the results are...mixed. But sort of like "The Calling," it was such a studio creation, that there was no way to successfully do it completely live. There's a reason they never played it again after the tour was over.

     
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  5. ytserush

    ytserush Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast US

    My story is similar, but that band was Rush. My ultimate plan for Yes would be to get 2 of three killer performances from Yes from every tour up to the Masterworks Tour. After that, my interest went south...fast.
     
  6. ytserush

    ytserush Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast US

    For Limelight, I'd agree with you, but for me there's a lot of quirkiness during a Rush tour so (As far as Rush goes) I'll take whatever I can get my hands on up through Clockwork Angels. For R40, Maybe about 10 and most of those would be toward the end of the tour. That's one tour I don't need every show for.
     
  7. ytserush

    ytserush Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast US

    For me, it depends on the set. If I didn't know R40 was the final tour, one show would have been plenty (Was planning on 2 but did 3) and I'd have gone more than the five on the Clockwork Angels Tour if I could have. That said, as much as I love this band, I'd never hop on a plane to see them or board a cruise ship.
     
  8. ytserush

    ytserush Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast US
    Only one Caress of Steel show has ever surfaced (11/15/75 Rockford Ill. opening for Kiss) and a few from the Fly By Night Tour.

    Strangely enough there is more out there from the first tour than the Fly By Night/Caress of Steel and 2112 Tours combined.
     
  9. ytserush

    ytserush Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast US

    Totally agree with this. (At least with bands I'm really into anyway.)
     
  10. misteranderson

    misteranderson Forum Resident

    Location:
    englewood, nj
    I had two gigs of my own and a rehearsal the week Rush played their last Madison Square Garden gig. Probably should have forced the issue, picked up a ticket, and just gone.

    With Yes, I'm happy I saw their last NYC appearance. I had a chance to go out to Allentown, PA and see them in September of '04. I thought they'd stay together a little longer, but without Anderson, I'm not interested in the official Yes. Without Squire, and with Alan White not really able to play half as good as he once did, I can't do it. ARW is tempting.

    The only act I ever traveled to see was Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, down to Philly, and out to Pittsburgh and Cleveland in 1998. Really happy about that too, since Jimmy retired from playing live so young.

    I imagine seeing Yes on a cruise ship is more surreal than anything Roger Dean ever imagined.
     
  11. chewy

    chewy Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Coast USA
    You know i didnt know they did but it makes so much sense- I mean what keyboard could replicate that in 1973 (none!). Eddie Offord totally had like a studer 4 track or something like that at the front of house mix, you have to ask Doug Sclar on here, he saw it up close-
     
  12. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    Jethro Tull also used tape for bits of Thick As A Brick and Passion Play, likewise Genesis with the kids bit in "Supper's Ready."
     
  13. BillyMacQ

    BillyMacQ Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    I guess the rationale behind bands like Yes and other proggers not improvising much is the songs are so complicated and challenging to play. Being able to pull them off night after night must be tough enough without having to think about veering off on a tangent or whatever. I remember Neil Peart saying, for example, that Tom Sawyer was hard for him to play every single time so his primary focus when they do it live is to nail all of his parts. Something like that. In any event, my thanks to everyone who contributed something of value to this thread. Some good new things and reminders.

    What a great great band. Wish I'd seen them live when they were in their prime (IMO - 1977-1979) as a concert act.

    Love,
    Billy
     
  14. thos

    thos Forum Resident

    Yes did improvise, though most of their pieces had tight arrangements (the nature of the music), it doesn't mean they didn't improvise in the playing of their pieces. Some pieces/solos were extended/ stretched in the early days, less so in later days.

    I just listened to some of live "Progeny" shows - man they are on fire playing "Close to the Edge" at these shows! Listen to the opening frenetic Steve Howe solo section, plenty of improv happening there, especially in Howe and White's playing, and Wakeman's keys as well.

    Most of Howe and Wakeman's solos have some improv in them during this period, but also, Alan White's playing is very "live" during the whole set.

    They also go into a spacey little improv section at the end of "Close to the Edge", which isn't on the record.

    I listened to most of the Athens show and didn't hear where the band's amps went out. There are some versions where the band gets a bit out of sync with the Pipe organ part in "Close to the Edge" though.

    The Progeny set is a really awesome document of peak Yes. Great to listen to on headphones.
     
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  15. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    And the intro to "Songs from the Wood," even making a joke out of that.
     
  16. Ron2112

    Ron2112 Forum Resident

    960 unique Rush dates in my bootleg collection and counting. Each night and each venue have their own characteristics. The songs evolve. Screw-ups happen. But yes, different nights sound different. Using the Rush example, beginning- and end-of-tour Hold Your Fire bootlegs, while the same set list are completely different animals in terms of the tones Alex was using on his guitar, the way the band was interacting with the pre-recorded samples, the way Geddy articulates the vocals, etc. And it evolved over the whole course of the tour.
     
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  17. Ron2112

    Ron2112 Forum Resident

    ******** flag thrown.

    The first several tours that "Limelight" was played, it was slightly sped up and very few versions feel like the band is completely in the groove. It's not until the HYF tour or so that the song is fully realized onstage. And not until Alex started using the PRS guitars on the RTB tour that the song really sounded as full live as it did in the studio. Snd don't even get me started on the 4 or 5 pre-release versions out there.
     
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  18. Ron2112

    Ron2112 Forum Resident

    Gotta love it when guys insist they herd/saw something when all evidence points to the contrary.

    You do know that the entire show is on the Progeny box, right? And it's clearly not the record they're playing to. If you DID hear some sort of PA transient, I'd guess what you heard was not the original record, but the stage monitors that the band was using.
     
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  19. warewolf95

    warewolf95 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    I love Live Yes.

    OP is right in that they generally kept setlists static and rarely deviated from the plot, but, like Oasis, they are one of the few bands I can listen to live and not get bored by all of that because of the general quality of the performances and the ENERGY!

    It's the subtleties and all of that, ya know? Live, Yes were very fun imo and are a joy to listen to if you're serious about collecting it.

    OP, if you want/need more, hit PM me. :)
     
  20. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    I will gladly pay for Bruford Fragile era professional commercial recordings.
    Boxset? bought the small set - Struggle to buy the Alan White plodding - nonous variabilous variety
     
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  21. thos

    thos Forum Resident

    It could have easily been some section of the recording (like the pipe organ part in close to the edge as i mentioned) that the band was using a tape for. It might have been patched somehow for the live recording. It's good to have people's recollections from the shows. Not everything is caught on tape.
     
  22. InfoNozzle

    InfoNozzle Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    Those are solid suggestions. But I don't remember the Holmdel 1984 as being particularly notable. Granted, I may not have heard it - or I have it and don't remember it. (Not my fave lineup.) For pure sound quality, the Universal City 1997 recorded and mixed by Sherwood is the best I've heard. A close second is two days later in San Diego, recorded by Westwood One with Sherwood doing the surround mix.

    The BBC and Westwood One always had the best sounding shows while King Biscuit prided themselves on capturing the (cough) raw excitement of a live performance.
     
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  23. TFEC

    TFEC Opinion Holder

    DO go see them - the eight-headed beast is ... a BEAST!

    Also, The Beacon 2001 show you saw is available (for a limited time) as a free download on DGMLive.

    (Sorry for off-topic: KC>Yes!)
     
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  24. ytserush

    ytserush Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast US
    Not really to much of a fan of this song at all, but I think my favorite version of it was the one that ended up on the King Biscuit show (same one that's on the DVD I think.)

    After that, perhaps Snakes and Arrows, likely due to the fact that they lampooned the beginning. Other than that I don't think there is a version out there that I'm even remotely enthused about.
     
  25. BillyMacQ

    BillyMacQ Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    Did a deep dive into some live Yes available on YouTube this weekend. Yessongs and Live at Queens Park Rangers Stadium. Both performances are excellent, but wow, that audio mix. Pretty dreadful on both. Shame because Yes had such a stellar reputation back in the day for their live sound. Clair Brothers, I believe, handled things for them back then.

    Has anyone ever done a "fan remaster" of the Yessongs and QPR footage? Both are in need of a major upgrade to both audio and video quality.

    Off topic - I got to see Rush do a preview of Limelight and Tom Sawyer at Allentown State Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania back in the early 80s. Still two of my favorite Rush songs.

    Love,
    Billy
     
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