YESSHOWS

Well back then, YES was in disarray after the release of DRAMA in 1980. The band disbanded, we thought for good, and CHRIS SQUIRE holder of the key name YES, was asked to put out a YES live album for contractual reasons, so at the end of 1980, YESSHOWS was released just in time for these Christmas gifts.

We have once again a great artwork designed by Roger DEAN, though not as mesmerizing as the one produced for YESSONGS or TFTO. And guess what? the same goes for the music content!! not that's bad, no there is good YESmusic here. The main problem, i think this album will always have to be compared to its live predecessor YESSONGS!!

YESSONGS was the pantheon of a live prog album; everything in it from the cover art to the quattro-fold pack and most important , has some of the most beautiful music ever recorded by a young band bringing more life and energy to already fabulous studio- recorded epics. That's was imposiible to surpass, even to equal. Listening to YESSONGS is an magical experience to live, it's a wonderful dreamy journey to some magnificent world: a 6star album!! YESSHOWS is live album recorded by an amazing band that showcases the talent of the band, is a pleasant listening but in no way is a journey! I am sure some of YESfans understand what i mean!

One of the drawback of YESSHOWS is the somewhat inferior quality of some tracks; Nothing against GOING FOR THE ONE or PARALLELS, but they are for me the 2 weakest of the GFTO album. As for DON'T KILL THE WHALE, though pleasant, this has never been a highlight of YESmusic.

WONDEROUS STORIES and (surprise) TIME AND A WORD are nice additions, but the meat of the album are of course the 2 long epics : THE GATES OF DELIRIUM and RITUAL. The GATES is played somehow very similar to the studio version which is great, but that doesn't give me a reason to play this album more tha RELAYER and the same goes for RITUAL which is a little bit too long here; The 20mn studio version is well sufficient as it is.

The main interest is that you have PATRICK MORAZ playing the parts of WAKEMAN on RITUAL. So if you have free time on your hands, you still can compare the 2 of them . But i don't have that much time!1

So this is a good album, not great, not a masterpiece; nothing bad either, but i don't play it anymore. 3 stars i guess!!

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