YESSONGS

This is my first review here! For this special occation I have chosen one of my all time favourites - if not the all time favourite. I bought this album for the first time on vinyl around the mid seventies and at that time it was not just the best Yes album but also the best live album so far.

Today I still own the old vinyl three record set but don't listen to it anymore. Because the cracles a noises the needle produces are unbearable. But, thank god, there is of course the digitally remastered double CD version. Despite the efforts of Joe Gastwirt, who did the remastering, the sound quality can of course not compare to todays standards (take Spock's Beards "Gluttons for Punishment" as an example how live recordings should sound today).

But the songs themselves are tremendous. In fact this is the only live album I can possibly think of where I prefer the live version of every single song to the corresponding studio version. The songs have developed and grown in the live performances. All of them. There is no weak track on the whole album and it is difficult to pick out one or two highlights as this album is full of them. Nevertheless, I feel obliged to pay a special tribute to "Yours Is No Disgrace" as this was the first progressive song I've heard in my life and it got me hooked.

In conclusion I'd say that everyone who claims to have an interest in progressive should own this album. Five start absolutely, actually 5.5.