BBC Recording 1969-70 Deluxe Edition

Artist: Yes
Label: Cleopatra
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2

UPC: 741157124828
EAN: 0741157124828
ASIN: B00006JCH5

Release Date: 2002-09-24

BBC Recording 1969-70 Deluxe Edition

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Tracks:

Something's Coming
Everydays
Sweetness
Dear Father
Every Little Thing
Looking Around
Sweet Dreams
Then
No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Required

Tracks:

Astral Traveller
Then
Every Little Thing
Everydays
For Everyone
(Intro) Sweetness
Something's Coming
Sweet Dreams
Beyond And Before

Customer Reviews:

Bad sound but nice packaging.......2005-06-28

YES SOUNDS LIKE EARLY PINK FLOYD

This is a 2 CD set consisting of Yes appearances on BBC shows in 1969 and 1970. There are 4 different shows represented. The total time is 95 minutes.

The sound quality is so bad on this CD set, that it is not a very pleasant experience. People who like this will put up with a lot just to hear these rare recordings. The sound quality is worse than many bootlegs and worse than old live blues recordings from the fifties.

The sound is very flat with absolutely no dynamic range. There is a bunch of hissing, static and other background noise. The mix is horrible and vocals are truly stange sounding. The only plus side is that there isn't much audience noise.

This is the original Yes, Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Bill Buford, Tony Kaye and Peter Banks. This band put out 2 ablums ("Yes" and "Time and a Word"). The sound was interesting but different than the trademark "classic" sound that would start on with the third album "The Yes Album".

The band is more rock oriented. The band is starting to show a progressive rock trend, but there is none of the bombastic art rock type music that would come later. They remind me of some of the early progressive rock pioneers, like Deep Purple or Uriah Heep before they went hard.

On these live recordings, the group sounds a bit different than on the studio albums. It is really interesting how they play around and rearrange the music. They sound very much like Pink Floyd did during this time, driven by a heavy organ rhythm.

The packaging is very nice. Not what you would expect with such horrible sound. There are extensive liner notes from Peter Banks. Apparently, he really hates Steve Howe.

This would be a great CD to buy if the sound quality wasn't so poor. I think the bad sound eliminates any chance of being able to enjoy the music. Instead of this, I would suggest getting the Doors, Live In Detroit. Now there is an album from the same time period, but with very good sound quality. And talk about wonderful guitar and keyboard solos. Plus, the Doors go on to play another hour after the schedule closing time. I have always been miffed at Yes, since one time when I saw them, they didn't play Ritual because they ran up against Tucson's curfew. The curfew didn't bother the Allman Brothers. They played Mountain Jam with house lights on.

Banks and Kaye departed from Yes and formed Flash, which sounded just like early Yes. They had one good album and Kaye left. Both did some solo material. Kaye rejoined Yes for their most popular "Owner of a Lonely Heart" period.

BBC YES PUSHES THE ENVELOPE OF SHORT-FORM PSYCHEDELIA.......2004-02-28

This is a darned interesting record, not just for fans of traditional YES wanting to hear the band's sonic roots, but for folks like me who come at this set as a fan of the Beatles and the Nice etc. On these BBC recordings, YES is energetic and propulsive in their performances; several songs, especially "Beyond and Before," give me the feeling of being yanked about on a short hang-glider ride--later YES is less likely to be as concise, fast, and skittish. The longest song here is about seven minutes. It is exceptionally neat to hear YES take an early Buffalo Springfield song ("Everyday"), put a rocket under it, and take it through smart, well-defined breaks (including some killer unison accent bits) all in less than five minutes, ending in a ferocious Squire/Bruford "buh-blam"! That track is what this record is about: YES reworking 60's pop-psychedelia and figuring out what they can do with it. Elsewhere on the web someone says of these YES BBC performances, "they play their asses off"--I agree. The rhythm section, especially Bruford at the drums, is superb. The vocals are rough on a few tracks, but fine on others. This band features Tony Kaye on a Hammond organ and the band's original guitarist, Peter Banks. No, he's not Steve Howe, but he's quite fine being who he is. His style is often angular and aggressive; he's not as interested in sounding lyrical or pretty as Howe is, but Banks also does some neat volume pedal work and some lacy effects influenced by jazz guitarists. But the bottom line: Banks is a fine, loud rock'n'roll guitar player, and he's key in giving the early version of YES a raunchier sound than fans of AOR radio might associate with this group. The playing on this record is frankly more in a 60's idiom than the 70's idiom the later band helped define. And that may actually appeal to people who are more fans of sixties' pop and psychedelia (YES work out on a 1965 Beatle song here) than of the seventies' 17-minute arty excursions the band is famous (or infamous) for.

Great rock & roll.......2003-06-26

One can only imagine what kind of great rock this lineup (Anderson/Squire/Banks/Kaye/Bruford) would have put out if they had stayed together a couple years longer. IMHO, these are some of the best live tracks from this period that I've heard. Banks/Kaye/Bruford are simply unbelievable!

Astral Travellers Rediscovered.......2003-06-25

I couldn't agree more with the previous review. This set is fantastic. Rich & hot performances with exciting youthful energy (Bruford is a madman). For me, the highlights are getting to hear the Time and a Word songs performed live; I love the studio album (I don't mind the orchestration), and these are just another chance to enjoy these songs in a different format--it's amazing how well the band maintains the ethereal (AND psychedelic) beauty of the album without any studio assistance.

I don't love the jam-epic reworking of the Beatles' "Every Little Thing," but that's my only caveat, and it's only because I love the original so much. The unreleased Yes original "For Everyone" features an early version of "Disillusionment" from "Starship Trooper," with gorgeous singing by Squire and counterpoints by Anderson, a different vocal arrangement with Squire much more out front. The harmonies throughout are beautiful, and the musicianship is tight & raw at the same time.

If Banks seems a little bitter in the liner notes, it's hard to blame him after hearing the energy of these performances, and kudos to him for helping make this release possible (a couple of the rarest tracks are apparently from his personal archives). Really great stuff, and a time capsule to a lost era that is valid in its own right, not just as a prelude to "Classic Yes."

As for the poorer sound quality of a couple of the rarest tracks (sensitively placed, one on each disc, at the very end), I can only ask: do you want live versions of No Opportunity Necessary & Beyond and Before, or don't you? I'll take 'em!

If all contained herein were Sweet Dreams.......2003-02-21

This exciting double CD captures all the passion, emotion, innovation, and general grooviness of the Early Yes era. 'Yes' and 'Time and a Word' were, unfortunately, the only Yes studio albums in which Peter Banks plays guitar. I prefer this album to Time and A Word (which contains largely the same material) because Peter Banks and Tony Kaye play the original parts which were later to be replaced by orchestra on the Time and A Word album. The guitar solos on 'Sweet Dreams' (BBC version) and 'Astral Traveller' are examples of beautifully arranged, uncluttered, and finely blended compositions that do not distract one from the essence of the tracks themselves. Unfortunately, I cannot always say this about the style of the guitarist who was to replace Peter...

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