Yes - Yessongs

This is a good video record of one of Yes's concerts at their peak of popularity and arguably, their peak of musical greatness. The video and sound quality of the video is good for 1972. Steve Howe is showcased particularly well by this video. My main frustration, and main criticism is the conspicuous lack of justice done to Rick Wakeman; the video didn't even focus on him while he was playing his keyboard solo for Close to the Edge, one of the most memorable solos in progressive rock. Considering how few good videos available of Yes in the 1970's, it's a must-have for major Yes fans.

Although the product is not top-quality photography, the close-ups and clarity are not par to today's technology, or maybe even at that time, this may be the best Yes concert on film in their early years. Yes is one of the most talented groups of musicians and composers of the last 40 years, and continues to tour with original members this year. To me, they did reach their peak of live-performing talent about 15 years after this tour, however.

I am an old white guy who graduated from high school in 1972 and who was utterly enthralled with what is called "progressive rock" for a decade of my young life. At the top of a heap that included bands like Gentle Giant, Caravan, and Emerson Lake & Palmer stood Yes. It's hard to describe what they meant to me. The first record for me was the "Yes Album," and it literally changed my perspective on music. I saw the band for the first of my 23 shows over a period of more than 25 years at a Catholic high school outside of Cleveland on a Sunday afternoon. It was between the release of the "Yes Album" and "Fragile" - they were debuting songs from that record at the show. I saw the tour captured on this DVD three times.

Many other reviewers have pointed out the fairly poor sound quality and the unrestored nature of the film, but toss all of that out. Toss too whether they played "Roundabout" as well as the studio version, or any other detail about a particular song. None of that matters. What matters is that this is the REAL DEAL - this is what Yes was like when they ruled the progressive world like no other.

The energy level is amazing. Steve Howe and Chris Squire are on fire. Jon sings like an angel. Wakeman doesn't miss a note. And a very young Alan White plays with a joy that you won't see very often.

I'd give a particular nod to Steve Howe. This isn't the distinguished old fellow you see on newer Yes DVDS (that's not a knock - we all get old); this is a fellow in his mid-twenties who is perhaps even fueled with some substances... but is playing with manic excellence.

If you came to Yes late (and most of you reading this are probably younger than I am), and you want to see a performance that combines intense discipline with pure joy, BUY THIS TODAY. It is a peak into the distant past that will blow your mind.

Progressive rock will never be better than this. Yes is the Beatles of the genre.

If you are interested in Yes, perhaps this DVD will take you past "I've Seen All Good People." This is a wonderful performance of a wonderful band--a must have for any true Yesfan.

Performed and recorded a few months after the release of 'Close to the Edge' and the abrupt departure of drummer Bill Bruford, this show represents Yes as it crested on a tidal wave of critical acclaim and creativity.

The standards are all here, of course, with the band performing 'Your Move/All Good People', 'Close to the Edge', 'And You and I', 'Roundabout', 'Yours is No Disgrace' etc. but there are, in my opinion at least, some serious omissions here. Yes would have been well served to have left out Howe's solo rendition of 'Clap' and Wakeman's theatrical 'Excepts from Six Wives of Henry the VIII' and instead included, for instance, 'Heart of the Sunrise' and 'Siberian Khatru'- both breathtakingly performed on the Yessongs album but, for reasons unknown, not the movie. Likewise, the cheesy special effects interspersed with 'Close to the Edge' are unbelievably annoying, especially when the dry ice and mist encloses the stage and performers during the composition's beautifully ethereal middle section.

The editing and production could have been better with some scenes not properly syncronized with the sound. I also found the looping of the applause track to be disconcerting and an unnecessary form of cheap hype. There are also far too many scenes focusing on Steve Howe - his face, his fingers, his prancing around the stage and not enough of Chris Squire or Rick Wakeman. Alan White is portrayed the least probably to assuage Bill Bruford fans.

The performances themselves are capable but I can never understand why the band insisted on playing each song at double its normal tempo. Combine that with the muddy sound quality and you almost get cacaphony at times, the fine points of the band's musicianship pretty much being lost. Listen, for example, as Chris Squire tries to play the intricate bass lines of 'Yours is No Disgrace'. I found myself disappointed as he hurried over the phrasings just to keep up with the rest of the band. Another problem was Steve Howe's free form guitar solo played during the middle of the same tune. Quite frankly, it stinks. His technique is sloppy and downright uninspiring and he appears, at times, to be struggling for ideas but then again, Howe has never been known as a particularly creative improviser, preferring instead, like cohort Chris Squire, to carefully work out and rehearse his solos beforehand.

All criticism aside, this concert, to me, represented a peaking for Yes. Their subsequent work, the many personnel changes, the almost revolving door of band members coming and going, the complacency and boredom that began to set in as the seventies wore on.....These all gradually chipped away at the band's energy and creative hunger and what was known as YES, as it was in 1972, as we see them in concert on this film, soon morphed into something entirely different and unrecognizable. Too bad.