Customer Reviews

Word Is Live

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Disc one open with two poor sounding mono BBC concert tracks by the original Anderson/Banks/Kaye/Squire/Bruford line-up;musically good,but they sound like they've been taped off the airwaves.Sound quality improves for two Swedish Radio concert tracks recorded shortly after Steve Howe joined the group.Then you get 4 excellent(mono enhanced for stereo) Live tracks from London by the Anderson/Howe/Kaye/Squire/Bruford line-up including "Yours is No Disgrace","I've Seen All Good People",an embryonic 15 minute version of Paul Simon's "America",and a 10 minute rendition of an obscure Rascals tune "It's Love".The group was wise to wait(and add Rick Wakeman) and fine tune the arrangement of "America" before recording it in the studio.The box skips over the 1972-74 period(covered bythe "Yessongs" set),and Disc 2 is almost entirely professionally recorded full-fidelity material by the Anderson/Howe/Wakeman/Squire/White & Anderson/Howe/Moraz/Squire/White line-ups.The only mono track on Disc 2 is "Sweet Dreams",nicely remastered from the unreleased in America "Live at QPR" video(It's been offered on Japanese Laserdisc or spread across two volumes on Hong Kong DVD).Many of the disc two tracks are unreleased selections from the same concerts heard on "Yesshows" 2-CD set.Disc three opens promisingly with two more selections from those concerts,but goes downhill because of sound quality.Three soundboard cassette tracks from a concert by the Horn/Downes/Squire/Howe/White line-up reveal two previously unheard songs,but the source has murky sound,a bad mix and obvious cassette pitch flutter.The set closes with selections recorded on a Westwood One radio concert("Big Generator" tour,I think) by the Anderson/Rabin/Squire/Kaye/White line-up.Good performances marred by a very reverberant mix.If this were a bootleg,we would be raving about it,but I have higher sound quality expectations from Rhino.

Well, it's finally here: the long-anticipated "new" live Yes set. The hype was superlative. It caught us hoping beyond hope for those live Yes moments we have heretofore only wished were laid down for posterity:

"Sound Chaser" with Moraz.

"America" with Bruford.

Yet on first listen one gets the sense that this is a box full of colored glass for the masses, with a few diamonds mixed in for the shrewd investor.

One shakes one's head at times and wonders aloud, "Is THIS the Yes that once graced those hallowed halls of yesteryear?"

Well, Yes.

And, No.

Truly, there are moments to marvel at: Disc 1's set with Bruford, Kaye, and Howe is astonishing.

"America" rolls along like an art-rock juggernaut, propelled by Mr. Bill's frenetic stylings (a foreshadowing of his performance years later as a Genesis sideman). It's only after the first 6 minutes have gone by that it hits you: Yes didn't just record this on a whim as a single with Wakeman! They were playing this FOR YEARS with Kaye!

And Kaye gives the song hair!

Wow.

And then we stumble upon "Sound Chaser". The lead-in track to disc two, "Apocalypse", is brilliant live Yes as only Yes can do, but "Sound Chaser" sounds like it was cut by a high-school band on acid.

The guitar solo is great, but the sound is appalling. The desire to share this magic with others, pointing and shouting, "See! See!" is severaly tempered here; it would be almost embarrassing to play this for friends.

You would find yourself sorely tempted to apologize, "They're really much better than this. Really."

This set is for die-hards only, although the packaging, liner notes, et al, lead one to believe that the intention here was to reel in a new layer of fandom for the band.

The packing is slick, although the genius who decided that discs one and two can "nest" together - thus resulting in scratches for both discs over time - should have his head examined.

The artwork is vintage "wimpy" Dean. We've seen much better from Roger - the US AND THEM, SYMPHONIC PINK FLOYD artwork is masterful. Why do recent Yes albums always get Roger's has-beens?

And - to be honest - while most of the stories were interesting, it's time Bill Martin was retired from penning Yes notes. It's amazing how many words the man can use and still not say anything.

So, bring your jewelers eyepiece to the table and prepare to sift through the cheap stuff. You'll find some truly valuable pieces here. It's just unfortunate that the cost is so high, both in dollars and in time spent searching.


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Yes, it seems, just did not seem keen to keep great archives of their shows over the years. This box set looks fantastic on paper, 3 full CD's covering '71-'88, but should really be called `The best of Steve Howe's personal collection of live tapes that don't always sound the best'. This set is really for Yes live completeists only, not for the casual live Yes fan. Sound ranges from mono, OK sound to pretty darn good, but not perfect sound. Selection misses a lot of the more popular songs (on purpose though as not to repeat what is already out there) which is fine for the completeist, but not the casual fan.

The 2 BBC tracks are good mono, as are the 2 Gothenburg tracks. The London '71 tracks are gems. They are stereo, but it's hard to tell if they are a mono source with some echo added or not. At the beginning a capella start of Your Move, is that really the halls reverb, or a little studio after effects? Don't know for sure, but a great set of song never the less.

Sweet Dreams on side 2 is a lousy mono version from the QEP show. I do not have the DVD's, but the sound quality on those are routinely panned, and this is right up there with it.

The rest of disk 2 and the first 2 songs of disk 3 show the late `70's Yes akin to the Yesshows album. There are no repeats to the Yesshows album (save for Time and a Word) so, with it, you get the bulk of songs performed in the late `70's. If you expected better quality then the very good but not excellent Yesshows, don't look here. The quality on all this material is very good, but it does sound like it came from old, improperly stored, tapes, cleaned up as best as possible. Ironically the one overlap on both, Detroit '76, sound better by a smige on the re-mastered Yesshows CD! But overall it's as good as what is out there. Soundchaser and Awaken are great highlights. The Big Medley suffers from the too high in the mix Chris Squire (a problem with some of Yesshows), for Long Distance/Fish it is awesome, best Fish I have heard, but ruins Perpetual Change a bit. The Tormato songs are slightly hissy, but great quality if you are a fan of that often panned album.

What I was really looking forward to was getting great live versions of the 2 unreleased, plus best song from the excellent, often overlooked Drama tour. These 3 tracks were broadcast on the radio in what is universally agreed as one of the worst sounding radio broadcasts ever done. I know I recorded it on cassette. Sounds like Steve did too, as these are not much of a quality improvement. Mostly mono sounding and muddled. What a shame. Guess I have to stick to my Return to Drama CD, a quite good, complete audience version of Boston Gardens (not MSG as stated on the cover) show. Looks like that is as good as I am going to get from the Drama tour.

What is really weird is the Houston cuts from '88. Another radio broadcast I recorded live to cassette. These tracks sound worse then my version?!? It's like they ran all the tracks through a reverb unit to make then sound more `live'. Only muddles the whole thing. If you want Rabin Yes, wait for the (eventual) 9021Live DVD release and hope they don't screw up the sound on it! (Don't buy the Brazilian DVD as its stereo and 5.1 mix come from a crappy mono source!)

For the casual Yes fan looking for live Yes, skip this and get the San Luis Obispo shows (Keys to Ascension) which has the classic lineup and fantastic sound quality and more of the classic songs (yes, doctored in the studio a bit, but...). This set is really only for the die hard Yes live completeist.

Oh, it does come with a nice looking booklet, but it's just notables (like Greg Lake) and fans talking about Yes shows in general. No different the comments you can find on the Forgotten Yesterdays site. I would have liked a bit of in depth info on the actual recordings themselves. In fact for the for mentioned Drama tour there is one picture with no comments. Or something from the members themselves, which there is none.

Overall I was hoping for better, but grudgingly satisfied, knowing this is probably as good as I am going to get for a lot of the Yes live material.

The long-anticipated triple live Yes CD collection, THE WORD IS LIVE, is finally here, and--for the most part--it was worth the wait. The challenge with Yes, even with a mammoth 3-CD set, is getting "the definitive" live collection. That dream has yet to become a reality. In truth, this set offers a lot to the Yes fan (and fans of great prog rock in general) but it's not really complete without some of the other official live Yes releases (YESSONGS, YESSHOWS, 9012LIVE, and KEYS TO ASCENSION, in particular).

That said, there is a lot to be excited about here. Disc 1 is revelatory, particularly with some of the older songs that pre-date the YESSONGS era. And these Disc 1 songs sound great.

The playing throughout these three discs--regardless of who was doing the playing--is absolutely amazing (as expected). However, the sound is not uniformly great on Discs 2 and 3, and in a few disappointing cases, it's not even good. Particularly disappointing sonically are the previously unreleased DRAMA tracks, "We Can Fly from Here" and "Go Through This" (though I quite like the songs themselves).

But, the stellar sonics and brilliant performances of "Awaken," "Roundabout," and "Heart of the Sunrise" certainly more than make up for any audio shortcomings elsewhere. I was definitely thrilled to have a live document of "Future Times/Rejoice," which are favorites of mine from TORMATO.

Audio problems aside, this is a wonderful historical document, giving a broad overview of how the band grew and changed over the decades, never losing their fire or virtuosity or integrity along the way. It will be of significant interest and delight for most Yes fans, though the general casual audience "out there" may not be as enthused. For those looking for an introduction to Yes, I would recommend either YESSSONGS or one of the KEYS TO ASCENSION sets as a better starting point.

The overall presentation is, for the most part, nicely done. Rhino/WEA has done an excellent job during the past 2-3 years of seriously upgrading the Yes catalog (up through 90125, anyway). I'm not a huge fan of the "CD book" format, but for what it is, this is an attractive, deluxe package.

I have loved Yes since the 1970s, but sadly never have seen them live. Therefore, I am very grateful for this release and will enjoy it for a long time.

Don't listen to the grumblings by typical (...) retentive nitpicking Yesfans who can't be happy with anything. This is a stunning, stellar compliation. We are lucky to have it. The performances are fresh and full of fire. Plenty of unreleased material and lesser known gems for the diehards. Sound does vary from source to source, but gimme a break, this covers 18 years of performances some of which are 35 years old. Overall the sound is excellent and always listenable and even at times quite exciting. I for one like the honesty of the warts and all approach this set offers. You know this is pretty much what went down on those nights, unlike say Zeppelin's How the West Was Won which, while offering admittedly glorious sound, is nonetheless a composite job full of audible edits, punch ins, and the like.

And Soundchaser is far from embarassing. Its AMAZING, whoever thinks Yes is all just airy fairy (...) needs to hear how heavy they could be in the mid-seventies, and Soundchaser nails it. This cut alone is worth the price of admission.

From the onset, it must be stated that this is a wonderful live box set from Yes. The packaging and booklet are excellent quality, and some nice restoration has been done on these songs... some of them familiar to yes boot collectors, and some of them very, very rare. Even the song selection seems to deliberately fill in the gaps between the BBC recordings 'Somethings Coming' (though two are repeated here), Yessongs, and Yesshows. The Drama tour songs are great, and the Rabin era songs (three is enough!) complete the package. The 1976 Solo tour songs with Moraz and the '78-'79 GFTO and Tourmato tunes are definately worth the price of admission. Sound quality and performances are as good as it gets for this band. The sound quality of the '76-'79 tunes far surpasses the Yesshows double live set. The tunes have been left nakedly raw, and Awaken, Apocalypse, Sound Chaser, Circus of Heaven, HOTS, and Future Times send shivers down the spine...I have seen Yes over the last 15 years live, but this document shows how the band clearly peaked in terms of sheer power and precision by '76- 1979. IMHO, this is by far the best offical live document of Yes in its prime during the War of the Worlds tour of 1976 through the Tourmato tour of 1979. The other material is worth having, but is not the meat of this box set. Its great that Yes gets a piece of the pie from these often booted shows, and I'm sure all good people will grab this box set and will cherish it. My only gripe is that we still have no official document of the Ancient or the Remembering from TFTO, or tunes from the Union Tour (hint: except the Union Tour DVD from Japan!) and we have only snippets of the incredible Masterworks tour. From Yes West, we have no document of the '94 Talk tour, which would have been a nice welcome to this box set, as Tony Kaye's organ work and Alan White's drumming was blistering on that tour. It just seems strange where the box set ends...the Big Generator Tour of '88? Thank God the Yes saga never ended on that tour, and at least we have documents of some later tours on DVDs. This box set would be to drool for if Wakeman ever releases the filmed show of the Going for the One Tour, which I was dreaming would be included in this box set. I am afraid to say that this may be our goodbye letter from Yes, and although the band has not ended officially at this point, they could not end at a better time after the spellbinding 2004 tour (note the number of releases by Yes and its members over this summer...) Yes music is so other-worldly, transcendent, intricate, and larger than itself or its members...and The Word is Live captures the ripe season of this band (institution) in all of its fury...for a cd...see, you had to be there, that's the point. CD box sets are nice reminders of the reality of the live shows that were like smoke that vanishes in the air of time. These cds will bring back some memories, but they will never be a virtual Yes if that is what you are hoping for. Yes did not play these shows for the purpose of recording them...they played for live audiences that were fellow travelers with them as it happened. The pages are written by fans for fans, the photos are glimpses of the past rituals we once enjoyed with one new-age hippie guru with an angel's voice, one of the guitar greats that defined the instrument and refused to bow to the pop machine, one ex-beatle member drummer, a world class jazz drummer that grew up on prog rock (ahem), an underrated hammond organ grinder, one caped Christian that dumped Bach for a rock band, The swiss poodle keyboard and piano master that even freaked out Jon himself, and one sleepy headed church choir boy that turned the Bass into a lead instrument. The good (Downes), the bad(Rabin) and the ugly (Horn) are all here, keeping the band above water in hard times and stretching its sound seemingly for the survival and refinement of its classic lineup Mother... silly sophomoric critics of Yes dare not tread here...this is sacred ground.

In all honesty I don't know if this release deserves five stars, but hey, it's Yes. I personally am not really hearing anything new here because being an old collector there isn't a whole lot that I don't have available to me. However, to any relative newcomers or individuals who want to hear what Yes sounded like in the dim, dark past when the Hammer Of The Gods fell on our eardrums on a regular basis I would say that this is an excellent compilation. I would caution the uninitiated that there are a LOT of personnel changes during the 18 year period this music entails. There are some sonic differences but Yes, remarkably, still stays Yes.
If Yes were to appear on the scene today having never existed they would STILL get a lot of notariety in certain circles. Prog or Art Rock (I really don't know why everybody always has these difinitions) would still sit up and take notice if Yes had never existed to influence it in the past. The pieces on this compilation still sound almost futuristic in their approach. Yes is a little like the last of it's kind, lumbering around the countryside, hiding for a while and then somehow, when it's apparently dead, reviving itself one more time to reaffirm the adulation of the faithful. This release will help keep the myth alive.
Beautiful Roger Dean packaging and an informative booklet within look great. The discs are graphically very classy looking also. Probably the very best thing about this release is that the quality, although somewhat rough in spots seems pretty pure and has an energy lacking in some of today's overblown, overdubbed and overproduced live albums. Having seen Yes a fair number of times I can attest that the live sound is true. These guys don't need any extra help to sound the way they do. If anyone has ever been to one of the "magical" performances they'll know what I'm talking about. The major disappointment I had with the release is that it stops in 1988. I'm assuming that Rhino will release another volume to celebrate the period after that.
Lastly I would like to say to anyone who has never seen Yes live that they should if they ever get the chance. Every time Yes takes a break there's always a question if they will ever play together again because, let's face it, they're getting a little long in the tooth. This live compilation captures Yes as they were, on a plane unattainable by almost all other bands and they did it for years and years and years. I saw them in Las Vegas in 2004 and I can say that they still play it great. If they roll out in the future go see them because this group of recordings will give you an idea of what you're in for and it's great. If they come again it will probably be the last time (but I've been wrong before).

Thanks for reading and the word is YES!
Marcus Hartse

It seems as if Yes has been releasing live material all over the place for the past 10 years (Keys to Ascension 1 &2, Live from the House of Blues, the symphonic DVD, etc.) which has been excellent, though perhaps somewhat redundant; but when I saw they were going to release something spanning the band's history I was truly excited.
Yet, I have to say I'm disappointed by the set-list.
I understand getting the rights to release live versions of some songs must be an intellectual property nightmare given all of the labels and lineups Yes has had over the years.
But I was hoping that maybe some of the better stuff from the Union tour (yes, I liked that album) would make it onto the compilation, as well as some selections from the Talk Tour or even Open Your Eyes.
There seems to be a real shortage of Yes live material when it comes to the Trevor Rabin/return of Tony Kaye era. I love Steve Howe, but I think the 90125 lineup did some darn fine stuff themselves. Rabin especially infused a lot of life into the band with his energy, and multiple talents (not the least of which is voice).
But instead of getting "Hearts," or "I'm Running" or "Endless Dream," or even "Love Will Find a Way," we get "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and "Hold On" again.
I also love the 9015 lineup's version of "Starship Trooper, " which I have on the live video, but it would have been nice to have a CD version.
Oh, well. I'm sure the group will get around to putting some of those out eventually. Here's hoping.
If nothing else, anything live from Yes is great, and worth the listen.

First and foremost, I'm a 25 year old Yes fan. I didn't get the opportunity to see Yes until the Union Tour in '91. So, I do tend to take what official live material I can get at any price...

I picked this up yesterday locally and I'm amazed much of this held out through the years. Although the quality of the tracks from New York in 80 don't stand out compared to the rest of the set, it's good to see them presented here after the absence on the expanded Drama re-release. Another reviewer commented on how the tracks presented here were only from '70-'90 but one must remember that the newer material is not owned by Rhino/Atlantic/Atco and seeing as how Yes has been consistent about newer videos/DVD's from the 90's on, this set helps complete the gaps of wonderful performances of the 70's and 80's especially for the longer version of America and the energetic version of It's Love from London, which was Tony Kaye's last show with Yes. The material recorded in '78-'79 truly shows Yes at the peak of their existance.

The cover design is a bit odd. It is in the shape of a book, with the CD holders glued to the cover, with the pictures and articles in the middle. The book itself is wonderful, with fan & celebrity memories. The CD holders... well... this is where it lost 1 star. Disc 1 & 2 overlap each other on the inside front cover and Disc 3 is alone on the inside back cover. It's safe to say that I made backups of the discs before they scratched each other into inexistance.

I can only hope for a Vol. 2 or a DVD of clips from various concerts in the archives. Remember, we can take what we are given or given nothing at all. The only thing left I can say about this set is this: at least it's not like the ELP box sets of audience recordings.

Don't let a single critic persuade you not to buy this collection. I just bought the CD and as a Yes fan for 25 years, it is awesome. Hidden is the big medley which includes Time and a Word, Long Distance Runaround, Survival, The Fish, Perpetual Change and Soon. All tracks are great. Great Yes stories from fans and famous musicians in the booklet. If Yes moves your soul in the respect that you can't breath during certain songs, such as "Soon" or "America" do yourself a favor and buy this collection.

D. Swany