Customer Reviews

Yes: Perpetual Change

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book, though not THE Bible for a Yes fan, is a good reference particularly for the novice who wants to know more about the pre-history of a band who helped create prog rock in the early 70s.
The reader will find it widely illustrated with tour photos, posters and pics taken from several LP booklets.
It has a huge amount of info on different albums, LPs, singles and CD releases.
A nice book for the price.

"Perpetual Change" by David Watkinson & Rick Wakeman proves to be a very handy reference guide for the avid Yes fan. The book contains a forward by Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman. The book features a brief history of the popular progressive band with many glossy photos some color and some black and white. There are also many examples (some in color) of Roger Dean's excellent album artwork. In addition there are a number of memorabilia items shown like tour posters, magazine covers, newspaper articles, tickets, backstage passes and tour books. A detailed section is included of Yes tour dates and support acts. Much of the early information in this section comes from Bill Bruford's diary of his tenure in the band. A list of songs played during each tour is also included. Some humerous anecdotes and exploits of the band are mentioned. The last section contains a detailed single, album, and cd discography. This section not only provides country of origin and song listings but also differences between songs (for example if the single version is shorter than the lp track). The book ends with an extensive bootleg discography. The bootleg section includes various bootleg releases and includes song listings and venues and sound quality if available. All in all this is an essential purchase for fans progressive rock legends Yes.

Mr Watkinson has produced a good scrap-book here. Much of the biography section is made up of previous articles, interviews meshed together. If you are a Dedicated Yes Fan then most of the biographical text will appear familiar. Some of the photos are good archival photos, but a strange observation however is the need to include the YESSONGS movie poster shot twice in the book, one in color and the other in Black and white later in the chapters....really no need for this....I have always believed and I think true YES fans would also that we need some seperate autobiographical books from the band members themselves.....I know there is a book allready out called Yes-Stories, but these are just pieced together based on the issues the author finds important.....Perpetual Change really doesn't go foward here, but as I said, is a decent scrapbook. I would love to read a Jon Anderson account or a Steve Howe account of their entire experiences in the Band and history....Publishers, If you are reading this, go after the Band-members for their accounts....(. . .)

Good for YES fans. A quick fun read. Nice for those of us who bought three version (LP, cas,CD)of "Close to the edge". I would buy this book again. I will read it again. Note: It says in the book that a man tried to strangle Anderson at a Pittburge show. Well he just hugged the man. I seen it up close...............Peace

OK, now, I have to admit that I have not yet read this book all the way through, so I'm not sure that I'm qualified to write a complete review at this time. So I won't attempt to. But what I want to say has little to do with the text. It has more to do with the overall content of this book. Many biographical works on musical artists are pretty wordy and read like old history textbooks. I have read most other Yes biographies and found them to be interesting but fairly uneventful because, by and large, Yes is a fairly non-controversial band - not a lot of drugs, sex, or scandal to speak of. I guess that's why there hasn't been a VH1 special on them yet! In any case, I think most Yes fans are more concerned with the art, music, and chronology of the band. From that standpoint, "Perpetual Change" truly delivers. A full half of this book (over 100 pages worth) consists of a HUGE appendix chock full of tour dates, album and video discographies, and a very comprehensive collectible section which includes bootlegs, tour merchandise, promotional releases, and much, much more. The text in the book (which makes up the first 90 or so pages) follows a similar factual, chronological path and is very well illustrated with many pictures and interesting bits of artwork and memorabilia. In short, this book reads like one great big tour book with a very factual history followed by an incredible reference on all things Yes. But perhaps the best thing about the book is its layout. Again, it follows the format of a tourbook in that many photos (some color, all glossy) are interspersed throughout the text making for a very easy and enjoyable read. I guess that's why I haven't yet read it all the way through. It lends itself so nicely to browsing that you find yourself flipping through to the sections which interest you the most. But, maybe that's the beauty of this book. It's more of a Yes reference manual than anything else. And that's exactly what I was looking for! If you are a Yes fan, you should not be without this book. To the author: Well done!

It's funny that some people can give it 1 star and others 5 stars when if you go to the book store and apart from CW book really there is nothing to buy like this on Yes at all. Where CW book fails is in it's pick-up-ability!! what I mean is David's book is meant to be picked up and refered to often unlike CW book. You get so much from the wonderful mix of images and information. No other book 'EVER' in the nearly 40 years of Yes has given Yes fans so much information in one spot. I had never seen such a complete family tree or record, bootleg and allsorts of info before, it's a Yes fans dream of book, I say well done David you can see the love of the band in this book....anyway must pick it up again, go get it soon oh soon it's a blast you will not regret it.Love xxxLE

This is not a bad book. Yes fans will find lots of information on every version of Yes. But like the Chris Welch book, it sometimes feels like it was pasted together from old magazine articles.

I still prefer Dan Hedges' old biography of the band. The writing is better. It has a sense of humor (humour?) and a point of view. It isn't always a flattering portrait. Rick Wakeman apparently hates the book. But it makes Yes comes across as an interesting collection of humans, rather than airbrushed "gods." That's why it was interesting to read.

If you can't find an old copy of the Hedges book, this one is a good second best.

Well I have to read more carefully and I think anyway of a good start to begin analysing the best and most prolific period in the Yes history..But I have to remark that about an half section of the Book (The appendix) is full with references,Tour dates, bootlegs and so on, which I evaluate a little bit interesting and usefull!! Some photos are ok, but others are a bit glossy...

Well the music of Yes it's better than many further words, but if you don't know this living legend of progressive rock, it could be a good place to start and begin to know something about their golden era.

I'm not a Yes appreciator who either knows nor cares whether "Fragile" was released on a Tuesday morning or a Wednesday afternoon. But if you inhabit the obsessive-compulsive end of the Yes fan spectrum, this book is for you.

It's a reasonably good source of early Yes history -- even if most of the information was well-covered in the Welch book from a few years earlier, and in the Hedges book from the late 70s (out of print but also worth tracking down).

Stylistically, Watkinson's book is written with an "I've bought every t-shirt the band ever issued" brand of blind enthusiasm that cynical readers might find grating. But novice or terminally hardcore Yes fans will eat it up with no problem.

The only crude note is the negative, mean-spirited introduction written by keyboard player Rick Wakeman. It's so bad it's almost funny. The band, their fans, and this otherwise positive book deserve much better.