The sound quality of the different shows is so all over the place that a highlights set probably wouldn’t be much of a listening experience. At best I would hope for a rerelease of the two disc set with most of the Shoreline show. That is what the vinyl they are putting out is with the addition of some bonus material on the fourth LP.Originally Posted by Jerjo
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
I think the set-list was a tad safe/greatest hits but the Wembley show was enjoyable. Everyone was playing well, Anderson was on top form.
I see only some of the Wembley show was broadcast on the BBC. Is it known whether the full thing was recorded by the BBC?
I have to make a correction to one thing I posted above. The Wembley show was not recorded by the BBC. It was recorded by Westwood One for the Superstar Concert Series.
I took a look at the PR and I believe you are correct. It is Union Live "Deluxe" minus Denver plus a bunch of stuff they may have pulled straight off yessongs.nl. My conjecture on that last part, but not too unrealistic a possibility.
Yes official seems to have endorsed this release at least on their FB page. They posted the PR blurb in full with no commentary.
I think I have around 100 Yes boots, all downloaded from yessongs.nl. Even the boots I all ready had I downloaded again just to make sure I had the best available version of every recording.
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
Same here. Union was my first proper Yes show, though I did see the ABWH tour.
The Union in-the-round tour was a grand spectacle, and they played great at the show I saw on the first leg (L.A. Forum). The summer tour wasn't in the round and was noticeably sloppier at the show I saw (Pacific Amphitheater). That was just before the Shoreline Amphitheater show that was professionally taped.
I collected a ton of Union tour boots back in the day, including Say Yes. I need to download the speed-corrected version; that's the best-played show in my collection from that tour. Hard to know what survives of the Westwood One tapes from Wembley, but a proper release of it would be an auto-buy for me. The money spent putting together this BS box thingy could have been put toward finding/licensing/refurbishing the Wembley tapes, assuming they still exist.
Ah, but it's Yes. The eternal land of missed opportunities.
Steve Howe probably has better tapes of the Union show in his garage that we will never, ever get to hear now because this thing is gonna steal all of the thunder for anything from that tour. I had kind of hoped that Yes would push back a little against this release, but it looks like that isn’t going to happen given that they’ve shared the box promo on their official social media. I guess there’s still hope for a snarky comment from Bill Bruford, but that’s about the best that can be hoped for now.
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
Having never paid YesWest live that much attention, I quite liked Rabin's solo showcase. I can hear the McLaughlin influence he's talked about there.
TBH I'd rather Rhino focus on 70s live releases, though. The Word Is Live is an insight into what is the archives beyond that Progeny box (which I do not own). And who knows, maybe there's more from 1977 beyond what's on Yesshows.
The most obviously Mahavishnu influenced bits in regular YesWest songs would probably be the intro to “Changes” and that first acoustic solo in “Shoot High, Aim Low”.
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
I might add "I'll Be Waiting" to that list.
The Changes intro was actually an Alan White contribution.
Honestly I don’t hear it on “I Am Waiting”. Rabin’s main guitar part reminds me of Clapton from “Wonderful Tonight” more than anything else.
Alan White wrote “duh duh duh duh...duh duh..duh duh” but listen to that cleanish Rabin guitar that darts around across the top of that rhythm. That sounds very McLaughlin inspired to me.
Anyone else think there should be some kind of international mandate explicitly requiring that the “Make It Easy” intro proceed all performances of “Owner of a Lonely Heart”? I’ve been playing some Union boots and I definitely feel that way.
It beats them playing all of Make It Easy, that's for sure.
I’d take “Cinema” in a pinch like on House of Yes, but the other post Rabin performances where they launch into the song cold kinda sound naked without that fanfare.
https://shop.abbeyroad.com/*/*/Pink-...ne/6VJM0000000
Meanwhile Pink Floyd is charging close to $300 for cardboard with no music content at all. This Union box is not a good deal, but it’s certainly a better deal than that.
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
TBH I was surprised it was still being played in the early 90s.
I'd only really bothered with the 9012Live video (and the handful of tracks on The Word Is Live) from the Rabin era. I think 90125 is great but I don't play Big Generator, Union or Talk very much, so didn't seek out anything from those tours.
I’m a fan of YesWest. Big Generator was my entry point into Yes. So it’s long been a source of annoyance for me that there is no full length live release featuring YesWest. This is where yessongs.nl has been very helpful because I was able to find nice sounding and complete live recordings from 90125, Big Generator and Talk so now I am covered. I mentioned this before, but to my ears the absolute best boot of YesWest I have found is 02/27/1988 Oakland, California, the Don Pearson recording. Anyone wanting live YesWest absolutely must add this recording to your library. It’s great.
Last edited by Frumious B; 03-05-2021 at 10:18 AM.
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
I'll give it a listen at some point. A pity that 'I'm Running' and 'Final Eyes' aren't in the set, as I think those two songs achieved a neat balance of Yes' 70s/80s sound. 'Rhythm Of Love' and 'Shoot High Aim Low' are good. The rest of the album I don't much care for.
I was going to suggest you were forgetting the 9012Live video, until I looked it up and realized that it was a lot less complete than I remembered.
Ha! That was the only YesWest show I ever attended!I mentioned this before, but to my ears the absolute best boot of YesWest I have found is 02/27/1988 Oakland, California
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
I assumed there were more complete (or thereabouts) multitrack/soundboard shows from the 80s/early 90s circulating than there actually were. There's probably more from the 70s!
They dropped those two from the set after 4-5 shows into the tour. All the boots from that first week or so are cr@p.
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Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
I like Make it Easy.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
I've got a ROIO from Talk tour that really hits the mark for me. Might be Orlando.. great setlist and the band was really smoking that night.. I saw the BG tour and thoroughly enjoyed that evenings performance. This was early in the tour so a few songs they ended up dropping later were included that evening.
There are a lot of decent Talk tour recordings because at many venues there was a localized FM broadcast of the gig. What are folks really gonna do with that other than try to record it?
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
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