Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two (2015)
Jon Anderson - Lead Vocals
Steve Howe - Guitars, Vocals
Chris Squire - Bass, Vocals
Rick Wakeman - Keyboards
Alan White - Drums
Opening
(Excerpt from "Firebird Suite") / Siberian Khatru
I've Seen All Good People
Your Move
All Good People
Mood for a Day / Clap
Heart of the Sunrise
And You And I
Cord of Life
Eclipse
The Preacher The Teacher
Apocalypse
Close to the Edge
The Solid Time of Change
Total Mass Retain
I Get Up, I Get Down
Seasons of Man
Excerpts from "The Six Wives of Henry VIII"
Roundabout
Yours is No Disgrace
October 31, Maple Leaf Gardens Toronto, Ontario
November 1, Ottawa Civic Centre Ottawa, Ontario
November 11, Duke University, Durham North Carolina
November 12, Greensboro Coliseum Greensboro, North Carolina
November 14, University Of Georgia Athens, Georgia
November 15, Knoxville Civic Coliseum Knoxville, Tennessee
November 20, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Uniondale, New York
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While searching the vaults for potential bonus material to include on the reissues of Yes' back catalogue, a discovery was made: Eight complete shows from the 1972
Close to the Edge tour. Soundboard recordings, apparently untouched for decades. It turned out that one of the shows had been damaged, but the seven remaining shows were meticulously restored and remastered from the original two-inch, 16-track recordings. The result is a massive 14-CD collection known as
Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two.
This was an important discovery for multiple reasons. For one, the long-time standard by which all other Yes live recordings are measured,
Yessongs, is known for both its incredible performances and its subpar sound quality. As these tapes would soon reveal themselves to be the original sources for much of
Yessongs, the thought of correcting the sound quality after all these years was intriguing at the very least.
Another reason was that these recordings were all from early in the tour. Bill Bruford had left the band shortly after production of
Close of the Edge was complete, before the tour began. This gives listeners the opportunity to observe the evolution of the live versions of these classic tracks, and how quickly Alan White filled Bruford's position and has made it his own for the next 40+ years.
And finally, while many fans agree that Yes studio albums are often perfect or near-perfect, most do not realize how much improvisation was part of the early Yes experience. The differences between the live versions on
Yessongs and the original studio recordings are well-known; what is not so well-known is that many of them are different because they were improvised every night.
We have here seven shows, each with the same set list. Steve Howe's medley/mashup of "Clap" and "Mood for a Day" is different every time. Similarly, Rick Wakeman's "Excerpts from 'The Six Wives of Henry VIII'" is different every time. The intro jam to "Yours is No Disgrace" is
very different every time, and so are Steve Howe's solos. The same with Rick Wakeman's phenomenal B-3 solo in "Close to the Edge". Every one is different.
I was skeptical at first. I had always assumed that with songs so complex and intricate, everything had to be carefully worked out. You can't play music like this and leave solo sections open-ended; the band has to know when to go into the next part of the song. And with that (incorrect) assumption in mind, I had my doubts as to how different these shows would be.
My eyes and ears were opened. These shows are a revelation. Every one is different. Not every bit of every song, no, nothing like that. But for those who are familiar with the songs, there is something different in every performance here. All those little licks and fills that Howe does during songs are different every time. Jon's vocal deliveries vary more than one might think. And so on.
I'm not going to evaluate each show individually. I've listened through the entire collection four times now, and I don't think I'll be doing any more full listens. Obviously it's very time-consuming, but mostly it's just exhausting. I can identify specific things from specific shows which make it stand out, but it would take at least a few more listens before I could rank the shows or judge them individually, and I'm not sure that there would be any point. You are either a big enough Yesfan and/or have the means to purchase this set, or not. And if you do, you're going to listen to it all anyway, and come to your own conclusions.
The first thing that strikes you is how incredibly clear everything sounds. For most of us, this might be partly because we've been listening to
Yessongs for 40 years and have become accustomed to the "muddy" sound of it. The Dolby was miscalibrated at an early stage, and correcting this by going back to the original multitracks was impossible until now. We listened "through" the mud to hear the sound of a young band on fire.
The idea here was to clean up the tapes and present the shows "warts and all" as much as possible. You are there, at that venue, that evening. So when a local radio station starts coming through Wakeman's keyboard rig during one of his "Six Wives" solos, you hear it. Jon rambles on in his unique way while guitars are being tuned. There are occassional flub-ups. The band does get out of sync a few times. This is very complex music and the drummer just joined the band a few weeks ago. But that's part of the attraction. You know that this is how it sounded that night.
The one exception is that some of Chris Squire's bass work has been doctored a bit. They ran it through some extra processing to get Squire's characteristic sound, as the original soundboard tapes had not captured enough to work with.
As a keyboard player, I found it particularly satisfying how well you can finally hear Wakeman. He, like the rest of the band, is on fire, and you can finally hear him.
Another thing worth noting is that some of
Yessongs came from the
Fragile tour and those tapes are not included here. It is therefore not possible create a "new, clean-sounding" version of
Yessongs, as many fans would almost certainly do. It turns out that all the original
Yessongs tracks from the
Close to the Edge tour are here, but the
Fragile tour tapes have yet to be found, if they still exist.
The Packaging is, of course, completely ridiculous.
Seven shows, each in its own double-CD slipcase, plus the booklet, all in a box. Each show has its own unique cover and disc art, new and/or unreleased Roger Dean art from the
Yessongs period.
(Click each to biggify)
Obviously, this is a set for hardcore completists only. For those who aren't up to purchasing the entire box, Rhino has also prepared
Progeny: Highlights from Seventy-Two
Here we have a two-disc set with "the best" version of each song from the original seven shows, a representative ideal show. Who decided this and how is available somewhere on the Internet, I'm sure. I've heard only positive comments about the "Highlights" set, just as I've heard only positive about the full set (other than the price).
Topic: The Yes Discography: Mirror to the Sky (2023) (Read 89197 times)
