I was listening to Yessongs the other night. What an amazingly mind-blowing live album, and probably one of my highest-ranked live albums of all time! You get all the epics from their 3rd, 4th and 5th albums, extended solo spots, extended jams, more solos, and amazing performances from 6 members of Yes!
-Marc.
It is dauntingly long, though. I must admit, sometimes I have trouble finishing it.
It is pretty damn long, especially compared to other live albums of it's time. There's very few live albums of that length today! Of course, Dream Theater's live albums (LSFNY, LAB, Score and CIM) are a little longer or so, and last year's live release from Transatlantic reaches towards 3 hours, so I've grown quite used to listening to long live albums (or long albums in general).
Between
Yessongs and
Yesshows, you have two of the greatest live albums from one of the greatest classic prog bands, and between those two there are no overlaps! Amazing how that happened, and they're both great reminders of what Yes once was. Sadly, nearly ever live album since has had their concert staples played over and over (but thankfully,
Symphonic Live has the orchestra, so that adds a LITTLE something to it).
The only live Yes albums I listen to that aren't from the 70's are my remix of
Keys To Ascension (cross-faded the songs from both KTA releases and put the songs in concert order),
Songs From Tsongas (ripped audio from the DVD onto 3 CDs; REALLY enjoy the energetic performance of "Ritual" here), and
Symphonic Live (amazing performance of "Gates Of Delirium").
-Marc.