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Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius
Mark and I are looking forward to talking about the new Yes album, Aurora, next week but this time, we have gone right back to the first ever Yes compilation album, Yesterdays, because we mentioned the first song on the record a couple of weeks ago, in the context of The New Age of Atlantic album.
We enjoyed listening to the 1975 release again, particularly the first and last songs. There is a bit of audio geekery and lots of enthusing about this great collection from us both.
Please do let us know what you think of Yesterdays and what’s in your deadwax, of course.
- Why was this album released when it was?
- Are there any undiscovered songs on here?
- Who is actually on the record?
Please do add comments below.
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Producers:
- Joseph Cottrell
- Wayne Hall
- Ken Fuller
- Jeffrey Crecelius
Patrons:
| Aaron Steelman | Steve Luzietti | Lind |
| Al Dell’Angelo | Terence Sadler | Lobate Scarp |
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14 replies on “Yesterdays – 725”
Great show and here are some of my “cents”
The New Age of Atlantic – the 2 big Atlantic rock bands were Led Zeppelin and Yes. Hey Hey What Can I Do is the LZ song on this album and it was a single B Side. So my surmise is that while the purpose of the compilation was to promote the label, if you add hard to get songs (or in the case of Yes an unreleased track) it will sell way more! Yes wouldn’t have had a contemporary spare b side like LZ but I wonder was America something they’d recorded and never fully finished. Then again … isn’t there video on the band recording America? It seems peculiar you’d film a recording session and the not release the song!
Yesterday’s … well here are some theories. Relayer came out in came out in November 1974. The band were getting bigger and bigger and I imagine the label wanted a new album. But of course the band wanted to do solo albums. So the label is in the position that Yes is a hot properly as the huge stadium shows demonstrate… but there is no new product to sell!!!
So Yesterdays gets put together made up of:
– a compilation only track
– a hard to get early b-side
– a selection of lesser known songs from lesser known albums – and note the focus on those written by existing band members – no covers and few shared credits.
Have lots of photos so people aren’t particularly clear who or what are on the album and you’re sure to sell some!
Good point about the hard-to-find songs on the compilation. Yes indeed there is video, isn’t there. https://youtu.be/44IJV-WK3ww Like the Madrigal video, I’m not clear if this one was ever released and played on TV.
Yesterdays is still a bit of a puzzle and I like your summary of the potential reasons. I still can’t understand why Patrick wasn’t included?!?!
Kevin, the America video did air on Japanese tv. I have it on an old videotape that I got from a tape trader in Japan in the 80s.
One thing I did wonder … as was considered … was Sweet Dreams included due to the band playing it live? At the time of release they hadn’t played it.
The other thing that occurred is would this have been enhanced if it had included the other significant non album track at the time: Something’s Coming?
Thanks Geoff. Tantalising questions to ponder…
Another great episode. Yesterdays was my second Yes purchase that I had made at the time of release. Relayer was my first. I came in with Fragile but not until the summer of 73 and I bought it at the same time as Radar Love had just charted (this is when you could get an album and a 45 for £3).
I wanted Yessongs but couldn’t afford it until after Christmas. Didn’t get TFTO until late 1974 as no one I knew rated it and (believe it or not) I was interested in other artists!
In terms of compilations there was actually a two disc set before Yesterdays comprised of the first two albums sold in a gatefold. It was part of a series called Two Originals Of that also included Van Morrison and Allman Bros. Still got the Van set.
Anyway … first Yes is right up there in my pantheon. The thing it highlights for me more than anything is the true strength of Chris Squire. He was technically brilliant (obviously) but it is all about note choice and placement not about flash.
You can take almost any element out of the band and it still be Yes apart from that unique sense of harmony and counterpoint. When I listen to Aurora that is what I miss the most from the main sequence era.
Of course he abandoned a lot of that approach himself in phases but at heart he was a baroque minded guy playing (to my mind) the second most important instrument in the band (drummers control the whole musical picture in most forms of popular music so the drummer is always the thumb of the musical “hand”). He did that at the highest level that rock music allowed for at that time.
Not a lead bass guy like Jaco or Colin Hodgkinson or Entwistle with their propensity for over playing at times. Not someone who gently saturates the music like Charlie Haden. Not a Londoner with blues and funk in their souls like Wyman or John Paul Jones but not content to just serve the needs of the song with endless originality like Macca.
He actually has me imagining an elite Viol Da Gamba player with a lot of Motown, Stax, Move and Who singles in their collection!
Anyway … if you don’t own this album it is worth having just to hear Bruford and Squire in their element. I would pay big money to see the current line up play Yesterdays and Relayer. Though the best line up to do the early music might be the Steve Howe Trio with JD as guest singer. No bass player but bass pedals would be key and Ross Stanley is just the chap.
Thanks Ian. Interesting to know about that 2-album set. I must look out for that. Fascinating comments on Chris. I think you capture his spirit here. I agree very much that his playing was indeed, “all about note choice and placement”.
That was a good discussion of an album I hardly ever play (because when I want to hear material from the first two albums, I would rather play the full albums in their entirety). The best thing about YESTERDAYS is attaching Roger Dean art to the music that had predated his affiliation with the band!
Good point, Ray. Yes, it’s good to have that Roger Dean connection.
Great episode. As already mentioned there was a hunger for something whilst the band took a break. A couple of thoughts come to mind. I had just ‘got into’ Yes around this time and so for me Yessongs, whilst live, was a compilation album for me (it was my introduction to songs on the Yes album) so in a way it was already doing the job of introducing the back catalogue. Which brings me to the second thought, obviously this was pre CD and streaming where everything is available, back then a bands back catalogue wasn’t available at your local record store. They tended to have the latest release and maybe one or two others, it really was a different world. So hearing the first two albums was not so easy. One last point I agree with you both, Dear Father is a wonderful track.
Thanks Gary. Yes, even I at my tender years (joking), remember the frustration of trying to find Yes records when all I had access to was in local shops. I did venture further afield – occasionally to Birmingham on the train – that was a major undertaking!
Hello Chaps,
I do remember buying this compilation back in 1981, so I could hear America. I was never and still am not a fan of the cover, it doesn’t seem very Yes .
Anyway I am so looking forward to what you have to say about the Aurora album….I love it. There is a caveat from me …it does not compare in anyway with the so called ” classic 1970s” material, but there is something very fun , joyful and uplifting about this record.
The only two tracks for me that don’t contact with are Love lies Dreaming and Countermovement, they have great bits , but for me don’t quite fit together. In my mind I can see a mash up of Emotional Intelligence, Outside the box and Watching the river roll or Ariadne, Outside the Box, watching the river roll making a better longer epic track.
Anyway I have greatly enjoyed listening to the new album…….what better review is that? The LP makes me joyful !!!
Thanks Gary. Great to hear you enjoy Aurora. I share your appreciation of it and I agree it’s not like the 70s material – but then again, I wasn’t expecting that.
Yesterdays has a special place in my heart. I started as a radio disc jockey in Jan. ’75 here in Ohio. When Yesterdays was released I played it in its entirety on my show in late Feb. ’75, and continued playing “America” and “Dear Father” from it during the year, and following years, as they were the rarities, and favorite songs to me. As Kevin said, finding the earlier Yes albums was difficult in stores at the time, so although I first heard Yes on the radio here in ’70, I didn’t have the first 2 albums in my collection, and had never seen them in person. Yesterdays was a stop-gap release from the record company. And after all of these decades, I’ve never heard or read that Chris Squire had any hand it its release, and I would think that the subject would have come up in my many talks with Chris from ’75 to ’15, including about Yesterdays and the New Age of Atlantic albums.