Missed opportunities

[madmanmoon]

It seems to me another missed opportunity to stretch beyond the norm with this boxed set. with so many unreleased tracks studio and live, the compilation has reverted to type and really adds nothing new to the history of YES.

I remember some old bootlegs I have of yes in concert circa '79, that actually was pretty good. some of the songs from the Paris sessions that went onto Drama.

What about some of the salvaged XYZ sessions ??? I see Mr. Howe managed to include some ABWH material (yawn).
I have heard on the Net there is a 20 minute version of cinema (yeswest w/o Anderson) and other assorted tracks. I recently came across an old single (vinyl, they were the days) of Leave it with the accapella version of the track as the 'b' side. Now these rare and often unheard tracks are the things that make a boxed set. Not a rehash!!

Comments as ever gratefully recieved

[Jackaranda]

I didn't bother to get it. I have YesYears which is good but could have been better.

Now the live box set coming next year will be an automatic buy. Let's hope their's some great material previously unreleased on that covering many tours...Jack.

[Faceintheplace]

Also, where's "Picasso?" And the '79 sessions tracks and "Crossfire" have been heavily edited. A very disapointing collection.

[Bo Locks]

Tango and Never Done Before are cut in half. The dark instrumental section of Tango is missing. Blink and they're gone. I'd rather listen to my nasty bootleg. Must they keep giving TYA/Fragile/CTTE/TFTO/Relayer back to us?

[yesgirl93]

This has nothing to do with the box set but about the logo for the boxset itself, For Christmas my boyfriend made me paint box covered in cut out of my favorite bands, One of the sides has a cut out of " In a word Yes".
About the box set, I happen to like it, I wish that the booklet would have been a little bigger but other than that...Hey! anyone at the Ruth Eckerd Hall gig? wasn't it cool the Steve came out by himself and signed some of our things? I did.

[iainbarclay_bod]

Just who was this release aimed at ?
In the UK it's between £40-£50, therefore won't attract the casual buyer. As for the real Yes fan or completist, there really in nothing on here to justify the price.

I've got the Paris Sessions & Dialogue. The extras on this release really disappoint.

There's lot of unreleased material around, all it would have taken it someone with imagination and drive to get it all together and make a fine realease of I guess a double CD.

NO OPPORTUNITY NECESSARY, NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED
read
NO IMAGINATION NEEDED, NO PURCHASE REQUIRED.

[yes_angel]

I hear yah on that.But I still appreciate the Box Set just to have!

[brismike]

The "In a Word" box set can be picked up here in Brisbane for AU$49.95 or around £18.00 or US$29.00. Not bad at those prices. I picked up a spare one for myself at that price.

Mike

[BrianD]

I have had this for a few days now and while I am generally quite happy with it, there are certainly strange choices given the previous YesYears compilation.

Here I can't comment on previously unreleased material from the Paris sessions that has been available in bootleg for a while and has now been released but in an edited version - I haven't heard those bootlegs to give an opinion.

However, I think that greater effort should have been made to avoid overlap with Yesyears on tracks that are not 'essential'. For example, I can't understand why 'Survival' is on both but 'Looking Around' is on neither.

There are some essential tracks that I have no qualms in being on both collections - indeed there are some that miss out that should have been there - notably Awaken & And You and I. How to fit them on is not easy - but if other major tracks were to miss out, I would prefer Awaken to hearing Starship Trooper again, and AYAI to Siberian Khatru - but those would be very controversial.

So, just looking at the non-essential material up to Big Generator that is covered in both collections, I would have made the following substitutions:

'Looking around' instead of 'Survival'
'Beyond and Before' instead of 'Every little thing'
'The Prophet' instead of 'Sweet Dreams'
'Parallels' instead of 'Wonderous Stories'
'Onward' instead of 'Don't kill the whale'
'Changes' instead of 'Hold on'
'I'm running' instead of 'Love will find a way'

While I'm not keen on edits, its a shame 'leaves of green' wasn't featured as I suspect that many rarely listen to it because they are not so keen on the rest of 'The Ancient'. I would prefer to have that than 'Sweetness' or 'Holy Lamb'

Well - you can't please everybody 100% but despite these suggestions I am content with the overall package - and quality of sound in the remastering.

[ELLIS]

I enjoyed this compilation, although I would have preferred the live box set instead. I cannot believe there are still no official live versions of Soundchaser anywhere. That's a crime against humanity.

[A Student of YES]

ELLIS
Your right! I have been looking for that one done live. I just figured I will find it eventually? I always thought this was the best song on Relayer! Delerium is great but Sound Chaser is so much more fun to try and play or just listen to! Great work by Steve and Chris!
These best of compilations can never plaese all of us unless there were 40 songs on them.
When I finally get the ability to burn I will be making my own "BEST OF" CD's I'll bet there would not be two members here that felt the same way about the song lists!
It's the diversity YES has that makes them so incredible!
Randy

[Faceintheplace]

Yep. Once all the Rhino remastered cds had come out and I had gotten an mp3 disc compatible cd walkman one of the first things I did was make my own 2 mp3 disc collection of Yes, utualizing all the remasters plus bootleg stuff I had.

[Judge Judy]

In my humble opinion, it should have included the following songs:

Beyond and Before
I See You
Looking Around
Something's Coming
Everydays
Mood for a Day
AND YOU AND I (I can't BELIEVE they left this one off)
Ritual
SOUND CHASER (I can't BELIEVE they left this one off too)
Parallels
Changes
Shoot High Aim Low
That, That Is

and they should have dropped the following songs:

Every Little Thing
Sweetness
Clap
America
Siberian Khatru
The Revealing Science of God
To Be Over
Turn of the Century
Release, Release
All of the Paris Sessions stuff
Leave It
Love Will Find a Way
Holy Lamb
Last Train

And of course I think they should have included a lot more unreleased stuff as well as some live material, but that's a given.