Which song was better performed by another line-up?

[Mr. Holland]

Personally I've come across some songs in the Yes catalogue that were better performed by another line-up that the line-up that originally recorded it.

For example: the versions of 'Siberian Kathru' and 'Rhythm of Love' from the Open Your Eyes tour are IMO the best live versions the band ever did of those songs. 'Starship Trooper' never kicked more ass then during the 90125 tour.

So, which songs do you feel were better performed by another line-up that the original recording one?

[Rabin105]

I'll bite


Starship trooper I've Seen All good people 90125
And you And i Drama and talk tour (both are amazing
Astreal Traveler In the present tour (I saw it live in 09 Benoit sounded amazing Oliver was great the band was tight loved this song)
Roundabout Talk tour
Heart of the sunrise Big generator and talk tour
City of love Union tour
Magnification full circle tour
Sweet dreams 9012live tour

that's all i can think of right now

[Mr. Holland]

I'll bite


Starship trooper I've Seen All good people 90125
And you And i Drama and talk tour (both are amazing
Astreal Traveler In the present tour (I saw it live in 09 Benoit sounded amazing Oliver was great the band was tight loved this song)
Roundabout Talk tour
Heart of the sunrise Big generator and talk tour
City of love Union tour
Magnification full circle tour
Sweet dreams 9012live tour

that's all i can think of right now

Love the version of AYAI on the Talk tour. I like it when a band tries something different with a song they have been doing for so long and the piano intro works IMO. But the best version I personally saw and heard was in London in 2004. There was an emotional vibe with that song that evening, a certain energy, that was truely amazing. During a signing session the next day, I had the chance of talking shortly with Jon and even he was mentioning the special energy of AYAI of the previous evening.

[Strawbs]

Since I only went to the Going For The One tour, all the songs besides the GFTO songs were recorded with Bill, and I saw Alan playing them.

[Kristiina]

I absolutely love the original version of "Time and a Word", but it was a thrilling and joyous surprise to experience the more acoustic version of it on Keys to Ascension dvd; some of you´ve probably heard it, too? They´re equal but different, so I shouldn´t even be writing on a "Which is better" -thread, but the later one really blew my mind. Well, so did the earlier by the time I heard it the first time.

[bicko]

And here's my cat amongst the pigeons.
I'll go as far to state that any Yeswest material played live by the classic line up generally failed, whereas the same can't necessarily be said in reverse.
Ohhh boy .. are they ack ack guns aimed at me? Better fly from here....

[Mr. Holland]

And here's my cat amongst the pigeons.
I'll go as far to state that any Yeswest material played live by the classic line up generally failed, whereas the same can't necessarily be said in reverse.
Ohhh boy .. are they ack ack guns aimed at me? Better fly from here....

If by the classic line-up you mean Anderson-Squire-Howe-Wakeman-White, which Yeswest material was played??? Oh yeah, the whole of twong songs, Rhythm of Love and Owner......but I agree with your premise.

[Ceasar's Palace]

I generally prefer the original studio recordings, however I do like the feel of Sweet Dreams in the mid 70s live version. It's sort of laid back, but still rocking hard...

[Reflections]

I like Parallels during the Drama tour. Trevor and Chris are great when they sing together. For some reason the song was dropped after a couple of shows. I think that should've been left in and AYAI dropped. AYAI is really powerful and at the beginning of the tour Horn sounded great singing but I think that was the song that cost him his voice.

[Michelle Johnston]

Funnily enough I go with two songs twice.

Sweet Dreams on the 1975 tour with Patrick and the Aids benefit appearance by ABWH.

Time & And A Word ABWH live and Billy and Tony in Japan recently.

[cinderella]

I like the Trevor Rabin version of And You And I much better than the Steve Howe version.

[harty]

Gates on the Animation tour with the symphony...minus Wakeman
AYAI... ABWH
Owner...ABWH (on the strength of Anderson )

[JoEy YeS]

CTTE - 1973-79 with Alan
Ritual - 1974-76 with Moraz
Starship Trooper - 84 with White and Rabin
Starship Trooper - 96 (keys) with Wakeman and White

[luna65]

Sweet dreams 9012live tour

Even though all I have is the crappy audience recording of this, I agree. So wonderful!

And I love both versions of "Trooper" but I consider it cosmic irony that Steve has to play "Owner" for the rest of his life but Trevor never has to play "Wurm" again if he doesn't want to and yet...oh how glorious it was, but the Union tour version was the best of both worlds.

[Rabin105]

Owner of a loenly heart full circle tour Japan i need to metion this version as though it';s not better then orignal it's just as good.

[David Crosby]

I generally like Steve's playing on OOALH better than Trevor's, although I'm told that it's "uninspired," which I couldn't disagree with more. I also like the version of Gates on Symphonic Live a LOT. And the live versions of Astral Traveller with Steve. And I prefer Rick's playing to Tony's on every song from TYA.

[Tremander]

I like the Trevor Rabin version of And You And I much better than the Steve Howe version.

Absolutely agree. Also, the version of Sweet Dreams played on the 9012Live tour (once!) is far better than any other version. This version made that song one of my top five favorite Yes songs, and it's the only recording I listen to when I want to hear that song. I'll also vote that YesWest did Starship Trooper, especially Wurm, better than other line-ups. YesWest's performances of Roundabout, Heart Of The Sunrise, and I've Seen Good People are equal if not greater than "classic" versions too.

Oh! And Whitefish > Fish. But does that count?

I also think Alan plays all the material better than Bill, so there's that too.

[Meng]

The QPR Sweet Dreams is wonderful. I wanted the Howe-Moraz trade-off to go on much longer.

[Mr. Holland]

just for fun.....bump!

[RelayerI]

Only tracks off the first two albums have been improved by later lineups. Otherwise the lineup that recorded it did it best.

I will say that the classic / current lineup are less successful doing Yeswest numbers than Yeswest were doing at classic Yes material, although neither were as good as the original...