Best live version of the songs on The Yes Album

[Mr. Holland]

I think I did this on the old website, but never managed to do it for all the albums. It can make a nice series of threads though (or at least I think so). The question; what are your favourite live versions of songs on a certain album? Those can be officially released live versions, or bootlegs.

We start of with The Yes Album, because most of the songs on it have become live staples.

So what are your favourite live versions from the songs on The Yes Album?

- Yours is No Disgrace:
- Starship Trooper:
- I've Seen All Good People:
- A Venture:
- Perpetual Change:

(I left out "Clap", since that is originally a live recording)

[Mr. Holland]

I'll go first then:

- Yours is No Disgrace: Yessongs
- Starship Trooper: 9012live
- I've Seen All Good People: London 1978
- A Venture: only played live in 2014
- Perpetual Change: Yessongs

[Sam I Am]

I'll go first then:

- Yours is No Disgrace: Yessongs
- Starship Trooper: 9012live
- I've Seen All Good People: London 1978
- A Venture: only played live in 2014
- Perpetual Change: Yessongs

I absolutely agree with Perpetual Change from Yessongs. I like the Starship Trooper version on KTA. I like the energy of YIND on Yessongs, and as far as I've Seen All Good People - I am going for the heretic statement. This song worked best for me as the AM radio cut that omitted the All Good People part. The Your Move part I love - second up-tempo part doesn't really work for me.

[Mr. Holland]

Anyone else care to play?

[Gtkgasman]

Yes! Good stuff here - I love these threads, to see everyone’s favs and the reasons. And I get to reminisce. 😉

- Yours is No Disgrace: Yessongs, movie, theater big screen, wow!!!

- Starship Trooper: 1978, in the round boot

- I've Seen All Good People: 1978, in the round boot.

- A Venture: since the limited choices, lol, I’ll go with first time I saw it live on the album tour. Haha.

- Perpetual Change: Can’t pin down one off top of my head without looking, I’d have to look - but one of the versions from those early boot cassettes of ‘71ish shows that got traded around back in the day - super long extended versions with the big Bruford solo.

One caveat - for the first 3, first time I got to see yes live was in ‘84, so big soft spot for that show! 4/30/84. Spectrum, Philly. 🥰

[Ash Armstrong]

Yessongs for Yours is No Disgrace and Perpetual Change. The latter is one of my favourite performances of any piece of Yesmusic.
Wembley 1978 for Starship Trooper, though the Keys version is a very close second, and is an official release.
Clap is live anyway so I'd go with that one.
A Venture only appears on one official live album (Like It Is Vol.1), so no other options for it. It's not a song I've any strong feelings or preferences about .

[True]

I would say Yessongs for each of them (Clap excluded of course). Except perhaps Starship Trooper, for which I might say one of the '78 recordings - maybe the famous Wembley recording.