Yes - Yesyears DVD

Yesyears is a generous (over two-hour) documentary that profiles Yes through the years, from the band's earliest days up to and including 1991, the year when no fewer than eight past and current members played together on their "Union" tour. The story is told through separate interviews with the band circa 1991, talking happily about their many successes and even greater excesses; their musical freedoms and their personal fallings-out. The talking heads are interspersed with a lot of fascinating archive footage from all phases of the band's evolution--just some random... examples: a youthful Steve Howe playing "The Clap"; "Yours is No Disgrace" from a live German TV appearance in 1971; Chris Squire performing "Hold Out Your Hand" from his first solo album; studio footage from the Going for the One and Tormato sessions; and lots of evocative footage from the Spinal Tap-esque live shows of the 70s. Inevitably, it being an officially endorsed document, there's little negative criticism here, though Rick Wakeman is typically candid about his decisions for originally leaving the band. Documentation of all the various musical excerpts would have been nice--they come and go without any context--but generally this makes rewarding viewing for any Yes fan, with the caveat of course that the story stops in 1991. On the DVD: Yesyears is disappointingly presented in 4:3 ratio NTSC format, leaving the picture generally fuzzy and at times positively obscure in places, with plain stereo sound (at best--many of the early musical excerpts are mono). The chapter divisions are extremely generous, but there are no bonus features as such. --Mark Walker [show more]

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