Yesterdays (Yes album)

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Yesterdays
Compilation album of Yes

Publication
(s)

February 27, 1975

Label (s) Atlantic Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Progressive rock

Title (number)

8th

running time

45:35

occupation

production

Paul Clay & Yes: Tracks 2 & 6,
Tony Colton & Yes: Tracks 3-5 & 7-8,
Yes & Eddie Offord: Track 1

chronology
Relayer
(1974) 		Yesterdays Going for the One
(1977)

Yesterdays is a compilation of the first two albums of the English progressive rock group Yes and was released in 1975. It is the first compilation released worldwide and the band's ninth album.

content

Shortly after Relayer was released in late 1974, Yesterdays appeared on February 27, 1975 , a compilation of older pieces from the band's early stages 1969–1972. If Relayer is one of the most inaccessible works by Yes, Yesterdays brings together comparatively simple pieces with the exception of America .

America , a cover version of the Paul Simon song of the same name , was already a permanent feature of Yes in 1970 and was recorded for the first time in 1972 for the Atlantic Records compilation The New Age of Atlantic . The record companies published such compilations more often in order to make their bands known. There is hardly an Atlantic sampler from this period that does not feature their two draft horses, Led Zeppelin and Yes . America was expanded by Yes from 3:36 (original version by Simon and Garfunkel ) to 10:34 (the LP incorrectly says “9:40”). Live the band was able to extend the song to well over twenty minutes with various solos.

Tracklist

  1. America - 10:34
  2. Looking Around - 4:04
  3. Time And A Word - 4:33
  4. Sweet Dreams - 3:50
  5. Then - 5:49
  6. Survival - 6:24
  7. Astral Traveler - 5:57
  8. Dear Father - 4:20

Remarks

  • America is a recording from 1972 that first appeared on the label sampler The New Age of Atlantic . The piece was recorded separately between work on Fragile and Close to the Edge . Since it was already played live by the band before keyboardist Rick Wakeman joined the band, he refused to take part in the recording, so that the keyboards were played here in large passages by drummer Bill Bruford . The bass line at the beginning of the piece quotes Leonard Bernstein's America from the musical West Side Story . A version of America shortened to 4:06 was also released as an Atlantic single in 1972. The B-side was Total Mass Retain (3:16) from the album Close to the Edge .
  • Looking Around and Survival are from the debut album Yes (1969).
  • Time And A Word , Sweet Dreams , Then and Astral Traveler are from the album Time and a Word (1970).
  • Dear Father comes from the single Sweet Dreams / Dear Father (1970). The song is also included on the Rhino Records version of Time And A Word (2003) and was the B-side of the Bernstein cover single Something's Coming .

Cover

Yesterdays has two front sides that were designed by fantasy artist Roger Dean to be interchangeable. The standard front shows two withered, intertwined tree trunks on the left and right edges. At the top right is the classic Yes logo and the album title. In the center of the picture floating freely, a young, undressed woman, whose posture is reminiscent of the time-and-a-word cover. According to Dean, this detail goes back to Giovanni Segantini's 1891 painting The Punishment of the Voluptuous .

The "back" shows two blue, unclothed children in the great outdoors by a tree over a swamp. The boy stands with his back to the viewer and is shown - to this day, strange - urinating. The girl looks the viewer straight in the eye. The album title is repeated at the top left.

On the left of each page there are four photos of the musicians, on the right there is some information about the pieces, composers, musicians, producers and the original publication. Here, Dear Father falsely the album Time and a Word attributed, which applies only for the German pressing of the album. This bug runs through all LP and CD versions to this day.

In some of the images on this cover, the images are censored: branches cover the front of the woman's breasts and the children's hips, including the boy's urine stream.

The images allude to the childhood of Yes members and the cover of Time and a Word .

occupation

on America :

  • Jon Anderson: vocals
  • Bill Bruford: drums, keyboards
  • Steve Howe: guitar, vocals
  • Chris Squire: bass, vocals
  • Rick Wakeman: Keyboards

on the remaining recordings:

  • Jon Anderson: vocals
  • Bill Bruford: drums
  • Peter Banks: guitar, vocals
  • Tony Kaye: Organ
  • Chris Squire: bass, vocals

Sources & web links