22/11/2007

1970/71 - BBC Sessions EDITED


BBC Studios, London
1970-04-07 (For Everyone), 1970-10-20(America), 1971-04-12(Clap)

+
America
June 05, 1971
Sportpalast, Berlin, Germany

There was some confusion here. The America I posted, believing to be from BBC, was actually from a show in Berlin, June1971. So I'm posting the actual America from BBC now.


(these are not the BBC Sessions (with Peter Banks) released on Beyond & Before: BBC Recordings 1969-1970)

Today I present three sessions from BBC, when Yes played one song in each.

For Everyone, with their original formation, is a longer arrangement than the one featured in Beyond and Before. It has 9 minutes, with a bass/organ solo of 3. The song was not released in a studio album, but part of it would become the Disillusion part of Starship Trooper (we can notice, in the difference of the arrangements, that this encarnation of Yes was very nice and powerful, but Yes with Howe would be much more original, which is shown in Disillusion, so different than everything they made).

America was perhaps played by Yes for the first time in this BBC session. It has a drums intro, and a very different and adventurous arrangement. Bill's drums are never what you'd expect them to be in this song! The original Simon and Garfunkel version included a verse that began "Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat" and ends "and the moon rose over an open field." Yes included that verse in this arrangement but excised it in 72.
Quoting a review from a show in November, 1970: "The climax of their show was a dramatic arrangement for Simon & Garfunkel's America that opened with a strange 1930's Berlin style intro played by Tony Kaye on organ and Steve leading into Jon's simple emotive vocals. Bill Bruford was a tower of strength throughout."

Clap is predictable as always, but has a great portion of Classical Gas in its middle. Steve said, back in 1970: "Clap is slightly influenced by Chet Atkins. It's a simple tune I used to play and expanded by putting in stop time breaks and bits from Mason Williams' 'Classical Gas' which I've always loved. Down in Devon the boys said they wanted to find a solo for me and this came up. I started playing it on a couple of gigs and it always goes down well. People don't know what to associate my guitar style with, blues or the underground. I want to do a solo album one day, but there is no hurry."
According to Mick D: "Theres a story behind... Yes wanted to do Starship Trooper but after five hours they had still not nailed it so with just a few minutes left howe recorded Clap so at least the session wasn't a complete waste" Later, in 1971, Starship Trooper would be broadcast at BBC, wchich said they were playing it live, but it's clearly the studio version! So don't be fooled: there's no BBC broadcast of Starship Trooper!

Sound quality: For Everyone is a radio broadcast, but BBC kept no record of it. This version was recorded from FM. America is the best version that can be found. Clap has a good guitar sound, but some constant noise behind.

Links on comments!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

thank you for these ...but the version of america here is not the bbc session but a live concert version...a shame i really need the bbc version..ive always considered this to be one of the great yes radio sessions.......the clap theres a story behind...yes wanted to do starship trooper but after five hours they had still not nailed it so with just a few minutes left howe recorded the clap so at least the session wasn't a complete waste.......

back in the seventies i had this long version of for everyone on tape...neadless to say as an unreleased track it was a treasure to me...only thing was the quality i had it in was about 2 out of 10....maddeningly poor quality...i still played it loads of times never the less...it great to finally get it in excellent sound after all these years.....
you are a true yesbeliever my friend
mick d

Martini said...

You are right. But I have the actual BBC Version (at least I think it is), so I'm going to upload it soon, and redo the post.
Thanks for the help

Martini said...

America in Berlin
and
Clap at BBC
http://sharebee.com/8ea4a7a3

For Everyone
http://sharebee.com/cecf84a2

America at BBC
http://sharebee.com/a99b2382

Anonymous said...

brilliant finally i get america bbc...the version i have came from a cassette that ran out before the song did..so i never had the end....thanks again
mick d

Anonymous said...

thank you so much all the shows you've posted. i have so many poor quality recordings of yes shows that i was beginning to think that was it.

i have a question though, do you have a good quality show that includes "to be over" and would you consider posting it?

all the best,

Anonymous said...

hello,

great recordings, did they ever play "survival" or "harold land" live?

Martini said...

Survival they played only a short part, in the middle of The Fish, in their Medley from Tormato Tour (78/79)
Harold Land they never played live. They created it fastly, while recording their first album, and never mecalled it again.

I also love To Be Over, and I will post a bootleg containing this song soon.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all this and everything!

fhs

Anonymous said...

Sorry to tell you, but Yes did not play the Sportpalast in Berlin on this date.

Bernd
http://www.rockinberlin.de/

Anonymous said...

Yes, a great album just to remind us of how good Yes was at that time, ok they were just starting and were still looking for its future path, but even then it was already a great band. And to hear the band live at that period of time with Peter Banks and Tony Kaye, is a special occasion for me, as it brings marvelou souvenirs as I had the chance to see Yes in their very beginning...

Popeye Bonaparte said...

Any chance of a re-upload please?

Popeye Bonaparte said...

Any chance of a re-seed please?

Anonymous said...

Hi, the links aren't working...please can you re-upload?

Many thanks!