The Ultimate Yes

Yes: Jon Anderson, Trevor Horn (vocals);Bill Sherwood (guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Trevor Rabin, Steve Howe (guitar, background vocals); Peter Banks (guitar); Igor Khoroshev, Geoff Downes, Patrick Moraz, Rick Wakeman, Tony Kaye (keyboards); Chris Squire (bass, background vocals); Bill Bruford, Alan White (drums, percussion). Producers include: Tony Colton, Eddie Offord, Yes, Trevor Horn, Tim Weidner. Compilation producers: Yes, David McLees, Bill Inglot. Recorded between 1969 & 2003. Includes liner notes by Chris Welch. For a band with outsized ambitions like those of prog-rock pioneers Yes, it makes sense to release an anthology that spreads itselfout grandly over three discs. With its third disc, a home for 20 minutes of newly recorded bonus tracks, the appropriately titled ULTIMATE YES stops just short of box-set length (there have already been two of those to tell the group's story), but finely chronicles Yes's long career. Through a maze of head-spinning personnel changes, almost every album is touched on, from the early post-psychedelic phase (the title track of TIME AND A WORD) to the first musical muscle-flexingof guitar hero Steve Howe ("Yours Is No Disgrace"), the arrival of keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman (several tracks from milestone FRAGILE), and the band's high-water mark, CLOSE TO THE EDGE (the almost funky "Siberian Khatru"). "Tempus Fugit" from the under-appreciated, sans-Jon Anderson DRAMA, and a trio of tracks from the "comeback" album 90125 represent the finest of Yes's '80s output. Latter-day tracks ("Lift Me Up, " "Homeworld") find the band's might undiminished decadesinto the journey. Hardcore fans will have all this material already, but will bedrawn in by Disc 3, containing four brand-new pieces recorded in an "unplugged" acoustic format, including interesting re-workings of FRAGILE's "Roundabout" andthe epic "South Side of the Sky. "

Track Listing

• Disc 1
• • 1 time and a word
  • 2 starship trooper: life seeker/disillusio
  • 3 yours is no disgrace
  • 4 i've seen all good people: your move/all
  • 5 roundabout
  • 6 long distance runaround
  • 7 heart of the sunrise
  • 8 south side of the sky
  • 9 and you and i
  • 10 america [single edit]
  • 11 wonderous stories
• Disc 2
• • 1 siberian khatru
  • 2 soon [new edit]
  • 3 going for the one
  • 4 don't kill the whale
  • 5 tempus fugit
  • 6 owner of a lonely heart
  • 7 leave it
  • 8 it can happen [single edit]
  • 9 rhythm of love
  • 10 big generator [remix]
  • 11 lift me up
  • 12 the calling [single edit]
  • 13 open your eyes
  • 14 homeworld (the ladder) [radio edit]
  • 15 magnification
• Disc 3
• • 1 roundabout [acoustic][previously unrelea
  • 2 show me [previously unreleased]
  • 3 south side of the sky: south side of the
  • 4 australia [solo acoustic][previously unr
  • 5 new world symphony [previously unrelease