When Yes broke up after the aborted Drama tour, their label released two "new" albums, Classic Yes (a compilation) and Yesshows (a live album recorded before Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman chose to take their leave of the band). This two CD set is not on the same caliber as Yessongs, or even the Keys To Ascension albums released more recently, but it is still a good live album that holds up reasonably well. The production is a bit flat at times, seeming to lack a lot of dynamic energy. Still, the performances are strong, and the song choices at the time were brilliant, with no duplication of the material on Yessongs.

This is still a "must have" for Yes-fanatics, and should be of interest to prog fans that enjoy epic length pieces, as this contains two of them. More casual listeners, though, interested in purchasing their first Yes live album would probably do better with Yessongs or even one of the more recent DVD's. Since we have already reviewed most of the studio albums the material comes from, I have not gone into great detail on the compositional structures of each song, instead focusing more on the performance presented here and how it echoes or differs from the studio rendition.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2004 Year Book Volume 1 at https://garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2003-and-2004/.