Questions about the film Yessongs

[Digital_Man]

I was very young when this album and film first appeared so I have no idea and wikipedia didn't say if there was a theatrical release. I assume there was since this was before dvd and vcrs but I'm wondering if it was a limited release or was it played pretty much anywhere there was a movie theater.

Also, I don't have the details in front of me but I know the album was different than the movie. I'm wondering why there was never a song by song soundtrack(different than the album). I suppose maybe that would be considered redundant. If they released it now it would probably be seen as a collectible and I'm sure a lot of hardcore Yes fans would buy it.

[Paulrus]

It got a theatrical release in 1975. I recall the Dan Hedges book claiming it beat out "Jaws" at one point that summer!

And I can't imagine them ever considering a separate "soundtrack of the movie" release when the triple-album version had already been out there for a couple years (and was selling pretty well.)

[JJ88]

^Hmm, by 1975 it was already out of date! Some of it was shown in the UK on the BBC TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test not that long after it had been filmed...perhaps someone here watched it! The same show also later broadcast the 2nd half or so of the QPR concert.

I have heard that the film played in US theatres with things like ELP's Pictures... (which must have been through some kind of 'filmising' as it was shot on videotape!) and Pink Floyd's Live At Pompeii. Not sure it ever played in UK theatres.

A couple of the performances are the same as the album, I think...certainly 'Starship Trooper' might be as it was not played on the US leg of the tour. I've never analysed them though.

[BobM]

Youtube has your answers:

[rdclark]

I saw it in the old Eric theater (which was part of a large chain, but near the Penn campus so it did some less mainstream programming) in West Philadelphia, on Walnut Street, in (I guess it was) 1975. It was as close as I ever got to seeing Yes live for the next 39 years.

[Digital_Man]

^So you never saw Yes with Jon Anderson? Did you ever see them at all?

[Mister Triscuits]

I have a flyer from the original theatrical run--Rick Wakeman gets top billing. I also saw it in a theater sometime in the early '80s, so it was still making the rounds at least a few years after its release.

[Sunlight Caller]

I saw it in my local Odeon in the UK mid 70's, I assume it got played all over. It would not have been the lead feature of the week (this is way before multiplexes), probably one showing mid-week. I definitely went with a bunch of school mates, as we were all heavily into Yes back then.

I believe it was recorded at one gig at London's The Rainbow, and so all performances differ from Yessongs the album, which as we know was recorded in the US and documented recently on Progeny, apart from the two Bruford tracks of course.


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[pb2015]

A couple of the performances are the same as the album, I think...certainly 'Starship Trooper' might be as it was not played on the US leg of the tour. I've never analysed them though.

From what I've read, "Close To The Edge" was also the same version on the film and the album.

[Paulrus]

I thought this was common knowledge by now, but the only two songs in common between the movie and the record are "Close to the Edge" and "Starship Trooper".

The Rainbow gig that was filmed happened in December, months after the North American autumn tour where most of the other songs were sourced (except the couple with Bill from the previous tour.)

Why it took over 2 years to edit and then release the film into theaters is unknown. Someone should ask Steve Howe since his brother was the editor for it.

I got into Yes largely due to Yessongs, and when I learned they'd filmed the tour I became obsessed with seeing it. But this was So Cal in the late 70s and Yes was seriously out of fashion. I finally found a theater in Orange County that was screening the film as a midnight movie double feature with The Song Remains the Same. It was trashed, spliced all to hell and the soundtrack was munged, but I didn't care. Who does when they're 16 seeing a band like that in action for the first time?

[Digital_Man]

I have a flyer from the original theatrical run--Rick Wakeman gets top billing. I also saw it in a theater sometime in the early '80s, so it was still making the rounds at least a few years after its release.

Hmmmmm. I'm wondering if you saw it there before or after the release of 90210. Yes were sort of dormat(actually broken up) after Drama so it seems strange to me that they showed it around then.

[happytheman]

Like others I saw The Song Remains the Same, Pompeii, and Yessongs the same summer as midnight showings.. Must have been mid 70's as other have noted.. these "cult" films made there rounds every summer for a few years..

[taliesin]

I don't remember it showing at the mainstream theatres in Toronto when it came out but it showed up regularly at the second run theatres for a few years.

If I remember right I saw it the first time on a double bill with the Genesis film - not having seen either band live at that point it was pretty magical.

[Digital_Man]

I'm a bit too young I guess. I remember seeing "the kids are alright"(I know it's not a concert film) with my brother around 81 or 82 late at night at a movie theater that specialized in independent and off beat movies. I don't know if either one of us knew much about Yes at the time but we both liked the Who. There's a good chance this same place showed Yessongs but I have no way of knowing.


Edit: I stand corrected. It wasn't the "Kids are alright" we saw. It was Quadrophenia. I got the band right at least. Does anyone know what year Quadrophenia was released? I suspect it was already a few years old when we saw it.

[Digital_Man]

I don't remember it showing at the mainstream theatres in Toronto when it came out but it showed up regularly at the second run theatres for a few years.

If I remember right I saw it the first time on a double bill with the Genesis film - not having seen either band live at that point it was pretty magical.

What Genesis film? I didn't know they released a theatrical movie as well.

[Paulrus]

What Genesis film? I didn't know they released a theatrical movie as well.

That would be the "In Concert" film from 1976 I assume.

[Dave (in MA)]

What Genesis film? I didn't know they released a theatrical movie as well.

[Mister Triscuits]

Hmmmmm. I'm wondering if you saw it there before or after the release of 90210. Yes were sort of dormat(actually broken up) after Drama so it seems strange to me that they showed it around then.

Before. It would almost certainly have been '80 or '81, possibly early '82.

[Mister Triscuits]

Attachment 9125

[Luckie]

Just to echo other posters - saw Yessongs in the Hippodrome cinema, Wrexham (Wales) 1975 with a bunch of prog-loving mates. Saw Monty Python & The Holy Grail a few weeks later, same place, same friends, and the Genesis movie too in 1977. Great times. (Also saw Gary Glitter's movie Remember Me This Way there in 1974 - I tend to keep quiet about that these days.)

[Dave (in MA)]

Attachment 9125

Didn't you mean 90125?

[2steves]

Yessongs played in a large Times Sq cinema for a day or so----you had to be a big fan to notice it----it came and went fast.

Love the Genesis film---as many times as I've seen it---it still bugs me that that call it Carpet Crawl Didn't anyone notice that in editing!!

But genius Hackett with Bruford---now that's an amazing line up.

[Mister Triscuits]

Didn't you mean 90125?

Not if I can help it.

[Digital_Man]

Wow, I never realized that Genesis concert film was released theatrically in 76/77. That's what I get for being too young I guess.

[Digital_Man]

If played in a large Times Sq cinema for a day or so----you had to be a big fan to notice it----it came and went fast.

You are referring to the Genesis concert film right?

There was a Rush documentary that was recently in the theaters but only for a day. Unfortunately I missed it. You snooze you lose with some of these things.