Cheap Yes - Yesspeak (35th Anniversary) (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Yes - Yesspeak (35th Anniversary)

** THIS IS NOT A CONCERT DVD **

It is a series of interview snippets clustered around small segments of live footage. The interviews were pretty bland and did not flow at all. Most of what each member said was pretty trite - although I thought Alan White's comments were the best.

Why YES would put out a 2-disc DVD and NOT have full songs included is beyond me? This would have worked MUCH better if they had sandwiched the interviews between full-song concert footage.

The track listing of songs are audio-only, but the sound mix on these is utterly terrible. Certain songs start out great (Awaken, Don't Kill The Whales), but when the full band comes in, the bass and drums sound muted and distant - which is a problem with the way this thing was mixed (not the performance).

Save you money. This one is a dog.

Save your money
Was expecting a live concert dvd and got nothing but 3 hours of extras. What a marketing rip-off.

A Promo Video Masquerading as a Documentary
A documentary is a probing work of cinematic art. A promotional video is a commercial. Yesspeak is certainly much closer to a commercial than art.

The problems with this film are many, including:

--Its cover is deceptive. It makes it appear as if it's a live concert rather than three hours of chattering (albeit it does contain live recordings of songs, though without video footage).

--Some have said this film will appeal only to hardcore fans of Yes. In my opinion, it won't appeal to either fanatics or casual fans. The reason is because the interviews with band members are mostly lightweight, and hardcore fans will learn little that is new, while casual fans won't want to hear nearly three hours worth of talk about a band they're not particularly interested in.

--Roger Dalty, the narrator, has an unappealing voice that soon becomes grating. He comes off like a used car-salesman huckstering a trademark -- much as he did on the infomercial hawking that Time/Life greatest hits package. Frankly, I can't think of a worse choice to narrate a documentary about this band.

--There is an annoying amount of talk about great things that Yes is going to do in the future, when it's quite obvious that, barring a miracle, their greatest years are far-behind them.

--The group is frequently patted on the back -- and pats itself on the back -- for staying together for 35 years, when in fact Yes was one of the most dysfunctional ensembles in rock history, who were constantly breaking up, fueding, and getting back together with different lineups.

--Toward the end of the film, Rick Wakeman promises that he'll be around during the last days of Yes, when in reality he was only in the band for a fragment of its lifespan and, if the past is any indication, may very well opt out next week (if he hasn't already).

--There's not nearly enough talk about what hardcore fans are interested in: musical influences, the stories behind the songs, and that sort of thing.

--Suspiciously, there's not one group interview, when all the members of the band are present. Wouldn't it have been a good idea to have staged a dinner for the whole group, allowed the wine to flow, and turned on the video recorder? Surely that would have yeilded more interesting material than the mostly bland, almost politically tactful and unrevealing one-on-one interviews with which this film is filled.

I could go on, but I think you've pretty much gotten the point. Basically this is a long commercial the band should have given away rather than fleecing their diehard fans out of twenty-something bucks.

Though well past their prime, Yes is one of seminal prog rock acts in rock history. And while it's refreshing the fellows are still alive and kicking, they and their fans deserve much better than this cheesy piece of propaganda.