I can't believe in the years that this site has been in existence that there is not one single user review on IMDb yet to be posted for this wonderful documentary, so I'm privileged to be the first.
This 'rockumentary' was released to co-incide with Yes' 'Union' album and tour in 1991. It was a unique period in the band's history whereby all the iconic figures of Yes' entire career were bought together in a 'Union' of friendship and music....at least for the cameras anyhoo.
The album and it's title was far from honest as none of the eight Yes musicians featured, (Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Steve Howe, Tony Kaye, Trevor Rabin, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Alan White), collaborated as a collective on a single song and it became a mishmash of songs that were either written by Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe to be included on their second and ultimately aborted ABWH album, and Kaye, Rabin, Squire and White who we're looking to put together the next Yes album without Jon Anderson. Then someone who was actually paid to make decisions decided that it would be a great idea to have a 'Union' of both these warring factions and bring what was essentially two co-existing versions of Yes together. The result was a mediocre album, but a tour and subsequent documentary not to be missed.
YesYears was the first career spanning retrospective of the bands then 23 year long career which began when Anderson and Squire first met in a bar in London's Soho district in 1968 and within three years they had become one of England's finest purveyors of progressive rock. The documentary spans their entire discography and line up changes up until that point. With interviews from all the eight band members in question, all filmed in artsy black and white, (for some reason which remains a mystery).
On a personal note, this film could not have come at a better time for me as I had just recently discovered the joys of progressive rock having being introduced to it rather late in life at the veteran age of 17 and Yes had been the first prog band I had ever heard. The first Yes song I ever heard was 'Heart of the Sunrise' from their 1971 'Fragile' album and I was just blown away by the sheer scale, musicality and talent of the whole thing. Needless to say I was pretty hooked and began collecting the entire Yes back catalogue almost immediately, which initially was a difficult thing to do having just left school, unemployed and not having two brass farthings to scratch my arse with. Then, later that same year, YesYears was released and it gave me the opportunity to educate myself further on this wonderful band.
Some of the stories told in this documentary have since become legend, such as the regular, and sometimes violent, altercations between drummer Bill Bruford, whose loose and spontaneous Jazz style of playing was in stark contrast to bass player Chris Squire's desire for perfection. A perfection which would see him contemplate for hours over the sound or softness of a singular bass note. Not to mention the truly absurd process of recording the 1973 album 'Tales from Topographic Oceans' when the band, who wanted a countryside feel, to the recording sessions, filled the entire studio with hay bales, and cardboard cutout farm animals despite being in the heart of Willesden, an urban sprawl of North London.
However. The documentary is not without fault. It would have been nice to include interviews with the four ex Yes members (at that time), Peter Banks, Patrick Moraz, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downs, so they too could have share some of their memories and experiences of their time in Yes with the viewer.
Admittedly, watching YesYears today in 2023 is more difficult, as more time has now elapsed since it's release, than the entire period the film actually covers, so a new Yes fan might feel they were only getting half a story. However, in context, they would still he getting the lions share of their history as well as the best and most creative periods of their history. For seasoned Yes fans like myself and for others who were lucky enough to have been Yes fans when they were in their 70's prime, this documentary has now become a 'nostalgic look back at nostalgia' which is a weird concept when you think about it.
Check this one out if you can find it, but it's not too hard to find more modern and updated documentaries on this wonderful band of crazy proggers, YesStory being a prime example....but that's a story for another review.
Enjoy!
