Yes - Boston Garden (1977)FLAC

GENRE: Prog Rock
FORMAT: Lossless (Flac)   
SIZE: 953 mb (3% Recovery)

Recoreded Live at Boston Garden, Massachusetts, USA  12 August 1977

TRACKLIST:

CD1
01  - Firebird Suite Intro/Parallels
02  - I’ve Seen All Good People
03  - Close to the Edge
04  - Wondrous Stories
05  - Colors of the Rainbow
06  - Turn of the Century
07  - And You and I

CD2
01  - "Flight Jam"*/Awaken**
02  - Minutes of the Audience
03  - Starship Trooper
04  - Roundabout
05  - Yours is No Disgrace

* Title of improv lead-in commonly seen at the Website Forgotten
Yesterdays

** About 5 seconds lost to tape flip during the quiet section. Slight
high frequency drop due either to fresh tape alignment or audience
movement recovers about a minute in.

Jon Anderson - Vocals and various instruments
Steve Howe - Guitars
Chris Squire - Bass guitars
Rick Wakeman - Keyboards
Alan White - Percussion



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NOTE FROM ONE OFFICIAL "BLIND" B80 PROJECT TEST GROUP LISTENER:

"1977 seemed to be the only year without at least one really
outstanding Yes audience capture. The idea of a Balrog capture of a
'77 show, therefore, was extremely enticing. Listening [nonetheless]
to the raw version of AYAI was a very strange experience--the exact
same performance, but without the "presence" and visceral excitement
the mastering brought.

"The percussive metals [now] have that incredibly lifelike definition
that seems to be one of Lestat’s specialties. And almost every
emergence of Howe's pedal steel brought goosebumps. Frankly, I'm not
sure that I've ever enjoyed a performance of AYAI this much- -while a
great song, it is one of those perennials in Yes shows that rarely
stands out as very special.  But something about this performance does
feel special--as if the whole "sunshiny Alpine" vibe of GFTO carries
over to this song as well here. Yet, I didn't have that same sense
when listening to the raw version. The mastering really allowed a
level of majesty to come through in a way I wouldn't have thought
possible.

"I really, really like what was done with this tape. [Yes] don't sound
distant at all, and have a nice, warm tonality, with an almost
holographic stereo image (particularly surprising given the taping
position). The only real sonic impediment is that '77 swish/swirl
effect, but that is far outweighed by the sonic pleasures on offer
here. This is a HUGE improvement over the other '77 shows I've heard -
I have a much greater sense of 'being there' than with any of those
other shows. The pipe organ and pedal steel sounds are nothing short
of otherworldly!

In any event, I've really been enjoying this, and can't wait for the
entire release!"

- "NorthNYMark"

"I'm pleased to have once again had the chance to participate in the
pre-torrenting review of this new Balrog/Lestat production. What I
learned off the bat is that each recording reviewed must be evaluated
on its own merits and not simply the pedigree attached to it. B78, B79
and B80 set the bar very high. So with this in mind, I fought my way
past caveats listed and concentrated on the following:

"the astounding up front vocals of Jon
the ever nimble fret work of Steve
the great low end bass sounds of Chris
the heroic drumming of Alan especially during Awaken when it seemed the
Band was going off the rails, and especially:

"the fact the full power of this band is captured by a gentleman
sitting in the cheap seats of the Garden in 1977!!

"These facts, combined with Lestat's audio engineering magic, result
in a recording that matches if not exceeds the best captures from the
GFTO tour already circulating. So give a listen and see if you don't
get goose bumps like I did. Go on- I dare you!"

- "Jackstraw"

NOTES FROM THE PRODUCERS:

Almost without exception, circulating GFTO recordings shows have been
hollow, muddy affairs, as if the gods of recording had determined that
music of such magnificence should not be heard unfettered; the best a
listener could hope for was that whistlers and clappers didn't
overwhelm the recording, and the recordist didn't have a flip mid-
Awaken.

Boston 1977 is that exception: bright, clean and absolutely MUST be
considered strictly in context of ARs from the 1977 GOING FOR THE ONE
Yes tour to be fully appreciated, especially by those already familiar
with others by its taper from other years.

Despite many problems described below, B77’s dynamic range, detail,
lifelike presence, and balance among GFTO tour ARs now stand nearly if
not completely alone, and were enough to deliver sound after the
restoration process far exceeding both taper’s and my expectations.
When I first analyzed the raw master I knew it could eventually offer
more depth and detail than most GFTO shows in circulation, but due to
a number of negatives both unique to it and universal to 1977 Yes
audience captures even I dared not dream it would ever come out this
well.

Even with the best tapers and equipment involved, due to sound system
configuration and road engineer peculiarities GFTO tour arena ARs
simply did not tape well from the audience. There are no exceptions.
Some small venue captures from Europe appear to be better in many ways
thanks to less ‘swallowing’ of PA output and less taper distance, but
these in turn are represented in circulation either tape generations
removed or poorly mastered or both. Most audience captures from the
1970s remain rough. In Yes’ case the best ones from either side of
1977 beat even the best ones from 1977 for uniformly high sound
quality.

B77 is an arena event, in an arena of legendarily bad acoustics. Its
taper had a mediocre location relative to stage and sound system. The
resulting problems of band to crowd volume ratio, greater interference
with soundstage by crowd movement near mikes, seeming additional
imbalance in PA output mix, and quieter Yesworks largely crossing a
sonic ‘event horizon’ will be noticeable at times.

We at "BLG" actually like detailed crowd sound and consider it a
critical part of the event reality, but at least one whistler right in
the mikes is most irritating. Clapping also more prominent as
expected. Neither over modulate or distort however, and are fairly
confined between Yes numbers.

Local crowd movement effects the opening stanzas of "Parallels" and
"Close to the Edge", where high frequencies suddenly become much more
detailed about 30 seconds to 1 minute in, and what sounds like a left
channel dropout during "AYAI" is another symptom.

"Wondrous Stories", "Turn of the Century" and softer parts of other
pieces are the most disappointing moments in this and many other ARs
of the tour thanks to the arena ‘event horizon’ effect. Excepting some
of Alan White’s metals, much Yessound almost ‘disappears’ during these
numbers and it’s aggravated by a couple of items described just below.
Some definition in Squire’s bass even during full-bore moments is also
lost amidst related Boston Garden ‘boom’.

Happily these problems mitigated quite well, without altering natural
PA output mix, with all Yes parts now more ‘upfront’ and in balance
with each other than most GFTO tour offerings - but they’ll still be
noticeable at times.

Add to them the universal GFTO tour problems of uneven PA amplitude
and ‘swish/swirl’ [henceforth "SS"] - a hideous distortion of certain
high frequencies afflicting Yes ARs from 1977 like no other year or
tour after TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS [although it seems to have
made a nasty comeback in 1980]. For the most part it involves certain
percussive metals, but occasionally other things too. When it rears up
it can be beyond aggravating.

SS cannot be edited out or effectively mitigated with any software,
and despite so many outstandingly good features B77 has an unusually
severe case of it. We’re nearly certain it results when already
uneven, poorly aimed PA output is interfered with by crowd movement
[even air movement] and interacts with microphone diaphragms in ways
it seems not to with eardrums at the event. The more distant the taper
from PA system the worse it gets, but even front and center it can be
bad.

Meanwhile, at least one Yes insider has reported the soundman in 1977
had high end hearing loss. This would explain at least in part many
unpleasant GFTO tour anomalies, the plague of SS among them even
though it was probably not noticed by actual audiences. It also easily
explains why recordings from the tour including its YESSHOWS
selections are so trebly, and PA volume frequently so uneven.

We then have added 1977 cassette tape hiss and a ‘tunnely’ property
resulting from the particular venue and taping position. These could
be mitigated thankfully, but only to a degree without damaging signal
and badly altering natural sound capture properties [commonly
attempted in other GFTO tour ARs with disastrous results].

Finally, Yes’ early GFTO performances were rough by Yes standards.
Arrangements and improvisations were far smoother and more elegant by
the time they hit Europe in November. In B77 - one of the earliest
GFTO shows - we hear more than a few flubs and it seems the new
material had a lot of developing to do onstage. Happily, like sound
quality it turns out to have been a better performance than the raw
master let on - one of the major benefits of the remaster.

-Lestat, February 2009