The 1970s were the golden era of the live album, and prog-rock bands really took to the idea, in multiple cases stretching out to not just double, but triple live releases. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Santana, and Yes all went the 3LP route, with glorious results. Lotus presents Santana at their jazz-fusion/prog/Latin-rock peak, with only two songs on the whole thing even including vocals(!); Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends lives up to its title, giving ELP all the room they need to sprawl out for half an hour at a time; but Yessongs is not only one of the crucial Yes documents, but one of the greatest live albums of all time.

Though there are two tracks featuring Bill Bruford, who left to join King Crimson, the majority of the material was recorded on the second round of 1972 tour dates, with Alan White on drums. The performances are uniformly ferocious and high-octane; some tracks are nearly twice as long as their studio versions, most notably “Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus).” On Fragile, the two tracks — which run together, as they do here — add up to just over six minutes of music; on Yessongs, they stretch to almost 14, including some intense Chris Squire/Bill Bruford jamming. Similarly, “Yours Is No Disgrace” is extended from 10 minutes to nearly 15, and features some of the most aggressive playing of the entire set. There’s also an incredible amount of raw beauty here, though. “Heart Of The Sunrise” vacillates between hard-driving rock and pastoral shimmer, while “And You And I” and “Close To The Edge” are breathtakingly gorgeous, while retaining a vitality that never lets you forget that Yes were one of the most powerhouse rock bands of the decade. And the pacing of the whole thing is pretty much perfect; even the solo segments (Rick Wakeman performs an excerpt from his solo album The Six Wives Of Henry VIII) don’t drag.

Basically, Yessongs features Yes’ best lineup(s), performing much of their best material, with more power and energy than at any other time. It’s such a fantastic representation of the band, you could actually make it your first purchase by them and work your way backwards to the studio albums. (That’s what I did.)