Being a weeklie podcaste from Madison, Wisconsin featuring several remarkable curiosities therein occurring being a compendium of live music from divers artistes
Show #48: Yes – We Have Heaven
January 25th, 2006
Happy Mittwoch!
After my brief detour with Iggy Pop, I’m continuing with my series of mini-shows featuring progressive rock. Today I present some Yes.
It’s a fairly short set consisting of only two songs: “We Have Heaven” & “South Side of the Sky”. Both appear on what is probably the bands most popular album, Fragile. (It’s the one with “Roundabout”.) There’s no space between the two pieces on the record as they’re linked by a couple echoing booms that bookend some footsteps. Fragile was released on 1 November 1971. “South Side of the Sky” was played live a couple times a month or so prior to the album’s release and only seven times afterwards until 2002 when it was resurrected for the band’s summer tour on 17 July. If there are any anal completist types out there, here are those dates:
09/24/71 Queen’s Hall, Devon, UK
10/02/71 St. George’s Concert Hall, Bradford, UK
11/21/71 Stetson University, De Land, FL
02/22/72 McCarter Theater, Princeton, NJ
02/29/72 Ritz Theater, New York City, NY
03/26/72 Lakeland Community College, Mentor, OH
12/05/74 Tulsa Convention Center Arena, Tulsa, OK
12/17/74 St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul MN
(Thanks to Forgotten Yesterdays)
“We Have Heaven” is a bit of a strange song that was recorded by singer Jon Anderson. Each of the five band members contributed a solo tune to Fragile with the remaining songs being group pieces. Anderson’s song is short but featured several layers of vocal overdubs each consisting of different phrases. The song was never played live until 29 July 2002. The show was at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. It was the first time I ever saw Yes (proper, that is – I’d seen Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe) and I’d traveled there with a couple friends of mine for the occasion. We were all happy to hear that “South Side of the Sky” was in the setlist and I devised a plan whereby the three of us would start singing “We Have Heaven” just before “South Side” in the set. You can imagine our surprise when, as we were about to start singing, the band started playing it!
The performances here were recorded on 25 August 2002 at the Hilton Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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(Photos by BigTimeYesFan)
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Oh, this is great! First time I’ve actually made out the words properly! “Do look around”
Yeah, it took me a long time of listening to the studio version to figure out all the parts.