Yes: A Visual Biography I: 1968 – 1981 is my weighty 1.65 kg, 8 ^½” x 12” hardback coffee table book on Jon Anderson and Chris Squire and their minstrel buddies of Mensa rock madness.

The chief mission is to celebrate the first ten years of the band’s sublime career, utilizing a timeline and quotes format, putting back into service a revised version of the text used in my long out of print book, Yes: Time and a Word.

But that’s just the start. Besides the fully 90,000 words of academic timeline framing and commentary from the band in their own words, the book features fully 283 pictures, placed reverently upon 224 pages of sumptuous 100 lb. gloss paper.

As the publisher’s blurb attests (slight edit notwithstanding):

Yes: A Visual Biography I: 1968 – 1981 documents the progressive rock pioneer’s first 12 years from the release of their eponymous debut album through to 1980’s Drama. It’s a suitable label for a band whose career has been full of drama as documented in Popoff’s narrative, an action-packed treatise that charts Yes’s ups and downs as the band emerged from the ‘60s with a full-on assault on the ‘70s music scene that saw them become one of the biggest acts in the world, selling out venues from New York’s Madison Square Garden to London’s Wembley Arena.

Popoff takes you on a journey from the early days of the band with original members Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Peter Banks and Tony Kaye, to the hugely successful ‘70s when the likes of Steve Howe, Patrick Moraz, Rick Wakeman and Alan White all added their individual stamps on the band’s identity. Then we witness the surprise union with The Buggles that saw Yes enter the ‘80s a world apart from the way they had entered the ‘70s, while continuing to delight their legion of fans.

Throughout the book Popoff draws on his own interviews conducted with various band members throughout the last two decades, leaving much of the story to be told in their own words, along with a smattering of album reviews by the author and others.

Weighing in at over 1.5 kg, this large format coffee table book is fully illustrated throughout, documenting the story visually from the late ‘60s through to 1980. As well as an abundance of concert images, the stunning photographic content is topped off with many off-stage shots including a selection of photos taken at Morgan Studios in London during the recording of 1973’s audacious and extravagant Tales From Topographic Oceans. Yes: A Visual Biography I: 1968 – 1981 serves as a critical addition to any Yes fan’s collection.

Price including shipping (yes, it’s higher than usual, but this is now ordered in very low quantities):

Book will be signed to you from me, so let me know if it is a present for someone else, or you don’t want it signed.

If you would like a PayPal invoice, please indicate what country you are in and give me the email address you use at PayPal. Or just do yer usual and direct funds to [email protected].

Or mail payment (personal check in US funds, cash, or INTERNATIONAL money order), to:

Martin Popoff
P.O. Box 65208, 358 Danforth Ave.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4K 2Z2