Ever wonder what happened to the missing Yessongs source reels?

Well, now you can have ’em, thanks to Yes’ Progeny!

Cool details over at YesWorld.com:

These fall ’72 recordings—the “source code” for Yessongs—miraculously survived, but went missing for decades. Then via a series of happy accidents, relentlessly obsessional fans, clever restoration techniques, and the dedication of the team at Warner Music, the journey from rediscovery to release began… …

Much of The Word Is Live was sourced from Steve Howe’s private collection (the best and most likely source of any further archive projects, so be nice to Steve), radio shows, and what precious little was usable from the Atlantic Records vaults.

This was a frustrating mystery — what about the tapes used for Yessongs? Where were the “hundreds of hours” (according to Yes biographer Dan Hedges) of tapes that Chris Squire reviewed and used to compile Yesshows? The short answer: gone. Lost, misplaced, mislabeled, accidentally erased, destroyed, thrown away, immolated in the 1978 Atlantic Records vault fire… no one really knows. Keep in mind that in the 1970s all of this chronology and documentation was done by hand—there wasn’t an app for that! Regardless of how this came to be or why, the end result was the same… The Word Is Live was limited by usable source material.

Still, as I reviewed the spreadsheets, my eye was drawn to a handful of reel-to-reel tapes from 1972… could these be the missing Yessongs source reels? When I inquired about these tapes in the context of The Word Is Live, I was informed that these reels were off limits for the purposes of the project. It was unclear what was on them, whether they were complete, and of what quality, and whether the tapes themselves were even playable. The cost of repairing/restoring them and then transferring them to a workable digital medium was huge and time consuming. Plus, for all anyone knew, the boxes were labeled “Yes” but the tapes were Donna Summer. Or time and money would be spent only to find out that the recordings sounded horrible, or that the middle eight minutes of Close To The Edge were missing. Any number of hurdles prevented forward motion, and so the tapes were left on the shelf.

Fast forward eight years, and a rejuvenated Yes—touring three of their classic albums, including Close To The Edge—is out there wowing audiences old and new. At the same time, the Yes catalog is receiving its first true remix program, helmed by esteemed prog rock visionary Steven Wilson. This remix effort sent our Rhino heroes back into the vaults spelunking for original multitracks and bonus content. Lurking in the shadows was this collection of open reel tapes, and closer examination revealed eight complete multitrack shows from the fall 1972 Close To The Edge tour—the “source code” of Yessongs. The collection you hold in your hand is something of a holy grail.

Each night is its own journey. You can hear the band progressing, taking different chances, and experimenting with different sounds. There are moments unique to each show—solos, banter, and improv change each night. Even cooler is something that happens at every show—you hear it clearly before each performance of “Close To The Edge”—an audible gasp from the audience as the spotlight hits a large mirrored disc just as the song begins. That moment where sound and vision mesh and the musical journey begins is a hallmark of the live Yes experience, and these recordings put you right in the front row. Despite identical setlists, every song from every show is worthy of repeat listens and scrutiny. There’s something notable in each and every one. …