YES - Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973)

YES Documentary - The Story of Tales from Topographic Oceans

I bought it immediately upon its release in the U.S. (early 70s). I recall the music being dreamy or having that affect on your mind state or mood. At times the album felt drawn out....which was what Wakeman complained about or revealed it being somehow connected to his leaving YES . Which eventually he returned out of interest in the band returning to the style of songwriting originally on Fragile and Close To The Edge. Going For The One marked the essence of their early material but of course modernized. Although "Parallels" having that style the rest of the Going For The One album was not up to par with "South Side Of The Sky", "Heart Of The Sunrise ", "And You And I,..etc...

Sometimes I thought that Topographic Oceans was just as important as the earlier material all within the power of its representation ..
however it became a dinosaur in some people's eyes or a complete disappointment based on its lengthy compositions. Just as Wakeman did..

but I felt it was a important album . YES fans were able to escape reality through the music. It wasn't that much like a sing-a-long like Roundabout or I've Seen All Good People. The lyricism on Topographic Oceans was more like Gnostic hymns and not exactly sing-a-longs. As a result some people chose to experiment with hallucinogenic drugs while playing Topographic Oceans. Obviously the album affected our generation in a spiritual way. I enjoy Topographic Oceans looking out of the window during a snow blizzard. I like sitting by the fireplace listening to it. It has a place in my heart

I get off the Yestrain after Bruford left - those first five albums are pure gold.  Tales starts a slippery slope where the boys begin to position their heads firmly up their own arses - it's a suffocating listen.  Anderson and Howe attempted to put six hours of words and music onto four LP sides.  As always with the band, their talent and taste produce some lovely passages, but as a whole, it never seems to hit Yesheights - it's noisy; strangely produced; the drumming doesn't hold up; Wakeman sounds disinterested; the Yesmagic never comes to the fore.  I've spent years and years with Tales and see it as past-their-prime Yes - more in common with Going for the One than Close to the Edge.  Then again, the only post CTTE Yes LPs I really dig are Drama and Squire's FOOW.  

Edited by Intruder - December 17 2023 at 07:14

moshkito wrote: Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: ,,, Obviously the album affected our generation in a spiritual way. I enjoy Topographic Oceans looking out of the window during a snow blizzard. I like sitting by the fireplace listening to it. It has a place in my heart Hi, Thanks ... this hits home with me. I listen to all music for that and nothing else, and this is the reason why (sometimes) a lot of the lyrical content goes by wayside in my book, and a reason why something like Jethro Tull seemed to be not as strong, since "A Passion Play", or even "Minstrel in a Gallery"  ... I believed the stories and lived them ... and all of a sudden, they weren't stories anymore ... they were pure literature for our minds and hearts and then ... they became just a song, it felt like. As I mentioned in another comment, I cried on the way out of the show, because not many of the fans were as enthused and appreciated TFTO as I did, and still do. They came for the hit songs, and were quiet and almost not appreciative of the work until after the intermission which separated TFTO from the rest. It's as if this was two different bands. I don't want to make diminishing comments about RW ... he's fine, but his ideas about music, are not "experimental" and "creatively open" to many things that are not exactly notes and chords and what I would consider work from another sphere of creativity.  And, it would be even more weird, that RW would not appreciate the totality of the work, when at the time, the amount of experimental music all over the world was incredibly large and insane ... and we only have to take a peek at the ECM thread on this board ... and how much of it was around at the time ... for RW to only want to use and work with what I could consider "conventional musical ideas", which all of his work is ... there is, in my book not a lot to discuss about his work ... it sounds nice ... so do all the classical concerts out there in every college/university town!  This reminds me, again, of that bit I got to see on the way out of the East Meets West in Chicago with Ravi and Yehudi ... a group of fat old ladies in full Restoration regalia and smells ... was leaving and one was saying ... "how can anyone call that improvisation music?" ... and this was in 1969 (I have to look again!!!) in my senior year.  I always looked at the great ones, as folks that stood apart from the rest for a big reason. TFTO was such a piece, as was CTTE in all honesty ... and the strange side is that RW does not see the creative side of that time ... he only sees his conventional work as important ... something that in some ways I would consider ... just another professor in the music department.

Wow!! Interesting information

I remember seeing the Tales of Topographic Oceans show, late 1973 or early 1974 can't remember exactly, and remember being blown away at the musicianship of all the members. I did not own the album yet, I'm not sure it was available yet, so this was all new music to me, and the smoke filled haze that surrounded and filled the venue, it was magical! I've had 2 copies of the vinyl since and it finds a regular listen in my rotation.