YES - Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973)
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Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=121526
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Topic: YES - Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973)
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Subject: YES - Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973)
Date Posted: November 17 2019 at 11:34
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Undoubtedly, The Yes Album that's been the Big Generator of the most controversy over the years is Tales from Topographic Oceans. YES, it's a long double album with four long Yessongs which was treated like something of a rotten Tormato by the jaded music press, but if you Open Your Eyes, you'll gain the Keys to Ascension and realise what a classic album this is. The album came Close to the Edge of splitting the band up, when there was a Magnification of tensions within the group with so many Fragile egos at stake. In the ensuing Drama, Time and a Word has it that Rick Wakeman threatened to walk out during the recording of the album. The album climbed The Ladder of success though, topping the UK album charts for two weeks. Rick Wakeman left the band and didn't appear on the following Relayer album. There was Talk of a re-Union, but Heaven & Earth had to be moved to persuade Rick to return for the Going for the One album in 1977. The best-selling YES album of all time though, released in 1983, was famously named after its catalogue number, 90125. Well, that's another blog written, so it's time for me to Fly from Here and continue with The Quest of listening again to the entire discography of YES |
Replies:
Posted By: dougmcauliffe
Date Posted: November 17 2019 at 13:02
The story of the best yes album 
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: November 17 2019 at 13:40
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I noticed there's another blog with the same title as this one, but I couldn't come up with a better title.
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Posted By: miamiscot
Date Posted: November 25 2019 at 13:11
| My favorite LP ever. |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: November 25 2019 at 13:46
It's on my long list of albums to go out and buy.
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miamiscot wrote:Posted By: miamiscot
Date Posted: November 26 2019 at 08:35
Life-changing...
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Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: November 26 2019 at 19:59
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While not my favorite I do feel it don't get no respect. But it is no disgrace. ------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: November 26 2019 at 21:16
| Tales gets a lot of respect among hardcore Yes fans and in prog circles imo. It's only the casual fans who don't get it. |
Posted By: Frankh
Date Posted: November 27 2019 at 00:15
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It was and still is too beautiful a work to be well understood by most listeners. ------------- Perhaps finding the happy medium is harder than we know. |
Posted By: MaldonTerryWood
Date Posted: November 29 2019 at 10:08
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LPs had big covers and for me the artist was important too. Does anyone know what Roger Dean did in later life? |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: November 29 2019 at 12:19
He designed video game covers from the mid-1980's onwards and he also has a couple of art galleries in England and San Francisco. I expect he's retired by now at the age of 75.
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: December 07 2023 at 12:22
Four years on and I still haven't added it to my prog collection, so the disgrace is all mine.
 |
Posted By: Frets N Worries
Date Posted: December 07 2023 at 12:38
Wisdom Man! ------------- The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time... |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: December 07 2023 at 15:25
and it has 3x in price probably.....LOL -------------   
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Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: December 07 2023 at 22:57
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Dawn of light lying between a silence, and sold sources. Chased amid fusions of wonder. In moments hardly seen forgotten. Colored in pastures of chance, dancing leaves cast spells of challenge. Amused but real in thought. We fled from the sea whole. Dawn of thought transferes through moments. Of days under searching earth. Revealing corridors of time provoking memories. Disjointed but with purpose. Craving penetrations offer links with the self instructors sharp,
And tender love as we took to the air. A picture of distance. Dawn of our power we amuse. Re-descending as fast as misused expression. As only to teach love as To reveal passion chasing late into corners, and we danced from the ocean. Dawn of love sent within us. Colors of awakening among the many. Won't to follow, only tunes of a different age. As the links span our endless caresses. For the freedom of life everlasting. Happy Anniversary! Released December 7, 1973: YES "Tales From Topographic Oceans". Their sixth studio album.
------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: Progishness
Date Posted: December 08 2023 at 01:30
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Tales to me always seems like the muzak version of CTTE... a very pleasant listen all the same. ------------- "We're going to need a bigger swear jar." Chloë Grace Moretz as Mindy McCready aka 'Hit Girl' in Kick-Ass 2 |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: December 09 2023 at 07:49
It worries me that I can recite this word for word but can't remember why I came upstairs.
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Posted By: Frets N Worries
Date Posted: December 09 2023 at 08:22
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^same! ------------- The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time... |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: December 09 2023 at 17:02
Likewise!! BTW, I corrected some spelling typos. Surprised this lot didn't call me on it! ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: Epignosis
Date Posted: December 09 2023 at 20:20
I remember listening to it all the time in a frigid apartment 20 years ago. It's my favorite album. You should get it.
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: December 14 2023 at 11:57
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YES Documentary - The Story of Tales from Topographic Oceans |
Posted By: Frets N Worries
Date Posted: December 14 2023 at 12:00
Fantastic video, fantastic channel, I've seen that video a couple times, it's great ------------- The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time... |
Posted By: Jacob Schoolcraft
Date Posted: December 16 2023 at 18:57
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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 |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: December 16 2023 at 23:39
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.
------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Intruder
Date Posted: December 17 2023 at 07:13
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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.
------------- I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there..... |
Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: December 17 2023 at 07:23
It is a challenging listen I will admit. I think at this point, I agree with you. Then again I haven’t revisited this album in quite some time. I may be a little scared to.  ------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: Jacob Schoolcraft
Date Posted: December 17 2023 at 10:58
Wow!! Interesting information |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: December 17 2023 at 11:41
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Side one is worth the price of the lp....and the artwork is nice.... I rarely listen to the other sides. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: pooch 2
Date Posted: December 22 2023 at 08:35
| 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. |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: December 22 2023 at 14:47
Welcome to PA! I missed the Tales tour because of the oil embargo (Yes couldn't take their huge trucks on the road from Chicago to Champaign, IL due to the threat of no fuel), and your recollection is excellent! I saw CTTE show without having heard the LP, imagine my surprise when they kept playing, and playing, and playing!! I went expecting to hear their cover of "America!" July 28, 1972 at Chicago's Arie Crown Theater. Amazing. ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |