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Tales from Topographic Oceans

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Tales From Topographic Oceans is the sixth studio album by British progressive rock band Yes. It is a double album, released on Atlantic Records in December 1973 worldwide and early January 1974 in North America.

Contents

Concept and history

The album is the most controversial album in Yes's discography, and possibly in the entire history of progressive rock. The album's concept, a four-piece work of symphonic length and scope (incidentally based on the Shastric scriptures, as found in a footnote within Paramahansa Yogananda's book Autobiography of a Yogi), was their most ambitious to date.

The album, released when "prog" was at the height of its popularity–with bands such as Genesis, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and the earlier albums of Yes–was arguably a key to the genre's swift decline in popularity. It perhaps played a significant role in paving the way for the punk rock bands of the mid 1970's, epitomized by The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, by forfeiting a large chunk of the momentum that had been built up by the group's previous three studio albums.

Further, the record supposedly highlighted everything that was considered wrong with progressive rock music at that time. When released, the popular music magazine Melody Maker summed the album up in one word; "No", with similar reaction by Rolling Stone upon the album's re-review. The abstruse concept and extended execution was one of the main targets of the album's criticisers, that too much musical padding had been employed with little in the way of a proper concept or lyrics to back it up.

Discord

There was also dissatisfaction with the album from one of the band members, Rick Wakeman, who showed his distaste for the album by eating curry on stage while songs from the album were performed. This infamous incident was a spur to Wakeman leaving the group, to be replaced by Patrick Moraz, who appeared for the album Relayer.

Part of Wakeman's unfavorable attitude towards the album stems from the fact that vocalist Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe constructed the bulk of the album entirely on their own (as the liner notes suggest), leaving the remaining three members with relatively little to contribute (which the liner notes refute).

This complaint was not uncommon (drummer Bill Bruford had left the band a year earlier for similar reasons), and stories abound of Anderson and Howe putting tiles in the studio to simulate the acoustics of a bathroom, while Wakeman, in frustration, spent much of the time playing darts.

The album reached #1 in the UK album chart and also went into the US Top 10, even going gold in both countries from advance orders, before any fans had ever heard the content. Despite this, many Yes fans and casual listeners remain divided over whether or not this was one of the group's stronger works. 

Despite Rick Wakeman's reservations about the album, this was an opinion not shared by the other members, Steve Howe in particular stated that some of his best guitar work was to be found on Topographic Oceans.  In addition, it should be noted that even Wakeman, in interviews, mentioned that he enjoyed some of the musical content of "The Ancient" (both track and side three of the album).


Tales From Topographic Oceans (Atlantic 80001) reached #1 in the UK.  It also reached #6 in the US during a chart stay of 27 weeks.



Analysis

For prog rock's detractors, Tales is the genre's nadir.  For admirers it is an artistic pinnacle. Whichever camp you're in, it is hard to deny the sheer chutzpah necessary to undertake this sprawling epic. Although broken up into four sections–-the time limit of one side of a vinyl LP being about twenty minutes-–Tales is a single composition.  This was unprecedented in the world of mainstream rock.  For the band, it was the closest they would ever come to a true fusion of classical structures and themes with rock-oriented instrumentation and sensibilities.


The lyrics are, for Yes, typically elliptical and spiritually oriented, and difficult of interpretation.  The real pleasure of this album lies in the elaborately textured, harmonically sophisticated interaction between Wakeman, Howe, and the highly melodic bassist Squire. All three were at the peak of their instrumental prowess on Tales, and listening to them interact can be likened watching a group of fine athletes each excel at his chosen sport.


It is a quintessential example of the progressive rock movement, and despite having its detractors, many Yes fans state that the album is not the pariah of the progressive rock movement it is claimed to be.



Rhino remaster (2003)

Tales From Topographic Oceans was remastered and reissued in 2003 with two bonus tracks, featuring early runthroughs of "The Revealing Science of God" and "The Ancient". In addition, the remaster includes a two minute intro to the that was edited out of the original release at the last minute.



Track listing

All songs written by Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Alan White.

CD one


  1. "The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)" – 22:22
  2. "The Remembering (High the Memory)" – 20:38
CD two


  1. "The Ancient (Giants under the Sun)" – 18:35
  2. "Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil)" – 21:37


Personnel



Charts

Album


Year
Chart
Position


1974
Billboard Pop Albums
6






Certifications



Organization
Level
Date


RIAA – USA
Gold
February 8 1974


BPI – UK
Gold
March 1 1974






External links and sources




Yes


Jon Anderson | Chris Squire | Steve Howe | Rick Wakeman | Alan White


Peter Banks | Tony Kaye| Bill Bruford | Patrick Moraz | Geoff Downes | Trevor Horn | Trevor Rabin | Billy Sherwood | Igor Khoroshev


Discography


Studio albums: Yes | Time and a Word | The Yes Album | Fragile | Close to the Edge | Tales from Topographic Oceans | Relayer | Going for the One | Tormato | Drama | 90125 | Big Generator | Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe | Union | Talk | Open Your Eyes | The Ladder | Magnification 


Live albums: Yessongs | Yesshows | [[9012Live: The Solos]] | Keys to Ascension | Keys to Ascension 2 | [[House of Yes: Live from House of Blues]] 


Compilations: Yesterdays | Classic Yes | Yesstory | [[The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection]] 


Remix albums: Yes Remixes 


Box sets: Yesyears | [[In a Word: Yes (1969 - )]] | The Word is Live 

 



















 




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