After releasing a triple live album, how could a band like Yes possibly scale back to something simple like a single LP? Certainly a double album was within their grasp. But to make it worthy of the “epic” tag, Tales From Topographic Oceans consisted of four side-long “songs”, with Jon Anderson’s lyrics and commentary printed in the gatefold to help us along. Or so he hoped. Inspired by a sacred text of sorts, he and the band, but mostly Steve Howe, attempted to encapsulate all of creation in eighty minutes. (There’s a lot to take in here, and since we haven’t spent half a century doing so, we are quite aware that we are likely missing subtleties and not-so-subtleties aplenty.) “The Revealing Science Of God” is a bold title for anybody, even when subtitled “Dance Of The Dawn”. Jon sings what sounds like the same note for a few lines, which is improved when Chris Squire and then Steve Howe begin to harmonize. This gives way to a nice Rick Wakeman synth riff that’s as simple as it is catchy. “I must have waited all my life for this moment,” Jon sings, which is odd because we thought this was all taking place before the origin of time. There’s a funky break that threatens to take over the proceedings, before a more stately theme comes through, then the riff comes back, and the cycle repeats. This is precisely the type of “padding” that detractors cite as for why this didn’t need to be a double album, especially since the more placid section that arrives is more effective. This has to get funked up too before they go out they way they came in.
“The Remembering”, helpfully subtitled “High The Memory”, begins with some arpeggiated and Leslie’d 12-string that dominates while Jon and Chris Squire chant underneath. It builds slowly and deliberately, eventually adding melody, but not drums for at least six minutes. After a spacey interlude, a completely separate folky section built around the 12-string. This gets rocked up, and alternates with the spacey section. Here we have another suite with a lot of parts that probably should have each been developed on their own, rather than jerry-rigged together, since the sections are all pretty strong. (The word “relayer” figures a lot, possibly predicting their next album.)
Perhaps to make up for being quiet through most of side two, Alan White is given lots of space to display his drumming ingenuity all over “The Ancient”. Percussion dominates, with a lot of distorted, atonal guitar, as befits a piece subtitled “Giants Under The Sun”. It seems to go on for far too long before a vocal comes in, and there’s a lot of stopping and starting to keep you from nodding off. We hear a few more melodic moments, but mostly Steve meanders for several minutes while the percussion keeps trying to beat its way through. Finally there’s an abrupt switch to a nylon-string guitar paired with a vocal, which thankfully silences so Steve can take an extended classical-type solo, which soon descends into a pretty melodic sequence now known as “Leaves Of Green”. This redeems the side, but they still insist on reprising one of the heavy riffs.
“Ritual” boldly begins with the threat of a majestic fanfare, and tries to deliver, but it’s not easy due to the tricky time signature and wordless melody that defies singing along. So they give up, leaving Steve to wander by himself for a while—we even get a quote of the “Close To The Edge” riff—before Jon comes to the realization that that “Nous Sommes Du Soleil”. There’s another decent rocking section about twelve minutes in, albeit reprising that odd time signature and melody at the start of the side. It gets more frenzied until everything stops and the proceedings descend—again—into cacophonous percussion with effects that sound like tapes being sped up and run backwards, until finally it all fades to reveal another peaceful Howe segment with piano accompaniment to restate the thesis of the French subtitle. The whole band shows restraint as the suite comes to a close.
Back in the vinyl days it was easy to get lost in a side at a time, and just keep sending the needle back to the start. That would be the most efficient way to ingest Tales From Topographic Oceans, but even that can be considered a chore. It’s one of those albums that demands attention, because there’s a lot going on for a long time. Also, while they were busy crafting all these sections to fit together, there is a severe dearth of hooks. Did it really need to be this long? It’s not a bad album by any stretch, despite the hype and hindsight backlash, but it is definitely not for everyone.
Thirty years after it was first released, the remastered version restored about two minutes of music to the start of the first track, so now there’s a growing sense of this particular world being created before our ears, and better setting up Jon’s vocal entry, which now seems abrupt in its original context. This addition actually improves the album. They also lopsidedly but understandably put the first three tracks on one disc, and added “studio run-throughs” of sides one and three to the second disc. One jettisoned segment seems to predict the theme from The Rockford Files. Later “definitive editions” offered the usual surround sound re-imaginings in various channels and resolutions.
Ten years after those, a behemoth of a Super Deluxe Edition offered the original album, a new Steven Wilson remix, and his instrumental mix on two CDs each, plus three more discs of single edits and two complete “in-progress” run-throughs. Three further discs were filled with live performances of each of the album tracks from three locations, plus “And You And I” and “Close To The Edge” for variety. (Because of the chronological sequencing and tracks chosen, listeners can hear two versions of “The Ancient” back to back and three days apart to spot the differences.) Because it was from Rhino, a vinyl copy of the original album was also included, and a Blu-ray had all the hi-res mixes. So if you liked the album before, you’d be in heaven. If you didn’t, you’ve got six or seven different opportunities to re-evaluate your assessment.
Yes Tales From Topographic Oceans (1973)—3
2003 remastered CD: same as 1973, plus 2 extra tracks
2016 Definitive Edition DVD: “same” as 1973, plus 2 extra tracks (plus 2 DVDs)
2016 Definitive Edition Blu-ray: “same” as 2003, plus 8 extra tracks (plus Blu-ray)
2026 Super Deluxe Edition: same as 2003, plus 29 extra tracks (plus Blu-ray)
My senior year in college was when my frat brothers and I saw Yes and started our deep dive. One day, I walked into someone’s room. He had put this album on. After listening for a while, I said, “This is pretty boring”. He said, “Yeah, Yes at their worst”. The other one said, “Well, you have to give it a chance”, but rather half-heartedly. Sometime later, I gave the whole thing a try. But, as you have pointed out, there aren’t enough hooks to pull most listeners in. Anderson's liner notes explain the themes of the lyrics, but it was utterly impossible to figure out how the two connect. I then more or less forgot about it for well over a decade.
ReplyDeleteLater, I developed somewhat more appreciation for it. “Ritual” appeared on the “Yesyears” boxed set, and I enjoyed it when I listened to it more closely (although I missed that “CTTE” riff until recently!). A live “..Revealing Science..” showed up on “Keys to Ascencion”. Versions of “Ritual” surfaced on “Yesshows” and a couple of later live albums. The songs were more energetic in concert. So, I became convinced that there might be something to the music.
But only somewhat convinced. A hardcore fan might say that this album separates the men from the boys, so to speak. The test is “The Ancient”. I fail. Except for the “Leaves of Green” section, I couldn’t care less if I never hear this mess again. I don’t know if Howe was trying to out-Fripp King Crimson on this one, but this is his ego going way out of control. Give me “Red” or “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic”, any day.
Steven Wilson has done a remix of “The Remembering” without the vocals. This is now the way that I prefer to listen to it. A close listen, of course, verifies the “padding” charge, since the sections repeat more than once. In my case, this turns out to be an advantage, since I’ve used it as a meditation tool! Steve gets some beautiful sounds out of his acoustic and “Leslied” electric guitars. Rick contributes absolutely gorgeous swaths of Mellotron and surprisingly gentle uses of organ and synths. Alan and Chris don’t get much to do, relatively speaking, but that’s what’s called for here.
I prefer the “Keys..” version of “..Revealing Science..”. The unedited studio version has the advantage of, as you pointed out, of the intro. Rick, for once, applies the “K.I.S.S.” principle to his synth. There’s a catchy pop melody that really should have been spun off into its own song. “What happened to this song we once knew so well?”, indeed. As it is, there are some other good melodies here, too.
“Ritual” is still my favorite. Chris gets more to do here than elsewhere. The one thing that I don’t like about the percussion jam (aside from the fact that it’s obviously more filler) is an obnoxious noise that sounds like someone exhaling hard. Or is that some weird effect on a percussion instrument? In any case, I don’t hear that on live versions. This section is quite the visual scene in concert. After listening to Steve’s “Beginnings” album, I found it amusing to figure out which lyrics were his and which were Jon’s. I think I can guess which guy wrote “Sent as we sing our music's total retain/as we try and consider,/we receive all we venture to give” and which one wrote “Maybe I’ll just sing awhile/and then give you a call./Maybe I’ll just say hello/and say maybe that's all”.
So, in the end, my feelings are mixed. I like a lot of it, but it’s hardly as amazing as many fans think it is or as good as the previous three studio albums.
Once again, Anderson’s overambition discombobulated the group. This time, he really overreached. Chris, at one point, felt that the group couldn’t properly express such a grand spiritual concepts. Jon made the mistake a lot of his peers had or would make – assuming that progressive rock could progress ad infinitum. But Yes hit the wall, as they all did. Robert Fripp responded by breaking up King Crimson. The tour threatened to do the same to Yes. What would they do?
Oh. I forgot to mention that this is one Roger Dean's best covers, with that beautiful night sky. His later covers, for the most part, have too much going on. Less is more with Dean.
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