YES Album Intro TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS | REACTION

[@TheProgCorner]

My favorite album of all time!!!

[@jeremygray1331]

I went to college in Minnesota. My college roommate grew up in a small town there and had never heard of Yes. I came back after summer break to find he’d painted the house we rented. He said he’d discovered my copy of Tales and would play the 4 tracks over and over while painting because it put him in a zen like state and made the time and work pass easily. He said he came to love the album and became a big Yes fan.

[@TigerMtnKing]

Your reactions to these masterpieces are going to be interesting Justin! These 4 tracks are some of the greatest compositions of music ever written!🤩

[@jeffschielka7845]

👍😎

[@wendellwiggins3776]

i love all the totally positive comments

[@lesblatnyak5947]

Having been a violinist in an orchestra, I always listened to Tales in its entirety. It's far more fulfilling that way.

[@wendellwiggins3776]

YEP! Took me over20 years to listen to a single side

[@mattleppard1964]

Listening to it now - Steve Howe country guitar noodling alert 😂

[@jeffschielka7845]

👍🎸😎

[@TheRKae]

My favorite sounds ever recorded by anyone anywhere. Elegant. Graceful. Thoughtful. Beautifully structured. (Fun trivia: Released on the same day as ELP's "Brain Salad Surgery.")

[@dhfenske]

Mine, too! Thanks for sharing.

[@heinzmuller159]

The same day as 'Brain Salad Surgery' by ELP? Interesting. To be honest? I didn't know this until now. Thank you for the Info. ..and yes, you're right, YES 'Tales from Topographic Oceans' is, together with King Crimson's 'Red' (in my opinion) the best Prog Album of all Time. A breathtaking work of transcendental beauty. ☺ Kind regards Heinz (Munich/Germany). 🌳🌲🌷⚘✨

[@figgybass]

I bought this album because of the artwork. When I 1st put it on I wondered what the hell I bought. Lol kept playing it and and learned to enjoy it( most of it anyway). Still enjoy hearing it today. Thanks for posting this.

[@mattleppard1964]

What to say about this album. When a friend lent me a box of records full of Yes, Genesis, Crimson, and more, this was among the treasure haul. This was probably 1990 with me aged 20. I devoured them all, but this one sort of passed me by as I remember now. This was pre-Internet, but as I had kept news clippings for a long time, I knew this to be a controversial album. Howver, about three years ago I was challenged to reappraise it. And (as you may expect me to say), loved it. Or definitely most of it. And I realized how familiar it was even though I didn’t remember listening to it. I do prefer most other Yes albums, but each time I listen to this, it is suddenly so profoundly moving and extremely nice - like a verrry extended Close to the Edge. Hard to put into words really - but I tried 😂😂😂❤

[@jeffschielka7845]

👍😎

[@charleswagner2984]

Tales is so great, it is indescribable.

[@harleyw]

Let's go!! My personal favorite by YES.

[@fernandotor3266]

Rick was producing another album at the same time and dealing with alcohol abuse

[@fernandotor3266]

Finally. Its a glorious album. Its is just 1 composition divided in 4 prts

[@dhfenske]

Yeah, I see the overall structure of the whole 84 minute piece as similar to the structure of Heart of the Sunrise or many of their other pieces. Not that they used the same structure. Just that it shifts into different motifs throughout, but there are enough similarities in sound that it fits together. I hadn't heard Steve's quote until now! Cool: "Side one was the commercial or easy-listening side of Topographic Oceans, side two was a much lighter, folky side of Yes, side three was electronic mayhem turning into acoustic simplicity, and side four was us trying to drive the whole thing home on a biggie."-Steve Howe

[@jeffschielka7845]

😎

[@lesblatnyak5947]

FORE ⛳️

[@saurian11]

Justin, It's going to be a bit of a journey with this one, try to be patient but of course honest with your reactions to it. Side 3 will be the hardest to get through, but sides 1 & 4 are majestic! Side 2 is my personal favorite, but parts of that may seem a bit too slow. There are some Incredible moments throughout the album, both musically and vocally!!! It remains my 3rd overall favorite Yes album, and one of my favorite Yes Dean artworks! Good Luck and Happy Landings!!!

[@wendellwiggins3776]

Side 2 often hits me emotionally as hard as AWAKEN. Initially it Lulls you in with a drifting dreamy Lullaby of remembrances yet grows like undulating waves slowly building until they become torrents and eventually crest and crash like a tsunami! LOL Side 2 is most indicative of the album's title, yet it gets the least attention and accolades

[@TheReaperMan275]

_Tales_ is my favorite Yes album. It is so ambitious. There's some extremely beautiful music on this album. My favorites are "The Revealing Science of God" and "Ritual", Sides 1 & 4. The album is not for everybody's taste, even among Yes fans, but the true diehard Yes fans--not the ones who only know "Roundabout" or "Starship Trooper"--think this is one of the most important albums in the band's history. See you on the next video, Justin!☺🙏

[@jeffschielka7845]

Probably the most important prog album of all time!👍😎

[@TheReaperMan275]

@@jeffschielka7845 You'll get no argument from me, although you can probably put _In the Court of the Crimson King_ right up there in terms of important Prog albums.

[@charleswagner2984]

​@@jeffschielka7845I find Tales to be the finest music ever written or recorded in all music history.

[@richierich398]

Hey Justin. Been away for a while, but I’m back. The thought of Ozzy walking into that studio with the fake cows and the picket fence is hilarious.😂

[@bookhouseboy280]

Chris Squire: "I think all of that period of time Yes was building success internationally and from 'The Yes Album' to 'Fragile' to 'Close to the Edge,' we were always in a building mode and then, of course, we went a little left-field after that and made the 'Tales from Topographic Oceans' album. Which was - you had to be a pretty sincere fan to appreciate that album. It wasn’t for the casual listener." With four side-long pieces based on Hindu Shashtric scriptures, it’s got to be dense and impenetrable, right? Wrong: Most of 'Tales From Topographic Oceans' is as gorgeously melodic as anything Yes ever did, and the band charges hard, newly fortified by drummer Alan White. To name just one moment, Rick Wakeman’s climactic synth solo on “The Revealing Science of God” is positively celestial. - uDiscover Music

[@Yesquire0]

While it is easy to find reports on the internet about how TFTO had such noteworthy sales and charted very high in the UK and the USA, those stories are based upon wholesale deliveries to warehouses. Lots of casual fans of the band bought the new album never having heard any songs from it, thinking it would be another "Close to the Edge" masterpiece. Word of mouth spread quickly that TFTO was lots of pointless noodling with indecipherable lyrics, and sales went to dead stop. TFTO held the record, and may still hold the record, for the most albums ever returned by retailers to the warehouses, so the "sales" figures may be spectaculary misleading. I saw the TFTO tour, not once, but twice. Yes booked the old Cobo Arena in Detroit for two consecutive nights. They were popular enough back then to quickly sell out a two-night booking in a major population center. I was seeing two girls at the time, and got the chance to take each one to a Yes concert. The stage setup was spectaculary elaborate. It was filled about two stories high with phantasmagorical fiberglass depictions of exotic landscapes, animals, and plants, like the best ever Roger Dean album cover, but in 3D and glowing with internal lights. Years later, the question arose as to what ever happened to the pieces of that stage set-up, other than maybe serving as an inspiration to the creators of "Spinal Tap". I once tried to find a really good photo of it snapped during that tour, but could never find one that displayed it in all of its glory. Turns out the disassembled parts were stored in a warehouse for a number of years until somebody decided they would never be needed ever again, and they were sold cheaply to a fan in the UK who had no place to put them other than in the field surrounding his rural home, where they sat fading in the sunlight and getting covered up with tall grass and vines. That fan sure had some nice conversation pieces for a while. I've always thought TFTO was the proverbial "bridge too far" for Yes. They had gotten their foot in the door of mainstream rock and roll with Fragile, and gotten all sorts of critical acclaim for Close to the Edge accompanied by lots of FM album rock radio play. They had made the Big Time, but got that door slammed on that foot when new and less-devoted fans abandoned them in droves when they simply could not understand or accept the material on TFTO. Rabid fans of Yes loved the adventure and experimental spirit. I'm still a bit on the fence fifty years later. I rarely spin any of the four songs. But I will always admire the amount of work and the size of the gonads it took to produce this musical oddity. I might play it whenever I get a take-out order of chicken vindaloo, rice pilau, six papadums, bhindi bhaji, Bombay aloo, and a stuffed paratha. 🐓

[@yes_head]

Thanks for the recollections. I didn't know that about the fate of the Tales set pieces. I thought Yes had held onto at least some of that stuff because pieces of it showed up in the UK Drama stage design in 1980. And yeah, in hindsight 'Tales' could be considered a more ambitious undertaking than was sensible. In retrospect, they could have easily regressed to the sort of clever but still accessible pop rock music of Fragile and maybe held on to Rick and done better with critics. But you could also say part of Yes' enduring reputation is precisely because they tried something as daring as Tales. Also, it's definitely give the 70's run of albums a peak in the middle, going from 'The Yes Album' to 'Fragile' to 'CTTE' and then to 'Tales', and then coming down the other side to 'Relayer', then 'GFTO' and then 'Tormato'. For me it gives Jon Anderson's stewardship of the 70's band a satisfying arc.

[@wendellwiggins3776]

Nothing can be another CTTE nor RELAYER and nothing can be TALES. Each are unique experiences unto themselves. That was the brilliance of perpetually evolving YES then. Expect the unexpected. All YES fans where I lived in 74 loved every note of it.

[@charleswagner2984]

When I first heard only the first 3 minutes at a friend's house, my mom came to pick me up because it was a school night. In about a minute as I'm walking down the stairs, it had occurred to me that I just heard the greatest music in the world. 50 years later, I constantly declare that Tales From Topographic Oceans is the finest music ever written or recorded in all music history.

[@maciejkowalski2759]

I totally agree with Wakeman when he said that there was too much good material for a single album, but not enough for a double. And because they had to pad it out, there's like at least 5-7 minutes of filler in each of the songs, where you can tell they were just trying to extend or repeat sections in order to warrant the songs' full-side length. I have personally tried my best to condense the songs into a single album format and if you're interested, on my channel there are edits of each of the song that are 12-13 minutes long... That way "my" version of the album is just over 50 minutes long, still a lot, but less than many other prog albums that were being released at the time, including any Genesis album of the era.

[@lesblatnyak5947]

@maciejkowalski2759 believe it or not, they had to cut song length back to fit on a side. Ritual was close to 28 minutes

[@wendellwiggins3776]

Maybe you just don't GET IT!

[@maciejkowalski2759]

@@lesblatnyak5947 I'm just referring to what Wakeman said and I share his sentiment. It is true though that of all the songs Ritual sounds like the one with the least filler.

[@maciejkowalski2759]

@@wendellwiggins3776 Maybe!

[@lesblatnyak5947]

@maciejkowalski2759 I saw YES 36 times from 75 to 2015. Tales was supposed to be me first concert but my aunts funeral took precedent.

[@caroleann_2142]

....And then there was ..RELAYER.....I'm a YES HEAD So I Love every Album. YES One of the few Bands that could do it LIVE!!!🎉🎉🎉

[@kennethmckinney2532]

This will be a very interesting one for me as a big Yes fan. I have all of their 70's output including this and many of their solo albums. The very strange part is I have never listened to this album all the way through and honestly don't remember listening to it at all. Talk about used like new condition lol. I bet it doesn't have a stratch on it. I am not going to pre-listen either. I am going to experience it for the first time like Justin. I have had this album over 45 years...

[@yes_head]

Yikes, he's really doing it. 😳 "I'm basically a cave man." That's why I love this channel. 😄

[@frankmcbride7051]

I agree with whoever said three quarters of this worked and rest just didn't gel. The first side takes awhile to really kick in, but once it does I believe it's my favorite of the four.

[@brianvernon249]

It’s the padding of the songs to fit one side of vinyl. Due to Wakeman admitting this, I try to find the padding sections.

[@wendellwiggins3776]

OH GOD! (pun intended) Here we go with the nail biting! Just anticipating your Reaction is TAXING! 🤣 For some reason beyond my understanding this is their MOST CONTROVERSIAL yet still a very successful album! ANYWAY! TOO MUCH reading about the DRAMA is not good! A clear, clean, OPEN MIND is best. IMO, TALES A-Z is a MASTERPIECE and ALL BS NEGATIVE critics, including Wakeman, whose contributions are MAGNIFICENTLY EXTROADINARY should ONLY admit that they just DON'T UNDERSTAND IT. Here's my analogy > ( because you don't understand French, that doesn't mean it's not a beautiful language). When I first heard full TALES on the day of its release, I was enthralled, overwhelmed, blown away, and in AWE. It's OVERT yet profound within the DETAILS which underline EVERY NOTE if you have ears that can listen & hear. Again, YES' pacing and structural arrangements are Classically PERFECT, IMHO. Emotionally, Spiritually, Musically, Artistically & Creatively it fires on all cylinders, which is incredible considering that it's Alan White's first album with YES. "The JOURNEY TAKES YOU FAR AWAY & APART FROM ANY REALITY THAT YOU'VE EVER SEEN OR KNOWN" ((((((((((( I saw it LIVE in FULL in 1974 "TRIPPING" 🤪and CRIED 😭throughout the entire show before finding my 18-year-old self feeling REBORN 😇having not heard anything so bold & audaciously magnificent prior to 1974! )))) I suspect that you'll not completely GET IT 😥 but that OCEAN washes over me like a TSUNAMI 🌊and goes into some serious DEEP DEPTHS full of wondrous places! Bottomline is these are NOT SONGS. They are VISCERAL SONIC ADVENTURES that EVOLVE & overlap like undulating WAVES on a sea of life that take patience & focus! HAHA ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@trainman5323]

Justin. I’m a huge Yes fan, well up until they weren’t really Yes anymore, but even us diehard fans had trouble with this one. Parts are sublime, amazing. Parts are almost unlistenable, parts ‘are’ unlistenable. No longer ‘close’ to the edge but all the way over. I feel this record and ELP’s Brain Salad Surgery (which I love) were the apex of prog madness. If you can get over this prog peak, then you can listen to anything, even chalk on the blackboard. Haha 😂

[@wendellwiggins3776]

There's nothing unlistenable about TALES. In fact, when it is truly revealed to the listener there's little in TALES that wasn't hinted at on their previous albums. TALES throughout is often actually a perfect embellishment of the experimentations & ideas they'd explored. Each side is an amazing visceral sonic journey relating to the emotion inspired by the different themes. PURE GENIUS! I get absorbed and consumed by every undulating note !

[@JimboKM]

Both Congrats! and You have my sympathy. When I want to drift away but not in the mood for rain soundtracks, I still go back to this from time to time. That reminds me that you do long form improvisations but admit I haven't given them a chance yet. Which one would you recommend as a starter?

[@JustinPanariello]

Are you talking about Spirit Of Earth? I wouldn't say they are long form... all tracks under 3 minutes. I would check out a playlist I put together of my favorite tracks from each album. i'll link it...

[@JustinPanariello]

open.spotify.com/playlist/7q3YRNPL1SMsIUd5qS13aw?si=1fe15e6ae0854b7b

[@JimboKM]

@@JustinPanariello I'll check it out. Spotify is probably the reason I haven't yet. If they force hip hop on me that'll reinforce my avoidance.

[@mmoura1104]

Lol. I love this album. I admit it took a while to get all the way into it. This is a long ,meandering journey. Ive been having trouble with my vision and i find it easier to close my eyes to take the journey.. Listen and drift away

[@Johnnywr]

I don't envy you diving into Tales From Topographic Oceans like this. Took me a good while to get into the album, but it unfolds with further listens in a way that I suppose the music was meant to. Some of the best Yes music is on TFTO. Even the sides you might like less there are still sections of sublime beauty. Of course, it's not everybody's cup of tea, and after forty years of listening to it, I'm still not quite sure what my opinion of TFTO as a whole really is. I think the main thing first listens offer with TFTO is often a sense of bewilderment, and not necessarily 'I like this' or 'I don't like this'. Often it's somewhere inbetween. But then, that's not a bad place to start 🙂🙃 Anyway, best of luck Justin. 😜

[@wendellwiggins3776]

Just let it WASH over you! Brilliantly, the album's title is just as much a METAPHOR for the sensations you'll hopefully experience. It DRIFTS and FLOATS at times but that is intentional. YES are magnificent at pacing by taking you up and bringing you down like a SHIP on the SEA. It EBBS & FLOWS and when if you find yourself lost and ADRIFT just focus your ears on the rich interwoven UNDULATING UNDERCURRENTS, until the next crashing WAVE strikes and sends you SURFING on top another TSUMANI and through the TUBE back to the SHORES of love eternal! LOL! I had fun with this! LOL

[@kevinlese633]

You gotta listen to that album about ten to start getting it.

[@33hbird]

after watching the CTTE reaction - i already know what what this one will be like

[@JustinPanariello]

thats what you think

[@fernandotor3266]

Rick clashed with chris and steve because during recording he was drunk..unabke to perform.. steve had to replace some piano parts with guitar.guitar work is glorious

[@markdrechsler5660]

TFTO is a wonderful album, but of all the classic Yes records, it took the longest to really get under my skin. I find the second album stronger than the first. It will be interesting to hear your initial take.

[@heinzmuller159]

Hello Justin, here my suggestion: Please listen only the original Version of 'The revealing Science of God' - Dance of the Dawn. The Original began with the Voices and that is better by far, because the at the beginnig of the piece added later Instumental Intro reduces the musical tension of the original piece. Again: the musical intro of the later remastered version was not (!!!) played on the Original piece. The original began with the voices of Anderson, Squire & Howe, and there were reasons for that: namely the musical increase in favor of the tension. Trust me, Justin. P. S. Ive seen the 'Tales from Topographic Oceans' at that time, on Saturday, April 13. 1974 live at the Olympiahalle in Munich. The concert was absolute breathtaking. I can tell you: After this musical experience, my life was never the same again. I was 17 years old then. ☺ Kind regards Heinz (Munich/Germany). P. S.: Greetings also to your cat. 🌳🌲🌷✨

[@waynecox3958]

Wakeman as GREAT as he is -- was a drunk back then, saying all kinds of goofy stuff. And it is so strange that despite all the negative attitudes he spewed at this time the keyboards are brilliant on this album.

[@fernandotor3266]

Bet you will love ritual Rick.. i bet

[@BuenosTARDIS]

Wasn't a fan of this record for a long time, then one day.... it hit me!!

[@philipmason9537]

After the pinnacle of Close To The Edge how could Yes follow that ? Difficult, but Steve and Jon fleshed out the songs and presented the basics to Chris, Rick and Alan who were unimpressed but, ultimately, all added to the final versions albeit with Rick leaving soon after the tour. Rick got so bored with the recording time that, one day, Black Sabbath were recording in the next studio at Morgan and he and Ozzy both got drunk and Rick joined them to record one song that appears on the Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath album ! You will still be unprepared for this album despite your research and the album ‘flows’ much better with all four songs played in one sitting which you obviously won’t do; side 3 will have you perplexed and confused because on its own it seems out of place, completely different than any Yes song you’ve heard so far but as a suite it ‘works’. You will enjoy sides 1 and 4 the most, you’ll find side two to be ‘plodding’ and probably speechless for side three ! Enjoy the ‘bumpy’ ride !!

[@wendellwiggins3776]

People underestimate Jon's contribution not only as a diverse vocal performer but as a heavily involved songwriter and arranger. He's very good at taking Steve's great spotty moments and contributing to them as well as cohesively weaving the ideas structurally together. Steve always gives credit and shows respect to him when speaking of their collaborative partnership. Also, I don't find Side 3, out of place at all. Bold and daring but it's just the next step after the crazy intro from CTTE. I hear many building blocks from previous evolving YES albums throughout TALES.

[@philipmason9537]

@@wendellwiggins3776 👍

[@wendellwiggins3776]

@@philipmason9537 after I wrote this, I saw a recent 20+ mins. interview with Steve on YT where he repeats and embellishes on exactly what I just said about their writing process early in the video.

[@philipmason9537]

@@wendellwiggins3776 👍

[@EnoVarma]

This could be interesting. I've only listened to the album once and hated it. Could be a different experience with a caveman.

[@krisdoggett483]

Dude, this'll be a tough one for you. But sides 1, 2 & 4 are really good. I know new music, especially these long pieces, are challenging but the more you listen the more they grow on your. Side 3 though is still not one of my favorites I'll admit and I love ALL of their 70s material.

[@ericarmstrong6540]

I blame percussionist Jamie Muir for this. He loaned that book to Jon Anderson and, as they say, the rest was history. Bloated and overblown, imho.

[@donnelson6694]

Not a fan of this one.

[@fernandotor3266]

Rick was producing another album at the same time and dealing with alcohol abuse