35th Anniversary of Tales from Topographic Oceans.

Indeed it is....Tales was officially released in the US at Midnight on 9th January 1974 although we lucky blighters in the UK had been able to buy it for some time.

It became, and has remained, my favourite album of all time. The highs, the lows, the ups and the downs are all magical and I have to listen to it often.

What is it about????....talk to people who have thought about this question and I guarantee you will get different answers every time.

I will never forget a trip to The Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London in November 1973 to see Yes perform the album in it's entirety. The LP hadn't been released at this time so we went in blind. The first part of the gig was a performance of the whole of Close to the Edge starting with The Firebird Suite (what else?) then Siberian Khatru, which was magical, absolutely magical, And you and I and then CTTE itself. We all felt pretty damned good but what was to follow defies description.

Jon said a few words and then started chanting "Dawn of light lying between the silent and solid sources..........". Man I flipped. It sounded so beautiful. The band then came in with the wonderful RSoG riff and we were away. A truly magical Moment, moment, momennnnnt.

I became The Sunlight Caller. I got over overhanging trees and I was mesmerised. Nearly a half hour of bliss. It couldn't stay as good as this could it?

Too right it could!! The folklike beginning of The Remembering had us gripped. We all cried before Relayer and our passion was spent on one cross. Rick's keyboards soared over us in washes of pure beauty and then the final few minutes the crescendo leading to Jon singing "Surely, surely". God I still get the chills when I think of it.

What next? My God! What next?

Jon said that we were to be taken back even further in time even before The Remembering to a time when there were Giants under the Sun. The Ancient.....

Lights flashed in unison with the pounding Bass, pink and green light in fact, Steve Howe's guitar work entranced us and then the acoustic ending and "The Leaves of green" and the "Colour of the Sun" left us yearning for more.

Ritual!!!!!!!!!!!

The heavens opened and we were showered with musical notes of such wonder that I (to use a well worn phrase but here it is perfectly applicable) thought I had died and gone to heaven. A further crescendo leading to Jon singing "At all, at all, at alllllllllllllllllll..........." then pounding percussion, dazzling lights, almost terror. But you felt that something good had to come out of this sonic assault and, of course, it did............

"Hold me my love, hold me today call me 'round........". I cried, it was so wonderful. And when those final notes died away a little part of me died as well as we realised that it WAS over. The encore, Roundabout, disappeared from memory as we were still living The Tales. I said goodbye to my friends and wandered off in the direction of home and I don't remember a thing about that journey. One thing I do remember though is that it instilled a thought in my mind that has remained with me ever since.

The source of all life and of pure love is the sun: “Nous Sommes du Soliel - We are of the Sun. We can see.”.

Edit:

Just found these clips on YouTube. RSoG live in 1996.

Part 1 - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dCOmQSZ-Tp0
Part 2 - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YDefY1eW5Yg

[marquer]

Keithie

I get chills just reading about your wonderful experience.
I can just imagine what a trip it must have been being present.
Thanks for sharing that moment, moment.

"They move fast, they tell me,
But I just can't believe that I can feel it
There's someone, to tell you,
amid the challenge we look around in unison with you"

Namaste!

[progzealot]

thanks keithieW for this thread. 35 years? wow, i'm gettin old.

this is w/o question my fav album also and the most played on my turntable then and cd player now.

i found early in college a lot of people didn't like this when i would put it on at parties to find fellow Yes fans. while others were putting on the stones, police and the cars, i would retreat to my room listen to TFTO.

Flying home,
Going home.

thats what listening to Yes music was and is for me.

pz

[roger]

and my life is enriched by reading of the bliss you experienced that night, Keith. thank you for sharing.

[OverHillandDale(Admin)]

Thanks Keithie, your poetic soul brings back such rich memories. When I saw that tour in Baltimore that year, I was just in awe. TFTO is still a source of reflection and spiritual calmness like no other album I have ever heard.

[dinosaur]

Really nice job well done, KW!
You made me feel like I was there myself. I really wish I had been.
Also one of my all-time favs despite (in spite of?) critics. SH blazes in the last few bars of Ritual--it's simply, well, divine since it's not possible for a human to make those sounds with one guitar and only two hands.

[Yesspaz]

Reading that makes me ornery I was born in 1979.

"We love when we play!"

[TheFish]

Wow, Tales start to finish. Very cool. I saw them in '76 with Moraz when they did it. The three-headed 'War of the worlds' stage set made it a pretty awsome spectacle. Loved the kettle drums.

[Yesspaz]

Ya know, I think I'm going to put on my headphones and turn off the lights and listen to the whole thing. Yeah.

[kirk]

I'll never forget it, my 1st Yes concert, Cincinnati Gardens.
Thanks for rekindling a beautiful memory KW.

It was unforgettable spectacle...a hot air balloon
with the Yes logo, people dressed in full Starship Trooper outfits...
...it was like a spiritual event.

The only complaint, was it was so hard to see the band through the haze.



Kirk

[PFD]

Nice "tale" Keithie.

I never saw them that far back, but I remember seeing Yes on the KTA tour and they did one of the tracks and I had goosebumps listening to it.

Too bad they didn't release a special 5.1 35th anniversary edition. Actually given their recent "release everything we have" attitude, I'm surprised they haven't done 5.1 mixes yet.

[banggang]

I also saw TFTO, just after it's release, here in New York. If memory serves it was February '74 for us, Nassau Coliseum.

Keithie.....I couldn't dream of saying it any better. It was magical and still is, to this day.

[Roger -Dot- Lee(Admin)]

Ya know, it makes me grumpy that I come from a long line of overbearing hard rock wannabes (though I was at the last Led Zeppelin concert in SF). I'd have given that up to see Tales in a hot heartbeat.

[DamoXt7942]

Great, Keithie...
What an impressing thing it is that in concerts we can listen to songs previously unreleased!

[Sintetista]

Hey
I was too young and far away to have been there


but neverthe less...

It´s not only my favourite yes album but also where Ricky Wakemand finally
redfeimeed himself a s a prog rock keyboard Essential



[quote=KeithieW;39590]Indeed it is....Tales was officially released in the US at Midnight on 9th January 1974 although we lucky blighters in the UK had been able to buy it for some time.

It became, and has remained, my favourite album of all time. The highs, the lows, the ups and the downs are all magical and I have to listen to it often.
lind. The first part of the gig was a performance of the whole of Close to the Edge starting with The Firebird Suite (what else?) then Siberian Khatru, which was magical, absolutely magical, And you and I and then CTTE itself. We all felt pretty damned good but what was to follow defies description.

r overhanging trees and I was mesmerised. Nearly a half hour of bliss. It couldn't stay as good as this could it?

Too right it could!! The folklike beginning of The Remembering had us gripped. We all cried before Relayer and our passion was spent on one cross. Rick's keyboards soared over us in washes of pure beauty and then the final few minutes the crescendo leading to Jon singing "Surely, surely". God I still get the chills when I think of it.

What next? My God! What next?

Jon said that we were to be taken back even further in time even before The Remembering to a time when there were Giants under the Sun. The Ancient.....

Lights flashed in unison with the pounding Bass, pink and green light in fact, Steve Howe's guitar work entranced us and then the acoustic ending and "The Leaves of green" and the "Colour of the Sun" left us yearning for more.

Ritual!!!!!!!!!!!

[Yesspaz]

Originally Posted by DamoXt7942

Great, Keithie...
What an impressing thing it is that in concerts we can listen to songs previously unreleased!

Well, I actually prefer to not hear new songs at a show. I want to rock out singing every word and dancing. I want to get my money's worth, so to speak. I hate it when too much of a show is new stuff. One song, maybe.

[DamoXt7942]

Originally Posted by Yesspaz

Well, I actually prefer to not hear new songs at a show. I want to rock out singing every word and dancing. I want to get my money's worth, so to speak. I hate it when too much of a show is new stuff. One song, maybe.

Wow, spaz, you're a real rockman!
But it's slightly difficult for me to rock out to progressive rhythm...

[Kingston Crim]

That was indeed such a great description, I feel like I was almost there at that concert! If I close my eyes, I can virtually hear the sounds... see the lights... smell the... oops, this is a family oriented site. Nevermind.

[jtmckinley]

Thanks for sharing those memories Keithie, TFTO is maybe my fave Yes record also, although CTTE is a real close second if it is second. To see both live would be my favorite gig to see you lucky blighter! Alas I was too young for that tour by my parents ken, my first rock concert was the Drama tour. TFTO and CTTE were the soundtracks to most of the sci-fi/fantasy I read as a young'un and I continue to listen to it as a soundtrack when I play games like Lord Of The Rings Online today. I can't count how many times I've listened to those records all the way through. TFTO is the Yes record I listen to most to this day I think, truly a classic, hard to believe it's 35 years old, but it has certainly withstood the test of time to my ears.

[DamoXt7942]

Originally Posted by Kingston Crim

That was indeed such a great description, I feel like I was almost there at that concert! If I close my eyes, I can virtually hear the sounds... see the lights... smell the... oops, this is a family oriented site. Nevermind.

Originally Posted by jtmckinley

Thanks for sharing those memories Keithie, TFTO is maybe my fave Yes record also, although CTTE is a real close second if it is second. To see both live would be my favorite gig to see you lucky blighter! Alas I was too young for that tour by my parents ken, my first rock concert was the Drama tour. TFTO and CTTE were the soundtracks to most of the sci-fi/fantasy I read as a young'un and I continue to listen to it as a soundtrack when I play games like Lord Of The Rings Online today. I can't count how many times I've listened to those records all the way through. TFTO is the Yes record I listen to most to this day I think, truly a classic, hard to believe it's 35 years old, but it has certainly withstood the test of time to my ears.

On both here and his blog, we can feel Keithie's pleasure and happiness well.
I love Tales From Topographic Oceans too! (Indeed some of Yes fans say each song in it is too long and boring...)
The songs are all well-refned and delicate in details.