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I love The Remembering and The Ancient

Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7765
Printed Date: March 28 2024 at 10:22
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Topic: I love The Remembering and The Ancient
Posted By: beterdedthnred4
Subject: I love The Remembering and The Ancient
Date Posted: June 19 2005 at 22:55
All of you who hate Tales from Topographic Oceans, I empathize with you, but I fail to understand you.  I for one love each of the four sides/songs, and I even love the much maligned "middle sides", The Remembering and The Ancient.

The Remembering
  • Check out that oceanic section at about 4:30 and its reprise at 16:30.  Other symphonic bands have lost hours meandering with guitar and mellotron trying to recapture that magic. 
  • The "chorus" at 6:50 is interesting both melodically and lyrically.  "Stand on hills of long forgotten yesterdays"  Is that profound or nonsensical?  That is for Jon to know and us to wonder.
  • And I just love the double climax, the reprise of the chorus with Steve Howe's guitar freaking out at 14:35 and the joyous conclusion starting at 17:35.
The Ancient
  • Whereas some guitar players have a 25 second solo, and hopelessly butcher it into an unmelodic piece of trash, this is Steve Howe in his prime, showing Crosby Stills and Nash how to really use a slide guitar.  The first 4 minutes or so is all soloing, and I'll be damned if I don't love it.  And after a short interlude, he returns on regular guitar to duel with Wakeman. 
  • The "Leaves of Green" section of this song is one of the most beautiful acoustic sections any prog band, hell, any band ever wrote.



Replies:
Posted By: Tommy
Date Posted: June 19 2005 at 22:58

The Remembering is my favourite track on this album. I hope one day they revive it live!

The drum solo on The Ancient spoils this track for me but Chris Squires bass more than makes up for it!



Posted By: Salmacis72
Date Posted: June 20 2005 at 09:38
I love The Remembering and The Ancient too!! Absolute bliss when the mood strikes me.

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Posted By: Zargus
Date Posted: June 20 2005 at 15:05

Since i bought TFTO i have thought it to be one of Yes albsolutly best and bigest works and i to like all the tracks and whuldent whanta be without any of em.



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Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: June 20 2005 at 15:24
Originally posted by beterdedthnred4 beterdedthnred4 wrote:


  • Whereas some guitar players have a 25 second solo, and hopelessly butcher it into an unmelodic piece of trash, this is Steve Howe in his prime, showing Crosby Stills and Nash how to really use a slide guitar.


Now why would these electric folkies want to know how to use the slide guitar - Steve Stills was never a bad player - check out Crossroads/Can't Catch Me (Robert Johnson meets Chuck Berry) on his solo Live album of 1978 or his playing on the magnificent Suite Judy Blue Eyes


Posted By: Moogtron III
Date Posted: June 20 2005 at 15:58
I love all 4 sides from Tales! That includes The Remembering and The Ancient. Great stuff!


Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: June 20 2005 at 20:39
I prefer The Anicent over The Remembering. But both are good songs, nonetheless.

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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.


Posted By: Arsillus
Date Posted: June 20 2005 at 23:11
Nothing can touch Tales from Topographic Oceans. I haven't heard any band come close its greatness.


Posted By: tuxon
Date Posted: June 20 2005 at 23:28
beautifull, but not quite there, like a missing piece you only realise is lost after you've finished most of the puzzle, still a great piece though

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I'm always almost unlucky _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Id5ZcnjXSZaSMFMC Id5LM2q2jfqz3YxT


Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: July 14 2005 at 11:35
I also love "The Remembering", particularly the middle "don the cap"/"Relayer" bit and the closing section which is one of Yes' finest moments IMO.


Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: July 14 2005 at 15:18

If they'd cut out the first 10 minutes of "The ancient" I'd agree with you 100% Beter.

Chopper - nice avatar by the way, comes across really well.Clap

 



Posted By: Evan1211
Date Posted: July 17 2005 at 10:17
Nice. I just checked out the spots you said and they are awesome indeed. I don't see how someone could not love Tales. I loved it on my first listening. Then again, I had been on a Yes kick for sometime before I bought it. Check out 10:40 on The Remembering. That is a good part as well. And around 12:50 on the Ancient is the start to the awesome acoustic part I like how the song builds up to this.


Posted By: Syntharachnid
Date Posted: July 17 2005 at 15:02
Originally posted by Tommy Tommy wrote:

The Remembering is my favourite track on this album. I hope one day they revive it live!

The drum solo on The Ancient spoils this track for me but Chris Squires bass more than makes up for it!

I'm pretty sure your're thinking about Ritual, not the Ancient.  The Ancient is the one with extensive guitar work.  Ritual has a bass solo and a drum solo.

Yeah, and I love both of these tracks too! 



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Posted By: kirklott
Date Posted: July 17 2005 at 16:00

Thank you for this thread!

imho, The Remembering is the best track on Topo, chronically underrated. I like the second half in particular, and the ending is just pure transcendental magic.

Squire digs it, and Anderson wants to play it live soon.



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"Progressive rock is the key to the continuance of human evolution." - Charles Darwin


Posted By: kirklott
Date Posted: July 17 2005 at 16:01
Originally posted by Tommy Tommy wrote:

The Remembering is my favourite track on this album. I hope one day they revive it live!

Jon wants to play it live. Now if he can just overcome a veto by Rick...



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"Progressive rock is the key to the continuance of human evolution." - Charles Darwin


Posted By: kirklott
Date Posted: July 17 2005 at 16:01

Originally posted by chopper chopper wrote:

I also love "The Remembering", particularly the middle "don the cap"/"Relayer" bit and the closing section which is one of Yes' finest moments IMO.

Couldn't have said it better myself...



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"Progressive rock is the key to the continuance of human evolution." - Charles Darwin


Posted By: kirklott
Date Posted: July 17 2005 at 16:02
Originally posted by Easy Livin Easy Livin wrote:

If they'd cut out the first 10 minutes of "The ancient" I'd agree with you 100% Beter.

Agreed. The first 10 minutes are pretty tough on the ears.



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"Progressive rock is the key to the continuance of human evolution." - Charles Darwin


Posted By: Logos
Date Posted: July 17 2005 at 18:20

I love all of the four movements. Easily one of top 5 greatest progrock records!!



Posted By: Maike
Date Posted: July 18 2005 at 19:54
I just love when they sing ... Nous sommes du soleil, we love when we
play - it sounds so sweet - that moment steals the album for me.


Posted By: Rust
Date Posted: February 17 2006 at 17:57
God knows how much I love The Remembering. This song is absolutely beautiful. My favorite parts of the song have to be during the section where Jon sings, "Alternate View!". Such a beautiful rising climax to a song that starts more mellow and "meditation" like. I think the reprising of choruses, melodies, and lyrics are so perfect, no other song can match it.
The song is my favorite, closely followed by The Revealing Science of God.

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We got to pump the stuff to make us tough
from the heart
Its astart
What we need is awareness we cant get careless
Mental self defensive fitness
Make everybody see in order to fight the powers that be


Posted By: Winter Wine
Date Posted: February 17 2006 at 18:37

Ah, Time for my say  -

  • The Remembering - Great track, And one that does have a certain nostalgia to it 'Wait all the more regard your past, school gates remind us of our class' Excellent lyric, And to be quite honest, once you have got a feel for the album, It's quite easy to start picking up the meanings behind the lyrics. I love the intro to this track, That meandering guitar is quite special and is one of my favourite parts on the album. It did take me a good while to appreciate the WHOLE thing as I really just wanted to hear certain parts, But it holds up very well in my opinion. Another part I really like is the acoustic section, Very upbeat, Puts me in a great mood, 'Force the bit between the mouth of freedom didn't we learn to fly, Remember to sail the skies, Distant Suns', Easily the most underrated track. I like the spacey outro, But it doesn't have the same climatic feel to it as 'The Revealing Science of God' or 'Ritual' does. Another thing I don't like about it is, There is a bit of padding, There's a couple of moments on the track where you do feel 'Hey, didn't I just hear that', But it doesn't happen too often which is good
  • The Ancient - By far the hardest track to get into. The guitar at the start isn't typical Steve Howe is it? Instead of ten notes a second he plays one note for ten seconds! To be honest I find it a good idea but it can get a little annoying after a while. This track I feel does have the most amount of padding, There's less ideas in this track than in the other three, But there are still great moments, The Acoustic section that takes up the last eight or so minutes for instance. My favourite part in 'The Ancient' is 'And their Gods sought out and conquered', I love how Squire makes that final note last. To be honest I find Jon to be weakest here, But the crazy percussion and slightly random feel to the playing is an interesting experiment, But I do find it the weakest track

I have a lot of theories regarding 'Tales from Topographic Oceans', I might post my review soon. There's a lot I have to say about the album, As you can see  That is a chunk of it anyway.



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My computer's broke


Posted By: micky
Date Posted: February 17 2006 at 18:43
Originally posted by Logos Logos wrote:

I love all of the four movements. Easily one of top 5 greatest progrock records!!



amen... and amoung my top 5 alltime favorite prog albums.


Ritual sucked me in on first listen and didn't get The Ancient.

over the years The Ancient has taken it's place as my favorite off the album.  Incredible stuff.


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The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip



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