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Ivan_Melgar_M 
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: April 27 2004
Location: Peru
Status: Offline
Points: 19557
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 Posted: November 21 2011 at 00:21 |
 cstack3 wrote:
My only regret is that Wakeman was so tenuous on the recording, he clearly didn't like it. Pity.... |
Clearly didn't like it?........That's a bit short 
WAKEMAN: I love Yes dearly, but I didn't enjoy Topographic Oceans. At the time I actually said it was an over-padded pile of sh*t. Those were the days when things were very black and white; we weren't mature enough to sit down and discuss things.
The truth of the matter is, I still don't like the album. There's a lot of very good things on it; there's some very good moments on it. But there's tons of padding. When we went in to do it, we had too much material for a single album. So you either made it into a double album - which means write a lot more stuff - or you just reduce the size and make it into a single album. The fact of life is, we went the wrong route and we didn't have any other material. So there was padding for days on it. And Yes had never done that and I really objected to it. Vehemently objected to it.
MORGAN: And that's why you ended up taking a walk for the first time.
WAKEMAN: Absolutely. We've all discussed it for a long time since then, and everybody actually agrees now that if the world of CD had been with us then, that problem would never have arisen. One track might've been eleven minutes, one might've been nine, one might've been twenty-six, one might've been fourteen. They would've had their natural length. It was an album that was eventually tailored and padded out to fit four sides of an album.
Source: Creem Magazine Interview with Rick Wakeman
By Jeffrey Morgan |
He was more than expressive.....I fully agree with him
Iván
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akaBona
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 15 2010
Location: Finland
Status: Offline
Points: 2082
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 00:40 |
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it's one of the greatest albums ever, no doubt about this. it's no problem to me if someone don't like it, actually couldn't care less ...
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OT Räihälä
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 09 2005
Location: Finland
Status: Offline
Points: 514
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 00:53 |
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Some people don't like it because they can't cope with classical music.
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The T
Special Collaborator
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Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 00:55 |
OT Räihälä wrote:
Some people don't like it because they can't cope with classical music. |
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richardh
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 30356
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 01:46 |
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My opinion on it has softened over the years. There is 'padding' but actually that helps creates a unique feel to the music and maybe artistically makes some sense. Life just goes on and at times nothing happens. Only an accomplished band of musicians could have recorded this album padding and all.Its interesting.
Edited by richardh - November 21 2011 at 01:47
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator
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Joined: March 23 2005
Location: Caerdydd
Status: Offline
Points: 32995
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 02:01 |
progistoomainstream wrote:
Can someone enlighten me as to why people do not like Yes' "Tales from Topographic Oceans." |
People have different taste in music.
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 23 2005
Location: Caerdydd
Status: Offline
Points: 32995
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 02:03 |
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I wouldn't cut a minute of it btw...
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Kazza3
Forum Senior Member
Joined: November 29 2009
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 557
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 02:22 |
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Love it - a flawed masterpiece.
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ExittheLemming
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 19 2007
Location: Penal Colony
Status: Offline
Points: 11420
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 02:29 |
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I love about half of it but would concede that the remainder pretty much exemplifies why Prog had become in many people's eyes, irrelevant, redundant, bloated and on the cusp of self parody by that stage.Trying to sell an eastern spiritual agenda to a rawk demographic is tantamount to selling eye make-up to the blind. However, it's nowhere near as bad as its most vociferous critics would have you believe.
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AtomicCrimsonRush
Special Collaborator
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Joined: July 02 2008
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 14258
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 02:38 |
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people just don't understand it - but its absolutely essential prog. everyone wants an album like Topographic - ask the artists!
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Midnight Lightning
Forum Groupie
Joined: October 23 2010
Location: Netherlands
Status: Offline
Points: 40
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 02:43 |
I agree completely with all the people who said it's Yes's best album and one of the best albums ever etc., but I can also understand all those with negative or neutral feelings towards it that say it's unnecessarily long and boring, irrelevant in concept, etc. I think it has to do with the time in my life I first heard it, and the impact it had on me. Listening to the full 80+ minutes with headphones on was a ritual for me (yeah, stupid pun intended). Until today it's one of the albums that brings me the most pleasure.
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iluvmarillion
Forum Senior Member
Joined: February 09 2010
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 3247
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 03:41 |
AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:
people just don't understand it - but its absolutely essential prog. everyone wants an album like Topographic - ask the artists! |
Andy Tillison from The Tangent and the guys from Glass Hammer are just a few artists heavily influenced by TFTO. Just cause Wakeman doesn't like it doesn't invalidate it as a piece of Rock Art.
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 23 2005
Location: Caerdydd
Status: Offline
Points: 32995
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 03:50 |
Kazza3 wrote:
Love it - a flawed masterpiece. |
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 23 2005
Location: Caerdydd
Status: Offline
Points: 32995
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 03:52 |
iluvmarillion wrote:
AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:
people just don't understand it - but its absolutely essential prog. everyone wants an album like Topographic - ask the artists! |
Andy Tillison from The Tangent and the guys from Glass Hammer are just a few artists heavily influenced by TFTO. Just cause Wakeman doesn't like it doesn't invalidate it as a piece of Rock Art. |
I don't give a toss what Wakeman says about it. Just listen to some of his achingly awful albums and see if his opinion counts for much.
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treebeard
Forum Newbie
Joined: December 04 2006
Status: Offline
Points: 36
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 04:27 |
Its very ambitious and that for a lot of people is too challenging. It demands the time to unlock it and discover it fully. It is in every way a monumental piece of work, and I would challenge anyone to look at other grand projects and not find some areas that are less successful, the same can be said of this album. The problem for the album is that it also suffered badly at the hand of the critics and that in the minds of some has bled through and affects the view point, I know, I was one...sometimes its best not to read reviews of albums first.......
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treebeard
Forum Newbie
Joined: December 04 2006
Status: Offline
Points: 36
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 06:01 |
to add, for me, the real Turkeys, the ones that sucked were in the 80's with Trevor Rabin
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hellogoodbye
Forum Senior Member
VIP member
Joined: August 29 2011
Location: Troy
Status: Offline
Points: 7251
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 06:21 |
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I agree with Wakeman's words. This work will never be what It could have been.
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someone_else
Forum Senior Member
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Joined: May 02 2008
Location: Going Bananas
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Points: 24859
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 06:46 |
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After three masterpiece albums in succession, Tales was some sort of cold turkey, although it is still recognizable as a Yes album. The Revealing Science of God has some beautiful parts and The Ancient is also bearable, but The Remembering is boring in its entirety and I never could get into Ritual. In a review, a one star rating would be unappropriate, but I could not squeeze a third star out of it.
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Slartibartfast
Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / In Memoriam
Joined: April 29 2006
Location: Atlantais
Status: Offline
Points: 29630
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 06:50 |
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I think it stems back to the way the critics savaged it when it first came out. It's just easy to pick on and far more difficult to take in and appreciate. "Too long" always reminds me of that scene in Amadeus where he was criticized for having "too many notes". I believe it went something to the effect of there are so many notes the human ear can take in in one evening. Still I can see the point of those who say the album was padded. It did seem they were trying to replicate Close To Edge but having four side long songs and that may have been a bit too adventurous.
Still, I'm not going to bestow masterpiece upon it. If you stack it up against The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, that was a four-sider done right. And I know not everyone will agree with me on that. Its length was due to having a story to tell that couldn't be trimmed back to a single record even if it had single CD capacity.
Edited by Slartibartfast - November 21 2011 at 07:00
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Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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TODDLER
Forum Senior Member
VIP Member
Joined: August 28 2009
Location: Vineland, N.J.
Status: Offline
Points: 3126
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Posted: November 21 2011 at 08:02 |
progistoomainstream wrote:
Can someone enlighten me as to why people do not like Yes' "Tales from Topographic Oceans." |
I didn't like it because of it's internal bleeding. In 1972 ....I was teased with The Yes Album, Fragile, and C.T.T.E.
This was different. I immediately bought the album upon it's release. It seemed at the time....that when other bands attempted drawn out concept albums it simply worked for me. But not with Yes. It felt as if the adventurous interplay of instruments, interesting time signatures, and that power of impact the band had with songwriting was no longer present. It's the same old predictable dicky ding-dong sequence of affairs. I felt the same way when Mahavishnu Orchestra changed their line-up and released Apocalypse. Many mainstream rock music fans reacted in the same way when David Bowie stopped writing for the Spiders. You either prefer an artists new creation or you don't. Unfortunately.....it doesn't get too much deeper than that. This has been going on for years with many styles of music and not just prog.
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"Tales From Topographic Oceans Sucks" Why?
