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richardh View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2012 at 01:46
Originally posted by M27Barney M27Barney wrote:

Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

Wakeman had a problem with so called 'padding' and recently said the vinyl format menat that the four tracks had to be all about 20 mins long while if recorded now one could be 12 minutes , another 27 minutes and so on. He has a point I think. Still you have to take it for what it is. A unique slab of seventies prog.Sometimes I enjoy it , sometimes it bores me rigid.
I think...it's about time someone did a re-vam and extend it out to two CD's worth (160 mins)...I once went to see a prog band called "Daga-band" - sort of ELP outfit - They opened with a 30 minute organ/mellotron/moog jam that lasted 30 mins - called "paraplasma" I recall....Thats prog.....
Grey Boynton was the keyboardist I think....
I seem to remember Daga Band vaguely although I don't think I've seen them live. I have seen Noddy's Puncture who had a keyboard player that dressed like Keith Emerson circa 1970. They were quite fun.


Edited by richardh - September 27 2012 at 01:46
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2012 at 00:24
Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

Originally posted by Ambient Hurricanes Ambient Hurricanes wrote:

I'm just listening to it for the first time right now, and enjoying it quite a bit.


Shocked

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I'm finished with it now.  The Ancient is incredible.

After finally listening to that, I think I better understand what one of the members of Yes (can't remember who) meant when he said that Yes was like what Stravinsky would have done as a rock musician.  The album is at the avant-garde end of the symphonic spectrum, really.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 21:54
I love the guitar solo Steve Howe plays on "The Ancient" where he is using a Classical nylon string guitar. I believe it is one of his most creative solos. For years I found myself listening to all 4 sides of Topographic during snow blizzards. It seemed very fitting when I was trapped in a house, a Holiday Inn, or using headphones when riding on a bus. I remember sitting by a window watching the snow pound and letting the album play. It was an amazing experience. I always tried to imagine what Vangelis would have added to the project. Although Rick Wakeman did a fine job with atmospheric sounds ...I still wanted to hear what Vangelis would have chosen to add into the compositions.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 21:23
I bought it in 1975, I have played it a thousand times(no exaggeration) and it is more and more precious every time I hear it.  It is not a perfect record, but the band took on a work so grand in scope that what YES pulled off on this album, many major bands never equal in their entire careers. Don't get me started on Tales....

What a gift & treasure!

If any record should be remixed into 5.1 it would be Tales.
"Yeah, people are unhappy about that - but you know what, it's still Yes." - Chris Squire
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 19:04
Originally posted by Ambient Hurricanes Ambient Hurricanes wrote:

I'm just listening to it for the first time right now, and enjoying it quite a bit.


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 19:03
I'm just listening to it for the first time right now, and enjoying it quite a bit.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 17:39
Originally posted by Dayvenkirq Dayvenkirq wrote:

.
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

TFTO is just NOT a pop song! If song is what you want ... ciao baby! YES will never be for you except for 2 or 3 songs! ... and honestly? ... that's not progressive at all!

I have to ask: How is that?


I would really advise you not to waste your time, Dayve. I have tried to have discussions with Moshkito before.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 17:26
20-min quality experience forever! Bowdown 

Originally posted by Einsetumadur Einsetumadur wrote:

"Getting over overhanging trees" (...)
"Thoughts would send our fusion. Clearly to be home." Right there. ... .
Originally posted by Einsetumadur Einsetumadur wrote:

Doubtlessly one of the most beautiful melodies progressive rock has ever produced. 
On the album, yes, that is a grand possibility. In all of prog, ... hard to tell.

Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

TFTO is just NOT a pop song! If song is what you want ... ciao baby! YES will never be for you except for 2 or 3 songs! ... and honestly? ... that's not progressive at all!

I have to ask: How is that?


Edited by Dayvenkirq - September 26 2012 at 17:31
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 16:08
Originally posted by HarbouringTheSoul HarbouringTheSoul wrote:

Ehn, it's okay. Sometimes I quite enjoy it, other times it feels like the silliest album ever recorded. I feel that this a good record for people who just want to get lost in the sound, but I'm not really one of those people. This is also the album where they started to become quite messy sound-wise, which is kind of a bummer considering they were the tightest band on earth just one year prior. I blame the absence of Bill Bruford, who seemed to keep the other guys' meanderings in check.
 
Not sure about that meandering thing ... specially these days, Bill's material has a lot of meandering ... and so did King Crimson, and so did Absolute Elsewhere ... and many other things.
 
I'm not sure that "meandering" is not a part of music and specially what became known as "progressive" ... and the same thing was also told to Tchaikovsky 200 years ago, when he wrote a "pastoral" symphony that many people thought was boring, because it was meandering with the orchestra ... and heck, he wrote several other symphonies and none of us is calling that meandering boring. Well, not sure that "progressive" or "rock's top ten" audiences will ever listen to Tchaikovsky! Btw, this always brings me up to the cover of Ummagumma! ... yeah ... lots of meandering!
 
Jazz, specially, does a lot more meandering and some of it is much less inventive, and sometimes it is strictly around the chord or note! ... and that is not as interesting, sometimes, unless that person's fingers has the "feel" to take your imagination somewhere else.
 
I would like to suggest that too much of our opinions are colored by "pop music" and "top ten" ... with a mentality that has a tendency to lower its ability and expression to something that we can recognize and (supposedly) understand ... and that is bizarre! The history of music is all about changes ... and that includes instruments ... and here we are saying that it should not be done, and can not be done, or can not be enjoyed!
 
In the studies of a lot of classical music there are a lot of long passages (check out Wagner!) that are to be "descriptive" of the scenery and the "story" ... and basically you are stating that this is not allowed in "progressive" music or that YES, specially abused the priviledge!
 
TFTO is just NOT a pop song! If song is what you want ... ciao baby! YES will never be for you except for 2 or 3 songs! ... and honestly? ... that's not progressive at all!
 
 


Edited by moshkito - September 26 2012 at 16:12
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 15:48
Ehn, it's okay. Sometimes I quite enjoy it, other times it feels like the silliest album ever recorded. I feel that this a good record for people who just want to get lost in the sound, but I'm not really one of those people. This is also the album where they started to become quite messy sound-wise, which is kind of a bummer considering they were the tightest band on earth just one year prior. I blame the absence of Bill Bruford, who seemed to keep the other guys' meanderings in check.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 14:47
All 4 sides are amazing.....Fantastic work by Yes...For me it flip-flops with CTTE as my fav Yes album. The gatefold is just brilliant too.....
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 14:42
Originally posted by Moogtron III Moogtron III wrote:

...
Right, I can picture someone like Mahler wanting to have 10 mellotrons in his orchestra. Then the world would have had a bombast - bombardment LOL
 
Nooooo ... this would be Wagner ... and then you get one of those super voices over it ... and it becomes a bigger, better and louder version of The Ring.
 
Of course, if your name is Puccini, that just means a much bigger orchestra and even more instruments, so that the whole thing is such a loud cacophony, that you can't help thinking it's good ... (... wait ... doesn't rock music do that? ... ) ... and, above all, important!
 
 
Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

...
Great discussion! I think Bach & Beethoven would have especially loved "Revealing Science of God," Brahms or Handel would have liked "The Remembering," Mahler and Holst the bombastic "The Ancient," and perhaps a Russian like Tchaikovsky "Ritual" for its grand dramatic elements! ...
 
Love this ... but all in all, when you consider the musicianship and professors in many music schools across the world, you know that some in Berlin were aware of these things and heard it. We know for sure, via some of the CAN folks that a couple of those folks KNEW music very well, including some of the more modern stuff, up to and including rock and jazz. Even Peter Michael Hamel states that on his book, though he also mentions that most of it is not that good or important music from a very academic point of view that was rather annoying considering his own beginnings in music ... but then he was smarter than us ... he got the school to pay for them to travel around and play music!
 
I do not consider any of this stuff any different than classical music, and I think this is where a lot of my "ideas" come from that some rock/prog folks don't like!


Edited by moshkito - September 26 2012 at 14:47
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 11:53
tried to listen to this the other night.  i always considered a favorite, but man, it does not hold up at all.  i'd love to see a remixed version of this making each song about 10 minutes shorter.  sorry, i know that's sacrilege.

the cover art is in my top 10, easily.  


Edited by zumacraig - September 26 2012 at 11:54
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 11:36
I love this album. Didn't take me near as many listens as I thought it would to grasp it and start to become familiar with each track. It ranks very high in my list of all-time favorite albums actually. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 07:40
Not my fav Yes record, but I was quite impressed with the constant quality of the songs (except Nous Sommes du Soleil, I was a bit bored by it). Count me in with the TfTO lovers :)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 06:57
Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

Wakeman had a problem with so called 'padding' and recently said the vinyl format menat that the four tracks had to be all about 20 mins long while if recorded now one could be 12 minutes , another 27 minutes and so on. He has a point I think. Still you have to take it for what it is. A unique slab of seventies prog.Sometimes I enjoy it , sometimes it bores me rigid.
I think...it's about time someone did a re-vam and extend it out to two CD's worth (160 mins)...I once went to see a prog band called "Daga-band" - sort of ELP outfit - They opened with a 30 minute organ/mellotron/moog jam that lasted 30 mins - called "paraplasma" I recall....Thats prog.....
Grey Boynton was the keyboardist I think....
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 06:56
😁 it's true. This album is every bit as layered as a classical symphony. I mean it's as I said, you gotta be in the right head space to listen to it. You drift off here or there you'll get lost and it may ending up just sounding like complex noise. I recommend LSD if your a person who has trouble focasing. Close your eyes and the music will help you see some pretty amazing things....I am not kidding.
Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 01:55
Wakeman had a problem with so called 'padding' and recently said the vinyl format menat that the four tracks had to be all about 20 mins long while if recorded now one could be 12 minutes , another 27 minutes and so on. He has a point I think. Still you have to take it for what it is. A unique slab of seventies prog.Sometimes I enjoy it , sometimes it bores me rigid.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2012 at 01:49
Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

moshkito's post made me think of this:

If Beethoven or someone earlier could hear Tales from Topographic Oceans, what might they think?

A spiritual incantation initially- but what then? 



Great discussion!  I think Bach & Beethoven would have especially loved "Revealing Science of God," Brahms or Handel would have liked "The Remembering," Mahler and Holst the bombastic "The Ancient," and perhaps a Russian like Tchaikovsky "Ritual" for its grand dramatic elements!  

We could discuss this for days over drinks!  I think they would have particularly been impressed by the amount of music that five fellows could generate with the technology!  Imagine any of the classical composers with a Mellotron!!

Right, I can picture someone like Mahler wanting to have 10 mellotrons in his orchestra. Then the world would have had a bombast - bombardment LOL
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 25 2012 at 23:45
Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

moshkito's post made me think of this:

If Beethoven or someone earlier could hear Tales from Topographic Oceans, what might they think?

A spiritual incantation initially- but what then? 



Great discussion!  I think Bach & Beethoven would have especially loved "Revealing Science of God," Brahms or Handel would have liked "The Remembering," Mahler and Holst the bombastic "The Ancient," and perhaps a Russian like Tchaikovsky "Ritual" for its grand dramatic elements!  

We could discuss this for days over drinks!  I think they would have particularly been impressed by the amount of music that five fellows could generate with the technology!  Imagine any of the classical composers with a Mellotron!!
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