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  7. Colours to the mast: this is one of my top three favourite Yes albums and I suspect that I am right in the natural constituency for this reissue. However, having seen the proposed content, my initial enthusiasm has been quashed. I guess the rarities and extras are very much ‘one listen’ jobs. With all due respect to Mr Wilson, I already have the original LPs, a CD version and a BluRay version – what can Mr Wilson bring to the party? And no price quoted, I note.

    I am very interested in the live CDs – TFTO being relatively poorly served by official live recordings over the years – but buying the full set just for the live sections seems unlikely, in my case at least.

  8. I’m a big fan of ‘Topo’. People pay too much heed to the stuff Rick Wakeman says about it, even though he plays beautifully throughout. It’s a musical dreamscape.

    • I don’t think it will ever be his favourite – but his attitude does seem to have softened a bit over the years. I saw an interview where he conceded that there good melodies and how much his keyboards contributed overall – but that he felt there was too much padding. IIRC, he suggested there were three LP sides of good stuff (perfect CD length!) but they expanded it to four, rather than editing it down to two. I don’t necessarily agree, of course.

      • I’m actually glad that they reinstated the ambient intro to side 1 on some of the previous editions. It was cut due to vinyl length issues, I assume. I love the way that Steve Howe has guitar motifs that recur through the whole album, starting with that intro.

        Although the story is that Eddie Offord butchered the whole thing with edits, it doesn’t seem right. They play it through on rehearsal takes, with minimal differences. Unless the final track was mixed in sections, which was common practice at the time.

        Anyway: less isn’t more, for me. If you’re going to make a concept album based on Shastric scriptures, the go all in. That’s what they did!

  9. A friend of mine prevailed on me to go and see Yes play TFTO at Loftus Road football ground in – IIRC May 1975.

    It was one of the worst days of my life

  11. This was my jumping off point with Yes. Before this album I loved them. I got tickets to see them live and they played this in its entirety. Interminably dull with meaningless lyrics and predominantly tuneless although I concede the level of musicianship was impressive.
    The opening track reappears on several of the 12 discs and takes up close to 4 hours.
    Sorry but I haven’t got time to waste on this complete shite.

  12. I’m going to suggest that one of the live shows from the set will come out as a standalone vinyl release for RSD next year as they’ve done it with shows from the previous super deluxe box sets.

  13. I like this album and I’m sure I’ll check this version out a bit at a time. All 12 discs are showing up on Apple Music in preparation for its release date. If the material is available, better out than in I reckon. Nobody will be forced to buy physical copies. I’ve been a Yes fan for almost 50 years and I certainly won’t.

    Other viewpoints and streaming services are available.

  14. Mrs. T had this album when we met in 1975. It still sits in our combined collection, unloved and unplayed in those intervening years, and even she admits it was a buying mistake. I might just dig it out for a spin this weekend, but very much doubt I will play the whole thing.

    • I agree, Chesh. This is one of my favourite Yes albums – but one look at the “rarities” – plus disc after disc of remix/remaster – has convinced me that this isn’t value for money, not for me anyway. I’d spring for the live CDs if they came out separately – but I wouldn’t buy the set just for those discs.

      • I’m pretty sure all of the studio stuff is on the blu ray disc in the previous edition… all of limited interest, even to me. Just shows that the folk legends about it being a hastily edited together shambles are (mostly) far from the truth.

  17. In common with others this was the last album from the Yes band I bought. I lost patience with it and then with them because of it. Yes were my favourite Prog outfit, I loved them but this stretched then broke the spell. It was this record that ended my attachment to Prog. I may stream some of this purely out of a misplaced sense of nostalgia or maybe not. I’ve got a recently delivered Charles Mackerras and a new Dohnanyi box set to enjoy and there’s only so many hours in a day.

      • I played a couple from the Dohnányi box yesterday evening but nothing from the Mackerras as of yet. A fair bit of Handel, Mozart and standard repertoire in the Mackerras box. The Dohnányi is a tad more outré. I played Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin which was fabulous, beautiful recording, excellent mastering and a similarly wonderful two disc set of Salome from Strauss. There is a DVD of Salome in the box too which I shall get around to in the fullness of time. It was like Christmas here yesterday, showered with an over abundance of riches.

  18. Thought you might like to see them in all their glory.
    I’m still picking my way at random through the Dohnányi box. Some more Strauss, Don Juan etc. I did play the first randomly selected disc from the Mackerras box yesterday in the form of Walton’s 1st & 2nd Symphonies both excellent of course especially the 2nd. It will take a lot to dislodge Previn’s 1966 recording of the 1st from my personal podium of reference excellence however but nevertheless a thoroughly fine recording. I don’t think Sir Charlie Mackerras was capable of turning in a poor performance.

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    • Very nice. Dohnányi in Vienna – I never thought to ask if it was Vienna or Cleveland. Come to think of it, I’m not sure if there is an equivalent Cleveland box…
      Can’t go wrong with Mackerras, of course. His performances never seem to drop below a level of thoughtfulness and excellence.

      Chunky speaker! Mine are from the opposite engineering philosophy…

      • There is a Cleveland box I have that too. It is excellent although his Mahler is an aquirred taste. I like chunky boy speakers. Wide baffle, nice and relaxed, good to lean back from not lean into.

  19. I was too young for imperial period Yes (TYA, Fragile and CTTE, as I understand it) so I was spared the outer limits of their later indulgences. The wonderful GFTO was my first purchase on release so I think I won doing Yes.

    Certainly life is too short to get into listening to TFTO for long enough to get into it.

  21. I got into them somewhat retrospectively on the cusp of punk whilst at school. I investigated all their albums from their first (which is one of my favourites because it’s just so…well…weird) and loved them all the way up to- and including- Close to the Edge.

    Didn’t like anything of theirs after that.

      • Hi, as I said in my email reply, I did/do like Time and a Word even though- like their debut (which is, strangely perhaps, one of my favourites) it was the sound of a band finding its feet. Some lovely tunes on there and some dynamic playing which was a sign of what was to come on the ‘classic’ triumvirate of The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge. As I say, I got into them retrospectively and the first ‘real time’ purchase was Going for the One…which I didn’t like very much. And I never went back. Although I do return occasionally to those earlier albums up to (and including) Close to the Edge. An honourable mention for Yessongs too (the live Perpetual Change, for one, is better than the studio version I’d say) and I also splashed out for some of the 1972 live recordings which were part of recent RSD’s. The 7 disc box of live recordings from their US tour of that year is also interesting- if, er, a tad repetitive, but I knew what I was buying…

  22. Shite, bilge two words for opening up Wordle in the next couple days

    Along with Sun Ra’s – Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy and Napoleon XIV’s Greatest Hits Topographic Oceans are my favourite 3 albums ever

  23. I quite like Yes (in small doses), but find Toby’s Topographic Go Kart to be the least listened.
    I’ve tried several times, but like Astral Weeks I just don’t “get it”

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