I have heard many pissy comments about Yes’s performance of “Tales from Topographic Oceans” in it’s entirity when it was released a half-century ago. I really can’t hear what is so wrong with it, bar that it is Yessish stuff played perfectly, and loads of it. It might appeal more to fans or the refreshed, but isn’t that the point?. A live performance of “Heaven and Earth”, now THAT would be painful, even if it is marginally shorter.
This leads to a broader point; there has been a lot in the music world that I couldn’t see what the fuss was about, and even if I liked it, it just seemed modestly novel; the Sex Pistols and Nirvana both struck me as rock bands being jolly cross. Rap? Well, as I liked Gil Scott-Heron from the 70s, so spoken world and African-American poetry was not that much of a shock. Acid House was a reminder of me speeding up my brother’s Tangerine Dream albums to 45 rpm to make them more sonically exciting. More of a challenge has been Beefheart, Napalm Death, and getting my head around music by The Slits, which I now see as far more radical than all the ramalama of the times. I find the violence of grime and drill pretty blunt, but even then, folk music and country and western can be gritty and violent, too.
Well I saw Yes when they played Topographic Oceans having never heard a single note before. It was hard work and if I am honest pretty self indulgent. Only redeemed by the encores of Roundabout and Yours is no disgrace. Frankly it put me off them.
Years later I bought the box set of Yes studio albums and can say their debut through to Fragile were excellent thereafter they disappeared up their own arses not least when Wakeman started doing Disney on ice and Jon Anderson thought he was a decent solo artisr.
A pedant writes: solo Wakeman is not Yes; and neither is solo Anderson.
A pedant writes they were solo affairs by members of Yes either because they were bored of Yes or because they thought they were that good they could pull it off
The Jon Anderrson album is awful IMHO – Wakering slightly better but not much.
Cheers, Steve – agree to disagree and all that. At least you’re a partial Yes fan, based on the response to Vincent below…🙃
Never a fan, but against my better instincts was persuaded to see them at QPR football ground in May 75.
Seem to recall my mate telling me they played this in its entirety.
Awful.
They played all of “Relayer” at QPR, plus “Ritual” from TFTO. Maybe you’ve got to be into them. In fact, that would help considerably.
Well, at least i gave them a go.
All of the other acts were pretty ropey, too.
Seals and Crofts were so earnest and dull they probably “never did pass this way again”
Even Ace were less than Ace.
Even SAHB? At their peak?
They played my university. God, they were brilliant! Giddy up a ding-dong!!
@Vincent just to clarify – I was massively into them – probably my favourite band from The Yes album, Time and a word, Fragile and Yessongs. I only saw them once and it was the Topographic tour. I felt they let their fans down badly- I get that they want to play their new stuff but a double album start to finish that had never been played on radio beforehand was possibly you much an ask for many of the fans judging by the reaction of the crowd
Definitely a big ask to expect folks to sit through TFTO if it is unfamiliar. Isn’t that what substances were for back then? Lots of dull noodling became profound after a toke of this or a tab of that. And i like dull noodling, even sober.
If you weren’t a fan, and it was against your better instincts, then I suspect your mate was playing a cruel jape on you…
No, he was a fan and i was repaying a favour.
Gotcha!
I feel that we may have touched on this before – I think it was a thread about “which gig anywhere/anytime would you choose to attend?” – I think I wrote that I would choose to see Yes on the TFTO tour…and TFTO remains in my top 3 favourite Yes albums, even now.
The other two? Close to the Edge and Relayer…
The full QPR 75 gig is here
https://youtu.be/Rb6imdBvj1o
I am not a fan but get why other people are. I can’t imagine going to a Yes concert , not liking them or at best meh, and coming out the other end a convert.
They just aint that sort of band.
Their best album, and one of my top 5 of all time, starts right here:
Fragile is my favourite followed by the Yes album.
I also like Going for the One.
Nothing else will be played again I suspect.
The Yes Album. Their best album and by their best line-up. Not so sure about being in my Top 5 of all time however….. but maybe Top 6!