| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
| Tales from Topographic Oceans | ||
|---|---|---|
| LP by Yes | ||
| Released | 1973 | |
| Recorded | 1973 | |
| Genre | Progressive rock | |
| Length | 81 min 15 sec | |
| Record label | Atlantic Records | |
| Yes Chronology | ||
| Close to the Edge ( 1972) | Tales from Topographic Oceans ( 1973) | Relayer ( 1974) |
Tales from Topographic Oceans is a double album by British progressive rock band Yes released on Atlantic Records in 1973See also 1972 in music, other events of 1973, 1974 in music, 1970s in music and the list of 'years in music' Events January-February January 9 Mick Jagger's request for a Japanese visa is rejected on account of a 1969 drug bust, putting an abrupt end to T.
Tales from Topographic Oceans has a total running time of 81 minutes and 15 seconds spread amongst four tracks.
Tales from Topographic Oceans is perhaps the most controversial of Yes' early albums and a major departure from their previous release. In critical terms the record is often regarded as the point where the positive reception built up by Yes' previous three studio albums declined (according to some, dramatically), although the album itself sold well, reaching #1 in the UK album charts. Many felt that this concept albumUsually, in popular music, an album of an artist or group simply consists of a number of songs that the members of the group or the artist have written or have chosen to cover. In a concept album on the other hand, all songs contribute to a single effect lacked enough material for its playing time (it was inspired by a single footnote in Paramahansa YoganandaMukunda Lal Ghosh ( January 5, 1893 in Gorakhpur, in northern India March 7, 1952), better known as Paramahansa Yogananda was a Bengali yogi and guru. He is revered by his followers as a "Premavatar" or "Incarnation of Love". Yogananda met his guru, Swami's book Autobiography of a Yogi which vocalist Jon Anderson had read). The album was famously disliked by Yes' keyboard player Rick Wakeman, who left the band following its release. Shortly before this he had famously eaten a take-away curry on stage whilst the band were performing the work in order to show his disdain for it. He did, however, rejoin Yes in 1977 for their album Going For The One.
Topographic Oceans is often held up as an example of all that is felt by many to be wrong with 1970s progressive rock, being described with adjectives such as 'directionless', 'pretentious', 'self-indulgent' and so forth. Not long after its release, the album was often referred to in a derogatory manner by several of the punk rock bands that emerged at least partly as a reaction to what was perceived as the out-of-touch and atrophied nature of much ' dinosaur' rock music at that time.
A 2003 CD reissue of the album includes previously unavailable studio rehearsals of two songs.