This is one Yes tour I can kick myself many times over for missing. Unfortunately I didn't get into them until a little over a year later. After seeing so many photos from the Tales Tour, I need to know exactly what songs did Chris Squire use his Fender Jazz Bass on. I'm assuming it was The Ancient, and I know he used a Guild fretless on the first half of The Remembering. So if anybody can give me a song-by-song rundown as to which basses he used, I'd really appreciate it, I really need to know! Thanks.

I was at the 2/27/74 show at Cobo and swear the band played a kick ass version of "Day Tripper" for their final encore, a great end to an awesome show, even though it started about 2 hours late . . .

I just had to pop in here at the dawn of 2009 (January 1st, 2009, 12:34 AM to be exact) and say "happy birthday" to TALES. This is the 35th anniversary (well, technically January 9, 2009) of the U.S. release of the TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS album and U.S. tour!! I've started web spaces to celebrate the anniversary on both myspace and facebook. The myspace page is:

http://www.myspace.com/tales35anniversary

and if you are on facebook just search for "Yes Tales from Topographic Oceans" or you can hit me up for friendship I'm the only Nick Kokoshis on facebook or the planet.

http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=Tales+from+Top&init=q&sid=83563e20488851ae30983852bac27ec9#/group.php?gid=41357317005&ref=mf

This album continues to inspire me!!!

WOW!!! I just got over the most AMAZING Christmas/winter solstice season EVER and along comes the 34th birthday (today, Wednesday!) of TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS by Yes!! Is there no end to the holidays of our Cosmic God? Click on the link below to see my COUNTDOWN WEBPAGE FOR THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS. We are of the sun. We can see! I just wrote a review of the February 14, 1974 performance of TALES in Uniondale, New York-- check it out in the blog section!! =-==-=-= om==- Nick

09 Jan 2008

Wherest art thou hippest TALES fan?

Visit my TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS 35th anniversary countdown myspace!!

www.myspace.com/tales35anniversary

Wherest art thou hippest TALES fan?

I got my TALES 34th anniversary morning (January 9, 2008) off to a good start. After offering incense to my deity pics (interfaith, of course) and being blown away by the new Sigur Ros song "Salka" of their new album HVART (oh yes, I'm hip to all-things-Jonsi, my Icelandic Jon Anderson if there ever was one!), I settled down to cup of herbal tea and organic Acai pop tarts to listen to TALES ("The Revealing Science of God" is playing at the moment-- Wakeman is just about to solo) and to write down some thought about TALES as well as ask this blog's readers-- how hip were you to TALES? As everyone knows, the word hippie was a take-off on the word "hip," as in "I'm hip to that."
I, unfortunately, was not very hip to TALES. I don't have a record of being hip to much of anything other than acid, which I did in junior high school and still remember going high to a Kmart and buying CLOSE TO THE EDGE after being mesmerized by the picture of Wakeman on the back cover. (I also had an 8 track tape of Fragile and the vinyl version of The Yes Album.) On the contrary, I tend to get into things a little too late (heck, I didn't even come out of the closet as gay until I was 32). Most recent example-- I got into the music of Sufjan Stevens and Denison Witmer a couple years after they were playing solo acoustic concerts together about four blocks from where I work. Sheesh! Likewise with TALES, my first memory of the album is standing at a store in Aurora, Illinois, probably when it first came out, and pointing at it and telling my friend (later wife) Melissa, "you should buy this." "I should buy this?!" she responded surprised. Like I was afraid to buy it or something! Sometime later I saw the record at my friend Terry's house where I had gone to get some pot and I said "play something from this." He played "The Remembering" and all I thought was that it would require some extensive listening to fathom it. But I didn't go buy it. It wasn't until spring of 1975 when I went to work at Third Ring Records in Aurora, Illinois and my boss laid on me some front row seats to see YES at the Chicago Stadium (July 4, 1975) that I thought I had better buy both RELAYER and TALES to get ready for the show. I took to both albums immediately. RELAYER I thought was brilliant-- Moraz won me over with his work on "Sound Chaser." TALES also captivated me. As I plowed through it the first few times it was "The Ancient" that impressed me the most; the arrangement on that one is outrageous! As for the lyrics, I was clueless. I was a stone cold athiest at the time and had no inclination to this mystical stuff. Like most critics of the album, I thought the vague lyrics reflected badly on religion as a whole. However, as karmic fate would have it, in February of 1976 I got my head and heart overhauled by a couple of mystics on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow TV show, and the rest is Scrooge reborn history. From then on I was as light as an feather, as happy as an angel, as merry as a school-boy, as giddy as a drunken man, and assorted other metaphors for turned on to the divinity in all living things and heaven bent on undoing all bad karma everywhere. After this metanoia, TALES was virtually a gospel record to me, but rather th

Although it's not listed in the tour dates, I distinctly remember seeing this show in Seattle, WA, USA. Wonderful show, especially Ritual: Now Sommes Du Soleil

THIS IS A RESPONSE TO THE EXCERT OF A REVIEW BELOW. I AGREE WITH WAKEMAN THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE ALL GOOD PEOPLE, HEART OF THE SUNRISE, ALTHOUGH THEY DID HEART OF THE SUNRISE AT A FEW TALES SHOWS.
OK, THIS IDIOT FROM CIRCUS MAGAZINE NEEDS TO GET HIS HEARING CHECKED ALONG WITH ANYONE THAT WALKED OUT. IMAGINE STEVE HOWE DEFENDING THIS MASTERPIECE TO THIS IDIOTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. I LISTENED TO 2/18/74 - MSG LAST NIGHT, BORING, ARE YOU KIDDING ME. IT'S THE GREATEST EVERRRRR!!!!! NOT ENOUGH MELODIES. THERE ARE MORE MELODIES IN THE FIRT 5 MINUTES THAN ALL OTHER BAND PUT TOGETHER. THIS WRITER MUST HAVE BEEN PAID $10,000 TO SAY THESE RIDICULAS REMARKS!!

You see, a piece of music, just because it was written three or four years ago, shouldn't die. Gone are the days when you hear a record for two months and then it just disappears. People are writing pieces of music to last. One of my all-time favorite songs - not just because I played on it - is 'Heart of the Sunrise' [from Fragile]. Incredible tune. 'Long Distance Runaround.'...'I've Seen All Good People'...They're great songs. So why not play them? I feel very sorry for anyone who saw us for the first time last tour. All they got was Topographic Oceans shoveled down their throats. I had to give my notice on that tour.

One night a writer for Circus magazine wandered into Yes's dressing room after their set. Eager for feedback, Anderson asked what the writer thought of the show.

"I thought it was boring," the writer replied, matter-of-factly. Howe and Squire quickly joined the confrontation. Howe, who composed most of Topographic Oceans, asked, "What was the problem with it?"

"There weren't enough songs, not enough melodies."

"Not enough songs?" Anderson was amazed. "Not enough melodies? He began singing melodic portions from the piece.

The writer headed for the door. "Don't ask me how I liked the show," he said. "Ask all the kids that walked out halfway through."

Wakeman, hearing the story out, chuckles at the recollection and wonders aloud why most musicians have no sense of humor. "The guy had a point anyway," he says. "I probably would have walked out halfway through, too."

I never understood why Wakeman didn't understand TFTO. After this show, I listened to it for the following year, at least. As a musician, I HAD to! I didn't leave this show, I was transfixed.

This was the 1st time I saw Yes. I was familiar with some of their music and, being a fledgling musician, had been to a few concerts already. I was 16, going on 17 in March of '74. I had seen Creedence, Doobie Brothers, Grand Funk, Black Sabbath, and maybe a few others.

I will never forget the opening. When I heard Siberian Khatru, I was so taken by the Mellotron voicing in the beginning. That, and the song itself, struck me DEEP; I "knew" I would be a musician for a long time. That was the 1st time my mind was opened up by a higher form of Rock music. I also swore that I would learn to play that keyboard part! I still do not know of anyone else who figured it out, but I've taught it to many players.

Those were banner years ('73 - '75). It infuriates me to no end when I hear "The Seventies" being dismissed. The '70's to me means (I'll keep it short)

Close to the Edge
Tales from Topographic Oceans
Thick as a Brick - Tull
A Passion Play - Tull
Octopus - Gentle Giant
Free Hand - Gentle Giant
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Roxy and Elsewhere - Zappa
Happy the Man - Happy the Man

Need I say more? I have yet to hear of another era that can surpass this.

I believe on TFTO he [Chris Squire] used the Rick mostly along with a Guild Fretless. The Guild was used on 'The Remembering' He also used his fingers quite a bit more on that song in particular to get a softer tone. In 1976 Chris was quoted in British Guitar: "One of the nicest things I think I've ever played is on side two of 'Topographic Oceans', "The Remembering". It's a very quiet song and the bass playing is really gentle. I was playing a Guild Fretless and though it's not a hard sound or amazingly fast , I'm prouder of that than I am about some of things I've played that people rave about.The section starts with a very interesting chord sequence . The key shifts for every bar, and the bass line just happens to bind it all together somehow by following a wierd scale. It's a very successful piece of arranging. and when I hear it , I definitely feel I couldn't have played anything righter, and one doesn't often get that feeling." (quote lifted from YESStories)

I'll never forget *the cave* they walked out from. Steve Howe told me that when the tour was done the crew took turns smashing it because they hated carting it around the country.

Jon states that Rick was not able to pull off the live version of "The Remembering" to his liking during the early stages of the tour and he asked him several times to try and get it together, which he never did despite the many requests.

This may be why the song was dropped mid tour. He relates the story almost as if it was the "last straw" type of thing. Has anyone ever heard of a rift over this particular song before?

The first one, the "Tales" set, had the giant bug, the organ pipes (also referred to as a whale skeleton, but not by Dean), a tunnel on to the stage which was demolished by the road crew half way through the tour, and some little fiberglass bubbles on the ground. This set was modified when Moraz replaced Wakeman, with fewer "organ pipes" which now came out of a second "bug" shell.

The tour for what Wakeman had come to call "Tales From Tobey's Graphic Go Cart" was the last straw and Wakeman left Yes to pursue a solo carrier.

STEVE HOWE INTERVIEW by Mike Tiano
Copyright © 1994 Notes From The Edge #124/Jeff Hunnicutt and Mike Tiano.
All rights reserved.
(Used with permission)
I suppose I'm filled with the after effects of TOPOGRAPHIC because before we came to America we played England with the Roger Dean stage and it was really Yes at the most spectacular we'd ever been, and yet the press had singled out Rick as 'he's flaky on this album,

Rolling Stone, January 30, 1974
Cameron Crowe

That point, Rick is quick to say, was the Tales from Topographic Oceans album and its subsequent tour. Based on Paramahansa Yogananda's Shastric scriptures, the esoteric double album made little sense to fans weaned on "Roundabout," from the group's 1972 album, Fragile. "To play music," Wakeman says, "you have to understand it. I didn't understand Topographic Oceans. That's why I hardly played on it. It frustrated me to no end...and playing the whole thing on tour, I got farther and farther away from it. Deep down inside, I don't think I was the only member of the band frustrated on that tour.

"You see, a piece of music, just because it was written three or four years ago, shouldn't die. Gone are the days when you hear a record for two months and then it just disappears. People are writing pieces of music to last. One of my all-time favorite songs - not just because I played on it - is 'Heart of the Sunrise' [from Fragile]. Incredible tune. 'Long Distance Runaround.'...'I've Seen All Good People'...They're great songs. So why not play them? I feel very sorry for anyone who saw us for the first time last tour. All they got was Topographic Oceans shoveled down their throats. I had to give my notice on that tour.

Wakeman studiously avoided the press after announcing that he would quit Yes following the tour, leaving composers Jon Anderson (vocals), Steve Howe (guitars) and Chris Squire (bass) to fiercely defend their work. One night a writer for Circus magazine wandered into Yes's dressing room after their set. Eager for feedback, Anderson asked what the writer thought of the show.

"I thought it was boring," the writer replied, matter-of-factly. Howe and Squire quickly joined the confrontation. Howe, who composed most of Topographic Oceans, asked, "What was the problem with it?"

"There weren't enough songs, not enough melodies."

"Not enough songs?" Anderson was amazed. "Not enough melodies? He began singing melodic portions from the piece.

The writer headed for the door. "Don't ask me how I liked the show," he said. "Ask all the kids that walked out halfway through."

Wakeman, hearing the story out, chuckles at the recollection and wonders aloud why most musicians have no sense of humor. "The guy had a point anyway," he says. "I probably would have walked out halfway through, too."

Billboard, Dec. 8, 1973:

NEW YORK-- Yes, Atlantic group from England, embark on their largest U.S. tour to date on Feb. 7. With initial dates set for Florida, the act will tour through March 26 when they play Baton Rouge, La.

Venues will include Madison Square Garden, Nassau Coliseum, the Spectrum in Philadelphia, Detroit's Cobo Hall, the Chicago Amphitheater, Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis and Tampa Stadium. Premier Talent is handling the bookings.

Tour coincides with the upcoming release of a double LP set by the group, 'Tales from the Topographic Ocean,' produced by Eddie Offord and Yes.

Gryphon has been signed as special guest opening act for the tour.

Billboard, Feb. 2, 1974:

... Yes will carry almost four times as much equipment with them on their upcoming U.S. tour as they did last year.

Rolling Stone, Feb.14, 1974:

Yes is spending nearly $40,000 on a hot air balloon which they will truck from city to city to promote their tour beginning February 7th in Gainesville, Florida, and scheduled to wind up in San Diego March 21st. The balloon, designed by Donn Miller, will be tethered as near as possible to their concert sites, and the gondola will be equipped with radio equipment so DJs can broadcast on-the-spot reports.

Billboard, July 27, 1974:

Yes had the 5th highest sales of tickets for '73-'74 concert season