Mar 06 2023 65 mins
Is there any purer expression of the prog-rock moment than the one-side-per-track "concept album"? How about a double concept album? This week, Charlie, Henry and Bill say Yes to the excess and set sail across the four sides and 80-plus minutes of Yes's 1973 "Tales from Topographic Oceans." Conceived when vocalist Jon Anderson got his hands on Parahamhansa Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi," gestated in a Georgia hotel room by candelight and born in a London studio decorated as a farm (complete with bales of hay), the result is the record that became an instant symbol of prog rock "going too far." But could it be that Anderson, Squire, Howe, Wakeman and White found treasure in the musical deeps? Climb aboard... UPDATE 3/06/23: AUDIO CLIPS ADDED.
Click here for Charlie Nieland's "musical map" of "Tales from Topographic Oceans."