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Multiple choice test:
1. The 1974 release of the album "Tales From Topographic Oceans" by the British art rock group "Yes" was:
A) an ambitious and daring attempt to fuse classical and rock musical concepts into a massive rock symphony.
B) a bloated, pretentious, and self-indulgent test of a listener's patience, exploding in dozens of incoherent directions.
C) the musical inspiration for much of the 1984 mocumentary film "This Is Spinal Tap".
D) All of the above.
Answer: D
There is really no other album to compare with "Tales From Topographic Oceans" I am not aware of anyone producing an 80-minute long, four-track album that attempts single-handedly to simultaneously unite the energy of rock with the scope and structure of a classical symphony AND contemplate man's place in The Universe. It is as impossible task, which TFTO ultimately fails to bring off. Yet in its missing of that mark it still manages to create some beautiful musical moments and grand fusions of words and melody. Dissecting the title of the album gives a good idea of what's inside.
At first glance "Tales From Topographic Oceans" seems to be a non-sequitur at best, and nonsense most likely. Oceans don't HAVE topography, right? Until you think about it. Sure oceans are topographic, only the topography is hidden under the surface. Were the members of Yes really thinking that deeply when they entitled their work, or did they just choose words that sounded good and accidentally came up with a title that caught the soul of their concept? Since most of the lyrics of TFTO read like Vogon poetry I incline toward the latter, but I can't dismiss the possibility of lurking brilliance.
Musically "Tales" resembles a classical symphony composed of four long movements which are thematically linked but contrasting in musical style. The first movement, "The Revealing Science of God / Dance of the Dawn is best described as a rhapsody; a flowing sequence of interlocking melodies. The second movement "The Remembering / High the Memory" is most like a sonata, with an opening theme, second theme, development, and the recapitulation of the opening. The third movement "The Ancient / Giants Under the Sun" is a scherzo; fast-paced, rambunctious and free-form. The finale, "The Ritual / Nous Sommnes Do Soleil" is a gentle love song which unifies the whole piece by incorporating recaps of themes from the other movements into its structure. This is not music for casual listening. It must be studied and the melodies must be learned well enough to recognize when they appear again in different contexts to appreciate it fully. That is not all that difficult because many of these melodies are very memorable.
Indeed, several of the themes in the each of the four movements of TFTO are so catchy that they will stay with you for days. The first movement begins with white noise which resolves into notes, which evolve into melody, which builds to the addition of vocals. The chanted vocals first add inflection, then harmony, then more instruments joining into a growing wave of sound, which eventually crashes into an explosion of percussion and melody that leads into the first section of the rhapsody. Without explicitly stating what it is doing, the music takes the listener from the formation of The Earth to The Rise of Spiritual Man. All done in 3 ½ minutes! The opening crescendo of TFTO grabbed me when I first listened to it in 1974 and I've never forgotten it. Other melodies like "What happened to this song" and "Getting over overhanging trees" from the first movement, "Stand on hills of long forgotten yesterdays" from the second, "along without you" in the third, and Nous sommnes do soleil" in the finale are instantly full of hooks that you'll find yourself humming to yourself long after listening if you're not careful. I recently introduced TFTO to my 21-year old son and accidentally started with the run-through version of the first movement before switching to the album version. He remarked at how on one partial listening he realized he was remembering the themes on only the second listening. OK, so that's answer A from our multiple-choice test.
Answer B speaks to the frustrating failures included in TFTO. Many of the downfalls inherent in TFTO come from the ambition of composing such a large work. While there are unquestionably some great musical concepts that went into TFTO, there just weren't enough to fill four movements and 80-minutes of playing time. These flaws appear in the auditory whiplash-inducing transitions between musical styles of the various themes. The first movement alone makes 10 abrupt changes of direction. The first one at the end of the aforementioned crescendo is a natural progression that the listener can feel coming as the music builds. The other nine? Not so much. In the best cases the encroaching theme begins in the background and fades in as its predecessor fades out. In others, the next idea just jumps in from one measure to the next. Another big problem is that not all of the ideas in TFTO are equally viable. Some are simply filler to pad the tracks out 20-minutes. Others are utter musical failures that don't so much fall flat as fart. This is especially evident in the third movement when at about the 8 ½ minute mark the band devolves into a meandering jazz improvisation that drags on for four minutes. The attempt to glue the wheels back on by segueing into a four-minute classical guitar solo doesn't really get the movement back on track. In fact, the third movement of TFTO is why God gave us the next track button on our playback devices. The final problem is the nonsense lyrics throughout the album. While there are several moments where words and music come together in glimpses of brilliance, for the most part trying to parse out the lyrics is like listening to a conversation in a language in which you have incomplete fluency. The meaning seems to be out there just beyond the point of comprehension, but ultimately just isn't there to begin with.
Finally, one cannot leave a discussion of TFTO without recognizing its connection with "This is Spinal Tap". Some of the most hilarious scenes in the movie could be directly lifted from "Tales". Specifically the "Stonehenge" section of the film could have been replaced by a performance of parts of "Giants Under the Sun". The scene near the end of the film after Nigel has left the band and the remaining members have to sift through the best-forgotten parts of their repertoire also comes to mind. They end up with psycho-jazz that may actually BE a part of the third movement of TFTO. The idea of a rock band attempting to play material that is so far over their heads both musically and intellectually is one of the best parts of "Spinal Tap". Realizing that these gags are part of a massive in-joke that refers back to "Tales From Topographic Oceans" enhances my enjoyment of both the movie and the album. If ever there was a rock album asking to be satirized it is TFTO. Sure, the album is bloated and pretentious, but that's part of its charm. Being able to laugh at it ultimately helps me to understand it.
So, what's the final grade on our little test? I first listened to TFTO as a teenager in Southern Kentucky close enough to Nashville to hear the steel guitars twanging from my back yard. Listening to this record was a revelation. It was the first piece of music that I consciously studied in order to wrap my mind around it. I wore out the vinyl years ago, and when it came time to switch to CD my tastes had changed to the point where I never replaced the record. Recently I stumbled back across "Tales" in a chat room and wondered if my fond memories of it were more than youthful enthusiasm for something new and different. In re-acquainting myself with TFTO in 2013, I can say that much of the early affection for the record was not misplaced. In listening now with a more educated ear and broader experience I can see a lot of the flaws in the stone that I couldn't have understood then nor legitimately criticized. What I can say now that despite the flaws, "Tales From Topographic Oceans" is still a diamond and for that it has once again become one of my favorite recordings nearly 40 years after my first hearing.
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