What does tales from topographic oceans mean

And 'Ritual' is strong, taking its time with more deconstructions, rich vocals, percussive interludes, and wrapping things up with an arrangement that makes it hard to believe it was just the five of them. Sure not every moment here will appeal to all people all of the time, but that misses the point entirely.

This album is to be taken as a whole, a single entity that may seem excessive but, like a long trip or thick novel, it's the journey that matters as much as the net gain. There are some truly exceptional moments to discover here The group choose to focus on high-creativity instead of high-energy, loosing the perfect balance they had attained in their previous three albums.

The result are two discs worth of slow, meandering songs which only occasionally catch one's attention, but when they do are really something else. One cannot acknowledge that the band is in fine form, shining most in the delicate textures displayed throughout the album rather than the occasional outbursts of rock which come across as obtrusive to the soundscapes.

Because of this, I place TFTO in the realm of: exceptional background music, suitable more for busying oneself in mental or creative tasks than demanding one's attention. I acknowledge the ambition this release represents-- it's nothing short of sprawling, but many listeners will find themselves enjoying Yes' other more exciting and equally creative releases more than this one. Both in excesses and successes, the album stands out as a much more expansive and challenging one than Yes' two preceding efforts, and the combination of superb musicianship, the slaughtering of conventional structures, semi- or entirely- nonsensical lyrical material, and an ambition at producing a more primal creature than Close To The Edge without any realism whatsoever included.

These make the album pretty much the essence of longer instrumental-based prog, and a huge target for some mainstream critics. The playing, of course, is good to stunning, with Howe contributing superb acoustic and electric guitar as well as lute and White stepping up to the challenge of taking over from Bruford while not aping him. Squire provides some of his finest bass-work, distinctive and potent throughout, with a couple of superb bass solos making an appearance.

Jon Anderson is fairly capable throughout, though in a couple of spots he fails to get the menace demanded by the music. Still, his vocal performances are generally distinctive and good. The Yes harmonies, naturally, take their place on the album gracefully. Despite this excellent playing, I initially did not get the album at all, considering it nonsensical, boring, not worthy of CTTE and generally despicable.

However, going back to it after a little while spent developing my musical tastes and ear, I later found it incredibly and inexplicably stunning. This is an album which demands attention and to be listened to in full, and with the energy to engage with and explore its depth. Not casual listening. Thunderous rumbling and gentle keys build up a watery, swirling atmosphere, moving to calm when John Anderson's vocal enters, slowly building tension with the strung-together syllables and words.

This gradually and brilliantly builds up to the potent bass solo on the line 'Endless caresses for the freedom of life everlasting'. Steve Howe then enters with confusing guitar, and the band really kick off as a whole.

A more rock-based section ensues, with Alan White's percussion standing out especially. Anderson contributes an excellent set of vocals and suitably cryptic lyrics about a search for God or meaning. The harmonies mesh together very neatly, and the piece hums around calmly before shifting into a much faster-paced being replete with Howe soloing and killer rhythm section.

Wakeman's keys, slippery and deliberately un-fixed, remain a constant through most of the song, including a softer and slower repeat of the music for earlier sections. Lush mellotron, ARP synths, some form of piano and just about every imaginable keyboard sound turns up to good effect. Of especial mind-blowing beauty is the soft guitar solo-based section with flutey keys which takes over at about Of similar wow factor, though of completely different style, is a Wakeman keyboard solo.

The piece finally disappears after its range of treats on a mysterious note. In all this, the band handle very sudden changes in tempo and rhythm flawlessly, moving between a vast array of sounds with a couple of constants evoking the search. The musicianship on this particular piece is truly phenomenal, and, with all members of the band contributing with full verve and energy, it could never have failed to be stunning.

Flute makes an appearance, as do lute and all sorts of keys, though more conservative and 'normally' used than on the opener. Squire plays more slowly on a less edgy bass, which does suit the piece but at the same time doesn't feel quite right for a Yes song. The vocals carefully twist and deliberately overstay the bounds they've set for themselves, occasionally dragging the music along with them for surprise value. A mandolin-like guitar sound produces a more slippery atmosphere.

There are some very clever examples of the music taking completely unexpected turns, and foreshadowing explosions that never happen. Wakeman's keys are probably the standout on the piece, with the multiple vocals coming second.

A range of ideas are explored within the general theme of memory and a 'universal' memory, occasionally resurfacing several times. The entire piece doesn't always work for me musically, but most of it definitely does, and the cleverness of the way the concept is explored is always something to chew on during the bits I don't love for their own merit. Objectively another masterpiece song, though not always my thing.

Here the intent is to go beyond sense, logic and memory to create whatever was before that. Naturally, this idea is pretentious both in the concept and in the execution with the unfortunate decision to recite a list of names and places in various languages, most comprehensibly sol - sun and Ilios - Troy. Howe is an outstandingly dissonant guitarist and sitarist in this section, and the general chaos and energy of the first part of the piece is only spoiled by Anderson's pretentious moping and a rather more generic set of keys.

From this chaos appears Howe's interesting and emotional acoustic guitar accompanied loosely by an acoustic bass and a more substantial vocal from Anderson. The wonderful Spanish-with-just-a-touch-of-dissonance nature of his acoustic solo here gets me every time and it is naturally vital listening for fans of Mood For A Day.

Considering that my main reason for admiring Howe's guitar-work is merely that he can handle an acoustic properly and emotionally without sliding into the realm of the generic, this part of the song is a delight for me every time. The song runs madly to its conclusion with a very odd juxtaposition of the forceful riff of the first part, sitar and screeching guitar. A flawed masterpiece in all its glory. Nous Sommes Du Soleil is the coherent and searching conclusion demanded by the conceptual scale of the album.

A thick bass thing opens the piece, which spotlights White and Squire very frequently. Squire, in particular, is a blur receding into the distance on the bass for the entire piece, providing a couple of especially fine solos.

Wakeman echoes some of the key sounds on the opener to give us a denser feeling of conclusion and of a cycle. Vocals are densely merged to produce a more tight, warm and communal piece, and the development of the band towards The Gates Of Delirium is at times obvious. A blues-esque faux-conclusion shifts to a percussion showcase with a saw in the background, if I'm not mistaken , which could perhaps be the best thing I've so far heard from Alan White.

Haunting keys loom in the background before the piece moves to a softer conclusion. Howe provides an electro-acoustic thing, while the Caped One moves to a piano for the acoustic, natural conclusion.

Naturally, this is not the end, and a stunning Howe solo and more liquid textures conclude the album indecisively. This piece is probably the one I've got the least to say about, since it's more of a musicianship-based rock piece than the other more imagination-based pieces. Has to be heard to be understood. Again, great piece of music. The bonus material isn't especially good, with the most interesting aspect being Wakeman's keys on the alternate mix of Dance Of The Dawn.

Anderson's vocals are too thin on that version, however, to make it listenable, and the album as it is is long enough to discourage me from listening any further.

Probably not worth a repurchase for them unless you really love the album and the band. Of course, this is a masterpiece. Pretentious, yes, a mess, probably, but a masterpiece. Anyone who claims interest in prog rock should own it, and should take a while to make up their minds about it. If at first it doesn't stick, persevere, and if then it doesn't stick, put aside an hour and a half to listening to it once you've left it on the shelf for a month or two.

If you then get it, the time and effort will have been worthwhile. Not to be missed. Also as I mentioned earlier the guitar work of Howe and the mellotron from Wakeman on this song is outstanding. I just don't like the song. Some nice intricate guitar melodies follow. Howe again shines after 17 minutes.

I like the way the song builds to a climax with an instrumental section to follow. White solos 15 minutes in. Mellotron follows while White still pounds away. Mellotron ends it. This is my favourite track on here. So I guess i'm not sold on this one, but that's ok because these guys have so many amazing records that I do love. Some people love this album, while some people hate it. I fall somewhere between these two extremes. I think there is no denying that all the four songs, or movements, are a bit too long for their own good.

This especially applies to the second and third movements. But there is also no denying that there are some truly excellent moments on this album. My personal favourite is The Revealing Science Of God, what a truly unique sound and feeling this song has!

While listening to it, it often feels as if it was recorded at the bottom of the ocean! Rick Wakeman's keyboard solo towards the end is one of his best ever, and it has a totally unique sound.

The way he can make his keyboards sound like waves is totally amazing. Steve Howe' guitar sound is, again, totally unique and Jon throws in some of his best vocal moments ever.

Chris is great as always and Alan White does his studio debut with the band on this album and he fitted the band like a glove. Some drum parts are amazing and sound, again, as if they were recorded under water! I mean that in a good way, if that makes sense! I don't really miss Bruford at all here. This is not Yes' best album, but it is clearly an essential one for all Yes fans and it is totally here's that word again unique - I have never heard anything like this before or since.

Are these guys really from the same planet I'm from? If you haven't heard this album yet, you are in for quite a ride but with some less than great moments social review comments Review Permalink Posted Wednesday, July 16, Review this album Report Review All the excesses of bands like ELP were surpassed by an album with just 4 songs, each about 20 minutes long.

What followed was a negative reaction of many critics and fans who thought that YES just had gone "over the edge" of pretentiousness and pomposity. Many of them actually turned into the much less demanding, musically-poor arenas of punk rock, in evident contrast to the symphonic exaggerations of prog-rock. For a lot of people, this album is not as great as other YES' albums just because of that.

It's my opinion, though, that the album is inferior to earlier and later albums because it's actually a bad album. It doesn't matter that we just have 4 songs. After all, "Close to The Edge" only had three, and while two of them were "only" 10 minutes-long, that's much longer than the average song length.

The problem really is that these 4 gigantic tracks in this album are lacking excitement, entertainment value, and if they try to aim for higher artistic status, they fail miserably. The first track, which may be the least horrible of the four, never quite makes up its mind about what it truly is. It's never a full-blown symphonic effort as "Close to The Edge", nor is it a long song made of several parts.

Themes lack character and the song itself is an exercise in boredom, even though it towers over its awful companions. The second track, "The Remembering", features some incredibly obnoxious vocals as is the rule in this album, where Andersons seems to have decided to annoy us for annoyance's sake and it's quite irrelevant.

But the disaster really takes place in the third track, "The Ancient Giants Under the Sun", which is the longest boring-track ever recorded. Some bands record boring songs that last 5, 8, even 14 minutes, but YES had to overdo it and record an 18 minute song with absolutely zero coherence, no themes or tunes, and some useless percussion effects and rhythms disguised as "experimental". The album closes with a fourth number that it's actually better than the preceding two but, then again, any song from "The Yes Album" which I think it's just an OK record would have done better.

We shouldn't say anything about the musicians as they all had proven their capabilities before. But all that was done for a reason in previous albums seems to be devoid of one here.

It's like the musicians play all kinds of solos here just because, well, they could , not because it served the songs better. Wakeman is all but forgotten in this record he shows he was not really pleased with YES' direction , Squire doesn't amaze us with great bass lines, White is OK but the percussion-oriented third track is atrocious, and Howe usually the most reliable of the lot, only manages to shine with his textures and his acoustic-guitar solo which, by the way, is the only exciting moment in the record as it would seem that "Roundabout" was going to start any second now.

Obviously, that doesn't happen, but it's very telling that a look to the past is the only passage when this album emerges from utter mediocrity. Unlike an album like "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by GENESIS which would have benefited from a trimming job, as it was a flawed masterpiece, no amount of editing or no miraculous scissors would have ever saved "Tales From Topographic Oceans", as it lacks the ultimate essence of any good album: good music. But the real rating would be 1.

There are those who blame this album for the decline and fall of prog rock. Life is never that simple, of course. The reason for the retreat of prog rock from the limelight had little to do with any specific album and far more to do with large-scale social forces. However, we humans aren't generally patient enough to work through the complexities of such change, so we choose a scapegoat, a symbol that takes the blame that ought to be borne more widely.

It is the scapegoat because, in the eyes of many, it simply went too far. From one album to the next YES went from being the champions of heavy symphonic rock to an outfit that didn't know where to draw the line.

Having drawn widespread acclaim with their three-song masterpiece 'Close To The Edge', they took the concept of one track per side and spread it over four sides of vinyl.

Moreover, they stretched tracks that might previously have provided five or ten minutes' worth of god-like YES music into self-indulgent, overweight twenty minute marshmallows with no substance. This is YES in decline, desperately trying to paper over the cracks of a band at each other's throats, dominated by ANDERSON's incomprehensible conceptual leanings, rapidly becoming an embarrassing parody of itself.

This set the scene for the widespread scorn rock critics began to show towards prog rock, and this album was therefore instrumental in public rejection of the genre. I intend to offer a spirited defense of this album's place in the list of the true great moments of the genre. In and YES had peeled off a triple-play of incomprehensible brilliance. All three albums occupied much the same musical space: jazz-tinged symphonic prog, dominated by dramatic extended compositions led by an unequalled rhythm section, each song reaching a fiery climax.

Compositionally brilliant, with tight musicianship, the band had by this point a sequence of mighty achievements under their belts. Drawing deeply from their early psychedelic roots, borrowing from Asian musical tradition and scriptures, and - perhaps most importantly - from their own earlier repertoire, the band created an eighty minute musical melange that, rather unfortunately for their career, defies easy categorisation. The result, for better or worse, was 'Tales From Topographic Oceans'. The basic shape of the album is thus: the first and last tracks are symphonic pieces in the mold of 'Close to the Edge', though with important differences, while the second track is less easy to pigeonhole, with large quiet, almost ambient sections, and the third track is experimental, filled with Asian sounds and difficult rhythms, much less of a song and much more of a soundscape.

It seems to me it is the first ten minutes of 'The Remembering' - before the 'Relayer' chorus - and all but the last few minutes of 'The Ancient' that give listeners the most trouble. To which I can only respond that these listeners have not understood the nature of the music they are listening to. By all means choose not to like them - I'm not sure I 'like' either section myself - but long ambient soundscapes and rhythms and sounds from other musical traditions in other words, the addition of other musical genres to rock are exactly the sort of things that made prog what it is.

That's what had separated me from YES. I contend that, by doing so, they did not help to kill prog. Instead, they helped keep it alive.

I apologise for taking up so much of your time with this argument, and I'll happily admit that it is only a point of view. But I hope my passion for this record will help some people see how essential an album 'Tales From Topographic Oceans' is in the YES canon, and in prog rock, whether it appeals to you or not. One further point. Do anything you can to get hold of Elektra's remaster: not for the 'bonus' tracks, but for the vastly improved sound.

One of the major difficulties with the original record was the production, which was rather muddy and knocked the highlights out of the music, further obscuring an underpowered rhythm section.

The remaster addresses this. It really is like listening to a new recording. Aside from the overt spirituality, what's of interest here is the reappearance of the 'sharp' and 'distance' motifs from 'Heart of the Sunrise', the first of many such moments on this album. This section builds slowly with the addition of harmonies and notably the intense, shrill synth, and segues into a typically wonderful YES melody. The new order is already clear: melody has taken over from rhythm. This is the single greatest difference between this record and its predecessors.

In particular, STEVE HOWE dominates: his guitar colourings, where he makes the notes sound as though they are squeezed reluctantly from the instrument, are the feature of the record. The greatness of this album does not come from the rhythm section. This record is about beauty, not power. That said, the beauty is - well, staggeringly, sublimely beautiful.

And after nine splendid minutes, we move into the next section, with more dynamism and the use of the same opposed two-word lyric lines made famous in 'Siberian Khatru'. YES continue to evoke their own past as they march into the future. The 'rape the forest' lyric follows, another superb section, followed by a return to the dynamic two-word lyric section. This is a symphonic epic on steroids, not a wasted moment - and oh, listen to the rising and falling mellotron at the fourteen minute mark.

More beauty follows, with a heart-wrenching section at fifteen minutes the 'glory to sons' section , the inevitable calm before the storm of the finale.

YES are the best in the business at these high points, and this is another guaranteed not to disappoint. All a passionate reviewer can offer is yet more adjectives in praise of the music.

I cannot understand why this song does not gather the praise it is due - well, I do, given its context. You see, even proggers didn't have unlimited patience. The drawn out psychedelic noodling of 'The Remembering' swiftly erases the glory of the previous track from the listener's mind. This is such a pity. Soundscapes work on a different part of the mind than does a dense symphonic effort like 'The Revealing Science of God'.

They require time to unfold, but are no less beautiful for it. Without the incessant rock beat we are forced to think, and I do think very well. Of course, listeners are waiting with increasing impatience for the song to fire up. You've missed the point, lads. They just don't want to at this point on the album. So why not lie back in the shimmering sea for a while?

We'll soon be back in the big surf. In the meantime let the small beauties infiltrate your mind. Beauties like the harmonies in 'winds allow', the emphatic 'I do think very well', and the consistent high quality of HOWE's work.

It's on this album he reveals himself as a master guitarist. Listeners breathe a sigh of relief when the 'Relayer' section begins, and the rock returns to propel the undoubted prog of this song towards its fulfillment. All those themes you didn't really hear as you waited in increasing annoyance for the song to 'start' reappear in the last eight minutes, played by different instruments than those that introduced them: propelled by WHITE's drumming, they suddenly make sense.

This is a song that requires repeated listens to make sense. So why don't you go and listen to it a few more times? Isn't that what prog's about?

The hiss and swirl of the last quiet section minutes is an extended catching of the breath, a dramatic pause before the finale, but is glorious in its own right, and I adore the rise of the four-note motif heralding the climax. The blissful harmonies are doubled, and the band even has the cheek to reference the previous song at as they draw us up into what is 'surely, surely! Honestly, the wait was worth it - and without the soundscapes, the climax would be nothing more than perfunctory.

It is because we heard these tunes earlier that they mean so much more to us now. The song ends with a lovely bittersweet denouement. I believe 'The Remembering' will repay your close attention. As for 'The Ancient', it's an experiment, and not an entirely successful one.

There's nothing remotely symphonic about this track, and it was a shock to listeners. Though I do love the bright Tibetan crashing cymbals and HOWE's guitar themes, and in the right mood I enjoy the whole cacophonous mess.

And everyone enjoys the last six minutes: the classical acoustic guitar, and the wonderful tune ANDERSON sings here, a prototype of what the band produced as 'Soon' from the 'Relayer' album. The album concludes with 'Ritual', a summary of all that has gone before. In one package we have symphony, power, beauty and cacophony, with many of the album's earlier themes reprised.

Only in such a way can a fourth twenty minute song be palatable to the first-time listener. Had this song filled the second half of 'The Yes Album', for example, I'm sure no one would have complained: it's certainly better than what that side of music offered. At HOWE references 'Close to the Edge' - these things are not accidental - and reprises the main theme of this song.

Entirely aware of the length of the album, YES are making it as easy as possible to assimilate on first listen. The 'Life seems like a fight' section at seven minutes reintroduces YES' lyrical beauty - and references 'The Revealing Science of God' - amid nice basswork and drenching mellotron.

We sing the music's total retain - from 'Close to the Edge'. We venture. They move around, tell me. Sound familiar? A truly thunderous moment. Smashing percussion gives way to a triumphant guitar motif, and we're into the album's finale.

This time the band vary their formula: piano and ANDERSON's sweet voice round off the concept - 'we love when we play' - and leave room for a last spine-tingling instrumental farewell that finishes on an unresolved chord. I will say this, though. I lament the loss of that wonderful bass.

Of most frustration, however, is the way the studio run-throughs supplied as extras on the remastered version bring the rhythm section to the fore, giving the songs more punch.

If only Make no mistake: this is a flawed masterpiece. If five-star albums are required to be perfect, this fails miserably. But if art is supposed to be ambitious, if humans are supposed to reach beyond their grasp, then this is high art. Like anything from the truly great, even the relative failures are of real interest. And this is by no means a failure. The album was originally a double LP with four sidelong tracks.

A very ambitious project. The music is symphonic and melodic and the songs have complex structures. It should have been every Yes fans wet dream but turned out to be a nightmare for most. The song is too fragmented and even though I have listened to this song many times through the years it never really stuck. I find it a bit weak really. The musicianship is as usual excellent and new drummer Alan White is a good replacement for the legendary Bill Bruford.

The production is allright but a bit muddy and easily the weakest production on all the classic Yes albums From The Yes Album to Relayer. The first two songs are pretty good while the last two overstays their welcome by several minutes and they both make for a boring listen IMO. It's hard to deny the progressiveness of this record. A lot of people argue as to just what ''progressive'' is, whether it's a musical style or simply the progression of rock music in general - but listening to this record you know that it simply is progressive rock in its most pure form.

His opening guitar phrase, which serves as a leitmotif for the entire work, is a thing of beauty, descending, ascending and then descending again think of how we jump for joy , all without a single chordal modulation. Even when it veers off into its minor midsection, the changes are fairly conventional and hardly dissonant. No, the only thing required here is patience. If you listen to the song enough you realize that not one of the 20 minutes is wasted, which is admittedly not something that can be said for some of the other tracks.

Which brings us to The Remembering , a far weaker track but hardly dismissible. The mood shifts from anthemic to lingering, and its best to let the majority of it wash over you.

Things start to pick up about 9 minutes in with a jaunty interlude followed by a propulsive groove. Even within its wandering nature, this album is a beautiful release, and if one has the patience, there are so many memorable catchy melodies and melodic sections. This is an album that could only have existed in , when the world was a much different place!

The musicianship is incredible. This album with its experimental roots makes this one of the most interesting Yes albums. Side One was really good. Side Two was good. Side Three was terrible. Side Four was a bit better. No other band had tried anything like it before and it was a big risk, although one that Jon and Steve had total belief in.

Side one was the most commercial or easy-listening side of Topographic Oceans , side two was a much lighter, folky side of Yes, side three was electronic mayhem turning into acoustic simplicity, and side four was us trying to drive the whole thing home on a biggie.

So we saw them much smaller than they are in reality. While touring, Jon and Steve underwent intensive writing sessions, often leading into the early hours of the morning. The first two sections of the album had been organised mid-way through the US tour and, by late April , the third and fourth sections had also been sketched out.

The pair presented the concept to the band back in the UK — with a decidedly mixed reaction. At first, they were taken back by the sheer scale of the project and the key concepts, and not convinced that this was a positive step forward from Close To The Edge.

The band suffered differences of opinion over suitable recording studios. Following many heated discussions as to how they could achieve the same effect in a studio setting, a compromise was made. During the first few months the band held rehearsals at Manticore Studios in London, followed by a move to Morgan Studios. The compromise was that Studio Three at Morgan Studios would be made into a miniature countryside, with straw bales to stand keyboards on, a white picket fence to keep Alan in, farm implements to add authenticity and, of course, a full-sized cow!

The album, which had originally been called Tales From Tobographic Oceans but changed to Topographic Oceans , was meant to consist of four tracks over one album. However, as time went by, the concept developed into a double album because the tracks began to get longer and longer, some running over 25 minutes, producing a total of only four tracks.

This was a decision that would affect the band in a big way, guiding the style of music that would take YES forward over the next few years. It was a busy time then; we were going all the time. So, it fell a little short. The album, naturally, took Atlantic Records by surprise as they had no idea of the content and their feelings were kept decidedly mute. Seeing YES as a band who could exploit their previous success and make further inroads into the US market, Atlantic decided that their next album could and should be even bigger than Close to the Edge.

However, when Atlantic first listened to it, the mood was one of sheer incredulity — only four tracks on a double album was unheard of at that time. Luckily for Yes, Atlantic ignored their own doubts and backed the release. The promotional tour for Topographic Oceans opened to mixed reviews at the famous Rainbow Theatre in north London.

The critics had a field day panning the new album, which affected YES for quite some time, while the fans embraced the work. The album should have been aired on Radio One in the UK, prior to the tour and official release date but, due to a mix up, the wrong tapes were sent to the station.

Because of this, YES lost their only chance of giving their fans a preview of Topographic Oceans before the tour started. It went gold on pre-sales alone and was nominated for Grammy awards in the US.

There is little doubt that, had the public and press been given the chance to hear the album first, then the reaction that was to come might have been moderated.

Quite unlike anything before it, Tales From Topographic Oceans did receive some good press, but, for the first time, YES were also attracting negative reviews. With no time to acclimatise themselves to the work, the press could not comprehend the scale of what YES had done. This was a new experience for YES , whose relationship with the press had been extremely amicable up to this point.

A stunning album, light years ahead of its time, it is full of contrasts and a huge diversity of arrangements and styles: from simple acoustic sounds to the all-out, fast and furious guitar and keyboard runs, from ancient rhythms to eerie, esoteric lyrics and noises, all engineered to form a unique musical adventure.

Following the fantastically successful collaboration between Roger Dean and his brother Martyn on the Tales From Topographic Oceans album cover, the Deans copied a number of stylistic features for the stage design.

YES wanted to present their show as an extension of listening to the album, incorporating other elements to provide a complete sensory experience. The stage set-up for the shows saw the band situated in their standard positions, with Alan on a centre drum riser. By this stage Steve had become a vegetarian, like most of the band. Then, while travelling in America, having dinner one night, and having this chicken placed in front of me — it was typically overcooked, greasy, you know, probably microwaved — I just right there made this decision not to eat it and I felt good about the decision.

My wife and I became interested in classes offered at the East West Centre like reflexology and psychosynthesis. I began going for treatments. We were really getting going. Besides his legendary drinking habits, he was also seriously into cars. Also a Cadillac and a Jaguar XK s, which is in immaculate condition — well, they all are! I basically humped stuff around on various YES tours. That was great, ha! When it got too much, he would bring out the green plastic dinosaur toy and wind it up and let it walk across the stage.