https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_Topographic_Oceans
"Following its release,
Tales from Topographic Oceans received a mixed critical reception and became a symbol of
progressive rock excess with its detailed concept and lengthy songs. However it was a commercial success, becoming the first UK album to qualify for
Gold certification based on pre-orders alone. It topped the
UK Album Chart for two weeks and reached number 6 in the US, where it reached
Gold certification for over 500,000 copies sold."
"At the time of recording, heavy metal group
Black Sabbath were recording
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) in the adjacent studio. Singer
Ozzy Osbourne recalled the Yes studio also had a model cow with electronic udders fitted and a small barn to give the room an "earthy" feel.
[21] "About halfway through the album", said Offord, "The cows were covered in graffiti and all the plants had died. That just kind of sums up that whole album".
[11] At one point during the recording stage, Anderson wished for a "bathroom sound" effect on his vocals and asked the band's lighting engineer, Michael Tait, to build him a plywood box with tiles stuck onto it. After Tait explained to Anderson that the idea would not work, Tait "built it anyway".
[22] Sound engineer Nigel Luby recalled that tiles would fall off the box during recording takes.
[23]
Wakeman felt increasingly disenchanted by the album during the recording stage, and spent much of his time drinking and playing darts in the studio bar.
[24] He also spent time with Black Sabbath, playing the
Minimoog synthesiser on their track "Sabbra Cadabra". Wakeman would not accept money for his contribution, so the band paid him in beer.
"Dean, who primarily describes himself as a landscape painter, wished to convey his enthusiasm for landscapes within the album's artwork. He stressed that nothing depicted in the design is made up, and that everything is of a particular thing.
[35] Painted using watercolour and ink, the front depicts fish circling a waterfall under several constellations of stars. In his 1975 book
Views, Dean wrote: "The final collection of landmarks was more complex than ... intended because it seemed appropriate to the nature of the project that everyone who wanted to contribute should do so. The landscape comprised amongst other things, some famous English rocks taken from Dominy Hamilton's postcard collection. These are, specifically:
Brimham Rocks, the last rocks at
Land's End, the
Logan Rock at
Treen and single stones from
Avebury and
Stonehenge. Jon Anderson wanted the
Mayan temple at
Chichen Itza with the sun behind it, and Alan White suggested using markings from the plains of
Nazca. The result is a somewhat incongruous mixture, but effective nonetheless."
[36] In 2002, readers of
Rolling Stone magazine voted the album's cover as the best cover art of all time."