Yes - The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)

Looking for cosmically lofty and conceptually dense ideas in 70s progressive rock?  One only needs to spend an evening with the 1973 album, Tale from Topographic Oceans, by Yes. The experience is unique and... long.

In it's time, the record was one of the most ambitious endeavors attempted. Four sides. Four songs. After their prior album, Close to the Edge, which featured their most extended compositions to date, Yes decided to go even further outside the realm of rock norms on Tales. The four, conceptually-linked songs were massive, featuring an arsenal of complex movements and repeated musical motifs. This was as sonically expansive as Yes would ever get on record. Lyrically, Jon Anderson based his ideas on Paramahansa Yoganda's Autobiography of a Yogi. At the time, Anderson told New Musical Express, "We're close to the edge of spiritual awareness within the framework of the group, making music. We have this long song, which we felt could hold a listener's ear for the whole length, rather than just a track here and there that they like."

I picked up the vinyl of this album in 1997 at a thrift store. Many a lazy afternoon (in between college classes) I lounged on the floor, allowing the lead song, The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn), to take me on a mystical, mental journey. This was the first truly transcendental piece of music I'd ever listened to deeply. There is so much to discover and relish in this song: from Anderson's opening incantations to Rick Wakeman's soaring Moog riff and Steve Howe's heavenly volume swells and extraterrestrial guitar licks. When it comes to lofty prog-rock, this song is in my top five. Over the years I have returned to it time and again as a source of escape and a foundation for meditation.

I'm currently reading David Weigel's The Show That Never Ends: The Rise & Fall of Prog Rock. The book provides an in-depth snapshot of Yes during the recording of Tales and the subsequent tour. It turns out that Rick Wakeman was the least engaged in the band's music at this point. He found the extended pieces dull. At a 1973 gig in Manchester, Wakeman had his organ tech order food. At some point, in the midst of one of Tales ambient passages, the tech began handing Wakeman foil trays of Indian food. He layed them out on the top of his keyboards and began gorging, while playing. Apparently it pissed off Jon Anderson. However, when the singer smelled the food, he waltzed over, grabbed a papadum and returned to his microphone.