Tales from Topographic Oceans

Tales from Topographic Oceans is the sixth studio album from the English progressive rock band Yes, released in 1973 on Atlantic Records. Presented as a double album with one track on each side, its concept is based on singer Jon Anderson’s interpretation of four Shastric scriptures from a footnote in Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. It is the first studio album to feature drummer Alan White who replaced Bill Bruford in 1972.

Tales from Topographic Oceans became the first album in the UK to earn a gold certification prior to its release. It reached number-one on the UK Albums Chart for two weeks and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard 200.
Yes began to produce longer pieces of music on Close to the Edge (1972), their fifth studio release that features the 18-minute eponymous title track. Following its release, singer Jon Anderson was searching for a theme for a large scale composition. One evening in March 1973, while on a concert tour of Japan to promote Close to the Edge, Anderson found himself “caught up in a lengthy footnote on page 83” of Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda which describes four Shastric scriptures that cover religion, art, social life, medicine, music and architecture.[1] Anderson was introduced to Yogananda’s work that month at the wedding reception of former Yes drummer Bill Bruford by Jamie Muir, then the percussionist for King Crimson.[2]