Written on the 35th Anniversary of Tales

By Keith Waye

Indeed it is....Tales was officially released in the US at Midnight on 9th January 1974 although we lucky blighters in the UK had been able to buy it for some time.

It became, and has remained, my favourite album of all time. The highs, the lows, the ups and the downs are all magical and I have to listen to it often.

What is it about????....talk to people who have thought about this question and I guarantee you will get different answers every time.

I will never forget a trip to The Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London in November 1973 to see Yes perform the album in it's entirety. The LP hadn't been released at this time so we went in blind. The first part of the gig was a performance of the whole of Close to the Edge starting with The Firebird Suite (what else?) then Siberian Khatru, which was magical, absolutely magical, And you and I and then CTTE itself. We all felt pretty damned good but what was to follow defies description.

Jon said a few words and then started chanting "Dawn of light lying between the silent and solid sources..........". Man I flipped. It sounded so beautiful. The band then came in with the wonderful RSoG riff and we were away. A truly magical Moment, moment, momennnnnt.

I became The Sunlight Caller. I got over overhanging trees and I was mesmerised. Nearly a half hour of bliss. It couldn't stay as good as this could it?

Too right it could!! The folklike beginning of The Remembering had us gripped. We all cried before Relayer and our passion was spent on one cross. Rick's keyboards soared over us in washes of pure beauty and then in the final few minutes, the crescendo leading to Jon singing "Surely, surely". God I still get the chills when I think of it.

What next? My God! What next?

Jon said that we were to be taken back even further in time, even before The Remembering to a time when there were Giants under the Sun. The Ancient.....

Lights flashed in unison with the pounding Bass, pink and green light in fact, Steve Howe's guitar work entranced us and then the acoustic ending and "The Leaves of green" and the "Colour of the Sun" left us yearning for more.

Ritual!!!!!!!!!!!

The heavens opened and we were showered with musical notes of such wonder that I (to use a well worn phrase but here it is perfectly applicable) thought I had died and gone to heaven. A further crescendo leading to Jon singing "At all, at all, at alllllllllllllllllll..........." then pounding percussion, dazzling lights, almost terror. But you felt that something good had to come out of this sonic assault and, of course, it did............

"Hold me my love, hold me today call me 'round........". I cried, it was so wonderful. And when those final notes died away a little part of me died as well as we realised that it WAS over. The encore, Roundabout, disappeared from memory as we were still living The Tales. I said goodbye to my friends and wandered off in the direction of home and I don't remember a thing about that journey. One thing I do remember though is that it instilled a thought in my mind that has remained with me ever since.

The source of all life and of pure love is the sun: "Nous Sommes du Soliel - We are of the Sun. We can see.".