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Tales from Topographic Oceans
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Unfortunately, this is another week in which Mark and I have been unable to record a new episode. Don’t worry though, next week we are interviewing someone who created a huge amount of Yeskit when he worked with the band in the 1970s. We are also taking part in an epic session all about the Steven Wilson remixes of Tales from Topographic Oceans with several of your favourite YMP guests. Those two episodes will (hopefully) be coming up in the next two weeks so look out for those.
This week, on the theme of Yeskit, I’m going to replay the interview we did with the delightful Derek Dearden.
Here’s how I introduced the interview in June 2023:
“Unless you have already read my book, Yes The Tormato Story, you may not recognise the name Derek Dearden. However, you have certainly heard the results of his amazing technical wizardry. This is another deep dive episode but it also contains much of interest to any Yes fan. Derek was a delight to speak to when Mark and I interviewed him a few months ago and I’ve been keeping this fascinating interview under wraps so that early readers of the book had a few surprises to discover. If you don’t like spoilers, then consider coming back to this episode at a later date. I won’t be offended.
Quite a bit of this conversation was used in the chapter entitled The Other Drums in my book but even if you have read that, I’m sure you’ll love hearing Derek explaining how it all came about in his own words. To whet your appetite, Derek was employed at Advision as a technician and then went on to found a company very closely associated with Alan White.”
- What did Derek Dearden create for Alan White?
- How did it all come about?
- What else did Derek invent?
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Theme music
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from: archive.org
2 replies on “Replay – Technological Musical Magician, Derek Dearden – 640”
I don’t play an instrument — and my knowledge of production is modest — but as I believe I have written before, I really enjoy these type of interviews.
This may seem an odd request but I would like to hear someone discuss counting time signatures. Some are obvious. But others aren’t. For instance, is Genesis’ “Turn it on Again” really in 13/4 or something else? I can’t tell.
By the way, I would argue that Duke was certainly a prog album, the band’s last, as well as their last truly great album, in my view. I know that involves another band, obviously, but it seems like a good example of something that matters to maybe the nerdiest of us prog fans.
Dear Kevin,
I’d like to contribute an idea for your Topographic book, unrelated to the specific musical passages (lots of that available out there) but to the deep spiritual meaning of the work.
I remember in the late 70’s a discussion with a catholic priest who was writing a book on prog rock & spirituality (never published) and he said it was important to see Tales as part of a trilogy (CTTE-Tales-Relayer). Close to the Edge is the human soul on the verge of a mystical experience. Tales is a mystical experience with God in all his/her forms, both ancient and modern, poetic and scientific. Relayer is the soul’s return to the world and all of its troubles, though To Be Over reminds us of the peace of God.
One can also view Tales through the prism of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey archetype. CTTE is the Departure stage of the hero’s journey, the soul still in the world, on the brink of spiritual exploration, TALES is a mystical communion with the divine in its various manifestations, RELAYER is the return to the world with its war portrayed by sonic discord…then we come to GFTO and here, AWAKEN is the sum total of this profound experience…and fast forward to 21st century YES, In The Presence Of also restates these themes—actually much of the MAGNIFICATION album is a recapitulation of these ideas about Love & God.