The Remembering: High The Memory by Yes

Album: Tales From Topographic Oceans (1974)

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Songfacts®:

Yes vocalist Jon Anderson wanted to replicate the sound of him singing in his bathroom at home. To accomplish this, the band built a bathroom-like room in the studio, complete with shower tiles. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington
Aside from being controversial, Tales From Topographic Oceans is known as the brainchild of Jon Anderson and Steve Howe. To try and compensate for this, they tried to make sure each of the other three musicians had integral parts in the structure of the songs. As explained in the liner notes, Rick Wakeman's extensive keyboard passages throughout the track represent the endless sea of the mind. Unfortunately, Rick Wakeman was displeased with the elaborate production of the album and said while Anderson and Howe obsessed over every little detail during the recording, he spent most of his time playing darts. On the subsequent tour, Wake bluntly showed his distaste for Tales by eating curry on stage while the rest of the band performed tracks from the album. He soon left the band to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Patrick Moraz for the follow-up album Relayer. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Adrian - Brookings, SD
Jon Anderson went to great lengths to work out how Rick Wakeman was going to use the backing track he and Steve Howe created for "The Remembering: High The Memory."

"The chords were there waiting for him to do something," Steve Howe recalled to Mojo magazine.

He added: "Live, we never played that side as much as the other three, probably because we were getting feedback from Rick that he wasn't happy playing it."

Comments: 6

Alberto from MilanHe says "surely, surely", not Shirley
Eric from New York At the end of this song, Jon Anderson starts screaming "Shirley, Shirley!!" Who was Shirley?
Max from Sydney, Australiathis song shows how Vast the memory is and how much stuff you can cram into it..you may forget stuff but you always remember it one time or another..The Remembering. All our thoughts, impressions, knowledge, fears,
have been developing for millions of years. What we can relate to is our own
past, our own life, our own history. Here, it is especially Rick's keyboards
which bring alive the ebb and flow and depth of our mind's eye; the
topographic ocean. Hopefully we should appreciate that given points in time
are not so significant as the nature of what is impressed on the mind, and how
it is retained and used.
Max from Sydney, AustraliaThis is a good song because, as all Yes songs, it has GREAT keyboard and gutair which gives a great souns but i never really hear Jon Anderson play the harp very much....
Kent Lyle from Palo Alto, CaNear the end of the song, Jon and Steve attempt to sing harmony. This section sadly points out Steve's limitations as a vocalist, as he is off-key much of the time. His backing vocals are fine when buried into the mix, but cause trouble when they become too prominent.
Kent Lyle from Palo Alto, CaLegend has it that they also furnished a studio to look like a farm to give them a "natural" setting, complete with hay and a mechanical cow. Rick complained about being the only musician to ever have his keyboards infested with lice.

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