Yes Album Listening Guides – Tales From Topographic Oceans Part 6 – Alan White’s drums with Joe Cass – 603

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week we are back to the epic in-depth study of Tales from Topographic Oceans. We asked the ever-generous drummer of Yes tribute band Total Mass Retain Joe Cass to join us to talk about Alan White’s contribution to the classic album. You won’t be surprised to hear that Joe managed to help us to uncover a wealth of detail about the percussion on the album and the musical and personal character of the late deeply missed Yes stickman. Thank you to Joe for his insights.

I’ve had no time to do a proper update on all that’s happened over the past week but please do visit the YMP Discussion Group on Facebook and the X.com @yesmuispodcast feed for all the details. However, it’s worth wishing Jon Anderson a very happy 79th birthday and noting that Steve Howe’s damaged finger seems to be sufficiently healed to allow him to play again this evening after having to cancel some shows on the US tour.

What did Alan White contribute to Tales?

Is that him singing backing vocals?

What do we mean by 'melodic' drumming?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Total mass retain:

https://www.totalmassretainband.com/

https://youtu.be/uVxwg6-MPHc?si=tGPH8aDB3M1f3FxE

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Producers:

Joseph Cottrell

Ken Fuller

Jeffrey Crecelius

Patrons:

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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