Tales from Topographic Oceans

Anderson took the concept from a footnote in Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, a book Jamie Muir had recommended, and wrote much of it with Howe in American hotel rooms through the night. Anderson wanted to record in a tent in a wood. Instead the band chose Morgan for its 24-track machine, and Anderson and manager Brian Lane dressed the studio as a farm, with cutout cows, picket fences and amplifiers on hay bales. Wakeman, unhappy with the double-album idea, spent much of the sessions in the bar.

It was the first British album to go gold on advance orders alone, and topped the UK chart for two weeks. Chris Welch in Melody Maker called it a fragmented masterpiece, and NME's Steve Clarke a great disappointment. Wakeman later said the music was padded to fill four sides. Anderson stayed proud of it, and Howe has said he still loves it.