ABOUT YES “TORMATO”

Jaime Martin, Aug 2017

In the last weeks I have been listening, reading, thinking about

"Tormato", the Yes Tor..

I tried to imagine how the album could have been conceived, from the
map of the Tors in the album folder.

Maybe all is wrong and far from the real ideation. But still I would like
to share what I thought.

Thanks to Yes musicians for their music, imagination and inner

beauty.

TORMATO

1. Graphics and lyrics data

Yes Tor in Devonshire

The album front and back covers shows in the background the so called Yes Tor in
Dartmoor, Devonshire. In the back one, three of the band members look to different
directions, while the other two look at the camera.

Two maps appear in the inner covers,

one of them is a geo/topographical
map where nine sites are indicated
with small circles, seven of them
with a Tor or tower, and one of them,
the one of Yes Tor, a bit greater than
the rest; plus a hill and a probably
military “danger area”. The other
map is a complex superposition of
different irregular and regular,
straight and circle, and polygonal
lines with some numbers and letters, still a map if we take “N” for North and “S” for
South, and the two small topographic circles makes think that this map is a more
detailed magnification of one of the circles of the previous map.

For this reading, as I don’t have any permission to use the best quality albums
graphics (the above cover is taken from Wikipedia, and the maps from commercial
pictures) you will need to have a look on the album maps in the back covers (a

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geographical one with indications of sites and a more geometrical one with numbers
and letters).

Some data from the album

pictures, drawings and lyrics

On the meaning of "Yes" in Yes Tower,

we read about Dartmoor:

"In the associated documents Yes Tor

was recorded as Ernestorre or
Yernestorr which according to Gover et
al. (1992, p.205), derives from the
Anglo Saxon word earn, (Clark Hall,
2004, p.96) which means ‘eagle’ thus
giving ‘Eagle Tor’. Therefore it can be
inferred that at one time Yes Tor was
the home or haunt to eagles of some
kind or other, possibly even Golden
Eagles?

One of the earliest cartographical records of Yes Tor appears on Benjamin Donn’s map
of Devonshire which was published in 1765 and here it was noted as Yestor (Donn,
1963, sheet 6b). Some writers contend that the name Yes Tor has derived by means of
local dialect from ‘east’ which may well apply to the later Yes element but certainly
not the earlier erne element. Page, (1895, p.67) has yet another theory which again
completely seems to ignore the early name of Ernestorre:

‘Yes Tor … has baffled both learned etymologist and ignorant peasant; East Tor is the
probable interpretation (Anglo-Saxon est), but as it happens to be the westernmost of
the tree heights this can scarcely carry absolute conviction. Surely the Anglo-Saxon
eyst, a storm, is a root far more plausible.’

William Crossing (1990, p.201) offers another explanation of the name insomuch as he
considered that in a document recording the ancient bounds of Okehampton the tor
was listed as Eastor which seemingly equates to ‘Highest Tor’.

But eagle, east storm, or highest either way Yes Tor is still an impressive height of
Dartmoor, the western and northern approaches to its summit seem to soar into the
sky and rise over 200m over about half a mile..."
(http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/yes_tor.htm).

Yes Tor, in Devon, was laterally quoted by Kim Stanley Robinson's in his 2012 science-
fiction novel "2312",

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Lyrics keys

Tormato", the Yes band 1978 album, was supposed to be entitled "Yes Tor". According
to the commentators, they changed their minds lately. It has 8 themes/songs, yet the
first one is divided in 1A and 1B, making 9 tracks, but 8 themes really.

In order to understand the world presented to us in it, we need to check first some of
its key lyrics.

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- From track 1A ("Future times"):

"In the fountains of the Universe

set time in accord
Sits the boychild Solomon
Ever turning round and round (...)

One the word will enter all our hearts

Two the duel will alter them
Three jewels countenance divine away delight away
Four the fight to free the land
Five the islands of Arabia
Six the tears to separate"

- From track 1B ("Rejoice"):

"Rejoice forward out this feeling

Ten true summers long
We go round and round and round and round
Until we pick it again

Time flies, on and on it goes

Thru the setting sun
Carry round and round and round and round
Until it comes to carry you home"

- From track 3 "Madrigal":

"Sacred ships do sail the seventh age"

- From track 6 "Circus of heaven":

"For what seemed only just a moment in time

Seven solemn flying silvered regal horses rode by
Seven golden charlots in town, a wonder to behold
The Seven Lords of the Mountains of time
There then arose where nothing really stood there before
A giant tent rising one thousand feet high from the floor
Towns people flocked inside with their eyes all amazed
To greet the Seventh Lord of the Seventh age" (...)

- From track 8 (and last) "On the silent wings of freedom"

"On the darkest night so painful

Do you hunger for live midst the torture of being one
On the passing light of Easing

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 Have you seen you inside midst the being of Everyone
To the common goal of Freedom
Where we offer ourselves midst the balancing of the Sun
Where we are coming from
Or where we go
We only know we come with sound
We only know we go around and round".

One song was recorded for "Tormato", but removed later. This is the lyrics and the
recording can be found in a few places.

Richard set to sail the seven seas

With the power held within him he could feel the need
To reach out far and touch on all who came
To the resting place named Overon where he hath been

There you are

Take care my love
I'll be thinking all about you
With the morning stars
There you are
Take care my love
I'll be thinking all about you
With the morning stars

Richard fought the seven wars of old

As around him his foot soldiers cheered with hearts of gold
He rode amongst them shouting for the king
Didn't stop to think of ages past where he hath been

There you are

Take care my love
I'll be thinking of the time we shared
Amid the morning stars
There you are
Take care my love
I'll be thinking of the time we shared
Amid the morning stars

Richard never scaled to higher dreams

If a leader has it in for you, can you succeed
And though his passion kept us all afloat
There's no room for a deciever in the union boat

There you are

Take care my love

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 I'll singing songs about you
Til the morning, til the morning comes along

Richard dreamt of seeing but believed

In the gathering light a paradise he once concieved
To carry forth along the seven seas
With the light to a tree of Overon he set us free

On the other hand, this is William Blake’s poem Jerusalem, that we will find
important for understanding “Tormato” and the, at least, next album ("Drama") ‘s
"Machine Messiah" song (http://www.online-literature.com/authorpics/blake.jpg):

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!

Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

Some obvious connections appear with it in "Tormato", even clearer in "Machine

Messiah". A Jerusalem in England, a Tor of the knowledge in Devon?

Lyrics of "Machine Messiah", from "Drama" (Downes, Horn, Howe, Squire, White):

Run down a street

Where the glass shows
That summer has gone
Age, in the doorways
Resenting the pace of the dawn.
All of them standing in line

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 All of them waiting for time.
From time, the great healer,
The machine-Messiah
Is born.

Cables that carry the life

To the cities we build
Threads that link diamonds of life
To the satanic mills
Ah, to see in every way
That we feel it every
Day, and know that
Maybe we'll change
Offered the chance
To finally unlearn our lessons
And alter our stance.

Friends make their way into systems of chance

(reply- friends make their way of escape into systems of chance)
Escape to freedom I need to be there
Waiting and watching, the tables are turning
I'm waiting and watching
I need to be there.

I care to see them walk away

And, to be there when they say
They will return.

Machine, Messiah
The mindless
Search for a higher
Controller
Take me to the fire
And hold me
Show me the strength of your
Singular eye.

History dictating symptoms of ruling romance

Claws at the shores of the water upon which we dance
All of us standing in line
All of us waiting for time
To feel it, all the way
And to be there when they
Say they know that
Maybe we'll change
Offered the chance
To finally unlearn our lessons
And alter our stance.

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 Machine, machine Messiah.
Take me into the fire

Hold me, machine Messiah

And show me
The strength of your singular eye.

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2. A try to interpretation

"Tormato" manages a numerology based in numbers from 1 to 7, complemented,

secondarily, with the 8 (number of album themes), 9 (number of locations in the
topographic map, number of album tracks) and 10 (number of locations in the
schematic map). The last appearing number is 1000.

Numbers 1 to 6 are listed in “Future Times”, the first theme and first track:

 1 as a number: "One the word will enter all our hearts". Secondarily other songs
speak of "being one".

 2: "Two the duel will alter them" (our hearts)

 3: "Three jewels, countenance divine" (a quote from Blake "the countenance divine
shine upon our clouded hills")

 4: "Four the fight to free the land"

 5: “Five the islands of Arabia" (Bahrein)

 6: “Six the tears that separate"

 Number 7 appears seven times:

- in 3. "Madrigal": "Sacred ships do sail the seventh age" (it is quoted two times)
- in 6. "Circus of heaven":
"Seven solemn flying silvered regal horses rode by
Seven golden chariots in tow, a wonder to behold
The seven lords of the mountains of time
There then arose where nothing really stood there before
A giant tent rising one thousand feet high from the floor
Towns people flocked inside with their eyes all amazed
To greet the seventh lord of the seventh age"

(Note that, as the first track is divided in 1A and 1B, track number 6, “Circus of
heaven” happens to be the seventh track).

 Number 10 appears only once (in "Rejoice"): "Rejoice forward out this feeling / Ten
true summers long"

 And the number 1000:

- “Surrounded by what seemed a thousand golden angels at play” ("Circus of

Heaven")
- "A giant tent rising one thousand feet high from the floor" (COF)

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Now we have to find out, from these data, the correspondence between numbers,
topographical locations (Tors and other), tracks / songs, and concepts. As help, we
must use the key ideas, words, correspondences of cardinal points/seasons/times of the
day, and many other associations, including the derived from the Hindu philosophy.
And of course the connections between W. Blake "Jerusalem", this album and
"machine Messiah" among other.

Maybe the Yes musicians wanted to visit the Yes Tor because of his name, that has
been explained in several ways, or had the idea spontaneously there...

For me, or for my maybe ill imagination, sick of fantasy of Yes worlds, obvious starting
chances are:

- number 7 corresponds with Yes Tor, and with "Circus of Heaven" (the 6th theme but
the 7th track), where the word 7 or 7th appears 5 times of the total album 7 times 7,
Circus is thus related to W. Blake "chariot of fire", where else can you see that. "Seven
golden chariots in tow", says the song. Fire is connected to gold. 1980 "Drama" 's
"Machine Messsiah" says "Take me into the fire". The unicorn, the flying horses, the
golden chariots, or Anderson's future colleague, Vangelis, chariots of fire... the number
of eras (in "Madrigal") and the lords of the mountains are all 7. Of course, these
mountains have a Tor each. Number 1000, the height of "the tent" in feet, is associated
with number 7 for its perfection and infiniteness sense. In the schematic map, you can
see a kind of very high tent in the bottom center with number 7. This tent, at its time,
represents also the real Yes Tor.

Yes Tor also occupies a central position in the map with connections to all the other
tors and sites.

- number 1 ("the word will enter all our hearts") corresponds

obviously with "On the silent wings of freedom " (8th song,
9th track). In this song we are asked "where we are coming
from" and replied "we come from sound". Sound, the word,
shruti (see "Tales from topographical oceans" and its Veda
and Yoga principles), is the revelation, the splendor and the
illumination i. e. it is the Word. It is the morning and the
spring also, as it is the East and corresponds with the far
NE Scarey Tor.

Same way the third theme "Madrigal" is associated with the

Row Tor (and with Blake's "countenance divine" by the
way). It corresponds also to number 3, "three jewels
countenance divine away delight away". These divine faces
"away delight away" are really away as "Madrigal" talks of
them as "celestial travellers" as well as "the inner friend".

For the rest pick please the below drawing summary... it is

an extremely beautiful scheme.

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Some, or each, of the numbers/concepts/songs/places/Tors are related of course,
through the 4 principles of the Hindu Vedanta Yoga deployed in "Tales from
topographic oceans": so, number ONE (the word: Scarey Tor / "On the silent wings of
freedom") is morning and spring and East, number FOUR (the fight for the land:
"Future Times") is related to the remembering and the ancestors memory (smriti), the
memory and the dream, as the noon and the summer and the South, and so on.

Number 7, the one of Yes Tor, represents also thus the Sun, the autumn, the evening,
the fire, the purana (ancient allegory) principle, the knowledge.

And where comes the repeated "round and round and round and round" from? Copy
the schematic map (the inner cover one with numbers 1, 2, 2a, 3, ...9 and some letters)
and draw a gentle one-trace line starting in one, then to two, etc., until 9 and then as
"Rejoice" says, "until we pick it up again". As the times of the day and the seasons, as
the world cycle, round and round and round and round drawing a complex 8 cycle
shape.

This way we arrive to the diagram of next figure. Though I think that it obvious from
the drawing, each song is related to a Tor (tower). The Tors are related with numbers
and relative position. The relative position/season/time of the day give clues to the
aspect of its function according to the Veda: creation, memory and tradition,
knowledge and God (Sun) and ritual/conflict: sruti, smriti, purana and tantra, the four
world principles.

A beautiful scheme, 4+1+4+1... and round and round. There can only exist one word,
the Word, the Creation: "one the word...". There can only exist one Sun, one
Knowledge, one purana, "the seventh lord of the seventh age"; the Lord of all the Tors,
the Lord of everything, number 7 (as a center) or number 1000 (as a whole). On the
other hand, there can exist, there are many memories (smriti) and many rituals
(tantra). As tantra is rite and conciliation of evil and good, "four the fight to free the
land". Tantras (rites) conciliate the smritis (memories), while purana (knowledge,
name) transcends the sruti (sound, mystic revelation), our origin, the Vedas, the
Creation.

Still, there are more things in the covers, and in the maps (for instance, the letters a
and b associated with line traces…) maybe relevant, or everything, including the data
I have token into consideration, totally irrelevant…

And who is the “Richard” of Alan White song, not included in the album, but used in
the diagram to explain the maps? Sorry I ignore it, but I don’t need to know for our
purposes. In “Richard” number seven appears two more times, and there is a quote to
the “land of Overon”. I only know who is NOT that Richard: he is not Rick Wakeman,
neither a costume of "Blake's 7" (where they travel to the neutral planet “Overon”), nor
the king of the fairies, neither Wagner nor his Ring’s Alberich.

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In my analysis, this song, even if not included in the album, but recorded in the
sessions, is necessary to explain, together with "Onward" the double "8/9" schematic
map location, corresponding to a single place (East Mill Tor). Richard can be assigned
9/8 (west couple) or alternatively number 10, which has not any location as the track
was not included finally. Location of the schematic map west 9...8 couple, anyway,
does not correspond with any of the 9 sites of the topographic map, because including 2
and 2a, there are 10 numbers in the former. That “Richard” has not a Tor is so logic as
the song is not included in the album…but this all is only my speculation...

Yet I think that "Richard" trip over the seven seas justifies it's relationship once in
track 3 "Madrigal" we hear "sacred ships do sail the seventh age", and the other 6
quotes of number 7, including track 6 "Circus of heaven" seven Lords of the Tors hills.

Maybe there was no room on the vinyl. Or maybe the two extra quotes of 7 were not
desired.

Anyway, Richard is only a memory of summer, and, as to “Tormato”, a ghost song or

non-natus track without a tor.

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 WINTER

TANTRA

rd
Loc. 2 DANGER AREA / DON’T KILL THE WHALE (3 track , 2)
th
Loc. 3 ROW TOR / MADRIGAL (4 track, 3)
th
Loc. 6 BLACK TOR / RELEASE, RELEASE (5 track, 4)
th
Loc. 2A WINTER TOR / ARRIVING UFO (6 track, 5)

AUTUMN SPRING
PURANA
W E SRUTI

Loc. 7 YES TOR / CIRCUS OF Loc. 1 SCAREY TOR / ON THE SILENT

th th
HEAVEN (7 track, 6) WINGS OF FREEDOM (9 track, 8)

S
SUMMER

SMRITI

st
Loc. 4 DINGER TOR / FUTURE TIMES (1 track, 1A)
nd
Loc. 5 HOMERTON HILL / REJOICE (2 track, 1B)
th
Loc.8/9-E EAST MILL TOR / ONWARD (8 track, 7)

Loc. 9/8-W / RICHARD (track deleted)

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