John Wetton (1949-2017)

Goodbye Mr. Easy Money

Another great prog rock icon has passed away. Following the demises of John Entwistle, Chris Squire, and Greg Lake, the ranks of the great British bass players of the 1970s is thinning out. As a player, he was actually quite hard to emulate and always seemed to have a trick up his sleeve to surprise you. In some ways he was under-rated as a bass player but that was partly because he was a consummate song writer as well as a charismatic vocalist. In the shuffle of things, his bass playing seemed to get the least praise out of his skill set. Although styles are entirely different, the most comparable kind of musician might be Sting, and he was easily a better bass player than Sting.

John Wetton's turn playing bass and singing for King Crimson might have been the most macho incarnation of King Crimson. His work on 'Larks Tongues in Aspic' through to the live album 'USA' are moments of sheer, muscular playing matched with tremendously ballsy vocals. He certainly had a unique kind of swagger on record as well son stage.



After his turn with King Crimson, he played on a Uriah Heap album, then put out some solo albums, but put together the Prog Rock outfit 'UK' with Eddie Jobson, Bill Bruford, and Allan Holdsworth. The first, eponymous UK album 'UK' is one of the high point of Prog Rock, and even as Holdsworth and Bruford deserted the band, they recruited Terry Bozzio to drum on the follow up 'Danger Money', which is also a remarkable album.



John Wetton's widest fame probably came with the supergroup made up of various Prog Rock alumni, Carl Palmer, Steve Howe, and Geoff Downes, Asia. Asia of course had the big hit 'Heat of the Moment'. It was ironic that these Prog Rock mavens found mainstream success with a bit of radio friendly pop rock, but in the 1980s it made more sense to strip down the ornate arrangements.



Right across his work there is a funny John Wetton persona in his songs that seems to be about some hired hitman or state-assigned assassin or undercover spy, going on dangerous missions and doing violent things. He had the vocal strength and charisma to put over in song, what was series of vignettes from action movies as songs. His songs with Asia ranged from heroic through triumphant melancholy and then bombast. It was a heady mix.

After many incarnations, the band Asia reformed in the late 2000s with John Wetton, as 'Original Asia' and put out a series of studio albums. John Wetton was very active in Facebook, and shared with his fans his daily doings as well as his long fight with cancer. It is not surprising that he passed away given his long course of fighting his illness, but it is still a tremendous sad day for fans of music.

Vale John Wetton, you were the man! Update: I found this clip. It's not great for clarity, but it is the first incarnation of UK doing their thing:

Quick Shots 18/Sep/2014

The Sort-of-Zeppelin Album

I've got myself a copy of "Three Week Hero" by PJ Proby. "Three Week Hero" is that rare album that boasts Led Zeppelin as the session musicians, just as they were on the cusp of turning into Led Zeppelin from being the New Yardbirds. The story is well told so it's not worth rehashing but basically Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones had one last session to do as session musicians and they pulled in the rest of Led Zeppelin - Robert Plant and John Bonham - to round out the backing band.

The funny thing is that it's immediately obvious it's the guys from Zeppelin doing their thing. The instruments are the very same that feature on 'Led Zeppelin I'. The music itself is hopelessly psychedelic hippy-ism so the band just trundles along. The octane value never goes up so the album never grooves or kicks like 'Led Zeppelin I', so it's an odd experience. I guess it's a record that shows how soul destroying session work would have been.

PJ Proby made the observation that he never saw the guys from the band again. I have a hunch I might never listen to this album again.

The Human Stamp Collection Album

The other CD I got form Amazon is this little number. Lots of people from 70s and 80s prog acts make an appearance on this album.I've had it for a couple of days in the car and it's got its moments. It's certainly better than 'Heaven and Earth' by Yes, namely because it actually has a pulse.

It's sort of got a great collection of Bass players going, with Chris Squire, Tony Levin and John Wetton making an appearance. Steve Hillage is also on it as are Rick Wakeman and Geoff Downes. Better still, when they come on, you can instantly tell it's them, which is really cool. Somebody has to make prog albums.

Spiritual BS For The Musically Inclined

I've been trying to get a hold of Rudolf Steiner's lectures on music for some years now. The quest started when I went through a phase of listening to lots and lots of Glenn Gould playing Bach and Oscar peterson playing jazz and Steve Vai playing his way-out guitar. I kind of talked myself into a concept frenzy of reaching for the esoteric in music through music and of course nobody had written anything about such notions except tangentially, Rudolf Steiner's lectures kept being referenced.

Well, here they are in one book and it makes for some seriously whacky - nay whacked out- reading. I can't say I ascribe, say, any of my music to spiritual states of my mind and dreaming lucidly in my sleep. And I sure as heck don't know if Steiner was even passingly familiar with jazz or blues (he was too early in history for rock), so there's really nothing of practical value here, but it does show somebody trying to write something about music without actually being a musician. It's weird - a bit like if I wrote a book on architecture or woodblock printing and ascribed all the creative process to sleeping and lucid dreaming. You'd think I'd gone nuts. Well, that's how nutty this book is.

Blast From The Past - 'Asia' & 'Alpha'

Dragon Ball & Pyramid

I've got myself stuck in a weird rut at home where I've been listening to Asia. What I really should be doing is writing a crit of their latest album, the just-released 'XXX', but I can't say I've got my head around it enough to write anything insightful. The problem I'm having with 'XXX' is that it all sounds like rehashes of musical ideas they exhausted in their first two albums. Thus, I've been turning over these two discs with some morbid intensity, more than any kind of nostalgia.

I hadn't really noticed this but during the GFC, the original lineup of Asia had gotten together and put out a quick couple of albums in 'Omega' and 'Phoenix', both of which I haven't managed to get my mitts upon. It'll happen - 'Omega' is already on its way from Amazon. In the mean time, of course, the only reference I have are the original two albums, and it's made for some interesting listening.

Goodness those Roger Dean covers are beautiful. They're some of his best covers.

Way back when in the ole' mists of time, when Asia first came out with their eponymous album, they had a hit single in 'Heat of the Moment'. It got tons of airplay. I dare say there are 80s nostalgia stations still whipping that track out once in a 48hour cycle of their rigid playlists. I don't know which was more surprising; the supergroup lineup or the fact that the prog rock alumni went and recorded a hit single.  After all, Steve Howe has 'Tales from Topographic Oceans' on his resume, Carl Palmer has 'Karn Evil 9' with its three impressions and  John Wetton played on some pretty long improv bits on 'Larks Tongues in Aspic' and 'Starless and Bibleblack'. A punchy little hit single for the ages?

'Alpha' quickly followed and that was just as carefully confected pop as 'Asia' was carefully confected stadium rock anthems. I remember feeling an immense amount of frustration as I listened to them that these albums were definitely lacking in long pieces with big instrumental sections. It was harder to take because I loved 'Drama' by Yes and here were Geoff Downes and Steve Howe doing pop rock. The sum total experience across both albums felt like much less than the parts and ingredients going in.

Listening to both albums today, I feel like I've grown into these songs more. It's still prog rock, but less mannered, less figurative, less abstract, and less convoluted - and I'm old enough now to handle these albums being that way. I don't need all of my music to be chicanes and break-neck changes and diabolically convoluted time signatures. I'm finding I've got a lot of time for this stuff today.

I figure that in Steve Howe's mind, Asia is an opportunity to just go out there and rock. There's no whimsy like  'Circus of Heaven' or 'Madrigal' or 'Wondrous Stories'. Instead there's John Wetton singing about resenting undeserved medals for generals and generally living a rough and tumble life where people go on secret missions and trade punches. The singing persona he sports sounds like a Steven Seagal movie character; a bit like his previous work in the band 'U.K.'.

Carl Palmer's work stands up to the test of time the most for me. He's very crisp and measured without being machine-like; it's simply tremendous playing. Geoff Downes sounds like a catalogue of 80s synth sounds but I guess that's what makes Asia so punchy and pop. It's more amusing than anything.

Anyway, I'm just putting this up in a way as to get myself to writing something about 'XXX'. By the way, I went looking for a digital image of the 'XXX' album cover and typed in 'XXX' and 'Asia' into the Google image search and I have to tell you it's pretty unsavory.