If there's one thing about me, it is that I'm thoroughly reliable when
bands make new music that I buy their stuff. Most of the bands that I
known usually make one or two and then quit or get bounced from their
label. The one thing about classic rock bands was that you knew that
they would have a album out every year and we'd wait outside Target or
Krackers or Record Realm to be the first on the block to get it. Kids
of today don't know that, the fine art of new release Tuesday. In this
day and age, you can steal it while playing video games while text
messaging all the while yakking on a cellphone. Come to think of
it, a lotta folk my age do that quite a lot.
So begins the story of Whitesnake, a band led by David
Coverdale after Deep Purple Mk 3 lineup ended. Coverdale was always
foreshadowed by Ian Gillan when he took over in 1974, in fact DC had to
share vocals with Glenn Hughes, who could hit the Gillan high notes.
For their benefit however, they did make a classic album in Burn, which
spurned two hits and the spotty Stormbringer before Richie Blackmore had
a hussy fit and took his guitar home to be replaced by doomed Sioux
City native Tommy Bolin for the underrated Come Taste The Band.
Expectations was so high that Bolin eventually ODed in late 1976 and
Deep Purple closed the book (for the time being). The contractual Made
In Europe was offered and David formed Whitesnake.
The Whitesnake of that era actually mirrored the bluesy swagger of
the MK 3 Purple lineup although the first two albums were kind of a
feeling out period. Snakebite was actually half Whitesnake/half
Coverdale solo album and like a snake wondered all over the place while
Coverdale was looking for a style. It did lead a minor hit with Come On
in the UK and is a Whitesnake staple to this day. United Artists
Records signed Whitesnake and released two albums Trouble and Love
Hunter, the latter with a racy cover art. Nevertheless, while the music
was shaped up by two great guitarists in their own way Micky Moody and
the underrated Bernie Marsden, the band was bogged down by a drummer
Duck Dowle, who may have been a good drummer but the albums he played on
proved that he was holding the band down. Out of all the reissues that
Geffen put out, Trouble and Love Hunter went by the wayside and nobody
in the US bothered to even issued their best album Ready n Willing from
1980 on CD.
Which in 1980, things changed for the better for Coverdale. Jon Lord
joined up on Love Hunter and Ian Paice followed on Willing, thus shaped
up that Whitesnake had three Deep Purple bandmates in the band.
Atlantic signed them up, and then stuck them on Mirage Records but still
Whitesnake got a big top ten hit with Fool For Your Loving which
sounded like the second coming of Burn. For the next three years, this
lineup of Coverdale, Marsden, Moody, Lord, Neil Murry and Paice would be
consider the best lineup up till Saints N Sinners to which Marsden left
and was replaced by Mel Gallery from Trapeze. Ian Paice would leave to
join up with Gary Moore and later a reformed Deep Purple to which still
plays today.
In 1984 Coverdale took the band more into a heavier rock feel with
Slide It In, to which Cozy Powell sits on drums and Moody was replaced
by John Sykes of Thin Lizzy fame. This is where Whitesnake begins their
hairmetal period and the wheels begin go fall off. In no way is Slide
It In a bad album it actually rocks hard. Soon Jon Lord would exit and
rejoined Paice in the MK2 lineup of Deep Purple and Don Airey replaced
him in the band for the next offering to which would propel Whitesnake
into greater heights and loss of identity
.
Cryin In The Rain, was a more bluesbased rocker on Saints n Sinners,
but on the S/T album, it bares out of the speakers like a runaway train.
At this point Gallery left and John Sykes was the sole guitar player
and he changed the sound of the band with outrageous whammy bar and Van
Halen like HM cliche riffs abound. Second track Bad Boys was led by
some of the most powerful drumming in heavy metal history. Ansyley
Dunbar may have been a hired hand at best, he didn't tour with them when
they came through town with Motley Crue, but his drumming on the first
two tracks was the most wildest he's ever done. But Whitesnake had two
major hits with the Led Zep like In The Still Of The Night and hairmetal
ballads Here I Go Again and Is This Love. This Whitesnake was night
from the daytime sounds of Ready N Willing but with fame came a bad case
of sellout.
The band went through a big change with Adrian Vandenburg and Steve
Vai joining up to replace John Sykes, Rudy Sarzo replaced Murry on Bass
and Tommy Aldrich was the masterbeater on the forgetful Slip Of The
Tongue to which Whitesnake became a bad punchline to the joke, a bad
parody of itself. And while Coverdale kept the band going, he lost the
love interest of his videos, the odious Tawny Katien and most of the
guys left on. So what's to do when the hairmetal which was so vital,
like a dinosaur made extinct by the grunge movement and all your videos
being laughed at by Bevis and Butthead?
One could join the hairmetal touring troupe and make a living playing
the same old hits like Poison or Vince Neal or Britney Fox, or you can
start from scratch and recruit new people and get back to a form of rock
and roll you can play and believe in. With Born To Be Bad, the new
Whitesnake are relative unknowns but have a better understanding on how
to make a listenable record. Doug Aldrich is the cowriter and lead
guitarist and doesn't have to rely on the whammy bar as much as Sykes
did when Sykes played in the band. Reb Beach is the other guitarist,
Uriah Duffy is the bass player, Chris Frazier is the drummer and the
keyboardist Tim Drury, who is the most Jon Lord like sounding since Lord
was in the band. And for the first time since at least Slide It In,
Whitesnake returns to a compromise of sound, yes there's the hairmetal
guitars but not as Over The Top, and yes that is the sound of a hammond
organ in the background or something to that effect. Coverdale is not
going to wow people with his lyrical content anytime soon, but at least
he sounds like he's having a lot more fun with the songs than he ever
did on the classic S/T album. What makes Born To Be Bad a fun listen
that it sounds like it came from 1987 and would have been the followup
to Slide It In had some Geffen executive told them to up on the Whammy
leads. Some of the songs do borrow a lot from other songs, All I Need
sounds like a Still Of The Night rewrite but again the guys sound like
they're having fun. But perhaps the biggest surprise is that the
ballads sound like true ballads and not of the Over The Top meatheadness
and perhaps Summer Rain might be the best Whitesnake ballad ever. It
definably has more roots in Ready N Willing then Slip Of The Tongue.
Even the bonus live cd has a bit of surprises there. They lead off
with Burn with a snippet of Stormbringer thrown in for good measure and
they visit forgotten classics like Living In The Shadow Of The Blues,
Ready N Willing and Don't Break My Heart Again. And though there's no
Vai or Vanderburg or Alldrich around, the Baby Whitesnakes play more as a
band than the superstars of the past and even the crowd gets into the
singalongs as well as they did twenty years ago.
But don't look for this album to crack the top ten charts here.
They're not on Geffen anymore but rather on the SPV label, which is the
European answer to CMC International, a home for old bands. Which is a
good thing actually. Which means that Whitesnake doesn't have to answer
to the Geffen/Universal pricks anymore, that Coverdale and company can
continue to focus on the music and delivered it to the fans. The US
public can be fickle but the HM fans across the ponds never forget
their bands of yore and Whitesnake does sell them out on the summer
festivals abroad. What Born To Be Bad reminds us is that a good album
can take you back twenty years, before cell phones and CDs, before the
internet that we all lived for the new music and that when bands made
good albums we came back for the followup regardless.
That's the fun of Whitesnake. The reminder that it's all right to
still love rock and roll, to still roll down your window at age 47 and
scream with the best of them and to live for rock and roll and for the
moment. The freaks on the street with their baggy pants and crappy rap
don't know but the ones that like to rock will understand.
And that's all right.
PS: Since this article, Whitesnake moved from the bankrupt SPV
Steamhammer label to Frontiers for the loud and in your face Forevermore
and Brian Techy replaces Chris Frazier on drums. While good, the album
does tend to plod a bit more longer than Born To Be Bad. Somehow Wal
Mart had this CD on sale. If you're familiar with Whitesnake's metal,
this would fit in your collection. I don't play mine much though.
Doug Alldrich remains perhaps the best guitar player and compatible
writer that David Coverdale has had since the days of John Sykes
although I still prefer the one two attack of Bernie Marsden and Micky
Moody. But the Deep Purple soundalike Whitesnake is long ago and far
away. David Coverdale continues the lead Whitesnake deep into the 21st
Century and even one time drummer Tommy Aldridge has return behind the
drummer's throne replacing Brian Tichey. Hard to believe that 25 years
ago Whitesnake was on top of the hard rock road and Tawny Katilen used
to be good looking too.
Ah youth!
Albums:
Snakebite (Geffen 1978) B
Trouble (United Artists 1978) NR
Love Hunter (United Artists 1979) B-
Ready An' Willing (Mirage/EMI 1980) A-
Live In The Heart Of The City (Mirage/Geffen 1980) B
Come And Get It (Mirage/Geffen 1981) B-
Saints And Sinners (Geffen 1982) B+
Slide It In (Geffen 1984) B+
Whitesnake (Geffen 1987) B
Slip Of The Tongue (Geffen 1989) C-
Whitesnake's Greatest Hits (Geffen 1992) C
Good To Be Bad (SPV 2008) B+
Forevermore (Frontiers 2011) C+
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
The Day The Music Died
Plane crashes are somewhat rare and unusual until somebody you know or loved dies from them. In the music world we seem to know what we were doing when it happens. 1964 Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas became one for the ages, 1977 Lynyrd Skynyrd lost Ronnie Van Zant, Steve and Cassie Gaines became angels and 1990 Stevie Ray Vaughan took the helicopter out to the promised land. But in 1959 the most historic one was the Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and JP Richardson the Big Bopper who crashed into a barren Iowa cornfield after playing one of the most memorable concerts in rock history at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. The weather of 59 in Iowa was the usual, crappy, cold and plenty of arctic cold fronts and Alberta Clippers that is the norm of Iowa winters and sad to know that the inexperienced and perhaps starstuck Roger Peterson ended up meeting one of those blinding Clippers that would take him and the three stars into the music heavens. And that Dion, who couldn't afford the plane rental and Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings would survive and carve out their own music careers as well as Frankie Sarzo a foot note to it all. Dion becoming a teen idol of sorts then becoming a folk singer and born again Gospel singer before returning back to a folk blues sound that he's been doing most of his 70 years of being here. Tommy Allsup becoming a producer and you knew what happened to Waylon, a country outlaw but forever haunted by the plane crash till his untimely death in 2002.
Out of the three, Buddy Holly was the innovator and pioneer what I consider guitar garage rock although by the time the original Crickets left Buddy was coming closer to pop music with the posthumous It Don't Matter Anymore and True Love Ways but in the meantime recorded a bunch of recordings for future use. It Don't Matter Anymore written by Paul Anka and having the arrangements of Dick Jacobs for that 50's type of sound may not been what Buddy intended but perhaps more so with Learning The Game a very sad and dark type of love song. There are no shortages of Buddy Holly greatest hits out there, MCA original 6 record Complete Buddy Holly (1979) captures just about everything that Buddy recorded whereas the now deleted Hip O Select Not Fade Away adds more songs. Steve Hoffman's remastered 1987 From The Original Masters updates the sound to CD standards and it still remains the best sounding best of and cheap too. The Complete Buddy Holly is probably too broad for those who just want the hits, so you're better off with GOLD and Down The Line-The Rarities In his lifetime Buddy recorded two albums proper, The Chirping Crickets and the S/T Buddy Holly albums. The Great Buddy Holly released after his passing is a collection of his Decca output which didn't sell and was closer to country/rockabilly but still has its charms. The Chirping Crickets and Buddy Holly are essential 50's albums.
As great as Buddy was, Richie Valens had the most potential to make it even big or at least be a bigger Latino rocker even Los Lobos cite him as a influence. At age 17, Valens had two top ten hits with La Bamba and Donna but since he was just starting out, he really didn't have much music out there. Jasmine has The Complete Richie Valens, and Wounded Bird reissued Richie Valens and Richie, perhaps the best overview is Rockin All Night-The Very Best Of Richie Valens which includes the cream of Richie's songs. In Concert At Pacoima Jr High and The Richie Valens Story is Del Fi's scrapings of the bottom of a small barrel. The live recording poor sounding and even Richie sounds ragged on this brief EP. Better to stick with the Very Best Of Richie Valens.
JP Richardson or The Big Bopper as he was better known was one of the best novelty songwriters of the 50s with White Lightning and Running Bear, both hits for George Jones and Johnny Preston but he had some hits of his own for Mercury with Chantilly Lace and the hilarious Big Bopper's Wedding. Like Valens, Big Bopper's albums are few, Hellooooo Baby the only one I can think of that came out. Rhino did collect a few more for the more definitive Hello Baby, Best Of The Big Bopper (1990) and adds the Purple People Eater meets The Witch Doctor. For the most part Richardson didn't vary his beats all that often, most use the same as Chantilly Lace but still Richardson's sense of humor makes it a must hear.
On the other side of the pond, the UK seems to cherish the memories of the The Big 3. A interesting artifact is Recall's The 50th Anniversary Last Performance to which Jay Richardson, JP's son compiles what would have been the set list of the acts performing there including Dion and Frankie Sardo. The plane crash drawing is creepy though.
The plane crash didn't kill rock and roll but set it back a couple years but the influences of all artists, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Bopper would influence The Beatles, The Searchers, Bobby Fuller and many many more for years to come.
Rating:
Buddy Holly:
The Chirping Crickets (Brunswick 1958) A
Buddy Holly (Coral 1958) A
The Great Buddy Holly (Decca 1960) B
For The First Time Anywhere (MCA 1988) B+
From The Original Masters (MCA 1987) A
Buddy Holly: GOLD (Geffen 2005) A-
Down The Line:The Rarities (Geffen 2008) A-
Richie Valens:
Down The Road: The Very Best Of Richie Valens (Del Fi 1995) A-
Richie Valens (Wounded Bird 2006) B
Richie (Wounded Bird 2006) B
Live At Palmona Junior High (Del Fi/Wounded Bird 2006) C+
The Richie Valens Story (Del Fi-Rhino) C+
The Very Best Of Richie Valens (Rhino) A-
The Big Bopper
Chantilly Lace (Mercury 1958) B+
Hello Baby-The Very Best Of The Big Bopper (Rhino 1990) A-
Other:
The Day The Music Died (101 Distribution) NR
The 50th Anniversary Last Performance-Surf Ballroom Feb 2, 1959 (Recall 2009) NR
American Pie/Don McLean (United Artists 1971) Draw your own conclusion.
Out of the three, Buddy Holly was the innovator and pioneer what I consider guitar garage rock although by the time the original Crickets left Buddy was coming closer to pop music with the posthumous It Don't Matter Anymore and True Love Ways but in the meantime recorded a bunch of recordings for future use. It Don't Matter Anymore written by Paul Anka and having the arrangements of Dick Jacobs for that 50's type of sound may not been what Buddy intended but perhaps more so with Learning The Game a very sad and dark type of love song. There are no shortages of Buddy Holly greatest hits out there, MCA original 6 record Complete Buddy Holly (1979) captures just about everything that Buddy recorded whereas the now deleted Hip O Select Not Fade Away adds more songs. Steve Hoffman's remastered 1987 From The Original Masters updates the sound to CD standards and it still remains the best sounding best of and cheap too. The Complete Buddy Holly is probably too broad for those who just want the hits, so you're better off with GOLD and Down The Line-The Rarities In his lifetime Buddy recorded two albums proper, The Chirping Crickets and the S/T Buddy Holly albums. The Great Buddy Holly released after his passing is a collection of his Decca output which didn't sell and was closer to country/rockabilly but still has its charms. The Chirping Crickets and Buddy Holly are essential 50's albums.
As great as Buddy was, Richie Valens had the most potential to make it even big or at least be a bigger Latino rocker even Los Lobos cite him as a influence. At age 17, Valens had two top ten hits with La Bamba and Donna but since he was just starting out, he really didn't have much music out there. Jasmine has The Complete Richie Valens, and Wounded Bird reissued Richie Valens and Richie, perhaps the best overview is Rockin All Night-The Very Best Of Richie Valens which includes the cream of Richie's songs. In Concert At Pacoima Jr High and The Richie Valens Story is Del Fi's scrapings of the bottom of a small barrel. The live recording poor sounding and even Richie sounds ragged on this brief EP. Better to stick with the Very Best Of Richie Valens.
JP Richardson or The Big Bopper as he was better known was one of the best novelty songwriters of the 50s with White Lightning and Running Bear, both hits for George Jones and Johnny Preston but he had some hits of his own for Mercury with Chantilly Lace and the hilarious Big Bopper's Wedding. Like Valens, Big Bopper's albums are few, Hellooooo Baby the only one I can think of that came out. Rhino did collect a few more for the more definitive Hello Baby, Best Of The Big Bopper (1990) and adds the Purple People Eater meets The Witch Doctor. For the most part Richardson didn't vary his beats all that often, most use the same as Chantilly Lace but still Richardson's sense of humor makes it a must hear.
On the other side of the pond, the UK seems to cherish the memories of the The Big 3. A interesting artifact is Recall's The 50th Anniversary Last Performance to which Jay Richardson, JP's son compiles what would have been the set list of the acts performing there including Dion and Frankie Sardo. The plane crash drawing is creepy though.
The plane crash didn't kill rock and roll but set it back a couple years but the influences of all artists, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Bopper would influence The Beatles, The Searchers, Bobby Fuller and many many more for years to come.
Rating:
Buddy Holly:
The Chirping Crickets (Brunswick 1958) A
Buddy Holly (Coral 1958) A
The Great Buddy Holly (Decca 1960) B
For The First Time Anywhere (MCA 1988) B+
From The Original Masters (MCA 1987) A
Buddy Holly: GOLD (Geffen 2005) A-
Down The Line:The Rarities (Geffen 2008) A-
Richie Valens:
Down The Road: The Very Best Of Richie Valens (Del Fi 1995) A-
Richie Valens (Wounded Bird 2006) B
Richie (Wounded Bird 2006) B
Live At Palmona Junior High (Del Fi/Wounded Bird 2006) C+
The Richie Valens Story (Del Fi-Rhino) C+
The Very Best Of Richie Valens (Rhino) A-
The Big Bopper
Chantilly Lace (Mercury 1958) B+
Hello Baby-The Very Best Of The Big Bopper (Rhino 1990) A-
Other:
The Day The Music Died (101 Distribution) NR
The 50th Anniversary Last Performance-Surf Ballroom Feb 2, 1959 (Recall 2009) NR
American Pie/Don McLean (United Artists 1971) Draw your own conclusion.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
The Raindogs
A Boston based band lead by Mark Cutler but the rhythm section came from The Red Rockers, The Raindogs took their name from a Tom Waits album. Secret weapon was fiddler Johnny Cunningham who bought a Galactic feel to Cutler's Tom Petty/Rolling Stones/Del Fregos type of music. They may have been ahead of their time for their type of alt rock preceded The Counting Crows by about three years.
Their albums for Atco went straight to the bargain bins soon after their release but they always had the best producers available: Peter Henderson (Supertramp, Rush) produced their first Lost Souls and Don Gehman (Mellencamp, later Hootie And The Blowfish) for Border Drive In Theater which became one of my favorite albums of 1991 due to the title alone. Some Fun actually got played on the FM station for a time and Iggy Pop gave the bizarre introduction of Dance Of The Freaks. But as fate would have it, Atco Records folded up shop and never did give the proper promotion for both of The Raindogs albums. They would break up, and Mark Cutler would go on to a solo career. Cunningham died in 2003.
Albums:
Lost Souls (Atco 1989) B+
Border Drive In Theater (Atco 1991) B+
Their albums for Atco went straight to the bargain bins soon after their release but they always had the best producers available: Peter Henderson (Supertramp, Rush) produced their first Lost Souls and Don Gehman (Mellencamp, later Hootie And The Blowfish) for Border Drive In Theater which became one of my favorite albums of 1991 due to the title alone. Some Fun actually got played on the FM station for a time and Iggy Pop gave the bizarre introduction of Dance Of The Freaks. But as fate would have it, Atco Records folded up shop and never did give the proper promotion for both of The Raindogs albums. They would break up, and Mark Cutler would go on to a solo career. Cunningham died in 2003.
Albums:
Lost Souls (Atco 1989) B+
Border Drive In Theater (Atco 1991) B+
Friday, December 28, 2012
Raised On Led Zeppelin
As a schooler growing up in Marion, the epitome of being cool is if you knew somebody that had Led Zeppelin in their music collection, or in my case one of my friend's older brother that had the first two (but oddly not the third). In my generation we missed out on the Beatles but when Zeppelin was around they were our ultimate band. And for 11 years the band that everybody liked.
The Zep started out from The Yardbirds to which members of that band would eventually bailed out, leaving Jimmy Page and Chris Dreja, Dreja would soon leave (although he is credited for the band photo on the first album). Page was a established session player who joined the Yardbirds around 1967 before Jeff Beck would leave for his own solo career. Little Games (EMI) was produced by Micky Most and it was actually the most pop sounding of all Yardbirds album with the exception of a fiery Think About It which kinda gave a direction of sound that Page would succeed with Led Zeppelin. A live album Yardbirds With Jimmy Page (Epic 1971) came out with fake crowd sounds but a version of I'm Confused stands out. Keith Relf and Jim McCartney would leave. John Paul Jones, was also a highly sought after session player as he played on many tracks featuring the likes of Herman Hermits became a replacement. The other two main players, Robert Plant and John Bonham came from the lesser known Band Of Joy, Plant has a hard to find 45 on Columbia You Better Run/Everybody Gonna Say under the band name Listen (Columbia 4-43967) which is a Rascals cover. Bonham would play mad drums on Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man in 1968.
Fulfilling contracts as The New Yardbirds, they renamed themselves after a Keith Moon quirk but their first album wasn't anything you heard on the radio. More heavy blues rock then heavy metal (the term wasn't coined yet) Led Zeppelin raided the Willie Dixon songbook and took Dazed And Confused away from Jake Holmes. The urgency of Good Times Bad Times (a failed single hard to figure) and Communication Breakdown showed that Led Zeppelin could keep things at two and half minutes but everything is there that would make them the rock gods that they would become. You want a organ solo, there's the beginning of Your Time Is Gonna Come, you want a messy drum solo, it's on How Many More Times (basically a rewrite of How Many More Years, a Howlin Wolf comp), if you want a cool guitar piece Black Mountain Side is there too. Glyn Johns adds a very heavy mix to the songs, but Jimmy Page's guitar antics and bow effects on Dazed And Confused makes this a still great album.
Led Zeppelin 2 was more of the same, more rock, more blues including the 5 and half minute Whole Lotta Love and stealing more Chess blues goodies, (hey if you're going to lift songs from the past go with the real sources and they did, Wolf's Killing Floor becomes The Lemon Song and Rice Miller's Bring It On Home, Miller being Sonny Boy Williamson Number 2). And even mellow numbers like Ramble On and Thank You had a bit hard rock thrown in for good measure but for me the sloppy guitar solo on the metallic Heartbreaker remains worth the price of admission.
I never could understood why my best friend's older brother never did buy Led Zeppelin 3 but perhaps he was put off by the almost acoustic second side of the album to which when I was younger didn't quite get but as I got older, I come to find that's one of my favorite sides. Oh it rocks, Immigrant Song, Celebration Day and the forgotten Out On The Tides are standouts but side 2, cover of Leadbelly's Gallows Pole, plus Tangerine and That's The Way a song that sounded more Fairport Convention than hard rock and the then odd weirdness that is Hats Off To Roy Harper makes 3 my all time favorite LZ album.
But then there's Led Zeppelin 4 or the ZOSO album. For all it's overplayedness on the radio, when I put it on the turntable here at home it sounds as fresh and original as the first time I heard this. Black Dog, the straight ahead Rock and Roll, Sandy Denny put to great use on Battle Of Evermore and of course it all winds down to the epic Stairway To Heaven. Side 2 kinda lets a bit, Four Sticks remains the weakest of the bunch, Going To California gets better with age but the hard blues of Memphis Minnie's When The Levee Breaks is classic Zep.
A Led Zeppelin album was the big event no matter what day or year it was. Houses Of The Holy was beginning to show the excess and bombast and the start of the albums that while great to some, didn't catch much on me. The Song Remains The Same when I first heard it on the radio blew my mind and the first time of hearing D'yer Maker about the same although that song sounds a bit dated now. Over The Hills And Far Away was a top thirty hit here but I never been much of a fan of the Rain Song. The albums does end on a high note with the brooding and mysterious No Quarter and rock stopping The Ocean.
Psychical Graffiti is probably my 2nd favorite Zeppelin album with Custard Pie, The Rover and a 11 minute in your face of In My Time Of Dying to which the guys tackle an obscure Josh White number to which Ron Nevison put together a definite mix to which Bonham's drums stand way out in front. Kashmir shows the Western flavor that would pop up on later Zep and Robert Plant's efforts, but for me the rocking Trampled Underfoot, Sick Again were better. Even throwaways like Boogie With Stu, Black Country Woman kick major butt and of course the ballads like Ten Years Gone were excellent. For a record that's all over the map, it still remains definitive.
Presence on the other hand was whipped out in 18 days and might be the least album in their catalog, Tea For One and For Your Life are hard to get through but I love Candy Store Rock and Hots On From Nowhere. Not bad.
The Song Remains The Same in its original context is Led Zeppelin in it's warts and all glory, bombastic pompous and self indulgent, that's the 27 minute Dazed And Confused and the bloated Moby Dick. In 2007, 6 new tracks makes this a lot more easier to take which The Ocean, Since I Been Loving You, Over The Hills And Far Away, Heartbreaker and Misty Mountain Hop makes this worth getting, even though How The West Is Won and The BBC Sessions are much better but then that was a much younger Led Zeppelin more hungry and ambitious, the Madison Square Garden show that was Song Remains The Same shows a more content Zeppelin that follows it's own bloated way. Basically you had to be there.
In Through The Out Door is the album to which John Paul Jones gets his own spotlight since this album is the least metallic of all Zeppelin albums with In The Evening anything close to hard rock. More keyboard driven such as songs like Fool In The Rain or All My Love shows but there's a wicked sense of humor on the country fried Hot Dog as well. It all ends on the seductive I'm Gonna Crawl. But then John Bonham died and the band ceased to exist. Coda wraps things up with three rockers that didn't make In Through The Out Door and some odds and ends and a John Bonham drum piece with some Page electronics thrown in for good measure but nobody bothered to add Hey Hey What Can I Do. That would have to wait for the 4 cd box set that came out in 1991.
To usher in the new CD era Jimmy Page cherry picked his favorites for Led Zeppelin Box Set 1 (The second would appear a year later) and added some unreleased stuff in the process. Then Early Days and Later Days came out and then Mothership, if you have the studio you really don't need these. Jimmy Page would play on a couple Robert Plant songs for Now and Zen and Plant returned the favor for one song on Page's 1988 Outrider album. Then they got back together again for the listenable No Quarter and the not so much Walking Into Clarksdale, Steve Albini's mix didn't do them any favors. John Paul Jones joined them for the ill fated 1985 Live Aid show and a Atlantic Records showcase a few years later but Led Zeppelin's finest and perhaps final moment of the Post John Bonham era was getting son Jason to sit in and do the 2007 O2 tribute to Arment Ertugan which became Celebration Day. With Plant singing in a lower voice and Page and Jones tuning down, Celebration Day might be the most metal album that Zeppelin ever did. Plant's vocal more subdued than the MSG show, it shows the surviving members enjoying and shining in the moment one last time. You have to admire Robert Plant not succumbing to big bucks to rehash the favorites all over again although one should never say never if everybody is still alive. But if it's their last moment together, they went out in style.
Long live Led Zeppelin!
PS It's basically pointless to give out grades to these albums, they're all essential, including the updated Song Remains The Same S/T with the bonus tracks adding continuity and filling in the gaps that the original album omitted. I'm sure most of you out there have these albums in your collection in one form or another. From the opening notes of Good Times Bad Times, to the end of Rock And Roll on Celebration Day, Led Zeppelin was truly THE BAND THAT ROCKED from the word GO!
Grades:
Led Zeppelin (Atlantic 1968) A
Led Zeppelin 2 (Atlantic 1969) A
Led Zeppelin 3 (Atlantic 1970) A
Led Zeppelin 4 (Atlantic 1971) A
Houses Of The Holy (Atlantic 1973) A-
Physical Graffiti (Swan Song 1975) A
Presence (Swan Song 1976) B+
The Song Remains The Same (Swan Song 1977) B-
In Through The Out Door (Swan Song 1979) B+
Coda (Swan Song 1982) A-
BBC Sessions (Atlantic 1990) B+
How The West Was Won (Atlantic 2002) A-
Celebration Day (Rhino/Swan Song 2007) A-
The Zep started out from The Yardbirds to which members of that band would eventually bailed out, leaving Jimmy Page and Chris Dreja, Dreja would soon leave (although he is credited for the band photo on the first album). Page was a established session player who joined the Yardbirds around 1967 before Jeff Beck would leave for his own solo career. Little Games (EMI) was produced by Micky Most and it was actually the most pop sounding of all Yardbirds album with the exception of a fiery Think About It which kinda gave a direction of sound that Page would succeed with Led Zeppelin. A live album Yardbirds With Jimmy Page (Epic 1971) came out with fake crowd sounds but a version of I'm Confused stands out. Keith Relf and Jim McCartney would leave. John Paul Jones, was also a highly sought after session player as he played on many tracks featuring the likes of Herman Hermits became a replacement. The other two main players, Robert Plant and John Bonham came from the lesser known Band Of Joy, Plant has a hard to find 45 on Columbia You Better Run/Everybody Gonna Say under the band name Listen (Columbia 4-43967) which is a Rascals cover. Bonham would play mad drums on Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man in 1968.
Fulfilling contracts as The New Yardbirds, they renamed themselves after a Keith Moon quirk but their first album wasn't anything you heard on the radio. More heavy blues rock then heavy metal (the term wasn't coined yet) Led Zeppelin raided the Willie Dixon songbook and took Dazed And Confused away from Jake Holmes. The urgency of Good Times Bad Times (a failed single hard to figure) and Communication Breakdown showed that Led Zeppelin could keep things at two and half minutes but everything is there that would make them the rock gods that they would become. You want a organ solo, there's the beginning of Your Time Is Gonna Come, you want a messy drum solo, it's on How Many More Times (basically a rewrite of How Many More Years, a Howlin Wolf comp), if you want a cool guitar piece Black Mountain Side is there too. Glyn Johns adds a very heavy mix to the songs, but Jimmy Page's guitar antics and bow effects on Dazed And Confused makes this a still great album.
Led Zeppelin 2 was more of the same, more rock, more blues including the 5 and half minute Whole Lotta Love and stealing more Chess blues goodies, (hey if you're going to lift songs from the past go with the real sources and they did, Wolf's Killing Floor becomes The Lemon Song and Rice Miller's Bring It On Home, Miller being Sonny Boy Williamson Number 2). And even mellow numbers like Ramble On and Thank You had a bit hard rock thrown in for good measure but for me the sloppy guitar solo on the metallic Heartbreaker remains worth the price of admission.
I never could understood why my best friend's older brother never did buy Led Zeppelin 3 but perhaps he was put off by the almost acoustic second side of the album to which when I was younger didn't quite get but as I got older, I come to find that's one of my favorite sides. Oh it rocks, Immigrant Song, Celebration Day and the forgotten Out On The Tides are standouts but side 2, cover of Leadbelly's Gallows Pole, plus Tangerine and That's The Way a song that sounded more Fairport Convention than hard rock and the then odd weirdness that is Hats Off To Roy Harper makes 3 my all time favorite LZ album.
But then there's Led Zeppelin 4 or the ZOSO album. For all it's overplayedness on the radio, when I put it on the turntable here at home it sounds as fresh and original as the first time I heard this. Black Dog, the straight ahead Rock and Roll, Sandy Denny put to great use on Battle Of Evermore and of course it all winds down to the epic Stairway To Heaven. Side 2 kinda lets a bit, Four Sticks remains the weakest of the bunch, Going To California gets better with age but the hard blues of Memphis Minnie's When The Levee Breaks is classic Zep.
A Led Zeppelin album was the big event no matter what day or year it was. Houses Of The Holy was beginning to show the excess and bombast and the start of the albums that while great to some, didn't catch much on me. The Song Remains The Same when I first heard it on the radio blew my mind and the first time of hearing D'yer Maker about the same although that song sounds a bit dated now. Over The Hills And Far Away was a top thirty hit here but I never been much of a fan of the Rain Song. The albums does end on a high note with the brooding and mysterious No Quarter and rock stopping The Ocean.
Psychical Graffiti is probably my 2nd favorite Zeppelin album with Custard Pie, The Rover and a 11 minute in your face of In My Time Of Dying to which the guys tackle an obscure Josh White number to which Ron Nevison put together a definite mix to which Bonham's drums stand way out in front. Kashmir shows the Western flavor that would pop up on later Zep and Robert Plant's efforts, but for me the rocking Trampled Underfoot, Sick Again were better. Even throwaways like Boogie With Stu, Black Country Woman kick major butt and of course the ballads like Ten Years Gone were excellent. For a record that's all over the map, it still remains definitive.
Presence on the other hand was whipped out in 18 days and might be the least album in their catalog, Tea For One and For Your Life are hard to get through but I love Candy Store Rock and Hots On From Nowhere. Not bad.
The Song Remains The Same in its original context is Led Zeppelin in it's warts and all glory, bombastic pompous and self indulgent, that's the 27 minute Dazed And Confused and the bloated Moby Dick. In 2007, 6 new tracks makes this a lot more easier to take which The Ocean, Since I Been Loving You, Over The Hills And Far Away, Heartbreaker and Misty Mountain Hop makes this worth getting, even though How The West Is Won and The BBC Sessions are much better but then that was a much younger Led Zeppelin more hungry and ambitious, the Madison Square Garden show that was Song Remains The Same shows a more content Zeppelin that follows it's own bloated way. Basically you had to be there.
In Through The Out Door is the album to which John Paul Jones gets his own spotlight since this album is the least metallic of all Zeppelin albums with In The Evening anything close to hard rock. More keyboard driven such as songs like Fool In The Rain or All My Love shows but there's a wicked sense of humor on the country fried Hot Dog as well. It all ends on the seductive I'm Gonna Crawl. But then John Bonham died and the band ceased to exist. Coda wraps things up with three rockers that didn't make In Through The Out Door and some odds and ends and a John Bonham drum piece with some Page electronics thrown in for good measure but nobody bothered to add Hey Hey What Can I Do. That would have to wait for the 4 cd box set that came out in 1991.
To usher in the new CD era Jimmy Page cherry picked his favorites for Led Zeppelin Box Set 1 (The second would appear a year later) and added some unreleased stuff in the process. Then Early Days and Later Days came out and then Mothership, if you have the studio you really don't need these. Jimmy Page would play on a couple Robert Plant songs for Now and Zen and Plant returned the favor for one song on Page's 1988 Outrider album. Then they got back together again for the listenable No Quarter and the not so much Walking Into Clarksdale, Steve Albini's mix didn't do them any favors. John Paul Jones joined them for the ill fated 1985 Live Aid show and a Atlantic Records showcase a few years later but Led Zeppelin's finest and perhaps final moment of the Post John Bonham era was getting son Jason to sit in and do the 2007 O2 tribute to Arment Ertugan which became Celebration Day. With Plant singing in a lower voice and Page and Jones tuning down, Celebration Day might be the most metal album that Zeppelin ever did. Plant's vocal more subdued than the MSG show, it shows the surviving members enjoying and shining in the moment one last time. You have to admire Robert Plant not succumbing to big bucks to rehash the favorites all over again although one should never say never if everybody is still alive. But if it's their last moment together, they went out in style.
Long live Led Zeppelin!
PS It's basically pointless to give out grades to these albums, they're all essential, including the updated Song Remains The Same S/T with the bonus tracks adding continuity and filling in the gaps that the original album omitted. I'm sure most of you out there have these albums in your collection in one form or another. From the opening notes of Good Times Bad Times, to the end of Rock And Roll on Celebration Day, Led Zeppelin was truly THE BAND THAT ROCKED from the word GO!
Grades:
Led Zeppelin (Atlantic 1968) A
Led Zeppelin 2 (Atlantic 1969) A
Led Zeppelin 3 (Atlantic 1970) A
Led Zeppelin 4 (Atlantic 1971) A
Houses Of The Holy (Atlantic 1973) A-
Physical Graffiti (Swan Song 1975) A
Presence (Swan Song 1976) B+
The Song Remains The Same (Swan Song 1977) B-
In Through The Out Door (Swan Song 1979) B+
Coda (Swan Song 1982) A-
BBC Sessions (Atlantic 1990) B+
How The West Was Won (Atlantic 2002) A-
Celebration Day (Rhino/Swan Song 2007) A-
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The Cherry Sisters
Before alternative music or plays, there was Marion's very own Cherry Sisters who terrorized the opera houses of the local state in the late 1890s. A couple interesting artifacts are found here.
http://www.wfmu.org/LCD/Early/cherry.html
The Cherry Sisters may have also figured in free speech to which they sued and lost to newspapers that didn't like their performances. case in point: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iaohms/cherry_articles.html
They were ahead of their time, long before Yoko Ono was even born and Nicki No Talent Minaj not even a twinkle in the eye of her grandparents.
A one of a kind that was the Cherry Sisters.
further reading:
http://travsd.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/stars-of-vaudeville-85-the-cherry-sisters/
http://www.wfmu.org/LCD/Early/cherry.html
The Cherry Sisters may have also figured in free speech to which they sued and lost to newspapers that didn't like their performances. case in point: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iaohms/cherry_articles.html
They were ahead of their time, long before Yoko Ono was even born and Nicki No Talent Minaj not even a twinkle in the eye of her grandparents.
A one of a kind that was the Cherry Sisters.
further reading:
http://travsd.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/stars-of-vaudeville-85-the-cherry-sisters/
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Scott Halpin-Subsitute Who Drummer
Who are you? The guy who played with the Who, that's who By Mike Leonard, Hoosier Times columnist Sunday, February 19, 2006 6:52 AM CST BLOOMINGTON - Google the name Scott Halpin, and you can understand some of the reasons why the Bloomington resident remains cautious and a bit indifferent about recounting his extraordinary little contribution to rock 'n' roll history. "They always get something wrong," he said of the many accounts of the night when, at age 19, he replaced drummer Keith Moon in legendary band, The Who. "I've read where I played anywhere from five minutes to an hour. I came out of the front row to join the band on stage. That kind of thing," Halpin said last week. "One story said I was a graduate of Monterey High School, and I'd sort of slipped away into obscurity, and the last anyone knew, I was a businessman." Actually, Halpin has lived in Bloomington for roughly a decade, makes his living as an artist and illustrator, and occasionally gets out to play bass, now his preferred instrument, and sometimes, drums. He was just a kid from Muscatine, Iowa, who'd moved to California when he hooked up with a friend to see The Who at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on Nov. 20, 1973. He was a major Who fan at the time. "I was living in Monterey, and I figure from the time it took to drive into San Francisco and the time I spent standing in line, I spent 13 hours. I really did want to get down front," he recalled. The show Halpin had never heard of the opening band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and doesn't remember much about their set other than a vague recollection of the endless riffing on "Free Bird." "It was back in the days of general admission, and you really had to suck it up and just hold your spot (in the audience)," Halpin recalled. "Once The Who came on, the crush of people was so intense, I could only handle about three songs. After that, we kind of escaped over to the side of the stage, where there were these big ramps, and we had a good view of the band." The Who's notoriously wild drummer, Moon, passed out more than midway through the performance, was taken off-stage and after a brief intermission, returned to his drum kit. Accounts of the source of Moon's infirmity vary, but Halpin guesses that the speculation centering on the quasi-psychedelic drug, PCP, probably is accurate. "You could sense it was going to happen again," Halpin said. Sure enough, Moon collapsed again, and Halpin's friend, Mike Danese, dragged him to the side of the stage and pleaded with security guards to tell the band's management that Halpin could step in. "The security guard was probably thinking he's a complete nut, but all of a sudden, (promoter) Bill Graham pops up, and he sees it as a security thing. He's sort of nose-to-nose with Mike, and Mike says, 'He can do this. He's a drummer. He knows the material.' And Bill Graham looks at me and says, 'Can you do it?' and I said yeah." On stage At that point, The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, almost rhetorically asks the Cow Palace crowd if there's a drummer in the house. Unbeknownst to him, Halpin is already in place, sitting on Moon's stool and getting instructions on how the drum kit is set up by a technician. "Then, (singer) Roger Daltry announces my name and we go into it. Pete told me he'd give me cues, and they had me start with (the blues standard) 'Smokestack Lightning,' which I don't ever remember being part of their thing," Halpin said. He admitted he really doesn't even remember what else he played because he was so focused on keeping time and picking up signals from Townshend. A Web site on Who history indicates that Halpin would have played on the songs, "Smokestack Lightning," "Spoonful" and "Naked Eye." An account in the San Francisco Chronicle from 1996 says a bootleg tape shows that Halpin played on the first two previously listed songs and the grand finale, "My Generation." Who members Townshend, Daltry and John Entwistle thanked the skinny kid from the audience for stepping to the plate but didn't hang around long after the show. "They were very angry with Keith and sort of fighting among themselves," Halpin said. "It was the opening date on their 'Quadrophenia' tour, and they were saying, 'Why couldn't he wait until after the show (if he wanted to get high)?" Daltry, who'd begun drinking Jack Daniels from the bottle at that point, told the substitute they'd pay him $1,000 for his efforts, and a roadie gave him a tour jacket on the spot. "Then everyone split," Halpin said. "My friend and I both had long drives ahead of us, so we loaded up on all the free food that was put out for the band, and we both headed for home." In the meantime, someone stole the tour jacket that Halpin had just received as a gift. Halpin received favorable mention in the next day's Chronicle review. He received a nice letter from the band but no money - not that it mattered. The legacy The Who returned to San Francisco a couple of years later, and Halpin did get to go backstage and meet Moon, who was gracious but in his typical whirlwind mode. "He was doing this hilarious monologue and taking off his stage clothes and putting on his street clothes in front of everyone," Halpin said with a laugh. "He said 'Nice to meet you' to me, and then he was off." The story of Halpin's brief stint playing with The Who often comes up when people collect stories of rock 'n' roll lore or Who retrospectives. Rolling Stone magazine would later name Halpin the "Pick-up Player of the Year." A few years ago, the cable network VH-1 flew him to New York City for an interview that is included in a program called "The Forty Freakiest Concert Moments in Rock History." Last week, Halpin sat down in the WFIU-FM studios in Bloomington to tape a segment for NPR's "Morning Edition." "It's just one of those stories that won't go away, but you know, it's not a story that even a lot of people I know have heard," he said. "I mean, how do you tell this story? Are you bragging if you do? It's kind of weird, how it all went down. And to be honest, it all gets kind of foggy because it all happened so fast. I didn't have time to take it all in. All I was thinking about was not screwing up."
Scott Halpin Died in 2008 at age 54.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
ASIA
Funny thing about supergroups, they tend to be over-hyped and in some ways Asia reminds me of Bad Company, supergroup from other bands that made a few albums together, then members fall out and a different lineup would ensured or sometimes the original members return.
Asia came from various prog rock bands, John Wetton played in King Crimson, UK and Uriah Heep, Steve Howe from Yes, Geoff Downs from The Buggles and Yes and Carl Palmer from ELP and I guess you would call their first album Prog Pop although that deep sound came from the late Mike Stone adding plenty of overdubs here and there to create something more than just four guys. Their first album remains their best although Heat Of The Moment and Only Time Will Tell have been ran into the ground on the classic rock radio. How dare me to rate this an A album but it's a album I can listen start to finish with wonderful tracks like Wildest Dreams, Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling again. This record got plenty of play on my stereo. You may be excused from here on out to read the rest of the story.
Alpha was a let down. Don't Cry and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes were overplayed on radio as well but crowd pleasers like Open Your Eyes and The Heat Goes On plus the ultra beautiful Never In A Million Years make the record not so much a bust, but side 2 really really drags. And then confusion came calling, Wetton left, Greg Lake replaced him, but on Astra Wetton returns and Steve Howe leaves replaced by Mandy Meyer whoever he was. The record tanked, but to me it was a better effort than Alpha although there's much more darker songs on this outing but standouts include Go, Voice Of America, Love Now Till Eternity and the angry Too Late. Some songs didn't make much sense Countdown To Zero (with a corny ending) and After The War showcase a war paranoia. But nothing was heard much from Asia after that and Geffen pieced together a collection of greatest hits and outtakes for Then And Now to which they had a minor hit with Days Like These and even had David Cassidy cowrite a song.
Wetton leaves again and Geoff Downes finds an able replacement that is willing to stay onboard in John Payne which begins Asia Part 2, the Downes/Payne years and Aqua is bizarre and boring most of the time. Although Steve Howe and Carl Palmer are listed, outside of Who Will Stop The Rain, there's not much I can recommend on this although there's a couple songs that Greg Lake did write. The Payne era I haven't paid much attention to although Aria had a few more moments but still sounded like a hair metal band. Basically after that it was the Payne/Downes show up till Wetton, Howe and Palmer reunited with Downes, and left Payne in the dust (although Payne was allowed to use Asia featuring John Payne). Phoenix the first new Asia original since Astra was more stripped down, by then Mike Stone was dead so they produced it themselves. It might be their most progressive rock album ever although I really haven't played it much. Omega came out in 2009 produced by Mike Paxman (Status Quo) and it returned them more to the earlier hit sound of the 80s although no new hits were taken off it, radio ignored it since they're considered a dinosaur act. In 2012 they recorded XXX which is a return to sound of the first album and reviews of this were pretty good but again radio wanted nothing to do with it. Really a shame, since Omega and XXX are good in their own way.
Asia also benefits from having more greatest hits and anthologies than actual albums and basically this is where buyer beware comes to play. Anthologia The 20th Anniversary collection has ALL of the Geffen albums into a nifty two CD set, which means you get the first three albums plus B sides Ride Easy and Daylight which would have made their respective albums that much better. Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia I would have recommended but Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling Again are edited version and a bad butcher job at that but has Ride Easy and Daylight and is preferable over Then And Now or the 20th Century Masters Collection. And then there's the 2 cd Gold collection and the Definitive Edition to boot. Inside Out US, issued Anthology which deals with Payne era. There are countless Live Asia albums that only the hardcore fan will pay attention but I'll give two of them that I do have, Asia Live In Moscow and Live In Nottingham, which features Pat Thrall playing guitar, The Moscow side is interesting of John Wetton doing a couple of King Crimson numbers, and Downes playing Video Killed the Radio Star. The Nottingham Live show has Prayin 4 A Miracle which is rarely played.
They're not a critic's favorite, prog rock fans think less of them but they have managed to carve out a career on the strength of Heat Of The Moment or Only Time Will Tell. But I grew up listening to them and managed to seek their albums from time to time. And their first album is one of the 80s albums that defined that era like it or not. John Payne may be a dedicated musician to the cause but the original Asia had better players and Wetton is a better singer. And he had the hits too.
Asia (Geffen 1982) A-
Alpha (Geffen 1983) C+
Astra (Geffen 1985) B+
Then And Now (Geffen 1989) B
Live In Moscow (Rhino 1990) C+
Live In Nottingham (Renaissance 1990) B-
Aqua (Great Pyramid/Rhino 1992) C-
Aura (Mayhem 1994) C
Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia (Geffen 2000) B+
Anthologia (Geffen 2002) A- (Later repackaged as Gold)
Phoenix (Frontiers 2007) C+
Omega (Frontiers 2009) B
XXX (Frontiers 2012) B+
Asia came from various prog rock bands, John Wetton played in King Crimson, UK and Uriah Heep, Steve Howe from Yes, Geoff Downs from The Buggles and Yes and Carl Palmer from ELP and I guess you would call their first album Prog Pop although that deep sound came from the late Mike Stone adding plenty of overdubs here and there to create something more than just four guys. Their first album remains their best although Heat Of The Moment and Only Time Will Tell have been ran into the ground on the classic rock radio. How dare me to rate this an A album but it's a album I can listen start to finish with wonderful tracks like Wildest Dreams, Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling again. This record got plenty of play on my stereo. You may be excused from here on out to read the rest of the story.
Alpha was a let down. Don't Cry and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes were overplayed on radio as well but crowd pleasers like Open Your Eyes and The Heat Goes On plus the ultra beautiful Never In A Million Years make the record not so much a bust, but side 2 really really drags. And then confusion came calling, Wetton left, Greg Lake replaced him, but on Astra Wetton returns and Steve Howe leaves replaced by Mandy Meyer whoever he was. The record tanked, but to me it was a better effort than Alpha although there's much more darker songs on this outing but standouts include Go, Voice Of America, Love Now Till Eternity and the angry Too Late. Some songs didn't make much sense Countdown To Zero (with a corny ending) and After The War showcase a war paranoia. But nothing was heard much from Asia after that and Geffen pieced together a collection of greatest hits and outtakes for Then And Now to which they had a minor hit with Days Like These and even had David Cassidy cowrite a song.
Wetton leaves again and Geoff Downes finds an able replacement that is willing to stay onboard in John Payne which begins Asia Part 2, the Downes/Payne years and Aqua is bizarre and boring most of the time. Although Steve Howe and Carl Palmer are listed, outside of Who Will Stop The Rain, there's not much I can recommend on this although there's a couple songs that Greg Lake did write. The Payne era I haven't paid much attention to although Aria had a few more moments but still sounded like a hair metal band. Basically after that it was the Payne/Downes show up till Wetton, Howe and Palmer reunited with Downes, and left Payne in the dust (although Payne was allowed to use Asia featuring John Payne). Phoenix the first new Asia original since Astra was more stripped down, by then Mike Stone was dead so they produced it themselves. It might be their most progressive rock album ever although I really haven't played it much. Omega came out in 2009 produced by Mike Paxman (Status Quo) and it returned them more to the earlier hit sound of the 80s although no new hits were taken off it, radio ignored it since they're considered a dinosaur act. In 2012 they recorded XXX which is a return to sound of the first album and reviews of this were pretty good but again radio wanted nothing to do with it. Really a shame, since Omega and XXX are good in their own way.
Asia also benefits from having more greatest hits and anthologies than actual albums and basically this is where buyer beware comes to play. Anthologia The 20th Anniversary collection has ALL of the Geffen albums into a nifty two CD set, which means you get the first three albums plus B sides Ride Easy and Daylight which would have made their respective albums that much better. Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia I would have recommended but Sole Survivor and Here Comes The Feeling Again are edited version and a bad butcher job at that but has Ride Easy and Daylight and is preferable over Then And Now or the 20th Century Masters Collection. And then there's the 2 cd Gold collection and the Definitive Edition to boot. Inside Out US, issued Anthology which deals with Payne era. There are countless Live Asia albums that only the hardcore fan will pay attention but I'll give two of them that I do have, Asia Live In Moscow and Live In Nottingham, which features Pat Thrall playing guitar, The Moscow side is interesting of John Wetton doing a couple of King Crimson numbers, and Downes playing Video Killed the Radio Star. The Nottingham Live show has Prayin 4 A Miracle which is rarely played.
They're not a critic's favorite, prog rock fans think less of them but they have managed to carve out a career on the strength of Heat Of The Moment or Only Time Will Tell. But I grew up listening to them and managed to seek their albums from time to time. And their first album is one of the 80s albums that defined that era like it or not. John Payne may be a dedicated musician to the cause but the original Asia had better players and Wetton is a better singer. And he had the hits too.
Asia (Geffen 1982) A-
Alpha (Geffen 1983) C+
Astra (Geffen 1985) B+
Then And Now (Geffen 1989) B
Live In Moscow (Rhino 1990) C+
Live In Nottingham (Renaissance 1990) B-
Aqua (Great Pyramid/Rhino 1992) C-
Aura (Mayhem 1994) C
Heat Of The Moment-Very Best Of Asia (Geffen 2000) B+
Anthologia (Geffen 2002) A- (Later repackaged as Gold)
Phoenix (Frontiers 2007) C+
Omega (Frontiers 2009) B
XXX (Frontiers 2012) B+
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