Another Progressive Rock legend dies. Loved his work on those three albums with King Crimson in the mid 70s. RIP.
Same. Red is one of my favorite albums ever.
I was a huge fan of Asia in high school. Ran through a nice playlist last night in John’s honor. RIP.
Aw, shit! I’ve been a fan of his since his work on Uriah Heep’s “High And Mighty”. It wasn’t a great album, but I was a teenager at the time, and his work on it stood out enough that I took notice.
That’s really a bummer. The LTiA/S&BB/Red lineup was my favorite period of my favorite band.
RIP
I was home for lunch when I posted above, and didn’t have time to write my little anecdote:
“High And Mighty” by Uriah Heep was the first UH album I ever bought, and I loved it at the time, despite not knowing they had released much better stuff before, so this album was considered kind of a ‘black sheep’ of their output; both too commercial and oddly experimental at the same time.
Another thing I did not know about it for many, many years (maybe right up until 10 years ago) was that John Wetton actually sang lead vocal on the opening verse (I think - it’s still hard for me to tell which parts or verses he sang) the opening track, “One Way Or Another”.
This kind of blew me away when I found this out, as I’d always thought that David Byron sang the whole thing, as he usually did. But apparently, Byron was sick during the recording of that track, so Wetton attempted to imitate his voice on the first verse. And I believe that Byron sang the rest of the verses. What gets me still, is how closely Wetton is able to nail Byron’s vocal quality.
Okay, I just listened to it again, and it sounds to me like Wetton sings the first two verses, though I could swear I had read several sources which said he sang only the first. Wikipedia is vague, but I can definitely hear Byron come in after the first two verses. I think. Anyway, if anyone is curious, it’s the first track of the album.
Edit: Agh! Apparently, Byron doesn’t sing at all on this track, and it’s Ken Hensley who I’m hearing after the first two verses. Hensley also has a voice eerily similar to Byron.
Edit: Well, shit, that video got taken down quickly. And it was up for a long time before.
Here’s another with just the one track:
Hoping to see the current lineup with Mel Collins this year. They are supposed to be opening the tour in Seattle. They’ve been playing a lot of older material because of Mel being there, including stuff from that era. The first two albums I owned by KC were Earthbound and Lizard on vinyl, picked up used for 50 cents each after a cousin of mine recommended them, back around 1980ish.
Did not know Wetton was in Uriah Heep - then again, I haven’t really paid much attention to them.
I started listening to KC with Larks Tongues In Aspic - picked up the next two with Wetton and then the next three albums with the next line up. Liked those 80s albums and some of their 90s output but LTiA, Starless and Red just cannot be topped. Such a shame Fripp broke them up then, they were really hitting their stride with Red (which sounds amazing in 5.1, by the way).
What’s a good early album (pre-Wetton) of theirs to get?
Tough to answer. I suppose the obvious choice is the first, In the Court of the Crimson King. I adore Earthbound, but I think describing it as “difficult to listen to” would be more than fair. It’s rather rough. If you like Greg Lake, In the Wake of Poseidon would seem a reasonable pick.
Trivia: 1971’s Islands contains the track, “Prelude:Song of the Gulls”, which my wife walked down the aisle to when we got married.
I’m planning on seeing them as well when they play Seattle on this tour. I’m not wild about what I’ve seen/heard of this lineup, but it’d be great to see some of that material played live.
By the way, the Starless and Road to Red live sets are phenomenal, if a bit pricey. Either one on its own is probably overkill for a casual fan, but if you really love that lineup, they might be worth looking into.
I got the 80s set for Christmas. and yeah, way overkill for most. But then I have literally hundreds of Crimson CDs. Kind of a bummer that Three of a Perfect pair is the least represented in the set (it’s my favorite) but the band was coming unglued by that point.
In that case, I strongly recommend picking up at least the Starless set. Both are very good, but it’s the one I’d go with if I had to choose.
So, I realized today I hadn’t actually heard any of the 2015 lineup. Picked up Radical Action after listening to a bunch of the samples on iTunes. I was really surprised (and pleased) at how little they mucked with the 70s stuff.
Here’s kind of a rarity if you’re a John Wetton fan.
Or if you’re a Ken Hensley fan for that matter.
It’s called Hensley/Wetton: More Than Conquerors, and it’s from 2002. Originally on DVD, IIRC, it was difficult to find, though I tried.
Disclaimer: This video is for fans of these guys only. Ideally, you should be a fan of both of these men, as I am, because they play some pretty obscure stuff that fans will know instantly. The video is very good (DVD quality), and I’m sure the audio is fine, however this is pretty obviously an actual “live” concert, with not much dubbing going on. I personally like actual “live” recordings with no fixes like this, but I do realize that most people probably would rather hear them sound better, so just a warning. These guys have sounded better than this.