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Thread: Rare Asia - from 1981 rehearsals

  1. #1
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    Rare Asia - from 1981 rehearsals

    From Wetton's website:

    To celebrate John’s birthday, we release a never before heard fly-on-the-wall of an early Asia rehearsal, recorded exactly 38 years ago today on June 12, 1981. Ricky Nelson has lovingly nurtured this Holy Grail recording, and has created a collage slide-show of rare photos through the decades to remind you of John’s genius. The question arises – what song did this morph into?


    In 1981, while rehearsing material intended for the first ASIA album, the band recorded their live performances as they worked out arrangements.
    This is a shortened version of the rehearsal for "Déyà," written by John Wetton in 1976.
    Coincidentally, it was recorded on June 12, 1981... John Wetton's 32nd birthday.
    John was never able to finish it as he felt it "didn't go anywhere," and so it was tossed-aside and forgotten.
    It was discovered again in 1997... and 10 years later during writing for "Phoenix" I brought this to John's attention again with a plea to record it just the way it is! He promised me that he would "find it a home" which he did!
    A "fly on the wall" recording, this is one of the most beautiful and haunting melodies you'll ever hear...



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    Member Top Cat's Avatar
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    Fantastic!! oh how I miss this giant talent. ):
    Soundcloud page: Richard Hermans, musical meanderings https://soundcloud.com/precipice YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@richardhermans4457

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    Member Man In The Mountain's Avatar
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    WOW!!! Better than anything on the first album. And I'm a fan of that album.

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    Member interbellum's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Man In The Mountain View Post
    WOW!!! Better than anything on the first album. And I'm a fan of that album.
    Same here, although I think it might have fitted on Caught In The Crossfire, next to Woman.

  5. #5
    Wow...very nice.
    G.A.S -aholic

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    Very cool!

  7. #7
    Eventually appeared on Phoenix: http://www.relayer35.com/Yescography/Phoenix.htm

    Henry
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    ^ISTR it being said that 'No Alibis' was around at the time of the first album too? Might be wrong.

    I did enjoy Phoenix.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    ^ISTR it being said that 'No Alibis' was around at the time of the first album too? Might be wrong.
    Yes, as was "Over and Over". See link for more details.

    Henry
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    Member Guitarplyrjvb's Avatar
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    You guys really like this? Wow! It just seems like a half-baked demo to me.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Guitarplyrjvb View Post
    You guys really like this? Wow! It just seems like a half-baked demo to me.
    A not unpleasant half-baked demo, nevertheless...& a little bit better than the majority of the bland pop-rock that Asia went on to produce.

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    Well they did use this pretty much verbatim on an Asia album some 25 years later!

    I wouldn't exactly call it 'prog'- if you didn't like the debut you wouldn't like Phoenix either!- but Phoenix does have a few things where they stretch out a bit more musically than was the norm for Asia.

    As for the other two, Omega didn't hold up so well for me, a bit too soft (although there's a few good songs on it like 'Through My Veins', 'Light The Way' and 'Holy War'), but I really enjoyed XXX.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    As for the other two, Omega didn't hold up so well for me, a bit too soft (although there's a few good songs on it like 'Through My Veins', 'Light The Way' and 'Holy War')
    Notably, the first two of those are the two Howe songs on the album.

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
    Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/

  14. #14
    hmm, I'm either hearing bits of the Theme from the film Love Story....or perhaps the Summer of 42

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    Member interbellum's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by floyd umma gumma View Post
    hmm, I'm either hearing bits of the Theme from the film Love Story....or perhaps the Summer of 42
    Yeah, I was wondering where I heard that theme from.

  16. #16
    Sweet!

    Thank you.

    I think this would have been a killer live tune and B-side.

  17. #17
    Member lazland's Avatar
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    Superb, thanks for posting this, which is a reminder, if any were needed, of the talent of these four great musicians working together when they did so in harmony.

    The passing of Wetton is a massive loss to all lovers of great music.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    but I really enjoyed XXX.
    I didn't think Phoenix was that interesting so hardly listened to it, Omega was better with two or three good songs but what happened with XXX? Lots of very strong songs.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Guitarplyrjvb View Post
    You guys really like this? Wow! It just seems like a half-baked demo to me.
    That's very much how it appeared to me, too. Even taking into account its unfinished nature, I have to depart from the consensus and say that there was much stronger material on the first Asia album than this, so it's really not hard to see why it might have been dropped at the time.

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    ^^ Asia is one of the most dissapointing amalgams of prog talent to these ears. The first record was definitely the best. Steve Howe should have had more influence in the writing department. I love his influence on the track, Sole Survivor, and wished they'd continued to mine this vein of short, proggy tracks with interesting playing. But alas, no....
    Last edited by Guitarplyrjvb; 06-27-2019 at 11:21 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Guitarplyrjvb View Post
    ^^ Asia is one of the most dissapointing amalgams of prog talent to these ears. The first record was definitely the best. Steve Howe should have had more influence in the writing department. I love his track, Sole Survivor, and wished they'd continued to mine this vein of short, proggy tracks with interesting playing. But alas, no....
    With respect, I think it's commonly misunderstood what Asia were actually trying to be - which in the context of the musical climate of the time was most emphatically not a prog band. Howe has repeatedly made it clear over the years that when Asia got together their entire modus operandi was to keep things much simpler than anything they'd done with their previous bands. For some, of course, this equates cynically selling out to commercial interests, from Howe, though, I get the impression that by the time he got out of Yes he was heartily sick of prog's tendencies towards over-elaboration, and was more than happy to go down a simpler, more direct, musical path. As it is, I think there's more than a hint of each member's past record on the first album at least, in addition to some excellent tunes. However, anybody expecting full-on prog is always likely to be disappointed, but then it was never supposed to be there in the first place, and would've sunk like a stone in the musical world of 1982.

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    I think the first Asia album was strong. Alpha was weaker and Astra was considerably weaker. They were less interesting without Howe, to me. (I didn't have too much interest in hearing Gravitas, for instance.)

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by kid_runningfox View Post
    With respect, I think it's commonly misunderstood what Asia were actually trying to be - which in the context of the musical climate of the time was most emphatically not a prog band. Howe has repeatedly made it clear over the years that when Asia got together their entire modus operandi was to keep things much simpler than anything they'd done with their previous bands. For some, of course, this equates cynically selling out to commercial interests, from Howe, though, I get the impression that by the time he got out of Yes he was heartily sick of prog's tendencies towards over-elaboration, and was more than happy to go down a simpler, more direct, musical path. As it is, I think there's more than a hint of each member's past record on the first album at least, in addition to some excellent tunes. However, anybody expecting full-on prog is always likely to be disappointed, but then it was never supposed to be there in the first place, and would've sunk like a stone in the musical world of 1982.
    Yeah, I agree with you. But within those constraints, songs like "Sole Survivor" and a couple of other tunes from that first record could have made them far more interesting. IMHO, of course!

  24. #24
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    As I've mentioned elsewhere, Asia s/t is the last record IMO with classic Howe tone - that's what makes it work.

    By the time Alpha rolled out, that thin JC120 wuss tone was his new bread and butter. Cant blame Mike Stone et al, Howe's carried that wuss tone since...
    Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit

  25. #25
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    It was always my impression that the Wetton/Downes team took over and Steve's guitar was brought way down in the mix. Much like it was in Yes' "Magnification". I'd love to hear a Howe-mix of that one! The second Asia album would have been better with more Howeisms, too! Some of the songs were catchy!

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