Asia - The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (Parts I & II)

[peterpyser]

A new video for the reconstructed original arrangement of The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (Parts I & II) has been recently posted on youtube by the same guy who posted the previously unreleased Déyà last year as a teaser for the forthcoming Wetton box set.

It is really beautiful in my opinion.




This is the info from the youtube page:

Audio track of the original arrangement of Asia's "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (Parts I & II)," carefully re-constructed from various archival studio recordings.

"The Smile Has Left Your Eyes"
written by John Wetton
1982

The original John Wetton / Geoffrey Downes demo was recorded in Los Angeles, CA in early June of 1982.

In February of 1983, while tracking material for Asia's second album, ALPHA, at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Canada, John Wetton, Geoffrey Downes, Steve Howe, and Carl Palmer recorded "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (Parts I & II)."

The band ultimately decided to abandon this extended track and in April of 1983, they re-recorded a more concise version for release on ALPHA.

The track, as presented here, was painstakingly assembled from archival studio recordings of different reference mixes to showcase, as closely as possible, the most complete arrangement of "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (Parts I & II)"

This video contains a collection of video snippets of the original band edited to show the vitality of this short-lived era of the band.


TECHNICAL NOTES:
This is a "Frankenstein" version of the original band arrangement of "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes" written by John Wetton in 1982 for Geoffrey Downes.

This track was painstaking assembled from archival studio recordings of different reference mixes -- each with relative levels out of context.

Each tape had to be speed/time aligned to the best reference track available before attempting to try to phase cancel and mid/side mixing to extract a buried vocal or keyboard, for example, in order to mix the resulting track. In addition, each clip had to be EQ'd to match as closely as possible the released track so it could dovetail into the only part of the released recording used on this track... the final end-tag.... "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes."

There are multiple edits and a lot of mixing the various parts to counter overly-loud or soft elements all while ensuring drums/keyboard are aligned and not phasing.

This involved many sections to keep each separate track from slightly drifting.

While not perfect, it is the closest to the originally intended arrangement of the unfinished studio recordings.

[MudShark22]

While a technical marvel to reconstruct, the arrangement was better off shelved for the final album version.

Seems faster than album version too, but that could be a trick of the reconstruction.

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[gallen1964]

Actually preferred this version which is closer to my first exposure to this track at Wembley 82, along with the extended Midnight Sun , both were disappointing on the Alpha release, especially Midnight Sun. I spose live it hinted at more extended pieces for the next album , wonder how much pressure came from Geffen to keep things concise. I was a big Carl P fan and was surprised at how paired down his playing had become for Alpha. on the first album it's much more concise than ELP but retains some nice flourishes , these seemed to be gone for Alpha. It would be good to hear a remix of that album.

[MudShark22]

Well, as a general matter, everything is lesser on Alpha - Steve's ballsy tone cosigned to mothballs, Carl's'input' an afterthought, some xtra reverb for the already copious reverb...

While I agree re Midnight Sun, this one not so much.

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[ThomasKDye]

Yeah, to me, Part 1 is the song done to just piano and Geoff's fake orchestrations, and Part 2 is the same song with drums and bombast. While I like the song, the same patterns repeating just gets a bit old and I think they did the right thing by "combining" the two approaches into the one that eventually appeared on the album.

[jrw]

Actually preferred this version which is closer to my first exposure to this track at Wembley 82, along with the extended Midnight Sun , both were disappointing on the Alpha release, especially Midnight Sun. I spose live it hinted at more extended pieces for the next album , wonder how much pressure came from Geffen to keep things concise. I was a big Carl P fan and was surprised at how paired down his playing had become for Alpha. on the first album it's much more concise than ELP but retains some nice flourishes , these seemed to be gone for Alpha. It would be good to hear a remix of that album.

After seeing Midnight Sun performed live in 1982, I had high hopes for that song. The version on Alpha is quite the stink pickle.

I’m afraid there won’t be an Alpha remix. I think the early Asia master tapes were lost in the Universal fire some years ago. Downes alluded to it on Twitter.

[GuitarGeek]

After seeing Midnight Sun performed live in 1982, I had high hopes for that song. The version on Alpha is quite the stink pickle.

Are there any tapes of the original arrangement that was played on the first album tour in existence? I recall Steve saying in his guitar collection book that they all played keyboards on it. He said they tried doing that arrangement in the studio for the second album, but "it didn't work".

I also recall Steve saying that the guitar wasn't "allowed to stick it's neck out" on Alpha. I think he said there were multiple mixes of the album, which nobody was happy with. In the end, Mike Stone did the final mix, and none of the band were happy with that either.

I’m afraid there won’t be an Alpha remix. I think the early Asia master tapes were lost in the Universal fire some years ago. Downes alluded to it on Twitter.

Didn't just about everyone lose material in that fire?! Every time I look anyone up on Wikipedia, it seems there's a note that their among those whose recordings were destroyed in that fire.

As for The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, I don't get what I'm supposed to be listening to on this video. It sounds like a piano/vocal/synth demo (which mostly sounded pretty good), followed by a rather feeble full band arrangement of the exact same song. So is that what they were originally going to do on the album? Or was the second bit going to be used as a reprise later in the album, like saying having the album open with one version, and end with the other (shades of Rust Never Sleeps, perhaps?).

Personally, I prefer the version that's on the album, though I've always thought it would have been great if the song started with piano instead of synths, .

BTW, where did all that footage of the band with Wetton come from? I suspect the footage of him playing the Ibanez bass was from the Live In Moscow thing from the late 80's, but what about the stuff where he's playing the Gibson Victory bass and Downes comes running out with the Moog Liberation? I thought I had read there was no footage from the original band's original existence.

[peterpyser]

Are there any tapes of the original arrangement that was played on the first album tour in existence? I recall Steve saying in his guitar collection book that they all played keyboards on it. He said they tried doing that arrangement in the studio for the second album, but "it didn't work".

As for The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, I don't get what I'm supposed to be listening to on this video. It sounds like a piano/vocal/synth demo (which mostly sounded pretty good), followed by a rather feeble full band arrangement of the exact same song. So is that what they were originally going to do on the album? Or was the second bit going to be used as a reprise later in the album, like saying having the album open with one version, and end with the other (shades of Rust Never Sleeps, perhaps?).

Midnight Sun from the first tour (1982) is available on the Live In Buffalo official bootleg:

https://www.discogs.com/Asia-Live-In...elease/7475779

Also, in that first 1982 tour The Smile Has Left Your Eyes was premiered and it was performed as you hear it on the video above.
Here's a bad audience recording of the 1982 italian gig (the song starts at 46:30):

[jrw]

I’m wanting to say that during the reunion years, perhaps the Omega and XXX tours, that the played part one of “Smile” with just Wetton and Downes. Howe and Palmer joined for Part 2 as in the first video.

[roylayer]

Very nice!

[calyx]

In his autobiography, which I've just finished reading, Steve Howe says that the band were sent mixes of the album while on tour (I think) and that they didn't like what they heard much, whether the mix itself or the fact that intros & outros with more instrumental bits had ended up on the cutting room floor, so to speak. They ordered a remix, which only partially addressed the issues, but none of the excised bits were restored. Not that large chunks of extra stuff had been recorded at all, or extended middle sections etc. But even those rare breathing spaces had been left out.

[dregsfan]

I think this parts I and II version was only played live in Europe. I saw the 1982 tour twice in NA (Minneapolis and Chicago) and IIRC, the version played was only part I.

[Paulrus]

As for The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, I don't get what I'm supposed to be listening to on this video. It sounds like a piano/vocal/synth demo (which mostly sounded pretty good), followed by a rather feeble full band arrangement of the exact same song.

Yeah, Pt 1 is likely the original Wetton/Downes demo and Pt 2 is an alternate studio arrangement from the full band that was nixed in favor of what eventually ended up on the record. Which was a smart move. Asia had a bad habit of bludgeoning rhythms to death, which this is also guilty of.

[BravadoNJ]

a good way to give the song new life. i believe this is from the Live In Moscow CD.
what i always liked about the original version was it has a unique arrangement.