By 1982, the record companies no longer were interested in sophisticated extended progressive rock songs. Asia packed so much into these shorter songs - amazing the Asia album was the most sold album in the US that year.
@@gilbertspader7974 Very dense, largely because the keyboard orchestrations are off the chain so much of the time. I always thought that Carl Palmer's bass drums sounded weirdly tubby on every track.
Asia took a lot of heat of Genesis that was getting all the slings and arrows after Gabriel left. I always found Asia Pop Prog. It wasn't pop but it was classic Prog. They did a good job being unique and having some complexity. My big problem with the 'Prog Snobs' is they crap on it because it isn't Close the Edge, Red, Trilogy, etc....... They discount it greatly but when you ask them to play it, say Heat of the Moment they are in the wrong key, miss the time change or completely butcher the outro guitar solo, especially the falsettos.
Produced by Mike Stone, who I had the pleasure of spending one 40-hour week with at The Record Plant recording studio Los Angeles in early '81. I was 18 and for my Senior Project in high school, I got to work there and explore what it could be like be a recording engineer. He told me to be on the lookout for a new album he had recently finished to hit the stores soon, a group called "Asia"!
@@DrMackSplackem The album being worked on and finished while I was there was a solo album by Tom Johnston (if you remember, he was away from the Doobie Brothers at this point and not-too-successfully fighting his personal demons). When Stone told me about the Asia album,, other than telling me their name and that it was going to be a great rock album, he said nothing else about them. So I had it in my mind that it was literally a band from somewhere in Asia, and that didn't interest me. I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, when I heard "Heat of the Moment" and made the connection!
@@michaelrouten6169 Nice! Thank you for relaying that info. I wish I could've been there as well, but at least that record I've had all this time is even more precious now.
I believe you are correct. It’s interesting, while listening to it in the moment, I heard it the other way, but listening to it again, I do think you are correct. 🙂
I have seldom heard an album with a Roger Dean cover that I did not like. His books with his art, like Views and Dragon's Dream, are worth their money, so inspiring.
Well, Doug, one more thing you should do is listen to their other big hit from Asia's first album, which is Only Time Will Tell. Another big song from their next album is Don't Cry and worth listening to. They have other good songs, like the song titled Go from their third album. Definitely some good songs from them in the 2000's. Faithful, I Know How You Feel and Face On The Bridge are good songs plus others. Asia is a great band worth giving more of a listen to.
Yep, wildest dreams and time again are great songs to dwell. I always loved Asia, saw them in 2007 in Lisbon. Love John Wetton, RIP. I think they were the first band to broadcast a live concert in MTV, from Japan. Available on You Tube.
You should give that whole album a listen, there are some progressive gems in there, Wildest Dreams being the most successful and one that would be a great “react to”. Top to bottom, one of the best albums from the 80’s.
Asia is one of my all time favorite bands. So sad that John Wetton is no longer with us. I would highly recommend you check out their second album, Alpha.
@@ericcire7709 Oh yeah should have mentioned Phoenix as well! For some reason I missed that one when I realized not long ago that they had done a bunch of new albums with Whetton back!
Asia have been consistently releasing excellent material, my favorite being Phoenix released in 2008. Heroine and An Extraordinary Life are absolutely beautiful tunes.
Phoenix is a fantastic album, It is pure ASIA at their best and probably more "progressive" sound. But check out Omega and XXX they too are really good albums.
As a die-heart fan of this wonderful band, i need to tell you that "nothing's forever" always gets me (specially the end with the guitar and keyboards)... And the cover of "orchard of mines" (globus song) with a brilliant arrangement It Is glad to find someone, capable of getting the spirit of this remarkable album, starting with the mitic bird and the landscape painted by Roger Dean, and ending with the beautyful "an extraordinary life" Kind regards from México
In '83, as they were planning a tour of Japan, Wetton fell off the wagon hard and the band let him go. They were going to be live-broadcasting one show on MTV, so it was a real crisis for this band. They brought in Greg Lake on very short notice and paid him a fortune to fill in. Videos of Greg on lead vocals and bass are available on RU-vid. It's a fraught topic for Asia fans. Wetton's and Lake's vocal ranges are a bit different, and Greg had some trouble with the higher parts. Some say he killed it, and others say it isn't Asia without Wetton. It's also worth mentioning that Carl Palmer was replaced with Cozy Powell for the ELPowell album because he was finishing up his obligation to Asia. He seems to harbor some resentment about that from what I've heard him say in interviews. He says it was only a matter of waiting for him for a few weeks. Also interesting is the fact that Greg was King Crimson's first vocalist and John was their fourth, so John ended up singing KC songs Greg had.
The original release was on a VHS Videocassette and Laserdisc, and called "Asia in Asia" (how old does that make me sound?) in 1984. Fortunately because the show was a live satellite broadcast, the sound was mixed separately for the Budokan auditorium and then fed out to the TV trucks, where it was bounced down to a MONO signal before being sent to the transmitting dish. It was only then artificially separated to 2-channel stereo for the broadcast relay at the satellite receiving station Stateside. This was necessary because the show was being syndicated to around 240 local radio stations via Westwood One, and it was not technically possible to broadcast the stereo signal over the satellite link. The stereo sound and video required different frequency bands and it would not be easy to remain synchronised with each other. Remember this pre-dates the introduction of NICAM (near instantaneous companded audio matrix). The original VHS used the broadcast relay sound, i.e. the simulated 'artificial' stereo. The 2022 BMG release replaces this with a remastered version of the much higher fidelity auditorium sound, except for "Time Again", which is in the original mono. However, persevere as far as track 3 and you are back in the Budokan stereo mix and the subsequent tracks sound quality is vastly improved. Budokan translates as "Martial Arts Hall" and was built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to host the Judo competition. It was totally unfit for live satellite concert broadcasts, and a bespoke control room had to built at the rear of the auditorium to turn it into effectively a TV studio. The band brought in their stage set from the US Tour with some modifications - you'll notice Greg uses two video prompters in the concert but even so he fluffs a few lines (singing them in the wrong order mostly) - given he only had around 6-7 weeks to learn the music and lyrics, and rehearse the show, and then do it all live in front of an audience of millions, he pretty much nailed it.
Always thought “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes” from their second album was such a gorgeous song … “The Very Best of Asia” compilation is actually a good representation of their best work if you’d like to dig deeper.
Holdsworth, Bruford, Jobson, Wetton, need i say more? yes, i do, Jobson, Wetton, Bozzio. Two outstanding records that got missed by too many. the live album is also so underrated.
Their first album is really good with many gems. I was lucky enough to see this lineup live in London sometime in 2008 I think. They played this whole album, an unforgettable experience.
As one who lived through it, that song was absolutely inescapable at the time. It was one that I didnt' think I'd ever be able to listen to again. But, after a good 30 years away, it was fun to watch it with you! Yeah, they sold a lot of those records. Love your channel, Doc!
I haven't heard this song in many years! I still have their first album I bought when it came out. Great sound! I didn't realize Roger Dean created the cover art. Now that I know, I can definitely see it. Thanks again for another excellent, and informative, reaction!
Doug your analysis always makes me view the music differently. My recollection of Asia was that it seemed a bit “stodgy” to me as I favored Yes with Trevor Rabin during this time period. Steve Howe always seemed stiff to me with his playing with Asia. But I enjoyed your breakdown here, makes me appreciate Asia differently.
You can't imagine how big this song and album were. I was just starting high school when it came out on the radio and it was instantly the song that everyone was requesting. You heard it playing from every car in the parking lot. You heard people humming it in the hallways. It was massive. I loved it instantly as well. So much so that when I was at a carnival I won a novelty mirror and it had the Asia album cover art on it. I still have that mirror too.
I used to play Hammond and other keyboards in a band over in Rutland, England in about 2011 - 2013, and were very much looked after by a management company who oversaw ASIA, Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, FOCUS, Uriah Heep etc. It's no overstatement to say that we were massively influenced by such bands and in 2012 we were able to make use of the management's studio and recorded by Steve Rispin, who is currently doing the sound on tour for Steve Hackett of Genesis. To see musical dissections like this is amazing. During recording our album, we saw and used instruments that musicians from these bands both used/owned, and equally had a couple pop by the studio whilst we were recording (Martin Turner, John Wetton) Memories that I'll never forget!
What sucks about Asia is that they did exactly what the radio stations wanted, and these beautiful songs just don't have the depth to listen to over and over again. If they had worked the rifts from two or three tracks into one longer track, the transitions would have made something really deep, but as a bunch of fairly simple discrete songs, the album gets old, fast. I listened to this album once, maybe twice, when it came out, and I've never listened to it since, or will ever again. When I heard they didn't change their format on their later albums, I didn't bother buying another. The record companies want disposable music that just leaves people hungry for more. If all disposable music was this good, my only problem would be that I can't afford buying new stuff all the time. The real problem is that searching for good music uses a lot of time, and when this kind of talent is wasted on disposable fluff, you really feel betrayed.
Don't forget Carl Palmer was in The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, a fun and crazy band, as well as Atomic Rooster, a great band in its own right that did a bunch more great albums after Carl left. Check 'em out!
Astra album from Asia has very similar THX -deep note hit - on count down to zero not certain if it homage or influence or licensed but fit the song well as opener hit
This was written to sell singles and albums. Which it did very well. Like you said, ploished, simple, infectious...and the exact opposite of what we were expecting from them. If someone asked you what rock music sounded like in 1982 you showed them this song. I've got the cd...around here someplace! Don't forget about the group "GTR". Formed to try and put the guitar back in the fore-front, when synthesisers, drum machines and production technics were taking over.
One of my favourite groups of all time - favourite track is probably "Don't Cry" from the "Alpha" album although there are loads of brilliant tracks - "Soul Survivor", "Who will stop the rain?" and "Wishing". "Heat of the Moment" is probably one of their simplest tracks (but I do like the track) 🥰
Saw the original Asia 4 times. Twice in 1982. Once at the Tower and then 3 months or so later at the Spectrum in Philly. The following year for Alpha before Wetton was fired, again at the Spectrum. and 2008 for their reunion stint at the Whitacker Center in Harrisburg, PA. I love all the bands they are from and this band as well. They made prog songs into 3 and a half minute hits. Never understood why a lot of prog fans didn't care for them. So silly. They figured out how to make prog accessible to people who didn't like prog. That's genius.
Exactly. Asia are in the Bon Jovi / Van Halen / Boston / Foreigner / Queen category of Rock. There's nothing prog about them, although some of the post-reunion material on Phoenix starts to get a bit like Yes in places. One thing that characterizes Asia is Wetton's extensive multi-tracked vocals, which he himself acknowledged was a tribute to Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys era of "Pet Sounds". Wetton's major influences, in addition to the Beach Boys, were Chuck Berry, Eagles, Marvin Gaye, Steely Dan, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Steve Winwood.
That would have been something. Howe was on fire all over this album and I think this is the only album of the two of his initial go-round that has any significant Howe writing on it.
And when your looks are gone and you're alone How many nights you sit beside the phone What were the things you wanted for yourself Teenage ambitions you remember well
Db... Is what you get when a guitarist comes up with some simple chord progression in C. Everybody likes it, but then the singer says "Could you play it a half-step higher?" 😃
My eldest brother bought it back then, I consumed that cassette while listing back and forth. Great album!. I can suggest Wildest Dreams, there's a marvelous solo from Palmer.
Finally!!!! You need to react for.this wonderful group, tracks More elaborated such "Time again", or "the heat goes on", "midnight sun" But if sometime you could react to "lying to yourself" you will find a lot of musicianship encapsulated on less than 5 minutes "Heat of the moment" was a last and a hurry composition for the ephonimous album, by the way, that talks about the vast capabilities of these 4 musicians Kind regards from México
Thoroughly enjoy what you've been doing for the last few years here. If you haven't already - and I've tried a search and can't see it - you should have a go at UK's first album (imaginatively called 'UK') and, specifically, the Dead Of Night suite. It's the (super)group John Wetton was in immediately before Asia. UK's first incarnation was John Wetton (King Crimson, Uriah Heep, Roxy Music), Eddie Jobson (Curved Air, Zappa, Roxy, King Crimson, Jethro Tull), Allan Holdsworth (Soft Machine, Tony Williams Lifetime, Jean-Luc Ponty) and Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Bruford, Earthworks and many others). It's a thing of beauty and magnificence, and a pity the band split after the first tour with Wetton and Jobson continuing as a 3 piece with one-time Zappa drummer, Terry Bozzio.
I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when they debuted. With Steve Howe on guitar and Wetton singing I guess I set my expectations too high and hoped for something like mid-1970s YES with complex structured tracks. HEAT OF... was very simply structured and didn't carry my interest for long. LOVED Wetton with UK.
A little historical perspective. Around the end of the 70s the music scene was changing rapidly. After Punk, bands like Yes, ELP, and Led Zeppelin, had a rough time. Yes had not met Trevor Rabin yet, ELP had ceased to exist, and we all know about John Bonham. Asia was corporate rock at its finest. John Wetton had just ended UK so there was a lot possibilities. Newly formed Geffen Records signed a deal with long time manager Brian Lane. Before Howe and Downes was approached Geffen had reached out to Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman but nothing came of it.Quite a turbulent time for proggers!! Oh yeah, and Genesis…..BTW ASIA was the first concert I ever attended, at The Legendary Philadelphia Air-Conditioned Spectrum! Americas Showplace! RIP 😞
Sometimes even the most technically monstrous musicians want to write some "simple" pop songs. That's ASIA. Consider that ASIA was likely a gateway group for many people to find King Crimson, YES, ELP
Doug - I could be wrong, but sometimes bands like Lizzy, Extreme, Biffy Clyro detune the guitars a semitone (half step), so the keyboard might be in Db but the guitars could all be playing in D. The opening power chord sounds like a D major!
First time I heard of Asia existence I thought that they would be the ultimate prog group, the proggest of all, based on their musicians... such a dispointment to me was to actually hear their music (lol)... just anothe AOR band with not so much of prog on it... Doug, you could also check the GTR supergroup, with Steve Howe and Steve Hackett on it... just don't expect much of it (lol again).
"Time Again" off this album sounds like something off of Yes's /Drama/ album, but absolutely resentful. It's the Asia song that I heard first, and from them I eventually worked my way back through Yes and ELP. I wouldn't *know* about, let alone enjoy, progressive rock, were it not for this album serving as a wonderfully pleasant, gentle introduction.
I second the recommendation that you check out the eponymous debut from U.K. The initial line-up was the late Wetton and Bill Bruford, along with violin and keyboards from Eddie Jobson - and the unearthly guitar talent that was the late Allan Holdsworth: a mix of jazz/prog, from a quartet of ace players. Some "icing on the cake" is it will expose you to the Yamaha CS-80 synth, which was just developed around that time.
In his memoires Steve Howe states that the sessions to record a Yes album with Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, which eventually led to "Drama" with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, fell into huge gap between ideas. So perhaps this band reflects them. Please, check out the band U.K and the song "Nevermore". The band has John Wetton on bass & vocals, Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Eddie Jobson keyboards and violin, Bill Bruford drums. So it is a supergroup but Bill Bruford called it "rock band with fancy chords". He also has stated that U.K was in many ways a predecessor to Asia. Tight pop / rock style with solid songwriting and playing.
I always found it interesting that 4 non-Asian British guys call themselves "ASIA" and 5 non-Asian British guys call themselves "JAPAN" (though JAPAN had some collaboration w/ the late Ryuichi Sakamoto).
I thought Asia was a "supergroup" that we didn't ask for or need (and boring official video)...and still don't .. the only postive offering imo was the great album art by Roger Dean... 10:30 ... superstars in their other bands...doesn't necessarily follow their combination would be "super"
Easy for prog fabs to overlook this much as they do 1980s Yes music. But John Wetton wrote the biggest single off the biggest album of 1982. Doubtless made him much more money than his previous projects. Saw them perform this in the early 2000s. A well produced gig featuring songs from their respective bands.
It was after the punk scene, many other established prog groups were putting out shorter, radio friendly songs around this time. And many completely remade their sound/identity; Yes, Genesis, Moody Blues, etc. etc. Crosby Stills & Nash were considered a supergroup as was Cream, Capt. Beyond, Cactus...
This was for many Pro- rock music and Classic rock fans a …………… disaster, many were disappointed. Were those years when the music was in every direction. Like I said many were crying seeing how their music world was crumbling. 82-83 were the years when Yes, Rush The Police, Styx and many others tried to “ create “ new music Sad
This was most popular radio song , but many others are much better. “Wildest Dreams”, Here Comes the Feeling, Sole Survivor are just a few. Yes they’re simpler, but truly well constructed and easy to rock to.
Well, I remember when the album came out. The new thing was the very clear sound like the Japan pressings of some LPs. But musically: For me a disaster and especially Palmers drum-playing and Howes guitar (latter only in some tracks) where just a shadow of their skills. Heat of the moment ist just as terrible as Love beach from ELP, but they had success with it. Sad period of music. The only album from 1982 that is worth a hearing for me is Broadsword from Jethro Tull. Sorry, just my 2 cents…
Now thats somehow hillarious, that you have picket anything from Asia. I highly recommand "Without You" or "Cutting It Fine" for your purposes to follow suite here.
IMHO, it was simple because they searched success… But I like Asia, good songs, nice to listen to. But they are not really as interesting as the prog bands like Yes, King Crimson, Gentle Giant or ELP…
Nice! This was there biggest, true, also "Only time will tell" were famous. But if you want to hear some more interesting structures and creativity I suggest you to try some other songs on the Album such as "Time again" "Wildest Dreams" "Cutting it fine", "Here comes the feeling" or "Sole Survivor" you will discover more from their adventurous past 😉
