Disco de Asia: “Night of the Rising Sun”

BEWARE!!! THIS SELLER rare_cd DEALS IN ILLEGAL CDR'S. I MADE A PURCHASE IN GOOD FAITH OF THIS ASIA CD AND THIS SELLER SENT ME A COMPUTER GENERATED CDR! WHILE AMAZON SELLS SOME TITLES THEY ARE CLEARLY MARKED AND LICENSED AS AMAZON ON DEMAND CDR'S. THIS SELLER IS LIABLE TO SELL YOU A PRODUCT AS COLLECTABLE AT FULL PRICE WHILE HE MAKES THEM IN HIS HOME FOR A QUARTER. YOU CAN BURN YOUR OWN! BEWARE!!!!!! I FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO BELIEVE ASIA WOULD TOLERATE THIS AND I HAVE EVERYTHING ASIA HAS ISSUED AND, WHILE NOT ALL HAVE THE BEST SOUND QUALITY, THIS IS "THE ONLY ONE" THAT CAME AS A CDR!!!! DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT BUY FROM SELLER rare_cd AS THE ONLY THING RARE IS HIS RIP-OFF TECHNIQUE!

Be aware, this is a reissue of Asia's "Live at Budokan" under a different name. For Asia fans, this is a worthwhile disk for the collection, especially for the Steve Howe keyboard solo and the Geoffrey Downes keyboard solo, which of course are not found on studio albums.

This is a bootleg quality recording of the MTV special "Asia in Asia". This reissue is slightly better than the Live at the Budokan initial issue. It is like a really bad soundboard recording. But, for fans of Asia it may be an essential recording to have. The reason for that is it is the only release with Greg Lake taking the place of John Wetton, shortly after the Alpha album was released. My understanding is that things went so well at this concert that Greg was asked to join permanently, but differences arose quickly as Greg wanted to write longer tracks and the real strength of the band was that they could write short, sophisticated pop-style songs and still be a factor in the changing music scene of the early 1980's, though their pedigree was definitely from the progressive / symphonic rock arena.

The bonus on this release is that there are four tracks at the end that feature John Wetton in the group and at least one of these tracks was recorded after Steve Howe left the group. The quality of these tracks is horrible but clearly of interest, anyway.

While Amazon has listed the tracks as mentioned on the CD, there are actually 15 tracka, not 12 to be had. They are:

1. The Heat Goes On

2. Here Comes the Feeling

3. Eye to Eye

4. Steve Howe solo

5. Only Time Will Tell

6. Open Your Eyes

7. Geoff Downes solo

8. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes

9. Wildest Dreams

10. Heat of the Moment

11. Soul Survivor

The above tracks are with Greg Lake. The remaining tracks are with John Wetton.

12. Without You

13. Don't Cry

14. Cutting It Fine

15. Heat of the Moment

Many of us who were listening to Yes, King Crimson and ELP were taken aback by what was a clear change in course. It was like the Buggles were thrown into the mix and what came out was unbelievably good. I only wish that Asia really put out a high quality release of this concert. I know that it marked a bump in the road with John Wetton, but this concert was one of the highlights of their early phase and if you saw the concert you could see all the musicians were happy and relieved that it went so well. They were pumped!! A video would be great, too.

I rented the video Asia in Asia back in the 1980s, when Asia were at the peak of their popularity. I loved this video. They were energetic performers, and one of the most interesting aspects was the replacement of John Wetton with Greg Lake. This was a brilliant idea, and as a fan of prog rock, seemed like an inspired choice. Greg Lake has a similar range and singing style as Wetton, and I thought he acquitted himself very well, given that the gig was foisted on him at the last minute before a live international performance broadcast on MTV. Thus, Asia included 2/5 of Yes and 2/3 of ELP that night. Unfortunately, Asia has never re-issued the video, and I'm not even sure whether this is a band-sanctioned album. Often bands don't even have exclusive rights for these kinds of performances, especially performances in overseas venues where copyright laws are looser. I always wished this were available, and was delighted to get an audio-only version.

For me, the fun of this recording is hearing how another accomplished singer approaches the material in Wetton's stead. Another reviewer reported a poor-quality CD from this vendor. I had no such problems; I received a regular CD, and have no complaints. Note that this is a live performance, from an era when "live" pretty much meant an actual performance. Listeners who expect live recordings to include plenty of studio overdubs, do-overs, and vocals drained of all passion by Autotune will be disappointed. On the other hand, I expect those who enjoy bona fide live music as I do will have standards appropriate to the medium. The mix is a little rough, but can't suppress Greg Lake, who sings like he owns the music.