Why do so many Yes fans seem to hate Asia?

[Ash Armstrong]

Yup. Great stuff on that trio of albums. Lyrics and Music. Love the dichotomy of ‘soft, hard, slow, fast’ through out that trilogy. And I hold firm he, Wetton, sang with great feeling. And he only got better over time.

I only know Palmer-james from those albums. I confess I never delved into his protects prior, of which Wetton was involved. I really should!!! Especially being a JW
fan. I need to remedy that. 😊

Incidentally, do you know the Unthanks rendition of Starless? It's on YT, and on their 2011 album Last. Beautiful album. I'm hoping to go and see them live later this year.

[Ash Armstrong]

Yup. Great stuff on that trio of albums. Lyrics and Music. Love the dichotomy of ‘soft, hard, slow, fast’ through out that trilogy. And I hold firm he, Wetton, sang with great feeling. And he only got better over time.

I only know Palmer-james from those albums. I confess I never delved into his protects prior, of which Wetton was involved. I really should!!! Especially being a JW
fan. I need to remedy that. 😊

Palmer James was an original member of Supertramp.

[Gtkgasman]

Almost all of the lyrics on the three King Crimson studio albums that Wetton was on were written by Richard Palmer James, a very good lyricist.
As far as I know he's still around.

Yup. Great stuff on that trio of albums. Lyrics and Music. Love the dichotomy of ‘soft, hard, slow, fast’ through out that trilogy. And I hold firm he, Wetton, sang with great feeling. And he only got better over time.

I only know Palmer-james from those albums. I confess I never delved into his protects prior, of which Wetton was involved. I really should!!! Especially being a JW. More familiar with his collab later with JW.
fan. I need to remedy that. 😊

[Homemade Parachute]

Almost all of the lyrics on the three King Crimson studio albums that Wetton was on were written by Richard Palmer James, a very good lyricist.
As far as I know he's still around.

Kind of interesting that Crimson's had, what, six vocalists, but really just three lyricists, only one of whom, Belew, actually sang his own words… Sinfield was clearly his own thing, a very acquired (or not!) taste, Belew as well being more outside the prog tradition, and Palmer James the hardest to maybe classify in terms of a style or thematic approach? In some ways you kind of feel Fripp is just indifferent to the words, or at least letting them be outside his realm of concern…

[Ash Armstrong]

Not always the best lyrics. Yep, I have to agree on that. BUT, that being said I never seemed to care with Wetton Just me I suppose. Wetton could sing happy birthday and i was good with it. Lol. And I think he did song with great feeling in KC also - Starless is excellent!

Almost all of the lyrics on the three King Crimson studio albums that Wetton was on were written by Richard Palmer James, a very good lyricist.
As far as I know he's still around.

[Soundchaser413]

If the title was "why the indifference towards Asia" it wouldn't have received as much attention. Everyone knows provocative titles get more attention. Anyway, the main point is many of you don't care much for Asia regardless of whether you want to say hate, are indifferent to or "don't like that much." I think they were/are a good band. I don't expect Styx, Led Zeppelin, Boston, Deep Purple, Genesis, Santana, The Who, Pink Floyd, ELP or whoever else to sound like Yes and I never expected Asia to sound like Yes either. Did Circa sound like Yes? Did The Moody Blues with Patrick Moraz sound like Yes? Do the solo albums by any Yes members sound like Yes(maybe some but not all)? Enjoy things for what they are. If you don't like it because you just don't like it fine but I get tired of people complaining they don't like it because they expected it to sound like classic Yes.

[Chris2210]

Orchard of Mines is a great cover- in large part down to Wetton's delivery. No idea what the lyrics mean on that, but as any Yes fan knows, that can be a good thing...

[Gtkgasman]

Not always the best lyrics. Yep, I have to agree on that. BUT, that being said I never seemed to care with Wetton Just me I suppose. Wetton could sing happy birthday and i was good with it. Lol. And I think he did song with great feeling in KC also - Starless is excellent!

[Chris2210]

The first is a finely polished pop rock album - good tunes and great arrangements. Sole Survivor is a good snapshot - the lyrics are absolutely awful - there's bathos presumably without intention. But the guitar! Howe is absolutely on fire. So I'm appreciating the music on a very superficial level. But despite it not being particularly deep in thematic significance there is depth in the music making. Alpha is a bit of a decline in the material, but Midnight Sun is possibly my favourite track from the whole catalogue and I still listen fairly frequently - the closing counterpoint is something I'm just a sucker for and I always wonder with regret if there was much more of that quality from Howe that was removed in the mix - he was still at the very height of his form as purely an electric guitarist. The best ever in my book - so that's always worth having.

I don't really know the material sans Howe - none of it grabbed me much because it began to sound just too generic for my tastes. The comeback albums have decent moments on them, but by XXX Howe was seemingly only present in name and the only thing that stands out from that collection is just how awful Wetton's lyrics are. Just a string of cliches that occasionally are funny for all the wrong reasons [cf Emily]. They never quite reach the heights of accidental hilarity of Syndestructible, but they give it a good old school try.

I really like Wetton's voice and he always sings with real conviction, but his lyric writing is the equivalent of James Cameron's or George Lucas' script writing. While we're at it, I'll throw in Julian Fellowes who I suspect is ghostwritten by a naive 12 year old female relative.

[Soundwaveseeker]

Wetton's lead vocals got better and better as he aged. And that was on Asia's watch. Clear as a bell. Listen to his emotional delivery on Orchard Of Mines from Phoenix and the slower/near-acoustic version of I Know How You Feel from XXX(poor title for an album, never call your album X or XXX or XVI any Roman numeral!!). Emotional. He didn't sound like that in King Crimson, as much as I like prog and Crimson. I would say the closest he got to pop or at least Wetton at his most simplified would be Battle Lines and his duo collaboration with Phil Manzanera.

If somebody gets nothing out of Asia or American AOR bands, well I suppose I can respect that, everybody has their own taste. Music is formatted to each individual's DNA. It works individually and some people require different musical nutrients than others. Some people actually like hip hop and gangsta rap. Not my bag of oranges, but to each their own. But surely Kansas can't be lumped in with bland 3-chord alterno-grunge, autotuned dance-pop soundalikes or yawn-inducing moan-strummers with plaid pants. Song For America title track(1975) is like Heart Of The Sunrise. You'd be surprised at some of Kansas' material. Good stuff. Same with Styx, some stuff can be seen as ridiculous, but some of their best is consistent with the quality of Yes music. Equinox through Pieces Of Eight is some fine stuff, that was Styx at peak powers before they started to implode on themselves. So much music out there, so much to either take into our hearts or reject as not being in line with our own taste or expectations. Its all good either way. Rock on, y'all.

[Ceasar’s Palace]

I agree with the opinion too commercial, shallow pop. But..... there is an emotional aspect to it for me. Because I became a fan ca 1979. That means that when I started following them real time, the band was slowly falling apart. So when Asia popped up, I really, really, really wanted them to be “the son of Yes.”
So I was probably more sympathetic to the music than I would have been, had there been no Yes connection. And that could be why I do like a few songs on the debut, and still want to see these a Yessy.

[Gtkgasman]

I think it was clear from the outset that they were steering towards commercial success in North America, filling arenas, getting radio airplay, etc. Those media and concert outlets existed in abundance across that continent, but not over here in the UK, where they all came from.
That perhaps they sought to emulate the success and musical stylisations of US generic soundalike arena bands like Styx, Boston, Journey, Kansas, Toto, and who knows how many other bands who named themselves after their city of origin, or named themselves trying to sound deep and mystical and too clever by half, is one reason why I never took to their music at all.
There's no 'hate' involved, however; disappointment, yes, indifference, certainly: a measure of despondency at knowing where these musicians had come from and previously achieved in the realm of sonic design and musical architecture, compared to what they seemingly preferred to pursue under the Asia banner? Absolutely.
Is that comparable to what happened with other former member of Yes in that decade? Undoubtedly.
Entirely a personal view of course, nothing more, and of no intrinsic consequence, but when music-makers I'd hitherto followed keenly, and whose music I'd enjoyed enormously, shift their craft to making music I don't care for in the slightest, I tend to stop listening. Life's too brief to squander it in those ways.

I gotta totally disagree on Boston - Boston’s first album is a perfect listen. And Kansas.....come on. Journey is good for what it is - I can’t be sitting in a bar and listening to just Prog. World needs some fun, some hooks, some difference.......

We cant agree on everything I suppose. 😉

This thread looks like a little backhanded slap at my continent. 😊. But I can take it. 🇺🇸

As for Asia. Never compared them to yes, kc, elp - just enjoyed them for who they were. Anthems of the time we were in And as I posted in other threads, give me Wetton vocals all day long..........Ride Easy

[brianos]

Asia was my favorite band in the early 80s - I was in my early teens, just starting high school. I knew of Yes, but was too young to follow them in their heyday, so when Asia hit the scene their pedigrees were interesting, but didn't set any expectations for me. I just knew I liked the singles & videos I was seeing on MTV. In a lot of ways Asia became my "gateway" to dig deeper into the back catalogues of Yes, ELP, UK, Crimson...

[Gilly Goodness]

70's : Progsnobs sit on the ground in rapture

80's : Disco gets everyone back up and dancing.
So prog goes pop and dance-friendly

90's : Grunge loses the glam

00's : Gave up noticing pop culture

10's : ....

20's : The Quest renews the concept of beauty.
( with 3/4 of ASIA if you include Billy ) )

[josuev80]

Prog snobs who couldn't understand and/or tolerate the concept of the band and its music when they debuted in a vastly different decade from the previous one. Much like YesWest.