Reassessing GTR

I remember hearing Howe playing "Sketches In The Sun" on the "Asia in Asia" concert (the one with Greg Lake). It's a great piece for sure...not sure how long he had it in the bag before finally recording it for the GTR album.

 

lol. I'm not one of them, it's just that his face is on the cover and it was the first time he really talked about his former group in detail (and that made it a must-read), so whenever I see the GTR review mentioned, my mind sees the cover of the magazine.

 

Question of the hour--how does Squackett compared to GTR?

 

Thanks, I checked out some yt tracks and yeah

 

Night and day, which doesn't mean it's more prog. Combine the style of a recent Hackett solo album with Squire's Conspiracy records.

 

Whenever I hear GTR mentioned, this is exactly what comes to my mind, within a split second. Musician Magazine review if I recall correctly,

 

I think the album is phenomenal! I have the Japan for USA Arista pressing, the One Way remaster and the King Biscuit live disc.

 

You don't happen to post at Prog Archives, do you?

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=814

 

Not me, no. I do post sometimes at progressiveears, though.

 

Good. The review referenced "Hackett to Bits" as "a vile bastardization" and was rather extreme. Steve Hackett has as much right to copy himself as Mick & Keith.

 

GTR's self-titled album is one of my favorite albums. I played the hell out of this record when it came out and drove my friends mad. LOL

 

I do like Conspiracy. I like Fish out of Water. Heck, I like Esquire. Time to check out Squackett. Probably the Circa albums, too, while I'm at it.

 

i thought this was a major disapointment when it came out. Max Bacon's voice was too shrill. The sound was way too overproduced and compressed. It was on Arista, which means it was old guys previously successful repackaged as pop renaissance, thanks to Clive Davis, who is awful. I love Genesis, Asia, and Yes, and years later after GTR, 3, and Emerson, Lake and Powell (which had its good moments), when are they going to stop squeezing the lemon?

There are a couple cool bits of guitar, but the rest is crap. I paid $14 for this in 85, I want a refund! Just kidding!

 

As a big Howe fan who was a little too young to see Yes before the Drama drama brought that incarnation of the band to an end, I really enjoyed the GTR live show, having missed an opportunity to catch Asia a number of years prior. The Steves' arsenal of guitars was a sight to behold.

The album, though, is one in a long line of diminishing returns as the prog stalwarts endlessly recombined themselves throughout the '80s. I love Asia's debut, 90125, and even Alpha, but Astra, GTR, ELPowell, 3........ugh. The decade just got worse as it went along, with the only reprieve coming from ABWH, but even that one only has flashes of brilliance. Big Generator has its moments, I suppose. Nevertheless, I hung in there with it all, for better or worse; mostly worse.

 

What/who was "3"?

Never mind. Figured it out. Not sure if I remember the song, though.

 

Howe and Hackett on Good Morning America. Both are good sports. Softball questions from an interviewer who obviously is going cold off a script and has no idea who they are:

 

Steve Howe should have been the singer. He's a great singer.

 

No he's not, but he may be preferable to Max Bacon

 

I liked them for some reason, I liked "When the Heart Rules the Mind" a lot when it was on the radio. I watched that MTV clip and liked "Jekyll and Hyde."

The singer here might be the problem. I could have sworn Max Bacon was from the US. Nope. The material probably needed a grittier, less polished voice.

 

You've already had your say.
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...e-new-lead-singer-in-yes.324941/#post-9193981

 

Usually I'm not a big proponent of remixing, but in this case I'll make an exception.

 

You summed it up better than I did. There was this period of the 80s with Astra, GTP, ELPowell, 3, "new Asia" and a couple others, I thought, " what are you guys doing? you aren't pop stars or are even good at it"

Fortunately, Yes did some nice albums later (Magnification, The Ladder, etc) and old Asia regrouped years later. ABWH was a welcome relief, but being issued on Arista, I thought they might force them work with Whitney Houston to make it more "accessible"! I was really concerned I wasted $12 again. Fortunately there was Fish-era Marillion to make up for it for prog fans.

 

Interestingly enough, the One Way remaster of this was one of my first major experiences with "ICK! REMASTERED IS NOT BETTER!" wow.......

 

These displaced progressive rockers (they were still relatively young), they had the talent, but the landscape had changed. It's not as if they could repeat any patterns from the 70's. So, they had to change course to continue with their careers. What we understood to be "progressive" was totally out of fashion during that era.

To suggest that they were trying to become pop stars isn't totally accurate either. These acts weren't competing with Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. They were going for some of the AOR territory. Irrespective of what we all might've thought of GTR in 1986, they at least accomplished this with "When the Heart Rules the Mind." Granted, the song got assistance with Arista's team (that's what they do), but it got airplay and sold some copies. From a commercial standpoint, it was reasonably successful. From a musical standpoint, the results were mixed. From a financial standpoint, they were in debt from the recording costs.

It can't be any worse than the flat transfer Arista CD. Thin sounding.

 

Interesting. I did like a few songs, but wow, they lost money on it.