Search - John Wetton :: Kings Road (1972-1980)

Brilliant career overview

Crystal '63 | northern CA | 01/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I think this disc is a good, comprehensive summary of John Wetton's oft-brilliant music, with inclusions from his early career work with King Crimson: the schizophrenic Starless and Book of Saturday, arguably -in my opinion - one of the most beautiful songs EVAH! If only they'd added Nightwatch too, but alas...Some of Wetton's best work with U.K. is also on this disc. I've always thought his dazzling vocal work on "As Long as you want me Here" (live version)is passionate, pleading and qualifies him as one of the best - if not somewhat overlooked - rock vocalists. "Rendezvous 6:02" is here too, in all it's lovely, keyboard-driven beauty. Work from Wetton's "Caught in the Crossfire" album is also here. "Turn on the Radio" could've easily crossed into the top 40 market, but to my knowledge, this album was poorly distributed/promoted, and occurred prior to the Asia explosion, which is a shame. To those who are unfamiliar with John Wetton's illustrious career, this is a very fine example of his art."

Probably beyond its sell-by date

Gavin Wilson | 03/02/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When CD players first came out in the early 80s, record companies didn't immediately convert their back-catalogue to the CD format. (Rather like the DVD phenomenon today.) It took time to arrange for the scarce CD production capacity to be scheduled to produce what record companies thought would be the most lucrative titles. It took EG records many years to transfer King Crimson's RED and LARKS' TONGUES and UK's UK to CD. But somehow John Wetton got EG to create this compilation early -- in 1987, at least a year or two ahead of RED and UK. That was simple reason why I bought this album, and I imagine I wasn't the only one.I cannot speak for his bass-playing, but John Wetton had one of the best voices in the rock business. He made fantastic contributions to some classic albums of the 70s. But his best period was with King Crimson and UK. Only about half of the tracks on this album are from that era. His solo songs of 79/80, judging by this album, were unremarkable.Every prog-rock CD collection needs to contain RED and UK, but I feel this compilation is somewhat optional."