John Wetton: The Anthology

So I managed to rent and view John Wetton: The Anthology and came away pretty much of the same opinion as I was prior to watching; John has been part of some of the most brilliant and most dim musical voyages in rock since the 1970s. In the latter category, there is some archival footage of him with Uriah Heep and with later editions of Asia, which produced some of the schlockiest aural contortions of skuzz-rock and bland MOR ever. When I hear cuts like One Way or Another by UH, or the Steve Jones penned Days Like These, I cringe. But then to see it performed by scrap-metal morons in frayed rocker follicle halos, tight leather pants and a kind of Spinal Tap mystique about them, its enough to make you gouge your ears out with olive forks.

That being said, the live footage of the early Asia material is decent, and shows that not only was Geoff Downes an able keyboard player far too maligned by the Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman fanboy set, but that Wetton could sing well, even when feathered hair was at its apex stylistically.

The better celections are either performances of King Crimson material by himself or with a band of younger players, or with UK. While it certainly is not the same without Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford, David Cross and Jamie Muir (frankly his bands in those performances is adequate but hardly worth mention outside of being functional), Wetton can still sing the material and his basswork still has more than a passing semblance of his old low-end growl. Wetton is not the most articulate bassist, but given the right material, he could provide a clobbering, corroded collection of low-frequency destruction during his later years in KC. Of particular note is Red and the solo acoustic versions of Starless and Book of Saturday. The UK tracks are also solid, but not necessarily ones I would have expected; In the Dead of Night was somewhat obvious, but Rendevouz 6:02 was not, as I would have expected/preferred something like Time To Kill.

I don't know if I would recommend buying this, unless you are a diehard Wetton/KC/Asia/UK fan. Other than that, it is worth a rental, and I know Netflix stocks it. There is no interview or other bonus commentary material and it is not as comprehensive as one would probably want.