Customer Reviews

Banks of the River

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a fan of the Buggles, Asia, Geoffrey Downes and GTR, I was eager to hear more from the same area of the musical world. I greatly enjoyed Max Bacon's vocals on the GTR album; he has a fantastic, well-controlled high tenor voice that blends well with backing vocals and the music they accompany. Hearing Bacon's version of "Tears" (a great song in and of itself) on Downes' VOX HUMANA album impressed me even more (John Payne, formerly of Asia, did a less-than-stellar version on Asia's ARCHIVA 1), and a different arrangement of that song is included here (retitled "Tears In My Eyes").

Put simply, this album is GREAT. Bacon shines in every song, and his energy is addictive. I'll admit something before continuing: I don't like John Payne's voice. At all. I stopped listening to Asia's later material because his voice irritated me so much. I mention this because, in addition to "Tears [In My Eyes]", there are a few songs on this album that I'd first heard with Payne's vocals. I used to really hate "The Higher You Climb", but after hearing Bacon's version of that song, I now not only like it, I LOVE it. Bacon also does a version of "Who Will Stop The Rain" that really blows Payne's version out of the water. I tolerated Payne's version because it's an incredible song, but Bacon does so much for it that I can't stop humming it to myself now.

I'm surprised some of the other songs on here didn't become major hits. "Hold Me Close", with its solid hook and up-tempo rhythm, completely blew me away on the very first listen, and not many songs have such an impact on me. Likewise, "Carrie" (not to be confused with a similarly-titled Asia tune featured on the LIVE IN MOSCOW album) really grabs you and makes you feel like dancing. The melody is simple but engaging and Bacon really tackles it with gusto.

Downes himself provides keyboards on a few of the tracks (appropriate, since he wrote much of the material that appears on this album), though interestingly a different keyboard player handles "Moon Under The Water", another tune included on both ARCHIVA and VOX HUMANA. ARCHIVA's version was sung by Payne and VOX HUMANA's version by Steve Overland (who, while better than Payne, has an irritating way of releasing his breath at the end of every line), and Bacon outdoes them both. His version of the song works very well, even if it IS obvious Downes isn't at the keyboard, because Bacon is the real star of the recording.

If you enjoy solid, well-crafted and marvelously performed rock music, definitely give this album a listen. I hope we get the opportunity to hear more from Max Bacon. He's good.

Even though I review somewhat obscure CDs (and occasionally review a CD which is overhyped and under-talented, just to point that fact out) and don't review the "hot new CD", whatever it is at the time ... I can't believe I'm the first one to review this CD. Maybe it's because I used to tour in a band down in Australia with a singer with similar terrific range, or maybe because Max Bacon, known most for his album and tour with GTR, is a guy who some people just don't know he's done other stuff. The first post-GTR thing I heard from this guy was the song "Tears In My Eyes" on Geoff Downes VOX HUMANA solo CD, which featured an array of singers. That vocal Max did on the Geoff Downes song impressed me a lot ... that track is here on this disc .. Now it's rumored that on Max's last solo compilation, "Higher You Climb" he included 2-3 tracks without permission ... don't know if that's true but on this release everything seems to be on the up and up, composition credits are here as well as individual players, which not only include the talented Geoff Downes but monster guitar player Scott Gorham.
One who follows the history of ASIA can pick up on some subtle things here ... like the fact Geoff Downes had the Aqua songs "Someday" and "Who Will Stop the Rain?" way before John Payne recorded them and Steve Howe played on them, in 1992.
At some point after the commercial failure of the Astra record John Wetton and Geoff Downes regrouped with Scott Gorham on guitar and Michael Sturgis on drums and took a shot at trying for a worldwide ASIA deal, with some demos like "Summer Can't Last Too Long" and "Karianne" (which ended up on later ASIA releases, in obscure places) ..... Now John Wetton left that scene, but that Scott Gorham is the guitar player on this version of "Who Will Stop the Rain?" (the version on Aqua has Al Pitrelli) tells me it was recorded in the late 80s, before the Wetton-fronted Then and Now CD and worldwide tour. (Minus America). And I think I read somewhere that Geoff had done some music with John Payne in a project called Rain, actually prior to hooking up with Wetton and Palmer for the Then and Now tour; Payne sang his version of "Boys From Diamond City" (which showed up on ASIA Archives 1, in 1997). Point is it would appear that some time after Wetton left the Downes/Wetton/Gorham/Sturgis ASIA, Geoff continued with Gorham and Sturgis, and Max Bacon came and sang with them after GTR folded.
The versions of the 2 future ASIA songs are pretty kool! ... "Who Will Stop The Rain?" is rockier than the real version on Aqua with John Payne ... "Higher You Climb" is a catchy track; I like it better than the later John Payne version, there are some tracks by his live band in England which are pretty decent but EXTREMELY early 80s-ish (though "Fire In your Eyes" is a real nice ballad), there is a great track "Earth Moving", from Max's work with Mike Oldfield, with female background vocals ... Max's clear voice still stands out ... The closing track is a live track from Max's old hard rock band, Nightwing, which is a rockin' song! Max could have lost tracks 6, 7, 14 & 15 (terrible, sub-demo production and marginal lyrics) and the CD would be better, but he probably wanted to get everything out there. One good song is "Take No Prisoners", which apparently Geoff Downes had a hand in.
Max Bacon's voice is a taste thing ... some like it some don't, it's that simple (sort of like Mark Slaughter {back before he wrecked his voice}, if you're a fan of hard rock). I think he's great, and have since I was in high school and picked up the GTR cassette ... his voice was as big a reason I recommended the album to everybody as Steve Howe and Steve Hackett's guitar. Max Bacon sings with a lot of emotion (most of the time), and has one of the clearest voices ever in music. To me, listening to particularly the 1st half of the record, it's hard to believe he never got signed on to some other new band, or something, in the years after this CD. So, not a CD where every track's not a letdown, but a retrospective from a guy with an awesome voice who amazingly has only ever been on the radio twice, both times in the 80s, in the form of the songs "When the Heart Rules the Mind" and "The Hunter".

Maybe this is what GTR's second album would have sounded like (unless you count the bootleg "Nerotrend", which is only half his). Most of the songs were written by Geoff Downes and Johnny Warman. Several of these were later Asia's. Even after appearing on an early reality show, Bacon's music career never recovered. He ran a pub which recently closed. He could do a comeback album.