The John Wetton Playlist

John Wetton is as nomadic of a musician as they come. From his early seventies stint with the criminally underrated British band Family to his baffling eventual mainstream success with the pseudo-prog outfit known as Asia, this guy has been around the block and then some.

On bass he is known for his powerful, heavy handed approach. One story conveyed to me by a friend who saw him play with Roxy Music back in the day swears that he saw Wetton actually break the E string on his Fender Precision.

Looking at his discography, I noted that he also has released more than his share of solo and live solo albums that have not even been released widely here in the US. So it would appear that internationally he does garner some semblance of star power.

Today however, we are going to go with what we know, and attempt to piece together a play list of John Wetton’s most memorable tracks. Listed in no particular order are…

1) “Save Some For Thee” – Family –1971- The last cut on side one of the spectacular “Fearless” LP, John sings what amounts to a duet with lead singer Roger Chapman. They were mostly popular in the UK, but here in the US it seems they were too bluesy to be accepted by prog-heads and too proggy to be welcomed into the heavy riff-meister crowd. Getting on Bill Graham’s bad side during a US tour didn’t help matters much either. Suffice to say, that they created some of the most original music of that era. This track starts out with just bass, drums and piano, but then piles on added pieces until we have a full on marching band at the fade.

2) “Take Your Partners”-Family-1971- Also from “Fearless” , the first cut on side 2 is a high octane rocker with that Wetton bass churning and thumping to lead the way.

3) “Spanish Tide”-Family-1971-Guilty as charged, I really love the “Fearless” album. On this track, John sings solo on that glorious bridge section as well as harmony on the choruses.

4) “My Friend The Sun”-Family-1972-This is from the “Bandstand” album, and I think I remember Rock NYC correspondent Bob Nevin telling me he had the 45, which raised his “Nessing Cool Factor” to infinite. Great background vocal track by Wetton , and Roger Chapman delivers one of his most beautiful vocal leads. Chapman was mostly known for his powerful range and vibrato (think Steve Marriott to the fourth power), but here his voice turns up really sweet.

5) “Lark’s Tounges In Aspic, Part Two”-1973-King Crimson-From the album of the approximate same name, I actually could easily recommend the whole enchilada. A high watermark not just in the progressive vein, but in the entire output of late 20th century music.

6) “Lament”-1974-King Crimson—On their way towards becoming the most powerful of power trios, Wetton delivers an astounding vocal here. Not to be outdone, Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford match him riff for riff.

7) “Red”-1974-King Crimson—From the album of the same name, “Red” is as powerful a track as I’ve ever heard by anyone. Industrial Rock, Grunge Rock, Post Metal, Speed Metal, you name it, it can all be traced back to this band and perhaps even this song.

8) “Do The Strand (live)” 1976- Roxy Music- The live album “Viva” is the most obvious place to find this but bootleg live recordings of Roxy with Wetton on bass and Eddie Jobson on keys and violin are worth seeking out. When this band performed in concert, they took no freaking prisoners.

9) “In The Dead Of Night” 1978-U.K.---Progressive Rock’s odd quartet consisted of one experimental side (Bill Bruford and Guitarist Allan Holdsworth) pitted against the increasingly more commercial leanings of Wetton and Jobson. This particular configuration of the band only lasted long enough to release one album, which although could be critically described as inconsistent has more than it’s share of great moments. Wetton’s vocals on this track are raw, unpolished and pretty damn great.