GTR

After many years, my memory of GTR waned, I decided to give it another chance. As bad as this was on vinyl, it is just as bad on CD. Maybe I was being hopeful that the CD version would have been better when I picked it up the second time. The oh-so-thin production values still rang through, no bottom end at all. The guitars sound as screechy as Max Bacon-n-eggs' whimpy pale voice. The lyrics, insipid in the 80's, are even worse today. Placing your speakers anywhere near a mouse cage would be considered inhumane as the mouse would surely run itself to death trying to escape the putrid noise. Alas, how could such reknowned musicians team up to concoct this utter drivel? Money, eh? Many felt Steve Howe sold out with the first Asia release, but I would hold that album in much higher regard in my music collection than I would the disgrace of GTR.

Let us deduce the meaning of the acronym GTR: Get To Radio. Gone To Rust. Go Try Rogain (for Steve's latter years). Greedy Tangled Rip-off. Geriatric Topographic Rubbish. I'm sure you all can come up with your own meaning, but it all comes down to chasing the cash flow. If I remember correctly, MTV had a preview show that ran nearly an hour and then ran the video clip of "When The Heart Rules The Mind." It featured the two icons spinning about on a platform of some kind. Obviously the stars became dizzy and proceeded to lose any self-respect. At least Bill Bruford didn't play drums on this turd.

The two instrumentals, Sketches in the Sun and Hackett to Bits should rank a full star and a half higher just because they didn't have Bacon on it. Less filling, still nowhere near the potential of the musicians involved.

Having money in your pocket: $15 Buying the GTR CD: Stupid Reading this review and getting something else: Priceless