JOHN WETTON + RICHARD PALMER-JAMES : MONKEY BUSINESS 1972 - 1997

Some say that when John Wetton left Asia in the mid 80´s, his muse run away. Others say that his muse had vanished even before, when UK disbanded in 1979. Well, for those who consider John Wetton another person when he quitted the progressive rock style and pursued a more "commercial" career (and although I clearly prefer his 70´s period, he did some great songs with Downes or Manzanera), this CD is for you. "Monkey Business" is a true nostalgic trip to the past of one of the best vocalists (and bassists) of the 70´s. The main concept was to compile a lot of different tracks from 1972 until 1997, along with his friend Richard Palmer James as a lyricist and/or musician (the one who wrote lyrics for the three essential King Crimson albums in 1973-1974). So this is like an "Anthology" album as The Beatles did: different versions of classics, demos, live takes and unreleased stuff. 24 tracks (some of them of just some seconds) basically for fans of JW in the 70´s. Here you will have little gems such as very early demos of "Easy Money", "Book of Saturday" or "Starless" , unreleased tracks such as the wonderful "The Good Ship Enterprise" (with Bill Bruford, in 1976; a track that might have gone into the first UK album?) and the nice "The Glory of Winning" and "The Laughing Lake", or a 1997 version of the great "Doctor Diamond", a song that King Crimson played only live (as can be heard in the excellent King Crimson box "The Great Deceiver") but was never released as a studio track. Although this CD may be only for John Wetton completists, some of the tracks included will provide an extra picture of the man who helped to build classics such as "Larks´ Tongues in Aspic", "Red" or the first UK album. (2 and a half stars).