Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Hackett, Steve
Label: Camino Records
Released: 1998
Runtime: 110:55
Rating: 4.5/5
Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett’s third official live album, »The Tokyo Tapes«, offers a great answer to the question of what would happen if you got musicians together for two nights who once played for legendary names like Genesis, King Crimson, Asia, Yes, Frank Zappa and Weather Report. Mr. Hackett gathered an impressive crew of collaborators around him, people he had already worked with on the superb studio album »Watcher of the Skies: Genesis Revisited« (1996). On vocals and bass for these two nights was John Wetton, most beloved by fans of King Crimson, Asia and UK, while behind the drum kit sat Chester Thompson, well known to all fans of Frank Zappa, Weather Report and the live incarnation of Genesis. Ian McDonald turned up as the woodwind player, keyboardist and extra guitarist, best known as an original member of King Crimson and later of Foreigner. The least famous member of this star-studded lineup was keyboardist Julian Colbeck, a respected occasional musician most people remember as a collaborator on the Yes project Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe and a longtime member of Hackett’s solo band.
This double live album was recorded over two consecutive nights in Tokyo (at Koseinenkin Hall) and features an impressive batch of performances that’s sure to make many a prog rock gourmand drool. The impressive setlist was made up of numerous Genesis masterpieces and Hackett’s solo classics, two King Crimson evergreens (»The Court of the Crimson King« and »I Talk to the Wind«), an unusual take on Asia’s best-known hit (»Heat of the Moment«) and even one Wetton solo song (»Battlelines«). Right at the end of the second disc there are also two new, fully instrumental solo compositions from Steve, »Firewall« and »The Dealer«, which he recorded in the studio in collaboration with keyboardist Aron Friedman.
Wetton, who was in quite impressive vocal form at the time, handles Genesis classics like the opener »Watcher of the Skies« and »Firth of Fifth« rather well, while he sings »I Know What I Like« together with Steve. As expected, he also comes off well on the King Crimson evergreen »The Court of the Crimson King«, where excellent backing vocal harmonies accompany him on the choruses. He’s somewhat less convincing on »I Talk to the Wind«, where he somehow fails to recapture the original vocal magic. Even though his voice always had a fairly similar tone to that of original King Crimson singer Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake & Palmer), he doesn’t sing this beautiful ballad nearly as soulfully as he’s otherwise capable of. At the same time, it’s also true that this is one of those King Crimson songs that only Lake could sing perfectly, and even then only in his best vocal days. The instrumental performances are, as expected, flawless and every one of them deserves a straight ten.
Hackett and Colbeck worked together brilliantly through the nineties, as anyone familiar with the live album »There Are Many Sides to the Night« (1994) will know, where the two presented themselves to the audience in an acoustic guise. Among Steve’s solo favorites, »Tokyo Tapes« doesn’t lack »Shadow of the Hierophant« either, which of course has no female vocal, unlike the unforgettable original, but still comes off very decently. The most unusual pick among the solo performances on »The Tokyo Tapes« is »Camino Royale« from Steve’s below-average solo album »Highly Strung« (1983).
»The Tokyo Tapes« is one of Hackett’s best live albums, boasting a dream setlist and an all-star lineup that could have made a phenomenal prog rock supergroup if they’d stuck together for longer. Prog rock classics interpreted by such master musicians are always a joy to listen to, though we could have done without the acoustic version of »Heat of the Moment«, which comes off rather bland without the AOR punch and electric guitar and is perhaps the only slightly weak spot of this otherwise highly impressive double live achievement.
Lineup
Steve Hackett – guitar, harmonica, backing vocals
John Wetton – vocals, bass guitar, guitar
Ian McDonald – flute, saxophone, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals
Chester Thompson – drums
Julian Colbeck – keyboards, backing vocals
Aron Friedman – keyboards, programming on “Firewall” and “The Dealer”
Production
Steve Hackett
Track List
CD 1: (55:37)
1. Watcher Of The Skies (8:59)
2. Riding The Colossus (3:32)
3. Firth Of Fifth (9:32)
4. Battlelines (6:43)
5. Camino Royale (9:06)
6. The Court Of The Crimson King (7:39)
7. Horizons (1:53)
8. Walking Away From Rainbows (3:47)
9. Heat Of The Moment (4:06)
CD 2: (55:18)
1. In that quiet earth (4:02)
2. Vampyre with a healty appetite (7:26)
3. I talk to the wind (5:28)
4. Shadow of the hierophant (7:14)
5. Los Endos (6:54)
6. Black Light (2:30)
7. The Steppes (6:48)
8. I know what I like (5:51)
9. Firewall (bonus studio track) (4:42)
10. The Dealer (bonus studio track) (4:23)
11. All Along The Watchtower (2014 re-issue bonus track)
