History Music / Asia

** "Enough's Enough" seems to reference Stenka Razin, a 17th century revolutionary who led a rebellion against the Russian nobility.

* ShoutOut: "A.L.O." from ''Archiva 1'' is an acronym for "Asiatic Light Orchestra", a cheeky reference to John Payne's stint in [[Music/ElectricLightOrchestra ELO Part II]].

** During the ''Alpha'' sessions, a demo called "Jodie" was made, but never fully finished in its original form. 25 years later, it finally found a home on ''Phoenix'' in its new form of "Alibis".

* Concept Album: ''Aria'' is said to be one, describing the life of a man from childhood to old age. Geoff Downes once explained to a prog rock newsletter that "Anytime" was an early childhood memory, "Are You Big Enough" is adolescence, "Desire" was the protagonist's first sexual experience, "Sad Situation" was their first breakup, etc.

* Old Shame: The song "Lay Down Your Arms" was used in the British animated film "Freddie as F.R.O.7.", a move that nobody involved was particularly happy with. John Payne was especially embarrassed by it, since he considered the film... let's say "less than best picture material". He even turned down bothering with an edit to the song that the filmmakers requested for it.
-->'''John Payne:''' Unfortunately it was crap. [...] It got to the stage where we mixed it in Dolby Surround Sound, and the film guy comes up to me and says 'I like it when it gets to the chorus. Can you add a little bit to the chorus - and Freddie says, Lay Down Your Arms?' They tried and tried to get me to do this, but I just refused. Bad enough having the music in a film about a little green frog!

* Badass Back: A borderline example. During the ''Aura'' sessions, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta was an early candidate for inclusion on the album. John Payne recalled a story where Vinnie dropped a cigarette during a take, put one drumstick under his arm while bending over to pick it up, and put it back in his mouth - ''all while still playing without skipping a beat''.

* Creative Differences: In the late 90s, Downes and Payne were approached to make the soundtrack to a Playstation game based on Rodney Mattews' artwork. One of the game heads wanted Steve Howe to join in, but he was still busy with Yes at the time. Then when the group submitted what they had, the execs asked them for something "a bit more industrial sounding", at which point they dropped it and walked. The songs they did finish later appeared as tracks 17-22 on ''Rare''.

Asia is a ProgressiveRock band formed as a {{supergroup}} in 1981 by Music/KingCrimson bassist and singer John Wetton, Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer drummer Carl Palmer, Music/{{Yes}} guitarist Steve Howe, and Music/TheBuggles keyboardist Geoff Downes. Throughout every incarnation, Asia is known for its thick production style with anthemic hooks, heavy keyboards, densely packed backing vocals, lyrics about love and loss, and extremely ornate album covers.

** Creative Differences: In the late 90s, Downes and Payne were approached to make the soundtrack to a Playstation game based on Rodney Mattews' artwork. One of the game heads wanted Steve Howe to join in, but he was still busy with Yes at the time. Then when the group submitted what they had, the execs asked them for something "a bit more industrial sounding", at which point they dropped it and walked. The songs they did finish later appeared as tracks 17-22 on ''Rare''.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Arena'' was a notable departure from the band's usual sound. Motivated by the lack of attention ''Aria'' received before it, the band opted to try something bold in the form of a more acoustic approach, incorporating elements of Latin and Middle Eastern style instrumentation. Its opening track, "Into the Arena", sounds like it could've come straight off a Santana album. Traces of this new sound also stuck around for ''Aura'' some time later.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Arena'' was a notable departure from the band's usual sound, taking a more acoustic approach while incorporating elements of Latin and Middle Eastern style instrumentation. Its opening track, "Into the Arena", sounds like it could've come straight off a Santana album. Traces of this new sound also stuck around for ''Aura'' some time later.

* AllThereInTheManual: The CD booklet to "The Best of Asia - Archives 1988-1997" states that ''Aria'' was a concept album about the life of a man from childhood to old age, even though this was never indicated by the band itself.

* Right Hand Cat: When John Payne first joined the band, he would often have his cat named Eric around, to the point where he brought him along for his first meeting with them. He even included a cheeky note to Eric in the sleeve to ''Aqua'', in which he recalled an incident where the cat took an 80 foot leap off a church and sustained harsh injuries, but made a full recovery.

* LiveAlbum: Hooooo boy does this band love them. As of 2017, Asia has released ''thirty-four'' official live albums, ranging from standard concert recordings to stripped back, MTV Unplugged-like acoustic performances of their hits. This band has so many live albums to pick from, there even exists ''multiple best-of compilations'' solely for these live recordings!

* DarkerAndEdgier: "Darkness Day" is an uncharacteristically grim song that deals with the apparent end of the world, with heavy allusions to the Christian rapture included. It even opens with a deep, elegant yet foreboding choir that sounds like a religious chant, driving the spiritual imagery home even more.

* EpicRocking: "Free", "Sleeping Giant/No Way Back/Reprise", "Parallel Worlds/Vortex/Deya" and "Gravitas" all hover in the 8-minute range, "The Day Before The War" is just a bit over 9 minutes, and "Give Another Reason" finally cracked the 10 minute mark. But eclipsing them all is "The Bridge" from ''Armada 2'', which clocks in at a whopping 20 minutes and 56 seconds.
* EtherealChoir: "Darkness Day" features a particularly resonant one in the song's intro, sounding almost like an a cappella church hymn at first.

* InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons: Quite a few of their album covers feature Asian-style dragons.

* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: In 1989, a talent agent named Neil Warnock invited Asia to reunite and tour with the Beach Boys after the song "Kokomo" put them back in the spotlight. John Wetton and Carl Palmer agreed to join, while Geoff Downes was preoccupied working with Greg Lake at the time. Alan Darby and John Young filled in for him and Howe for most of the tour.[[note]]Besides the "Featuring John Payne" lineup, this was the only time in Asia's entire history that Geoff Downes was absent from the lineup.[[/note]] To their surprise, the audiences still recognized most of the songs that hadn't been played in years, and the tour gained them some of their biggest crowd numbers since 1982. This helped them realize Asia still had some life left in it, which led to the John Payne era reigniting the group's productivity a few years later.

* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: In 1989, a talent agent named Neil Warnock invited Asia to reunite and tour with the Beach Boys after the song "Kokomo" put them back in the spotlight. John Wetton and Carl Palmer agreed to join, while Geoff Downes was preoccupied working with Greg Lake at the time. Alan Darby and John Young filled in for him and Howe for most of the tour.[[note]]This was the only time in Asia's entire history that Geoff Downes was absent from a lineup that didn't have "Featuring John Payne" in the name.[[/note]] To their surprise, the audiences still recognized most of the songs that hadn't been played in years, and the tour gained them some of their biggest crowd numbers since 1982. This helped them realize Asia still had some life left in it, which led to the John Payne era reigniting the group's productivity a few years later.

* KingOfBeasts: A winged lion sits majestically on top of a waterfall on the cover of ''Arena''.
* IAmTheBand: Geoff Downes and John Payne were essentially Asia during the 1990s, with Geoff being the only constant between the John Payne and John Wetton lineups.

* The Illuminati: John Payne has long been fascinated by masonic themes and tales of secret societies, and [[https://www.antimusic.com/news/20/August/07Singled_Out-_Dukes_of_the_Orients_The_Monitors.shtml as explained by Erik Norlander]], he and Payne channeled that into the writing of "The Monitors".