tales of the psychic wars

[Paul Mather]

This reminds me I never made a BOC-L review of this when I got it...

On Tue, May 07, 2002 at 11:29:40AM -0400, Ted Jackson wrote:
=> Anyone else picked up this 2-disc set?  There was originally some
=> speculation that this was a bootleg or 'unofficial' release, but I see
=> it's got a Sony copyright.

It may have a Sony copyright, but it's odd that it identifies as
a bootleg when xmcd queries it against the Internet CDDB...

=> Anyway, it's pretty cool stuff.  The first disc, 'New York 1981,'
=> purports to be one of Albert's last gigs with the band.  Given his
=> playing on this disc, you have to wonder what genius wanted to tell
=> him to fout le camp?  Albert is great here, as is the whole band, but
=> there is one very annyoying aspect to this disc:  it's a radio station
=> production, and some moron decided to fade out all the song
=> endings!  If you can stomach this insane editing, it's a good disc.

The editing is criminal on this disc!  I'm not sure I attribute it to
radio station editing more to crappy bootlegging.  I have _The
Thing!_, which is the same show, and so when I bought this two-disc
set, expected _The Thing!_, but mastered from the original source
tapes, and not from a vinyl pressing (transcription disc?) like _The
Thing!_ is.

So, as well as the crappy fades, they also omit some songs from _The
Thing!_ (I don't have my copies to hand, so I can't list them).  Why
they did this, I'm not sure, as there is space on the CD.

The between-song fades not only kill the live atmosphere, but they
also omit some priceless banter.  For instance, the banter from Eric
before "Heavy Metal," where Buck is trying to get his amp's feedback
just right for the intro is funny and shouldn't have been left off.

My advice is to skip this one and look for _The Thing!_.

=> The second disc, 'Pasadena Perkins Palace 1983,' is pretty good
=> stuff.  I think I've encountered it on some footwear of the past.
=> It's interesting for the inclusion of Workshop of the Telescopes, and
=> Born To Rock, from BD's Flat Out.

The second disc seems to be a straight boot of _Nail You Down_.
Again, I was hoping for better sound quality, but it seemed the same
as _Nail You Down_ as far as I could tell.

=> Interesting that Sony keeps trying to mine more of the BÖC vein,
=> kind of like Fantasy records and all the old CCR stuff.  If you like
=> 'em so much, why did you drop them in the first place?

I got the feeling that this was not being put out by Sony, but by
someone else with the ostensible permission of Sony.  But, like I
said, I think it's a bootleg: mutton dressed up as lamb.  If you have
_The Thing!_ and _Nail You Down_ then skip this release, as it offers
nothing over them, and subtracts a lot.

It's particularly heinous that the same company have decided to
release a limited edition vinyl pressing of this package, too.

Beat the boots!!

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa